MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: charlesknox on May 27, 2008, 18:46

Title: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: charlesknox on May 27, 2008, 18:46
Has IS really slowed down for anyone here in the last 2 weeks? it has completely stopped for me and was going smooth

just curious if people have been witnessing the same thing

thx

charles
Title: Re: IS
Post by: sharply_done on May 27, 2008, 18:50
Yep, I'm in slump-a-roo-ville there.
Big time.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: mauros on May 27, 2008, 18:52
Today was my best day ever at Istock...but my portfolio is just about 50 pics...
Title: Re: IS
Post by: charlesknox on May 27, 2008, 18:59
ya its weird i was on a roll 2-3 sales a day then boom dead
hopefully its just because of the new subscription plans kicking in
Title: Re: IS
Post by: vphoto on May 27, 2008, 19:14
no dls for me today.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: michaeldb on May 27, 2008, 19:25
The addition of subscription sales at IS took effect on May 26, I believe. This is a big change for them, and I expect it is too much to hope that it will happen without some big glitches.

As for me, after a terrible 3 day weekend there, sales were up a little today.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: jsnover on May 27, 2008, 19:32
Things have been pretty good there for me - last Friday was one of my best days (without any ELs) in a long time.  Monday was slow because of Memorial day/bank holiday in UK. So far, no subscription sales though.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: Whiz on May 27, 2008, 19:33
I'm down about fifty percent for the month. Same with Shutterstock.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on May 27, 2008, 19:34
Typical weekend holiday behavior.  Sales down somewhat.  Otherwise, biz as normal.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: kosmikkreeper on May 27, 2008, 19:34
I don't know what's going on at IS but my revenue is down roughly 25%! That's a lot of moulah! Just out of the blue. SS actually beat IS in sales and that hasn't happened in a loooooooooooooooong time. I'm hoping it's just a fluke month with all this Sub thingamabob.  ???
Title: Re: IS
Post by: charlesknox on May 27, 2008, 20:12
ya from what i read on the forums i hear that IS and SS i usually the same revenue for everybody but so far SS is double IS for me now although ive only been on SS two months now and im assuming im just doing this well because im new and uploaded 120 images in one shot
Title: Re: IS
Post by: gualberto107 on May 27, 2008, 20:27
May has been terrible for me in IS.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: PeterChigmaroff on May 27, 2008, 20:37
I find this interesting. I've just started contributing 3 weeks ago and although I am limited by IS's 15/week I still had more of an expectation. Right now I'm running something like 410s DL at SS to 3 at IS. Hmmmmmph.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: kourafas5 on May 27, 2008, 20:41
Yep...painfully slow for sales the last 5 or so days.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: PaulieWalnuts on May 27, 2008, 21:18
May started off slow but has come back strong for me. Today was normal. I thought yesterday would have been real slow because of Memorial Day but it ended up being better than normal. Wild how everybody gets different results.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: louoates on May 27, 2008, 21:27
Had 3 straight days of 0 sales. Never happened before, not even close. This month will be my worst at IS in over 2 years.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: Read_My_Rights on May 27, 2008, 21:39
How many of the exclusives are down significantly this month??
Title: Re: IS
Post by: Susan S. on May 27, 2008, 21:56
I'm down on istock in terms of number of downloads, but look like being up on dollars (A combination of upping a cannister level and having a quarter of my downloads this month being ten credit vectors). I've had a very mixed bag - some extraordinarily good days and some dreadful runs of zeros. One of the drawbacks of a small portfolio. If my vectors hadn't started to earn some $s May would have been sad - but no worse than the fall I saw last May.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: DanP68 on May 27, 2008, 22:25
I'm on pace for a 25% drop this month at Istock.  By comparison, I am already 5% up on last month's BME at SS, with still 4 days to go in the month.   :-\
Title: Re: IS
Post by: cphoto on May 27, 2008, 22:36
Quote from: louoates on May 27, 2008, 21:27
Had 3 straight days of 0 sales. Never happened before, not even close. This month will be my worst at IS in over 2 years.

Ditto.  A disaster.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: suwanneeredhead on May 27, 2008, 22:38
Me too, dead.

