MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: PaulieWalnuts on March 17, 2011, 23:23
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Some had to go up, some had to go down. How'r you doing so far?
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Did they just change it again?
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I usually get a few DL's per day. This is the first time in the last YEAR that I've gotten zero sales within a 24 hour period during the week.
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my sales this week have been really good. I attributed the sales jump to fraud. I even opened a support ticket just in case. but then found the thread about a best match shift. though whatever has happened seems to be positively affecting my sales this time, in 2008 I was on the very bad end of a best match shift through which I lost 60-70% of my income overnight. I think any best match shift that really shakes things up is scary, even when it works out for you. it's a reminder that a little tweak can really upend the whole search.
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Its too early to tell as IS has been so sporadic and random for the last few months for me.
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Sigh.......................... Well it will probably change again and again and again until its a total mess, as usual. Certainly wont be in our favor, thats for sure.
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Its too early to tell as IS has been so sporadic and random for the last few months for me.
Yeah, its only been a couple days but I've noticed some people saying sales have completely stopped. So it clearly has had an effect already.
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Sigh.......................... Well it will probably change again and again and again until its a total mess, as usual. Certainly wont be in our favor, thats for sure.
It has to be in somebody's favor. A best match change can't cause everybody to go down unless IS sales overall go down.
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Sigh.......................... Well it will probably change again and again and again until its a total mess, as usual. Certainly wont be in our favor, thats for sure.
It has to be in somebody's favor. A best match change can't cause everybody to go down unless IS sales overall go down.
The fact that JJRD said "After hours of discussions & after looking at every possible angle, the first tweaks of the actual values will be completed today, and pushed at next server sync." surely means that overall sales must be well down. They don't care if 'my' sales or 'your' sales go down, only at the overall figure.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=22#post6117472 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=22#post6117472)
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They could also really push agency or other content not from MSG members, which would tend to hurt all of us, but possibly help their "sustainability"
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I voted no change. Sales this week have been *slightly* up over the first couple of weeks of March, but those were unusually slow, so I think sales are just recovering a small bit of the ground lost then.
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My sales are a bit down, but I am not going to attribute that to the Best Match. They were down last week too.
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Some of the posts from Admins and Moderators never cease to amaze me. Kelvinjay is now telling everyone almost mockingly to just to calm down and take a valium when there are peoples' livelihoods at stake. Unbelievable.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24)
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best match shift is geared towards older files so successful files over 2 years old are showing up in front. newer files are hurt by this new best match which is bad for me since most of my best sellers are less than 2 yrs old but contributors with older libraries wont see a downward shift i think. I think its a good thing for the shelf life of your files but short term wise this sux.
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I voted 'no change'....
the past couple of weeks my sales really plummeted like i'd never seen before; the past 3-4 days they're almost back to normal, slightly below.
Maybe this shift doesnt affect me much because i havent uploaded anything since september..
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I voted no change. Sales this week have been *slightly* up over the first couple of weeks of March, but those were unusually slow, so I think sales are just recovering a small bit of the ground lost then.
Yup! my sales are up as well, in fact they are slightly better then last year at this time. Im not complaining but these paranoid best match changes can only mean one thing: the agency guys at Getty are complaining and therefore getting preferance.
What we need inside the IS admin, is a negotiator, somebody who dares to stand up, who cant be bullied, somebody with clout and power.
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Too early to say. Four of my textured background best-sellers have now been spread out in the search, so their overall sales are down. However, I've recently had sales from older images, including several that haven't sold in over three years. While the new Best Match has me concerned, I've been more upset over the spate of recent sales under 25 cents.
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To be honest, I've never noticed any of these best match shifts.
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[double post]
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best match shift is geared towards older files so successful files over 2 years old are showing up in front.
Not always. I tried a search where there were only 32 hits, and 5 of mine Ifilm scans from 2007) were the bottom 5. Then had a theory that scans must be at the back, but another search proved that not to be true.
Anyway, I had 1 DL yesterday, 1 so far today. Can't get much worse for me.
Well i guess i should have added in my case then. My earlier successful files from 2008 has been getting downloaded and i search the relevant keywords and they show right up at the front. Since the word "successful" is relative to each individual, I think any file with a 30-1 view to download ratio to be a pretty successful file.
