Author Topic: Declining trend? (Read 17589 times)

jacus · « **Reply #25 on:** May 22, 2007, 12:25 »

Quote from: KiwiRob on April 11, 2007, 10:43

Quote from: mattb on April 05, 2007, 14:34
Surprisngly, the past three months have been my best months ever on IS.

Shutterstock on the other hand, has been steadily declining.

same with me.

Same.

KiwiRob · « **Reply #26 on:** May 23, 2007, 04:36 »

was going like that then all of a sudden May came along and turned everything on its head, better sales at SS and IS has more than halved compared to April.

epixx · « **Reply #27 on:** May 23, 2007, 04:46 »

Quote from: KiwiRob on May 23, 2007, 04:36

was going like that then all of a sudden May came along and turned everything on its head, better sales at SS and IS has more than halved compared to April.

Same here. Strange thing with IS is that I sell the same photos over and over again, while on all other sites, my sales come from a much broader selection. That may of course have something to do with the upload limitations on IS, which means that many of the top-sellers from other sites haven't been uploaded at IS, and some have been rejected (for all kind of funny reasons).

Although IS is still the third best for me, it's very up and down, as sites like StockXpert, FT and even 123RF are closing in. SS seems to be unbeatable. Increased sales and increased payment per sale. What more could one wish for?

Karimala · « **Reply #28 on:** May 23, 2007, 10:36 »

My earnings have been helped this month by three ELs, but overall sales are down for the second month in a row. It's difficult to say whether it's caused by another tweak in the search engine or if it's a sign of the summer slowdown.

phildate · « **Reply #29 on:** May 23, 2007, 10:54 »

My sales have been in a downward trend ever since the big changes made at end of last year, despite uploading as many new images as possible. It's still my second best earner but I would've expected revenues to increase given the extra exposure in different languages and the time/money I spent sorting out my portfolio.

They are definitely squeezing out the non-exclusives I feel however it's their choice to do that.

Freezingpictures · « **Reply #30 on:** May 23, 2007, 12:28 »

My sales are almost everywhere up, while my IS sales decreased this month although I increased my portfolio over 25% at IS the last two months.

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #31 on:** May 23, 2007, 15:58 »

I have a very small folio with IS, simply because I'm new to them and the 15 limit, ....well, it limits you! I'm experiencing about a 30 - 40% rejection, however, of that, most of them are something which I can correct and resubmit. Therein lies the problem for me. When 5 of the 15 are resubmits, I'm taking a lot of time getting one picture on the site. That's frustrating. The upload process itself doesn't bother me as I've known nothing else on IS. I am VERY pleased with the sales of the small folio that I have. While I'm not doing the volume of pix that I do on SS, I'm making a heck of a lot more than 25 cents per sale... so money-wise... IS will soon be surpassing SS. Even so, I am happy with my SS results.
I am experiencing increasing sales everywhere except 123rf. Haven't sold once this month there. Also, FP.... have never sold there at all.

-tom

sharply_done · « **Reply #32 on:** May 24, 2007, 00:45 »

My sales are up at IS - so much so that they're beginning to approach SS. I'll hit the silver badge level very early next month and should make gold by December.

On the downside, my rejection rate is also up - I'm at times astounded by the pickiness of some IS reviewers. Makes me a stronger photographer, I suppose ...

Lee Torrens · « **Reply #33 on:** May 25, 2007, 09:39 »

iStockphoto are my only declining site so far this month. A bit of quick & dirty research shows some interesting results:

Alexa compare of IS, SS & DT shows IS declining slowly over the last six months while SS & DT are steady. Much lower, but steady.

Google Trends analysis of searches on the names of IS, SS & DT shows them all rising and again, IS well in front.

But the most interesting metric, which is in line with the trend IS photographers are experiencing is the comparative chart of IS, SS & DT at compare.com It shows a marked drop in traffic at IS since March.

Note, these links are permalinks, so the charts you see following the links will change over time and may not be relevant to this topic after a month or two.

Big picture, I think the others are catching up to iStockphoto. IS are continuing their innovation and in my opinion have the most advanced system. But economics have a greater impact, so ShutterStock's subscription model has more influence on how much photographers receive and how many photos buyers get for their money. You can have the most functional and pretty website, but if your competition have more photos availabler for lower prices, it's not going to keep you in the top position for very long.

