Author Topic: Another best match shift 14/4/2011 (Read 43121 times)

bunhill · « **Reply #100 on:** April 21, 2011, 11:55 »

I think that some people sometimes miss some of the issues when they talk about microstock.

It is about much more than just having started out cheap. Much more significant IMO was the crowd sourced, anyone can join model ---> which makes it possible to have huge collections from a much larger pool and for people to learn as they go along . And the contributors do so much of the work (selection, keywording, captioning, descriptions even QC to some extent and especially if you consider that inspection is essentially crowd sourced). All of that was previously work which involved staff. The iStockphoto / microstock model was surely much more streamlined.

The model was just about up and running slightly ahead of 6MP digital SLRs becoming affordable + ubiquitous broadband. It would be daft to pretend that many people could have predicted the stock model changing so dramatically, so quickly.

It really undermines lots of great work to think that it is all or only about price.

jen · « **Reply #101 on:** April 21, 2011, 13:45 »

Quote from: lagereek on April 20, 2011, 23:45

Thursday turned out to be a brillant day! like in the old days. Is the search beginning to work or what? anybody else with same experience?

No. I only had 5 downloads yesterday and 4 so far today, which is very unusual. :\

Phadrea · « **Reply #102 on:** April 23, 2011, 03:59 »

Still absolutely dire. Really really awful sales. I am on target to earn the lowest amount in nearly 2 years. I have pretty much written Istock off as they have basically destroyed most of what was good about them.

Mellimage · « **Reply #103 on:** April 23, 2011, 05:35 »

Quote from: lagereek on April 20, 2011, 23:45

Thursday turned out to be a brillant day! like in the old days. Is the search beginning to work or what? anybody else with same experience?

Nope, April could easily be WME for me over there. Istock might be dropping to the fifth ranked agency for me - either already this month or next month if things do not pick up again.

elvinstar · « **Reply #104 on:** April 23, 2011, 08:10 »

If sales continue the way that they are for the month, I'll end at only 66% of my income for the worst month in the past 2 years! Then again, I've only uploaded 11 images since August...

Mantis · « **Reply #105 on:** April 23, 2011, 08:17 »

Quote from: Difydave on April 18, 2011, 12:34

Thursday and Friday last week were certainly nothing to write home about. That's the way it's been going for me for a while though.

Today is like a Sunday so far. R e a l l y slow.

went from 15 a day as a non, then best match changed, so 10 a day, then ZERO DL yesterday (Friday). I know it's only one day but ohy vey.

wiser · « **Reply #106 on:** April 23, 2011, 16:45 »

Still dismal.

Snowball · « **Reply #107 on:** April 23, 2011, 16:48 »

Quote from: wiser on April 23, 2011, 16:45

Still dismal.

Yep. With Easter and spring break looming, don't expect to see much activity for the rest of the month.

Phadrea · « **Reply #108 on:** April 25, 2011, 03:09 »

Really ? I am earning decent amounts everyday on another site and that includes Easter.

Perry · « **Reply #109 on:** April 25, 2011, 08:24 »

I have a really, REALLY bad month, I'm propably going to end up with about half (50%) of last month's earnings. The latest time my sales was as bad at IS was in the summer of 2009

Perry · « **Reply #110 on:** April 25, 2011, 08:25 »

Quote from: Perry on April 25, 2011, 08:24

I have a really, REALLY bad month, I'm propably going to end up with about half (50%) of last month's earnings. The latest time my sales was as bad at IS was in the summer of 2009

On a lighter note, SS is already almost BME and there is almost a week left...

gostwyck · « **Reply #111 on:** April 28, 2011, 15:33 »

I've only just noticed but it would appear that the latest best match has given a very significant boost to exclusive images.

I tried a few sample searches, with about 1000 results in each, and 70-90%+ of the first 100 images were exclusive. The percentage of exclusive images invariably reduces with each further page into the search. For example on the last page or two of the sample searches exclusive images had dropped to only 30% of the results.

I doubt that this is coincidence. If you are an independent contributor and sales have fallen since the new best match was introduced then this may be the reason.

Snowball · « **Reply #112 on:** April 28, 2011, 15:55 »

^^^ Makes sense. This must be part of a last ditch effort to convince exclusives that site sales are not falling. Even with a stacked deck the huge sales decline is becoming obvious.

saturated · « **Reply #113 on:** April 28, 2011, 23:01 »

Quote from: gostwyck on April 28, 2011, 15:33

I've only just noticed but it would appear that the latest best match has given a very significant boost to exclusive images.

