Author Topic: No words anymore (Read 12320 times)

morning.light · « **on:** September 13, 2013, 06:29 »

Every time I used to see low sales during weekend I would comfort myself with "it's ok, that's because it's the weekend". Then when I would see low sales on Friday I'd say "it's ok, that's because it's just before the weekend". But what should I say when I see 0 sales days in the middle of the week? "It's ok, sales are low because it's the middle of the week?" $:-\$

I really don't understand what's happening lately. I upload and upload and sales are getting lower and lower...

roede-orm · « **Reply #1 on:** September 13, 2013, 06:51 »

Maybe you should say: Ok, I have to make other pictures, I need pictures, that buyers are looking for

Ron · « **Reply #2 on:** September 13, 2013, 08:56 »

I really feel for all the people that see a decline in sales, and I certainly dont understand why some portfolios, with a lot, and I mean a lot, of high quality, highly commercial images, fail to get sales.

Honestly, I feel guilty for having good sales, with my mediocre portfolio, when their portfolios should outperform mine by factor 10. Its like my portfolio is being favored in the search. I dont know, but I truly do not understand why I can have 40 sales, when others have 0. Its not the quality of my work. It just isnt.

It truly baffles me, and what I find most frustrating is that there are tons of threads and comments pointing this problem out, but no one from SS wants to chip in with a truthful explanation as to why that is happening. They know what its happening with those HCV portfolios, they should spill the beans.

cthoman · « **Reply #3 on:** September 13, 2013, 09:17 »

Quote from: Ron on September 13, 2013, 08:56

I really feel for all the people that see a decline in sales, and I certainly dont understand why some portfolios, with a lot, and I mean a lot, of high quality, highly commercial images, fail to get sales.

Honestly, I feel guilty for having good sales, with my mediocre portfolio, when their portfolios should outperform mine by factor 10. Its like my portfolio is being favored in the search. I dont know, but I truly do not understand why I can have 40 sales, when others have 0. Its not the quality of my work. It just isnt.

It truly baffles me, and what I find most frustrating is that there are tons of threads and comments pointing this problem out, but no one from SS wants to chip in with a truthful explanation as to why that is happening. They know what its happening with those HCV portfolios, they should spill the beans.

I always assumed (maybe incorrectly) that SS just switches back and forth from favoring new files to favoring old files. If you have a mix of both, then you may not notice. If you have more of one, then your sales may take a hit for a few months.

niserin · « **Reply #4 on:** September 13, 2013, 09:22 »

I have both files that have 6 years and keep selling and new files that have some days and selling very good. No need to complain if you work hard and diversify your portfolio.
Shutterstock, keep up the good work ! My only wish is that Shutterstock create a new top tier (for instance over $50k )

Pauws99 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 13, 2013, 09:27 »

The market decides HCV not opinion if it didn't I would be much richer ;-)

Shelma1 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 13, 2013, 10:11 »

Quote from: cthoman on September 13, 2013, 09:17

Quote from: Ron on September 13, 2013, 08:56
I really feel for all the people that see a decline in sales, and I certainly dont understand why some portfolios, with a lot, and I mean a lot, of high quality, highly commercial images, fail to get sales.

Honestly, I feel guilty for having good sales, with my mediocre portfolio, when their portfolios should outperform mine by factor 10. Its like my portfolio is being favored in the search. I dont know, but I truly do not understand why I can have 40 sales, when others have 0. Its not the quality of my work. It just isnt.

It truly baffles me, and what I find most frustrating is that there are tons of threads and comments pointing this problem out, but no one from SS wants to chip in with a truthful explanation as to why that is happening. They know what its happening with those HCV portfolios, they should spill the beans.

I always assumed (maybe incorrectly) that SS just switches back and forth from favoring new files to favoring old files. If you have a mix of both, then you may not notice. If you have more of one, then your sales may take a hit for a few months.

I don't agree. After the "site maintenance" in mid July, my sales dropped off a cliff. New files dropped especially, but old files dropped as well. Weeks later, my portfolio is still not selling as well as it was in back in the beginning of July.

cthoman · « **Reply #7 on:** September 13, 2013, 10:26 »

Quote from: Shelma1 on September 13, 2013, 10:11

Quote from: cthoman on September 13, 2013, 09:17
Quote from: Ron on September 13, 2013, 08:56
I really feel for all the people that see a decline in sales, and I certainly dont understand why some portfolios, with a lot, and I mean a lot, of high quality, highly commercial images, fail to get sales.

