Author Topic: iStock rebound? (Read 19882 times)

lisafx · « **Reply #25 on:** January 17, 2009, 14:00 »

My IS sales are finally back to where they were before the mid October best match shakeup.

The latest best match thread on IS would seem to indicate that this is due almost entirely to the best match, though, rather than a pickup in overall sales volume. Losts of folks that benefited from good positions in November and December are complaining of huge sales drops in January.

I am hesitant to get too excited as this current situation is only temporary until best match 2.0 is implemented....

Kngkyle · « **Reply #26 on:** January 17, 2009, 14:18 »

Quote from: lisafx on January 17, 2009, 14:00

My IS sales are finally back to where they were before the mid October best match shakeup.

The latest best match thread on IS would seem to indicate that this is due almost entirely to the best match, though, rather than a pickup in overall sales volume. Losts of folks that benefited from good positions in November and December are complaining of huge sales drops in January.

I am hesitant to get too excited as this current situation is only temporary until best match 2.0 is implemented....

best match 2.0 has already been/is currently being implemented.

Quote

Starting in mid-January we will start applying these results to best match searches.

null · « **Reply #27 on:** January 17, 2009, 14:21 »

Quote from: lisafx on January 17, 2009, 14:00

Losts of folks that benefited from good positions in November and December are complaining of huge sales drops in January.

Yap. The secret of success on any stock site is your position in the search engine. If there are so many winners, there must be losers too. I'm one of them.
Just when I decided to stop with them they accepted 11 of 15 of my last batch. That used to be 3 of 15. They are haunted...

Quote from: Vonkara on January 17, 2009, 12:25

Back too. Hope it's stay like this now and everyone will be happy this time

I'm not.

lisafx · « **Reply #28 on:** January 17, 2009, 14:26 »

Quote from: Kngkyle on January 17, 2009, 14:18

best match 2.0 has already been/is currently being implemented.

No. It hasn't. Here's the latest word on istock's forums as of 1-16:

"best match 2.0 has not been released yet. The system continues to work on the regular version and we expect that the best match 2.0 will be released shortly."

Feel free to read all about it here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=80951&page=15

vonkara · « **Reply #29 on:** January 17, 2009, 14:34 »

Quote from: FlemishDreams on January 17, 2009, 14:21

Quote from: Vonkara on January 17, 2009, 12:25
Back too. Hope it's stay like this now and everyone will be happy this time

I'm not.

Sorry to hear that really. I know how it feel from the last search ranking.

Kngkyle · « **Reply #30 on:** January 17, 2009, 14:48 »

Quote from: lisafx on January 17, 2009, 14:26

Quote from: Kngkyle on January 17, 2009, 14:18

best match 2.0 has already been/is currently being implemented.

No. It hasn't. Here's the latest word on istock's forums as of 1-16:

"best match 2.0 has not been released yet. The system continues to work on the regular version and we expect that the best match 2.0 will be released shortly."

Feel free to read all about it here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=80951&page=15

Ah OK thanks for the correction. I never read the forums so didn't know.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #31 on:** January 17, 2009, 14:53 »

Quote from: FlemishDreams on January 17, 2009, 14:21

Yap. The secret of success on any stock site is your position in the search engine. If there are so many winners, there must be losers too. I'm one of them.
Just when I decided to stop with them they accepted 11 of 15 of my last batch. That used to be 3 of 15. They are haunted...

Same as what I was trying to point out when "everyone" was dropping in the ranking and sales were slumping. For someone to go down, someone else MUST go up. Same for the other direction. You can't have one without the other.

Hopefully you'll get back to normal, if such a thing exists, because you are active and a regular contributor. That should count for something?

Phil · « **Reply #32 on:** January 17, 2009, 18:35 »

Quote from: Zeus on January 17, 2009, 09:51

Unfortunately still way off the mark. At least as bad as Nov and Dec.

everytime some gain, some of us lose. my sales for this month are looking to be about 50-60% of any month of last year

GBlack · « **Reply #33 on:** January 17, 2009, 22:33 »

I noticed a couple days ago that IS has started advertising on the Los Angeles Times website too. Which is something new.

leaf · « **Reply #34 on:** January 18, 2009, 16:44 »

note: A number of posts were removed due to inappropriate content and further discussion that was totally off topic and unnecessary

shank_ali · « **Reply #35 on:** January 18, 2009, 17:24 »

The buyers had an extended xmas break this year.Things will improve hopely towards the end of january.I am keeping 'all my eggs in the one basket' for the time being as getting $6.21 for an XLarge sale this week made me realise istockphoto still ticks all my boxes.

Kngkyle · « **Reply #36 on:** January 19, 2009, 05:57 »

This is the advertisement I keep seeing on another forum I visit that has over 20,000 registered users. Also saw an ad on DeviantArt today when I was looking for a new background.

Jeez I am finding the advertisements everywhere! Icanhascheezburger....

lisafx · « **Reply #37 on:** January 19, 2009, 10:58 »

Thanks for posting those Kyle. Glad to see istock are advertising heavily.

With so many new contributors joining all the time it is good to see the emphasis on bringing in more buyers!