I tried a few sample searches, with about 1000 results in each, and 70-90%+ of the first 100 images were exclusive. The percentage of exclusive images invariably reduces with each further page into the search. For example on the last page or two of the sample searches exclusive images had dropped to only 30% of the results.

I doubt that this is coincidence. If you are an independent contributor and sales have fallen since the new best match was introduced then this may be the reason.

I don't see things favoring exclusives, at least not me. Since the "tweak" on the 13th, my already less-than-impressive sales nosedived even further. Checked a few of my (former) top sellers and they are buried hopelessly back, well behind a number of non-exclusive images.

nruboc · « **Reply #114 on:** April 28, 2011, 23:18 »

I find it hilarious that they have to change the "best match" so often. It's like, here you go customer, here's the best match....no wait.. here it is... no wait over here... oh sh_t, our profits are declining, let's try this.....

What a freakin joke this company is....feel bad for folks that actually have to rely on it for a major source of income - my condolences

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #115 on:** April 29, 2011, 07:58 »

Quote from: Snowball on April 28, 2011, 15:55

^^^ Makes sense. This must be part of a last ditch effort to convince exclusives that site sales are not falling. Even with a stacked deck the huge sales decline is becoming obvious.

I doubt if they care much about what the average exclusive thinks is happening. But there is now a potentially serious conflict of interests between Getty cashing in on everything and what is probably happening to the sales of the clique at the heart of the agency. I would be surprised if the tweakers are not under a lot of pressure from old friends with high-ranked portfolios. How many of the top 100 sellers have close ties, either socially or through some kind of employment, with the iStock establishment? I have no idea what the figure is, but I'll bet there are quite a few.

lagereek · « **Reply #116 on:** April 29, 2011, 08:15 »

Everything is going down at the agencys main-core, RM sales according to some 14 collegues ( known each other for over 10 years) are dropping drastically.

I suggest we do like this: IS, etc, isnt worth beefing about anymore, its a disaster for the average exclusive and independant. Lets just forget about the site and move ahead, put it down to a bad experience, they do happen.
I am friends with six independant diamonds there and all are planning to find new avenues, narrowing the spread of their shots, a theory I happen to agree with and none of them are dependant on IS money.
Lets just leave the site alone, in forums, uploading and in general. Lets venture into new territories, they do exist you know! IS, is by no means all that important anymore, not even the market leader.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #117 on:** May 11, 2011, 14:30 »

Here's an update on the results I'd posted in April of the number of "regular" (non-Agency/Vetta) photos in the first 200 with Best Match sort order. Sean's fixed his greasemonkey script to work with IS's latest changes (so I can easily count totals) - thanks Sean - so I updated it with today's results.

Bottom line is some things are slightly better, others are slightly worse. In any event, if you're not a flaming image, you aren't on the first page of "regular" results. Remember, once upon a time, new images would get a lookin on the first page of results for a short while?

Sorry about the formatting, but although the tabs get preserved when I copy and paste - and look fine in the editor on the forum - they don't look right once you exit the editor and post

200 per page, photos only, number of regular images on first page of search

Search term         Reg 4/12   Reg 4/14   Reg 5/11

fish*                      9      11      13
senior couple          20      30      25
woman shopping      31      36      32
tropical beach         12      15      17
spa treatment         39      44      39
woman eating         21      31      26
woman laptop         30      41      37
man portrait          26      35      29
doctor                  37      45      44
swimming pool         13      19      16
summer outdoors      29      35      38
child outdoors         36      43      48
sexy woman          9      12      13

* both food and animal meanings

Sadstock · « **Reply #118 on:** May 11, 2011, 15:33 »

Thanks for tracking and posting this data. It's good to have a window into these best match tweaks, though trying to reach conclusions is a challange.

Shame how they have stacked the deck against new images. Seems designed to keep a top layer of exclusives happy while screwing the rest of exclusives and independents.

jamirae · « **Reply #119 on:** May 11, 2011, 16:14 »

thanks for that, Joann. just so I understand, "regular" also includes E+ and (now) P+?

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #120 on:** May 11, 2011, 16:22 »

Regular is everything other than Vetta & Agency - 'cause that's what Sean's script segregates.

If at some point we could separate out E+ P+ main collection and exclusive collection, that'd be really great, but that depends on a new Sean-monkey script update or something

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Author Topic: Another best match shift 14/4/2011 (Read 43121 times)

bunhill

jen

Phadrea

Mellimage

elvinstar

Mantis

wiser

Snowball

Phadrea

Perry

Perry

gostwyck

Snowball

saturated

nruboc

BaldricksTrousers

lagereek

Jo Ann Snover

Sadstock

jamirae

Jo Ann Snover

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