Author Topic: DL numbers in the old, all-sub days, when we got payed 20c/DL flat (Read 3335 times)

wut · « **on:** February 20, 2012, 05:34 »

I wonder what was the DL ratio from that time compared to today's DL ratios? Without OD, SODs (ELs too?) and lower prices I reckon ppl were getting a lot more DLs, 100/day probably wasn't all that special back then. It only accounted for 20$ anyway, making ppl 500$/month or so (weekends are lower). So to end the guesswork here I'd like to hear from ppl who were already in the game back then to check the stats and see what the ratio was (no need for real numbers of course;).

I find this very interesting, it's history after all

Microbius · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2012, 06:40 »

What sort of date are you talking?

stockmarketer · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2012, 08:55 »

I believe the OP is elaborating on a post from "rinderart" a few days ago in the "Let's punish the bad agencies" threat.

Rinderart said "...I've been here like others at the beginning when we got 20 cents an Image. No EL;s Or OD's , Nothing..."

I haven't been in ms nearly as long as him and some of the other real vets. We'll need him and the other very early contributors (I'm guessing from 2006 and earlier) to weigh in.

helix7 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:00 »

I can't comment on the real early days, but I started in 2007 and a day in May 2008 was my best day ever for total downloads, without ODs. I'm actually not far off that number now, and expect to beat that number probably within the next month or so. With ODs and all I'm doing much better financially now than I was back then.

wut · « **Reply #4 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:10 »

Quote from: stockmarketer on February 20, 2012, 08:55

I believe the OP is elaborating on a post from "rinderart" a few days ago in the "Let's punish the bad agencies" threat.

Rinderart said "...I've been here like others at the beginning when we got 20 cents an Image. No EL;s Or OD's , Nothing..."

I haven't been in ms nearly as long as him and some of the other real vets. We'll need him and the other very early contributors (I'm guessing from 2006 and earlier) to weigh in.

That's it, his comment prompted me to start this thread. And I was also reading about IS indie RPD from 06 if I remember correctly it was only about 20 or 30c. I think there's quite a few members that can share their data (lisafx, jsnover etc)

loop · « **Reply #5 on:** February 20, 2012, 10:23 »

In 2006 IS sold at 1/2/3 ... etc dollars and you got 0,20,040 or 0,60 if you were indie, double for diamond exclusives.

wut · « **Reply #6 on:** February 20, 2012, 10:53 »

Quote from: loop on February 20, 2012, 10:23

In 2006 IS sold at 1/2/3 ... etc dollars and you got 0,20,040 or 0,60 if you were indie, double for diamond exclusives.

What's the DL ratio?

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #7 on:** February 20, 2012, 12:01 »

I can't give you ratios because I don't have records of my portfolio size.

SS started out at 20 cents a download, but for those of us who'd been there from the very early days, in Feburary 2005 we started to get 23 cents a download while newbies got only 20 cents. In November 2005 my first on-demand download showed up - for $5.99. That made my day as my 26 other downloads for $5.98 just got doubled with one sale

At the end of March 2006 everyone got a raise to 25 cents. In July 2006 my first two ELs (then $20 each showed up). Backup CD royalties of 5 cents an image started in May 2006, but never amounted to very much.

From November 2005 (I started at iStock in Sept 2004 and SS Oct 31, 2004) the download totals for IS and SS were closer to comparable - 800 for SS and 600 for IS. IS's money was better - RPD of 35 cents vs. SS's 24 cents leaving IS the monthly total leader. That month total downloads across all sites were 2,300. My portfolio was small then - probably 700 or 800 images at a guess. A lot of those images weren't very good, but given how cheap things were they got downloaded anyway

wut · « **Reply #8 on:** February 20, 2012, 14:00 »

Thanks for your insightful post jsnover.

If you want to, you can easily check the number of files in your port back than, at IS in your UL section and at SS in status of submitted photos/approved photos. But you don't have to be so exact, the numbers you've put out paint a pretty good picture

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #9 on:** February 20, 2012, 14:26 »

Quote from: wut on February 20, 2012, 14:00

Thanks for your insightful post jsnover.

If you want to, you can easily check the number of files in your port back than, at IS in your UL section and at SS in status of submitted photos/approved photos. But you don't have to be so exact, the numbers you've put out paint a pretty good picture

You can't easily, though I realize I could get a reasonable approximation. You'd have to account for disabled images, for example, which is what I used to do for anything sent to the dollar bin in the IS case, and adding up all the batches on SS (which as I often did things in small batches would be a pain).

wut · « **Reply #10 on:** February 20, 2012, 14:32 »

Quote from: jsnover on February 20, 2012, 14:26

Quote from: wut on February 20, 2012, 14:00
Thanks for your insightful post jsnover.

If you want to, you can easily check the number of files in your port back than, at IS in your UL section and at SS in status of submitted photos/approved photos. But you don't have to be so exact, the numbers you've put out paint a pretty good picture

You can't easily, though I realize I could get a reasonable approximation. You'd have to account for disabled images, for example, which is what I used to do for anything sent to the dollar bin in the IS case, and adding up all the batches on SS (which as I often did things in small batches would be a pain).

You're right, I didn't even think of disabled files (since I've never disabled a single one). At SS you can also see all the files (not just batches). But as I said, your info was very useful, no need for any additional hassle.