MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Poll

How has the 4/3/11 Best Match change affected your sales?

Sales are up a lot
0 (0%)
Sales are up a little
10 (11.1%)
No change
18 (20%)
Sales are down a little
12 (13.3%)
Sales are down a lot
50 (55.6%)

Total Members Voted: 78

Author Topic: The 4/3/11 Istockphoto Best Match Change  (Read 54422 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

« Reply #200 on: April 07, 2011, 13:02 »
0
I just had a client send me some photos they bought at iStock. They said, "iStock photos are expensive!". Clearly they didn't know that the search was dominated by Agency/Vetta. I wish they would have consulted me first. I could have saved them some money.


« Reply #201 on: April 07, 2011, 15:45 »
0
Whatever the customers are seeing, wherever they are, they sure aint seeing my files today, again  :-(

I just can't fathom how two mid-week days can be like the worst weekend ever. Suddenly my portfolio is either invisible or undesirable. Given the depth of the trough I'm in, I hope someone's having a good day!

Yesterday was about 1/10th of a good day and 1/7 of a typical day and today looks about the same - truly pitiful.

« Reply #202 on: April 07, 2011, 15:55 »
0
Whatever the customers are seeing, wherever they are, they sure aint seeing my files today, again  :-(

I just can't fathom how two mid-week days can be like the worst weekend ever. Suddenly my portfolio is either invisible or undesirable. Given the depth of the trough I'm in, I hope someone's having a good day!

Yesterday was about 1/10th of a good day and 1/7 of a typical day and today looks about the same - truly pitiful.

Well misery loves company, and I'd say that my today looks like yours, I've had the odd bad day here and there but nothing like this sudden portfolio death syndrome, even in September 2006 when all my best sellers at the time died. Today looks like being less 20% of recent Thursdays, ie 80% down.

« Reply #203 on: April 07, 2011, 16:11 »
0
I am having a really good day.  the majority of my downloads today are some "forgotten" files which havent had a lot of action, but a few of my good sellers are seeing some download action as well.

lisafx

« Reply #204 on: April 07, 2011, 16:29 »
0
I am having a really good day.  the majority of my downloads today are some "forgotten" files which havent had a lot of action, but a few of my good sellers are seeing some download action as well.

I'm so jealous!  From my sales I thought it was a slightly better than average Sunday.  :(

« Reply #205 on: April 07, 2011, 16:48 »
0
The week has been down. I'll probably end the week down about $300 than "expected." Though I probably could have expected more, given it's April and that has historically been my best month.

« Reply #206 on: April 07, 2011, 16:53 »
0
I am having a really good day.  the majority of my downloads today are some "forgotten" files which havent had a lot of action, but a few of my good sellers are seeing some download action as well.

I'm so jealous!  From my sales I thought it was a slightly better than average Sunday.  :(

yes, well it doesn't make up for the rest of this week which has been pretty slow -- although yesterday it started to pick up and today has turned out pretty good.  I am still way down from where I should be for the week from my "new average" since going independent.  But then I guess I"m still trying to figure out what that "new average" really is for me. 

SNP

  • Canadian Photographer
« Reply #207 on: April 07, 2011, 23:42 »
0
I had a slow day too, weird dls.

« Reply #208 on: April 08, 2011, 02:23 »
0
I had 30 dls yesterday. Only 4 of them were images that had less than 500 dls. It seems to me that the buyers are so sick of the best match that they are searching for images by most dls. Obviously these images do tend to sell a lot but I don't remember ever seeing such a high percentage of my best sellers selling.

lagereek

« Reply #209 on: April 08, 2011, 03:06 »
0
Yes I had a good day yesterday, mostly popular files with plenty of DLs,  still it all counts.

microstockphoto.co.uk

« Reply #210 on: April 08, 2011, 06:18 »
0
I voted "no change" because my sales followed a downward trend since mid-2010, and are now (march-april) slightly recovering, but still way below what they used to be, and still too little to identify a sure effect of this - and previous - best match change: there may well be other reasons
« Last Edit: April 08, 2011, 06:19 by microstockphoto.co.uk »

« Reply #211 on: April 08, 2011, 07:13 »
0
I had 30 dls yesterday. Only 4 of them were images that had less than 500 dls. It seems to me that the buyers are so sick of the best match that they are searching for images by most dls. Obviously these images do tend to sell a lot but I don't remember ever seeing such a high percentage of my best sellers selling.

If only !
For me today is now worse than Christmas day, worse day at this time since my first month back in 2005.

michealo

« Reply #212 on: April 08, 2011, 07:52 »
0
I had 30 dls yesterday. Only 4 of them were images that had less than 500 dls. It seems to me that the buyers are so sick of the best match that they are searching for images by most dls. Obviously these images do tend to sell a lot but I don't remember ever seeing such a high percentage of my best sellers selling.

If only !
For me today is now worse than Christmas day, worse day at this time since my first month back in 2005.

Dire

« Reply #213 on: April 08, 2011, 08:19 »
0
I had 30 dls yesterday. Only 4 of them were images that had less than 500 dls. It seems to me that the buyers are so sick of the best match that they are searching for images by most dls. Obviously these images do tend to sell a lot but I don't remember ever seeing such a high percentage of my best sellers selling.

If only !
For me today is now worse than Christmas day, worse day at this time since my first month back in 2005.
Sorry to hear that. I hope it picks up for you soon.  It happened to me once in a reshuffle about 3 years ago. I never have got back to the amount of dls that I used to get then.

