Perhaps Steve-Oh could give us an update and some encouragement when he gets a moment.

Sales down about 40% for a Monday.  I was expecting 50%.

Big problems over at iStock over the new search bar; full of bugs, errors and searches don't work because it defaults to 'search within' all the time.  Lots of unhappy people over there, and there will be more when sales disappear on Monday.

I'm expecting a 50% drop in sales this week unless they fix this thing pronto.

Sharply you've probably seen the comments from 'new exclusives' that they see an immediate and often dramatic uplift in sales.

The new best match at iStock brings back the old question of exclusivity.  It has always been my thought that the agencies must place a greater emphasis on getting exclusive photographers; after all if they've all got the same pictures their businesses aren't worth much; the value is in having a larger selection of unique images.

Originally I planned all along to be an exclusive at iStock; but I've gradually changed my mind and fallen into the 'don't have all your eggs in one basket' camp.  In any case as a newbie to microstock it's great to have the immediacy of SS and to see sales from a number of agencies.

But if, as time goes by, agencies place a greater emphasis on exclusives (such as iStock is doing with this new best match), eventually a decision will have to be made.

At the moment there is only one agency even worth considering being exclusive with, and that's iStock; but I suppose that will also change as the other agencies become more established.

Decisions, decisions. 

I am not convinced about a summer slow period, but we'll see.  This chart is interesting:

http://www.pbase.com/hatman/image/80110148

You can see that in terms of page views last summer saw a drop in activity, but the previous summer went through the roof.

I think LG is being conservative about her income; she sells 100,000 pictures a year and being a diamond etc etc I reckon she'd be getting a higher average than $1; probably a lot higher.  I should think it's nearer $2.  Anyone can guess of course.

Yes, very good.  Thanks.

Three or four weeks ago I submitted a series of pics to DT but for some reason forgot to supply the MR.  As a consequence all the pics were rejected with a 'please supply a model release' notice.  Naturally I resubmitted immediately with the MR.  The batch of rejections took my acceptance ratio marginally below 75% for the first time ever.

In the following couple of weeks my sales at DT plummeted; I blamed the new search engine but it could have been anything, including Memorial Day holiday stuff etc.

Anyhow, a week ago my approval ratio got back up over the 75%.  Sales took off and the last week has been my BWE at DT.

We know that approval ratio is a factor in the new search thing at DT, but they won't say to what extent.  It might be sheer coincidence, but in the two weeks mine was below 75% I had virtually no sales; as soon as it got back above 75% my sales took off like a rocket.

As I say - this might just be coincidence.  Or it might be important.

Umm... you're a bit out of date Pen - FT has already announced that it will be updating its servers this weekend to coincide with the launch of V.2.

Excellent.  I'd often wondered how peeps do that.

Thanks for that insight iofoto.  Yes, the Christmas image market is probably overburdened with pictures.

Down here in Australia, Christmas is about being on the beach!

However, looking back to recent times when I lived in England, I can remember being aghast every year as the shops insist on starting to promote their Christmas goods at the end of September and then run the whole promotion thing through to Christmas and beyond.  Basically, from September onwards England, and most of the rest of Northern Europe, is beseiged by Christmas marketing then New Year then New Year sales.  The sheer volume of pictures required for that period must be huge.

So I take the view that every photographer ought to have a series of Christmas images in their portfolio otherwise they could completely miss out on an important three month period.  Yes the market is probably saturated, but one thing is certain - no Christmas images means no Christmas sales.

So I'll do my fair share of Christmassy pictures and try to make them a little different and we'll see.  I suppose it's a bit like the Lottery - if you don't buy a ticket you can't win.

Presumably the same Christmas marketing thang happens in North America and Canada?