MicrostockGroup

I'm new to shutterstock with about 100 accepted images up for just over two weeks (50% acceptance ratio) with about 200 total downloads.
I am very happy with the results.
  After 7-20 downloads per day, I suddenly have none.  Is it normal for sales to drop off so rapidly?

Any regular sellers who can give me an idea of a typical "curve" of download activity (not counting for seasonal ups and downs).   

I understand the need to continually upload bit by bit, but I'd hate to think that I have to upload hundreds every two weeks just to maintain sales.

Thanks

My first month I earned about $3 per image. Even though I uploaded images every month afterwards, earnings increase very little. On a month where I didn't upload anything it dropped to about .40 per image but I still had stable sales. Not bad but not great. 

If you're saying downloads litterally stopped I would say that's not normal. Not at least in my experience. 

Yes.

You will quickly discover, as many thousands of other Shutterstock contributors have, that Shutterstock is not a 'get rich quick' opportunity or a 'horn o' plenty'.

To maintain or improve your initial sales experience you will have to upload similar numbers every week.

And with the rapidly increasing number of contributors you will have to upload more and more and more just to stand still.

A year ago Shutterstock was accepting 20,000 new images a week.  Now they accept 50,000 a week.

Shutterstock is like sex - its great but the thrill can be short lived.  You certainly wouldn't want to marry it.

OMG, you kill me.

Brilliant
Is it possible they "tweak" the search engine to give a boost to new contributors?

Shutterstock has been very unsteady to me. I use to upload a new batch (small, like 3 - 10 photos) as soon as the last batch is reviewed. That means, new images almost every day. My sales have been better some month ago, might it now be the summer slow down, might it be that I am not a "new" contributor anymore, might it be a change in the search modus - who knows.

But all in all, it is going up and down, from 60 dl's a day to 20, very funny are the weekends: for months, I had 10 or 20 downloads every saturday and sunday, once it was even 60 on a sunday (after a very slow week!) Yesterday I had only 2...

But I have to say, although you must upload new images to be found by the buyers, I still do sell a lot of my old stuff every day. So shutterstock is still my number one earner, but... kind of special.

It must be the more good commercial images you have in your portfolio, the less you notice the ups and downs. If you have mostly nature and architecture they get berried among 4 milions, so that you need to continue uploading every week to maintain steady sales. Right?

The number of sales depends on new uploads.

However best selling images aren't always new ones. My best selling images remain on my top since early 2006, making it into weekly top-50 from time to time.

They have to emphasize new uploads. What other differentiator do they have? They can't brag about total images, subscriptions, or quality because that's what every other site is already bragging about.

Less filling?

Here's what I've concluded is at work, at SS. Call it a WAG or observation from others results. Call it dumb-ass and wrong. I don't care. 

1) New members and new uploads get heavy positive weighting in the search.

2) Photos that sell well, get extra promotion in the search engine. (The rich get richer, elevated in the search) People can't buy what they can't see, older images and images without sales, drop down in the search.

3) There is a core group of repeat buyers who appear to search daily for good images for their collection.

4) As the total number of images up for sale on any site increases, exposure of any single image, will decrease proportionally. However if you have something unusual and unique, it will stay up near the top longer.

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Also noted by some: You need to "feed the beast" on a regular basis to keep it happy.

Hypothetical: You have 40 new images.

Theory: Uploading ten per week will get you better sales and results than uploading 40 and doing nothing for a month.

Personal experience from anyone who has tested this theory would be interesting. It seems logical considering all the other assumed factors.

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Last one, and I'm not buying it, because of the variables and unknowns. Some people say they get better sales if a new photo appears on SS on Monday. (and lower sales if it first appears on a Friday) Since there's no way to know when you will be reviewed, or what day the photos will go live, this makes no sense.

Also I suspect that more people have time on weekends to take or upload new photos, so the volume of uploads would be highest Saturday and Sunday, then Monday, and depending on the time it takes to have them reviewed, there will be an influx of new photos, later in the week, as a result of the increased uploading.

More new photos, means most of the old photos on site, drop down the search faster. In other words, it's not the day of the week that affects sales, it's the number of new competing photos that appear, that will drive down sales.

regardless of quality a portfolio at SS is a bucket with a big hole; it's weight is your revenue. you have to fill it continuously not to be disappointed with the return.

I have small portfolio of some 111 images, but I never, ever before had 0 dl's per day except few sundays. But now, I have three days in a row with 0 dl's and I uploaded my last batch one week ago. It's really strange for SS