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All FilesAll Files Posted Tue Mar 12 1:32PM | There are so many questions you all have raised that is based on data we can not obtain. iStock will never reveal buying habits or search habits of its customers in any meaningful way because of the risk to competitors. I strongly feel they know everything we have stated, that is why I have a hard time not seeing any changes on the video side for months, years actually! Having this BM discussion is a great step to feel invloved but do you really need our input iStock? I am thrilled you are asking but the other issues raised above are actually a more pressing matter as far as video goes. We all want this site to grow and be the best. Lobo we need you more now then ever because this is the first time any meaningful thread for video has been started here in years! |
 Posted Tue Mar 12 1:39PM | Posted By jjneff: There are so many questions you all have raised that is based on data we can not obtain. iStock will never reveal buying habits or search habits of its customers in any meaningful way because of the risk to competitors. I strongly feel they know everything we have stated, that is why I have a hard time not seeing any changes on the video side for months, years actually! Having this BM discussion is a great step to feel invloved but do you really need our input iStock? I am thrilled you are asking but the other issues raised above are actually a more pressing matter as far as video goes. We all want this site to grow and be the best. Lobo we need you more now then ever because this is the first time any meaningful thread for video has been started here in years! I'm here for you. So are the folks in the Video Department. They are aware of all the concerns their people have I just have more time to communicate and gather information via the forums. We will have more soon. |
Posted Tue Mar 12 1:52PM | Thanks Lobo, What I am saying is a lot of this stuff is "Trade Secrets" so I am not expecting much. I understand that what you can post is limited. I know the video team is working hard and on our side. I am hoping to see changes that bring buyers in more than anything! |
 Posted Tue Mar 12 2:05PM | How many of you have uploaded videos in 2012 which have sold well initially, but then have not continued to sell after the first few downloads? It happened to most of my 2012 videos. At the time I was pleased at how quickly they got sales, and assumed they would continue to be good earners for me, but I think what has been happening is that files have not been getting the amount of boost in BM that you would expect when they are downloaded, viewed, added to lightboxes or added to the Cart. It has only been at the 10 download mark that any significant boost happens. In the mean time videos sink underneath newer content, and getting to that 10 download mark gets harder and harder. I have seen an improvement in the placement of files from the second half of 2012 in the latest BM tweaks, but files from the first half of 2012 still seem to be placed very low in the search order. |
 Posted Tue Mar 12 2:16PM | The sad thing is that for many people, this is coming WAY too late...but yes, we DO appreciate that you want our input etc...and love the "communication" because that has always been a weak point here...so two thumbs up in that regard!! |
 Posted Tue Mar 12 6:54PM | Better late than never... |
 Posted Fri Mar 15 2:29AM | any BM related news? could we expect some changes in the next days? (at the moment BM-search for video seems to dramatically correspond to File Age-search) and another crucial question: photos and videos belong to the same BM engine? (Edited on 2013-03-15 07:34:27 by piola666) |
Posted Sat Mar 16 3:52AM | I do not use the edit tool because I already did, and this is a new post, BM related, but not previous post related. After a long wait I got inspected 4 videos I flagged for Vetta. 1 of 4 accepted in the super collection. BUT, there is a but: if I search for the video, using as keyword "Vigo" (it's the city represented in the TL), the Vetta video, the exclellence, is down, yes, in the first page, but down after the normal collection videos rejected for Vetta! If they represent excellence, I guess they should be pushed high. And ok, we discussed already about that, but I report it as still smoking gun of this important fact we are discussing. We have excellence in this site, let's show it!  |
Posted Tue Mar 19 6:01AM | Any word Lobo? NTSC files are still pushed to high! |
