@fotografer

I have to admit, that is a shockingly huge percentage of your sales dropping, even if you had stopped contributing a year ago (which I am assuming you didn't)...

Did you experience a sudden drop, that may have corresponded with the FT search engine change a few months ago?

I see what you mean. What stood out with the portfolio I saw was that it seemed so odd the entire portfolio was solely focused on political and social commentary, it was hard for me to imagine where they could be used, other than on an editorial blog, website or newspaper that is about politics e.g. while the examples you posted could have a much wider range of possible uses.

If I remember right, this portfolio seemed to do rather well, to my surprise (looking at the D/L numbers), so it may well be a good niche someone has found.

Quote from: madelaide on July 09, 2011, 17:18
Do you mean cartoon characters or cartoon strips like this? Cartoon characters are certainly popular, but a strip looks so specific.

No, they were not single characters isolated on white background, if that is what you mean. I know there's plenty of them on micro...

The ones I meant were "single image scenes". Not strips with multiple images, like the one above...but nevertheless mostly two or more characters, often which speech bubbles, depicting a certain situation.

Kinda like this one: http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/democrats/ig/Anthony-Weiner-Cartoons/Weiner-s-Little-Fella.htm

I'll post a link to the actual portfolio, if I can find it...

The other day I saw a portfolio consisting exclusively of cartoons depicting social and political commentary. I guess if there's a market for it and it sells well, why not?

It is rather unusal though, but who knows, maybe it's one of the few open niches left within microstock.

Quote from: Mantis on July 09, 2011, 01:37
one click of a button can change the whole ball game.  

I think that's what it essentially boils down to. What's scary is that you won't know beforehand whether you're on the winning or losing side  

Thanks for the insight, Mantis. It's interesting to learn more about this, but the more I do, the more I feel the urge to keep my naive ignorance and keep believing that the system can be beat ...  I am getting more and more scared of the upcoming FT update 

Looking at googletrends (how the search term "fotolia" is performing) is quite interesting too. The curves there usually correspond nicely with seasonal trends (summer sales slump e.g.)...

I just looked at your FT portfolio (Lisa F. ....) - and I have to say, it is beyond me why this portfolio would experience any significant problems. And I'm not saying that to make some phoney compliment, I really don't get it... Has anyone at Emerald or higher ever talked to anyone at FT, above support team level, about these issues?? I know from the FT forum that people in the lower ranks are frustrated by not getting any feedback, but I doubt the FT execs have time to answer to us "small ones" at silver or bronze level.

Sorry, double post   

Quote from: lisafx on July 09, 2011, 00:22
Currently Fotolia seems to have bumped the Emeralds back in the searches.  Maybe we are too expensive, or maybe it was just to get some more exposure for lower levels.  Whatever the reason.  Sales there have fallen off a cliff abruptly.  Seems far from coincidental that so many emeralds - who all presumably have high quality and (mostly) large ports - are reporting big sales drops.

@lisafx
Maybe I am not seeing the whole picture here, and if you as an Emerald contributor have experienced this, who am I to try to argue with that? It's a fact, and it must be a nightmare and I honestly wish you hadn't experienced these troubles.

What I can't understand though is why FT would be selective and set back some Emeralds (on purpose??), and not others? In fact, you seem to (almost) imply that ALL (I know, you said "many", not all, but it kinda feels like it ) Emeralds have had these problems, which I just can't believe.

Nevertheless, there is obivously a large number of contributors on your level, that HAVE in FACT seen those problems - which is scary. Maybe I'm naive to assume that all Golds, Emeralds etc. that stay silent are still having amazing sales. The more I think about, the more confused I get. LOL

Quote from: jsnover on July 06, 2011, 17:50
When people with large portfolios and a strong sales record report sales are dropping, that's useful information.

I have to admit, I have noticed SOME Gold and up members complaining on FT's forum as well, maybe 3,4 or 5 over the last 3 months. That is kinda scary, no doubt. But I still think there's plenty of contributors within those higher up ranks, producing great output every month, that are actually reporting sales increases, I'd estimate them to be at least twice as much as those complaining - They usually come out in opposition to "complaint threads". Now the question is: Who's more likely to go on the FT forum or here and voice their opinion? I would assume the majority of the successful ones actually tends to stay silent and if your experiencing the frustrations of a sales slump, you're much more likely to go out and shout. Maybe I'm wrong with that assumption, who knows?   

