I want to give an example of how the search algorithm on IS favors exclusives and thus how important such an algorithm is to get sales.

Let's examenate this file of me.

It was uploaded 8/2007 and had between 30 and 50 downloads until 01/2008  Than downloads stopped and fell back to <10 / month

At 18/01/2008 exclusive member liliboas uploaded this file.  It has 100 DL / month

Both file are almost similar.  If we run a search on IS with the keywords red + pink + rose + isolated and sort it by most downloads, those 2 files are n�1 and 2�.

But if we sort it by best match, liliboas file is still first, mine drops to place 50 of 466 files. some other observations :

- only 2 non-exclusives in the top 50
- many files with even 0 downloads, all exclusives
- even some old files with 10 downloads or less, all exclusives
- my file has a DL / view ratio of 294/3550  lilliboas file : 821/17013, which is much less. 

What do I want to say with this ?

It's obvious to me why my downloads stopped drastically in January for this file.  To non-exclusives this mean that you need to have a very unique file if you want to float to the top.  With average files you'll be burried under photos of exclusives

I'm glad IS dropped to 4� place for income, they deserved it ) )

okay, I did the test.

used both Paypal and Moneybookers for payouts twice.  In both cases Moneybookers had an exchange rate which was 0.01 point (around 1%) more profitable than the rate from paypal.

So I think I'll switch to moneybookers completely.  It isn't a lot of money, but I don't have to do anything extra for it either.

Did write everything in a little article :
http://www.perrush.be/SYF_moneybookers_or_paypal.html

any remarks ?

Hi all,

after I joined micro's late summer 2006, I wrote a 26 page article about these stocksites.  Main intend was to attract new contributors and earn something that way. (for the link ... those who search will find  )

But I've found it always a little strange to attract / motivated new competitors.

--

Trying to attract new buyers makes much more sense.  First you earn something with their subscription but secondly and most important, they will increase the success of microstocks in general.  This is very important for the future of these sites and therefor our future 

So I made an article intended to attract new photo buyers.

Of course I don't mind collecting some referral fees, but this isn't my main intention.  Proof is that I put ad-words on the article, so fees will be invested in advertising 

Why do I post this here ?

I have 2 suggestions / wishes  :

OR you guys with websites make something similar as I did

OR promote my article

either way, the idea is to attract more buyers, spread the worth, here we will all  benefit from.

--

Aren't all buyers already be informed ?

I don't think so. 

The main site-developers will surely know these sites.  But

- the smaller website developers
- people in europe, asia
- normal people who want a print on the wall
- ...

They certainly don't all know that you can buy a very nice high-res photo for less than $5.  So I'm looking for niche area's to promote my article / guidance.

what do you guys think ?

for the record, the url :

http://www.perrush.be/art_buy_stock_images_01.html

(and it's a shame I'm not a website builder  )