Honestly, I feel guilty for having good sales, with my mediocre portfolio, when their portfolios should outperform mine by factor 10. Its like my portfolio is being favored in the search. I dont know, but I truly do not understand why I can have 40 sales, when others have 0. Its not the quality of my work. It just isnt.

It truly baffles me, and what I find most frustrating is that there are tons of threads and comments pointing this problem out, but no one from SS wants to chip in with a truthful explanation as to why that is happening. They know what its happening with those HCV portfolios, they should spill the beans.

I always assumed (maybe incorrectly) that SS just switches back and forth from favoring new files to favoring old files. If you have a mix of both, then you may not notice. If you have more of one, then your sales may take a hit for a few months.

I don't agree. After the "site maintenance" in mid July, my sales dropped off a cliff. New files dropped especially, but old files dropped as well. Weeks later, my portfolio is still not selling as well as it was in back in the beginning of July.

Yeah, I suppose it was an overly simplified explanation. I'm sure their algorithms are much more complex.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 13, 2013, 10:50 »

Quote from: morning.light on September 13, 2013, 06:29

Every time I used to see low sales during weekend I would comfort myself with "it's ok, that's because it's the weekend". Then when I would see low sales on Friday I'd say "it's ok, that's because it's just before the weekend". But what should I say when I see 0 sales days in the middle of the week? "It's ok, sales are low because it's the middle of the week?" $:-\$

I really don't understand what's happening lately. I upload and upload and sales are getting lower and lower...

how big is your portfolio?

looking at Michele (Shelma1) post it is indeed scary once its a big portfolio with many diversity/quality as well, hearing here and at SS forum these kind of downtrends make me speechless, glad it never affected me

stockastic · « **Reply #9 on:** September 13, 2013, 11:08 »

It's very difficult to know what to produce when we have a system where a few middlemen completely control the market, and prevent the creative producers (us) from ever making any contact with buyers. Imagine if you could spend just 15 minutes actually talking with a designer that uses stock images.

The microstock companies don't care how much time their suppliers waste, that costs them nothing, they're happy for us to proceed on guesswork, or to just give up. For them, the beauty of crowdsourcing just continues to unfold.

Anita Potter · « **Reply #10 on:** September 13, 2013, 11:31 »

I sure don't know what to make anymore either and I have suffered this year and have also seen 0 on a week day. It sucks so you're not alone. My port is extremely diversified so I can't understand what's going on. This year has been so awful I missed payout twice this year and I've made payout every month for over 2 years before that.

I was going to start uploading again but if new content won't sell at all except one here and one there not sure if it's worth it for me to make new images for them to get either reject for the wrong reasons or get accepted and just sit there gathering dust in my port.

ShadySue · « **Reply #11 on:** September 13, 2013, 11:39 »

Quote from: stockastic on September 13, 2013, 11:08

It's very difficult to know what to produce when we have a system where a few middlemen completely control the market, and prevent the creative producers (us) from ever making any contact with buyers.

iS had an occasional creative brief, which was supposed to be a regular feature listing perveived buyer 'wants', but there hasn't been one since May, allegedly because few people were uploading in response.

tickstock · « **Reply #12 on:** September 13, 2013, 11:45 »

luissantos84 · « **Reply #13 on:** September 13, 2013, 12:15 »

Quote from: Anita Potter on September 13, 2013, 11:31

I sure don't know what to make anymore either and I have suffered this year and have also seen 0 on a week day. It sucks so you're not alone. My port is extremely diversified so I can't understand what's going on. This year has been so awful I missed payout twice this year and I've made payout every month for over 2 years before that.

I was going to start uploading again but if new content won't sell at all except one here and one there not sure if it's worth it for me to make new images for them to get either reject for the wrong reasons or get accepted and just sit there gathering dust in my port.

how lower are you comparing to average?

Anita Potter · « **Reply #14 on:** September 13, 2013, 12:35 »

I'm at 1/3 of what I made last year on SS. Last year I made over 2k this year I'm not even at 1k so pretty * drastic turn/change of events for me.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #15 on:** September 13, 2013, 13:29 »

Quote from: Anita Potter on September 13, 2013, 12:35

I'm at 1/3 of what I made last year on SS. Last year I made over 2k this year I'm not even at 1k so pretty * drastic turn/change of events for me.

ouch, for your portfolio looks incredible low, should be monthly not yearly

Anita Potter · « **Reply #16 on:** September 13, 2013, 14:10 »

I wish it was like that. I might've gotten in the game too late I don't know. Is there a such thing as being too diversified?

