MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Suspect on October 15, 2021, 07:02
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How are your sales going this month?
Mine are not good at all (only on SS and Wirestock)
I keep my expectations very low and then it's hard to be disappointed.
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In this business the reviews are slow and the pay is low that is how we go (Rap song)... 8)
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Very slow all month until just a couple of days ago and then picked up a lot, in particular Shutterstock.
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Normal month on SS
AS is slow
A week ago, a nice $ 6 SOD (last month my first EL on SS) :)
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Small port. Shutter: Normal Adobe: Slow Alamy: Dead :)
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BAD month. Stock down, Elements down, DP 1/2 normal, DT pathetic. Only one up is Alamy...so far at $240. P5 is down 25%, too. Just cyclical and I am in the trough.
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poor month
compared to 4 month average:
AS, Canva slightly down
SS down 30%
wirestock up a bit
p5, alamy 0
overall projection for month down about 25% after above average for last few months
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last few months
Adobestock x 4 :D
Shutterstock -40% >:(
Alamy +-0
Dreamstime -20%
istock -90% :o
123rf +-0
Indivstock +20%
Depositphotos +10%
Pixta +-0
canstockphoto +-0
Panthermedia +10%
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Adobe - dead.
ShutterS - fits and blips.
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Generally, is there any chance of giving a rough idea of number of dls or income we are talking about here? It is really hard to know what to think when someone says "50% down on SS" and it could be the difference between 2dls and 1dl or 20000dls and 10000dls. Or 500% increase because of a single random extended/ enhanced license. Of course no one has to provide any info at all, but seems a bit pointless without this context.
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Generally, is there any chance of giving a rough idea of number of dls or income we are talking about here? It is really hard to know what to think when someone says "50% down on SS" and it could be the difference between 2dls and 1dl or 20000dls and 10000dls. Or 500% increase because of a single random extended/ enhanced license. Of course no one has to provide any info at all, but seems a bit pointless without this context.
Good idea.
You start.
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October 01 - 21, 2021 vs. 2020
shutterstock:
minus 26 downloads
minus $61,15
AS
plus 21 downloads
plus $85,18
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Generally, is there any chance of giving a rough idea of number of dls or income we are talking about here? It is really hard to know what to think when someone says "50% down on SS" and it could be the difference between 2dls and 1dl or 20000dls and 10000dls. Or 500% increase because of a single random extended/ enhanced license. Of course no one has to provide any info at all, but seems a bit pointless without this context.
On the shutterstock forum, I had a schedule where I kept track of my earnings from photos of my small port on Shutterstock each month.
I had made that after June 2020 to see if it was still worth uploading.
Shutterstockforum felt a bit like family to me. I've never had any negative comments about it either.
I hesitate to do the same here, I don't know if I'm doing anyone but you a favor with it.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
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Sales have plummeted this week on AS and SS.
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Dreamstime, stable: no sales as usual
Alamy, stable: No sales as usual
Shutterstock, stable: a few sales
IStock, stable: somewhat less than a few sales
Adobe: Good in the beginning of the month, this week terrible :-\
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Good idea.
You start.
;D ;D ;D
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Generally, is there any chance of giving a rough idea of number of dls or income we are talking about here? It is really hard to know what to think when someone says "50% down on SS" and it could be the difference between 2dls and 1dl or 20000dls and 10000dls. Or 500% increase because of a single random extended/ enhanced license. Of course no one has to provide any info at all, but seems a bit pointless without this context.
Yup true. Very small player with <1,000 images on SS. Been there since 2012, no model released stuff and almost no editorial. Fair proportion of food. In 2014-2016 (500 images) had normal monthly sales of $300-$400 with around 400 dls/month. Portfolio static since 2018 at <1,000 images (noticed that new work didn't sell so stopped uploading). Current dls running at 150-200/month until very recently and now dipped below 150/month. Currently at just above payout minimum of $35 but often get SODs to bring me back into the $70-$100+/month range. If no SODs this month then expecting WME of <$50 but ja never knows!
Almost same port at Adobe. Sales this month to date ~35% of sales(dls) at SS and 50% of $$ at SS. Had free PS CC and LR at AS for the last 2 years (that's worth $200+) and if I start uploading again, it will be exclusively to AS and not to SS...the $0.10 sales p*ss me off too much. At SS I'm going to let it bleed out! No effort until no reward. Then I'll delete the port (or maybe sooner if I conclude that their 'corporatism' irritates me too much).
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Generally, is there any chance of giving a rough idea of number of dls or income we are talking about here? It is really hard to know what to think when someone says "50% down on SS" and it could be the difference between 2dls and 1dl or 20000dls and 10000dls. Or 500% increase because of a single random extended/ enhanced license. Of course no one has to provide any info at all, but seems a bit pointless without this context.
On the shutterstock forum, I had a schedule where I kept track of my earnings from photos of my small port on Shutterstock each month.
I had made that after June 2020 to see if it was still worth uploading.
Shutterstockforum felt a bit like family to me. I've never had any negative comments about it either.
I hesitate to do the same here, I don't know if I'm doing anyone but you a favor with it.
More photos than OM. But I know he is a much better photographer. I'll add my schedule too, why not.
I photographed for my website (garden, nature, especially insects) http://www.tuin-thijs.com/indexengels.htm (http://www.tuin-thijs.com/indexengels.htm) . Started around 2000. The first years a small profit due to spontaneous requests for advertising links for a year. After the rise of facebook, blogs, vlogs, they have disappeared and I have to pay my provider. Websites from that time have almost all disappeared.
Didn't buy new equipment for Stock, have an old adobe editing program.
Started Shutterstock at the end of 2019. Don't use old photos. Until May, earnings regularly matched the number of photos uploaded. After May it became less. Then three months without uploading. And photos uploaded on Alamy and Adobe.
Unfortunately, due to corona, I didn't go on holiday and photographed near home. A lot of macro photos of insects, flowers. Not very commercial, but that's just my hobby. I am retired and consider it a cheap, healthy hobby because I often take the bike.
The number of sales increases slightly per month on average. Have over 2100 photos now. At Adobe I have far fewer photos and about $85. Received my first $50 at Alamy, but it's very quiet there now. This month on Shutter today: 43 for 13.52
My Stock photos are listed on the front page of my website.
Just like OM I have considered quitting Shutterstock. But as long as I enjoy shooting and the earnings are higher than Adobe I will keep going.
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that's really good! You're moving in the right direction with promise. 8)
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
Single digit from 50 sales. I don't understand. What single digit? Like under $10 you mean? WOW
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
Single digit from 50 sales. I don't understand. What single digit? Like under $10 you mean? WOW
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
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...Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount....
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
I'm guessing it was less your expression than disbelief that the total could be so low :)
You were very close - it's typically "single digits" plural - as in "Had 50 sales today and earnings were only in the single digits"
Margin optimization (Shutterstock-speak for cutting contributor's royalties) has meant:
50 new subscription sales at the current 10 cent minimum = $5
50 old subscription sales at the old rate of 38 cents each = $19
(it would even have been $12.50 at the starter royalty of 25 cents)
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My sales are almost £200 more than last month so far, last month was my worst month of the year to date.......
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
Single digit from 50 sales. I don't understand. What single digit? Like under $10 you mean? WOW
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
Firn, congratulations on your high number of DLs, but sorry about the RPD :-(
One thing that would be interesting to compare, is your RPD (total sales divided by total number of DLs) for this month vs Oct 2020 and Oct 2019 to see what is really happening. That may be an interesting exercise in itself.
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On a completely separate note, I stopped uploading to SS after the new rates came in, but then I noticed something happening in January this year.*** I started getting a lot of really high photo SODs. Ranging from $85 to $140 each. Some much higher than even in the 'good ol days'.
Discussions with others led me to believe that SS have divided their pricing into two different categories: bargain-basement vs premium. And as many others started to get these high SODs starting in Jan this year, then one explanation may be that they have opened up their whole database to these premium buyers (which I believe was not available to us mere mortals before) Long story.
Getting more large SODs downloads, of course, depends on a number of factors - size, quality, themes, etc. And of course, there will always be the isolated cases of selling a crapstock-small pic for a high amount, but if you get a lot of large SODS, and more data to assess, then you start to see a trend towards better, larger photos.
Overall my photo sales - both RPI and RPD - have not been affected this year on SS and still perform very well. For me its when they brought video subs in May 2020 that hit me hard. But once again this is all about what you shoot. There are others out there who still do very well with clip sales. But they have completely different ports to me.
I decided to target the internet video buyers when I first started video in 2016. It was a new emerging market and great for a while but now its come back to bite me in the foot, as agencies (not just SS) decided that these buyers have a much lower price point. (And that includes P5).
So, it all comes back to what you shoot.
ETA *** The large photos SODs have been continuing all year. There were less during the summer-slump months when big ad agencies and buyers are not around, but picking up again now.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
Single digit from 50 sales. I don't understand. What single digit? Like under $10 you mean? WOW
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
Thanks for explaining, it was so low, I thought I didn't understand what you meant. That's low! On the other hand 50 sales in a day is pretty good quality, and marketable images, when you get that kind of demand.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
I can't manage 50 downloads a day anymore.
But I once compared the difference between the levels.
100 downloads level 1 vs 100 downloads level 5.
If you take the percentage of sales to $0.10, it's like this:
Level 1: 80 x $0.10
Level 5: 26 x $0.10
So there is a clear difference between the levels.
But another comparison causes disillusionment:
Level 1: 80 x ≤ $0.20
Level 5: 72 x ≤ $0.20
Therefore, it is hardly surprising if you do not earn $10 with 50 downloads.
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50 sales a day also isn't normal for me, I wish! :P I think my average is more like 30 downloads a day on weekdays, but Halloween is giving me a boost, because I sell a lot of dog costume photos.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
I can't manage 50 downloads a day anymore.
But I once compared the difference between the levels.
100 downloads level 1 vs 100 downloads level 5.
If you take the percentage of sales to $0.10, it's like this:
Level 1: 80 x $0.10
Level 5: 26 x $0.10
So there is a clear difference between the levels.
But another comparison causes disillusionment:
Level 1: 80 x ≤ $0.20
Level 5: 72 x ≤ $0.20
Therefore, it is hardly surprising if you do not earn $10 with 50 downloads.
Not sure I understand those numbers? Here are some of mine, which do not include any of my racing images:
Oldest 100 no racing 2009 RPD $0.55
Newest 100 no racing 2019 RPD .68
Newest 100 no racing 2020 RPD .36
Newest 100 2021 no racing RPD .16
Top 11 images, all time No Racing RPD .71 (because #12 was a racing image)
Since 2021 isn't over, I can wait, but if your point was, we make less now, pretty much, no matter what level, mine are showing that's true.
The easiest part was taking my first 100 images that have been on SS "forever" not saying they are any good. :-[
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
I can't manage 50 downloads a day anymore.
But I once compared the difference between the levels.
100 downloads level 1 vs 100 downloads level 5.
If you take the percentage of sales to $0.10, it's like this:
Level 1: 80 x $0.10
Level 5: 26 x $0.10
So there is a clear difference between the levels.
But another comparison causes disillusionment:
Level 1: 80 x ≤ $0.20
Level 5: 72 x ≤ $0.20
Therefore, it is hardly surprising if you do not earn $10 with 50 downloads.
Not sure I understand those numbers? Here are some of mine, which do not include any of my racing images:
Oldest 100 no racing 2009 RPD $0.55
Newest 100 no racing 2019 RPD .68
Newest 100 no racing 2020 RPD .36
Newest 100 2021 no racing RPD .16
Top 11 images, all time No Racing RPD .71 (because #12 was a racing image)
Since 2021 isn't over, I can wait, but if your point was, we make less now, pretty much, no matter what level, mine are showing that's true.
