Author Topic: Sales and earnings both down for top tier sites (Read 8736 times)

Artist · « **on:** July 13, 2015, 09:43 »

I just notices that sales in top sites is going down a lot.
No on demand in shutterstock, sales going down.

and the poorest performer is iStock, nearly half a month and 20 bugs with portfolio of 9k.
Same with other sites.. $:-\$

60D · « **Reply #1 on:** July 13, 2015, 11:04 »

Quote from: cgartist on July 13, 2015, 09:43

...20 bugs with portfolio of 9k.

Artist · « **Reply #2 on:** July 13, 2015, 23:29 »

Quote from: 60D on July 13, 2015, 11:04

Quote from: cgartist on July 13, 2015, 09:43
...20 bugs with portfolio of 9k.

yes, thats big strange for me too...

ShadySue · « **Reply #3 on:** July 14, 2015, 17:41 »

Quote from: cgartist on July 13, 2015, 23:29

Quote from: 60D on July 13, 2015, 11:04
Quote from: cgartist on July 13, 2015, 09:43
...20 bugs with portfolio of 9k.

yes, thats big strange for me too...

I should coco: 9k files on iS, yet only 20 bugs!

LesPalenik · « **Reply #4 on:** August 01, 2015, 23:07 »

What kind of bugs? I always thought, they are more prevalent in the hot summer months.

Hongover · « **Reply #5 on:** August 02, 2015, 16:05 »

Quote from: LesPalenik on August 01, 2015, 23:07

What kind of bugs? I always thought, they are more prevalent in the hot summer months.

I'm thinking mosquitoes...those buggers love the warm weather.

Cgartist, If you have a portfolio of 9k with low download numbers, your portfolio is suffering from quantity over quality issues. It's both a demand and competition issue.

SS sales are fine for me, even during the summer months.

trek · « **Reply #6 on:** August 02, 2015, 16:26 »

istock and bugs in the same sentence... humm

Seriously, plummeting sales is primarily due to the online libraries 40% yearly size growth. It takes a ton of productivity to keep pace with the intense worldwide competition were witnessing.

stockmarketer · « **Reply #7 on:** August 02, 2015, 18:31 »

Quote from: trek on August 02, 2015, 16:26

Seriously, plummeting sales is primarily due to the online libraries 40% yearly size growth. It takes a ton of productivity to keep pace with the intense worldwide competition were witnessing.

Exactly. Anyone who's been in microstock a while hits the wall and can no longer grow their ports at a rate that matches the growth of the agency libraries, and thus, we get a smaller and smaller piece of the pie.

Newbies may think things are fine. That's because last year they may have had a port of 500 pictures and now they have one or two thousand. But in a few years, when your port grows from 5,000 to 6,000, you'll see a decrease in sales and earnings because you just can't keep up with the out-of-control agency library growth.

Hitting this wall a few years ago just crushed my spirits. I had big dreams of continuing to see my income grow well into the future. Thought I could even leave the full time job in a few years. Now I'm working my butt off at microstock just to keep my revenue slide to a minimum. Very depressing.

Let this be a warning to anyone starting out today. Things look rosy for a year or two. But don't project continued income growth beyond that. Keep your day job. The wall is coming. It hits us all.

YadaYadaYada · « **Reply #8 on:** August 02, 2015, 22:30 »

Year after year sombody new thinks they have the answer. Raising sales, rpi that's better then anybody else, they post big ideas and numbers, their secrets, and then find out. "Anyone who's been in microstock a while hits the wall and can no longer grow their ports at a rate that matches the growth of the agency libraries, and thus, we get a smaller and smaller piece of the pie."

This is all about the piece of the pie and that slice is smaller every month. There isn't any way to avoid the growing competition. We told you that stockmarketer. Now you are writing the same.

Artist · « **Reply #9 on:** August 04, 2015, 10:26 »

Quote from: Hongover on August 02, 2015, 16:05

Quote from: LesPalenik on August 01, 2015, 23:07
What kind of bugs? I always thought, they are more prevalent in the hot summer months.

