MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Shutterstock.com => Topic started by: aetb on July 23, 2018, 01:05

Title: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: aetb on July 23, 2018, 01:05
As the title said... I am doing 40% of what I was doing 4 months ago. That also mean that I'm now doing the same revenu as what I was doing in 2014 ! with half of the footage and images uploaded. Is it really possible that just by not uploading Shutterstock algorithm drom the value of the entire folio ?
I don't understand...
I have about 7000 files which include 2000 videos.
Major major drop. and it's droping every months.
I've just uploaded 100 new images since I'm worried and will find the time to upload videos soon but hey - if I'm not uploading it's because I'm on an other project that needs that cash flow !
What . !
By chance other agencies are crushing well during this rough moment.
So - anyone experiencing a major drop like that ?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: obj owl on July 23, 2018, 01:55

You say "By chance other agencies are crushing well during this rough moment.", could it be that other agencies are taking market share from Shutterstock and that could account for some of the drop, you can only sell it once to the same buyer.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Brasilnut on July 23, 2018, 02:05
Which months are you taking into account?

June/July/August generally tend to be slower earning months, perhaps it's just a temporary drop.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Pauws99 on July 23, 2018, 02:06
Yes its entirely possible that the algorithm is designed to favour those who have a recent track record of uploading above those that don't and from SS's perspective it would make sense to do so. Whether they do or not I will leave others to speculate.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: PZF on July 23, 2018, 02:52
Lots of threads about SS performing really badly lately.....
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Pauws99 on July 23, 2018, 06:06
Lots of threads about SS performing really badly lately.....
Aren't there always.........?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: nobody on July 23, 2018, 08:22
I've been by other agencies to never stop uploading - that tells me that it does effect your ratings...
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: SuperPhoto on July 23, 2018, 10:38
There's a whole number of things that could affect your sales.

Maybe you are correct. Maybe SS does have an algorithm that favors newer submissions over old. Or sales history. I don't know. It would just be a guess unless you have access to that information. But just a guess - so no point worrying about it, because nothing you can do about it.

HOWEVER, more likely these reasons factor into your sales:

a) Increased competition. More & more people uploading. (So your discoverability is lower).
b) Less people buying. A possibility.
c) More agency competition. More and more agencies (i.e., videoblocks) are "giving away" 10,000's and 10,000's of clips for a "cheap" price, so that can affect individual clip sales. (I.e., why buy a single clip when you can have access to 10,000's. Of course there are still reasons, i.e., your clip is unique/something someone wants - and can't find in VB, etc).
d) Your content is seasonal or trendy. (I.e., if you have all christmas stuff, then less likely for people to purchase it now).

LOTS and lots of different reasons.

The microstock industry is a moving target. While uploading more is one possibility - based on your personal experience, probably not the best solution. (Simply because from the sounds of it you've done a lot more work, and now getting 50% the results).

So...

I'd suggest focusing on unique/desirable content that only you can produce, or is technically hard to re-produce (i.e., expensive cameras for unique shots, etc), and that way you can at least have a little bit longer of a 'sales lifecycle' (i.e., say 1-2 years of the same content selling), as opposed to it becoming 'expired' after 2-3 months (because of other competition, similar clips elsewhere, etc, etc).
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: SpaceStockFootage on July 23, 2018, 11:07
Would be worth seeing whether your July 2017 figures were lower than your March 2017 figures.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: aetb on July 24, 2018, 01:05
I get all of this... but honestly - since I'm uploading stock, I've only had increase in sales. Maybe for some months it has been a little slow (like july and december for me)... but then this July is equivalent of the july of 2013 when I had 1/3 of the images & footage of today.
... but hey that's not all... March was my best month ever... of this year.
So there is really something that happened.
60% drop in 4 months.

Imagine if you loose 60% of anything ... you would ask questions !

Other agencies are going stable........ reason why I'm not uploading is that I'm starting a kombucha company... and that takes lot of time - and I'm counting on my stock revenu to have decent amount of money for that company start-up.
So you can imagine.