Visibility of new uploads has been steadily declining for months now and i think the reason is that they are slowly showing older successful images more and more.
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best match shift is geared towards older files so successful files over 2 years old are showing up in front.
Not always. I tried a search where there were only 32 hits, and 5 of mine (film scans from 2007) were the bottom 5. Four of these five files had the highest dls in that search, by a long way.
Then had a theory that scans must be at the back, but another search proved that not to be true.
Anyway, I had 1 DL yesterday, 1 so far today. Can't get much worse for me.
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What we need inside the IS admin, is a negotiator, somebody who dares to stand up, who cant be bullied, somebody with clout and power.
Isn't that supposed to be JJRD? Doesn't he say he's fighting for the contributors all the time?
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I agree with ShadySue, the new best match seems to favor older files. I voted no change, but am not sure if its impact will be seen later. The first half of March has been a decent month.
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Wednesday and today are like weekends; yesterday was great - if you don't count the fraud subtraction :(
Given how good March usually is, it's particularly disappointing to have all this messing around with search, sort order of results, etc.
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Too early to tell. Yesterday was average and today is a very bad day, but canīt tell if it is for the new best match.
I was getting used to great 2011 fridays though so today is disappointing :-\
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Week started off well. Yesterday was slow. Today is like a Sunday. Whenever they mess with the best match I seem to take a few days to get back up to speed. Hope it's the same this time!
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[Sorry, repeated post again :-[ ]
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I've noticed an increase in downloads this week with quite a few 1st time downloads. SS has been ahead of IS the last few months for me, but this month they are both doing better than normal and are about even. Last year IS was #1 in sales.
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They've really duffed up.
They've lost what was great about the DV. I just did a search for Highland Cattle, which is in the CV as a phrase, and got loads of photos of cattle which weren't highland cattle. On trying to wiki three of them, it turns out they have highland (region) and cattle as separate keywords.
That's what drives me nuts about Alamy's search system, and which I thought iStock used to have (mostly) right.
:-(
Added: better still none of my five pics of highland cattle show up in a search for highland cattle, neither in my portfolio nor in the general search.
I wonder how many other keywords aren't working properly?
Added later: So I tried office manager. "Office manager" isn't in the CV, so the words went into the box on the left as office and manager below it. Only two hits.
Office AND manager has thousands of hits as you'd expect.
"Office manager" has 32.
So why is it returning hits for highland AND cattle, but missing out at least five files with "highland cattle" in them, when "highland cattle" is in the CV, but with office manager, which isn't in the CV, you have to write AND between them?
I need to go to bed right now - early start in the morning - or I'd work it out myself.
Anyone enjoy a challenge?
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Some of the posts from Admins and Moderators never cease to amaze me. Kelvinjay is now telling everyone almost mockingly to just to calm down and take a valium when there are peoples' livelihoods at stake. Unbelievable.
[url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24[/url] ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24[/url])
That is so rude and inaccurate. Valium is for pain, Xanax is the chill pill of choice. Can't even get medication right. Geez.
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Sales? What sales?? :(
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Some of the posts from Admins and Moderators never cease to amaze me. Kelvinjay is now telling everyone almost mockingly to just to calm down and take a valium when there are peoples' livelihoods at stake. Unbelievable.
[url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24[/url] ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24[/url])
That is so rude and inaccurate. Valium is for pain, Xanax is the chill pill of choice. Can't even get medication right. Geez.
Actually Valium is used mainly for people with anxiety disorders. It can be used for withdrawal symptoms from alcohol, muscle spasms, seizures, insomnia and sometimes used for pain by reducing the agitation by relaxing your muscles.
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Some of the posts from Admins and Moderators never cease to amaze me. Kelvinjay is now telling everyone almost mockingly to just to calm down and take a valium when there are peoples' livelihoods at stake. Unbelievable.
[url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24[/url] ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24[/url])
That is so rude and inaccurate. Valium is for pain, Xanax is the chill pill of choice. Can't even get medication right. Geez.
um, no. Valium as far as I know is precisely for anxiety. and I think it's obvious that kelvin was joking. that book cover is all over the place, it's on t-shirts and journals.
ETA: oops, donding beat me to it.