The easiest part was taking my first 100 images that have been on SS "forever" not saying they are any good. :-[
I only wanted to point out, that even at level 5 more than 70% of the downloads are below $0,20. And this can lead to earnings below $10 with 50 downloads - as in Firn's example.
Yes, we make less now. But at the same time I have to admit that my RPD in October 2019 - before the introduction of the new earnings structure - was miserable, too.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
I can't manage 50 downloads a day anymore.
But I once compared the difference between the levels.
100 downloads level 1 vs 100 downloads level 5.
If you take the percentage of sales to $0.10, it's like this:
Level 1: 80 x $0.10
Level 5: 26 x $0.10
So there is a clear difference between the levels.
But another comparison causes disillusionment:
Level 1: 80 x ≤ $0.20
Level 5: 72 x ≤ $0.20
Therefore, it is hardly surprising if you do not earn $10 with 50 downloads.
Not sure I understand those numbers? Here are some of mine, which do not include any of my racing images:
Oldest 100 no racing 2009 RPD $0.55
Newest 100 no racing 2019 RPD .68
Newest 100 no racing 2020 RPD .36
Newest 100 2021 no racing RPD .16
Top 11 images, all time No Racing RPD .71 (because #12 was a racing image)
Since 2021 isn't over, I can wait, but if your point was, we make less now, pretty much, no matter what level, mine are showing that's true.
The easiest part was taking my first 100 images that have been on SS "forever" not saying they are any good. :-[
I only wanted to point out, that even at level 5 more than 70% of the downloads are below $0,20. And this can lead to earnings below $10 with 50 downloads - as in Firn's example.
Yes, we make less now. But at the same time I have to admit that my RPD in October 2019 - before the introduction of the new earnings structure - was miserable, too.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tRFt4dt9/thumb_up_40_color.gif)
And yes I was more amazed at how little for 50 downloads, than anything doubting. My sales for files by upload year, isn't totally fair, but it does reflect what new images are making for me. This year, making less money, my RPD is .64 up until October. And I make about half of what I did before the Margin optimization.
My favorite line from the company, Stan was, how we weren't going to see lower income. On the other hand, there are people who do just as well as before, I'm not one of them, and I get less downloads, plus they are for less money.
I liked Annie's theory that some of the images or some people are now included in the premium, which makes for some higher dollar downloads. I guess I have some of those, which keeps the RPD up, even with the net income being down?
I think it's time to go start dinner, mow, do socks, or something else. All this ciphering (math can be simple if you have enough fingers and toes) makes me nothing but tired.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
I can't manage 50 downloads a day anymore.
But I once compared the difference between the levels.
100 downloads level 1 vs 100 downloads level 5.
If you take the percentage of sales to $0.10, it's like this:
Level 1: 80 x $0.10
Level 5: 26 x $0.10
So there is a clear difference between the levels.
But another comparison causes disillusionment:
Level 1: 80 x ≤ $0.20
Level 5: 72 x ≤ $0.20
Therefore, it is hardly surprising if you do not earn $10 with 50 downloads.
Not sure I understand those numbers? Here are some of mine, which do not include any of my racing images:
Oldest 100 no racing 2009 RPD $0.55
Newest 100 no racing 2019 RPD .68
Newest 100 no racing 2020 RPD .36
Newest 100 2021 no racing RPD .16
Top 11 images, all time No Racing RPD .71 (because #12 was a racing image)
Since 2021 isn't over, I can wait, but if your point was, we make less now, pretty much, no matter what level, mine are showing that's true.
The easiest part was taking my first 100 images that have been on SS "forever" not saying they are any good. :-[
I only wanted to point out, that even at level 5 more than 70% of the downloads are below $0,20. And this can lead to earnings below $10 with 50 downloads - as in Firn's example.
Yes, we make less now. But at the same time I have to admit that my RPD in October 2019 - before the introduction of the new earnings structure - was miserable, too.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tRFt4dt9/thumb_up_40_color.gif)
On the other hand, there are people who do just as well as before, I'm not one of them, and I get less downloads, plus they are for less money.
I know exactly this problem very well, Pete! I know, what you are Talking about!
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I wonder if they did some creative accounting timing to bring a heap of big SODs to January so that they could take a much higher percentage. I certainly wouldn't put it past them anymore. That would be nice if they had opened up the larger value sales to the little people, as at .10 a download one big SOD can make a month for all but the highest level sellers.
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How are your sales going this month?
Mine are not good at all (only on SS and Wirestock)
I keep my expectations very low and then it's hard to be disappointed.
I'd have low expectations if my main model was a dolls head.
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Big EOTM slump followed by a smaller MOTM slump hot on the heels of a BOTM slump.
Lot of slumpin' going on here.
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Big EOTM slump followed by a smaller MOTM slump hot on the heels of a BOTM slump.
Lot of slumpin' going on here.
LOL ;D
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I guess it depends on what you have to sell. For me, this is one of my busiest times of year.
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The last weeks, everything is complete dead.
Also not much uploads
Is there something happen?
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On SS, downloads are pretty good but RPD is poor. On AS, downloads are poor but RPD is pretty good.
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On a completely separate note, I stopped uploading to SS after the new rates came in, but then I noticed something happening in January this year.*** I started getting a lot of really high photo SODs. Ranging from $85 to $140 each. Some much higher than even in the 'good ol days'.
Discussions with others led me to believe that SS have divided their pricing into two different categories: bargain-basement vs premium. And as many others started to get these high SODs starting in Jan this year, then one explanation may be that they have opened up their whole database to these premium buyers (which I believe was not available to us mere mortals before) Long story.
Getting more large SODs downloads, of course, depends on a number of factors - size, quality, themes, etc. And of course, there will always be the isolated cases of selling a crapstock-small pic for a high amount, but if you get a lot of large SODS, and more data to assess, then you start to see a trend towards better, larger photos.
Overall my photo sales - both RPI and RPD - have not been affected this year on SS and still perform very well. For me its when they brought video subs in May 2020 that hit me hard. But once again this is all about what you shoot. There are others out there who still do very well with clip sales. But they have completely different ports to me.
I decided to target the internet video buyers when I first started video in 2016. It was a new emerging market and great for a while but now its come back to bite me in the foot, as agencies (not just SS) decided that these buyers have a much lower price point. (And that includes P5).
So, it all comes back to what you shoot.
ETA *** The large photos SODs have been continuing all year. There were less during the summer-slump months when big ad agencies and buyers are not around, but picking up again now.
Thanks for sharing this experience Annie.
It's an interesting analysis from one of the 'high fliers' out there and makes a fine counterbalance with regard to the mostly negative experiences of SS sales I read elsewhere.
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My microstock sales are crawling with broken legs towards the weekend where I expect them to be hospitalised until the end of the month.
However, I've had my first sale on Arcangel (on a published novel). I have a portfolio of about 100 photos on there (excluding simple scans of authentic vintage photos) and have been slowly uploading for around a year.
Their rejection rate of recent months has been discouraging (a general trend from what I have read), but this is encouraging, so I'm going to put some more effort in.
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One word to described my October sales --"catastrophe" :-\
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On a completely separate note, I stopped uploading to SS after the new rates came in, but then I noticed something happening in January this year.*** I started getting a lot of really high photo SODs. Ranging from $85 to $140 each. Some much higher than even in the 'good ol days'.
Discussions with others led me to believe that SS have divided their pricing into two different categories: bargain-basement vs premium. And as many others started to get these high SODs starting in Jan this year, then one explanation may be that they have opened up their whole database to these premium buyers (which I believe was not available to us mere mortals before) Long story.
Getting more large SODs downloads, of course, depends on a number of factors - size, quality, themes, etc. And of course, there will always be the isolated cases of selling a crapstock-small pic for a high amount, but if you get a lot of large SODS, and more data to assess, then you start to see a trend towards better, larger photos.
Overall my photo sales - both RPI and RPD - have not been affected this year on SS and still perform very well. For me its when they brought video subs in May 2020 that hit me hard. But once again this is all about what you shoot. There are others out there who still do very well with clip sales. But they have completely different ports to me.
I decided to target the internet video buyers when I first started video in 2016. It was a new emerging market and great for a while but now its come back to bite me in the foot, as agencies (not just SS) decided that these buyers have a much lower price point. (And that includes P5).
So, it all comes back to what you shoot.
ETA *** The large photos SODs have been continuing all year. There were less during the summer-slump months when big ad agencies and buyers are not around, but picking up again now.
Thanks for sharing this experience Annie.
It's an interesting analysis from one of the 'high fliers' out there and makes a fine counterbalance with regard to the mostly negative experiences of SS sales I read elsewhere.
Thanks Deb. Thats really sweet of you to say so. I don't know how much of a high flyer I am. lol. I am not anymore special than anyone else here, I just learnt along the way what sells on microstock and small ways that make a big difference on how to provide new files that are not well covered. Something that is within the reach of anyone here.
Anyway, if you need more positive reinforcement then I am pleased to say that October this year has been really good for me. Sales and income on AS have been one of the best months there that I have had for a long time. SS is doing well. Both photos and videos - RPD and total income is good. My overall video sales have been great. Plus I sold quite a few big commission ones ($50+) on all 3 video agencies, AS, P5 and SS.
I always love October. It means the end of the summer slump period. The buyers are back!!
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One word to described my October sales --"catastrophe" :-\
For real, For Real?
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One word to described my October sales --"catastrophe" :-\
For real, For Real?
Sadly, yes. I will make less than I made in Oct 2014. Big drop for me. So much for adding more inventory.
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On a completely separate note, I stopped uploading to SS after the new rates came in, but then I noticed something happening in January this year.*** I started getting a lot of really high photo SODs. Ranging from $85 to $140 each. Some much higher than even in the 'good ol days'.
Discussions with others led me to believe that SS have divided their pricing into two different categories: bargain-basement vs premium. And as many others started to get these high SODs starting in Jan this year, then one explanation may be that they have opened up their whole database to these premium buyers (which I believe was not available to us mere mortals before) Long story.
Getting more large SODs downloads, of course, depends on a number of factors - size, quality, themes, etc. And of course, there will always be the isolated cases of selling a crapstock-small pic for a high amount, but if you get a lot of large SODS, and more data to assess, then you start to see a trend towards better, larger photos.
Overall my photo sales - both RPI and RPD - have not been affected this year on SS and still perform very well. For me its when they brought video subs in May 2020 that hit me hard. But once again this is all about what you shoot. There are others out there who still do very well with clip sales. But they have completely different ports to me.
I decided to target the internet video buyers when I first started video in 2016. It was a new emerging market and great for a while but now its come back to bite me in the foot, as agencies (not just SS) decided that these buyers have a much lower price point. (And that includes P5).
So, it all comes back to what you shoot.
ETA *** The large photos SODs have been continuing all year. There were less during the summer-slump months when big ad agencies and buyers are not around, but picking up again now.
Thanks for sharing this experience Annie.
It's an interesting analysis from one of the 'high fliers' out there and makes a fine counterbalance with regard to the mostly negative experiences of SS sales I read elsewhere.
Thanks Deb. Thats really sweet of you to say so. I don't know how much of a high flyer I am. lol. I am not anymore special than anyone else here, I just learnt along the way what sells on microstock and small ways that make a big difference on how to provide new files that are not well covered. Something that is within the reach of anyone here.
Anyway, if you need more positive reinforcement then I am pleased to say that October this year has been really good for me. Sales and income on AS have been one of the best months there that I have had for a long time. SS is doing well. Both photos and videos - RPD and total income is good. My overall video sales have been great. Plus I sold quite a few big commission ones ($50+) on all 3 video agencies, AS, P5 and SS.
I always love October. It means the end of the summer slump period. The buyers are back!!
Annie, you remind me of Mihai (who I know is also on this forum). Neither of you ever sing your own praises, but you are both I feel exceptionally talented.
In both cases, your work is a joy to behold.
It's no wonder you are successful (combined with good keywording of course) :)
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Deb, you have thoroughly embarrassed me . But let me try to explain.
