my sales have nose dived...

Not that it's much consolation, but I know where you're coming from: my IS sales dropped from >1000 per month to <300. They've recovered to about 70% of their previous norm with this last best match change. It's a zero sum game: some win, some lose, and I'm happy to be back on the winning side again.

Quote from: yecatsdoherty on January 26, 2009, 23:27

my sales have nose dived...

Not that it's much consolation, but I know where you're coming from: my IS sales dropped from >1000 per month to <300. They've recovered to about 70% of their previous norm with this last best match change. It's a zero sum game: some win, some lose, and I'm happy to be back on the winning side again.

well, that is some consolation, my sales have dropped the same, from 1000 approx to 300. so maybe things will pick up at some point. congrats that you are doing better, that's good news since we are very similar in numbers. thank you.

Quote from: Kngkyle on January 27, 2009, 00:34

Quote from: yecatsdoherty 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

Yes that is true I only have 52 files on Istock. I have however, been on Istock for over a year now so I do have an idea of how this best match compares to past ones. My Istock portfolio is so small because about 80% of my images are raster illustrations, and they accept about 1/100 of those. The few that I did manage to get accepted outsell my photos by a large margin though.

I sure wish I knew how to do vectors.....stupid camera ;-)

I wish I had the motivation to learn how to do vectors. It probably wouldn't be too difficult of a transition from Photoshop to Illustrator.

Quote from: yecatsdoherty on January 27, 2009, 00:35

well, that is some consolation, my sales have dropped the same, from 1000 approx to 300. so maybe things will pick up at some point. congrats that you are doing better, that's good news since we are very similar in numbers. thank you.

On the down side, and I hate to tell you the bad news, the best match change resulted in about $4500 of lost income for me.
You might be wise to plan for something similar.

at this point, and especially because I can't get any answers from admins at all....I am counting on nothing, and anything else is gravy...I'm also a writer....I sure know how to pick careers to get rich with

You guys saying IS is down, are you comparing your sales now to the last few months?  You look like exclusives and it's common knowledge that the best match that was changed last fall/winter heavily favored exclusives (look at the rankings to the right, IS was a strong 2nd just before that change), pretty much all the nonexclusives sales died.  I was down over 50% overnight when the 1st change happened and then another 25% after the second one, but I would not compare my earnings now to then.  To me that was just IS giving exclusives a christmas bonus and now it's getting back to normal.  During both of those changes the best match thread in the forum got over 70 pages long and there wasn't a word from the admins about it, I wouldn't expect much different after this change.

My sales seem to of returned after a big slump for the past 3 months.  I just hope best match 2.0 isn't as bipolar

I am sure I will get beyond my December earnings there, but doubt I will reach the levels of October or November and not sure I can go back to where I was November 2007. But, would love to be corrected... .

Well, with the month being close to over I see my prediction to be correct. So far I went beyond Decembers earnings but am nowhere near the levels of October 2008, which was, if I may add, my second worst month at Istock last year. Earnings will probably be around 60% of what they were in January 2008. I plan a stronger push to uploading images to istock the next weeks. So maybe that will help. Not sure though.

sales are definately on the increase you got 2 ELs in 1 day. Im yet to get any dam you :p

I mentioned it in the "totalitarian" thread, but I'll agree here, that sales at istock are not down across the board.  Just shifted. 

The people who got a HUGE bonus of sales from mid October through December are no longer so heavily favored, and those of us who lost thousands of $ in sales during that time are recovering to the sales levels we had before that massive best match shakeup in October. 

well, even though I am not benefitting.....this does make me feel better. as long as the best match remains dynamic.

Well I have a very small sample size but I do have duration working for me.  In 4 years of IStock, this will be my BME by 1.5x with absolutely 0 new images in at least 3-5 months.

Well I have a very small sample size but I do have duration working for me.  In 4 years of IStock, this will be my BME by 1.5x with absolutely 0 new images in at least 3-5 months.

Regardless of your sample size I think you are making a very relevant point.  This best match is favoring older images much more than newer ones.  As a result people like you and I, who have lots of older images are doing well in January, whereas people like Stacey whose portfolios are mostly newer are being hit hard.  

I have a lot of newer stuff and it is hardly selling at all on IS lately.  Hopefully in time they will settle on a best match that showcases the best of old and new work, exclusive and non-exclusive work.  

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Regardless of your sample size I think you are making a very relevant point.  This best match is favoring older images much more than newer ones.  As a result people like you and I, who have lots of older images are doing well in January, whereas people like Stacey whose portfolios are mostly newer are being hit hard.  

Given that I have a very small port (< 100) and want to start uploading regularly, I'm all for favoring newer images...after this month.

just looked closely at yesterday 8 sales and todays nine and nearly everyone has had one or more review,hmmmm