I hope you are right, Freedom. This month, I've seen stretches of 3 and 4 days without a single download. My portfolio is tiny, but that hasn't happened for me in over 4 years. And usually October/November are my best months. I hate to contemplate dropping exclusive and uploading to other sites. Just the time/effort of researching how to go about that is a big barrier for me. :/

After nine consecutive worst months since I started there in 06, October showed signs of life. November it has stopped dead again. And most of the sales I am getting are in the .09 to .22 range. Pathetic

Not one dl today. This is beyond a joke.

I had one, just an xs though. 

The most ominous thing I have read in this thread is not that sales are so dismal.  It's that the forums are being left to run amok unsupervised. 

Add that to the many serious site problems and lack of interest in repairing them, the disinterest in customer and contributor relations, etc. and it paints a pretty complete picture. 

Weird isn't it? Kelvin is still moderating lightly, with help from one or two Admins, but it is certainly abnormal to have a 78 post thread on the best match to not be locked.

The most ominous thing I have read in this thread is not that sales are so dismal.  It's that the forums are being left to run amok unsupervised. 

Add that to the many serious site problems and lack of interest in repairing them, the disinterest in customer and contributor relations, etc. and it paints a pretty complete picture. 

This is exactly what is described by many employees in the corporate world when the company is folding.  I don't imagine Getty is folding, but Istock seems to be on life support.  Somebody's going to pull the plug.

If anyone asks contributors to build a thirty foot stage, we know its all over

Since Istock is on life support are your sales at SS double what they were 3 months ago.  It appears to me that stock photo sales are tanking.  If not istock sales would be pushed to the other sites and your year over year would not be down or even.  Your sales would be growing because Jon at SS said stock photo demand is exploading.  Exploding demand equals exploding sales and not a drop in sales year over year.  Are your sales exploding?

Not one dl today. This is beyond a joke.

Today has been much quieter than Mon-Thu at IS - but then Fridays are often quiet as it's the weekend already in Asia.

This week has been much better than the last few at IS (not great, but  much, much better). Not sure if this means it's a swing to indie content or just Christmas-heavy downloads. Nearly half of yesterday's downloads were Christmas images.

It may be that the odd forum situation (I don't spend much time there, but had gone to look because someone elsewhere had mentioned things running amok with no hammering in sight) means some sort of change is coming. As long as they keep the site cobbled together enough to keep selling through Christmas...

Quote from: lisafx on November 16, 2012, 14:16

The most ominous thing I have read in this thread is not that sales are so dismal.  It's that the forums are being left to run amok unsupervised. 

Add that to the many serious site problems and lack of interest in repairing them, the disinterest in customer and contributor relations, etc. and it paints a pretty complete picture. 

This is exactly what is described by many employees in the corporate world when the company is folding.  I don't imagine Getty is folding, but Istock seems to be on life support.  Somebody's going to pull the plug.

If anyone asks contributors to build a thirty foot stage, we know its all over

Since Istock is on life support are your sales at SS double what they were 3 months ago.  It appears to me that stock photo sales are tanking.  If not istock sales would be pushed to the other sites and your year over year would not be down or even.  Your sales would be growing because Jon at SS said stock photo demand is exploading.  Exploding demand equals exploding sales and not a drop in sales year over year.  Are your sales exploding?

First off, sales at shutterstock have been booming for the last few months, and exploding the past few days.  But no, all the lost Istock sales aren't going there.  They are being spread around to multiple sites.  If you want to look at a real explosion of sales, you should see what the partner program is doing.  That is the main recipient of all the vanishing Istock sales.

Reread my whole post that you quoted.  It was specifically NOT about lost sales anyway.  It was about all the other signs of neglect on the site. 

Apparently they're having a marketing campaign, starting on Monday.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=349075&page=1

Am I the only one who finds this sentence interesting:

We are asking our customers to use up those remaining credits in their accounts and download a few more files so that we can reach our goal of 50k extra files sold before December 13th.

Quote from: ShadySue on November 16, 2012, 16:49

Apparently they're having a marketing campaign, starting on Monday.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=349075&page=1

Am I the only one who finds this sentence interesting:

We are asking our customers to use up those remaining credits in their accounts and download a few more files so that we can reach our goal of 50k extra files sold before December 13th.

At face value, it's so they make the $50K donation, but I wonder how they calculate "extra" downloads to meet that target.

 I could make all the downloads count by saying that my "normal" was zero. Extra doesn't say over and above what.