Small picture, these trends go up and down all the time. What we're experiencing here is - so far - a short term trend. I expect it'll be a forgotten trough in the charts before long.

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #34 on:** May 25, 2007, 16:02 »

Quote from: sharply_done on May 24, 2007, 00:45

On the downside, my rejection rate is also up - I'm at times astounded by the pickiness of some IS reviewers. Makes me a stronger photographer, I suppose ...

Sharply_done... I too am amazed at some of the rejection issues. Fortunately, as I said, many of them are fixable. They are tough in the review, but.... I can honestly say, I couldn't argue with even one rejection I've received. They were all dead-on.
I was always in the 100% habit.... if the thing looked good at 100, it was good enough. That sure isn't the case with IS. The only pix I upload there are my top sellers on SS, StockXpert & DT. Yet so many get kicked back.
One example. I have this shot of my son taking a picture of the Grand Canyon. It flys everywhere, has never been rejected. IS kicked it back for a trademark infringement. If you blow the pic up to 2 or 3 hundred percent, you could just make out a Nike logo on the side of his sock. ...wild!!
Naturally, 20 seconds in photoshop and that was gone and they took the pic. I've had several like that. I'm fixing one now. An overview of the Hoover Dam complex. What appears to be a dot on a building at normal viewing, when blown up to 300% ...you can make out as the Hoover Dam sign/logo. I've got to take it off the building. No big problem.... but, again, the pic is on 8/9 other sites. IS is pickier, or more careful about what they pick up.
What I like about IS is when they have a problem like this, they attach a clip of it with your mail and you know exactly what needs to be done. I have never felt 'offended' by any of the critiques they send.
What I don't like about it is.... in order to resubmit, it has to be part of your next 15 batch. At 15 at a time.... it'll take me the rest of my life to upload my current folio.
Now, before I load to IS, I go back over the pic at 2 & 3 hundred percent. And the fact is, I'm am now amazed myself what I find that I'd never found before. And as you said, since IS, I am even more careful about what goes into the camera now. It's making me a better photog.
But while my 'folio is small....what they take sure does seem to sell. So I ain't complaining at all.

-tom

michaeldb · « **Reply #35 on:** May 25, 2007, 20:43 »

Lee, thanks for the links. I had not seen compare.com before. Very interesting.

marcopolo · « **Reply #36 on:** June 01, 2007, 23:38 »

Quote

The more specialized icons, such as the "signs and signals" and the science and medical ones should do well for you. I've lightboxed both of them for future projects myself. Smiley

Have not looked on here for awhile and just saw this, thanks for the compliment. I am trying to make a combination of popular stuff as well as looking for possible gaps to fill. I wish those two were doing well for me, the science icon set got 3 dowloads the frist 2 days it was up and then nothing for the last couple of weeks, kinda strange as I had high hopes for it after getting a few downloads right away. The inspector even liked it and gave it 5 thumbs.
I am not too surprised about IStock losing market share, when I compared it to Canstock in my other thread I was kinda exgagerrating, they are still my highest earning site but Shutterstock is catching up. My illustration sales are steady and are still increasing proportional to my uploads, but my photo sales have been going down consistently every month and really tanked in April and further tanked in May, so my illustration sales are basically replacing my lost photo sales keeping my income at about the same level.
It also seems it is much easier to get accepted as a photgrapher there these days than it does as an illustrator. From what I have seen on the forums they generally only accept illustrators if they have something original to add to the collection. It is interesting how they are more selective about that than they are about new photographers, when there are many more photographers then there are vector artists.

madelaide · « **Reply #37 on:** June 12, 2007, 17:57 »

I have also experienced lower sales in IS in May. June is not exciting either.

Regards,
Adelaide

Peiling · « **Reply #38 on:** June 13, 2007, 21:56 »

thanks for the trends... very interesting stats...

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Author Topic: Declining trend? (Read 17589 times)

jacus

KiwiRob

epixx

Karimala

phildate

Freezingpictures

a.k.a.-tom

sharply_done

Lee Torrens

a.k.a.-tom

michaeldb

marcopolo

madelaide

Peiling

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