First of all, if we are modest its because we know you dont have to be talented to do well in microstock. You just have to know the ropes.
The other thing is that people like Mihai, myself, Doug Jensen, and remember Iain Campbell with the great model release video port? - are just a few people that come to mind. The common thing is that we all started about the same time - around 2012 to 2013. Why is this important? For one thing, it was a great time to start. There was still quite a bit of competition back in those days, which is important because you need that in order to keep upping your game.
On the other hand, the people who started before us were used to easy street. Back in the beginning when a good stock pic went to the top of the search - it stayed there (forever) depending solely on how many dls it had. So, when things got tough, a lot of them were not willing to change.
When we came along, was the time SS first changed their algorithm and boy did that hurt a lot of people. But the newcomers like us, learnt from it. Also, I remember having all these arguments with Lauren at the time about what sold and what didn't. I started getting 1,000+ DLs on SS a month, and he was trailing behind me, but we still had these arguments. Long story. The older group were not willing to change.
The other thing about the people I know who started then and did well, was we learnt from reviewers rejections. They were even tougher back then, and it was another thing that made or broke you.
And thirdly, we played to our strengths, and we got better and better at knowing how to use them for microstock. Mihai of course is an engineer and brilliant at technical stuff, I come from a business and graphic design background, Iain started off as a model and then learnt video from one of the top video contributors in the industry at the time. Doug had a strong background in video.
...
So, the question is, can it still be done again if you start today? I know its getting more and more difficult. SS pulling the rug out of people's feet with their rates restructure has made it even worse. But there is still money to be made with new uploads, and ways to get around all the low subs I have found. And it all comes back to what you shoot, and how to be just that bit different to the rest of the crowd.
So my advice in a nutshell: Play to your strengths, always check with what's already on the database, don't shoot what everyone's shooting, keep learning, keep improving your skills, keep upping your game, and do research. In fact there's heaps and heaps of subject matter that I find every day that is popular on social media and not well covered on the microstock databases.**
And dont listen to all the complaints. It will bring you down. Productivity and negativity don't go well together.
And finally, always remember you are not competing against a million other contributors. You are only competing with those who shoot the same subject matter as you - or rather, those who have the same keywords as you. Puts it all in perspective then.
ETA: ** This is important because advertisers know they have to follow social media trends to sell their products to them - and we (as the stock providers) are there to provide them with that content. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! lol
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On the other hand, the people who started before us were used to easy street. Back in the beginning when a good stock pic went to the top of the search - it stayed there (forever) depending solely on how many dls it had.
No it wasn't. It startet going downwards early.
Beginning 2008 at the 3 big agencies RPI was good.
A few years latter going exclusive with istock my RPI was even getting better.
But actually it was going downwards from the beginning.
It was easy to see at a simple excel sheet. Just compare how older monthly uploads performs against newer uploads in the first months and years after upload.
The newer uploads mostly didn't get the sale volume like older uploads and did not sell that long.
Mostly there is even a continuing trend over the years.
At 2020 my RPI (year) at Adobe Stock was $0,7. At 2008 at FT my RPI (year) was about $2.
This trend was clear since about 2010.
My RPI (year) at istock exclusivity was about $9 at 2012. I guess it would be around $3 nowadays.
Nowadays the situation is like this - average images at microstock still sell at lower RPI compared to 10 years ago.
Averages images at istock exclusive probably don't sell well. Premium images at istock exclusive probably will sell well. If you want to keep your income level. Produce more images at micro, or produce better images for mid stock, macro.
Producing at the same level your income will be lower than now in a few years.
Still the same game as it was the last 10 years.
If you are just starting, your income will grow for about 3 years. Now matter how good or bad your are.
After the first 3 years it depends on your 3 years upload volume and quality.
Just keeping the level means lower income year after year.
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Spot on explanation on what micro is all about. Nowadays only terrain for amateur photographers that really don't care too much if they make 3000$ or 500$ a year but once you factor in time, props or gas or equipment the actually loose money but they like the micro game. For pros most have already gone to greener pastures but there are still some that keep going because of huge ports or because the live in a place where live is a bargain.
In 2012 I was making 3$/month/photo at Istock exclusive. Nowadays 10 times less. I rarely upload now unless when I shoot video aerials then I take some photos and from time to time I upload those. But if I take rpi it is really not worth my time anymore. You have to be a very efficient machine and very careful with your expenses if you still want to play the micro card. As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock. The days where you could have many thousands of downloads for a top file or hundreds of licenses for a "regular ones" are over.
Micro is surely not dead as more creative files are downloaded as ever but there are so many players from free to amateurs that are happy with a few hundred dollars a month or less that starting today would be silly as there are so many more routes in photography that give you better revenue streams, similar as when the micro game started.
On the other hand, the people who started before us were used to easy street. Back in the beginning when a good stock pic went to the top of the search - it stayed there (forever) depending solely on how many dls it had.
No it wasn't. It startet going downwards early.
Beginning 2008 at the 3 big agencies RPI was good.
A few years latter going exclusive with istock my RPI was even getting better.
But actually it was going downwards from the beginning.
It was easy to see at a simple excel sheet. Just compare how older monthly uploads performs against newer uploads in the first months and years after upload.
The newer uploads mostly didn't get the sale volume like older uploads and did not sell that long.
Mostly there is even a continuing trend over the years.
At 2020 my RPI (year) at Adobe Stock was $0,7. At 2008 at FT my RPI (year) was about $2.
This trend was clear since about 2010.
My RPI (year) at istock exclusivity was about $9 at 2012. I guess it would be around $3 nowadays.
Nowadays the situation is like this - average images at microstock still sell at lower RPI compared to 10 years ago.
Averages images at istock exclusive probably don't sell well. Premium images at istock exclusive probably will sell well. If you want to keep your income level. Produce more images at micro, or produce better images for mid stock, macro.
Producing at the same level your income will be lower than now in a few years.
Still the same game as it was the last 10 years.
If you are just starting, your income will grow for about 3 years. Now matter how good or bad your are.
After the first 3 years it depends on your 3 years upload volume and quality.
Just keeping the level means lower income year after year.
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Everest, 'As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock'
I am only aware of Stocksy, Arcangel and Trevillion which I assume are 'macro' stock.
Do you know of any others, and which ones are 'medium' stock?
Thanks.
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Deb, you have thoroughly embarrassed me . But let me try to explain.
First of all, if we are modest its because we know you dont have to be talented to do well in microstock. You just have to know the ropes.
The other thing is that people like Mihai, myself, Doug Jensen, and remember Iain Campbell with the great model release video port? - are just a few people that come to mind. The common thing is that we all started about the same time - around 2012 to 2013. Why is this important? For one thing, it was a great time to start. There was still quite a bit of competition back in those days, which is important because you need that in order to keep upping your game.
On the other hand, the people who started before us were used to easy street. Back in the beginning when a good stock pic went to the top of the search - it stayed there (forever) depending solely on how many dls it had. So, when things got tough, a lot of them were not willing to change.
When we came along, was the time SS first changed their algorithm and boy did that hurt a lot of people. But the newcomers like us, learnt from it. Also, I remember having all these arguments with Lauren at the time about what sold and what didn't. I started getting 1,000+ DLs on SS a month, and he was trailing behind me, but we still had these arguments. Long story. The older group were not willing to change.
The other thing about the people I know who started then and did well, was we learnt from reviewers rejections. They were even tougher back then, and it was another thing that made or broke you.
And thirdly, we played to our strengths, and we got better and better at knowing how to use them for microstock. Mihai of course is an engineer and brilliant at technical stuff, I come from a business and graphic design background, Iain started off as a model and then learnt video from one of the top video contributors in the industry at the time. Doug had a strong background in video.
So, the question is, can it still be done again if you start today? I know its getting more and more difficult. SS pulling the rug out of people's feet with their rates restructure has made it even worse. But there is still money to be made with new uploads, and ways to get around all the low subs I have found. And it all comes back to what you shoot, and how to be just that bit different to the rest of the crowd.
So in a nutshell: Play to your strengths, always check with what's already on the database, don't shoot what everyone's shooting, keep learning, keep improving your skills, keep upping your game, and do research. In fact there's heaps and heaps of subject matter that I find every day that is popular on social media and not well covered on the microstock databases.**
And dont listen to all the complaints. It will bring you down. Productivity and negativity don't go well together.
And finally, always remember you are not competing against a million other contributors. You are only competing with those who shoot the same subject matter as you - or rather, those who have the same keywords as you. Puts it all in perspective then.
ETA: ** This is important because advertisers know they have to follow social media trends to sell their products to them - and we (as the stock providers) are there to provide them with that content. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! lol
Dear Annie,
i agree with every single word you wrote!
this is exactly what i do and...it works!
In the meantime, October 2021 is my BME (since 2010)
(but i'm not a photographer, 2d/3d illustrations and animations)
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There are a few others. Adobe premium, Offset, Pond5 setting your prices (basically for video),FilmSupply, plainpicture,...
Everest, 'As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock'
I am only aware of Stocksy, Arcangel and Trevillion which I assume are 'macro' stock.
Do you know of any others, and which ones are 'medium' stock?
Thanks.
-
There are a few others. Adobe premium, Offset, Pond5 setting your prices (basically for video),FilmSupply, plainpicture,...
Everest, 'As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock'
I am only aware of Stocksy, Arcangel and Trevillion which I assume are 'macro' stock.
Do you know of any others, and which ones are 'medium' stock?
Thanks.
There is no anecdotal data on these sites. Yes, they charge more for images, but how much do contributors make compared to:
- the "glory days of stock" say 25 years ago?
- the "glory days of microstock" say 10+ years ago?
-
There are a few others. Adobe premium, Offset, Pond5 setting your prices (basically for video),FilmSupply, plainpicture,...
Everest, 'As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock'
I am only aware of Stocksy, Arcangel and Trevillion which I assume are 'macro' stock.
Do you know of any others, and which ones are 'medium' stock?
Thanks.
There is no anecdotal data on these sites. Yes, they charge more for images, but how much do contributors make compared to:
- the "glory days of stock" say 25 years ago?
- the "glory days of microstock" say 10+ years ago?
they don't. Just think the new folks today will look back at 2021 and say those were the glory days getting almost $.10 per image and $.50 per 4K video on SS!
-
There are a few others. Adobe premium, Offset, Pond5 setting your prices (basically for video),FilmSupply, plainpicture,...
Everest, 'As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock'
I am only aware of Stocksy, Arcangel and Trevillion which I assume are 'macro' stock.
Do you know of any others, and which ones are 'medium' stock?
Thanks.
There is no anecdotal data on these sites. Yes, they charge more for images, but how much do contributors make compared to:
- the "glory days of stock" say 25 years ago?
- the "glory days of microstock" say 10+ years ago?
they don't. Just think the new folks today will look back at 2021 and say those were the glory days getting almost $.10 per image and $.50 per 4K video on SS!
I am a newbie.
In construction you had years with a lot of unemployment and then years with a shortage of employees, so you could earn a lot.
I don't see that happening in stock. The amount of photos, illustrations on the internet is increasing. Cameras, telephones, editing equipment are getting better and more accessible to many people.
I'm sorry I didn't start sooner. But it doesn't make much sense to look back to the past, because that time won't come back.
I think everyone should decide for themselves what to do. I think the talented people can still make good money from it. And it's nice to see whether the earnings are still improving, without always thinking about the past.
I don't earn much, but I like to do it and now even earn something from my hobby (photographing and identifying insects in particular). I just don't have to buy expensive equipment especially for stock.
My biggest fear is that whether the photos will indeed be given away for free in the long run or worse (such as forum, blogs, guestbook on my website, photo sites similar to Flickr) Shutterstock or Adobe will suddenly be completely discontinued. So that everything is gone. Although I think/hope it will take some time. :)
-
There are a few others. Adobe premium, Offset, Pond5 setting your prices (basically for video),FilmSupply, plainpicture,...