Shutterstock is 30% of my total income... remove 60% of it... that's a 20% budget cut.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: increasingdifficulty on July 24, 2018, 02:26
Shutterstock is 30% of my total income... remove 60% of it... that's a 20% budget cut.

If the other 70% are, as you said, "crushing well", is it not logical to believe that customers might be shopping there instead? And again, how can it be a 20% budget cut if the other 70% are crushing it?

And lastly, a 20% drop in July is normal, and every store, marketplace and company in the world wants, and usually rewards, a steady inflow of new products.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: SpaceStockFootage on July 24, 2018, 04:36
And if March was your BME then maybe that's not the best month to use as a baseline as it's an outlier rather than a 'regular' month. How much is the drop from February or April?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Pauws99 on July 24, 2018, 05:44
And if March was your BME then maybe that's not the best month to use as a baseline as it's an outlier rather than a 'regular' month. How much is the drop from February or April?
If it was me and I was trying to forecast my income I'd take a 12 month rolling average and probably knock off 20% as income from microstock is uncertain and another 20% if I were to stop uploading. I certainly wouldn't be taking out any finance based on expecting to get 100% of what I got in the past.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Uncle Pete on July 25, 2018, 10:58
Would be worth seeing whether your July 2017 figures were lower than your March 2017 figures.

July, that's my guess as all of the answers are pretty much just a generalized guess.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: cthoman on July 26, 2018, 21:51
It happens. That's pretty much the only given anymore.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Andrey Popov on July 27, 2018, 07:28
To be able to answer why this happens we need to know few things:

1. Do you have seasonal content and what percent of total portfolio?

2. Are your best selling photos are in one or two niche subjects?
It is possible that these niche subjects have lots of new good quality photos from competition.

3. How old is your portfolio? How many files you uploaded in last 12 months? last 24 months? How old are your best sellers?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on July 27, 2018, 07:52
My uploads have been light and this month is the worst since the second month after I started in 2013.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Mantis on July 27, 2018, 14:37
Same here. I am usually in the $800+ per month camp with SS but May was $600, June was $600 and July is $500. This was an overnight kind of thing, so perhaps another search tweak.  I do both video and stills and both are down, which is why I think it might be a search thing. 
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: trek on July 27, 2018, 15:25
I've noticed big clumps of similars in the search results lately.  Wish they would mix things up more. 
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: alan b traehern on July 30, 2018, 12:20
As the title said... I am doing 40% of what I was doing 4 months ago. That also mean that I'm now doing the same revenu as what I was doing in 2014 ! with half of the footage and images uploaded. Is it really possible that just by not uploading Shutterstock algorithm drom the value of the entire folio ?
I don't understand...
I have about 7000 files which include 2000 videos.
Major major drop. and it's droping every months.
I've just uploaded 100 new images since I'm worried and will find the time to upload videos soon but hey - if I'm not uploading it's because I'm on an other project that needs that cash flow !
What . !
By chance other agencies are crushing well during this rough moment.
So - anyone experiencing a major drop like that ?

No drop but I keep uploading. Have you tried starting again to see if you have been account killed or if sales will come back?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on July 30, 2018, 12:52
My uploads have been light and this month is the worst since the second month after I started in 2013.

Yeah I agree! I only upload RM/RF nowadays but I have probably taken a 30% drop in microstock. Never mind!
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: HughStoneIan on July 30, 2018, 19:59
Headed for my lowest month since Sept 2007!!  >:(

At least I'll get paid, but back then this wouldn't even have qualified for a payout! They graciously lowered min payout a while back---anticipating this, I'm sure, so that at least their precious contributors could get paid at all.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: angelawaye on July 30, 2018, 22:14
My uploads have been light and this month is the worst since the second month after I started in 2013.

Yeah I agree! I only upload RM/RF nowadays but I have probably taken a 30% drop in microstock. Never mind!

Derek, what RM agencies do you recommend? ArcAngel is very very slow ...
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on July 31, 2018, 01:00
My uploads have been light and this month is the worst since the second month after I started in 2013.

