Author Topic: Istock is making it even harder for exclusives. (Read 7029 times)

Digital66 · « **on:** November 19, 2015, 22:43 »

Have you seen the new the carousels?

Under Signatures images: "Explore Essentials – everyday images at our lowest price"

Under Essential images: "Discover Signature – elevate your work with our best images"

Let's be honest. We all know there is no quality difference between exclusive and non exclusive images. And basically, the difference between Essentials and Signatures is in most cases just a matter of exclusivity vs. non exclusivity.

This carousel is just another punch below the belt to exclusives.

luiscastor · « **Reply #1 on:** November 20, 2015, 03:35 »

Yes I have seen this. I hope it has something to do with my increase in sales. Exclusive here.

jjneff · « **Reply #2 on:** November 20, 2015, 06:29 »

This is naive! Here is an exclusive file for $$$ but don't worry we know it cost to much so here are some for $ and all on the same page. No that t is not confusing it is just stupid. Please decided if you want exclusive work or not!

jjneff · « **Reply #3 on:** November 20, 2015, 07:19 »

Here is an example. I have a bunch of great aerial clips from this same shoot but non of them are visible in the carousel only cheaper non-exclusive files. No wonder my video sales are in the tank! http://www.istockphoto.com/video/family-running-on-beach-74675503?st=91e8b46

ShadySue · « **Reply #4 on:** November 20, 2015, 07:59 »

That is the current policy - on a Signature file, all the carousel are Ess, and vice versa.

Clearly, they haven't a clue how to make more sales. For years now it's been that 'headless chicken, throw everything at the wall and see what sticks' policy, but nothing has stuck. Like I used to say, even the pizza delivery boy is forced to make a suggestion, which the techies have to implement double quick.

And in 'Fiddling while Rome burns', for no good reason they've just introduced a feature whereby if someone looks at your port there is a huge wide grey bar at the top with your profile photo in a little circle in the middle. So whereas in the vastly superior classic view on my monitor I can see 12 files, in the new view with the stupid wide header and the trapped white space, I can now only see 4 files. Why they heralded this as a great thing, I can't imagine.
I'm sure extremely few, if any, buyers will look through my portfolio. Therefore why spend the work-hours and space making this pointless, space-wasting banner?

While they were pushing out that, for 5-6 days, many people reported not being able to log in (a rolling problem) at all in various combinations of browser/OS. I myself couldn't get in for over 18 hours via FF/Win7. Presumably that would have affected a rolling number of buyers. The general advice was to clear cache etc. Whereupon the buyers would be able to see the subs 'packs' which are only supposed to be available to new or backslidden buyers (allegedly).

Oh and at the end of last week, many people, myself included, couldn't do searches. Apparently, that was if we were in classic view, even though I was trying to search from my home page. Apparently that wasn't a worry, as 'most buyers' are now using the new view. That is an iStock tactic from the old days. They give a choice, but to encourage the choice they want people to use, they make the other choice less and less usable. It's interesting that iStock have never been interested in minority buyers - I can also remember years ago some buying option was removed, and we were reassured that 'only about 6-7%' of buyers used that option. Most companies would consider 6% of buyers worth keeping onside. I heard last week that people using my old, extremely minority OS with an extremely basic web browser can still buy from Amazon with no problems, which nowadays must surely number fewer than 100 people with no option. Back in late 2006 when I joined iS, I could hardly access any iS pages via that OS/browser, and buying was impossible.

iStock: Get Your Priorities Right. Cherish the few buyers you have left and don't hack off your contributors.
I know, I'm whistling down the wind.

ShadySue · « **Reply #5 on:** November 20, 2015, 08:27 »

And by the way, I had a Sig file sell for 84c (sic, eighty four cents for a credit, exclusive sale) the other day. CR have told me that it was a buyer with an unusually large purchase of credits, hence huge discount.

Digital66 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 20, 2015, 08:35 »

Quote from: luiscastor on November 20, 2015, 03:35

Yes I have seen this. I hope it has something to do with my increase in sales. Exclusive here.

If you've had any increase in credit sales of Signature files, it's not thanks to the new carousel. I can't see how that thing could improve Signature sales.

If your increase in Signatures sales is for subscriptions, it wouldn't be thanks to the new carousel either. Subscription sales will just keep replacing credit sales. But that's not an improvement at all.

And if your increase in credit sales is for Essential files, that would probably be thanks to the new carousel.

ShadySue · « **Reply #7 on:** November 20, 2015, 09:04 »

Quote from: Digital66 on November 20, 2015, 08:35

Quote from: luiscastor on November 20, 2015, 03:35
Yes I have seen this. I hope it has something to do with my increase in sales. Exclusive here.
If you've had any increase in credit sales of Signature files, it's not thanks to the new carousel. I can't see how that thing could improve Signature sales.

If your increase in Signatures sales is for subscriptions, it wouldn't be thanks to the new carousel either. Subscription sales will just keep replacing credit sales. But that's not an improvement at all.

And if your increase in credit sales is for Essential files, that would probably be thanks to the new carousel.

And it's only been happening for a few days.

Shelma1 · « **Reply #8 on:** November 23, 2015, 11:26 »

If it makes you feel any better...which I doubt...it's just as bad for indies. I'm not seeing any increase in sales, the carousel under our images directs buyers to exclusive content, and they cut our credit prices by 2/3, which subs and PP are not making up for.

I don't understand the thinking behind directing buyers who are willing to pay higher prices to lower-priced images, nor directing buyers who want to spend less towards higher priced images. I'd think keeping buyers in a loop of images with similar pricing might lead to more sales. But then, I never understand what the powers that be at iStock are thinking. Spaghetti, wall...it's always the same approach over there. They have the lowest RPD of any major stock site I'm on, and it's just getting worse.

jjneff · « **Reply #9 on:** November 23, 2015, 21:11 »

So if you scroll over a few similars on this image on iStock you can see how great the non-exclusive match is to my file. This is bad for everyone https://jjneff.smugmug.com/IStock/IStock/i-RDMwwkn/A

PixelBytes · « **Reply #10 on:** November 23, 2015, 22:56 »

Quote from: jjneff on November 23, 2015, 21:11

So if you scroll over a few similars on this image on iStock you can see how great the non-exclusive match is to my file. This is bad for everyone https://jjneff.smugmug.com/IStock/IStock/i-RDMwwkn/A

Jeez! Those arent even a little bit similar to yours. Funny thing is I seen indie files that are similar but it don't show them in the carousel. Total madness!

ShadySue · « **Reply #11 on:** November 24, 2015, 06:46 »

Quote from: jjneff on November 23, 2015, 21:11

So if you scroll over a few similars on this image on iStock you can see how great the non-exclusive match is to my file. This is bad for everyone https://jjneff.smugmug.com/IStock/IStock/i-RDMwwkn/A

This is how it 'works':

When you uploaded, your top keywords were:
Little boy, child, cat scan, Medical examination, medical test, healthcare and medicine, hospital, healthcare and medicine, radiologist ...

In classic view, that has shifted to:
Medical Exam, Healthcare And Medicine, Child, Radiologist, Boys, Technology, Indoors, Illness ...

But crucially, in new view, the order has changed to:
Medical Scanner, Technology, Urgency, Radiologist, Healthcare And Medicine, Medical Exam, Medical Test, technologist, Physical Injury, Hospital, Assistance,

Some of these Ess files have been badly spammed/not DAd, so have 'medical scanner' in their keywords, and because 'medical scanner' and 'technology' has moved to the top of your keywords, and near the top of theirs, which is why the files 'match' yours.

It happens all the time. Why both views, but especially the obnoxious 'new view' change your word order so much on acceptance, I can't imagine, especially when they told us not too long ago to keyword in order of importance, which always made sense to me anyway.

BTW, I'm seeing a different set of irrelevant files under yours:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bd5lbift0563qn/scan.jpg
And hey, with the Ess files being so irrelevant, buyers might be annoyed, but at least they won't bother to go and explore the essential alternatives. Every cloud has one

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #12 on:** November 24, 2015, 07:30 »

Quote from: ShadySue on November 20, 2015, 07:59

.....
iStock: Get Your Priorities Right. Cherish the few buyers you have left and don't hack off your contributors.
I know, I'm whistling down the wind.

That was a great summary, but not a hope they will listen.

They have been making up for their failed policies by constantly trying to make up the loss by cutting our commissions.

Their average RPD is the only one of all agencies still dropping, even though it is well below everyone else's already once you factor in IS subs and PP sales (worse than DP and SS which are mainly sub sites). The market is saturated now so every time someone buys from IS we are losing out on a sale elsewhere. IStock is the pits for contributors.

Julied83 · « **Reply #13 on:** November 24, 2015, 07:50 »

Istock priority is not at all to take care of contributor. That's bad because they exist because all of us ! This is a thing they don't seem to understand.

Mantis · « **Reply #14 on:** November 24, 2015, 16:54 »

Quote from: Julied83 on November 24, 2015, 07:50

Istock priority is not at all to take care of contributor. That's bad because they exist because all of us ! This is a thing they don't seem to understand.

They understand it, but have determined that the contributor defection due to gouging is small enough that they are willing to treat us the way they do. Most MS agencies are like this. There's just way too many images for to replace defectors. And it will get worse.

landbysea · « **Reply #15 on:** November 30, 2015, 13:15 »

It's deceptive because the All button shows the same files as the Essential button and the Signature button is disabled. (or the other way around). It's difficult to navigate out of that view and frustrating to keep hitting a button that is disabled. It makes it look like the site is broken. Why have the buttons visible if they don't work? How is that helping a buyer who wants to see them all or the other collection?

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Author Topic: Istock is making it even harder for exclusives. (Read 7029 times)

Digital66

luiscastor

jjneff

jjneff

ShadySue

ShadySue

Digital66

ShadySue

Shelma1

jjneff

PixelBytes

ShadySue

Justanotherphotographer

Julied83

Mantis

landbysea

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