Maybe it's because all those credit buyers are getting ready to buy subscriptions? So I'm keeping optimistic that the sales will just skyrocket next month!
Title: Re: IS
Post by: fotografer on May 28, 2008, 01:02
I'm having a record month for earnings at IS but SS is really slow.  Didn't sell a single image during the night last night (European time) when I usually get 25 - 30% of my daily sales.  StockXpert is also a bit down. FT and DT also BMEs.
Title: Re: IS
Post by: 4seasons on May 28, 2008, 02:14
A few years ago IS was my No1 earner, now in the last year he is on 6-7 place with ~20% of previous downloads. It's all because of rejections who began some time ago and I can't build my portfolio any more. All these idiotic "we don't think it's stock image..." about bestsellers, "overfiltered..." about vector jpgs, "please submit original photo..." about illustrations... etc. I can't believe what kind of blondie reviewer must be to write this. I begin to think there are just some programs who randomly select 5% from nonexclusives' uploads and randomly assign rejection reason to remaining images.

Better they would write "Sorry, we don't like nonexclusives and especially you, so your photo has been rejected..." and I'll feel much better.

As I red in forums, there are a lot of really successful nonexclusives on IS and a lot of complains about rejections as well. For me uploads to IS become kind of lottery: you'll never know what image will be accepted and what rejected. I'm speaking about my bestsellers on SS, DT or FT where they already have been downloaded tens or even hundreds times.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: MicrostockExp on May 28, 2008, 02:26
IS is doing ok for me , a BME a few cents I think. SS is doing very well this month, BME by a large margin, FT a disaster , almost no sales....

Dan I broke the $ 300 this month :)
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: phildate on May 28, 2008, 02:41
IS has slowed right down for me this week after an ok start to the month. It will end up in third place in May, well behind SS and FT, with DT snapping at it's heels.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: DanP68 on May 28, 2008, 02:43
Quote from: ldambies on May 28, 2008, 02:26
IS is doing ok for me , a BME a few cents I think. SS is doing very well this month, BME by a large margin, FT a disaster , almost no sales....

Dan I broke the $ 300 this month :)


Alright!  I knew you were going to do it this month or next.  I'm on pace to go over $300 again too, though it will be close.  As I wrote earlier, I benefited from an unusually high percentage of EL sales in April.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: MicrostockExp on May 28, 2008, 03:08
Ok Dan let's work on the $ 400 target then :) ... before the expected summer slowdown !
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: DanP68 on May 28, 2008, 03:12
Sounds good.  $400 by the end of June.  $500 by the end of September.   8)
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: MicrostockExp on May 28, 2008, 03:15
ha ha :) done sounds good to me !
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: faber on May 28, 2008, 04:01
No big change here (non-exclusive) compared to April (was BME).

The weeks in May had the usual ebb and flow - but overall I expect a BME at istock, no big increase, but definitely no dip.

BTW: regarding acceptance rate of non-exclusives (see statement of 4seasons) -> no big changes either, pretty constant - I can see no "we don't like non-exclusives". Of course they might like you even a little bit more if you are exclusive - but thats ok.

What really sucks regarding my acceptance rate is fotolia, it went down to about 15% (compared to 79% istock and 85% dreamstime). Obviously I do not understand what fotolia wants and I consequentially stopped uploading.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: michealo on May 28, 2008, 04:08
I suspect long time contributors would not see a dip as quickly as newer ones, as designers would have bookmarked there portfolios or saved images in lightboxes for future use ...
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: erwinova on May 28, 2008, 04:19
I love IS, with only 57 files...my download is comparable with 630 files in FT.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: stokfoto on May 28, 2008, 04:36
IS is still my top earner,may has been slower than last month but  still way better than all other sites
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: epantha on May 28, 2008, 08:23
There was a dry spell over the weekend but things seem to be back on track now. There were a couple of sales just after midnight today but they didn't have the subscription icon. IS is also my top earner at this time.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Dreamframer on May 28, 2008, 08:26
For me everything goes better than usual
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: lisafx on May 28, 2008, 11:55
Quote from: michealo on May 28, 2008, 04:08
I suspect long time contributors would not see a dip as quickly as newer ones, as designers would have bookmarked there portfolios or saved images in lightboxes for future use ...