Yeah I agree! I only upload RM/RF nowadays but I have probably taken a 30% drop in microstock. Never mind!

Derek, what RM agencies do you recommend? ArcAngel is very very slow ...

I send you a PM on that one!
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Uncle Pete on July 31, 2018, 08:35
My uploads have been light and this month is the worst since the second month after I started in 2013.

I tend to think that some people think this is a personal issue, while I'd say if you are down and I know what quality and diverse work you do, the whole business is suffering and depressed. I have a portable drive, filling with new files, that I haven't gotten around to editing or uploading. No motivation. But that's a personal issue.  ;D

I think I took one shot this week, one the road back from Xfinity in Iowa, that I like. Now I need some buyers to like it?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on July 31, 2018, 08:58
Thanks.  I’m really uninspired to upload my legacy people images because I waste all the time assigning multiple and different releases to all of them and then 75% get rejected even though all the releases have been accepted before.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on July 31, 2018, 09:54
^^ what do you expect? at SS its all new management all suits and beancounters. They wouldnt know quality even if it jumped up and knocked them on the eye-lids!!  quality to them is apples and oranges, dogs and babies! :)
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: jonbull on July 31, 2018, 10:37
rm agency are struggling much more than rf...don't believe the fool...to earn good money in rm is a miracle.
rf and rm are falling down...soon many agency will close the door believe me. just alamy seems to keep selling something. rm you need a lot of quantity and quality and something customer can't find anywhere. good money are still in rm news editorial agency if you have the right image. commercial rm are falling dwn.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Dumc on July 31, 2018, 13:17
Go away.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 01, 2018, 01:00
rm agency are struggling much more than rf...don't believe the fool...to earn good money in rm is a miracle.
rf and rm are falling down...soon many agency will close the door believe me. just alamy seems to keep selling something. rm you need a lot of quantity and quality and something customer can't find anywhere. good money are still in rm news editorial agency if you have the right image. commercial rm are falling dwn.

Either youve been drinking too many beers or the heat have gotten to you!! haha!  among us people that have been doing RM for 20 odd years Alamy is considered the absolute WORST agency of them all!...Alamy is pretty much considered a glorified micro-agency!!.

When you think RM youre thinking of the obvious ones Getty, Stocksy, Alamy etc, etc. Forget these mate, I'm not at all talking about these places just forget those!

haha!  what do you think that these agencies to the right here in the column are the ones???  theyre the ones that wants to be there, wants to be seen so that people like you will join them! ;D ;D ::)
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: trek on August 01, 2018, 19:57
rm agency are struggling much more than rf...don't believe the fool...to earn good money in rm is a miracle.
rf and rm are falling down...soon many agency will close the door believe me. just alamy seems to keep selling something. rm you need a lot of quantity and quality and something customer can't find anywhere. good money are still in rm news editorial agency if you have the right image. commercial rm are falling dwn.

Either youve been drinking too many beers or the heat have gotten to you!! haha!  among us people that have been doing RM for 20 odd years Alamy is considered the absolute WORST agency of them all!...Alamy is pretty much considered a glorified micro-agency!!.

When you think RM youre thinking of the obvious ones Getty, Stocksy, Alamy etc, etc. Forget these mate, I'm not at all talking about these places just forget those!

haha!  what do you think that these agencies to the right here in the column are the ones???  theyre the ones that wants to be there, wants to be seen so that people like you will join them! ;D ;D ::)


So... what's your favorite RM agency? 
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: SpaceStockFootage on August 01, 2018, 20:05
rf and rm are falling down...soon many agency will close the door believe me.

What are you basing this on? If you could share the evidence that would be much appreciated. I mean, you're not just basing agency sales on your individual sales... surely?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 02, 2018, 01:16
rf and rm are falling down...soon many agency will close the door believe me.

What are you basing this on? If you could share the evidence that would be much appreciated. I mean, you're not just basing agency sales on your individual sales... surely?