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Sales have plummeted for me this week. For the whole week I've made less than what I would normally make in a day.
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Can't tell here yet, but I agree with jsnover that this shouldn't be done midweek unless you are 150% sure it won't cause disruption especially during a normally busy month.
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Although traditionally an anxiety medication, my other half was once prescribed (and refused) Valium for back pain. I'm not aware of it being prescribed for a pain in the ar*e though ;)
Of course, now he knows an iStock admin has recommended medication he might take it more seriously... :P
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Since I'm in Bangkok now I just did a search for "bangkok" with the slider all the way to the right (most relevant isn't it supposed to be) and the second image has "bangkok" listed as the 10th most relevant keyword. This can't be correct, I know we were told there are no bugs but the most relevant images should be better than that shouldn't they?
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I think search results with the slider all the way to the right are returning not very logical results at the moment. Similar files of mine get ranked in a way that less downloaded files with same keywords and same upload date get a better position that files with 10x more downloads. If the slide is at the middle or to the left the results have much more sense.
For me as a new contributor, the best match shake, if it is staying like now, might be detrimental to my portfolio as I think it favours older files with a good sales record (you see many more blue flames in the search results). To reach the top will be harder now, but who knows if this behaviour will change tomorrow. Everything is very unpredictable and fast changing in the microstock world. So for good or bad we will have to swallow it,ride the wave and keep producing great images till next change......
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Since I'm in Bangkok now I just did a search for "bangkok" with the slider all the way to the right (most relevant isn't it supposed to be) and the second image has "bangkok" listed as the 10th most relevant keyword. This can't be correct, I know we were told there are no bugs but the most relevant images should be better than that shouldn't they?
Pay attention up there at the back.
This isn't a 'bug' it's a 'feature'. RoberMexico said that in the new best match, 'most relevant' means 'median relevancy'.
New tagline; iStock repurposes the English Language.
(apparently you get the 'best' results by having the slider in the middle)
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They've clearly done their best match 'adjustment' as promised. My editorial files (all new, obviously) which were at the very bottom of my on portfolio by best match moved up to halfway, i.e. they were mixed in between the middle of p6 and the middle of p8 of 11 pages of a best match search.
Now they are all at the bottom of page 11.
Checked a sitewide search for Memphis. Yes, there are my new editorial files, right at the bottom (a small search) by best match.
Thanks for that, iStock.
So much for me making an effort with the new editorial programme.
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Some of the posts from Admins and Moderators never cease to amaze me. Kelvinjay is now telling everyone almost mockingly to just to calm down and take a valium when there are peoples' livelihoods at stake. Unbelievable.
[url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24[/url] ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=24[/url])
That is so rude and inaccurate. Valium is for pain, Xanax is the chill pill of choice. Can't even get medication right. Geez.
Actually Valium is used mainly for people with anxiety disorders. It can be used for withdrawal symptoms from alcohol, muscle spasms, seizures, insomnia and sometimes used for pain by reducing the agitation by relaxing your muscles.
Mea culpa.
My better half took valium for four days after throat surgery and my boss became addicted to it (and went to rehab) for back pain. Did not know it was for anxiety. Either way it is a very powerful and addictive drug and should not be made light of...
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I've been complaining about the best match change, as all my new work has fallen towards the end of the best match search results.
But in all fairness, my sales haven't suffered, they've just shifted. Older files that hadn't sold in ages (or had never sold) are selling. I had above average days on Thursday and Friday.
So as much as I do love to complain (there's so much to complain about at IS), I'm going to have to stop doing so about this. No more uploading until it changes, but in the meantime I just hope my sales continue at their recent level (Monday was my second-best day ever, after a dismal, dismal 2011 up until this week).
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I've been complaining about the best match change, as all my new work has fallen towards the end of the best match search results.
But in all fairness, my sales haven't suffered, they've just shifted. Older files that hadn't sold in ages (or had never sold) are selling. I had above average days on Thursday and Friday.
So as much as I do love to complain (there's so much to complain about at IS), I'm going to have to stop doing so about this. No more uploading until it changes, but in the meantime I just hope my sales continue at their recent level (Monday was my second-best day ever, after a dismal, dismal 2011 up until this week).