Everest, 'As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock'
I am only aware of Stocksy, Arcangel and Trevillion which I assume are 'macro' stock.
Do you know of any others, and which ones are 'medium' stock?
Thanks.
There is no anecdotal data on these sites. Yes, they charge more for images, but how much do contributors make compared to:
- the "glory days of stock" say 25 years ago?
- the "glory days of microstock" say 10+ years ago?
they don't. Just think the new folks today will look back at 2021 and say those were the glory days getting almost $.10 per image and $.50 per 4K video on SS!
I have heard from some old stock photographer - "the glory days of stock" - before RF :-)
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My biggest fear is that whether the photos will indeed be given away for free in the long run or worse (such as forum, blogs, guestbook on my website, photo sites similar to Flickr) Shutterstock or Adobe will suddenly be completely discontinued. So that everything is gone. Although I think/hope it will take some time. :)
I don't think it will happen because a stock photo is a product like any other product in any industry. There are costs, time and knowledge invested. There are hobbyists, but there contribution to overall market revenue is small.
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"My biggest fear is that whether the photos will indeed be given away for free in the long run or worse (such as forum, blogs, guestbook on my website, photo sites similar to Flickr) Shutterstock or Adobe will suddenly be completely discontinued. So that everything is gone. Although I think/hope it will take some time. "
I've heard five years especially if AI images go into play. Technology has changed our lives in many ways. The battery cars will take away the current service jobs that hundred's of thousands do today.
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So my advice in a nutshell: Play to your strengths, always check with what's already on the database, don't shoot what everyone's shooting, keep learning, keep improving your skills, keep upping your game, and do research. In fact there's heaps and heaps of subject matter that I find every day that is popular on social media and not well covered on the microstock databases.
And dont listen to all the complaints. It will bring you down. Productivity and negativity don't go well together.
And finally, always remember you are not competing against a million other contributors. You are only competing with those who shoot the same subject matter as you - or rather, those who have the same keywords as you.
Also great point on the social media leads and designers follow. Of course the opposite is also true. One big circle, like a snake eating it's own tail. Trends are created from both sides, feeding off each other.
Interesting way of putting that, we are competing with people who have the same keywords, not the same images. :) Although there are starting to be AI matches for images, using the images, I think you're right, keywords matter most for being seen, and then the images themselves.
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My biggest fear is that whether the photos will indeed be given away for free in the long run or worse (such as forum, blogs, guestbook on my website, photo sites similar to Flickr) Shutterstock or Adobe will suddenly be completely discontinued. So that everything is gone. Although I think/hope it will take some time. :)
I don't think it will happen because a stock photo is a product like any other product in any industry. There are costs, time and knowledge invested. There are hobbyists, but there contribution to overall market revenue is small.
I guess most of the microstock photographers are hobbyists or semi pro photographers, producing 50 to 200 images a month. Some contributors are production teams that produce a huge amount every month. Guess 60% of earnings in microstock is made by production teams located in eastern Europe.
Professional photographers are not typical for microstock.
If you are running a small photography business without employees there are some costs.
Your earnings before tax - about $3000, studio rent - about 800 (small studio), equipment, insurance, energy, software, etc,.. for a small photography business there are about $4500 income a month to calculate at least.
This is easier to made with contract work.
"My biggest fear is that whether the photos will indeed be given away for free in the long run"
If you calculate the cost for running a photography business right, they are already given away nearly for free.
You can't compete with east Europe stock production teams. Taking in account to have about $4500 costs and 170 hours a month. Every hour invested should make at least $27 an hour, without model costs. Wich will take another $25 into account per model and hour. Simple productions with one model don't sell anymore. So you will need about 4 to 5 models, and a small team. For an 1/2 day shooting you must account at least about $600 of costs. This is just a half day shooting for stock.
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Microstock is a business model / industry. We produce goods as it is common in other industries.
When production costs become too expensive in one country, production moves to a country where these costs are lower. And if that country produces too expensively, it moves on to the next country.
In the past, textiles were produced in Germany. At some point, that came to an end. Labor costs were too high and the cost of living was too high.
Later, Greece was a country where an important part of the gross domestic product was generated by the textile industry. But that belongs to the past, too.
Today, the textiles come from Bangladesh.
I am very sure that the market-dominating producers in the future will not come from the Western industrialized nations. You simply cannot produce below the price required for the cost of living.
That's why many microstock producers had the keywording done in Asia - in India, for example - already years ago. To make a profit.
From 10 cents, for example, model photography is no longer possible here.
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My earnings at SS peaked in 2019 but they are continuing to improve at Adobe. This month at Adobe, I hit a new annual high - with 2 months still to go. With any luck, I still have a shot at an all time high in 2021, across all agencies combined!
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At the beginning of October I passed the 10,000 downloads for this year. Just a few years ago, it took me only half a year to do that. In addition, for the first time since 2011, I'm going to make the five-figure income for the year by a relatively narrow margin.
Revenue October 2021 vs. October 2020
AS: + 54.5%
SS: - 31.5%
If I add up all 6 agencies, revenues are identical with Oct. 2020 (though I can only estimate iStock by using September numbers).
Downloads -6.2%
So RPD actually increased slightly compared to 2020, which I would not have expected.
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Big EOTM slump followed by a smaller MOTM slump hot on the heels of a BOTM slump.
Lot of slumpin' going on here.
I'm having an Autumn slump, hot on the heels of a Spring and Summer slump, anticipating a Winter slump ...
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Big EOTM slump followed by a smaller MOTM slump hot on the heels of a BOTM slump.
Lot of slumpin' going on here.
I'm having an Autumn slump, hot on the heels of a Spring and Summer slump, anticipating a Winter slump ...
It is no longer consider a 'slump' since that indicates that things will go back to normal with higher sales :-\
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Big EOTM slump followed by a smaller MOTM slump hot on the heels of a BOTM slump.
Lot of slumpin' going on here.
I'm having an Autumn slump, hot on the heels of a Spring and Summer slump, anticipating a Winter slump ...
It is no longer consider a 'slump' since that indicates that things will go back to normal with higher sales :-\
True. Maybe I should have said 'a never ending downward slide ...'...
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At the beginning of October I passed the 10,000 downloads for this year. Just a few years ago, it took me only half a year to do that. In addition, for the first time since 2011, I'm going to make the five-figure income for the year by a relatively narrow margin.
Revenue October 2021 vs. October 2020
AS: + 54.5%
SS: - 31.5%
If I add up all 6 agencies, revenues are identical with Oct. 2020 (though I can only estimate iStock by using September numbers).
Downloads -6.2%
So RPD actually increased slightly compared to 2020, which I would not have expected.
$10,000 for the year, you're over $1 RPD and that's a great success story as well. (https://i.postimg.cc/dttsYRZ0/thumbs-up-100.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Jnf0V7Pk/first_place_award_90.jpg)
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At the beginning of October I passed the 10,000 downloads for this year. Just a few years ago, it took me only half a year to do that. In addition, for the first time since 2011, I'm going to make the five-figure income for the year by a relatively narrow margin.
Revenue October 2021 vs. October 2020
AS: + 54.5%
SS: - 31.5%
If I add up all 6 agencies, revenues are identical with Oct. 2020 (though I can only estimate iStock by using September numbers).
Downloads -6.2%
So RPD actually increased slightly compared to 2020, which I would not have expected.
$10,000 for the year, you're over $1 RPD and that's a great success story as well. (https://i.postimg.cc/dttsYRZ0/thumbs-up-100.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Jnf0V7Pk/first_place_award_90.jpg)
Pete, I must have expressed myself incorrectly or poorly. My RPD is lower than $1.
I already have the 10000 Dls, but the five-digit income not yet - in contrast to previous years.
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then we must take back that gold metal :-\
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then we must take back that gold metal :-\
I agree, especially in light of Wilm's huge portfolio of 1300 images (on SS alone)...
If you do better next year Wilm you can have the gold medal back 8)
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Could I maybe get a tin medal instead? :P ::)
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Could I maybe get a tin medal instead? :P ::)
Of course, Wilm.
You do at least deserve that for your tiny 10K+ downloads this year ..
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Shutterstock is the only site delivering, the others are in a comatose.
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Could I maybe get a tin medal instead? :P ::)
LOL the 10k downloads is an accomplishment and yes I misread I thought you said five figures for the first time since 2011.
In addition, for the first time since 2011, I'm going to make the five-figure income for the year by a relatively narrow margin.
Sorry gold medals can't be taken back except in cases of fraud, lies or cheating.
I agree, especially in light of Wilm's huge portfolio of 1300 images (on SS alone)...
If you do better next year Wilm you can have the gold medal back 8)
Only 1,300 images, that's amazing.
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Shutterstock is the only site delivering, the others are in a comatose.
Then you might want to open an Adobe account and start uploading there?
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We could agree on a brass medal - Deb and Pete. Looks like gold, but costs only a fraction. That would also fit better with the current development in the microstock business - fewer and fewer contributors can afford gold. ::)
Already years ago I had decided to stop with microstock if the monthly income would drop below 1000 Euro. I did not keep my word. I just let it continue. I have uploaded new images only to AS lately. That's why I have about 1450 images there. At shutterstock I don't feel like it anymore because of the new revenue structure and because the images lose value too fast for me there - they disappear too fast in nirvana.
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BTW – November has started so badly that I now also have to fear for the five-figure income - especially with shutterstock. Underground!
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Shutterstock is the only site delivering, the others are in a comatose.
Then you might want to open an Adobe account and start uploading there?
Adobe is one of the 'others' in comatose. :-\
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Shutterstock is the only site delivering, the others are in a comatose.
Then you might want to open an Adobe account and start uploading there?
Adobe is one of the 'others' in comatose. :-\
They see you when you're shooting
They know when you upload
They know when you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake
You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why, Microstock is coming to town
Sorry for nothing better, or helpful. The last two places I make anything, on a regular basis, and that's pretty stinky, SS and AS. Everything else is "the next big thing" which is just a song and dance at this point to get people to think there's some great new plan or idea.
The reason I still like Wirestock, isn't the money, but the part where I upload once, with the data I added for SS and AS and forget about them. My top earning site on WS for this month is DT and I made more than I do with my old DT account. WS only has new images and rejects. I can't say anything about why that happened.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Pr59Rqr5/microstock-zone.jpg)
Good Luck I hope you find something that changes the downward trend.
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Downward spiral is inevitable... resistance is futile, you will be assimilated !! 8)
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Things are getting worse every day and it is very hard for newcomers especially to make a living exclusively from microstock. It was different years ago, most of us are struggling right now. me, personally, I saved a lot during these years and invested in stock market, so I hit FI (financial independence) just around when things turned ugly. I now have a comfort of getting along with much lower paychecks from microstock.
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Downward spiral is inevitable... resistance is futile, you will be assimilated !! 8)
Downward trenz, adobe style...
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Downward spiral is inevitable... resistance is futile, you will be assimilated !! 8)
Downward trenz, adobe style...
That's my graph for all my agencies not just Adobe :-\
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AS complete dead for more then a week
Maybe the free collection, was not a great idea
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AS complete dead for more then a week
Maybe the free collection, was not a great idea
Especially if contributors aren't looking to maximise sales. Now customers can feast on free images. I never opted into the scheme.
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AS is somewhat normal for me.
But with shutterstock it gets worse and worse. I don't know what it looks like for Murat, for example, who has been level 6 for months. But from my point of view the levels are a farce. Whether you are level 1 or level 5 doesn't matter from my point of view. The last downloads brought an RPD of $0.14 - screenshot attached. The days before it was hardly better.
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sadly this is the new norm on SS. The EDs are all but a thing of the past :-[
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AS complete dead for more then a week
Maybe the free collection, was not a great idea
Free Images don't put butter on table.... :-\
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...Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount....
