AFAICS, Editor's Pick = Vetta.
Maybe I haven't looked extensively enough.
So you get wondrous things like a full frame of grass as an Editor's Pick because it's an ingested Vetta.
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-25324187-grass-full-frame.php?st=0edf79f

In the top right corner it looks as though some passing hound left something hot and piping behind. Could be that was the clincher.

I trust the oompah loompahs in their IT department have recieved a size 12 shoe up the arse for incompetence.

I don't really care how much money Jon is trousering these days as long as my own bottom line still has vitality. And having worked for three of the top IT companies I don't expect an automatic raise just because the company made more money - that stopped happening around 2008/09

This last quarter SS paid me $0.60 PD which is about 10% up on 2012. In this climate, I'll take 10% growth any day. So what if I can average $1.50 to $2.00 elsewhere - my turnover at other sites is around 60% lower than SS. I know which model works for me and I'll take increased market penetration/volume sales over a raise thanks. Keep doing what you're doing Jonno.

SS is fizzing along for me in both performance* and sales. When I think of a broken site, IS is front and centre by a considerable margin.

I suggest attaching the feathers mentioned above to IS management's rear ends and setting them on fire.

* I use IE and Firefox depending on how bad my hangover is in the morning and whether I've remembered to put on my spectacles

In my case traffic rank does not equate to sales which makes me inclined to ignore it. I've had my best three months at SS since starting out in 2010 - possibly because I started uploading again in February after almost a year off. Although it could be the change in content and style. Who knows? If I wrote on the SS forum about having great sales no doubt someone would chip in and say I was one of the lucky ones benefiting from the algorithm shift. Am I? Well prove it.

This is is a funny business. The sparsity of data generally leaves me (us) none the wiser because we try to extrapolate on snippets of external information. I have no idea how sales are going overall at SS or what sells and when, excepting the claims from the very small percentage of contributors here and on the SS forums. The endless speculation without empirical data to back it up is, for me personally, a waste of energy and has revealed nothing useful IMO.  I just plug on with the basic level data I get from the agencies and the data I collect myself and use it to try and repeat success, keep looking for content gaps and niches and stop doing what doesn't sell or has been done to death. It's a simple revolving analysis loop that has served me well but I'd like to have more.

In the UK, a subscription for just one decent newspaper would cost �30 or $45 per month - without the subscription I'd be looking at �45 or $68 per month. Given the tsunami of free content out there, images and words, its no wonder our sprogs have never bought a newspaper.

Besides which, a lot of the columnists in the UK broadsheets are pompous, overpaid twits - there are very few diamonds amongst the ashes. The tabloids are not worth wiping your....well, you get the picture - or not if you live in Chicago.

A very good Monday - about average until I landed a $37.84 SOD - strange amount but I'll take it. I feel for anyone whose sales are struggling and hope they change around. As has been evident on this forum.....quite often the people reporting poor sales one month (or even week) are doing cartwheels the next and reporting BDE,BWE or BME but there seems to be a longer term decline for some.

I wouldn't expect any answers from SS on root cause whether it be bugs, algorithm strategy  or solar flares and the endless speculation is pretty pointless. Having said that,  I do suspect a shift to monetise new files uploaded in bulk by new contributors and that a bean counter somewhere has said "we need to realise revenue from more images not just the most popular" because it makes business sense and might help drive market penetration (anyone else been seeing more DL's in Asia? I have - Singapore,Indonesia,South Korea, Japan.

In any event, I have a robustly cynical approach to corporations since I sat in on a senior level sales meeting at a global IT company several years ago when the question asked was "who are we in business to serve?" - someone ventured "our customers?" - a sound conjecture since this was the basis of our entire marketing and sales blurb, but the correct answer was - "wrong, we're in business to serve our shareholders. period"

Quote from: Red Dove on June 06, 2013, 09:31

I can't read the forums because of that toe rag and lickspittle of a moderator

Try when not logged in.

A workaround, granted - but I'd much prefer it if they got rid of the little carbuncle.

^^^Inclined to agree as far as SS goes. My last three batches (about 70 images) had a +95% acceptance rate and sales from new images have increased month on month since I started uploading again in February 2013.

There are very few people complaining about low sales given the size of the contributor base and, with very few exceptions, it seems to be the same people every time.

Silly names - Offset and Stocksy both.

At a brief glance some of the landscapes are in a style I tried submitting to SS and others but had rejected, mostly for lighting or LCV - fortunately quite a few of them were accepted by the Getty/Flickr program*

*miserable sales though

"A stitch in time saves nine" as my Great Aunt Florence used to say. Look at all the grief and stress you have caused for yourself and the good people who read this forum by assuming IS would fix this for you. And what do we say when we assume stuff? Don't assume because you make an ass.....

Anyway, it seems churlish to dump a revenue stream over such a minor faux pas. Have a cup of tea and a sit down and I'm sure it will seem like a heap of fuss over not very much.

I'd have thought you would have sales by now. In my experience, images don't have to "age"  on DT to start selling.

However, as others have said, DT is erratic. April was a BME, this month is tracking at 50% less than that. As long as I grow by quarter I don't pay much attention to DT's ups and downs - same goes for FT.

A tad better than last month but still 40-50% down on 2012. Not good.