Author Topic: What's the better upload strategy? All in one go? Or spread-out over the months? (Read 13108 times)

StockPerformer.com · « **on:** February 02, 2021, 08:02 »

This is probably one of the most important blog articles we've ever written. We really wanted to understand the differences between uploading a set of files in one go versus spread them out over various months, or even years. We put the effort into crunching the numbers and hope the results are useful to you.

Our results are actually not what you would expect. Most people do not follow what we consider to be the better strategy. So have a look and please comment! We are really looking forward to your thoughts!

https://www.stockperformer.com/blog/upload-it-all-in-one-go-vs-spreading-it-out-what-makes-more-money/

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2021, 08:30 »

ty, are the statistics you have based on an aggregate of the users, or just 1 off cases? thanks.

StockPerformer.com · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2021, 08:38 »

As written in the article, the revenue profile was averaged from over 20,000 files on different agencies.

The remaining curves are simulations based on that revenue profile.

pancaketom · « **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2021, 14:37 »

I thought you would actually have data from users who uploaded big batches vs. spreading them out rather than making a bunch of assumptions and modelling off of those assumptions. Information on rejection rates and search algorithm shifts based on upload rates would be very interesting. For example if you don't upload for X amount of time is your portfolio penalized or is it boosted if you upload? Do very large upload batches have higher rejection rates?

It certainly used to be the case that upload batches either nearly all passed or nearly all failed at some sites(you got a harsh reviewer or an easy reviewer). If a huge batch hit the harsh review and got nearly 100% rejected that would be a big blow. By spreading things out a bit you decreased the chance of everything getting rejected and it would be easier to resubmit the ones that were rejected out of hand.

One big reason to upload all the images now is because it seems that revenue drops every year - there are less sales for less money and the artist gets a smaller percentage from each sale. So if you could have uploaded everything in 2015 you would have made a lot more than uploading them now.

Also making 1.70 per image per month would be wonderful. I certainly don't make anywhere near that anymore. upload 100 images and make 2-4K $ would be pretty sweet. Presumably your average data comes from more professional stock image producers than I am.

I figure that as soon as I have an image ready to go it is worth uploading unless there are a few that are nearly identical in which case I might delay some to the next batch or if it is a seasonal image in which case it might be worth waiting a bit. (for example - upload Easter stuff from now to Easter instead of the week after Easter.)

The only time I have really had a heap of images ready to go and have to decide how fast to upload is when I join a new agency.

cascoly · « **Reply #4 on:** February 03, 2021, 19:16 »

sorry, not much there there -- it's hardly "probably one of the most important blog articles we've ever written"

need error bars showing the range of values on the graphs -- eg, if there is a large range for each graph the entire question becomes moot as the 2 graphs start out pretty close.

similarly for the 'average' income - need to know median prices for each data point - the mean can hide a lot - bill gates walks into a bar and the 'average' patrons are all billionaires

pics2 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 04, 2021, 06:03 »

StockPerformer gathers a lot of useful data, thanks to the way they operate. Every contributor opens the door of his portfolio to StockPerformers software. It is something that still makes me uncomfortable and still keeps me away from this otherwise fantastic tool. Anyway, aside my personal worries, I think that these data can be used for some very useful studies, this one in article being one of them.
Till then I will copy StockPerformer owner's portfolio on microstock to be my source of ideas because he knows what sells

kall3bu · « **Reply #6 on:** February 04, 2021, 09:02 »

Very interesting! And thanks a lot for sharing these information.

It would be interesting, if following strategy would be good or not:

Let´s say, we can find out ourselves, which photos we took are better shots and which just usual. For the usual one I would follow the upload ones and go strategy and directly to ALL agencies.
But for the better photos it might be interesting in separate uploads to different agencies?
For example: Upload to Zoonar, Photocase, Alamy first.
After 3 month upload to Adobe, Dreamstime
After another 3 month or much more time upload to 123rf, deposit, iStock, (shitterstock).

Of course we have to have in mind, if that photos already getting unpopular. so it would only work for photos, which will be still popular after a year or so.

I know it is also about how agencies sell!

pics2 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 04, 2021, 10:35 »

Quote from: kall3bu on February 04, 2021, 09:02

Very interesting! And thanks a lot for sharing these information.

It would be interesting, if following strategy would be good or not:

Let´s say, we can find out ourselves, which photos we took are better shots and which just usual. For the usual one I would follow the upload ones and go strategy and directly to ALL agencies.
But for the better photos it might be interesting in separate uploads to different agencies?
For example: Upload to Zoonar, Photocase, Alamy first.
After 3 month upload to Adobe, Dreamstime
After another 3 month or much more time upload to 123rf, deposit, iStock, (shitterstock).

Of course we have to have in mind, if that photos already getting unpopular. so it would only work for photos, which will be still popular after a year or so.