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
I'm guessing it was less your expression than disbelief that the total could be so low :)
You were very close - it's typically "single digits" plural - as in "Had 50 sales today and earnings were only in the single digits"
Margin optimization (Shutterstock-speak for cutting contributor's royalties) has meant:
50 new subscription sales at the current 10 cent minimum = $5
50 old subscription sales at the old rate of 38 cents each = $19
(it would even have been $12.50 at the starter royalty of 25 cents)
Firn, I understood you well enough to realize that this was one of the grimmest reports I'd heard in a long, looooong time.
I'm so sorry.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
Single digit from 50 sales. I don't understand. What single digit? Like under $10 you mean? WOW
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
In September I had 89 sales in a day on Shutterstock, but only made $9.12, they were all download from the same location and were all of the same subject.
This is why I don't upload to them anymore.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
Single digit from 50 sales. I don't understand. What single digit? Like under $10 you mean? WOW
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
In September I had 89 sales in a day on Shutterstock, but only made $9.12, they were all download from the same location and were all of the same subject.
This is why I don't upload to them anymore.
Wise move.
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
Single digit from 50 sales. I don't understand. What single digit? Like under $10 you mean? WOW
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
In September I had 89 sales in a day on Shutterstock, but only made $9.12, they were all download from the same location and were all of the same subject.
This is why I don't upload to them anymore.
I have never had this many downloads in a single day in over 11 years. But there have been times when significantly fewer downloads brought home over $250 in a single day. And because of that, shutterstock was my favorite agency for a long time.
Those times are gone - as you can see very well from your example. And that makes me sad.
I admire all those who still invest time and work, and sometimes obviously can achieve increases with it. My personal motivation is at zero.
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Sales dead
Earnings dead
Forum dead
Everything dead
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Sales dead
Earnings dead
Forum dead
Everything dead
Everyone's busy shooting their blue Christmas stock ;) ;D
If you missed the reference - see here ...
https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-photography-discussion/stock-ideas-for-christmas-what-you-should-not-do/ (https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-photography-discussion/stock-ideas-for-christmas-what-you-should-not-do/)
But all jokes aside - guess what color is IN for Christmas this year? Yep ...
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Sales dead
Earnings dead
Forum dead
Everything dead
The good news is that the world has a chance of surviving (according to COP26) ..
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Sales dead
Earnings dead
Forum dead
Everything dead
The good news is that the world has a chance of surviving (according to COP26) ..
Hmm, well, certainly not as dead as Adobe Stop.
Adobe Stop, because sales on Adobe Stop, have stopped.
Adobe Stop sales are running at a piddly 4.4% of sales on Shutterstock this month.
Free images for all!! ;D
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Hmm, well, certainly not as dead as Adobe Stop.
Adobe Stop, because sales on Adobe Stop, have stopped.
Sorry for you, but I'm not seeing that.
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Sales dead
Earnings dead
Forum dead
Everything dead
The good news is that the world has a chance of surviving (according to COP26) ..
Hmm, well, certainly not as dead as Adobe Stop.
Adobe Stop, because sales on Adobe Stop, have stopped.
Adobe Stop sales are running at a piddly 4.4% of sales on Shutterstock this month.
Free images for all!! ;D
if you can send us your link we can maybe get you going again- as long as you are willing to accept positive criticism. If you not selling something is clearly not in tune with AS.
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Hmm, well, certainly not as dead as Adobe Stop.
Adobe Stop, because sales on Adobe Stop, have stopped.
Sorry for you, but I'm not seeing that.
Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
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Hmm, well, certainly not as dead as Adobe Stop.
Adobe Stop, because sales on Adobe Stop, have stopped.
Sorry for you, but I'm not seeing that.
Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
To tell you the truth, my number of downloads seems to have increased since AS took a bunch of my images for their free collection.
Now… I don't want to say anything false, and I don't want to jinx mysef either, but… is it even remotely possible that AS's algorithm rewards those who participate in that program?
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Today sums up my whole month on SS pretty accurately: Had 50 sales today and still only a single digit earning amount. ::)
Single digit from 50 sales. I don't understand. What single digit? Like under $10 you mean? WOW
Yes, under $10 for 50 sales was what I meant. Sorry, English isn't my first language, maybe you don't say it like this in English.
In September I had 89 sales in a day on Shutterstock, but only made $9.12, they were all download from the same location and were all of the same subject.
This is why I don't upload to them anymore.
Same here, 14 cents for the majority of sales.. I just flushed them completely !!
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Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
Please tell me your secret then!
Because I can't get Adobe to sell new content at all. Most of my sales there seem to come from a fixed set of older images that keep selling regularly and once in a full moon some random other image will sell, but I don't have any other agency where new images sell as poorly (= basically not at all) as on Adobe! Getting new content to sell is difficult on all agencies to begin with, but on Adobe I always thought they had the worst algorithm for promoting new content of all agencies.
:o
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I don't sell much on AS, but I do sell a few photos every week this year. But so far in November nothing at all. While Shutterstock is doing better than last months.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free too.
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Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
Please tell me your secret then!
Because I can't get Adobe to sell new content at all. Most of my sales there seem to come from a fixed set of older images that keep selling regularly and once in a full moon some random other image will sell, but I don't have any other agency where new images sell as poorly (= basically not at all) as on Adobe! Getting new content to sell is difficult on all agencies to begin with, but on Adobe I always thought they had the worst algorithm for promoting new content of all agencies.
:o
Firn, I hope you don't mind but I had a quick look at your new work on SS, I should have looked on AS but SS was easier, and I noticed at least 3 things that I do differently to you.
First of all, and I feel a bit awkward giving advice about AS because Mat Hayward is on here and he would know better than me, but I have always thought of AS as the designer agency. So once again, its about knowing your buyers.
So, the things I noticed about your shots vs mine: I offer twice the size as you (ie at least 6000 x 4000 px vs a lot of yours are only 3k x 2k), a lot more copy space than you (especially important if you're selling to designers) and I offer a lot more new trends (eg. colors, themes, etc)
People have been arguing with me about following trends for years, but I stopped listening to them a long time ago, and have been laughing all the way to the bank ever since. You know how many dls I get, so I dont have to go into any more detail than that.
As for selling to designers, I was a graphic designer, so that helps.
I am also on social media every night looking for new and popular trends in colors and styling - and that's how I get so many dls as well.
And thats the same with sooooooooooo many things I find on social media. I think contributors are still shooting too many traditional things without doing a lot of research.
And as for the complaint that many people now have about "why bother shooting new stuff, you only get 10c a DL'. Well I sell a lot of my subs on AS at 99c/DL.
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Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
Please tell me your secret then!
Because I can't get Adobe to sell new content at all. Most of my sales there seem to come from a fixed set of older images that keep selling regularly and once in a full moon some random other image will sell, but I don't have any other agency where new images sell as poorly (= basically not at all) as on Adobe! Getting new content to sell is difficult on all agencies to begin with, but on Adobe I always thought they had the worst algorithm for promoting new content of all agencies.
:o
Firn, I hope you don't mind but I had a quick look at your new work on SS, I should have looked on AS but SS was easier, and I noticed at least 3 things that I do differently to you.
First of all, and I feel a bit awkward giving advice about AS because Mat Hayward is on here and he would know better than me, but I have always thought of AS as the designer agency. So once again, its about knowing your buyers.
So, the things I noticed about your shots vs mine: I offer twice the size as you (ie at least 6000 x 4000 px vs a lot of yours are only 3k x 2k), a lot more copy space than you (especially important if you're selling to designers) and I offer a lot more new trends (eg. colors, themes, etc)
People have been arguing with me about following trends for years, but I stopped listening to them a long time ago, and have been laughing all the way to the bank ever since. You know how many dls I get, so I dont have to go into any more detail than that.
As for selling to designers, I was a graphic designer, so that helps, and early this year I opened up an account with DesignBundles.com, and did a lot of research on what I can shoot to sell to those designers. One day I decided to upload them to AS and they have been selling like hotcakes ever since. A few sell on other agencies, but mainly on AS. Once again, the designer agency (because their buyers come through their software)
I am also on social media every night looking for new and popular trends in colors and styling - and that's how I get so many dls as well. My huge success from my holiday candyland cakes started back then in 2018, and been selling ever since. I remember at the time seeing all these eye-popping crazy cakes on Pinterest that were being pinned like crazy, I checked back to microstock databases and almost nothing there.
And thats the same with sooooooooooo many things I find on social media. I think contributors are still shooting too many traditional things without doing a lot of research.
No, Annie, I don't mind at all, on the contrary, I am very thankful for your advice.
I think you mentioned that you see a connection between good sales and image size before at some point and I actually try to implement this and while I always used to submit in 3kx2k, I now often try to go bigger, but I am afraid I am either simply not a good enough photographer or don't have have the right equipment. Most of my images will have way too much noise or a too soft focus in 6Kx4K size to get accepted by agencies like Shutterstock.
About the copy space I will try to keep that in mind. I actually thought I was already creating versions with a decent amount of copy space, but apparently not. :-[
But, Annie, this is all good advice to get more sales overall, but I am not sure it explains why on Adobe I can't get new images to sell? Because for me it's really a problem that stands out on Adobe. This year around Halloween I wasn't really able to establish and decent bestseller, but last year for example I added a series of images that performed well on ALL agencies - Expect on Adobe. 0 sales there. I was really frustrated about it, because that shoot was so much work and I felt like the images could have done so well on Adobe, if only they promoted them correctly. So for me it's really Adobe that fails to promote my new work and I am not sure image size or copy space is the reason why new images sell on other agencies but not on Adobe? That's what baffles me. I am not complaining about poor sales in general, just how on Adobe my newer works seems to stay unnoticed.
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Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
Please tell me your secret then!
Because I can't get Adobe to sell new content at all. Most of my sales there seem to come from a fixed set of older images that keep selling regularly and once in a full moon some random other image will sell, but I don't have any other agency where new images sell as poorly (= basically not at all) as on Adobe! Getting new content to sell is difficult on all agencies to begin with, but on Adobe I always thought they had the worst algorithm for promoting new content of all agencies.
:o
Firn, I hope you don't mind but I had a quick look at your new work on SS, I should have looked on AS but SS was easier, and I noticed at least 3 things that I do differently to you.
First of all, and I feel a bit awkward giving advice about AS because Mat Hayward is on here and he would know better than me, but I have always thought of AS as the designer agency. So once again, its about knowing your buyers.
So, the things I noticed about your shots vs mine: I offer twice the size as you (ie at least 6000 x 4000 px vs a lot of yours are only 3k x 2k), a lot more copy space than you (especially important if you're selling to designers) and I offer a lot more new trends (eg. colors, themes, etc)
As for selling to designers, I was a graphic designer, so that helps.
I am also on social media every night looking for new and popular trends in colors and styling.
No, Annie, I don't mind at all, on the contrary, I am very thankful for your advice.
I think you mentioned that you see a connection between good sales and image size before at some point and I actually try to implement this and while I always used to submit in 3kx2k, I now often try to go bigger, but I am afraid I am either simply not a good enough photographer or don't have have the right equipment. Most of my images will have way too much noise or a too soft focus in 6Kx4K size to get accepted by agencies like Shutterstock.
About the copy space I will try to keep that in mind. I actually thought I was already creating versions with a decent amount of copy space, but apparently not. :-[
But, Annie, this is all good advice to get more sales overall, but I am not sure it explains why on Adobe I can't get new images to sell? Because for me it's really a problem that stands out on Adobe. This year around Halloween I wasn't really able to establish and decent bestseller, but last year for example I added a series of images that performed well on ALL agencies - Expect on Adobe. 0 sales there. So for me it's really Adobe that fails to promote my new work and I am not sure image size or copy space is the reason why new images sell on other agencies but not on Adobe? That's what baffles me. I am not complaining about poor sales in general, just how on Adobe my newer works seems to stay unnoticed.
