MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Author Topic: Adobe sales  (Read 4436 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

« on: March 02, 2023, 14:24 »
+4
So, how are your Adobe sales going? I'm seeling like crazy last few months. With 270 (and the highest sale was 14 for video) february was by far my BME there.

At the same time, I made 35$ at SS in february, lol, $0.10 sale after $0.10 sale, it's just pathetic. Out of cca. 20 video sales this year, the highest was $2,25$, most of the rest were like $0.25. Disgusting really
« Last Edit: March 02, 2023, 14:27 by Dumc »


« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2023, 14:40 »
+2
Funny that you ask about it today of all days. AS has been running pretty consistently for me for years. The amount of downloads was rather below average in the last two or three weeks. But just today I have over $70 there. The absolute exception! But for me, AS has been the best agency for quite some time. Shutterstock was a disaster in February. It's still a while until Level 5, but even then, when it gets there, I'm not expecting anything more there.

« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2023, 22:15 »
+2
My adobe sales are growing consistently.

« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2023, 02:46 »
+1
My adobe sales are growing consistently.

Same here.

« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2023, 04:58 »
+3
Same. Even February was short month it was the best month so far, a little better than January. I hope it is not just short term success, however it motivates to create more for Adobe.

« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2023, 11:47 »
+4
Adobe is the only agency that has been growing sales for me.  They are still not where SS was during its heyday but hopefully will get there.  SS has dropped like a rock and will soon be at DT levels if it keeps up.  Adobe is the only one worth submitting to any longer.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2023, 12:48 »
0
Now and then SS produces a SO or EL that brings them up and makes the totals look good. RPD beyond some singles and odd sales, is pretty terrible. But to be fair, if we are only talking dollars, bottom line, not how I got to the totals?

Adobe is roughly 33% better, total earned, so far this year.

RPD and RPI are even more irrelevant for myself as I have different images allowed and accepted on AS vs SS. The number of identical images might be in the low hundreds. Hard to say anything or make any helpful predictions for anyone else. And no video on either.

« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2023, 15:43 »
+4
BME  :) Nearly double SS sales

« Reply #8 on: March 06, 2023, 15:58 »
+9
Periodically I take a look at my Adobe sales in more detail (i.e. more than just what the monthly total is when I request a payment!) and recently I thought I noticed a big increase in the proportion of licenses that were tagged "custom" versus "subscription". I also noticed a Maine beach image has been selling more than it historically has, but that's only of interest to me :)

With no useful contributor statistics at Adobe Stock I had to improvise a bit with Google Sheets and cut and paste, but was able to get a few insights that I think are generally applicable. It's a mix of good news and less good news.

The good news is that my sales (downloads and $$) are both substantially up in the last six months. My portfolio increase was modest in that time so I think it really is growth. January & February 2023 were up 41% ($$) and 45% (downloads) over Jan+Feb 2022. (Those two months in 2022 were up about 5% ($$) and 30% (DLs) over 2021)

The less good news is that the download numbers are growing faster than the $$. It's great that more images are getting downloaded, but it's hard to keep that sort of growth up over time. Which leads to the other part of the less good news - the revenue per download is dropping. 74 so far this year vs 77 in 2022, 92 in 2021 and 95 in 2020.

When I look at the number of sales marked as subscription versus custom, the proportion of custom downloads is growing over the last several years, but the revenue per download for custom sales is lower than for subscription. The section growing the fastest is producing lower royalty sales.

I compared Jan 1 - Mar 6 sales from 2020 through 2023, separating out the two groups, custom and subscription (if it were less cumbersome to get data from Adobe Stock, a longer period would be ideal).

Subscription sales are still more numerous than custom, but year to date in 2023, subscription downloads are 1.32x  custom downloads.
 
The same 2+ months in 2022, subscriptions were 3.45 times custom; in 2021, 12.24 times custom and in 2020, 21.69 times custom downloads.

I assume the change relates to the Pro Edition for Creative Cloud for Teams and Enterprises and  Creative Cloud Express. Both plans produce items tagged "custom" in royalty reports.

Looking at my revenue per download for custom versus subscription downloads (again for the Jan 1-Mar 6 period) in 2022 it was 87 for custom and 74 for subscription; for 2023 it was 69 for custom and 78 for subscription. It's good news that the subscription revenue is up, but the custom was down by more.

If you look at the download volume for 2023 so far compared to the same period in 2022, subscription downloads are up 7% where custom downloads are up 182% (and I really mean way more than doubled). Subscription revenues are up 13%, which is good, but custom revenues are up over 120%.

