Author Topic: What really happened at Shutterstock in December (Read 5469 times)

chromaco · « **on:** January 06, 2012, 16:36 »

In the interest of fairness and comparison here is the same poll for Shutterstock.

Update: Here is the link to the same poll for Istock
http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/what-really-happened-with-istock-in-december/

Equus · « **Reply #1 on:** January 06, 2012, 16:42 »

I can't vote, so I can't see it. Can you make it visible? Thanks!

chromaco · « **Reply #2 on:** January 06, 2012, 16:44 »

nicku · « **Reply #3 on:** January 06, 2012, 16:44 »

Dec was a very good month for me more than 50% up compared with Nov.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2012, 01:43 »

I thought it was just something freaky happening to me. Small port and good month. SS just smothered IS.

No complaints! Especially since people keep saying it's the worst month of the year. OK then I just can't wait for January!

And in case the real question comes up, which is what I'd ask. These are mostly sales of old files that have been on SS for over a year. New files got buried during the showing, not showing bug. One new file this year made the top ten best sellers, all the rest are 2-3 years old? Odd.

DiscreetDuck · « **Reply #5 on:** January 07, 2012, 04:36 »

The only conclusion you can get with such a poll is that you spend too much time on the forums...

chromaco · « **Reply #6 on:** January 07, 2012, 15:29 »

^^^: ...you spend too much time on the forums...

Well thats true!!!
Besides that- this is what I got out of it. I'm sure some of you will do the math slightly different but basically the results will be the same.

Istock- 37 contributors responded so far (11 exc and 26 ind)
Average for exclusives--- down from November 12.2%
Average for independents--- down from November 31.15%
Exc and Ind combined--- down 25.5%

Shutterstock- 40 contributors all independent
Average for independents--- up from November 3%

I found out what I wanted to know. Thanks to everyone who participated

cascoly · « **Reply #7 on:** January 08, 2012, 00:13 »

the results can't really be interpretted, for several reasons --

first, the usual problem with most polls here , where the poll ends up comparing large & small portfolios - so the $10 to $15 portfolio gains 50% while the $1000 to $1100 port is 'only' 10% - but which would you prefer?

thus the previous statement

>>>>Shutterstock- 40 contributors all independent
>>>> Average for independents--- up from November 3%

is completely invalid - you can take an arithmetic average of poll % like that - you would need the original data of actual slaes for each month

second, the results depend on when the question was asked - for many of us, sales do not follow a line, but instead ripsaw violently, so you need a running average over several months. eg, my dec over nov ss sales were +50% but my nov over oct saes were MINUS 40%, so reporting only the dec/nov is extremely misleading

third, EL and other high paying sales are not smooth curves for most of us, so 1 or 2 EL can distort an entire month.

the result is that these polls have little value statistically

chromaco · « **Reply #8 on:** January 08, 2012, 11:37 »

Well if your trying to get an accurate mathematical representation you are right. None of these polls work very well. However you don't even need a calculator to see all of those zeros at the top of the Istock poll and all of the big numbers at the bottom of it. If those result were based on seasonality you would expect to see similar results on the SS poll as well. Just comparing the two polls and using some common sense can tell you a lot

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #9 on:** January 08, 2012, 14:57 »

A disproportionate number of people here are old-timers with large portfolios and we know that iStock has recently been punishing old-timers with large portfolios while relative newcomers have beeing doing better, so that will skew the survey against iStock.

Really, these polls say nothing that is meaningful. Istock's own monthly report thread is a better source of data.

cascoly · « **Reply #10 on:** January 08, 2012, 18:59 »

Quote from: chromaco on January 08, 2012, 11:37

Well if your trying to get an accurate mathematical representation you are right. None of these polls work very well. However you don't even need a calculator to see all of those zeros at the top of the Istock poll and all of the big numbers at the bottom of it. If those result were based on seasonality you would expect to see similar results on the SS poll as well. Just comparing the two polls and using some common sense can tell you a lot

sorry, common sense is often wrong - now you've made matters worse by trying to compare results across 2 differnet polls! the high istock # in the monthly polls cannot be used to calculate real numbers

i wasnt referring to seasonality - my point was that month to month sales can vary more -- it's similar to ignoring margin of eror in political polls - in this case the margin of error is so great the results are meaningless