He doesnt know what he is talking about! hehe! he does go on waffling all around sometimes. I mean when he says Alamy is the ultimate RM place well hoho then you can imagine.
The fact is all the so called old boys here that started micro back in 95,96 you know that ones Im talking about are today concentrating on RM/RF. They might throw in an upload to micro now and then but on the whole they supply their quality to trad-agencies, they prevail micro dont.

The only draw back is that you cant supply the same content to both because of copyrights etc so for quality its either traditional or micro.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: gnirtS on August 03, 2018, 05:39
Same here. I am usually in the $800+ per month camp with SS but May was $600, June was $600 and July is $500. This was an overnight kind of thing, so perhaps another search tweak.  I do both video and stills and both are down, which is why I think it might be a search thing.

With the video thing, do you have a lot of 4k videos?

In may they broke (apparently broke not policy according to SS forum support) where if a buyer clicks "HD" in the search menu it excludes ALL 4k videos (which can obviously be downloaded in HD just like all the others) from the search.  Prior to that clicking HD only filtered out videos that weren't at HD or higher.
For me at least my sales are now almost entirely videos which only exist in HD format which is a shame as 3/5 of my catalogue is 4k....

And FWIW for me, July was my worst month for a while although i had a random outlier low the beginning of the year (and a random best month ever in June thanks to some highly unusual SODs).
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Phadrea on August 09, 2018, 14:50
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 10, 2018, 09:26
Herge!!  here is a tip!   find an old good file that have sold a lot but sort of vanished and dont sell anymore!...delete the file!  wait for at least 7 days and then re-upload the same file with different title, caption and re-arrange the keywords! and then wait..........you will see a miracle within just 10 hours sort of!

Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on August 19, 2018, 05:08
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

It's collapsed for me, too, with this month's sales down by half on other months this year and big SODs going extinct. SS was the last agency delivering a decent return for me and now that seems to be over. I've sold something like 400,000 licences over the last 14 years (on all agencies) so I used to be a fairly significant player but yesterday nothing on SS for the third time this year.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Mantis on August 19, 2018, 20:16
Same here. I am usually in the $800+ per month camp with SS but May was $600, June was $600 and July is $500. This was an overnight kind of thing, so perhaps another search tweak.  I do both video and stills and both are down, which is why I think it might be a search thing.

With the video thing, do you have a lot of 4k videos?

In may they broke (apparently broke not policy according to SS forum support) where if a buyer clicks "HD" in the search menu it excludes ALL 4k videos (which can obviously be downloaded in HD just like all the others) from the search.  Prior to that clicking HD only filtered out videos that weren't at HD or higher.
For me at least my sales are now almost entirely videos which only exist in HD format which is a shame as 3/5 of my catalogue is 4k....

And FWIW for me, July was my worst month for a while although i had a random outlier low the beginning of the year (and a random best month ever in June thanks to some highly unusual SODs).
[/quote
4
At SS you have to upload both hd and 4k separately. They have never built a system that downsizes for you. So i do upload both sizes.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 20, 2018, 00:53
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

It's collapsed for me, too, with this month's sales down by half on other months this year and big SODs going extinct. SS was the last agency delivering a decent return for me and now that seems to be over. I've sold something like 400,000 licences over the last 14 years (on all agencies) so I used to be a fairly significant player but yesterday nothing on SS for the third time this year.

Thats because we belong to that group that joined early and took upp all the space and all the sales and with gazillions of new members we had to sort of " give way" to new members to get a fair chance of selling as time went by they are selling but we are still stuck in that category of " has beens" hehe!.....I spoke to another dear friend of ours. extremely eloquent (you know who it is), he stopped uploading over a year back and his content was truly unique, nothing like it, few months back he even removed his portfolio!

New files dont seem to sell either so any uploading is just a total waste of time they will never see the light of day!  although I'm sure there are other groups of members where new files do sell frequently and like they used to.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: YadaYadaYada on August 20, 2018, 10:32
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

You've been writing the same for 8 years now, how can anything keep getting worse for so long.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Pauws99 on August 20, 2018, 12:10
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

You've been writing the same for 8 years now, how can anything keep getting worse for so long.
Well I suppose it can but the rational response would be to go and do something else that made you more happy or more money or maybe both.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 20, 2018, 13:04
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

You've been writing the same for 8 years now, how can anything keep getting worse for so long.