You might wonder why I'd be bothered as both are increasing - isn't it just doom-and-gloom to see any bad news there? We'll have to see how things develop (and as I've said many times, my crystal ball is broken) but the relentless royalty erosion for us - the suppliers - means earning a fair return on our portfolios will just get harder as eventually there just won't be enough buyers to pump up the volume enough to make up for the lower royalties per download.

As always, YMMV :)
« Last Edit: March 06, 2023, 16:00 by Jo Ann Snover »

« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2023, 12:54 »
+4
Thanks for sharing that analysis.

The other thing to remember is inflation - so even if things are steady they are really going down. It seems everything costs more except for stock. I know this isn't entirely true, but not so very far off either.

« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2023, 13:27 »
+7
In the last 12 months with over 20k images online and around 2000 downloads per month each at SS and AS:

Adobestock + 500% (mostly 0.38 or 0.99 and >3.3EUR)
SS - 80% (actually only subscription sales, 0.10$ or 0.14$ commission and number of downloads -40% in the last months too).

Have to say, i dont upload to SS anymore since mid of last year, subscription sales of 0.10$ as regular commission is far too low.
long live AS, SS can go offline :)

« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2023, 20:57 »
+4
Have to say, i dont upload to SS anymore since mid of last year, subscription sales of 0.10$ as regular commission is far too low.
long live AS, SS can go offline :)

I stopped uploading to SS when they cut the subs rate to 10 cents back in June of 2020 and have no plans to resume - just not worth the minimal effort required to upload images even though they are already processed and keyworded.  AS, DT, Alamy and Canva are about the only ones I bother with nowadays.

« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2023, 21:33 »
+3
I am really pleased with Adobe. 6 months ago I had around 1200 files and hardly any uploads in 10 years. Income down to 10-20 dollars.

I added around 600 mixed files including 260 files of gen ai content since August 22.

Feb 22 - 13 dollars

Feb 23 - 190 dollars with now 1885 files

The entire portfolio has woken up. A few nice video sales for 28 dollars each. A lot of content getting their first sales ever.

Enough sales in the first few weeks to hopefully get another bonus code next year.

I still have days with no sales, but it is very motivating to upload to Adobe.

« Reply #13 on: March 15, 2023, 16:58 »
+6
Adobe announced their Q1 2023 results today - the stock market was happy with them. You can read press release, earnings call and some other investor materials here:

https://www.adobe.com/investor-relations.html

Adobe Stock is such a small part of their overall business, and results aren't separately detailed, but there was a mention of growth in Adobe Stock (in the earnings call) without any numbers or percentages:

"Acceleration in our Adobe Stock business, driven by the demand for high quality imaging, vector, video and 3D content;" and later "Momentum in high-growth businesses such as Substance and Stock, where we had a tremendous quarter generating new business..."

Nice to see we are a high growth business, albeit a "cloud service" rather than an app.

Not sure if there were no questions in the earnings call or just that Adobe didn't include them in the earnings call details they posted (and I couldn't find them anywhere else online when I searched just now). I'll modify the post if I find anything later.

I thing the increases many of us have seen in sales activity at Adobe Stock are the result of the "momentum" and "acceleration" mentioned above.

« Reply #14 on: March 16, 2023, 06:27 »
0
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.

« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2023, 06:57 »
+12
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.
Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.

Conclusion?

« Reply #16 on: March 16, 2023, 07:44 »
+3
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.
Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.

Conclusion?
Not Advertising works

« Reply #17 on: March 16, 2023, 08:27 »
0
I have a very slow week at Adobe Stock , only me ?

« Reply #18 on: March 16, 2023, 10:56 »
+1
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.
Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.
Conclusion?
I write for myself and draw my own conclusions. I am not responsible for what you write, as well as for the veracity of your information.

« Reply #19 on: March 16, 2023, 11:40 »
+5
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.

I really don't understand how advertising in stock photography should have any effect.
 
Customers don't look for artists and then wildly buy useless images just because the portfolio looks so nice.
The customers are looking for specific themes or images for a specific purpose or project and you can assume that the artist behind the buyers absolutely no matter.
Or where do I have there my thinking error?

« Reply #20 on: March 16, 2023, 13:34 »
+2
I have a very slow week at Adobe Stock , only me ?
Do not worry, all months is bad so far :)


SVH

« Reply #21 on: March 16, 2023, 13:57 »
+1
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.