I know it is also about how agencies sell!

That sounds interesting. But, in many cases, I can't predict which photos would do better, as a matter of fact, I always fail to predict.
Also uploading to Zoonar, Photocase, Alamy, dreamstime is a waste of time for me.

StockPerformer.com · « **Reply #8 on:** February 05, 2021, 04:25 »

Thanks for your feedback! Let me share my thoughts on your comments

Quote from: pancaketom on February 03, 2021, 14:37

I thought you would actually have data from users who uploaded big batches vs. spreading them out rather than making a bunch of assumptions and modelling off of those assumptions. Information on rejection rates and search algorithm shifts based on upload rates would be very interesting. For example if you don't upload for X amount of time is your portfolio penalized or is it boosted if you upload? Do very large upload batches have higher rejection rates?

We don't share data from individual users per our terms of service, so we cannot publish information on specific batches our customers upload. Also, even if we did use specific batches, it would probably not be meaningful since individual batches are different, have different keywords and different performance. The results would only be meaningful for those specific batches but one would not be able to get an idea how the average batch performs. So our idea was to generate a revenue profile from multiple images and then simulate their performance. Since this is a simulation, you will get an expected behaviour, but it is not a forecast for specific batches in specific themes.

The conclusions of the article can be summarized that generally keeping your files artificially on your hard drive costs you money and those costs need to be compensated by those files which are online, thus reducing the speed at which you reach a break-even point on that specific batch.

Real batches will have different performance, some will produce more revenue, others less, some will get more rejections and others less, but all have in common that if you do not upload your batch in one go, you are basically creating additional costs by having files sitting on your hard drive. And you have to account for that.

Quote

It certainly used to be the case that upload batches either nearly all passed or nearly all failed at some sites(you got a harsh reviewer or an easy reviewer). If a huge batch hit the harsh review and got nearly 100% rejected that would be a big blow. By spreading things out a bit you decreased the chance of everything getting rejected and it would be easier to resubmit the ones that were rejected out of hand.

In our modelling we assumed a 20% rejection for the One-Batch strategy, and it was still faster at generating revenue than the Four-Batch strategy with a 20% revenue boost. So if you have a rejection rate less than 20% on your batches, then you are probably better off uploading all in one go. If you rejection rates are higher, then one would have to model what the effect is.

Quote

One big reason to upload all the images now is because it seems that revenue drops every year - there are less sales for less money and the artist gets a smaller percentage from each sale. So if you could have uploaded everything in 2015 you would have made a lot more than uploading them now.

That is also the risk we see. One cant predict how markets evolve. Sales may go down, RPDs may go down, market demand might change, etc... So keeping your files on your hard drive doesn't only cost you money, it also increases the risk that when you do put them online, they fail at making the expected revenue.

Quote

I figure that as soon as I have an image ready to go it is worth uploading unless there are a few that are nearly identical in which case I might delay some to the next batch or if it is a seasonal image in which case it might be worth waiting a bit. (for example - upload Easter stuff from now to Easter instead of the week after Easter.)

I would recommend always uploading immediately, and if you have similars then let them get rejected. You will still be better off than keeping files artificially on your hard drive. Seasonal images are a different matter. You have to upload them strategically.

StockPerformer.com · « **Reply #9 on:** February 05, 2021, 04:29 »

Quote from: kall3bu on February 04, 2021, 09:02

Very interesting! And thanks a lot for sharing these information.

Thank you!! Glad it was interesting for you!

Quote

It would be interesting, if following strategy would be good or not:

Let´s say, we can find out ourselves, which photos we took are better shots and which just usual. For the usual one I would follow the upload ones and go strategy and directly to ALL agencies.
But for the better photos it might be interesting in separate uploads to different agencies?
For example: Upload to Zoonar, Photocase, Alamy first.
After 3 month upload to Adobe, Dreamstime
After another 3 month or much more time upload to 123rf, deposit, iStock, (shitterstock).

Of course we have to have in mind, if that photos already getting unpopular. so it would only work for photos, which will be still popular after a year or so.

I know it is also about how agencies sell!

Interesting strategy! I think it is very difficult to know beforehand which images are going to sell well and which ones aren't. So I wouldn't recommend to separate files into batches where you upload "good" images to all agencies and "average" images in a multi-batch approach.

In our simulation our multi-batch strategy uploaded files every 3 months and even with a boost of 20% revenue, it was still slower than uploading all files at once. Our simulation doesn't make a distinction where you upload the files. It simply looks at the revenue they generate. So whether you upload files to some agencies now, and then to other agencies later, the effect will be the same as in our simulation.

Based on our findings, I would recommend you upload all your files at once to all agencies and let them produce revenue as soon as possible. Even if they produce less revenue per month than spreading them, you will still make money faster which you can reinvest into new batches, thus speeding your overall revenue growth.

Give it a try and let us know!