8 years?? youre kidding, really?  up to just 2 years back i was earning a small fortune at SS. You must be thinking of somebody else, maybe " shooterguy"  or " Gostwyck".
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: ShadySue on August 20, 2018, 14:09
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

You've been writing the same for 8 years now, how can anything keep getting worse for so long.
8 years?? youre kidding, really?  up to just 2 years back i was earning a small fortune at SS. You must be thinking of somebody else, maybe " shooterguy"  or " Gostwyck".
Everything isn't about you - just look at the threading you quoted.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: Pauws99 on August 20, 2018, 16:09
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

You've been writing the same for 8 years now, how can anything keep getting worse for so long.
8 years?? youre kidding, really?  up to just 2 years back i was earning a small fortune at SS. You must be thinking of somebody else, maybe " shooterguy"  or " Gostwyck".
Everything isn't about you - just look at the threading you quoted.
More evidence of my "Trump" of microstock theory ;-).
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: cobalt on August 20, 2018, 17:06
Thanks.  I’m really uninspired to upload my legacy people images because I waste all the time assigning multiple and different releases to all of them and then 75% get rejected even though all the releases have been accepted before.

Oh...I thought I was doing something wrong?? One week the first batch is accepted, next week more from the batch is rejected because they don´t like the release.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on August 21, 2018, 02:00
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

It's collapsed for me, too, with this month's sales down by half on other months this year and big SODs going extinct. SS was the last agency delivering a decent return for me and now that seems to be over. I've sold something like 400,000 licences over the last 14 years (on all agencies) so I used to be a fairly significant player but yesterday nothing on SS for the third time this year.

Thats because we belong to that group that joined early and took upp all the space and all the sales and with gazillions of new members we had to sort of " give way" to new members to get a fair chance of selling as time went by they are selling but we are still stuck in that category of " has beens" hehe!.....I spoke to another dear friend of ours. extremely eloquent (you know who it is), he stopped uploading over a year back and his content was truly unique, nothing like it, few months back he even removed his portfolio!

New files dont seem to sell either so any uploading is just a total waste of time they will never see the light of day!  although I'm sure there are other groups of members where new files do sell frequently and like they used to.

Yeah, I know all about the dilution effect (I've felt it like everyone else) but now I'm looking at a 60% decline in sales compared with my previous worst month of the last decade (which was June). It's down more than 90% from my hey-day, but during the long slide I've never experienced such a massive percentage drop from one month to the next.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 21, 2018, 02:31
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

You've been writing the same for 8 years now, how can anything keep getting worse for so long.
8 years?? youre kidding, really?  up to just 2 years back i was earning a small fortune at SS. You must be thinking of somebody else, maybe " shooterguy"  or " Gostwyck".
Everything isn't about you - just look at the threading you quoted.

Ooops!  youre right,  wrong thread my mistake!
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 21, 2018, 02:42
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

It's collapsed for me, too, with this month's sales down by half on other months this year and big SODs going extinct. SS was the last agency delivering a decent return for me and now that seems to be over. I've sold something like 400,000 licences over the last 14 years (on all agencies) so I used to be a fairly significant player but yesterday nothing on SS for the third time this year.

Thats because we belong to that group that joined early and took upp all the space and all the sales and with gazillions of new members we had to sort of " give way" to new members to get a fair chance of selling as time went by they are selling but we are still stuck in that category of " has beens" hehe!.....I spoke to another dear friend of ours. extremely eloquent (you know who it is), he stopped uploading over a year back and his content was truly unique, nothing like it, few months back he even removed his portfolio!

New files dont seem to sell either so any uploading is just a total waste of time they will never see the light of day!  although I'm sure there are other groups of members where new files do sell frequently and like they used to.