I really don't understand how advertising in stock photography should have any effect.
 
Customers don't look for artists and then wildly buy useless images just because the portfolio looks so nice.
The customers are looking for specific themes or images for a specific purpose or project and you can assume that the artist behind the buyers absolutely no matter.
Or where do I have there my thinking error?
If one of my photos start selling then it sells more. That can be the search algorithm within one agency but doesn't explain increased sales at other agencies. So one client uses it and then other clients must see it so they intent to use the asset as well at the agency they do business with. And no it's not the same client shopping around. They come from different countries. So, in effect, the first client(s) advertise my photo to other clients. Or do you think agencies have an algorithm that looks at popularity at other agencies. Could be but I doubt it. I think that is where your thinking error is.

« Reply #22 on: March 16, 2023, 14:21 »
+2

If one of my photos start selling then it sells more. That can be the search algorithm within one agency but doesn't explain increased sales at other agencies.

So my explanation is different. I do not advertise my portfolio or my pictures. Nevertheless, I have numerous bestsellers with various agencies. From my point of view, this is because I have apparently met the taste of customers across agencies.

For the thesis that advertising for stock photography should bring something, no one here has yet provided proof - all just personal hypotheses and a question of faith.


« Reply #23 on: March 17, 2023, 03:32 »
0
For the thesis that advertising for stock photography should bring something, no one here has yet provided proof - all just personal hypotheses and a question of faith.
Agree. Advertising bring absolutely nothing to single controbutor.
But in general terms adv can drive more new clients to a specific agency and, in general terms, can give a growth of sales (for everyone).

« Reply #24 on: March 17, 2023, 07:03 »
0
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.
Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.
Conclusion?
I write for myself and draw my own conclusions. I am not responsible for what you write, as well as for the veracity of your information.

Are you responsible for what you write or your own veracity of your information? I have many sales and I have nothing in any free library.

« Reply #25 on: March 18, 2023, 20:41 »
+1
Adobe sales continue to grow - more than 100 sales so far this year with ~700 assets (and a large percentage of those assets are illustrations I've done for holidays, with duplicate pngs - most of my best sellers are my photographs - and I've got around 400 of them).

Haven't uploaded that much recently either, maybe a handful of images, but most of the new are selling - best was uploaded late January - it's had 20+ sales already (not up to Jo Anne's stats, but good nonetheless, I think). Others have multiple sales too. The fact that new images are getting multiple sales speaks volumes IMHO.

Jo Anne, how do you figure out custom vs subscription sales? When I look at a week of sales, I see total earnings, but not downloads. I can only see total downloads in my full portfolio (but not total earnings unless I download every single year individually). Is there a breakdown somewhere like DT has? Doubtful - you seem to imply it's tricky to find the info - any tricks you can share would be much appreciated. Are you assuming that fees above 99 cents are custom and extrapolating from there? Do you have to break down stats daily to figure this out?

Jo Anne, I share your concern about return per download. Mine is 78 cents per download this year; in 2022 it was 94 cents. OTOH, I've earned 101% more for the the period 1/1/23-3/18/23 than for the same period in 2022. So, if Return per download goes down but sales more than double, I'm still ahead. Still, I'm worried about sustainability. It's better in the long term if earning per download is up, since the number of potential clients is more finite. (SS has shown that even if you corner the market, at some point growth slows down or stops). Better to charge 99 cents per download than 78. (Still sure beats 10 cents - SS isn't even worth mentioning.)

« Reply #26 on: March 19, 2023, 09:38 »
+3
...Jo Anne, how do you figure out custom vs subscription sales? When I look at a week of sales, I see total earnings, but not downloads....

From this link (which is the one I bookmark when I want to go and see what has sold lately)

https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/sales-earnings

To make things manageable, I change the date range on the upper left to a small-ish period - for the moment I've been looking at month to date, so 3/1/2023 to 3/19/2023 - and select the data type "Activity". That will list sales in reverse chronological order.

Then I select all the data in all the columns (including the thumbnails which Google Sheets just ignores) and copy

In Google sheets, I paste the data and then tab over to the column "License sold". From the Data menu, select Sort Range by column D (whatever column you've tabbed to) A to Z.

That will sort the range by that column which puts "custom" and "subscription" into two groups.

You can then put formulas into other cells to count the two groups (to get downloads for each), total the amount earned for each (from the royalty column) and calculate the RPD for each.

You could do very similar things with Excel, but Sheets is free and very easily shareable

Does that help?

