Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on April 28, 2015, 04:02

My sales had already become weak and erratic averaging two or three a day but since the 15th they've fallen off a cliff and I'm now not even averaging one a day from 5,000 files - and they want us to keep uploading? And I'm a "diamond"-level contributor within a whisker of 57,000 sales (and more than 250,000 across eight or nine sites).

May I ask if this (your) slump is specific to IS? Reason I'm asking is because my April is terrible on all sites, even SS is struggling for me...

As a "slump", I would say yes, it is just IS (and it remains to be seen whether the PP is affected) - but several other sites are a bit weak, too, compared with recent months. The main one - SS - is steady, though still 20 or 30% down on its glory days, DT is weak, 123 is below the last few months and the others aren't particularly significant. Alamy is holding up well, with seven sales this month, and I got a huge sale on FAA but one sale in a month is not something that can be regarded as anything more than a pleasant surprise.

Quote from: etienjones on April 28, 2015, 04:29

Quote from: jjneff on April 27, 2015, 16:31

My numbers are strong for April in photo and video 

What?  jjneff is having a good month and someone gives him a minus . . . . that, at least, makes me laugh.

by the way, I'm having a good month also.

I just gave you that minus, to keep you in good company

 

My mistake on not staying on topic. My sales should be a lot better, for as much as I produce I can not believe iStock is so low!

I'm guessing that's a  .
But indeed, if your sales are good, of course post that fact.
Shows that the site isn't necessarily declining and the rest of us 'should do better'.

Yes My regular photo sales are the highest ever this month and my video is at least decent. March was a train wreck so it just goes to show we all have our highs and lows no matter what agency you sell on.

Unfortunately, my trend on iStock has been consistently down for many years, I'm not expecting ever to see a "high" there that compares with 2008 or 2009 (or whenever my maximum was). It's a long way down from $30 or $40 a day to $1.5 a day or less.

Are we talking about $10, $100, $1000 or $10,000 per month ? Roughly.

200$ around

I hate the process of uploading via Deep Metta tediously going through every keyword, checking boxes, putting them in order knowing that they will end up in a big black hole never to be used.

It's the Description that is going into the Black Hole.

Yes My regular photo sales are the highest ever this month ...

How are your recent-ish photo uploads doing?
Most people are finding that uploading isn't helping, and I see pages of recent uploads with very few dls among them on most peoples' ports, even those with the most highly commercial images.
That being the case, there's nothing we can do about our sales on that site. As I've said before, even where there are a few recent sales, there aren't enough to pay for the shoot, in most cases.

Quote from: ShadySue on April 29, 2015, 05:33

Quote from: jjneff on April 28, 2015, 06:35

Yes My regular photo sales are the highest ever this month ...

How are your recent-ish photo uploads doing?
Most people are finding that uploading isn't helping, and I see pages of recent uploads with very few dls among them on most peoples' ports, even those with the most highly commercial images.

In my case: Last 40 ULs which have been there for a couple of months, one credit sale, one subs sale, no PP. Not terribly commercial stock to be fair, but even so!

My few recent sales are mostly from 2007/8 and 2011, and that's been the pattern for many months now. The early ones are old 35mm scans and from my 350D; I think I got the 5D2 in 2010. I've looked carefully at what's selling and there's no pattern I can see, and no obvious-to-me reason in the content as to why uploads from these years are selling (to a very limited extent), but others aren't.
I knew from very early on that I was becoming a far less creative photographer once I started stock, but it seems I must have been a better 'stock' photographer before I started, as many of the 2007 uploads were taken before I was selling. 

Most of my sales are from pre 2011. Again no rhyme or reason I can see in what sold or when it was from. In the last 60 DLs I have the same number of DLs on 9-10 y/o images, as I do on images from the last three years.

Wow I just went and checked. Of my last 20 most are from 2007 & 2008, a few from 2011, nothing from the last year.

I don't have anything to brag about, my sales hasn't broken any records, but I haven't seen any slumps this year.

My last quarter of 2014 was horrible, a historic low. However, since Feb, the revenue has been on a slow climb, I have seen small increases in combined revenue every month. About 60% were credit sales. I saw a 10% revenue increase comparing to the first three months of 2014.

Among my last 20 sales, 6 were from 2014.

Just want to give a bit more info.

My port has also increased about 10% in the past year. Perhaps it should not be considered as an increase.

I've always been an obsessive stats checker but I almost never even look at my stats there anymore as it is too depressing.