Author Topic: Slow (Read 9787 times)

Quevaal · « **on:** August 07, 2006, 08:32 »

Is it just me or is SS slow on sales these days? Earlier, when I uploaded a batch, there would be 10-15 downloads four days in a row afterwards, but now I'm lucky with four downloads a day. iStock on the other hand is very stable.

(I'm not one who has been haunted by rejections or anything)

fintastique · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2006, 09:11 »

For me the beginning of August has been better than the beginning of July at SS though today is really slow.

Though I think I wil start new threads at the DT forum more often 8 DLs today so far (which for me is very good) still $6 away from another payout so near and yet so far.

Striker77s · « **Reply #2 on:** August 07, 2006, 09:11 »

They changed their default search order. It is no longer the newest images first. Therefore new images don't get a large amount of downloads right off. I wish it wasn't so, but oh well.

Mark

Quevaal · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2006, 10:08 »

Quote from: Striker77s on August 07, 2006, 09:11

They changed their default search order. It is no longer the newest images first. Therefore new images don't get a large amount of downloads right off. I wish it wasn't so, but oh well.

Mark

Ah, that makes sense. I noticed that the default changed, but never imagined it would have such a negative impact.

admart01 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 07, 2006, 12:18 »

Yesterday (6th of August) was my first day since January that I didn't have a download. I had hoped to go all year with a sale each day but the streak has been broken

Quevaal · « **Reply #5 on:** August 07, 2006, 20:52 »

I just took a look at my stats for December 2005.... Lots of days with 20+ sales, and only one with no sales. And at that time I probably had half as many pics as I do now.

IRCrockett · « **Reply #6 on:** August 07, 2006, 22:25 »

Quote from: admart01 on August 07, 2006, 12:18

Yesterday (6th of August) was my first day since January that I didn't have a download. I had hoped to go all year with a sale each day but the streak has been broken

Yeah, the 5th and 6th had no sales for me. I thought there was something wrong with their system. I haven't been there that long but it was very unusual.

Quote from: Quevaal on August 07, 2006, 08:32

Is it just me or is SS slow on sales these days? Earlier, when I uploaded a batch, there would be 10-15 downloads four days in a row afterwards, but now I'm lucky with four downloads a day.

Same with me. It was a driving force to keep me uploading. See the sales slowing down and upload more to get them back up. This new system isn't really motivating me.

kacper · « **Reply #7 on:** August 08, 2006, 09:48 »

Well, I experienced a high ebb on the last batch I uploaded, but I agree. Ever since the new "most popular" default, new dl's have slowed down considerably.

HOWEVER, what this is doing, is rocketing your new popular files. It seems that if you're actually able to get maybe 5-10 dl's in the first week, you're up at the top of the list immediately.

Remember before the "weekly top 50" before? It changed very little. Follow it now for a couple of days and you'll notice that files change DAILY. The only problem is getting those first few dl's to get it going.

phildate · « **Reply #8 on:** August 08, 2006, 19:35 »

Shutterstock seems to be a different beast to the old one which was my second highest paying site after IS. Now it stumbles in a lowly fourt. Admittedly I have not uploaded much there recently but have some batches in the queue so will be watching to see if they have much affect. Guess the summer months really don't help much either. Designers aren't going to buy a monthly subscription if they know they are going to be on holiday for two weeks.

grp_photo · « **Reply #9 on:** August 08, 2006, 23:19 »

Quote from: phildate on August 08, 2006, 19:35

Shutterstock seems to be a different beast to the old one which was my second highest paying site after IS. Now it stumbles in a lowly fourt. Admittedly I have not uploaded much there recently but have some batches in the queue so will be watching to see if they have much affect. Guess the summer months really don't help much either. Designers aren't going to buy a monthly subscription if they know they are going to be on holiday for two weeks.

Hi Phil,
what is your second and your third biggest earner? And how big is the gap (in percent) between IS and the second one, thanks for your answer.
SS is still my best earner but compared to what i uploaded the last months its a little dissapointing i probably have about three times more images than in the beginning of the year and still earn the same money.
Stockxpert is my second than dreamstime as a third.

fintastique · « **Reply #10 on:** August 09, 2006, 02:03 »

OK this a little table agency and percentage of total microstock earnings since Feb 2006.

1 SS 26.2%
2 DT 22.0%
3 FT 15.5%
4 StockXpert 10.6%
5 123RF 8.5%
6 iStock 8.1%
7 BigStock 4.9%
8 CanStockPhoto 2.8%
9 FP 1.4%

GS 0%
LO 0%

Wow thats depressing Alamy better start doing something very soon!! I think to make any serious bucks you need to be taking people shots, be paying very close attention to what designer are using these days. Having a degree in graphic design and not biochemistry probably doesn't hurt either.

Phil teach us (well me anyway!)

So SS performing well mainly because I only started there on the 31st of May after having to wait three months so I had a very good June with a lot of fresh photos.

and the folks there just seem to love signs both photos and illustrations.

