And while I'm sitting here complaining and whining, I have a BDE at DT (ELs not included), bringing the earnings per DL up to 0.88 and the earnings this month right up behind IS and FT, go figure   

Halfway through the month, and it's still:

SS - FT - IS - FP - DT - StockXpert - 123 - BS

Apart from IS, my portfolio is approximately the same size with all of these. A very interesting race indeed 

Epixx,

Not to hijack the thread, but take a look at the site analytic charts for 123RF.  Strong, steady growth for several months.  Whatever they are doing, it is working.  They have gotten themselves firmly into the Top 6.

My sales are way up at 123 too.  Then there's Fotolia...<sigh>

123RF and FT are the big winners for me at the moment, and for the first time ever, my sales at FT seems to be passing IS. FP is still in fourth spot this month. The losers are DT and StockXpert. My biggest problem at DT is that almost all vector sales there are subs. That has made a major impact on my earnings.

Same trend here. If it continues, IS will be 30% lower than July 2007. Halfway through this month, FT is ahead of them. That has never happened to me before.

There are some strange new trends within my portfolio. FT, 123 and FP are soaring, while many of the other are going down. IS isn't the worst one, but StockXpert and DT are really bad. Still, my total sales are 30% up from the same month last year, so I guess I should be all smiles 

Oh, and btw., I would take the Alexa stats with a grain of salt. For some reason, at some agencies, like SV, I have lots of views but very few sales. Alexa doesn't see the difference between those just browsing and those buying. Apparently, some agencies attract more browsers than the others.

It does probably have something to do with the portfolio, but since FP has a different acceptance policy than most microstock agencies, they may attract more clients from traditional agencies, where the decision process is usually much longer. That would mean that it will take longer times for sales to pick up as well.

Many of the images that I sell at FP are slow sellers elsewhere, and some of them aren't even uploaded anywhere else.

For me, this is happening at the same time as I have decreasing sales at a few other agencies, particularly DT and StockXpert. 123RF is also increasing, I have no idea why.

It was a referral. I just had to look for it in the right place. Why on earth can't they have one page that gives an overview of all earnings?

Quote from: vphoto on July 12, 2008, 06:14

you are obviously privy to some inside information. Keep us informed. 

Nothing really private when most contributors experiment the same.
For me, FP has represented 0.14% of my overall income (in the last 6 months : $0.97 for 1 sale). Even Albumo is ahead.
When I upload there, I feel giving my time to support a business model that is theoretically fair for contributors, but it remains only utopia...

The sales on FP depends on your portfolio and is highly individual. So far this month, my revenue at FP is twice that of DT. Not the usual situation, but it happens. Even my referrals there earn me much more than a place like Crestock.

Saying that FP is going down because you haven't had any sales there is crap. If that is the criteria, it looks to me like Alamy is going bust.

In my opinion the only site that comes to mind in the "C" scenario is DT.
That's just my opinion, and I have no scientific evidence to back me up.

Doesn't work like that for me. My sales volume at DT is more or less unchanged (slight increase from last year), while the profit per sale is going down. Logically then, my net revenue at DT is going down as well. So far this month, DT ranks as my number five earner, even behind FP, while it used to compete with IS for the second spot.

It's nice for DT if DT makes a profit, but long term, everybody except the customers will lose on lower prices, and the photographers are the ones who will lose the most. It seems to me like the agencies are peeing in their pants, trying to keep warm. Soon, it will be winter.

While several microstock agencies have reduced my earnings lately by introducing subs, my FP sales are really soaring this month. It's only the eleventh, and I already have a BME. In addition, FP is on a fourth place, behind SS, FT and IS (just 20% behind IS), and way ahead of DT, StockXpert, BS and 123. This obviously doesn't reflect the number of sales, but my earnings, since FP pays a lot more than other agencies.

It's impossible to say if this will last, but I've seen a positive trend for some time now. This means that I will continue and increase promoting my portfolio at FP (1343 images). So far, I've linked to it wherever possible, and used it as a part of my email signature. It must be possible to do more.

FP is the obvious long-term alternative for me. They may not off instant gratification, but if the growth continues, there'll be nothing like it in a couple of years   

Cars are expensive here to, but food is cheap. That's more important than cars, at least to my stomach 

how much is charged for this feature?

The equivalent of $0.05. Yes, I know it's a lot of money, but for us rich guys.....   

Things are slow this time of year anyway. It's natural for subs sales to be the one thing people will keep up with (given the use it or lose it nature of the beast). So it doesn't surprise me to see the percentage of subs sales rise.

The problem is that the volume is about the same as last July, when there were no subs. If the subs meant a rise in volume, things would have been much better, but volume isn't going up, and I believe the reason is very simple: the clients don't need more photos if the prices go down. Reducing prices in a market that is more or less constant will get us nowhere. Somebody haven't done their homework.

I've recently activated a cool feature on my Moneybookers account: SMS warnings. Now, every time money is deposited into my account, I get an SMS on my mobile phone with a copy of the email that they're sending out. Great when I'm just waiting for the last transfer (SS in this case) before transferring to my regular bank account.

Last night, this happened just as I was going to bed, which meant I was able to get up again, transfer the money, and receive it on Friday, before the weekend, instead of on Monday.