MicrostockGroup

So I had taken a break for almost a year from submitting as I was busy with my design business and a new kid etc. etc. So I hadn't uploaded anything for a while, but I have been taking pictures all along.. So over the past couple of weeks I have uploaded and had accepted a couple of batches a shutterstock.. But the initial downloads I was expecting is not happening.. I remember when I would upload a batch, and there would be a pretty high volume of dl's in the first few days, and then it would slowly taper off and then only the real good/lucky/popular ones would continue to get dl's.. I am not seeing that initial jump over these last couple batches, I mean they are getting downloaded, but only a few of them and even then it's only a couple of dl's.. I am just wondering, if this is me, or a bad timing thing, or if this is getting to be more normal that the big thrust of new images is not there anymore.. Anyone have any insights?

That does not happen anymore at SS.  The BOOST you used to get was changed a couple of years ago.  It's now much harder to make money there, way more images to compete with and a glut of them I might add.  The good ol' days are over.  It's quality, usefulness and volume.

Aww I see,
a way it's good in a way it's bad I suppose, as I felt that was how you made better dl's there and how your images had a chance in the mass of uploads and subscription buyers needed fresh stuff.. I imagine what Mantis said is true then about the quality / volume thing.. Although Most of my quality / usefull images get first priority with Macro sites and Micro was secondary with what didn't cut for Macros, or shoots where I had a lot of the same Genre of images.. I guess with IS, FT pulling down our pants and images at SS not getting the initial exposure, to help them climb up the popularity Ladder and no initial rush.

Macros are somewhat dissapointing these days though too..

guess it might be time to re-think the strategy.. Things they are a changin..

Back to working on my design business..

I made more there in 2008 (and I uploaded more that year).  I was barely down in 2009 (at a higher return but less downloads) and up (above 2008 levels for $ but not DL) in 2010.  I almost doubled my port in 2008, and increased it by 70% over the next 2 years. The DL #s and $ in general have picked up lately but I have been uploading fairly regularly too. No ELs lately either. New images definitely don't get the downloads they used to though. I don't know how that will play out over the long run. I am guessing that for the people with fairly big old ports this is better and for the people trying to start out now it is worse.

My all time best seller got onto the newest first page just before they had a computer glitch so it stayed there for a week or so before they got the indexing fixed. That was enough to put it on the best match first page where it has been ever since (It is a good image too, but had I uploaded it a few days later it probably would have just been buried forever).

No, it's not just you! There's no doubt that it is getter tougher, much tougher, for new images to 'take off'. It's not actually new, it's been happening gradually over the last 5-6 years ... and it's only going to get worse too.

The phenomena isn't exclusive to SS either, it's also happening everywhere else, only it tends to be more noticeable at SS due to the surge we've come to expect from new uploads.

Essentially for new uploads to be noticed they have to be either 'different' (but still good & useful) in their subject matter or similar but notably excellent in comparison to what already exists. That's the way it is now.

Actually, to some extent I don't mind what is happening. Although it is getting tougher it also means that the barrier to entry is getting higher too, which is probably a good thing for established contributors.

I'm hoping it will dissuade the annoying type of contributor who upload hundreds of lousy, similar and badly keyworded images that just clutter the searches, especially when set to 'Newest'. There's nothing worse than uploading some good new images only to see them quickly swamped by irrelevant nonsense with spammed keywords that have nothing to do with the subject matter. Unfortunately, at that stage of an image's life, the automatic keyword weighting cannot differentiate between the wheat and the chaff.

For the most part genuinely good or unique images still get noticed and can still climb quickly to the top of the 'Most Popular' search order.