My sales haven't really suffered either but the best match should have the most relevant results first when possible and when wanted, like putting the slider all the way to the right. It may just be that less relevant files are selling now ie the old ones with no prior sales, they definitely shouldn't be high up the list of relevant files but now are.
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Valium is mainly prescribed against anxiety, stress, etc but in some cases can also act as a pain killer, it relaxes for example a throat, stomach, muscular-pains, etc.
Its a benzodine based drug and extremly habit forming.
Not to be recommended nowdays.
OH! the best match? dont see much differance from the old one.
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It may not be best match related, but my Friday was the poorest non-holiday weekday I can remember for a VERY long time. Before Friday I was having an average to decent week.
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My better half took valium for four days after throat surgery and my boss became addicted to it (and went to rehab) for back pain. Did not know it was for anxiety. Either way it is a very powerful and addictive drug and should not be made light of...
Exactly. That's exactly why my other half refused it.
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Pay attention up there at the back.
This isn't a 'bug' it's a 'feature'. RoberMexico said that in the new best match, 'most relevant' means 'median relevancy'.
New tagline; iStock repurposes the English Language.
(apparently you get the 'best' results by having the slider in the middle)
That slider is a stupid idea and a waste of IT resources. If you are typing in keywords, would you not always want the most relevant results? Why would you ever want results with "least" or even "median" relevancy to what you are searching for? Sure seems like it would waste a lot of search time.
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Pay attention up there at the back.
This isn't a 'bug' it's a 'feature'. RoberMexico said that in the new best match, 'most relevant' means 'median relevancy'.
New tagline; iStock repurposes the English Language.
(apparently you get the 'best' results by having the slider in the middle)
That slider is a stupid idea and a waste of IT resources. If you are typing in keywords, would you not always want the most relevant results? Why would you ever want results with "least" or even "median" relevancy to what you are searching for? Sure seems like it would waste a lot of search time.
In theory, it's not as bad as that. In theory, if buyers knew about it, and when it was working well, buyers could choose whether they wanted a close match to their search or a broader match, e.g. if searching on a concept. Depending on the designer or the project, they could choose one or the other.
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when did the best match change, so I can give a reply?
I've noticed many recent sales on images that had not been selling for 2 years.
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when did the best match change, so I can give a reply?
Tuesday (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=1)
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Since I'm in Bangkok now I just did a search for "bangkok" with the slider all the way to the right (most relevant isn't it supposed to be) and the second image has "bangkok" listed as the 10th most relevant keyword. This can't be correct, I know we were told there are no bugs but the most relevant images should be better than that shouldn't they?
I think they switched the slider (or may be it has been broken) - just try to set the slider all the way left and you will get the most relevant results. :-\
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when did the best match change, so I can give a reply?
Tuesday ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&page=1[/url])
No change then. I see slightly less downloads thsi week, but within normal variation.
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So rogermexico said (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=314342&messageid=6145682) that there'll be a "gradual tweaking" of best match this week to improve the position of new content. I guess they think things are just fine then...
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I guess they think things are just fine then...
Don't they ever? ???
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Its too early to tell as IS has been so sporadic and random for the last few months for me.
^ what I am thinking. I want to give it a year before I make a "conclusion", although my sales are down considerably for Jan/Feb 11 vs same period in 10.
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i swear, every time they shift best match, i never seem to benefit from it. The downloads are 10-20% less from what i was making prior to the shift. Why cant i be included in this little club of theirs where it benefits me after the shift? Maybe its because i started to produce only three years ago. Grrr....
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when did the best match change, so I can give a reply?
Since 2007 the changes I have noticed have been around the 17th of March and November of each year. I think they do other changes as well, but I havent noticed.
Too early for me to tell, but if old good sellers are up, that is good for me.
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Wish I knew - I have not been able to access my account for almost a week - can you believe this bug? Of course support took 4 days to respond and all they have said is it must be a problem with my OS - great solution that - but I have been locked out completely with no end in site and support looking into the problem- yeah right - can you imagine if I was a buyer with credits. Unbelievable.
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Well at the moment they keep screwing around with tools, sliders, instruments, so much so that the poor buyers will have a stroke before they find anything.
It changes all the time, jumping all over the place.
Nah, this wont result in anything.