My yearly has gone up every year except this one. Definitely dumbfounded on what to do next.

heywoody · « **Reply #17 on:** September 13, 2013, 15:19 »

To be frank, I still haven't a clue what is "quality" or HCV - isolated crap that nobody could possibly want sell well while things that involve a lot of effort don't. At the end of the day if buyers want images of dog turds instead of the mona lisa that is what is commercial in exactly the same way that reality tv, most popular music, fast food etc is commercial but will never be "quality" - at least in the way I understand quality.

gbalex · « **Reply #18 on:** September 13, 2013, 15:44 »

It is real, I have talked to many long term contributors who have seen huge drops since June of this year.

As contributors we have been hearing no one knows what sells for years and it is hard to determine the true commercial value of images.

The reality I am hearing from people who have a long record of being able to produce content that sells well, is that they are experiencing large and significant drops over night. Buyer's bought their content in numbers for years and in a matter of a month port sales dropped 30% to 70% overnight. Some of high volume illustrators seem to have been hit particularly hard.

Those types of overnight drops have nothing to do with the contents in those ports. SS either did it on purpose or the site bugs are spreading and getting worse.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #19 on:** September 13, 2013, 16:11 »

Or customer demand for those images has dropped for some reason. Not even shutterstock can force people to buy images they don't want.

gbalex · « **Reply #20 on:** September 13, 2013, 17:10 »

Quote from: Pauws99 on September 13, 2013, 16:11

Or customer demand for those images has dropped for some reason. Not even shutterstock can force people to buy images they don't want.

Customer demand drops gradually, not overnight. We are talking about ports that sold very well for many years.

cthoman · « **Reply #21 on:** September 13, 2013, 18:07 »

Out of curiosity if it continues to drop, where do you go from here?

heywoody · « **Reply #22 on:** September 13, 2013, 18:20 »

Just looking at the relative popularity of my own images I would guess that the popular algorithm is not looking at a files lifetime sales history but only a (possibly weighted) recent history + some consideration of views which are probably counted even if we can't see them. This would mean that long time contributors would lose a considerable advantage over more recent contributors. Overall sales for the site are probably not affected but are being more widely dispersed.

OM · « **Reply #23 on:** September 13, 2013, 20:35 »

Unfortunately, to me it seems that 'luck' plays such an important role in getting a number of bestsellers in your portfolio that it's impossible to 'know' anything about this 'business'. Almost by definition then, it's not a business because you can't rely on logical decisions to make you a profit.

I've been really lucky with SS because within a year of being there I have an image that has sold more than 500 times and a few others that have also sold a couple of hundred times in that period of time. But why so many sales for those images? Haven't a clue! Maybe those shots appeared in the 'new' section when a number of buyers were looking for new shots in the new section cos they were sick of seeing what they'd already viewed/use. Or maybe not. Really, we know nothing!

lisafx · « **Reply #24 on:** September 13, 2013, 22:26 »

Quote from: gbalex on September 13, 2013, 17:10

Quote from: Pauws99 on September 13, 2013, 16:11
Or customer demand for those images has dropped for some reason. Not even shutterstock can force people to buy images they don't want.

Customer demand drops gradually, not overnight. We are talking about ports that sold very well for many years.

Yep. Huge overnight drops are usually, demonstrably a result of search changes and/or site problems. When others are reporting increased sales, that points more directly to search changes.

sharpshot · « **Reply #25 on:** September 14, 2013, 02:53 »

I'm still doing OK with SS but I'm relying on some of those higher priced SOD sales each month. Haven't had any big ones so far this month and my earnings aren't looking good.

As I rely on SS so much now, this is a big concern. I'd like to just continue feeding SS but there's so many people saying their earnings have been drastically reduced, I don't think it's sensible to think it wont happen to me. I think for the rest of the year, I'm going to work like crazy trying to diversify. My plan is to get at least 10,000 non-microstock images on alamy in the next year and to do a few thousand video clips that will hopefully boost my earnings on Pond5. I'd like to get in to Stocksy but I think that will have to wait until I have more money coming in.

