I've just tried a few search term to see where my best sellers are placed and some general on top of that. I haven't done it for a couple of months now. The results are shocking! 0-5 non-exclusive results on a 200 thumbnail page. Usually just 0-3. Not only I can see why the sales are falling and never were actually good for non-exclusives (even though the results were never as bad in the last couple of years that I submit there).

Now if you look at it from exclusives point of view, especially those that are thinking about dropping the crown, the results would be just disastrous for them. For instance if a good selling exclusive at 40% were to drop exclusivity and starting getting 18%, he/she'd get only 45% of what he used to. Taking into account the lower prices (XS files only 1 credit instead of 2 etc), no e+ and no V/A, he'd more than split it in half, especially if he/she sold a lot of e+/V/A files. Now he'd be at just over 20%. Then it comes to B/M placement, where he'd loose 98% of his premiumly placed files and he'd be down to almost zero sales. OTOH if I became exclusive, I'd immediately get over 50% higher royalty percentage (because I'll miss the 12500 mark, otherwise the jump would be higher), I'd get all my P+ into e+ and at least a handful of V/A files. If I'd get 5% of my files on the first page instead of just 0,5% and lots that are buried in the 2nd or 3rd, I'd be at least quadrupling my earnings and by that, I'd be making more than I do now (IS brings me roughly 30% now). And worry just about one site. But since it appears to be a sinking ship, this math of mine would probably make sense only for a few months or so. From all this, it looks like, it's a terribly bad idea to drop exclusivity, especially if you're at a higher royalty level and only a good short term idea to become one.

I've just tried a few search term to see where my best sellers are placed and some general on top of that. I haven't done it for a couple of months now. The results are shocking! 0-5 non-exclusive results on a 200 thumbnail page. Usually just 0-3. Not only I can see why the sales are falling and never were actually good for non-exclusives (even though the results were never as bad in the last couple of years that I submit there).

Hey, the top file on 'iceberg' photos only is independent. My E+ with 400 dls is at position 205.
(Nevertheless two iceberg photos, much lower in sales and best match rank than that one, sold this morning.)

ok, sorry, you are right, I had it sorted by downloads and I didn't notice it.

I have a question along similar lines;
Using Deep Meta there is a column for number of views.  Are the view numbers extracted from times your image comes up in a search or does it mean the number of times the image is actually viewed?

I guess independents and exclusives use the same Deep Meta?

I think DM takes the numbers from your views on iStock. It means the number of times the file has been clicked on, but I don't know whether it counts search engine bots. (on my own personal site, I used to notice that the same bot sometimes seemed to visit the same page multiple times in a day, which might have been depending on internal links. Could be the same if you have e.g. banner links on an iStock page.
Anyone know if SEBots are counted as 'views'?

Jamirae, how come u've ULed only 20% of your photos to the other sites? Because if you didn't have the time for MS, it would probably be best if you just remained exclusive. With such small ports there's no way to make up the losses since dropping the crown. Or am I missing something?

Quote from: wut on December 13, 2011, 11:45

Jamirae, how come u've ULed only 20% of your photos to the other sites? Because if you didn't have the time for MS, it would probably be best if you just remained exclusive. With such small ports there's no way to make up the losses since dropping the crown. Or am I missing something?

because I have to keyword them all in the metadata.. something I didnt do initially. and haven't had the time due to some personal issues this past year.  staying exclusive wouldn't have helped me too much since I have a split port of vectors and photos and when they switched to the RC system I was screwed out of my 35% diamond royalty and dropped to 25% -- I don't regret it and have started building my ports at the other sites.  Part of it is also because I am angry and hurt after being exclusively with istock since 2004, I had felt like I belonged to a 'family' but when they pulled all this crap with the "money isn't going to make you happy," the half-truths about the canister system and the switch to RC scheme, (plus a few other things), I felt betrayed and lost all loyalty for the company so am moving on. 

I've also had a lot of personal issues come up this year that have held me back from uploading, but my plan is to start getting my stuff online at the other sites in full force beginning next month. 

Good luck to you then. I also have to start shooting more, if I ever intend to make a comfortable living out of it. Adding 300 photos yearly just doesn't cut it anymore. I'll have to double that and stay focused on the quality at the same time

yes it is depressing. Even more so considering sales are not booming for exclusives. It is another barrier to dropping their crown and another incentives to not upload for independents. I do not upload much their at all but did put a few up. All have so few views because of being buried it is really not worth it. One thing to try to keep exclusives with this best match change but what about the future?

One thing is sure, buyers will sooner or later realize that the IS search engine is unreliable and cannot provide consistent search results day after day. It will start to be seen as a random search engine.

Odd there's another thread claiming that the independents are placed first because it costs IS less in commission.

Can you link that thread, I can't find it

I can tell you without a doubt that best match ranking for non exclusives is very poor.  I'd been a diamond exclusive since 2006 and dropped my crown about a month ago.  Not only did my commission drop over 50%, but my downloads immediately dropped at least 50% as well.  I'd had pretty steady numbers for several years (i.e., no growth) throughout most of the best match changes, so this drop was a big shock and definitely linked to exclusivity status.  Total damage has been about an 80-85% loss of income.   It's going to take a long time to recoup that money on other sites because placement in the searches for new files has been tough where I've uploaded so far.

I hope not to discourage anyone from doing what they want to do, but be prepared for a bumpy ride if you want to drop the crown.   I have no regrets.  With no growth opportunity on istock, I had to make the leap to determine whether stock photography is worth my time at all.  It's too soon to tell. 

Leslie

 

I think you will see it fluctuate.  I am not saying that there is a drop in exposure since you dropped exclusivity but it's only been a month for you and the best match and search will change.  Having been non-exclusive for a year now, I only noticed a drop in sales (downloads) the last few months.  Before then my sales (downloads) were about the same and sometimes higher than before going indie.  There's definitely been some tweaking of the site lately, and I don't think it will stay that way, they are always adjusting and tweaking the search engine.

 
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I think you will see it fluctuate.  I am not saying that there is a drop in exposure since you dropped exclusivity but it's only been a month for you and the best match and search will change.  Having been non-exclusive for a year now, I only noticed a drop in sales (downloads) the last few months.  Before then my sales (downloads) were about the same and sometimes higher than before going indie.  There's definitely been some tweaking of the site lately, and I don't think it will stay that way, they are always adjusting and tweaking the search engine.
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Thanks, I hope you're right!  If the decline hadn't happened immediately after dropping the crown, I wouldn't have been so quick to identify the cause.  But it was a pretty stunning and sudden change that I hope swings the other way before long.  It's been pretty disheartening to see years of hard work become almost worthless overnight.  Still, I like being independent and seeing my older images sell again (however slowly) elsewhere.