« Reply #214 on: April 08, 2011, 08:38 »
0
I had 30 dls yesterday. Only 4 of them were images that had less than 500 dls. It seems to me that the buyers are so sick of the best match that they are searching for images by most dls. Obviously these images do tend to sell a lot but I don't remember ever seeing such a high percentage of my best sellers selling.

not in my port they aren't. and I ended up with an amazing day yesterday - best in a while, though it was about what I used to average way back before all the site changes and price hikes.

anyhow.. most of the photos bought from my port had less than 50 downloads -- dont think there was a sort on downloads there unless the key word they searched on was not very popular for downloads.

lisafx

« Reply #215 on: April 08, 2011, 09:49 »
0
I changed my vote from a little to a lot.  Sum total of $ for the week is several hundred down on what it has been this year, and this year was already down by several hundred on the "good old days" of early last year. 

« Reply #216 on: April 08, 2011, 09:57 »
0
I am way down too. So it definitely is not just affecting independents. I have previously seldom been little affected monetarily by best match changes.

The only reason previously that I did not want to call this a 'discernible trend' is that I am never sure whether I am just dealing with what used to be called ebb and flow.

I am wondering whether this is part of the something coming which some people have been darkly hinting at for ages.

« Reply #217 on: April 08, 2011, 10:09 »
0
I had a day that was like my old normal on Tuesday . . . and the weird part was that I had multiple sales of one image, a far out of season image, and none of the search choices made it come up in the middle of the search. I think customers are heading straight for the back.

« Reply #218 on: April 08, 2011, 10:12 »
0
So Thursday was double Wednesday, but given that Wednesday was about 10% of a good day, that still leaves Thursday at 20% of a good day and today's not looking any better so far.

I think it's "Sudden Portfolio Death" syndrome as Mike noted earlier.

If this is how things are going to be from now on, the decision to move to independence makes itself. Dropping 80% to 90% of your sales is a big push out the door - which is perhaps what they're after anyway. Mid-level folks like me are just expensive - they want Sean's and Yuri's and lots of cheap newbies...

« Reply #219 on: April 08, 2011, 10:22 »
0
So Thursday was double Wednesday, but given that Wednesday was about 10% of a good day, that still leaves Thursday at 20% of a good day and today's not looking any better so far.

I think it's "Sudden Portfolio Death" syndrome as Mike noted earlier.

If this is how things are going to be from now on, the decision to move to independence makes itself. Dropping 80% to 90% of your sales is a big push out the door - which is perhaps what they're after anyway. Mid-level folks like me are just expensive - they want Sean's and Yuri's and lots of cheap newbies...
I had a couple of days where my sales stopped completely midweek which hasn't happened in over a year. I seriously am beginning to think about turning in my crown and looking elsewhere to sell photos. While my income has been relatively steady, drops like this are a bit much for me to handle. What's to say my best sellers won't get shuffled to the back of the line with no notice from iStock?  The only constant at iStock is that nothing is constant. I have a feeling this is going to continue to be a year of ups and downs for everyone. Enjoy the ride. 

« Reply #220 on: April 08, 2011, 11:24 »
0
I'm down about 20% on this month last year so far. I dropped a royalty level in the changes, so that explains some of it. The ups and downs of the site explains the rest. Generally April is my best month and if things don't pick up soon then I will be well down over the next couple of weeks. I'm not at the stage of giving up the crown yet though, generally for me things take a week or so to pick back up after a big change. This uncertainty though, and the fact that you know that they can and will change things so drastically at any time is to say the least unsettling. It also strikes me that the forums are a lot less uninhibited than they used to be in the old days.
No change on the sort order or the slider yet today. It's taken all week to get nowhere as far as I can see. No sign of the V&A files getting much less prominent either. 

« Reply #221 on: April 08, 2011, 12:06 »
0
Odd. Throughout this my results have been staying around what has become average, which is about 20% down on last year (but 15% of that can be put down to commission changes). Maybe it's because I operate in niches that are not full of V&A rivals.

ayzek

« Reply #222 on: April 08, 2011, 12:33 »
0
This week %30 down.

« Reply #223 on: April 08, 2011, 14:30 »
0
Today is looking like a Saturday. About 20% of an average weekday. It can't get much worse than this!

At this point I HAVE to consider non-exclusive. This in the week that I get POTW! :(

I hope that it is just a 1 week best match experiment and it gets fixed next week.

« Reply #224 on: April 08, 2011, 14:36 »
0
... This in the week that I get POTW! :(
...


Congrats on that - I hadn't noticed (I never see the Photos landing page; it's such a shame they moved it there). I hate to use the word irony as it always elicits lots of comments about its misuse, but I think it's ironic that your sales tank as you are featured - sort of "take that you b#st*rd!!"

Perhaps it will get better next week, but absolutely nothing from admins along the lines of "we're working on trying to fix it". I'm trying to flesh out plan B just in case :(


 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
14 Replies
5097 Views
Last post September 25, 2011, 00:44
by lagereek
18 Replies
7851 Views
Last post April 18, 2012, 05:47
by fotografer
73 Replies
20236 Views
Last post December 19, 2012, 08:09
by stocker2011
8 Replies
3046 Views
Last post February 24, 2018, 23:44
by namussi
4 Replies
633 Views
Last post January 31, 2024, 03:48
by hatman12

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors