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Author Topic: The Graph Say It All - sales vs $  (Read 25135 times)

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lisafx

« on: August 09, 2013, 11:07 »
+19
I was aware my sales at IS had increased, and money had decreased, but looking at the graphs side by side really brings the point home better than words...  :o >:( :P

Photo downloads:


Royalties for same period:


« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2013, 11:09 »
+2
IS is ...
« Last Edit: October 04, 2013, 10:35 by ferdinand »

« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2013, 11:10 »
0
Yikes, July looks ugly. Hopefully, that was an aberration and not the new normal.

lisafx

« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2013, 11:13 »
+3
Yikes, July looks ugly. Hopefully, that was an aberration and not the new normal.

It's a direct result of the price changes.  This is the new normal, since Istock claims the price changes are "forever". 

If I only looked at the download graph I would think I had a windfall month! 

« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2013, 11:25 »
+3
We'll never know for sure, but I have to believe this drop has been even worse for IS than for contributors - even the highest paid indies get only 20% and IS is seeing a huge drop in their take of indie sales.

Even if there's some uptick in some parts of the higher price collections, I wonder if it can really make up for the massive drop.

Perhaps they're hoping that as the busy season kicks in the volume will pick up, but looking at the July sales thread, even exclusives were saying the volumes of downloads were by and large down (and compared to several years ago way, way down). And reports have been that way for a long time now (even where money was up, download volume had dropped).

I think Ms Dow Jones may have missed the mark, but I'll be interested to see how this plays out over the busy fall season

« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2013, 11:26 »
+1
Yikes, July looks ugly. Hopefully, that was an aberration and not the new normal.

It's a direct result of the price changes.  This is the new normal, since Istock claims the price changes are "forever". 

If I only looked at the download graph I would think I had a windfall month!

That's what I was wondering if it was from the pricing changes. That's pretty disturbing. Maybe, the volume will eventually make up for it, but the initial results on your sales look bad. If money is their main objective, this wouldn't seem to be too positive for them either.

« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2013, 11:37 »
+10
cheaper prices - lower sales -"Only from IStock" -I have never seen such a self-destructive energy - in my life

« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2013, 11:40 »
+7
when a leading company start losing his top suppliers and employees it's the sign of an imminent downfall.
months, maybe years, but the cracks become more and more visible.

i remember when everyone in the IT dreamed about being hired at microsoft, now they all dream about google, apple, facebook, samsung ... microsoft or nokia or IBM are seen as secondo or third rate.

IS is on the same path and it's gotta be hard to get back on track, once a customer leave for greener pastures it's lost forever in most of the cases.

will they learn the lesson ? i don't think so .. there's an unbelievable arrogance in their announcements and newsletters, they really think they know better.


« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2013, 11:45 »
+2
cheaper prices - lower sales -"Only from IStock" -I have never seen such a self-destructive energy - in my life

cheaper prices are another obvious sign of desperation, and that's exactly what BlackBerry and Microsoft did recently with their mobile products having disappointing sales !

so how long before IS fully acknoledges its own downfall ?  i would say another couple quarters (6 months) and you can bet they many heads will roll, a new leadership team will be announced with more mumbo jumbo and talks of past grandeur but it's too late now, the game is over for IS unless they do something radical, but what ? slashing prices even more ?

Tryingmybest

  • Stand up for what is right
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2013, 11:46 »
+3
Lots of bad karma at IS.   :-X

when a leading company start losing his top suppliers and employees it's the sign of an imminent downfall.
months, maybe years, but the cracks become more and more visible.

i remember when everyone in the IT dreamed about being hired at microsoft, now they all dream about google, apple, facebook, samsung ... microsoft or nokia or IBM are seen as secondo or third rate.

IS is on the same path and it's gotta be hard to get back on track, once a customer leave for greener pastures it's lost forever in most of the cases.

will they learn the lesson ? i don't think so .. there's an unbelievable arrogance in their announcements and newsletters, they really think they know better.

mlwinphoto

« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2013, 11:49 »
0
Just got 32 cents for a (small) sale......and  $1.25 for an XL a couple of days ago (which is the most I've received for a single sale since the price change).  Turning cartwheels..... 

« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2013, 11:51 »
+1
Xanox@


,,,for IS - unless they do something radical, but what ? slashing prices even more ?
[/quote]


...all they have to do - is to .......
« Last Edit: February 03, 2014, 03:02 by ferdinand »

« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2013, 12:42 »
0
...all they have to do - is to disappear - forever - - - - - -what a lesson !!!!

Will it? Has it made a difference so far?

« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2013, 16:57 »
+7
I was aware my sales at IS had increased, and money had decreased, but looking at the graphs side by side really brings the point home better than words...  :o >:( :P

My own graphs are almost identical in shape. At least we can enjoy the rueful irony that IS are actually losing more than 4x the money that we are.

I'm guessing that IS really had little choice, but to take the painful medicine, in order to stay in the game.  Unfortunately they probably haven't performed the operation skilfully enough to have the effect that they really need. 'Main' collection files are now cheaper than they need to be whilst the majority of exclusive files, at 10x more for a Medium image, appear over-priced relative to the Main collection. I can see buyers hoovering up the Main collection images (which at these prices does nobody any good) whilst ignoring the more expensive ones. That'll probably lead to more exclusives handing in their crowns ... and so on.

I think the future is going to be much worse for Istock though. I (stupidly) uploaded about 100 new images to IS a couple of months ago. Since then those images have garnered about 15 sales for a total of about $10. That works out at about 5c per image/month. Yes ... I really did say 5c/image/month. Most of the images don't appear to have appeared on the PP yet but the few that did have earned a paltry $5 more. I find that incredible. If the insultingly low royalties, on pathetically low prices, weren't enough disincentive to starve IS of new content then surely the lack of sales will be. I can't imagine why any independent contributor would bother to upload to IS again.

By way of comparison the 100 images uploaded to SS at about the same time have earned well over $200.

« Reply #14 on: August 09, 2013, 18:08 »
0
\
« Last Edit: May 12, 2014, 11:25 by Audi 5000 »

mlwinphoto

« Reply #15 on: August 09, 2013, 18:20 »
+1
....... I wonder if that's because with all the savings on nonexclusive files buyers are able to spend more on exclusive content, are other exclusives seeing a raise in RPD?

You're welcome.....glad to help out.   ;)

« Reply #16 on: August 09, 2013, 20:13 »
+1
Interesting and horrific graph...

As a low volume exclusive, my monthly graphs show a decline in D/Ls (currently about half of the January levels) ... 
The corresponding revenue graphs are more or less flat, but I do not draw any comfort from that ...  the day-on-day sales volume is very volatile, showing many days without a single D/L.... 

My personal opinion is that this is an inevitable underlying effect of the massive dilution of the collection, without a corresponding increase in demand...   with added-on impacts of the collection price changes, as customers recognize the massive price differentials...   plus best match tinkering also has an (unquantifiable, but [for me] mainly negative) impact... 

Wish I could find some positives to offer, but it is two in the morning and even a few beers can't provide inspiration.

Happy Weekend, One and All

« Reply #17 on: August 10, 2013, 11:56 »
-2
istock will win this game not now but next year when half contributors will dropp one or two royalty levels

mlwinphoto

« Reply #18 on: August 10, 2013, 12:48 »
+1
istock will win this game not now but next year when half contributors will dropp one or two royalty levels

They'll lose in the long run as many of those contributors that drop royalty levels will follow suit by dropping their crowns; or, maybe that's what they (iStock) want.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2013, 20:09 by mlwinphoto »

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #19 on: August 10, 2013, 18:20 »
0
are other exclusives seeing a raise in RPD?

No, my July RPD was 20% down on the average of Jan - June and my August looks similar. Of course, my actual dls are down to such a level as to be 'statistically irrelevant' probably.
Here's my stats as an exclusive. To put in perspective, my January started at half the $$ of my BME. So my sales and $$ are shooting down, despite many of my pics being demoted to main. I guess buyers see 'only from iStock' and assume they're more expensive. The few which have sold as main were seasonal, unusual/unique in subject and would have sold at S. Plus I'm definitely not happy about quite a number of promoted images which didn't deserve to be made S+, and are now dead.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2013, 18:26 by ShadySue »

lisafx

« Reply #20 on: August 10, 2013, 20:27 »
+2
I was aware my sales at IS had increased, and money had decreased, but looking at the graphs side by side really brings the point home better than words...  :o >:( :P

My own graphs are almost identical in shape. At least we can enjoy the rueful irony that IS are actually losing more than 4x the money that we are.