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Guess I picked the worst time to join IS. Uploaded 18 images in February and a few more this month. Review so slow compared to SS, DT and Fotolia. Have 7 online finally, many still in the queue, no sales and hardly any views. I did a search for one image that was accepted yesterday using words that bring it to the top one to five images on top of page one on SS and DT (even after many months online) and after going through 7 or 8 pages on IS, I still couldn't find it.
Obviously with a tiny port it's too early to tell, but the inability to find my most popular images (on other sites) using even multiple search terms that really narrow it down, leaves me wondering if anyone will even see my photos there, never mind DL them. Time will tell but I'm in no rush to keep uploading.
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My sales have been all over the place in the last week. Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and Monday were at the high end of average, Friday was half the normal level, Saturday didn't produce a single sale, I think I have to go back a couple of years for that (unless all of Christmas day's sales were deleted for fraud, which they might have been). So I can't answer the survey yet, I need to see what happens when (if) they stop playing with the tweaking device.
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I did a search for one image that was accepted yesterday using words that bring it to the top one to five images on top of page one on Shutterstock and Dreamstime (even after many months online) and after going through 7 or 8 pages on IS, I still couldn't find it.
It's always been around 24 hours between being accepted and showing in your port. Now it's taking between 24 and 72 hours to get from acceptance to portfolio and then it might take up to another 48 hours to show in the search. But that's not consistent. Sometimes it's 24 hours in port and in search. Must just depend when your acceptance comes in compared to when they update things. Or something.
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just checked my sales for the first time since the change and it looks like a set of stairs going down. Sales yesterday were 1/3 of what I had last monday, both in volume and dollar value.
I have several thousand images going back years, so the age thing seems to to be helping me one bit.
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double post
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My downloads have become dismal.
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Yeah well I guess they are fumbling in the dark, they dont really know themselves whats going on or how to improve the search or whatever. My last 10 searches showed pics jumping all over the place, vanishing, flickering, God knows.
All this pharaphernalia is because they are trying to push forward Vettas/agency files, still trying to keep the other majority happy. Impossible! I know its Getty speaking but why cant they just forget about it?
The Vettas/agency files can not even match Stan-Kanneys Image-Bank special collection of 1988 and why? simply because they just havent got the artists to produce to goods.
They are bashing their heads against a brick-wall, flogging a dead horse. The material just isnt there.
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Sneaky istock decided to put the post on the help forum instead of the discussion one knowing it will get read less. They know full well its gonna be filled with posts screaming about loss of downloads.
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Sneaky istock decided to put the post on the help forum instead of the discussion one knowing it will get read less. They know full well its gonna be filled with posts screaming about loss of downloads.
I can't imagine how that qualifies as Help topic...?
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Sneaky istock decided to put the post on the help forum instead of the discussion one knowing it will get read less. They know full well its gonna be filled with posts screaming about loss of downloads.
I can't imagine how that qualifies as Help topic...?
Help, my sales have fallen, and they can't get up??
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Seems to have been an enormous best match change this afternoon, at least in a couple of my 'test' keywords. Looks like 'slider in the middle' has lots more new files on the first page; slider at the right favours downloads and new uploads are way down.
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I seem to be getting different search results every day. Overall sales are down since the change. My best-seller, which had been selling pretty much at least once a day, has not sold once since the change; very discouraging. It's also weird to see some of my poorer-selling images ahead of my best-sellers for the same search terms.
If one did a search for "paper and backgrounds," I used to have the 4th image position on the first page. Now that image is on page 3. It's still a decent placement, but I'm seeing what a difference it makes in sales to have an image on the first page for any given set of search terms.
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Seems to have been an enormous best match change this afternoon, at least in a couple of my 'test' keywords. Looks like 'slider in the middle' has lots more new files on the first page; slider at the right favours downloads and new uploads are way down.
Oh, just tried a different keyword, and although the slider position gives a different sort, neither favours new files.
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kind of seems early to tell still as far as sales go, but last week was pretty good for me and this week is starting out about average.
when was the new one put in place? march 15? and then another "tweak" today sometime?
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I changed my vote, sales have been up up up since yesterday. During the day yesterday I made half of what I made all last week.
