This month my earnings from Fotolia stayed ahead of Shutterstock every day, the entire month and finished higher as well by 8%!. (Both closed above my minimum payout.)
I have no explanation.

I have a small portfolio (300-350 images) with more accepted at Shutterstock. And, like most of you, my SS earnings have historically been way, way more than FT, DT, and BS combined.

Until this month.

My SOD have dropped to nothing on SS for the past few months (which was where the earning difference was), but FT just kept on going steady every day.

SS has been dropping the past several months for me; but this really took me by surprise.
Am I all alone in this experience, or have any of the rest of you had similar experiences?

In percentege on earnings : Fotolia 3 Shutter 4

In downloads Fotolia 2 Shutter 3

For me is a question of time. Terrible.

Subscriptions make Shutter n�1

Dollar Club +subscriptions make fotolia future number 1�

This month my earnings from Fotolia stayed ahead of Shutterstock every day, the entire month and finished higher as well by 8%!. (Both closed above my minimum payout.)
I have no explanation.

I have a small portfolio (300-350 images) with more accepted at Shutterstock. And, like most of you, my SS earnings have historically been way, way more than FT, DT, and BS combined.

Until this month.

My SOD have dropped to nothing on SS for the past few months (which was where the earning difference was), but FT just kept on going steady every day.

SS has been dropping the past several months for me; but this really took me by surprise.
Am I all alone in this experience, or have any of the rest of you had similar experiences?

Are you opted-in to DPC?

Congratulations on your good sales on FT.  For me Ft made about 8% as much as SS, which is a little below the average of around 10%.  This is different from December where it was 24%, but this month it was closer to normal.

Fotolia is in last place for me.  Even BigStock makes more every month.  But it might be because I'm not opted into DPC.

Fotolia isn�t consistently. One month your earnings can be good, the other one the earnings are worst.

Shutterstock is consistently.

Shutterstock: 70%

FT: 15%

Rest is the rest.

you mention SOD has dropped to nothing months.
which to me tells that your uptick in ss was not due to regular sales like majority of us who consistently make payout with regular dls.
so, removing SOD as someone pointed out before, SOD is not a barometer to measure success as it is more like your life-saving monthly.
i am wrong or not, that your sales without SOD in both ft and ss are not regular.
i say this because as bolsher say is true, ss is consistent. all others is flash in the pan.

correct me if wrong.

Quote from: cidepix on February 01, 2015, 11:48

fotolia must be giving some contributors better search placement or some other kind of special treatment..

What makes you think other agencies don't do that? It's all about special treatments in stock.
Always amazes me that contributors that have been at this for many years still have no clue how this business works.

When fotolia, - a supposedly big 4 site -,  makes half the amount of bigstock, canstock and envato; and is on par with the likes of yay, gl, veer etc. you know something is not right.. I make regular monthly payouts even on low earners and bottom feeders.. when you have as much data as I do, it is pretty easy to spot that something is weird.. poll results are very accurate for me except fotolia..

Quote from: Semmick Photo on February 01, 2015, 13:00

Fotolia 0%

Same for me

And me!

Quote from: Snow on February 01, 2015, 12:19

Quote from: cidepix on February 01, 2015, 11:48

fotolia must be giving some contributors better search placement or some other kind of special treatment..

What makes you think other agencies don't do that? It's all about special treatments in stock.
Always amazes me that contributors that have been at this for many years still have no clue how this business works.

When fotolia, - a supposedly big 4 site -,  makes half the amount of bigstock, canstock and envato; and is on par with the likes of yay, gl, veer etc. you know something is not right.. I make regular monthly payouts even on low earners and bottom feeders.. when you have as much data as I do, it is pretty easy to spot that something is weird.. poll results are very accurate for me except fotolia..

So with all this "data" you have you weren�t able to find out that FT is big in EUROPE and not the US? Fotolia is the No.2 agency for most european contributers.

"Local" images get a better search placement. If a european buyers searches for "money" he wants to see � and not $ images. That�s the same at pretty much every agency. There is no need for conspiracy theories about "special treatments".

Quote from: cidepix on February 01, 2015, 17:10

Quote from: Snow on February 01, 2015, 12:19

Quote from: cidepix on February 01, 2015, 11:48

fotolia must be giving some contributors better search placement or some other kind of special treatment..

What makes you think other agencies don't do that? It's all about special treatments in stock.
Always amazes me that contributors that have been at this for many years still have no clue how this business works.

When fotolia, - a supposedly big 4 site -,  makes half the amount of bigstock, canstock and envato; and is on par with the likes of yay, gl, veer etc. you know something is not right.. I make regular monthly payouts even on low earners and bottom feeders.. when you have as much data as I do, it is pretty easy to spot that something is weird.. poll results are very accurate for me except fotolia..

So with all this "data" you have you weren�t able to find out that FT is big in EUROPE and not the US? Fotolia is the No.2 agency for most european contributers.

"Local" images get a better search placement. If a european buyers searches for "money" he wants to see � and not $ images. That�s the same at pretty much every agency. There is no need for conspiracy theories about "special treatments".

a "great post" full of unsupported assumptions..

1- I am not a US person
2- I don't have localized content.. If anything, I probably have "one of the most universal" ports around.. if I do have some local content, it is european..
3- My US sales on Shutterstock (for example) are less than 1/3 of my total SS sales.. most sales come from Europe and other parts of the world..
4- also, I have enough sales on my personal "sites" to clearly see that my sales are universal, not local.. the same image gets about the same attention on all parts of the world..

if anything, your post totally supports my opinion.. fotolia is the only agency that delivers strange results..

you are bound to think like me when you are making regular monthly payouts on low earners and fotolia is hardly on par with those smaller players.. surely it's not the content.. bad content doesn't make monthly payouts on low earners..

I may be wrong about "special treatment and placement" but there must be a logical explanation and yours is not a good one in this case..

I'm also from EU and I noticed a significant increase in sales for FT !