Ok, I just had another quick look at your Halloween searching by fresh images - and I see a lot of pumpkins and a lot of orange. Very traditional.
I dont shoot pumpkins anymore because that subject is too oversaturated for me. My thought is, its already done so why shoot it.
Firn, I think you're a great photographer. I love your puppies. So cute. You've done extremely well for someone who only started a few years ago. I think you just need a few tweaks here and there and you can do even better.
But AS's algorithm is great if you can find new stuff that designers want. A friend explained this me just this morning: "Yes, I like Adobe, remember they have that 30 days rank thing, then images are pretty well fixed where they are. Early views and sales are important. Which is good for your current type of material, instead of long run kind of things."
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Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
Please tell me your secret then!
Because I can't get Adobe to sell new content at all. Most of my sales there seem to come from a fixed set of older images that keep selling regularly and once in a full moon some random other image will sell, but I don't have any other agency where new images sell as poorly (= basically not at all) as on Adobe! Getting new content to sell is difficult on all agencies to begin with, but on Adobe I always thought they had the worst algorithm for promoting new content of all agencies.
:o
Firn, I hope you don't mind but I had a quick look at your new work on SS, I should have looked on AS but SS was easier, and I noticed at least 3 things that I do differently to you.
First of all, and I feel a bit awkward giving advice about AS because Mat Hayward is on here and he would know better than me, but I have always thought of AS as the designer agency. So once again, its about knowing your buyers.
So, the things I noticed about your shots vs mine: I offer twice the size as you (ie at least 6000 x 4000 px vs a lot of yours are only 3k x 2k), a lot more copy space than you (especially important if you're selling to designers) and I offer a lot more new trends (eg. colors, themes, etc)
People have been arguing with me about following trends for years, but I stopped listening to them a long time ago, and have been laughing all the way to the bank ever since. You know how many dls I get, so I dont have to go into any more detail than that.
As for selling to designers, I was a graphic designer, so that helps, and early this year I opened up an account with DesignBundles.com, and did a lot of research on what I can shoot to sell to those designers. One day I decided to upload them to AS and they have been selling like hotcakes ever since. A few sell on other agencies, but mainly on AS. Once again, the designer agency (because their buyers come through their software)
I am also on social media every night looking for new and popular trends in colors and styling - and that's how I get so many dls as well. My huge success from my holiday candyland cakes started back then in 2018, and been selling ever since. I remember at the time seeing all these eye-popping crazy cakes on Pinterest that were being pinned like crazy, I checked back to microstock databases and almost nothing there.
And thats the same with sooooooooooo many things I find on social media. I think contributors are still shooting too many traditional things without doing a lot of research.
No, Annie, I don't mind at all, on the contrary, I am very thankful for your advice.
I think you mentioned that you see a connection between good sales and image size before at some point and I actually try to implement this and while I always used to submit in 3kx2k, I now often try to go bigger, but I am afraid I am either simply not a good enough photographer or don't have have the right equipment. Most of my images will have way too much noise or a too soft focus in 6Kx4K size to get accepted by agencies like Shutterstock.
About the copy space I will try to keep that in mind. I actually thought I was already creating versions with a decent amount of copy space, but apparently not. :-[
But, Annie, this is all good advice to get more sales overall, but I am not sure it explains why on Adobe I can't get new images to sell? Because for me it's really a problem that stands out on Adobe. This year around Halloween I wasn't really able to establish and decent bestseller, but last year for example I added a series of images that performed well on ALL agencies - Expect on Adobe. 0 sales there. So for me it's really Adobe that fails to promote my new work and I am not sure image size or copy space is the reason why new images sell on other agencies but not on Adobe? That's what baffles me. I am not complaining about poor sales in general, just how on Adobe my newer works seems to stay unnoticed.
Ok, I just had another quick look at your Halloween searching by fresh images - and I see a lot of pumpkins and a lot of orange. Very traditional.
I dont shoot pumpkins anymore because that subject is too oversaturated for me. My thought is, its already done so why shoot it.
I made killing on AS this October - and I can give this away now because Halloween is over - I looked at Pinterest for what was trending a few months ago - and it was PINK halloween. So, this year I did one big Halloween party table shoot in pink, black and white theme, and lots of background flatlays - and some of my images and stop motion videos made it to the first page of those respective searches on AS. A couple on SS as well. It was big hit. Not a lot of competition. Thats what you have to go for.
But that's all the tips and trade secrets from me for now - I dont want to give too much away on a public forum. lol ;-)
Firn, I think you're a great photographer. I love your puppies. So cute. You've done extremely well for someone who only started a few years ago. I think you just need a few tweaks here and there and you can do even better.
But AS's algorithm is great if you can find new stuff that designers want. A friend explained this me just this morning: "Yes, I like Adobe, remember they have that 30 days rank thing, then images are pretty well fixed where they are. Early views and sales are important. Which is good for your current type of material, instead of long run kind of things."
Pumpkins and "traditional" Halloween stuff don't do well for me on Halloween. What sells well for me are my dogs - same as on all other holidays. That's where I make the most money with.
I admit I don't look out so much for new trends, that's certainly something I have to look into. But as said, since it's my dogs that sell well and I like to stick to that as it works for me I am not sure trends is something I can implement there. Though, thinking about it, actually I could probably have made some "pink Halloween" themes with my dogs too.
Again, thanky ou for your advice. Thanks for taking the time! I will try to work on my copy space issue and try to look out more for new trends.
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@Firn.
Here's some tips on getting photos past fussy reviewers - if it helps.
When I started microstock in 2013, all I had was an old Nikon d90 and a kit lens. And reviewers were even fussier back then. And I used to shoot all handheld because I didnt have a tripod back then as well.
And this is what I learnt: 1. For your aperture, find the sweet spot on your lens. That will ensure super sharp focus. There's lots of articles about it on google. 2. If shooting handheld, your shutterspeed should be 3 times the length of your lens. And 3. always, always have your ISO set on the lowest possible setting. (for noise-free shots) The rest is light, so invest in some good strobes or whatever. And study lighting.
And if I ever did have some noise in backgrounds or dark areas, I would go over those areas in Photoshop with the blur tool.
All tips that we all learnt on SS forum back in the 'old days'. :-)
And I always uploaded the largest size possible, sometimes smaller because of necessary cropping, but on the old d90 it was usually 4288px on the longest side.
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Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
Please tell me your secret then!
Because I can't get Adobe to sell new content at all. Most of my sales there seem to come from a fixed set of older images that keep selling regularly and once in a full moon some random other image will sell, but I don't have any other agency where new images sell as poorly (= basically not at all) as on Adobe! Getting new content to sell is difficult on all agencies to begin with, but on Adobe I always thought they had the worst algorithm for promoting new content of all agencies.
:o
Firn, I hope you don't mind but I had a quick look at your new work on SS, I should have looked on AS but SS was easier, and I noticed at least 3 things that I do differently to you.
First of all, and I feel a bit awkward giving advice about AS because Mat Hayward is on here and he would know better than me, but I have always thought of AS as the designer agency. So once again, its about knowing your buyers.
So, the things I noticed about your shots vs mine: I offer twice the size as you (ie at least 6000 x 4000 px vs a lot of yours are only 3k x 2k), a lot more copy space than you (especially important if you're selling to designers) and I offer a lot more new trends (eg. colors, themes, etc)
I am also on social media every night looking for new and popular trends in colors and styling - and that's how I get so many dls as well.
No, Annie, I don't mind at all, on the contrary, I am very thankful for your advice.
I think you mentioned that you see a connection between good sales and image size before at some point and I actually try to implement this and while I always used to submit in 3kx2k, I now often try to go bigger, but I am afraid I am either simply not a good enough photographer or don't have have the right equipment. Most of my images will have way too much noise or a too soft focus in 6Kx4K size to get accepted by agencies like Shutterstock.
About the copy space I will try to keep that in mind. I actually thought I was already creating versions with a decent amount of copy space, but apparently not. :-[
But, Annie, this is all good advice to get more sales overall, but I am not sure it explains why on Adobe I can't get new images to sell? Because for me it's really a problem that stands out on Adobe. This year around Halloween I wasn't really able to establish and decent bestseller, but last year for example I added a series of images that performed well on ALL agencies - Expect on Adobe. 0 sales there. So for me it's really Adobe that fails to promote my new work and I am not sure image size or copy space is the reason why new images sell on other agencies but not on Adobe? That's what baffles me. I am not complaining about poor sales in general, just how on Adobe my newer works seems to stay unnoticed.
Ok, I just had another quick look at your Halloween searching by fresh images - and I see a lot of pumpkins and a lot of orange. Very traditional.
I dont shoot pumpkins anymore because that subject is too oversaturated for me. My thought is, its already done so why shoot it.
Firn, I think you're a great photographer. I love your puppies. So cute. You've done extremely well for someone who only started a few years ago. I think you just need a few tweaks here and there and you can do even better.
But AS's algorithm is great if you can find new stuff that designers want. A friend explained this me just this morning: "Yes, I like Adobe, remember they have that 30 days rank thing, then images are pretty well fixed where they are. Early views and sales are important. Which is good for your current type of material, instead of long run kind of things."
Pumpkins and "traditional" Halloween stuff don't do well for me on Halloween. What sells well for me are my dogs - same as on all other holidays. That's where I make the most money with. The shoot I was talking about that failed so miserably on Adobe was from this one: https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-wearing-red-halloween-1831416523 (https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-wearing-red-halloween-1831416523)
So much work, I sew all the costumes myself, drove all the way to a cemetary where I could take dogs, embarassed myself by desecrating graves and then none of the images sold on Adobe at all. That was disappointing. :(
I admit I don't look out so much for new trends, that's certainly something I have to look into. But as said, since it's my dogs that sell well and I like to stick to that as it works for me I am not sure trends is something I can implement there. Though, thinking about it, actually I could probably have made some "pink Halloween" themes with my dogs too.
Again, thanky ou for your advice. Thanks for taking the time! I will try to work on my copy space issue and try to look out more for new trends.
OK> another tip. I am trying not to be too negative. So dont worry too much about what I say - only take on what you think is ok. In the bulldog wearing red halloween pic - there is too much distraction in the background. Another angle perhaps? If I was a designer looking for a pic like that - I would move on to something else. Because of lack of copy space usually.
What I do is shoot something like that with a full background is have one like that - and then move everything else to the side and shoot with a lot of copy space. Or for your puppy I might have brought him home and shoot him against a plain background with lots of negative space in a studio shot. And then see what sells most.
Your doggy pics are great though and wow, you do a great job on the costumes! I didnt know that. Well, play to your strengths, I always say. Your doggy pics and costumes are great.
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Same here. AS has a really great algorithm IMO. If you get quick sales on new work, the algorithm repays you tenfold. And that’s where I am making the most money. More so on AS than other agencies.
I haven't put any of my work there up for free. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
Please tell me your secret then!
Because I can't get Adobe to sell new content at all. Most of my sales there seem to come from a fixed set of older images that keep selling regularly and once in a full moon some random other image will sell, but I don't have any other agency where new images sell as poorly (= basically not at all) as on Adobe! Getting new content to sell is difficult on all agencies to begin with, but on Adobe I always thought they had the worst algorithm for promoting new content of all agencies.
:o
Firn, I hope you don't mind but I had a quick look at your new work on SS, I should have looked on AS but SS was easier, and I noticed at least 3 things that I do differently to you.
First of all, and I feel a bit awkward giving advice about AS because Mat Hayward is on here and he would know better than me, but I have always thought of AS as the designer agency. So once again, its about knowing your buyers.
So, the things I noticed about your shots vs mine: I offer twice the size as you (ie at least 6000 x 4000 px vs a lot of yours are only 3k x 2k), a lot more copy space than you (especially important if you're selling to designers) and I offer a lot more new trends (eg. colors, themes, etc)
People have been arguing with me about following trends for years, but I stopped listening to them a long time ago, and have been laughing all the way to the bank ever since. You know how many dls I get, so I dont have to go into any more detail than that.