Well here's a longtime contributor that is experiencing the downturn.  Last week sales got a bit soft and Tuesday was down about 30% from a normal Tuesday.  I find that odd because normally after a holiday there is a mini buying bump as people get back to work. 

Hopefully the rest of the week sees that bump or May will fall quite short of April..  And for those who think it's summer - that doesn't mirror my experience at all.  Summer slump usually starts in June and runs through August...
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: charlesknox on May 28, 2008, 15:39
Ditto on the "i dont understand what FT wants" never have never will i dont think lol
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: madelaide on May 28, 2008, 17:32
My dlds in IS are indeed significantly less this past week than it was in previous weeks.  I can't tell if the US holiday accounts for that.

Regards,
Adelaide

Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: ozbandit on May 28, 2008, 18:08
Yep, IS has been down the most for me out of all my sites
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: ptlee on May 28, 2008, 20:06
This month has been pretty bad for me on IS & SS. Down about 50% on IS.

 ???

Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: hd on May 28, 2008, 20:39
I'm way down with sales on iS as well. Even the images that are constant sellers aren't doing much for me this month. Don't even get me started on the review process (I have no complaints about any other site)...all that considering, it's not really worth my time at this point.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: maunger on May 29, 2008, 05:35
seems to me this is just about like the thread that was posted the month before and the month before that... etc.

or, maybe i'm just lucky? My sales have been very consistent at IS since january - my chart is showing pretty much the same bars (with a slight increase) over the last 5 months. It feels pretty good for once :)
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: zorki on May 29, 2008, 10:53
I'm off for the month of May also. My first down month in a while. Last month was a BME for me and since the Memorial day break it's just been way off. It could be that summer downturn has come early this year. Here's looking towards September!
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: madelaide on May 29, 2008, 22:15
It's been now two days without sales at IS, what is quite unusual for me, especially on weekdays. 

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: suwanneeredhead on May 29, 2008, 22:16
I actually got a sale today (after 5 days of nothing), and it was a credit sale! Hmmm....
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: charlesknox on May 30, 2008, 10:18
So did i! the first one after 10 days and it was a credit sale ya that is weird
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: hofhoek on May 31, 2008, 01:09
IS has been quite slow the last week. One fifth  of the usual downloads. (contributing since febr 07). Bad month overall
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: madelaide on May 31, 2008, 12:59
It's been now four days without sales at IS. I feel abandoned.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: sharply_done on May 31, 2008, 14:46
My IS sales have been in decline for the past two months, but they've really plummeted lately. On the bright side, this sales drought can't last forever!

(http://strathdee.net/temp/is_sales_may08.jpg)
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: michealo on May 31, 2008, 16:53
glad its not just me
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Lizard on May 31, 2008, 16:58
I had a bad month already , so when I just checked  my earnings I saw few $ missing , the I saw the mail.

Apparently customer returned two of my XXL images cause he needed larger files.

Well and if he got them anyway , how can they know that he did erase them from the disk ?

Strange
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on May 31, 2008, 17:03
Ummmm... there's nothing larger than XXl ?
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: stokfoto on May 31, 2008, 17:30
for the past 5-6 months my sales grown continuously but may started really slow for me especially the first two week  but then luckily it picked up yet slower than april on the whole but not as bad as thought it'd be.in fact I could still consider it as a good month.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Sinatra on June 01, 2008, 04:38
yeah....i had a very bad week...
Title: Re: IS
Post by: gualberto107 on June 07, 2008, 22:38
Quote from: charlesknox on May 27, 2008, 18:59
ya its weird i was on a roll 2-3 sales a day then boom dead
hopefully its just because of the new subscription plans kicking in


Ditto..
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: madelaide on June 08, 2008, 15:21
Mere four sales this month....  no subs, but what is going on?!?!?   ???

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: vphoto on June 08, 2008, 16:00
8 sales this month for me. it is less then last month for the same period. May be summer?
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Alatriste on June 08, 2008, 16:13
Average month for me
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: sharpshot on June 08, 2008, 16:16
I think I had my record Saturday yesterday with 6 sales.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: epixx on June 08, 2008, 23:58
BME in May. A bit slower in June, but that is to be expected. It follows the trend from last year.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: massman on June 09, 2008, 03:24
On target for 50% of last month. No sales for the last three days, I havn't had a no sale day since March.

