Hi Everyone
Sales have decreased in the last month and this month.
Are there any people who notice this?
Is everything normal to you? 

Yes ... the slices of the cake are always smaller ...

My november was average thanks to a high rpd but december is down ...

my November was really good  when compared to last year`s November. December so far seems worse, and during holidays it will go down even more as I don`t have any Xmas thematic pictures.

In previous years I had big increase in editorials during the last week, I am not completely sure why but could be related to agencies, newspapers, websites burning what`s left in their 2016 budget and stocking for 2017

Thanks for comments 

Dec 15 2016 is half of Dec 2015 which is half a month vs whole month. I'll have to wait because end of the month is usually slow. But as it looks right now. No change and right around average.

Update. Dec 16 2016 I just passed Dec 2015 total earnings. I was wrong. I expected sales to drop for the rest of the month.

I am on Target to be about 60% down on last December.

Whatever I do, nothing seams to bring up my sales. I have noticed 2 distinct drops this year, starting end June/early July with another around the 22 November. I can only surmise that I am a victim of search changes that haven't gone my way but, if it continues, I will have to make some significant changes in 2017, as I can't continue with the level of work involved for the minimal returns.

Do!  with the right agencies its a completely different story. Joined micro from the start in 2004 and have had some great times and earnings but now I feel they have played their game to the end and what remains are the leftovers. The reason all play around with the search is probably because they know its come to an end and they want to earn as much as possible before the crash.

What crash? The micros won't crash anytime soon, but most contributors will crash quite soon.

The root of the problem is obvious: too many contributors producing too many (decent) files.
It will be my first year since 2008 when I earned less than in the previous year, and the prospects for the next year are bleak.

In 2008 SS sold almost all files that I sent them and people were shocked when 50K files were being added every week. I'm afraid it's Game Over for most of us quite soon. Even Stockmarketer seems to have disappeared from MSG. He must have found greener pastures, I suppose.

About 40% lower than las year... but only uploaded 50 photos to a 2700 images port. Im working in macro.

What LDV81 said... a lot of agencies are going from strength to strength, it's just that there are so many more people, uploading more and more files, so our slice of the pie gets smaller.

What was on that recent SS earnings report... 69% more files than last year? If you're starting out in stock then it's probably pretty easy to upload 69% more files in your second year than you did in your first, and maybe your third or fourth, but let's say you've been doing it for ten years and you've uploaded 1000 files a year. So in 2015 you have 10000 files. To match the 69% increase you're going to have to upload 6900 files in 2016. 11,600 in 2017. 19,700 in 2018 and so on and so forth.

Meanwhile, their sales went up about 20% from last year, so it's not like they'll be going anywhere anytime soon.

All I can advise is to keep on uploading more stuff than you did in the previous year, and make sure the stuff you upload this year is better than the stuff you uploaded last year. Otherwise, it's pretty inevitable that people's income will start to drop over time. Easier said than done, but hey ho.

Absolutely!

I'm actually having a good December but none of my (admittedly rather average) xmas images are selling.

I've experienced an increase in number of sales in December, but only submissions.

I don't know how annual submissions work, but it looks like buyers are buying more just because the expiry date of the submission is near.

Quote from: angelawaye on December 15, 2016, 10:56

November and December are very bad - December being much worse... I am debating to go with Macro at this rate.

Do!  with the right agencies its a completely different story. Joined micro from the start in 2004 and have had some great times and earnings but now I feel they have played their game to the end and what remains are the leftovers. The reason all play around with the search is probably because they know its come to an end and they want to earn as much as possible before the crash.

so right, gyllens!!! as yada3 said, the piece of the pie is small... almost left to nibblers.
the writing on the wall was when ss reduced the entry criterion from 7/10 to 1/10 and the payout limit down to 35 bucks. it's like telling us, don't expect much to give you ppl anymore...
whereas before even $100 payout limit is like payout every month possible,
unlike all the micros to the right of this page, eg dreamstime , big stock, alamyetc ..would take you 200 years to reach payout of $100, LOL

still, ss payout monthly better than anyone to the right, even if it is 35 bucks low.

macro is the only way to go via agency now. and of course, back to selling your own.
without a middle man eating up most of your earning, it is easier to sell at a much lower price.
the trick is to find the market.
i know one old colleague who left micro a couple of years ago, now doing well at ebay selling framed prints of his micro works. he says he won't go back to wasting time on micro, even with ss.

still, i watch adobe... as they did not come into the micro for nothing.
they must have something in mind.

worked hard in the last month.
i never spend so many times in the past uploading..from 2013 2016 january i uploaded a bunch of file...this year i'm uploading and working on a backlog so big it looks a titanic...but uploading good file is making a different. best month of last 4 years thanks of two sals today each for 84 dollar. really amazed.
i know christmas will make this month so short but i have hope to be back to 2009 year.
what surprises me is that practically every new file i uploaded is selling. i sell only new in practice.
good.