As for selling to designers, I was a graphic designer, so that helps, and early this year I opened up an account with DesignBundles.com, and did a lot of research on what I can shoot to sell to those designers. One day I decided to upload them to AS and they have been selling like hotcakes ever since. A few sell on other agencies, but mainly on AS. Once again, the designer agency (because their buyers come through their software)
I am also on social media every night looking for new and popular trends in colors and styling - and that's how I get so many dls as well. My huge success from my holiday candyland cakes started back then in 2018, and been selling ever since. I remember at the time seeing all these eye-popping crazy cakes on Pinterest that were being pinned like crazy, I checked back to microstock databases and almost nothing there.
And thats the same with sooooooooooo many things I find on social media. I think contributors are still shooting too many traditional things without doing a lot of research.
No, Annie, I don't mind at all, on the contrary, I am very thankful for your advice.
I think you mentioned that you see a connection between good sales and image size before at some point and I actually try to implement this and while I always used to submit in 3kx2k, I now often try to go bigger, but I am afraid I am either simply not a good enough photographer or don't have have the right equipment. Most of my images will have way too much noise or a too soft focus in 6Kx4K size to get accepted by agencies like Shutterstock.
About the copy space I will try to keep that in mind. I actually thought I was already creating versions with a decent amount of copy space, but apparently not. :-[
But, Annie, this is all good advice to get more sales overall, but I am not sure it explains why on Adobe I can't get new images to sell? Because for me it's really a problem that stands out on Adobe. This year around Halloween I wasn't really able to establish and decent bestseller, but last year for example I added a series of images that performed well on ALL agencies - Expect on Adobe. 0 sales there. So for me it's really Adobe that fails to promote my new work and I am not sure image size or copy space is the reason why new images sell on other agencies but not on Adobe? That's what baffles me. I am not complaining about poor sales in general, just how on Adobe my newer works seems to stay unnoticed.
Ok, I just had another quick look at your Halloween searching by fresh images - and I see a lot of pumpkins and a lot of orange. Very traditional.
I dont shoot pumpkins anymore because that subject is too oversaturated for me. My thought is, its already done so why shoot it.
I made killing on AS this October - and I can give this away now because Halloween is over - I looked at Pinterest for what was trending a few months ago - and it was PINK halloween. So, this year I did one big Halloween party table shoot in pink, black and white theme, and lots of background flatlays - and some of my images and stop motion videos made it to the first page of those respective searches on AS. A couple on SS as well. It was big hit. Not a lot of competition. Thats what you have to go for.
But that's all the tips and trade secrets from me for now - I dont want to give too much away on a public forum. lol ;-)
Firn, I think you're a great photographer. I love your puppies. So cute. You've done extremely well for someone who only started a few years ago. I think you just need a few tweaks here and there and you can do even better.
But AS's algorithm is great if you can find new stuff that designers want. A friend explained this me just this morning: "Yes, I like Adobe, remember they have that 30 days rank thing, then images are pretty well fixed where they are. Early views and sales are important. Which is good for your current type of material, instead of long run kind of things."
Pumpkins and "traditional" Halloween stuff don't do well for me on Halloween. What sells well for me are my dogs - same as on all other holidays. That's where I make the most money with. The shoot I was talking about that failed so miserably on Adobe was from this one: https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-wearing-red-halloween-1831416523 (https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-wearing-red-halloween-1831416523)
So much work, I sew all the costumes myself, drove all the way to a cemetary where I could take dogs, embarassed myself by desecrating graves and then none of the images sold on Adobe at all. That was disappointing. :(
I admit I don't look out so much for new trends, that's certainly something I have to look into. But as said, since it's my dogs that sell well and I like to stick to that as it works for me I am not sure trends is something I can implement there. Though, thinking about it, actually I could probably have made some "pink Halloween" themes with my dogs too.
Again, thanky ou for your advice. Thanks for taking the time! I will try to work on my copy space issue and try to look out more for new trends.
OK> another tip. I am trying not to be too negative. So dont worry too much about what I say - only take on what you think is ok. In the bulldog wearing red halloween pic - there is too much distraction in the background. Another angle perhaps? If I was a designer looking for a pic like that - I would move on to something else. Because of lack of copy space usually.
What I do is shoot something like that with a full background is have one like that - and then move everything else to the side and shoot with a lot of copy space. Or for your puppy I might have brought him home and shoot him against a plain background with lots of negative space in a studio shot. And then see what sells most.
Your doggy pics are great though and wow, you do a great job on the costumes! I didnt know that. Well, play to your strengths, I always say. Your doggy pics and costumes are great.
Thank you very much for taking all this effort. I am not taking it as being negative. I always welcome advice when it's constructive and actually gives me an idea of what to improve.
I have another one with that costume that should have more than enough copy space, as it's isolated:
https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-red-devil-halloween-1792920889 (https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-red-devil-halloween-1792920889)
But I could not say one sells more than the other. But maybe isolated images is a whole other topic altogether. I don't know.
I just wanted to write how my best selling dog photo on SS and Adobe (two completely dfferent photos) don't have proper copy space at all and still sell well, but actually I was wrong. I looked through my folders where I collect screenshot of all online uses I can find and even though these images don't have much copy space in many cases the people buying them still added text to the empty areas, even though there was't much space available. You are definitly right with the copy space being something that buyers are looking for. As said, I thought I often tried to implement copy space, but it looks like I have to pay more attention to this. Thank you very much.
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Fan of Annie's work (watched from the Shutterstock forum often). Not from Social Media. I never read that, but understand that it can be useful for sales. I don't have very expensive equipment, know a lot about insects, but that's not a subject that you sell a lot of, or you have to spend much more money on lenses, lighting.
So I don't mind, understand that my sales are not very high. I do like the fact that I can pay my provider of my website with the earnings of the photos, that I have money left over and that the earnings continue to rise.
I do find it strange that I didn't sell anything at Adobe in November, while November is not a bad month. But according to the probability calculation, it is probably not very special either. Who knows next week will be much better. ;)
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@Firn. Yay! Finally after all my 'nagging', someone can actually prove that buyers love copy space. lol. Thats great, Firn, that you have all those shots of how your photos have been used. Keep it up - that in itself should be more useful than anything else. Know your buyers! (another one of my nagging sayings. lol)
This is one of my favourite shots of yours. I absolutely love it.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/easter-bunny-dog-brown-french-bulldogs-1926758186 (https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/easter-bunny-dog-brown-french-bulldogs-1926758186)
You've really nailed it here. The blurred background looks great and very professional. Nothing distracting in the background to distract the eye. The colors and tones in the shot look fabulous and complement your main subject. A great 'halo' light around the dog's head. Lots of really good light and dark contrasts in the shot. The expression on your puppy's face is gorgeous.
You see? You are a great photographer. You probably dont have to have isolated shots if you can produce pics like this. For holiday shots, I would add a couple of small props - a couple of small easter eggs - to make it a bit more Easter-y. And maybe just a bit more copy space. But that's just me.
@thijs Thanks! Social media trends don't always work for everyone. It depends on what you're shooting. I think for animals and insects, especially after reading more about what Firn said, its probably more about getting a great looking shot.
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the last several replies is why I join this site! Love it. Taking notes 8)
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the last several replies is why I join this site! Love it. Taking notes 8)
This! Enjoyed reading the inspiring discussion too!
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Annie, Firn: maybe you could do a regular 'celebrity' discussion slot for us now and again 8)
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Annie, Firn: maybe you could do a regular 'celebrity' discussion slot for us now and again 8)
I second that motion 8)
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LOL. This is hilarious and a bit embarrassing. Not sure what else we can do.
*SisterAct*
But it shows that people are looking for real answers to real problems in microstock. And not just all the usual grumbling. Which is a good sign.
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Fan of Annie's work (watched from the Shutterstock forum often). Not from Social Media. I never read that, but understand that it can be useful for sales. I don't have very expensive equipment, know a lot about insects, but that's not a subject that you sell a lot of, or you have to spend much more money on lenses, lighting.
So I don't mind, understand that my sales are not very high. I do like the fact that I can pay my provider of my website with the earnings of the photos, that I have money left over and that the earnings continue to rise.
I do find it strange that I didn't sell anything at Adobe in November, while November is not a bad month. But according to the probability calculation, it is probably not very special either. Who knows next week will be much better. ;)
Yippee! My first two sales this month from Adobe. Only unfortunately twice 0.33. But because of the number I am a bit closer to permission to upload my more commercial photos.
And since yesterday in level 4 at Shutterstock. Only my first sale after that was of course 0.10 ;D
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Fan of Annie's work (watched from the Shutterstock forum often). Not from Social Media. I never read that, but understand that it can be useful for sales. I don't have very expensive equipment, know a lot about insects, but that's not a subject that you sell a lot of, or you have to spend much more money on lenses, lighting.
So I don't mind, understand that my sales are not very high. I do like the fact that I can pay my provider of my website with the earnings of the photos, that I have money left over and that the earnings continue to rise.
I do find it strange that I didn't sell anything at Adobe in November, while November is not a bad month. But according to the probability calculation, it is probably not very special either. Who knows next week will be much better. ;)
Yippee! My first two sales this month from Adobe. Only unfortunately twice 0.33. But because of the number I am a bit closer to permission to upload my more commercial photos.
And since yesterday in level 4 at Shutterstock. Only my first sale after that was of course 0.10 ;D
Congrats, Thijs!
But one question: is there an upload limit at AS? Never heard of this before. Or was it a joke?
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Fan of Annie's work (watched from the Shutterstock forum often). Not from Social Media. I never read that, but understand that it can be useful for sales. I don't have very expensive equipment, know a lot about insects, but that's not a subject that you sell a lot of, or you have to spend much more money on lenses, lighting.
So I don't mind, understand that my sales are not very high. I do like the fact that I can pay my provider of my website with the earnings of the photos, that I have money left over and that the earnings continue to rise.
I do find it strange that I didn't sell anything at Adobe in November, while November is not a bad month. But according to the probability calculation, it is probably not very special either. Who knows next week will be much better. ;)
Yippee! My first two sales this month from Adobe. Only unfortunately twice 0.33. But because of the number I am a bit closer to permission to upload my more commercial photos.
And since yesterday in level 4 at Shutterstock. Only my first sale after that was of course 0.10 ;D
Congrats, Thijs!
But one question: is there an upload limit at AS? Never heard of this before. Or was it a joke?
Thanks Wilm
Not a joke. Until now I am not allowed to upload photos with illustrative editorial content. That's only allowed if you've sold more than hundred photos, I thought.
That will take a while, because I don't sell a lot on AS. I have many photos suitable for that. I hope I get in January approval.
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Fan of Annie's work (watched from the Shutterstock forum often). Not from Social Media. I never read that, but understand that it can be useful for sales. I don't have very expensive equipment, know a lot about insects, but that's not a subject that you sell a lot of, or you have to spend much more money on lenses, lighting.
So I don't mind, understand that my sales are not very high. I do like the fact that I can pay my provider of my website with the earnings of the photos, that I have money left over and that the earnings continue to rise.
I do find it strange that I didn't sell anything at Adobe in November, while November is not a bad month. But according to the probability calculation, it is probably not very special either. Who knows next week will be much better. ;)
Yippee! My first two sales this month from Adobe. Only unfortunately twice 0.33. But because of the number I am a bit closer to permission to upload my more commercial photos.
And since yesterday in level 4 at Shutterstock. Only my first sale after that was of course 0.10 ;D
Congrats, Thijs!
But one question: is there an upload limit at AS? Never heard of this before. Or was it a joke?
Thanks Wilm
Not a joke. Until now I am not allowed to upload photos with illustrative editorial content. That's only allowed if you've sold more than hundred photos, I thought.