Certainly you could try to get buyers to purchase so you made your goals (so you wouldn't get fired) with the sweetener being the charitable donation (which probably comes from another budget account).

I don't understand having artists put up banners - they're not buying so "my downloads count" doesn't make much sense.

It's lovely that they're donating to charity, although if it's dependent on sales, the charities better hope the IT folks don't roll out any "fixes" or they'll see nothing at all but a 503 page...

Quote from: lisafx on November 16, 2012, 17:00

Quote from: ShadySue on November 16, 2012, 16:49

Apparently they're having a marketing campaign, starting on Monday.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=349075&page=1

Am I the only one who finds this sentence interesting:

We are asking our customers to use up those remaining credits in their accounts and download a few more files so that we can reach our goal of 50k extra files sold before December 13th.

I'm sure that's very significant. Scary, IYAM.

Despite my doom and gloom scenarios, there is the possibility that they are just switching from a credit based system to a cash based system. 


@JoAnn, I think the charity is just a red herring. 

Yes, this looks like a smokescreen for something else.

Who would launch a new marketing campaign a few days before Thanksgiving knowing that half the buyers will  be taking perhaps several days off work?  You would only do that if it was time critical for some other part of a plan.

There is no benefit to photographers.  Fix the best match first.

There is no benefit to buyers.  A simple message 'please spend more money' doesn't get people excited.  'Win an Ipod' gets them moving.

No, this looks like they want to bring the credit system to an end, probably from January, hence the timing and the need to get rid of unused credits.

Very likely that this is part of a transfer of systems and services to Getty.  Neither Getty nor Thinkstock have credit systems.  They also don't have zoom or ratings.  Getty could save a lot of money by amalgamating systems, customers relations, marketing etc.  This doesn't mean iStock will be closed down - istock's web site and data management can happen anywhere.  It might mean that Calgary gets closed or cut down to size.  A lot of money could be saved.  There might be tax reasons for keeping the company registered in Canada with a small team of employees.

The fact that they can't fix the best match or ratings might mean that part of the equation is already under Getty control.

Pure speculation on my part.  And not necessarily bad news.  All acquisitors look for operational savings, and Getty doing the same just makes sense.  Perhaps the istock web site would be more reliable if it was managed by the Getty IT team.

Yes, this looks like a smokescreen for something else.

Who would launch a new marketing campaign a few days before Thanksgiving knowing that half the buyers will  be taking perhaps several days off work?  You would only do that if it was time critical for some other part of a plan.

There is no benefit to photographers.  Fix the best match first.

There is no benefit to buyers.  A simple message 'please spend more money' doesn't get people excited.  'Win an Ipod' gets them moving.

No, this looks like they want to bring the credit system to an end, probably from January, hence the timing and the need to get rid of unused credits.

Very likely that this is part of a transfer of systems and services to Getty.  Neither Getty nor Thinkstock have credit systems.  They also don't have zoom or ratings.  Getty could save a lot of money by amalgamating systems, customers relations, marketing etc.  This doesn't mean iStock will be closed down - istock's web site and data management can happen anywhere.  It might mean that Calgary gets closed or cut down to size.  A lot of money could be saved.  There might be tax reasons for keeping the company registered in Canada with a small team of employees.

The fact that they can't fix the best match or ratings might mean that part of the equation is already under Getty control.

Pure speculation on my part.  And not necessarily bad news.  All acquisitors look for operational savings, and Getty doing the same just makes sense.  Perhaps the istock web site would be more reliable if it was managed by the Getty IT team.

It's pure speculation but I couldn't agree more.  iStock said awhile back that they were slowly integrating into the Getty system.  Switching to an all cash basis makes sense if that integration is proceeding.  As does the lack of a zoom, ratings, views, etc.  My guess is that eventually iStock will basically become a 'collection' under the Getty banner.
In terms of sales, I'm having a good month, in particular, the past two weeks.  Granted my portfolio is still small but as I bring more over from the other agencies I was with before going exclusive 4 months ago I'm seeing a steady increase in sales and income.     

Quote from: jsnover on November 16, 2012, 17:09

It's lovely that they're donating to charity, although if it's dependent on sales, the charities better hope the IT folks don't roll out any "fixes" or they'll see nothing at all but a 503 page...

Funny you should say that.
"The iStock website will be down for scheduled maintenance from 23:00 PST on Friday November 16 to 0:00 PST on Saturday November 17"

Well, that should render the site basically useless for the next week or so.  Good thing (for those of us in the U.S.) that it's Thanksgiving next week and not much is expected (by me, at least) anyway.