Author Topic: Best Match heavily favoring Exclusives? (Read 3620 times)

grapegeek · « **on:** December 12, 2013, 14:37 »

Sorry if I am a little late to the party. As I mentioned before I've re-engaged in my portfolio with more time on my hands but it's been a good 3 years since I've uploaded anything... I am exclusive on IS but I used to be on SS, DT and Alamy.

I just did a simple search on IS for the world "flower". Had 800,000+ hits on that keyword. Just for photos, no video or illustrations. I had to scroll down to the 24th image to get to the non-exclusive image. Which I like cuz I'm exclusive, but that image was going for 1/10th the cost as the Exclusive images. I looked at my own portfolio and most of mine aren't up that high but why would I spend 10x more on an image when I can download a non-exclusive or so cheap? Is that what is killing all the exclusive earnings? I feel like a noob... been away too long...

lisafx · « **Reply #1 on:** December 12, 2013, 14:49 »

Arranging my public lightboxes in Best Match order, it does look like there is a fairly strong bias in favor of exclusive images. Especially considering that my images outnumber others in my LBs. Two of my best sellers show in the first results, though, so some indie files are getting through.

I haven't checked in awhile, so I don't know if this is something new, over and above the usual exclusive bias.

Would not be surprising if Istock wanted to boost exclusive sales as a sort of holiday bonus for them.

bunhill · « **Reply #2 on:** December 12, 2013, 15:42 »

Quote from: lisafx on December 12, 2013, 14:49

Would not be surprising if Istock wanted to boost exclusive sales as a sort of holiday bonus for them.

ho ho ho

KB · « **Reply #3 on:** December 12, 2013, 16:50 »

Quote from: lisafx on December 12, 2013, 14:49

I haven't checked in awhile, so I don't know if this is something new, over and above the usual exclusive bias.

Would not be surprising if Istock wanted to boost exclusive sales as a sort of holiday bonus for them.

Looking at a couple of searches I usually do, I don't see any noticeable change from what I've been seeing recently. So I don't think there's been any big boost beyond what they had been doing.

And based on my recent sales, it sure hasn't been helping. At all.

w7lwi · « **Reply #4 on:** December 12, 2013, 17:20 »

Quote from: bunhill on December 12, 2013, 15:42

Quote from: lisafx on December 12, 2013, 14:49
Would not be surprising if Istock wanted to boost exclusive sales as a sort of holiday bonus for them.

ho ho ho

BAH!! HUMBUG !!!

ShadySue · « **Reply #5 on:** December 12, 2013, 17:41 »

Quote from: lisafx on December 12, 2013, 14:49

Would not be surprising if Istock wanted to boost exclusive sales as a sort of holiday bonus for them.

If so, it's not working, from where I'm sitting.

BTW (not directed at Lisa) is there any easy way to see which files are exclusive and pseudo-exclusive in the best match mix, without ticking 'only from iStock' (and changing the order - I just did that and the #1 file went down to #5, and some others went up and down relative to their positions when all files were there) or clicking into individual files?

Freedom · « **Reply #6 on:** December 12, 2013, 20:54 »

Not what I saw from my searches. This month does not look good for me at all.

grapegeek · « **Reply #7 on:** December 13, 2013, 09:36 »

I just did it the old fashioned way and clicked on the image and looked for "Only on iStock" below the image. From what I'm seeing, exclusives dominate simple one keyword searches. I think when you get into multi word searches things break down a little.