I'm guessing that IS really had little choice, but to take the painful medicine, in order to stay in the game.  Unfortunately they probably haven't performed the operation skilfully enough to have the effect that they really need. 'Main' collection files are now cheaper than they need to be whilst the majority of exclusive files, at 10x more for a Medium image, appear over-priced relative to the Main collection. I can see buyers hoovering up the Main collection images (which at these prices does nobody any good) whilst ignoring the more expensive ones. That'll probably lead to more exclusives handing in their crowns ... and so on.

I think the future is going to be much worse for Istock though. I (stupidly) uploaded about 100 new images to IS a couple of months ago. Since then those images have garnered about 15 sales for a total of about $10. That works out at about 5c per image/month. Yes ... I really did say 5c/image/month. Most of the images don't appear to have appeared on the PP yet but the few that did have earned a paltry $5 more. I find that incredible. If the insultingly low royalties, on pathetically low prices, weren't enough disincentive to starve IS of new content then surely the lack of sales will be. I can't imagine why any independent contributor would bother to upload to IS again.

By way of comparison the 100 images uploaded to SS at about the same time have earned well over $200.

^^Great post.  Sorry (but not surprised) to hear you are in the same boat. 

Thanks for posting about the fate of your most recent uploads.  Occasionally I have entertained the idea of resuming uploading to Istock in order to grab whatever pennies I can from the PP, but the fate of your recent files has made it clear what a waste of time that would be. 

Istock has done nothing more than shoot themselves in the foot once again.  Without any incentive to upload, they can add a stale collection to the myriad other reasons for buyers to look elsewhere. 

For once I agree with Xanox.  This looks like a company in its death throes, even despite their snagging Yuri. 

« Reply #21 on: August 10, 2013, 21:43 »
+3
For once I agree with Xanox.  This looks like a company in its death throes, even despite their snagging Yuri.

well, actually iStock is not a total disaster, not at all, but they're competing with an agency like Shutterstock which keeps delivering and proved they really know what they're doing.

technically, SS hired a very good software team, a very good management team, and they had a clear long-term vision from day one and a very aggressive marketing plan.

all these factors combined make them the industry leader and rightly so.

i can't see how IS can possibly make a U-turn anytime soon considering it won't be long before yet another re-org will be launched inside the company and that means more confusion and more employees leaving the company, including the few ones left who have experience in the industry.

we don't know and we can't exclude that Getty's plan was to destroy IS or at least to keep it at bay, but looking from the outside it looks like a sick company micro-managed by people that downplayed how hard is to sell images in the actual cut-throat market.

after all IS has been pumped so much in order to raise the whole value of Getty Images when they sold the whole company, IS was probably the jewel of the crown with impressive net returns and growth expectation, once the sale was done they faced the hard reality and now they're reaping what they sow.

solutions ? not many, the product is still good but the buyers are decreasing constantly, how do they plan to earn buyers' confidence back after backstabbing both buyers and photographers for years ?

once a company earns such a bad reputation it's game over, see how hard is for microsoft now to sell anything having to do with Windows on mobile platforms, see how hard Yahoo is struggling to survive, and how Apple keeps losing market share as they stopped innovating after Jobs' death.

what we're witnessing now is that web-based companies can raise very fast thank to the internet but also crash and burn equally fast, Facebook is next on the list and will join the long list of former market leaders like MySpace, Friendster, Digg, that now are worthless.

if we look at their example, they made all the mistakes IS is doing right now, not listening to users, redesigning and launching new half baked web sites, doing a big mess and failing to notice the competitors were about to crush them in 6-12 months.

istock's future is probably to be relegated into a market niche along with Photos.com and Thinkstock.


« Reply #22 on: August 11, 2013, 02:11 »
+1
Same graph here with August set to look even worse. As each month goes by, IS are starting to smell more and more like The Walking Dead of the industry.


« Reply #23 on: August 11, 2013, 02:25 »
+4
They're probably still doing OK because they've got rid of the upload limits.  They're still getting a huge supply of images from people that don't care about making money and I don't think that will stop.  They'll lose more buyers that liked their smaller collection that had higher QC but they'll gain ones that are attracted to the bigger cheaper collection.

Most contributors are going to see a commission cut, as its almost impossible to keep up with the RC levels.  Some will leave or stop uploading but they will be replaced by those that don't care.

The only good news for non-exclusives is that SS seems to be doing well but now it feels like being 80% exclusive with them and that's not comfortable for me.

Beppe Grillo

« Reply #24 on: August 11, 2013, 02:49 »
0
My graph shape is very similar too.
Will it continue to go down?
Or should we consider (hope) that it is only a moment of adjustment after the setting of new prices?


 

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