CofkoCof · « **Reply #38 on:** January 20, 2009, 08:51 »

IS rebounded nicely for me, might get close to a BME which was just before the best match change in October. It looks like it will be infront of SS for the first time for me (2 months without uploads on SS is really starting to show $:-\$ ).

evan_ers · « **Reply #39 on:** January 20, 2009, 21:21 »

My downloads on istock in January are going like they used to be on SS. I've already passed Oct, Nov and Dec, it's the best month since Sept and it's only the 20th. So far this new year IS is my #1 earner.

vlad_the_imp · « **Reply #40 on:** January 21, 2009, 13:49 »

Quote

"best match 2.0 has not been released yet. The system continues to work on the regular version and we expect that the best match 2.0 will be released shortly."

This is making the rather big assumption that anyone is going to be told exactly what's going on with new best match. IS management are famous for playing their cards close to their chests as far as best match is concerned. They've also stated in the forums that it's not just a case of flicking a switch, it will be gradually rolled out.

null · « **Reply #41 on:** January 21, 2009, 13:59 »

I didn't get a single sale in a week. The problem is they accepted my last batch totally last week. Does anybody know how long is the wait period of accepted pictures before you can close your account on iStock?

lisafx · « **Reply #42 on:** January 21, 2009, 14:05 »

Quote from: FlemishDreams on January 21, 2009, 13:59

I didn't get a single sale in a week. The problem is they accepted my last batch totally last week. Does anybody know how long is the wait period of accepted pictures before you can close your account on iStock?

You're wanting to close your account with them altogether?? Are you going exclusive somewhere else, or just fed up with low sales?

Most of us seem to be seeing sales improvement lately - might be worth hanging in there a bit longer. At least until best match 2.0 is fully implemented...

bittersweet · « **Reply #43 on:** January 21, 2009, 14:23 »

Quote from: FlemishDreams on January 21, 2009, 13:59

I didn't get a single sale in a week. The problem is they accepted my last batch totally last week. Does anybody know how long is the wait period of accepted pictures before you can close your account on iStock?

Not sure how it will help your situation, but there is no waiting period. You can contact support to completely close your account, or you can deactivate your images one at a time yourself. Should you close your account and then change your mind, you will likely have to go through the entire application process again.

They aren't big on forcing people to stay who don't want to be there.

null · « **Reply #44 on:** January 21, 2009, 14:30 »

Quote from: lisafx on January 21, 2009, 14:05

You're wanting to close your account with them altogether?? Are you going exclusive somewhere else, or just fed up with low sales?

~~Rather fed up with their attitude.~~ Well never mind, I'll just ignore them for half a year again and restrict our conversation to Paypal. If it wasn't for SS, yes, I would like to go exclusive on DT. I'm too emotional sometimes.

nebojsak · « **Reply #45 on:** January 24, 2009, 20:25 »

Just curious to see how they'll implement best match 2.0 the way it should be. Let's say the biggest problem are keyword spammers. How's that going to be solved? Reducing old bones' kw spam in amounts of 80%? This is not going to happen.

Just to mention, I'm a IS newbie, dropped in a month ago, doing vectors only. My files contain only 7-10 kws, 100% relevant. Performing a best match search, it is hard to find them among the first 400-500 matches. I have no clue how's that going to change noticeably.

yecatsdoherty · « **Reply #46 on:** January 26, 2009, 23:27 »

my sales have nose dived....I can't get any answers from anyone, which only adds to my concern. obviously not everyone is affected, however, I have been receiving a ton of emails both via IS sitemail as well as people emailing me privately. silvers, golds, diamonds all experiencing huge downturns and finding that they are not getting answers.

not one of my newest files is being downloaded and I can no longer find my newer files in searches. I have gone from an average of 25 dls per day to an average of 10 dls per day. my income is down by almost 50%. I was chugging consistently to Gold, which I thought I would hit in January. won't hit it at this pace until the summer. what can I say? I'm pissed. this sucks.

Kngkyle · « **Reply #47 on:** January 26, 2009, 23:37 »

My sales continue to skyrocket. If best match 2.0 continues this trend and they release some statement saying that the best match will not be changed every few months then exclusivity could be a possibility for me in the future. Another thing that would be a huge +++ for me would be them relaxing there total rejection of nearly all raster illustrations.

yecatsdoherty · « **Reply #48 on:** January 26, 2009, 23:54 »

Kyle - you have 52 files...!!! I would hardly say that you can judge the best match...no offense, I'm sure you will get there. and I am glad your sales are going well, but your performance is hardly a gauge

traveler1116 · « **Reply #49 on:** January 26, 2009, 23:56 »

Sales are back to about the same level almost exactly as they were when they changed the best match the first time.

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Author Topic: iStock rebound? (Read 19882 times)

lisafx

Kngkyle

null

lisafx

vonkara

Kngkyle

RacePhoto

Phil

GBlack

leaf

shank_ali

Kngkyle

lisafx

CofkoCof

evan_ers

vlad_the_imp

null

lisafx

bittersweet

null

nebojsak

yecatsdoherty

Kngkyle

yecatsdoherty

traveler1116

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