« Reply #27 on: March 19, 2023, 14:27 »
0

A bit quieter for me last week. No idea why. Sales were chugging along very nicely  :)
« Last Edit: March 19, 2023, 14:31 by stocky »

« Reply #28 on: March 19, 2023, 21:49 »
0
It's slowed down for me for the past week or so too but in general they are the only agency where sales are increasing.

« Reply #29 on: March 19, 2023, 22:22 »
0
...Jo Anne, how do you figure out custom vs subscription sales? When I look at a week of sales, I see total earnings, but not downloads....

From this link (which is the one I bookmark when I want to go and see what has sold lately)

https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/sales-earnings

To make things manageable...

Does that help?

Yes - very helpful! Thanks! I hadn't thought to use the Activity tab instead of Statistics.


« Reply #30 on: March 20, 2023, 04:28 »
0
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.
Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.

Conclusion?

Conclusion: You have to thank people who agreed to have some of their files in "free section" for your growth.

« Reply #31 on: March 20, 2023, 04:32 »
+2
I'm heading towards new BME.

I have 1560 files online, this year 876dls, earnings 648.
SS this year: 340dls, $92, SS became such a joke

EDIT: Go Adobe!

Second EDIT: I don't upload much anymore, added some PNG files, that I had for Canva, had some good success with some of those files, one of them sold 170 times to date, uploaded on 5th of November.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2023, 04:40 by Dumc »

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #32 on: March 20, 2023, 12:51 »
0
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.
Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.

Conclusion?

Conclusion: You have to thank people who agreed to have some of their files in "free section" for your growth.

Well I'm not sure that we can assume, that's the only reason. But OK, Thank You back. If my 19 images, are helping everyone else, I'm happy. Some examples.



« Reply #33 on: March 20, 2023, 12:59 »
0
There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.

I really don't understand how advertising in stock photography should have any effect.
 
Customers don't look for artists and then wildly buy useless images just because the portfolio looks so nice.
The customers are looking for specific themes or images for a specific purpose or project and you can assume that the artist behind the buyers absolutely no matter.
Or where do I have there my thinking error?

Under each "Free Asset", customers see the "paid assets" from the similar series.

« Reply #34 on: March 21, 2023, 13:46 »
0
This article may help explain why the number of "custom" versus "subscription" royalties has been growing so fast in the last couple of months:

https://petapixel.com/2023/03/21/adobe-fights-off-canva-by-making-its-alternative-impossible-to-ignore/


« Reply #35 on: March 21, 2023, 14:38 »
0
This article may help explain why the number of "custom" versus "subscription" royalties has been growing so fast in the last couple of months:

https://petapixel.com/2023/03/21/adobe-fights-off-canva-by-making-its-alternative-impossible-to-ignore/

I hope they don't next follow with the all you can eat but pay < a cent per use model

« Reply #36 on: March 21, 2023, 15:19 »
0
No sales in 2 weeks. 470 images.

« Reply #37 on: March 22, 2023, 12:39 »
+1
No sales in 2 weeks. 470 images.

these days, that's a small portfolio, but w/o seeing it there's little to comment on

« Reply #38 on: March 24, 2023, 15:29 »
+1
The first time I'm getting more money from Adobe than SS. +24% this month so far.

« Reply #39 on: March 25, 2023, 02:18 »
+2
The first time I'm getting more money from Adobe than SS. +24% this month so far.

For me it's  +56% on Adobe this month.
SS fails to bring in many sales higher than $0.10 these days. Wasn't always like this for me since the change in royalty payments, but more balanced, but the balance between 0.10 sales and bigger sales  is constantly shifting more and more towards the first. 
At this rate, if AI doesn't  render the whole microstock bussiness unnecessary by then, SS will be one of the minor players like Bigstock or Depositphotos for me in 1 or 2 years.

« Reply #40 on: March 25, 2023, 12:24 »
0
The first time I'm getting more money from Adobe than SS. +24% this month so far.

For me it's  +56% on Adobe this month.
SS fails to bring in many sales higher than $0.10 these days. ...
if that were true your RPD would be around .1 to .2 - what is yours? (and why no link to your portfolio  do you even have one?)

for many of us that isn't the case (i haven't seen anyone reporting an RPD of less than .2)  my SZS RPD  runs from .6 to 1.0, same as it was before the decrease.  AS RPD is slightly lower.  but SS income has been steady at 2-3  times AS income.  canva brings in more than AS

the AS payment for their free section does bring in a dramatic jump once a year


Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #41 on: March 25, 2023, 12:41 »
0
The first time I'm getting more money from Adobe than SS. +24% this month so far.