 Posted Tue Mar 19 7:17AM | This BM is really hitting my portfolio hard! It really doesn't give new(ish) files a chance. Like we have said the video files need to get to the golden 10 downloads to be anywhere in the BM. I have a video files with over 10 downloads 19140484 and it sits well in the BM and a file with 9 downloads 18736336 and it's nowhere to be seen! Doesn't make any sense to me! Also videos with good ratio's aren't being seen. This video has 4 downloads from 33 views but is nowhere on the BM 21365750 this means it's got great potential to be a big seller but the BM doesn't take this into account. Also I have a feeling that the localization element to the BM is far to harsh! Lobo can we have any kind of feedback as to what is being done to rectify all our problems? |
Posted Tue Mar 19 10:03AM | I agree about the ratios. I have quite a few with low views but high downloads (reletivy). I still think the views aren't working right if they are only capturing registered user views...so that in of itself is a problem. It's also unclear to me how/if views factor into BM. (Edited on 2013-03-19 10:05:44 by Maulsmasher) |
Posted Tue Mar 19 12:23PM | Posted By Spencer_Whalen: This BM is really hitting my portfolio hard! It really doesn't give new(ish) files a chance. Spencer, it looks like new new files are pushed, even more than Vetta, they stay up a bit, but then ethey are submerged by anything that has more than 10 downloads, no matter age or quality. If you mean as new(ish) the 1-month or so files that sells, yes, they fall behind together with all the rest. |
Posted Tue Mar 19 5:09PM | Hello? |
Posted Wed Mar 20 4:25AM | yep, I agree, could we please have some feedback? this thread is very important to us, video contributors. |
 Posted Wed Mar 20 6:41AM | What I don't get is, if things were truly better here a year or so ago when everyone was fat and happy, why did they mess with the BM? Or, is that not the only reason sales have dropped like a stone lately? My best month here was in January of 2011. Since then, it has all been downhill. In fact, I predict this month will earn me 5 times less here than in that January. |
Posted Wed Mar 20 12:19PM | FYI, I'm still working on a few things to try and put something together for Search_Fairy. I'll be back in here very soon with some feedback. One thing I will remind people of:
Stay tuned. |
Posted Thu Mar 21 2:04PM | I noticed yesterday that one of my videos had just had its 10th download, so I checked its position in BM for its top 3 keywords, before and after the latest indexing. When it was on 9 downloads it was positioned as follows: Keyword 1: Placed 150th out of 1363 videos Keyword 2: Placed 125th out of 1205 videos Keyword 3: Placed 303rd out of 1582 videos Upon reaching 10 downloads: Keyword 1: Placed 12th out of 1366 videos Keyword 2: Placed 13th out of 1207 videos Keyword 3: Placed 58th out of 1588 videos This shows what a huge boost files get when they hit 10 downloads. But I think it would be fairer if the boost was spread out a bit, so that the first 9 downloads had more of an impact on BM placement. This video was accepted into the collection in December 2011, so it has taken about 16 months to reach 10 downloads. It had 7 of its 10 downloads in the first 4 months of being on-line! Then it sank down in BM and has taken another year to get the other 3 downloads.  I think if it had been getting some acknowledgement in BM of its early success then it would have had a lot more downloads by now.(Edited on 2013-03-21 14:06:12 by synthetick) |
Posted Thu Mar 21 2:22PM | Posted By synthetick: I noticed yesterday that one of my videos had just had its 10th download, so I checked its position in BM for its top 3 keywords, before and after the latest indexing. When it was on 9 downloads it was positioned as follows: Keyword 1: Placed 150th out of 1363 videos Keyword 2: Placed 125th out of 1205 videos Keyword 3: Placed 303rd out of 1582 videos Upon reaching 10 downloads: Keyword 1: Placed 12th out of 1366 videos Keyword 2: Placed 13th out of 1207 videos Keyword 3: Placed 58th out of 1588 videos This shows what a huge boost files get when they hit 10 downloads. But I think it would be fairer if the boost was spread out a bit, so that the first 9 downloads had more of an impact on BM placement. This video was accepted into the collection in December 2011, so it has taken about 16 months to reach 10 downloads. It had 7 of its 10 downloads in the first 4 months of being on-line! Then it sank down in BM and has taken another year to get the other 3 downloads. I think if it had been getting some acknowledgement in BM of its early success then it would have had a lot more downloads by now.(Edited on 2013-03-21 14:06:12 by synthetick) Thank you for this. |
Posted Thu Mar 21 2:32PM | Thank you too Lobo. So great we are discussing BM in the forums. It seems so natural to get the contributors' feedback, it makes me wonder why it used to be such a taboo subject. |
 Posted Thu Mar 21 2:37PM | Posted By synthetick: Thank you too Lobo. So great we are discussing BM in the forums. It seems so natural to get the contributors' feedback, it makes me wonder why it used to be such a taboo subject. Great work |
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