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Author Topic: Bad july.. How was yours?  (Read 19810 times)

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« Reply #100 on: August 03, 2018, 14:59 »
0

I can guarantee that 90-100% of the capping theorists here are nowhere near $2,500 per month from Shutterstock.  :)
Maybe change "capping theorists" to: "people who have seen their income straight-line for one reason or another".  As I said earlier in one of the threads or this one, I don't actually believe SS is maliciously targeting specific portfolios. I think there is some software glitch or algorithm that is tweaking earnings some of us.

Case in point, this past July I was on track to eat some crow since my sales plummeted. Any change, however negative it might be, would show I was not being affected. On the 31st, my day was filled with high value SODs (after zero sods all month long) to bring me right up to my level.

High value SODs are dealt with personally by someone in the Enterprise Team so that would be unaffected by software glitches or algorithms.  By raising your income for the month on the last day to your allotted level would suggest you are right in saying it is not malicious, but it does look benevolent, a safety net.


farbled

« Reply #101 on: August 03, 2018, 15:42 »
+1

High value SODs are dealt with personally by someone in the Enterprise Team so that would be unaffected by software glitches or algorithms.  By raising your income for the month on the last day to your allotted level would suggest you are right in saying it is not malicious, but it does look benevolent, a safety net.

That could well be. But I have seen the reverse and so have others, high value SODs at the beginning of the month followed by exponentially worse daily sales (of subs and other sales) than usual until I am back at the same $$ level mid month or month end.

As it is, yes, for now at least I seem to have an almost guaranteed steady income/safety net. Now that I said that out loud, I expect karma will rip me a new one. :)

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #102 on: August 03, 2018, 16:57 »
+4
Microstock is dead, only masochists would be pursuing it going forward.

Thank you for the break in the yes it is, no it isn't debate.  ;D

I have a personal feeling that the cap is just what you wrote. A result of the flood of new images, and market flat-lining.

Microstock is dead or at best smells fishy and stinks. The growth era and new product stages are past, so now we have stagnation. Along with that anyone who isn't adding more and pushing for any possible gain, will be dropping. Most will lose because of competition, the best of old and popular themes, will go flat. Some will still be able to create new ideas and marketable images, but the easy money, easy sales, are long gone.

Contrary to some opinions, the answer is not "quantity makes more money" for any of us, as individuals. Quality does. Yes the early days, numbers counted, now they do nearly nothing.

I'm not going to spend hours and hours, editing and uploading, just to find, the competition has added another 10 million images at the same time I could add a couple hundred. The exception is, when I have something that there are not already 50,000 or 100,00 examples, I may do some work. The day of uploading best selling, common topics, concepts type images is over. Now we need to upload narrow market images that have a demand.

Good going Steve and anyone else who can continue to make any income growth in this cold market.

farbled

« Reply #103 on: August 03, 2018, 17:17 »
0
Funny thing is, there are so many things not covered even a little. Common things! Even today I was working on some images of a specific meal, a common meal but geared toward health with some basic substitutions that I have seen in magazines, often.

I did a search to see how many I'd be competing against on SS.

Not even 30. And most were from one shoot.

Woot. And no, they are not in my portfolio yet. :)

Brasilnut

  • Author Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock & Blog

« Reply #104 on: August 04, 2018, 05:13 »
+2
Quote
Good going Steve and anyone else who can continue to make any income growth in this cold market.

Steve is proof that there's plenty of life in this "stinking fish". Really inspirational and I trust that his income will continue to grow for the near-future. He must be on the non-capped privileged list :P

As for the algos, I have noticed that in the past 2 months there's been a surge of never-before-sold images from at least a year ago which have started selling. At first I thought was just noise / anomaly, but this trend is holding strong. Why would a relatively generic image from 2 years ago only start selling now? Not complaining, just trying to understand. Has anybody noticed this as well?

« Last Edit: August 04, 2018, 05:18 by Brasilnut »

« Reply #105 on: August 04, 2018, 06:06 »
+1
Quote
Good going Steve and anyone else who can continue to make any income growth in this cold market.

Steve is proof that there's plenty of life in this "stinking fish". Really inspirational and I trust that his income will continue to grow for the near-future. He must be on the non-capped privileged list :P

As for the algos, I have noticed that in the past 2 months there's been a surge of never-before-sold images from at least a year ago which have started selling. At first I thought was just noise / anomaly, but this trend is holding strong. Why would a relatively generic image from 2 years ago only start selling now? Not complaining, just trying to understand. Has anybody noticed this as well?
very much so I've had some images as much as 4 years old selling for the first time quite often over the last 3-4 months...and not particularly good ones at that. Meanwhile it seems very hard to get much traction on new images.

« Reply #106 on: August 04, 2018, 07:32 »
0

Steve is proof that there's plenty of life in this "stinking fish". Really inspirational and I trust that his income will continue to grow for the near-future. He must be on the non-capped privileged list :P

He is capped  but you don't see it.
The truth is outhere, beyond facts, obvious and common sense!  8)

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #107 on: August 04, 2018, 09:36 »
0
Funny thing is, there are so many things not covered even a little. Common things! Even today I was working on some images of a specific meal, a common meal but geared toward health with some basic substitutions that I have seen in magazines, often.

I did a search to see how many I'd be competing against on SS.

Not even 30. And most were from one shoot.

Woot. And no, they are not in my portfolio yet. :)

I have a couple also, where the ones they have are incorrect, or wrong keywords for a very specific item. Another is a food item that has very specific ingredients and origins. Something for the Winter when I'm not busy running all over, chasing cars.  ;)

Like this: 407 (name a common menu item here) stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free.

247 (another item) stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free, the first page is mostly misidentified and NOT the common item.

This isn't rocket science and I still contend that happy handshake, or sliced tomatoes, or snapshots of a walkabout, are going to get accepted and die! Time to work smarter not harder.

Good luck with your ideas. I'm shooting IMSA this weekend, worked Xfinity last, a vintage event and INDYCAR before that. Having a wonderful time and getting a nice tan. Oh look I can see some shadows  8)



farbled

« Reply #108 on: August 04, 2018, 10:43 »
0

I have a couple also, where the ones they have are incorrect, or wrong keywords for a very specific item. Another is a food item that has very specific ingredients and origins. Something for the Winter when I'm not busy running all over, chasing cars.  ;)

Like this: 407 (name a common menu item here) stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free.

247 (another item) stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free, the first page is mostly misidentified and NOT the common item.

This isn't rocket science and I still contend that happy handshake, or sliced tomatoes, or snapshots of a walkabout, are going to get accepted and die! Time to work smarter not harder.

Good luck with your ideas. I'm shooting IMSA this weekend, worked Xfinity last, a vintage event and INDYCAR before that. Having a wonderful time and getting a nice tan. Oh look I can see some shadows  8)

Happy shooting Pete! And no, not rocket science at all. The good part for me is that I have to eat, so taking an extra minute or so to monetize that is no hardship at all.

« Reply #109 on: August 06, 2018, 15:46 »
+2
17% down compared to May or June.   Until Getty/ iStock reports I won't know the whole picture but it seems to be the usual summer slowdown. 

Lots of $1.5 video sales on SS which is very troubling.  I find it hard to believe so many websites are using video backdrops like that.  My guess is someone is gaming the system and getting videos on the cheap.


 

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