Quote from: Slovenian on July 08, 2011, 23:48
It's one of 2 possible strategies.

Slovenian, I absolutely agree. I forgot to add that this strategy works for ME, it may not work for everyone. I try to keep the balance between mass production and quality. It's a compromise, for sure...

If you have amazing skills and talent, you will succeed with a portfolio of 500 images and leave port's with 5000+ images behind easily.

The point I was trying to get accross was: In either case, and whatever strategy works for you, if you stop at 100 images with stratgey no.1, or stop at 2000 images with strategy no.2, your sales WILL stagnate. I think at this point, microstock requires constant contribution. The agencies like to portray contribution to their sites as "passive income" to make an easy and quick buck. Well, technically, it may be passive income, since you don't earn anything right after you're done shooting, but like I said: with the increasing competition, the limits of the sales potential of your portfolio increases as well, if you don't keep up with the pace.

Quote from: CD123 on July 08, 2011, 23:34
mindscanner, such a same you complete reply got edited out (guess it was too long but luckily I got the complete input by email). Your point (not completely reflected in the edited version of your reply) that people working hard at their portfolios every month does not feel the effects of "minor" site changes as those depending on previous sales and older images makes a lot of sense.

I think the top tier is further less influenceable than those below it, which can manipulated by a number of "false" contributor votes (which is very obviously the case in some of the sites I mentioned).

My situation is quite similar to yours bud (unfortunately not reflected in the remainder of your post above), mine is just medical of nature, but I wish you well and best of luck!!!

Ha!!! I decided to edit it after I re-read it and feared it was too boring and too long of a read 
But thanks for pointing out, that an essential point I was trying to make got indeed lost, which was that putting more work into your portfolio helps to eleminate the vulnerabilty of your portfolio to sales fluctuations.

Best of luck to you as well!!

Quote from: CD123 on July 06, 2011, 15:02
I find this sort of amusing. Since joining here I found constantly in the threads people complaining about bad sales or no sales at all on certain sites (and in this instance a "sinking" site), then you look at the poll on the right, and find it very rarely corresponds with the chatter.  

Agreeing with CD123 here. There are still contributors on Fotolia that have great sales (I can't complain myself) - But my output is high - It's an uphill battle to some degree.

Microstock has become some sort of a numbers game. Unless you don't put out 500+ images a month (or even more), your sales will drop over the course of time. Too much competition: Thousands of new contributors joining every month, on a site like FT alone...

I think it's just some failed (and batshit crazy) microstocker, jealous at other people's success.

He apparently decided to "take revenge" by blogging.... Kinda reminds me of this story: http://www.epochkblamm.net/SuperVillain.asp

Quote:
"So, You Want to be a Super-Villain?
The story of a man, who, when faced with a mid-life crisis, chooses to don a cape and embrace.....evil. Too bad he's incompetent."

Quote from: brm1949 on February 02, 2011, 01:54
Your account has been temporarily locked. Please try again later.

Haven't experienced this, but this error message apparently comes from the FT software, not the server software (as I suppose the Error 502 does).

Quote from: brm1949 on February 02, 2011, 01:54
I called them, they say there is no problem at their end.  cleared my cache, still the same. Sent them an email a while ago, no response. Tried the UK link, no luck.

Well, it says your account is locked... I guess, it's safe to assume that it is... uhhmmm well, actually indeed locked. They can temporarily suspend accounts if there are e.g. copyright disputes or similar pending issues - from what I've heard, your portfolio stays online though and your images remain available for sale. Maybe your account was locked (suspended???) in error? 
Either way, you should keep on nagging them, since obviously the problem IS at their end.

I'll get the E502 page sporadically when using the site, i.e. i am already logged in. I usually refresh the page, sometimes a 2nd or 3rd time and it goes away - most of the time.
This occurs maybe once a month (or even less), so it hasn't bothered me enough to get FT support involved, which lately takes ages to respond to tickets anyway 

Never had it appear during login though.....