Yeah, I know all about the dilution effect (I've felt it like everyone else) but now I'm looking at a 60% decline in sales compared with my previous worst month of the last decade (which was June). It's down more than 90% from my hey-day, but during the long slide I've never experienced such a massive percentage drop from one month to the next.


Its exactly the same for all of us in that brackett!  I spoke to four long time pals of ours yesterday after this thread, all of us started 12-14 years back etc, etc, and ALL are seeing the exact same decline, between 50-80%,  cut off from SOD's and so forth!...the pattern is identically scary. In my case just towards the end of the month I get these single-sales between 50-90 dollars about 3,4 of them as a sort of " pat on the back" thingy but it dont remotely come close to what I once clocked in!....one theory I heard was that being a member of Offset would have an effect??  but that doesnt hold at all since portfolios at SS and Offset are lightyears different!...I dont know mate!  its strange thats all!
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on August 21, 2018, 04:31
Well, we were all saying 10 or 12 years ago that it couldn't last forever. It's had a longer run than I expected so I really can't complain. if I want to make money I'll just have to use the skills and resources I've acquired over the years in another direction.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 21, 2018, 05:31
Well, we were all saying 10 or 12 years ago that it couldn't last forever. It's had a longer run than I expected so I really can't complain. if I want to make money I'll just have to use the skills and resources I've acquired over the years in another direction.

Thats right we did! we've had a great run really. With your port I would go for one of the trad agencies, the smaller boutique agencies. Not much left in micro I'm afraid. :)
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: jonbull on August 21, 2018, 07:22
Since April SS have nosedived for me. Appallingly diabolical and every consecutive month gets worse. Uploading more work makes absolutely no difference.

You've been writing the same for 8 years now, how can anything keep getting worse for so long.

8 years?? youre kidding, really?  up to just 2 years back i was earning a small fortune at SS. You must be thinking of somebody else, maybe " shooterguy"  or " Gostwyck".


can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: jonbull on August 21, 2018, 07:26
Well, we were all saying 10 or 12 years ago that it couldn't last forever. It's had a longer run than I expected so I really can't complain. if I want to make money I'll just have to use the skills and resources I've acquired over the years in another direction.

Thats right we did! we've had a great run really. With your port I would go for one of the trad agencies, the smaller boutique agencies. Not much left in micro I'm afraid. :)

if you had any clue bout rm and especially boutique agency, as you say, I'm taking about gallery stock and other top small agency, you know that that portfolio won't have any chance  to be admitted. in my opinion you are just a complete bluff.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 21, 2018, 08:09
Well, we were all saying 10 or 12 years ago that it couldn't last forever. It's had a longer run than I expected so I really can't complain. if I want to make money I'll just have to use the skills and resources I've acquired over the years in another direction.

Thats right we did! we've had a great run really. With your port I would go for one of the trad agencies, the smaller boutique agencies. Not much left in micro I'm afraid. :)

if you had any clue bout rm and especially boutique agency, as you say, I'm taking about gallery stock and other top small agency, you know that that portfolio won't have any chance  to be admitted. in my opinion you are just a complete bluff.

yeah youre right!............ ::) 
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: farbled on August 21, 2018, 11:14
can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.

I am selling a book and have a middle of the road portfolio. Are you referring to me?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: jonbull on August 21, 2018, 11:21
can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.

I am selling a book and have a middle of the road portfolio. Are you referring to me?
not to you at all.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: farbled on August 21, 2018, 11:24
can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.

I am selling a book and have a middle of the road portfolio. Are you referring to me?
not to you at all.

Thank you for clarifying.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 21, 2018, 11:42
can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.

I am selling a book and have a middle of the road portfolio. Are you referring to me?
not to you at all.

Thank you for clarifying.

Actually I think he was referring to you, his English isnt all that you know! btw, I think your portfolio is great!
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: farbled on August 21, 2018, 11:50
can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.

I am selling a book and have a middle of the road portfolio. Are you referring to me?
not to you at all.

Thank you for clarifying.