Istock at number 6 due to their draconian laws I have only a fraction of my portfolio there and no illustrations

.

Featurepics despite having my photos on the frontpage all day yesterday no new sales just show how bad my photos are there

or how little traffic they get quite a few clicks (i hope Zap-shots are getting more action for giving a prize)

Despite what I have read elsewhere SS and FT still have fairly high acceptance rates for me. StockXpert

phildate · « **Reply #11 on:** August 09, 2006, 08:29 »

Fotolia was my second best site followed by Dreamstime.

Quote from: grp_photo on August 08, 2006, 23:19

Quote from: phildate on August 08, 2006, 19:35
Shutterstock seems to be a different beast to the old one which was my second highest paying site after IS. Now it stumbles in a lowly fourt. Admittedly I have not uploaded much there recently but have some batches in the queue so will be watching to see if they have much affect. Guess the summer months really don't help much either. Designers aren't going to buy a monthly subscription if they know they are going to be on holiday for two weeks.
Hi Phil,
what is your second and your third biggest earner? And how big is the gap (in percent) between IS and the second one, thanks for your answer.
SS is still my best earner but compared to what i uploaded the last months its a little dissapointing i probably have about three times more images than in the beginning of the year and still earn the same money.
Stockxpert is my second than dreamstime as a third.

Quevaal · « **Reply #12 on:** August 09, 2006, 18:50 »

Well, I've been pumping up pictures at SS the last two weeks(I went to England and took 700 pics), and today at least it seems to go better. 19 dls today. I just got 35 pics accepted yesterday, and I also have 21 in the queue, so hopefully this level will last during the week.

Greg Boiarsky · « **Reply #13 on:** August 10, 2006, 08:53 »

Slow doesn't begin to describe this site. I used to get at least one dl a day, usually several per day. I started this month well, but haven't had a single sale in 5 days. I've never had that happen. And, I've been uploading files, so it's not due to inactivity.

I am not a fan of the changes.

GeoPappas · « **Reply #14 on:** August 10, 2006, 09:17 »

It is interesting how the changes to the sort order at SS have affecting people in various ways. Some have lost sales, and some have gained sales. The big question is: Is there an increase in overall sales?

The Most Downloaded sort order that was removed was skewed to photos that had been on the site a long time. Just because an image was downloaded a lot does not necessarily mean that it is better than some newer images that have come online. It might have just been one of the first in the database. With not many other images to compete against, it could easily make it to the top of the Most Downloaded sort order.

So IMHO, the new Most Popular is better in that it takes the Most Downloaded formula and adds a perspective of time into the equation.

I do think that they should have kept the "Most Downloaded" sort order as an option. I believe that the more options that you give to buyers to dice-and-slice the data (to find images), the more sales the site will have and the more sales photographers will have. Hopefully, they will realize that it was a mistake to remove a sort option, and add it back over time.

FYI: I am a BIG FAN of the new Most Popular sort order, since my sales have gone up dramatically. Maybe the increase in sales will be short-lived, but I am enjoying it while it lasts. A few of my images are at the top of the Most Popular sort order in a few different areas.

kacper · « **Reply #15 on:** August 10, 2006, 09:34 »

You will gain a lot IF two or three of your recent pictures get downloaded 10 times in the first week. This puts you immediately in the top 50 weekly, get more exposure to your portfolio and then your new images get downloaded more and appear at the top of BOTH "most popular" and "newest" sort orders.

CJPhoto · « **Reply #16 on:** August 10, 2006, 10:57 »

I thought it needed 20-30 to be in the top 50. I currently have 10 sales in 2 days and not yet (worst thing is it is a crap picture)

Do you think that people look at the portfolios of people in teh top 50, therefore giving you more exposure?? (no one would look at my portfolio if abovementioned photo hits top 50).

kacper · « **Reply #17 on:** August 10, 2006, 12:13 »

Maybe it is. But the "weekly top 50" changes daily. I scratched the bottom of it last week (#49) with a new photo that had 10 dl's. I guess it just depends on the ebb and flow factor.

And yes. They DEFINITELY look at your whole portfolio. Someone I know got ONE of his photos onto the list one day at #50. Within 3 days, three of his photos were in top 50. With a portfolio of 150 images he got... picture this: 100 downloads in one day and more than 500 in that week. From my experience normally I'd get between 1-2 downloads per picture in my portfolio per month. That week he was getting 10 times that.

maco0708 · « **Reply #18 on:** August 10, 2006, 15:57 »

I have had downloads for past 18 days (including weekends) and I have only 63 pics on-line. It has been little slower lately but I haven't uploaded much either. I only joined about a moth ago.

What type of images do you have. I have mostly travel, no model released yet.

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Author Topic: Slow (Read 9787 times)

Quevaal

fintastique

Striker77s

Quevaal

admart01

Quevaal

IRCrockett

kacper

phildate

grp_photo

fintastique

phildate

Quevaal

Greg Boiarsky

GeoPappas

kacper

CJPhoto

kacper

maco0708

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