Perhaps I'll work a bit harder with DT, if they have dropped the similars policy.

lisafx · « **Reply #26 on:** September 14, 2013, 10:09 »

Sounds like a really smart plan Sharpshot. I am sure that diversification is the way to go. A lot of work, but it will probably pay off ITLR.

Anita Potter · « **Reply #27 on:** September 14, 2013, 13:18 »

Wow sharpshot that is a really advantageous goal. I do wish you much luck in reaching your goal and getting the results you're after.

I envy those that can figure out their goals. I've been in the doldrums lately without any direction I don't think I'm the only one either. We'll find our direction just may take a few wrong turns to get there.

sharpshot · « **Reply #28 on:** September 15, 2013, 03:50 »

Thanks Lisa and Anita. Got off to a slow start yesterday when I went out with the camera but forgot to put the battery in. There can't be a worse feeling than getting the camera out of the bag only to find it's as useful as a brick

I've done that twice in my life now and don't intend to do it a third time.

Anita Potter · « **Reply #29 on:** September 15, 2013, 04:38 »

A battery I haven't forgotten...SD card on the other hand more than I can count. I find it all snug in the computers SD port.

Remember your battery...remember your battery...remember your battery.

Repetition helps with remembering

Pauws99 · « **Reply #30 on:** September 15, 2013, 06:01 »

Lucikly my camera has two SD slots or I would have been caught out. Always in the habit of turning camera on before I set out and making sure its at F9 125th sec for any quick shots should a few aliens pass by

lisafx · « **Reply #31 on:** September 15, 2013, 11:50 »

Quote from: sharpshot on September 15, 2013, 03:50

Thanks Lisa and Anita. Got off to a slow start yesterday when I went out with the camera but forgot to put the battery in. There can't be a worse feeling than getting the camera out of the bag only to find it's as useful as a brick I've done that twice in my life now and don't intend to do it a third time.

Oh, that's really aggravating! I've been there. Since then, I always carry an extra charged battery in the camera bag. Lesson learned the HARD WAY.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #32 on:** September 16, 2013, 09:15 »

I've been saved by my standard practice of carrying a spare battery and memory card in my pocket. If I'm up a hill or off somewhere and there's a sudden battery failure (Or someone forgot to re-charge it), or the card is full because ("someone" forgot to format it after the last shoot), I have a spare.

I've only had one battery every have an honest sudden failure. About 100 degrees and maybe it just couldn't take the heat. I've never had a card fail, but they do.

So the end point is, most of the problems are created by me forgetting something.

I can't drive out to some rural spot and have no battery or card, so I'm carrying one in my vest pocket, which at least I do remember... most of the time.

Buy a backup battery, and spare memory card pack it in your pocket. You wouldn't go shoot with only one roll of film, would you? Our film is electricity and memory cards.

Yes, I've shot for half a day with the film not wound on the sprocket, now I check carefully. I've gone out, up on a hill, with no memory card. I've had a battery go dead, in the middle of an event. I've also formatted a CF card, before I made the backup, and if there's something else that someone can do wrong, I've probably done that too. But at least I can cover my backside for a couple of problems, with a battery and SD card, always in the vest pocket.

Quote from: sharpshot on September 15, 2013, 03:50

Thanks Lisa and Anita. Got off to a slow start yesterday when I went out with the camera but forgot to put the battery in. There can't be a worse feeling than getting the camera out of the bag only to find it's as useful as a brick I've done that twice in my life now and don't intend to do it a third time.

ruxpriencdiam · « **Reply #33 on:** September 16, 2013, 11:19 »

If you keep everything in the camera bag and take the bag with you then you should have everything you need!

Pretty simple.

Three sets of batteries for the speedlight, two cable releases, one wireless remote with extra batteries and an extra camera battery. Then of course there are at least six plus SD cards for use ranging from 2 to 16 in size.

Then if you invest a few more bucks you will have an inverter in your vehicle with all the battery chargers so you can charge the speedlight batteries and camera battery if needed.

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Author Topic: No words anymore (Read 12320 times)

morning.light

roede-orm

Ron

cthoman

niserin

Pauws99

Shelma1

cthoman

luissantos84

stockastic

Anita Potter

ShadySue

tickstock

luissantos84

Anita Potter

luissantos84

Anita Potter

heywoody

gbalex

Pauws99

gbalex

cthoman

heywoody

OM

lisafx

sharpshot

lisafx

Anita Potter

sharpshot

Anita Potter

Pauws99

lisafx

Uncle Pete

ruxpriencdiam

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