May was down 1% from April, which is typical for me.  That was up 30% compared to May 2011, and up 27% year over year.  The positives vs. April were #1 Shutterstock (38%, up 24%), #2 123RF (14%, up 18%), #4 Deposit (9%, up 51%) #6 PhotoDune (6%, up 18%), and #7 BigStock (5%, up 9%).  On the other side were #3 iStock (11%, down 20%), #5 Dreamstime (9%, down 3%), #8 CanStock (4%, down 67%), and #9 Fotolia (2%, down 20%).

....WHAT is keeping Shutterstock from cutting commissions? I don't get it..
More than 50% of my income comes from Shutterstock.. Surely they are in a position to cut commissions. So why haven't they ever done so since 2008 when I started ?
Surely they could if they wanted to..

To make us swallow commission cuts, their rivals have raised prices.  That could be the reason why it looks like buyers have moved to SS.  Then there's all the contributors that are buyers as well.  They aren't as likely to buy from a site that's cut their commission.  We aren't going to recommend commission cutting sites to buyers.  Some people remove their portfolios.  Do buyers look on SS for them?

Alamy have been around much longer than SS.  They did have one commission cut but they still pay 60% non-exclusive.  That's not bad, considering the difficult economic times of the past 4 years.  So there's really no reason for the microstock sites to be so greedy.  Hasn't the SS strategy worked much better than all the sites that have been cutting commissions?  That's what my sales tell me.

I don't understand why some sites keep cutting commissions when it seems to be sending their buyers to SS.

Misery will have to do without company, then: I'm about 25% down from my bme

Quote

- 5th BME in a row (Jan 1073$, Feb 1090$, Mar 1341$, Apr 1405$, May 1446$)
- from May 2011 +171%
- 37 months of stock
- 470$ left to the 10k $ milestone at SS (will be making 3 years there)

Luis

We really are tracking together on this - I'm at $9711, just $290 away from the magic $10K at Shutterstock after a great May on that site. I think I'm just in the lead though!

Steve

ahah cool stuff, I will follow you, no worries!