I don't know. But my images are selling from bad to worst. I have the feeling this is the end. Hope I'm wrong. Lost the energy to upload anymore...

We can also hope they take the Costco model of maximizing returns for the shareholders rather than the Walmart one. It looks like something in between and closer to Walmart at this time though, especially w/ what they are doing w/ Bigstock.

I think I know what is happening. They seem to prioritising the search by matching the region the searcher is in to the region the supplier is from. As I upload from the Middle East I get Asian and European sales but I no longer seem to get them from the Americas (I'm not sure about Australia/New Zealand). In the last 24 hours I have had one customer from the Americas, who picked up four similar, very specialised files which might well have been on a search with all the results on a single page.
I hope this is just experimental as it is a heavy blow to me. As with all these swings and roundabouts changes there will be others doing very nicely, if they happen to be zoned in the main selling regions.

That is what they told me. That is a part of their algorithm.

Quote from: Ron on January 21, 2014, 15:40

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on January 21, 2014, 15:33

I think I know what is happening. They seem to prioritising the search by matching the region the searcher is in to the region the supplier is from. As I upload from the Middle East I get Asian and European sales but I no longer seem to get them from the Americas (I'm not sure about Australia/New Zealand). In the last 24 hours I have had one customer from the Americas, who picked up four similar, very specialised files which might well have been on a search with all the results on a single page.
I hope this is just experimental as it is a heavy blow to me. As with all these swings and roundabouts changes there will be others doing very nicely, if they happen to be zoned in the main selling regions.

That is what they told me. That is a part of their algorithm.

If that's right, then I'm sooooo scrooowed.

But it might have the unintended consequence of saving the photographers in Europe and N America from the long warned of hordes of people from India and China who can happily live on a few bucks a day.

I wonder if they do it on a portfolio basis or on an image basis (ie - where the image was uploaded from vs. where SS thinks the seller lives). If the former it would possibly make sense to extend a "vacation" a little longer to upload some local pics possibly.

Color me unconvinced.  My sales have slowed down quite a bit, and I'm in the US.  Keep in mind that yesterday was a holiday here, and today there are chunks of the country under challenging weather conditions.  That could explain slow sales.

Sales are pretty diverse for me, the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East, but most of them are from Europe and sales slowed down here as well.

I think I know what is happening. They seem to prioritising the search by matching the region the searcher is in to the region the supplier is from. As I upload from the Middle East I get Asian and European sales but I no longer seem to get them from the Americas (I'm not sure about Australia/New Zealand). In the last 24 hours I have had one customer from the Americas, who picked up four similar, very specialised files which might well have been on a search with all the results on a single page.
I hope this is just experimental as it is a heavy blow to me. As with all these swings and roundabouts changes there will be others doing very nicely, if they happen to be zoned in the main selling regions.

I hope very much that you are wrong. My map shows sales in the past couple of days to North America (where I'm from), South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa - just missing Australia/NZ and Greenland or I'd be covering the entire map. One each to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, 2 to S. America and 4 to N. America (I often have maps where the bulk of sales are concentrated in Europe and Africa and I often have a map that looks like this one with a nice spread across the world). My payment history shows more non-US source sales than US-source sales, and much of what I sell overseas are US travel images, so I certainly hope this is not the case. If someone is searching for a photo from a location in the US, a supplier from their region is no more likely to provide a photo more to their liking than I am. Similarly, it would be silly if my European photos got higher billing that someone from Europe because the buyer was American.

Of my editorial images, my best seller to Africa is a photo of an NYPD officer running in the New York marathon - in fact, my marathon photos from several years ago often sell right before the marathon and at other times as well to buyers from Africa and S. America. It just makes no sense for them to skew all search results that way. Maybe for lifestyle and concept images, but even then the world has become a much smaller place so I can't imagine any bump from more regional images would help mediate the downside in searches for many other kinds of content.

Hope Scott will jump in on this one and say it ain't so.

Meanwhile, I did the calculations folks were discussing in another thread. I've averaged one EL for every 137.4 sales, so I'm 4.4 away from the next one - could be tomorrow. Fingers crossed -  wouldn't it be nice if things really worked like that? 

That's interesting. EL volume must be subject related. I've only had two in the last 2500 to 3000 sales.

Makes sense. The vast majority of my ELs have been of scenic travel images - more likely to be used in calendars, books and magazines in print volumes sufficient to require an EL. No EL yet today though, but I'm due soon 

No, its part of the alogrithm, not constricting the complete search for you.

If a buyer in the USA is searching for 'architecture' he will get to see architecture from his region. If a buyer from the USA searches for 'UK architecture' he will get to see just that. If he searches for 'Tower Bridge' he will get Tower Bridge

This is how I understand it. But I could be wrong just as well.

Maybe try some lottery?

For me Jan. is BME (EVER!)

"Doubled my Jan 2013 earnings today. Going strong. "

That is a huge success! 

Sales are going well. Not better or worse than last year, but it's still steady.