Ebb and flow?
best match change?
Summer slowdown?
Sans crown?
Economic downturn?

Can't do much about it. Either upload more or upload non.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: lisafx on June 09, 2008, 11:55
Too soon for me to draw any conclusions about June.  Sales appear to be pretty normal for me. 

I will not be surprised if there is a summer downturn though.  IMHO it is just part of the job: booming autumn and slow summer. 
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: zorki on June 09, 2008, 13:43
After a BME in April and slightly down in May, June has fallen off a cliff! Not sure what is going on... I hope they aren't fiddling with the search engine again!
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Nemo1024 on June 14, 2008, 18:09
23 downloads in May vs 3 downloads so far in June. I hope it's only the dreaded summer slow-down.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: vphoto on June 14, 2008, 18:48
slowed  down form me, very much so.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: loop on June 14, 2008, 22:17
Average normal number of sales, but different files sold, more old stuff tan usual.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Perry on June 16, 2008, 11:55
I'm down 50% from last month... This can't just be normal ebb & flow. I don't even think it's all summer slowdown, all the other sites are doing reasonably well.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: snoozle on June 16, 2008, 15:06
Had 44 downloads in May (small fry for some, a bme for me), and 25 so far this month, so on target to achieve about the same. Having said that most of those sales have come from 3 images. I just need to get some more that  can achieve the same or better.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: cathyslife on June 16, 2008, 17:15
Pretty big dip for me here as well, but then I knew when they changed the best match a few weeks back that it was most likely to happen.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: littlerobin71 on June 25, 2008, 00:14
this is my worse month so far...
Im going to make less than last month ..and I became exclusive this month...

I wonder if this is the subscription effect..or what
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: bittersweet on June 25, 2008, 01:30
I had a record day last week, but I'm blaming the last few horrible days on the fact that the site is running like crap. The search engine was pretty much useless for half the day today. I had zero downloads until about 2:00 when it started working again. The site is still super slow and any reports are being answered with "tell us your browser, blah blah blah" when it is clear that everyone is experiencing the same thing. New uploads are taking a week to show up in our portfolios.

It's just a mess.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Perrush on June 25, 2008, 03:03
I quit uploading in November last year.  Since then overall earnings are down less then 50% from all time highs which I find pretty good.

While most agencies hold pretty good, IS literally dies on me.  Just look at the graph underneath.

(http://upload.pbase.com/image/99222441/original.jpg)
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: faber on June 25, 2008, 04:32
Perrush, I'm just curious: why did you stop uploading?
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: helix7 on June 25, 2008, 07:17
Its looking like I will be down about 10% at istock this month compared to May. But sales are also down across the board for me. Much worse at some other sites.

Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Tim Markley on June 25, 2008, 07:31
It is really slow, typical for summer.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: stokfoto on June 25, 2008, 08:13
Quote from: tsmarkley on June 25, 2008, 07:31
It is really slow, typical for summer.
I agree especially since the third week of the month I've  noticed significant slow down all around.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: helix7 on June 25, 2008, 09:26
Anyone know when the summer slowdown usually ends?


Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: lisafx on June 25, 2008, 10:49
Quote from: helix7 on June 25, 2008, 09:26
Anyone know when the summer slowdown usually ends?




Typically toward the end of August.  By September things should be really hopping. 
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Whiz on June 25, 2008, 10:56
Mine:

(http://jrtmedia.com/graph.jpg)

Not bad, not great.
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: Perrush on June 25, 2008, 11:29
Quote from: faber on June 25, 2008, 04:32
Perrush, I'm just curious: why did you stop uploading?

I guess it was just time to move on.  I sold all my equipment and focused on other things. 
Title: Re: IS - sales slowing down?
Post by: bittersweet on June 25, 2008, 12:10
Quote from: lisafx on June 25, 2008, 10:49
Quote from: helix7 on June 25, 2008, 09:26
Anyone know when the summer slowdown usually ends?




Typically toward the end of August.  By September things should be really hopping. 

Especially if you spend the slow time creating holiday images rather than complaining about the slow time. ;)