MicrostockGroup

very similar to your numbers! my mind boggles at those with 100+ dl/day. what kind of photos are those (can't see their port).

i'm sure is will be a cake walk for you, but don't expect the same spectacular results with ss. they're a very steady performer though.

I joined SS ten days ago with 18 uploads and this Friday 7th of May I had 13 downloads, the day before 12 but usually around 6 a day, still with 18 files 
I read somewhere that new contributors get more downloads for first weeks and then it drops, somebody can confirm that?

I was getting in the low 200s per day back in early 2008. SS has been on the slide ever since despite the growth in my portfolio.
I think this is pretty universal for those with larger portfolios, SS's hay day is long gone.

33 (2 were video) for me back in 5-2008 w/ about 750 in the port. I rarely pass 1/2 of that now w/ twice the port.

I am guessing that my port growth has not kept pace w/ SS as a whole.

I probably should be embarrassed to post this, especially after seeing how successful many of you have been.  But, my current objective is 4 sales per day -- hoping that a few are OD and EL. 

I've spent the weekend uploading editorial stuff and boosting my port to just short of 300 images.  Perhaps I should increase my expectations?

 

None of the sites are showing the RPI that they used to but in terms of sales numbers no site has fallen faster or harder then Shutterstock. I remember when the slump there kicked in, even Yuri was on the boards complaining about how suddenly things had started to tank.

I don't keep record of daily sales, so rather than go back over 2-3 years worth of sales history on SS, I just averaged April's DLs for the last 3 years.
 
April 08 - 150/day
April 09 - 115/day
April 10 - 100/day

So basically sales have fallen off by 33% in two years.  And these are the same 2 years we haven't had any raises, so the DL drop isn't offset by higher royalties.

I can't really blame SS for the falloff though.  Lets face it - in the past couple of years every single other site has been gunning for them by offering cut rate subscriptions.  I actually think it's impressive they haven't fallen off more.

It would be nice to see a raise this year to offset the dwindling downloads, but I'm not holding my breath.  With so many people willing to take .25 from Getty, why should SS pay us more... 

20 last month with port of approx. 700pics
very often 18 and 19
usually over 10 on weekdays and between 3 and 9 on saturdays and sundays

In the first year or two your rate of portfolio growth tends to outstrip the rate of decrease in downloads. It's when your portfolio gets bigger that it becomes impossible to keep up.

Regarding SS I don't think that uploading is making much difference anymore. For example, I upload 40 images, 2 or 3 sell a couple times and then die. The old images continue to sell and the daily total remain about the same...

Two years ago all images would sell, and some of them many times per day.

There are several problems with SS:

- The competition from every site that started to offer subscriptions.

- The inability of the SS management to launch a competitive pay-per-download scheme to compensate and compete with the others who have "stolen" their subs market

- The 2008 end crisis that reduced marketing budgets

- After the above, the monthly subscription started to look a bit expensive and harder to control costs, compared to buy just what is needed

- The increase of the competition between photographers that started to take the micro income as more important because of the crisis, therefore more photos uploaded. In two years the weekly approved images jumped from 30.000 to 100.000.

- SS is betting in a policy of quantity, trying to build the largest micro library or even trying to challenge alamy in the future, for the title of largest stock agency

- This is leading to an approval policy that favors quantity over quality, and many very low quality images get approved burying new better quality images.

In two years SS passed from a having a 50/60% of my income to little over 30%, and only sporadically being the best agency of the month. IS is now the best selling agency, and FL is getting closer SS every month.

Same with me, I waited until I thought I had some "worthy" images for SS and uploaded a dozen. They flew off the pages and had sales and more sales, for a couple of weeks. Then I became like the rest of the contributors, working to make a bigger portfolio for more sales. Not as though the forum here and other places hasn't predicted and advised, this is just what would happen.

Here's a tip for anyone who isn't on SS yet. Wait until you have about 100 ready images, then when you get accepted work like nuts to get everything uploaded. You will have a great period of sales and cash in for your patience. What you miss by waiting even two months would be made up in the sales boost and prominence you get the first month on SS. The honeymoon only last until the next re-ranking of images, which means you need to pump up your account as fast as possible after getting accepted. Very nice of SS to give all new users a kick-start and help them get on the way.

Of course everyone wants to use this tip please use this referral link to sign up. http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=111418  But please make the most benefit from the new member boost. Yes it's true I've sunk into the depths of actually including a referral link. Once a year isn't too bad is it?

In the years of running the tag line at the bottom, I've had one person get accepted and upload and make sales. That was on 123RF by the way. All the rest, on various sites like IS and SS, started, and never got past the sign-up. It would be really nice to have just one SS person who gets over the hump and makes it.