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Sneaky istock decided to put the post on the help forum instead of the discussion one knowing it will get read less. They know full well its gonna be filled with posts screaming about loss of downloads.
I can't imagine how that qualifies as Help topic...?
Help, my sales have fallen, and they can't get up??
;D !
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I have ALWAYS had good sales from IS, thats not the issue. Good sales does not mean a great best match. An agency could plaster all your best sellers on the first pages and sure, you would earn great......... for a while and then what? what about all the new files that will never see the light of day?
It must be a balance of mixing established files with new files. Its a daunting task to achieve a near perfect search engine. It probably dont even exist.
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"Sales", what sales. Got sales on almost all the sites except IS, it is DOA
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"Sales", what sales. Got sales on almost all the sites except IS, it is DOA
Go have a few beers and youll see plenty of sales!! ;D
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Complete wipe-out and why? because I am filling up my keywords and now I get severely punished by low keyword relevance since the bottom slider was defaulted to the right - high significance. Sh*t
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My slider was defaulted to the left. Did any IS employee say where it's supposed to be defaulted so we know what buyers are actually seeing?
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My sales increased significantly. Mostly my old stuff that never sold is selling now. I also went exclusive (gasp!!) a few days ago and sales are soaring, placement is better and review times are half of non exclusive.
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My sales increased significantly. Mostly my old stuff that never sold is selling now. I also went exclusive (gasp!!) a few days ago and sales are soaring, placement is better and review times are half of non exclusive.
You've had fewer than 500 sales in 6 years __ what do you mean when you say "sales are soaring"? That you had 2 this week or what? ::)
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I don't know if it's the change to the best match but for me this week's cash-out will be the lowest total for 9 weeks. That's not good for March. As it is I'm projected to be 26% down on March 2010.
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I don't know if it's the change to the best match but for me this week's cash-out will be the lowest total for 9 weeks. That's not good for March. As it is I'm projected to be 26% down on March 2010.
You're right, this March is bad. I haven't been looking at the monthly totals until just now (because you have to go to the drop down menu to change to monthly view).
Usually March is my best or second best month of the year, but this year it looks like it will be close to dead even with a very poor January and February. Maybe a tiny bit ahead, but not by much.
Comparing to last March on Istock, I am projected to be down about 26% also.
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I don't know if it's the change to the best match but for me this week's cash-out will be the lowest total for 9 weeks. That's not good for March. As it is I'm projected to be 26% down on March 2010.
You're right, this March is bad. I haven't been looking at the monthly totals until just now (because you have to go to the drop down menu to change to monthly view).
Usually March is my best or second best month of the year, but this year it looks like it will be close to dead even with a very poor January and February. Maybe a tiny bit ahead, but not by much.
Comparing to last March on Istock, I am projected to be down about 26% also.
Same here... it seems to me that istock has lost a lot of its buyers.
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My slider was defaulted to the left. Did any IS employee say where it's supposed to be defaulted so we know what buyers are actually seeing?
Hi Paulie!
I think the default is in the middle, at least thats what the majority say on the IS forum.
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My slider was defaulted to the left. Did any IS employee say where it's supposed to be defaulted so we know what buyers are actually seeing?
Hi Paulie!
I think the default is in the middle, at least thats what the majority say on the IS forum.
Mine is set all the way to the right and I've never touched it. I didn't even know it was there until the discussion about it started.
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Sales for me have actually been much better than last year. But that could be due to the fact that I'm only in this for a couple of years, so a bigger port means more sales.
this year has all 3 months about the same sales, even with a week to go in march.
Possibly the new best match gives me a better shot at being seen- who knows? It's all very mysterious to me. Sort of like getting hit by lightning.
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I just now found the stinkin slider and it is set all the way to the right.
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Slider... I don't need no stinkn' slider.
March has always been my BME. This year way, way, down, the rabbit hole.
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My guess is that most people don't even know what the slider is let alone where to find it.
As far as sales, I had a couple scary days of zero DL's straight and then things started to get back to normal though like others, I'm having stuff sell that hasn't sold in the last few years.
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sees the slider is gone very soon. good riddance. I agree most people probably didn't even know about it. March isn't great here either.
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sees the slider is gone very soon. good riddance. I agree most people probably didn't even know about it. March isn't great here either.