Quote from: gyllens on December 15, 2016, 13:29

Quote from: angelawaye on December 15, 2016, 10:56

November and December are very bad - December being much worse... I am debating to go with Macro at this rate.

Do!  with the right agencies its a completely different story. Joined micro from the start in 2004 and have had some great times and earnings but now I feel they have played their game to the end and what remains are the leftovers. The reason all play around with the search is probably because they know its come to an end and they want to earn as much as possible before the crash.

so right, gyllens!!! as yada3 said, the piece of the pie is small... almost left to nibblers.
the writing on the wall was when ss reduced the entry criterion from 7/10 to 1/10 and the payout limit down to 35 bucks. it's like telling us, don't expect much to give you ppl anymore...
whereas before even $100 payout limit is like payout every month possible,
unlike all the micros to the right of this page, eg dreamstime , big stock, alamyetc ..would take you 200 years to reach payout of $100, LOL

still, ss payout monthly better than anyone to the right, even if it is 35 bucks low.

macro is the only way to go via agency now. and of course, back to selling your own.
without a middle man eating up most of your earning, it is easier to sell at a much lower price.
the trick is to find the market.
i know one old colleague who left micro a couple of years ago, now doing well at ebay selling framed prints of his micro works. he says he won't go back to wasting time on micro, even with ss.

still, i watch adobe... as they did not come into the micro for nothing.
they must have something in mind.

Very true!  micro bosses are aware of this they dont make themselves any false hopes ( I think) they have to renew themselves somehow. Question is how? when youve been selling cheapos for 15 years!

I think SS finally fixed the search again. Saw some great sales this week, with 2 massive days that will probably push it over FT again this month. Talk about an early Christmas present.

I think next year is going to be a great year. With the search back to normal and no spammers to compete with, sales will continue to improve.

until the next time you have a couple of bad days and we are all going to hell in a handcart ;-)

People here are obsessed with this search thing and blame it on everything. I have some files, that are on the first page for popular more than a year. How'd you explain that?

I do too, multiple searches, some for a few years now. We must be the chosen ones?    Unfair favoritism, we make less commission, new photos don't sell, we have spammed the titles, somebody at SS has pushed us to the top because we are insiders.

Or possibly I don't shoot sliced vegetables isolated on white, happy smiling salad people, business handshake or girl with a headset? I confess to having a Sunset, lone tree and some other horrid cliche shots, with bad placement and no sales. That's why I don't shoot the best selling subjects.

Quote from: Dumc on December 23, 2016, 14:01

People here are obsessed with this search thing and blame it on everything. I have some files, that are on the first page for popular more than a year. How'd you explain that?

I do too, multiple searches, some for a few years now. We must be the chosen ones?    Unfair favoritism, we make less commission, new photos don't sell, we have spammed the titles, somebody at SS has pushed us to the top because we are insiders.

Or possibly I don't shoot sliced vegetables isolated on white, happy smiling salad people, business handshake or girl with a headset? I confess to having a Sunset, lone tree and some other horrid cliche shots, with bad placement and no sales. That's why I don't shoot the best selling subjects.

Whats the point?  buyers in most countries see a completely different search from us. You see one of your shots on page-1 but a buyer might see that shot on page-8. So whats the point.
This is the issue where they steamroll us.

Quote from: YadaYadaYada on December 23, 2016, 15:46

Quote from: Dumc on December 23, 2016, 14:01

People here are obsessed with this search thing and blame it on everything. I have some files, that are on the first page for popular more than a year. How'd you explain that?

I do too, multiple searches, some for a few years now. We must be the chosen ones?    Unfair favoritism, we make less commission, new photos don't sell, we have spammed the titles, somebody at SS has pushed us to the top because we are insiders.

Or possibly I don't shoot sliced vegetables isolated on white, happy smiling salad people, business handshake or girl with a headset? I confess to having a Sunset, lone tree and some other horrid cliche shots, with bad placement and no sales. That's why I don't shoot the best selling subjects.

Whats the point?  buyers in most countries see a completely different search from us. You see one of your shots on page-1 but a buyer might see that shot on page-8. So whats the point.
This is the issue where they steamroll us.

Too bad that you are such a negative and unhappy person that the truth will be denied. There are people who have first page placement, no matter what country or if we are looking our self. I can go to another computer in another state and search, my six on the first page of a search are still the same place.

I think the point is, that some of us do hold first and second page spots for years. The search is not tossed and penalizing us. Low earners are not forced to the front. I'm not an insider or special treatment case, just another person.

The opposite claims are that somebody else is getting favorite treatment, that's why sales are down. That has no proof. Many people say so, isn't proof, it's argument by consensus.