For me it's  +56% on Adobe this month.
SS fails to bring in many sales higher than $0.10 these days. ...
if that were true your RPD would be around .1 to .2 - what is yours? (and why no link to your portfolio  do you even have one?)

for many of us that isn't the case (i haven't seen anyone reporting an RPD of less than .2)  my SZS RPD  runs from .6 to 1.0, same as it was before the decrease.  AS RPD is slightly lower.  but SS income has been steady at 2-3  times AS income.  canva brings in more than AS

the AS payment for their free section does bring in a dramatic jump once a year

I know different strokes. But to answer from someone who doesn't do as well as you do and has different kinds of material, and Canva rejected my application many years ago?

2023 SS RPD = .54 for someone with pretty average assets. AS RPD = .80 Earnings. Downloads SS is 54% of AS and AS income is slightly under double that for SS. For me, AS is more money, more DLs with under 1,000 assets vs over 5,000 on SS.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2023, 12:45 by Uncle Pete »

« Reply #42 on: March 25, 2023, 12:50 »
+2
And remember that cascoly has said his SS portfolio is twice the size of his AS portfolio, so this isn't an apples:apples comparison

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #43 on: March 25, 2023, 13:12 »
0
And remember that cascoly has said his SS portfolio is twice the size of his AS portfolio, so this isn't an apples:apples comparison

Just for the details, and yes you're correct. I'm working on it?  ;) Slowly...
Adobe = 976
SSTK = 5,351
And I have to admit that what sells on AS isn't the same as what gets downloaded on SS, for mine. So even if I am only myself, there are different images involved because AS takes things SS doesn't and visa versa.

Just paid for another year of FAA, not bragging, just treading water. $36.34 for the year. Nice to see that now and then, someone needs something that I shot.

« Reply #44 on: March 25, 2023, 13:45 »
0
And remember that cascoly has said his SS portfolio is twice the size of his AS portfolio, so this isn't an apples:apples comparison

very true about the relative size, but not for RPD, and much of the difference is that AS doesn't accept editorials (i Dont know the % of sales of editorials )

AND here i was responding to a (quite common ) msg implying RPD for S was $.10 when in fact it's much higher for many of us. and the comparison is that the low raters on SS still keep them competitive for both RPD and income. AOCYMMV

« Reply #45 on: March 26, 2023, 03:16 »
+4

AND here i was responding to a (quite common ) msg implying RPD for S was $.10
Her Ugliness wrote -"SS fails to bring in many sales higher than $0.10 these days."
Nothing about RPD.

« Reply #46 on: March 26, 2023, 03:40 »
+6

and why no link to your portfolio  do you even have one?


Seriously? "Do you even have one?" No, I am not a microstock photographer at all, I am just here because I am bored.

Of course I have one, but I can tell you exactly why I don't link it: Because I want to have the freedom to post whatever honest critique I have about agencies without having to worry that they will ban my account because they don't like what I have to say. Because this has happened to contributors before.

And I never said I am "only" getting 0.10 sales, I said "SS fails to bring in many sales higher than $0.10 these days."
« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 04:10 by Her Ugliness »

« Reply #47 on: March 26, 2023, 04:06 »
+5
The first time I'm getting more money from Adobe than SS. +24% this month so far.

For me it's  +56% on Adobe this month.
SS fails to bring in many sales higher than $0.10 these days. ...

if that were true your RPD would be around .1 to .2 - what is yours? (and why no link to your portfolio  do you even have one?)...

I dont think your maths checks out?

For example if they have 10 sales, 9 for 10c and one for $3 their RPD would be  39c yet they would be correct that SS fails to bring in many sales higher than 10c (i.e. 1 in 10)

« Reply #48 on: March 26, 2023, 12:27 »
0
...
« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 12:32 by cascoly »

« Reply #49 on: March 26, 2023, 12:31 »
0
..
« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 12:34 by cascoly »


 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
8 Replies
4017 Views
Last post May 24, 2018, 15:35
by unnonimus
16 Replies
5706 Views
Last post November 16, 2018, 14:16
by Microstockphoto
49 Replies
14329 Views
Last post June 18, 2019, 22:55
by 08stock08
5 Replies
3555 Views
Last post May 16, 2019, 10:36
by KeremGo
13 Replies
1817 Views
Last post November 21, 2022, 13:49
by HalfFull

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors

3100 Posing Cards Bundle