Actually I think he was referring to you, his English isnt all that you know! btw, I think your portfolio is great!

Lol thanks. Well, if anyone has a problem with me, they can refer to me by name. :)
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 21, 2018, 12:04
can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.

I am selling a book and have a middle of the road portfolio. Are you referring to me?
not to you at all.

Thank you for clarifying.

Actually I think he was referring to you, his English isnt all that you know! btw, I think your portfolio is great!

Lol thanks. Well, if anyone has a problem with me, they can refer to me by name. :)

I know but Jonbull never does he sort of always talk in riddles! :)
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: jonbull on August 21, 2018, 15:11
can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.

I am selling a book and have a middle of the road portfolio. Are you referring to me?
not to you at all.

Thank you for clarifying.

Actually I think he was referring to you, his English isnt all that you know! btw, I think your portfolio is great!

it wa pretty easy to understand who i was referring to....can you show us the patrimony you accumulated with 2000 similar images?
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 21, 2018, 15:20
can you proof it?
why not posing your total earning in ss...i have the feeling you don't earn nothing like many ere who come to sell books and claim to earn thousand dollar with mediocre portfolio.

I am selling a book and have a middle of the road portfolio. Are you referring to me?
not to you at all.

Thank you for clarifying.

Actually I think he was referring to you, his English isnt all that you know! btw, I think your portfolio is great!

it wa pretty easy to understand who i was referring to....can you show us the patrimony you accumulated with 2000 similar images?

As long as they all sell mate! thats the main thingy!....which is more then I can say about your mediocre editorial newbie content!  and then you shouldnt insult " farbled"  the way you do!
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on August 22, 2018, 04:38
Well, we were all saying 10 or 12 years ago that it couldn't last forever. It's had a longer run than I expected so I really can't complain. if I want to make money I'll just have to use the skills and resources I've acquired over the years in another direction.

 With your port I would go for one of the trad agencies, the smaller boutique agencies. Not much left in micro I'm afraid. :)

if you had any clue bout rm and especially boutique agency, as you say, I'm taking about gallery stock and other top small agency, you know that that portfolio won't have any chance  to be admitted.

I have to agree, unfortunately (since it's my portfolio). It was shot purely for microstock and is entirely devoid of the sophistication/processing a boutique agency would want. I wouldn't even bother trying to get it on Stocksy.
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: derek on August 22, 2018, 05:02
Well, we were all saying 10 or 12 years ago that it couldn't last forever. It's had a longer run than I expected so I really can't complain. if I want to make money I'll just have to use the skills and resources I've acquired over the years in another direction.

 With your port I would go for one of the trad agencies, the smaller boutique agencies. Not much left in micro I'm afraid. :)

if you had any clue bout rm and especially boutique agency, as you say, I'm taking about gallery stock and other top small agency, you know that that portfolio won't have any chance  to be admitted.

I have to agree, unfortunately (since it's my portfolio). It was shot purely for microstock and is entirely devoid of the sophistication/processing a boutique agency would want. I wouldn't even bother trying to get it on Stocksy.


Forget stocksy!  go for Offset instead or Trevellian surely among all the travel/Qatar images you must have stuff not being processed for micro?  I mean my port all engineering, technology and oil-industrial is only for microstock but for Getty and the other two its completelty different or esle I couldnt sell it as RM/RF, a lot is also shot on Medium format HD5.......or maybe you could process them differently I mean you do have some stunning work from Qatar and there abouts!
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: leaf on August 22, 2018, 05:40
Thanks.  I’m really uninspired to upload my legacy people images because I waste all the time assigning multiple and different releases to all of them and then 75% get rejected even though all the releases have been accepted before.

I hear ya!
Title: Re: No uploading since 4 months - 60% income drop in 4 months ?? Seriously ?
Post by: rinderart on August 26, 2018, 10:45
Thanks.  I’m really uninspired to upload my legacy people images because I waste all the time assigning multiple and different releases to all of them and then 75% get rejected even though all the releases have been accepted before.

I hear ya!

DITTO!!!