I still wouldn't have known about it without reading the forums. It's hard to adjust something that is hidden away. I cannot understand the logic there.
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My guess is that most people don't even know what the slider is let alone where to find it.
I don't. I only looked for it once and I didn't see it anywhere. I assume it is an adjustment for buyers and nothing we do to it makes any difference to what they see.
I still have no idea what the best match has done to my sales. I seem to have three good days, three bad days and three average days since the change, which just makes me think they are constantly messing about with it.
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sees the slider is gone very soon. good riddance. I agree most people probably didn't even know about it. March isn't great here either.
I still wouldn't have known about it without reading the forums. It's hard to adjust something that is hidden away. I cannot understand the logic there.
I think the logic is that they (HQ) can set it for a certain default (to fulfill whatever criteria HQ deems important at any given time) and the fact that it's hidden means that for the most part, they are going to get the results they are looking for and few will be the wiser.
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I'd say it haven't affected too much my port. I have more sales, yes, but hell, it's March, and March is the better month in the whole year.
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I think it's been absolutely fantastic for my sales at Dreamstime! :)
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I think it's been absolutely fantastic for my sales at Dreamstime! :)
That's true! I'm on target this month for a BME at DT ... and BigStock ... and have already done so at SS. Good times are back! Not sure it's just Istock's best match that is totally responsible though.
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Another Best Match change just happened and, wow, this is a big one.
It very obviously is pushing Vetta and Agency files. Another move to quickly boost revenue/profits?
I may need to do a different poll for this version because I have a feeling a lot of people are going to get hit hard on this one.
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Another Best Match change just happened and, wow, this is a big one.
It very obviously is pushing Vetta and Agency files. Another move to quickly boost revenue/profits?
I may need to do a different poll for this version because I have a feeling a lot of people are going to get hit hard on this one.
Yes, sorry, I posted the forum link in the Epic Fail thread, but it clearly would be at least as relevant here.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=320632&page=1 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=320632&page=1)
First noticed it yesterday evening, BST, in a very specific search, but didn't realise it was all over.
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I'm seeing far too many clusters of shots from the same artist on the same page, sometime half a dozen slightly different angles all in a group and quite a lot of pairs or triplets from the same shoot really high up the search. This severely limits variety. It's very apparent if you do a search on the word curry.
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I'm seeing far too many clusters of shots from the same artist on the same page, sometime half a dozen slightly different angles all in a group and quite a lot of pairs or triplets from the same shoot really high up the search. This severely limits variety. It's very apparent if you do a search on the word curry.
Where's your slider? I'm not really seeing that on 'curry', no matter where I put my slider.
But they've also said there's a geographic bias, so maybe I'm not seeing (UK) what you're seeing.
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They have just changed their best match, yet again! This time its all Vetta and the kiss of death for non exclusives. Bye to this once and for all.
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Massive change today. All vettas and agencys first. Hope it is only a test made on a sunday and things are back to normal tomorrow. Otherwise things are far worse than expected if they have to push expensive content so hard in fron of buyers eyes.
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Can someone please tell me where this slider is and how to adjust it. My sales are in the tank.
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Dont think its a test, its also confirmed the relevancy slider is going. I ve just had 4 Europen independant diamonds on my private mail ( friends) and right now they are slaughtered.
So much for this glorified best match change.
I expected this, somebody whispered this in my ear some time ago.
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Massive change today. All vettas and agencys first. Hope it is only a test made on a sunday and things are back to normal tomorrow. Otherwise things are far worse than expected if they have to push expensive content so hard in fron of buyers eyes.
Yep, that's what we've been talking about. (http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/how-has-the-new-best-match-affected-your-sales/msg193964/#msg193964)
Looks like it's time for a new thread and poll.
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Not only independents will be killed if this best match is definitive, also a huge number of exclusives are going to suffer. If you donīt have a big number of V&A you are dead. But even if you do have them that doesnt guaratee success in the medium term, this is what remaining buyers needed to make their minds and leave the place.
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Can someone please tell me where this slider is and how to adjust it. My sales are in the tank.
If you do a search, under the last row of thums there's a link 'display settings' and you can change your slider settings in there.
But of course you can't change how any visitor to the site (potential buyer) has their slider set, and the default is centre.