I'm thinking mosquitoes...those buggers love the warm weather.

Cgartist, If you have a portfolio of 9k with low download numbers, your portfolio is suffering from quantity over quality issues. It's both a demand and competition issue.

SS sales are fine for me, even during the summer months.

I am a professional vector artist and the portfolio was a huge hit in 2010, then down and down and down.. with more quality uploads, more and more.

Julied83 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 04, 2015, 13:40 »

I did very well on july on shutterstock, but the 4 first days of august, it goes very bad on SS and other site :\ I thought worker vacation was over, maybe I'm wrong. Andd today is the Worst !!!

sharpshot · « **Reply #11 on:** August 05, 2015, 06:31 »

Wait until September for the vacation season to be over.

Monkeyman · « **Reply #12 on:** August 05, 2015, 08:49 »

All sites are down. The golden days of microstock are over since at least two years. Shouldn't everybody in this forum know that by now?

ShadySue · « **Reply #13 on:** August 05, 2015, 09:01 »

Quote from: Monkeyman on August 05, 2015, 08:49

All sites are down. The golden days of microstock are over since at least two years. Shouldn't everybody in this forum know that by now?

By reading here, I'd say the fall in SS is really just being generally reported this year, which may be a consequence of iS's failure leading a lot of former exclusives to be bulk uploading to SS, diluting everyone's share.

BTW, I see Adobe is heavily plugging their stock offering. I got an email a couple of days ago inviting me to partake in a survey where some new presentation app was introduced in a video (using Adobe Stock images) then the survey involved which of a number of options and bundles at different price points I'd prefer, several of them including a certain number of Abobe stock images.
Then I realised I hadn't upgraded to PS CC 2015, did so, and the welcome screen and most of the 'what's new' features relate to Adobe Stock, and it's one of the few non-greyed options from the New window.
Makes no difference to me other than as an annoyance, but for people who use stock images, dripping water may wear away the stone.

stock shooter · « **Reply #14 on:** August 05, 2015, 11:39 »

My sales are dismal across the board and have been steadily dropping since 2010. My best year was 2009 and sales in 2014 were half what they were in 2009. I don't have 9K images, but around 2500. IS sales dropped in half from 2010 to 2011. The only site that hasn't dropped in sales, until this year, is SS.

Quote

All sites are down. The golden days of microstock are over since at least two years. Shouldn't everybody in this forum know that by now?

Yea, my biggest drop happened in 2013.

jamiehooper · « **Reply #15 on:** August 05, 2015, 16:08 »

SS is way, way, way down for me in August so far, by 75% of what I'd expect (even in August)
On the other hand, FT gets better and better for me each month. In fact, right now (Aug. 5) my revenue on FT is 5 times SS for the same period - AND the number of sales are 5 times those of SS as well!

Now, that may change as the month progresses; but I personally have been seeing an increase in files sold and revenue with FT since Adobe took it over and a continuing decline in my SS sales. Also, as I have read elsewhere on the Forum, I'm getting more and more files rejected for what I KNOW are incorrect reasons on SS (mostly accepted when I resubmit them) The same files were accepted and starting to sell on FT.

Is this a trend? Is this just me? Stay tuned.

PZF · « **Reply #16 on:** August 06, 2015, 05:53 »

For me, all sites except SS holding, but not doing anything amazing.
SS though has been back to 2013 levels (with lots fewer photos).

FlowerPower · « **Reply #17 on:** August 07, 2015, 08:16 »

Right, wrong or indifferent, most of us are growing very tired of constant complaining, especially when there are no alternatives being offered. The secret to success is determining how to best & quickly capitalize on changing conditions, before the competition does. Whining is not realistic alternative and is often counterproductive.

Anybody have some answers or just constant complaining.

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Author Topic: Sales and earnings both down for top tier sites (Read 8736 times)

Artist

60D

Artist

ShadySue

LesPalenik

Hongover

trek

stockmarketer

YadaYadaYada

Artist

Julied83

sharpshot

Monkeyman

ShadySue

stock shooter

jamiehooper

PZF

FlowerPower

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