I thought when my images are accepted and visible in my portfolio (up to 12 hours after being accepted), they should appear also in search. But when I search shutterstock for my images some of them doesn't appear..
I always sort by "newest first" and match "All images", but some of them doesn't appear at all.

For example:
my "Tempera colors and paintbrushes" doesn't appear at all when searching for "tempera painting" or any other keyword
Searching for "tomato" it shows only one of my pictures. There should be three (I checked my keywords and they are fine).
Searching for "dahlia" does show my dahlia, but when I choose search "photos only" it's gone.

So, what am I doing wrong ? Please help me understand.

Two missing potatoes and dahlia were accepted a day ago and visible in my portfolio more than 12 hours ago, tempera and paintbrushes were accepted on friday.

Is it too soon to worry ?

Thank you fieldsphotos, and I think you are right. My images are starting to show.
But thing is, I'm new on the site and I was hoping for those downloads that happen a few hours after images are accepted, when they shows at the top of search, if sorted by "newest first".
But I'm selling some anyway... 

well it will take all images to get from 'reviewed' status to 'online' status so no matter how long it takes, you will still get the same amount of time in the 'spotlight'

This may not be as straightforward leaf. From what I observed lately, if there is too much time between acceptance and search tagging one's images, they will appear not on first but sometimes as far as on third page in Newest First by according category. The reason for this is, images appear in an order of their numbering, and while image sits in twilight zone, already accepted but not seen by search yet, numbering moves ahead. Then it pops up inbetween accordning numbers, thus its spot is not necessary spotlight. I did encounter this situation couple times lately, and it certainly lowers visibility of new images and quiets down that famous "new uploads spike".

It's not easy to track down how much time is too much as it obviously depends on how many images are coming in the according category... would be interesting to hear about other's experience.

Pixart... StockXpert?

Wrong topic?

Non-smokers are banned to watercooler area!

Fresh example of what I described above is from today. Image that I put in background category appeared today in search after little delay - on 8th page of search by Newest first. Granted, backgrounds is busy category, a lot of new images appear quickly pushing delayed one farther behind. Same image in its second category, Parks/Outdoors appeared on 3rd page. Only in search by its specific keywords it pops up on a first page.

How does it happen that images with higher numbering (submitted later) go through and appear in search earlier sometimes than images with lower numbers (submitted earlier)? (no, I am not conspiracy theory fan at all).

Quote from: pr2is on October 23, 2007, 11:32

How does it happen that images with higher numbering (submitted later) go through and appear in search earlier sometimes than images with lower numbers (submitted earlier)? (no, I am not conspiracy theory fan at all).

Are you talking about the popular search? If you are it is probably because they have already sold a few times.  If you're talking about the newest first search then I have no idea.

No, Newest first is what I mean. What happens is that when search engine finally picks up your image, it appears not in first page but whereevr the numberinbg puts it.  It's relatively easy to observe: write down the number of your newly accepted image, go to according category, in Newest first see the numbering for latest images. If fresh numbers are fery close to yours or already bigger and it takes couple days for search to pick up your image, you can spot two images that "fork" your number - one is slightly bigger, another is slightly lower. Your photo will appear between them eventually, and meanhwile they continue moving down as new photos arrive - in worst case out of those I tracked down, 6th page!

I hope it was understandable

Quote from: fotografer on October 26, 2007, 02:06

Quote from: pr2is on October 23, 2007, 11:32

How does it happen that images with higher numbering (submitted later) go through and appear in search earlier sometimes than images with lower numbers (submitted earlier)? (no, I am not conspiracy theory fan at all).

Are you talking about the popular search? If you are it is probably because they have already sold a few times.  If you're talking about the newest first search then I have no idea.

No, Newest first is what I mean. What happens is that when search engine finally picks up your image, it appears not in first page but whereevr the numberinbg puts it.  It's relatively easy to observe: write down the number of your newly accepted image, go to according category, in Newest first see the numbering for latest images. If fresh numbers are fery close to yours or already bigger and it takes couple days for search to pick up your image, you can spot two images that "fork" your number - one is slightly bigger, another is slightly lower. Your photo will appear between them eventually, and meanhwile they continue moving down as new photos arrive - in worst case out of those I tracked down, 6th page!

I hope it was understandable

this could easily happen.  Consider the following example.

I submit 2 images which gets the image numbers 1001 and 1002 - i am now first in line
tommorow you submit 2 images and they get numbers 1003 and 1004
The next day I submit two more images numbered 1005, 1006

ALL my images are reviewed and entered into the database - then after that yours are reviewed.
So in order from oldest (reviewed) to newest they are
1001, 1002, 1005, 1006, 1003, 1004

Here is a very fresh example for tracking how it happens.

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=6374968 - just got approved. Image number is 6374968. Now, if you go to according category at  http://www.shutterstock.com/cat-6-Food-and-Drink.html and sort by Newest first - 10 Rows - small thumbnails, checking out the number will show that those in a first row are already in 639s. If my image got tagged by search right now, it would be in 10th row - that's where current numbering puts it. In a day or two when it appears, this spot will move down by a page or two or more, depending on how many images come in, get found by search etc.

To avoid any misunderstanding - this is by no means a conspiracy theory of any kind, just trying to understand how things work in my best money producer