They should make the slider much more visible.
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RogerMexico's post on Friday in the long best match thread:
"I've been posting in here but it's getting lost in the shuffle so I think I'll make a final post and shut the thread.
We've been making minor adjustments to the sort mix ever since this went live. We will continue to do so. Generally we're getting more and more satisfied with the overall sort but we're still working with the mix of new content and different collections.
There isn't going to be a time when I stand up and say "Alright, this is now the best best match and it will stay exactly the same for the following span of time." Best match is something that we like to nudge and tweak a little bit here and a little bit there to continually optimize results. We will continue doing that. Again, we've been happy so far with the trends we're seeing since this went live. We saw room for improvement and have been working there and getting happier.
Finally, we are going to remove the keyword relevancy slider some time next week. At that point everyone will have the default which is in the middle."
Essentially, if they find that overall they are raking in more cash ('profitablity') from plugging V/A, that's what makes sense for them to do, and I guess testing it out on a Sunday isn't too bad an idea EXCEPT that presumably not many businesses with the Big Bucks do much buying on a Sunday (?)
Remember, they don't care about how 'your' or 'my' files are doing. Only about their bottom line, as would be in any business.
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Another Best Match change just happened and, wow, this is a big one.
It very obviously is pushing Vetta and Agency files. Another move to quickly boost revenue/profits?
So they changed it *back*? It was a surprise when they changed it to *not* favor Vetta and Agency. I thought that was one of the benefits of having those types of files...favoritism.
ETA: I just did a search on "horse" and I actually don't see near the stacking of Vetta of old. The top of the search appears to all be flames with a smattering of Vetta mixed in (search set for 200 images per page). Previously, it would just be one solid wall of Vetta.
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RogerMexico's post on Friday in the long best match thread:
"I've been posting in here but it's getting lost in the shuffle so I think I'll make a final post and shut the thread.
We've been making minor adjustments to the sort mix ever since this went live. We will continue to do so. Generally we're getting more and more satisfied with the overall sort but we're still working with the mix of new content and different collections.
There isn't going to be a time when I stand up and say "Alright, this is now the best best match and it will stay exactly the same for the following span of time." Best match is something that we like to nudge and tweak a little bit here and a little bit there to continually optimize results. We will continue doing that. Again, we've been happy so far with the trends we're seeing since this went live. We saw room for improvement and have been working there and getting happier.
Finally, we are going to remove the keyword relevancy slider some time next week. At that point everyone will have the default which is in the middle."
Essentially, if they find that overall they are raking in more cash ('profitablity') from plugging V/A, that's what makes sense for them to do, and I guess testing it out on a Sunday isn't too bad an idea EXCEPT that presumably not many businesses with the Big Bucks do much buying on a Sunday (?)
Remember, they don't care about how 'your' or 'my' files are doing. Only about their bottom line, as would be in any business.
'
Oh Sue we know that but believe me there will be a big F#####G dent if say 20-25 independant top cannisters did react to this. Do a search yourself and see the misery. I just did a seach "engineer and industry" know what came up? guy sitting in a wheelchair pretending to be an engineer and a hard-hat plonked on his head. Pugh!
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I started a new thread for the latest best match change.
Let's move this conversation over there and stop posting here
The 4/3/11 Istockphoto Best Match Change (http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/the-4311-istockphoto-best-match-change/)
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Remember, they don't care about how 'your' or 'my' files are doing. Only about their bottom line, as would be in any business.
Oh Sue we know that but believe me there will be a big F#####G dent if say 20-25 independant top cannisters did react to this. Do a search yourself and see the misery. I just did a seach "engineer and industry" know what came up? guy sitting in a wheelchair pretending to be an engineer and a hard-hat plonked on his head. Pugh!
Oh, I know. I'm not for a minute supporting what they've done. (did I really come over as if I was? Yikes!)
I don't know what has happened with keywording recently. Some truly dreadfully keyworded files are getting in all the time nowadays. I'm sure Team Metadata are thoroughly bogged down with tne needs of editorial, so aren't getting to the Bulk Wikis far less the wikied files.
Well, anyway, it will be interesting to read their spin on this latest best match, if they bother to spin it at all.
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mispost...