That will take a while, because I don't sell a lot on AS. I have many photos suitable for that. I hope I get in January approval.
Okay, Thijs, now I get it. Yes, I know about the illustrative editorials in combination with sales. I was probably just confused because you used the term "commercial photos". But you didn't mean the license type, but your personal commercial success.
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Congrats, Thijs!
But one question: is there an upload limit at AS? Never heard of this before. Or was it a joke?
Thanks Wilm
Not a joke. Until now I am not allowed to upload photos with illustrative editorial content. That's only allowed if you've sold more than hundred photos, I thought.
That will take a while, because I don't sell a lot on AS. I have many photos suitable for that. I hope I get in January approval.
Yes, not so much an upload limit as content type restriction for new people. Yes: Contributors with 100 or more downloads in their account history can submit illustrative editorial content. Which used to be Gold members only = over 10,000 and then they dropped it to anyone Silver = over 999. I don't know if they use those terms anymore. 33% is the base level.
Anyone who wants to know, go to your account, click Dashboard > Timeframe (upper left) and Lifetime. https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/portfolio
Lifetime Licenses - excludes free downloads
Minimum Royalty Amount (per licensed standard asset)
0-999 $0.33
1,000-9,999 $0.36
Over 10,000 $0.38
Read about it here: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/royalty-details.html Updated Sept. 2021
My current RPD for this years downloads is $.97 which means, most of my downloads are not 36¢ 8)
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Congrats, Thijs!
But one question: is there an upload limit at AS? Never heard of this before. Or was it a joke?
Thanks Wilm
Not a joke. Until now I am not allowed to upload photos with illustrative editorial content. That's only allowed if you've sold more than hundred photos, I thought.
That will take a while, because I don't sell a lot on AS. I have many photos suitable for that. I hope I get in January approval.
My current RPD for this years downloads is $.97
I'm at $1,25 at AS vs. $0,61 at shutterstock. More than twice as much. Since the introduction of the new earnings structure my RPD at shutterstock decreased by 15.3% at shutterstock.
Since my downloads and revenues at AS are very constant (apart from the monthly differences), but those at shutterstock are declining, it is clear that AS now brings in more money than shutterstock - in contrast to before. And the poll results also show that it is obviously the same for most contributors. The numbers used to be the other way around. Shutterstock was always in first place. I am very sure that this trend will continue and strengthen.
In addition, there is another medium- to long-term problem for shutterstock from my point of view. If revenues no longer cover production costs, image styles and content will change and become more influenced by the cultural origin of the countries where images will be produced in the future. This may mean that buyers from the countries where new images are no longer being created will no longer be able to find the image material that suits their cultural background. Models, architecture, graphic styles, colors, layouts, etc. are all influenced by our cultural background. And this is naturally different in the various regions of the world.
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Congrats, Thijs!
But one question: is there an upload limit at AS? Never heard of this before. Or was it a joke?
Thanks Wilm
Not a joke. Until now I am not allowed to upload photos with illustrative editorial content. That's only allowed if you've sold more than hundred photos, I thought.
That will take a while, because I don't sell a lot on AS. I have many photos suitable for that. I hope I get in January approval.
Yes, not so much an upload limit as content type restriction for new people. Yes: Contributors with 100 or more downloads in their account history can submit illustrative editorial content. Which used to be Gold members only = over 10,000 and then they dropped it to anyone Silver = over 999. I don't know if they use those terms anymore. 33% is the base level.
Anyone who wants to know, go to your account, click Dashboard > Timeframe (upper left) and Lifetime. https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/portfolio
Lifetime Licenses - excludes free downloads
Minimum Royalty Amount (per licensed standard asset)
0-999 $0.33
1,000-9,999 $0.36
Over 10,000 $0.38
Read about it here: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/royalty-details.html Updated Sept. 2021
My current RPD for this years downloads is $.97 which means, most of my downloads are not 36¢ 8)
I didn't know that. Thanks Pete. Doesn't matter, because it takes a while before I reach 0.36. Reminds me of the good old days of Shutterstock.
I'll be glad when I reach 100, because the days are short now in the Netherlands and mostly cloudy like today.
Then I have enough time to upload photos on A.S.
I have no patience for television. ;)
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Thank you very much for taking all this effort. I am not taking it as being negative. I always welcome advice when it's constructive and actually gives me an idea of what to improve.
I have another one with that costume that should have more than enough copy space, as it's isolated:
https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-red-devil-halloween-1792920889 (https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-red-devil-halloween-1792920889)
But I could not say one sells more than the other. But maybe isolated images is a whole other topic altogether. I don't know.
I just wanted to write how my best selling dog photo on SS and Adobe (two completely dfferent photos) don't have proper copy space at all and still sell well, but actually I was wrong. I looked through my folders where I collect screenshot of all online uses I can find and even though these images don't have much copy space in many cases the people buying them still added text to the empty areas, even though there was't much space available. You are definitly right with the copy space being something that buyers are looking for. As said, I thought I often tried to implement copy space, but it looks like I have to pay more attention to this. Thank you very much.
Look what I saw on Pinterest, Firn - another one to add to your online uses!
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/623748617151939273/ (https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/623748617151939273/)
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Look what I saw on Pinterest, Firn - another one to add to your online uses!
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/623748617151939273/ (https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/623748617151939273/)
;D Thank you!
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I didn't know that. Thanks Pete. Doesn't matter, because it takes a while before I reach 0.36. Reminds me of the good old days of Shutterstock.
I'll be glad when I reach 100, because the days are short now in the Netherlands and mostly cloudy like today.
Then I have enough time to upload photos on A.S.
I have no patience for television. ;)
Just a small tip: you can submit your editorial content to Adobe via Wirestock.
For some weird reason Adobe doesn't seem to accept Illustrative Editorial anymore from Wirestock, but just regular editorial shouldn't be a problem.
You can upload your illustrative editorial content on your personal account later, when you reach the downloads threshold.
Right about television by the way. Geen bal op de TV! ;-)
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I didn't know that. Thanks Pete. Doesn't matter, because it takes a while before I reach 0.36. Reminds me of the good old days of Shutterstock.
I'll be glad when I reach 100, because the days are short now in the Netherlands and mostly cloudy like today.
Then I have enough time to upload photos on A.S.
I have no patience for television. ;)
Just a small tip: you can submit your editorial content to Adobe via Wirestock.
For some weird reason Adobe doesn't seem to accept Illustrative Editorial anymore from Wirestock, but just regular editorial shouldn't be a problem.
You can upload your illustrative editorial content on your personal account later, when you reach the downloads threshold.
Right about television by the way. Geen bal op de TV! ;-)
My experience of Adobe editorial via Wirestock is different to yours.
My regular editorial are rejected when they have people in them but my illustrative are accepted.
By-the-way, on the subject of TV, I don't watch it either :)
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My experience of Adobe editorial via Wirestock is different to yours.
My regular editorial are rejected when they have people in them but my illustrative are accepted.
By-the-way, on the subject of TV, I don't watch it either :)
Strange! My illustrative editorials to Adobe via Wirestock are rejected due to ... being illustrative editorial! (Illustrative Editorial Issue)
No harm done, I just submit them via my personal account on Adobe, with all of them being accepted.
Weird, but whatever.
Regarding editorial images with clearly recognizable people: they are indeed also rejected by Adobe via Wirestock.
I don't know exactly why, because other agencies seem to accept them.
Other editorial images to Adobe via Wirestock are accepted without too much hassle, and they are generating sales.
They are in fact my main source of income on Wirestock, as I still submit a lot of my other content via my personal accounts.
Still waiting for my first direct sale on Wirestock, or Extra Channels bucks.
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Look what I saw on Pinterest, Firn - another one to add to your online uses!
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/623748617151939273/ (https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/623748617151939273/)
;D Thank you!
Seeing there is a bit of interest in our conversation here, Firn, I thought of a couple more things to add that may help.
When you said how you went to all that trouble with the graveyard and Halloween shoot, and it didnt pay off, I really felt for you. Wasting a big shoot and lots of effort can be very disheartening. To avoid that, making keywords work for you, and how a bit of research prior to the shoot may be able to boost sales.
For example, with your Easter puppy - the photo that I really love - if you looked at SS's dropdown menu when you type in Easter, you will get the top 10 or so most searched keywords by buyers. In this case, if you put a small easter basket with easter eggs next to the puppy, you would have opened the photo up to more top 10 keywords: Easter Eggs, Chocolate, Easter Basket, and Easter Egg Hunt. That's the thing you need to aim for.
The other thing I usually do is look at what's on the top page of your particular search on both Adobe and SS. And I also look at what's popular on social media. BTW, that's how I ended up seeing your Halloween Devil pic on Pinterest. After doing that search, the next day Pinterest's algorithm came up with a whole lot of other holiday doggy pics - and lo and behold - there was yours!
For this exercise, I looked at 'Christmas Dog Photography' on Pinterest, and the top pages for "Christmas Dog" on AS & SS. You immediately get an idea of what's popular. Don't copy any of the photos of course - but rather look at the elements of those pics that you can incorporate into your shots. Things like copy space, isolated on white, isolated on color backdrops, full frame decorated pics and what's great about them, sizes, ratios (banners vs 3:2), emotions (cuteness, humour, etc). These are the things that buyers like and/or need.
For example, this photo was popular on both sites: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-year-christmas-concept-dog-wearing-1531627820 (https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-year-christmas-concept-dog-wearing-1531627820)
Its different. The color is a bit unusual but eye-catching, lots of copy space of course. Unique and trendy way of cropping, large 6k pixels, very cute puppy face. Great color coordination - it looks like they color-matched the backdrop with the green in the reindeer ears. Thats the reason, IMO, why the colors in that photo worked. Overall its a very unique and eye-catching photo.
Now of course, people shouldn't rush out and copy that. As I said - its already been done so don't bother. Think of something else that incorporates all the reasons why that is a good shot. Number one reason, IMO, is that its unquie.
And guess what else I saw - yep! You got one of your pics on Page 1 of Christmas Dog search. What to go! Yeah!! Well done.
Anyway, in summary, a bit of planning like that before a shoot can help you compose and know the shots you need beforehand. A little bit of planning and research goes a long way in my books.
I hope that helps.
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Thank you Annie, these are really very valuable tips :D
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stock is dead, crypto is the only way forward
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Thank you very much for taking all this effort. I am not taking it as being negative. I always welcome advice when it's constructive and actually gives me an idea of what to improve.
I have another one with that costume that should have more than enough copy space, as it's isolated:
https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-red-devil-halloween-1792920889 (https://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/french-buldog-dog-red-devil-halloween-1792920889)
But I could not say one sells more than the other. But maybe isolated images is a whole other topic altogether. I don't know.
I just wanted to write how my best selling dog photo on SS and Adobe (two completely dfferent photos) don't have proper copy space at all and still sell well, but actually I was wrong. I looked through my folders where I collect screenshot of all online uses I can find and even though these images don't have much copy space in many cases the people buying them still added text to the empty areas, even though there was't much space available. You are definitly right with the copy space being something that buyers are looking for. As said, I thought I often tried to implement copy space, but it looks like I have to pay more attention to this. Thank you very much.
Look what I saw on Pinterest, Firn - another one to add to your online uses!
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/623748617151939273/ (https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/623748617151939273/)
Funny Stuff !! :D
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There was a desire for something positive here in the forum. So I'm going to contribute something to that.
Nearly 600 downloads so far. Obviously this November will become better than November 2019 and almost the same as November 2020 - at least concerning downloads. This is a positive result for me personally because I have uploaded very little in the recent past. I'm surprised this hasn't had a negative impact on download numbers. However, the fact that it was worse in 2019 may also have been due to the initial effects of Corona - the economy was pretty much paralyzed then - obviously more than at the moment.
Also, I can post a round number on shutterstock from this morning. That's significantly less than Annie and others have, but I'm still happy.
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Congratulations Wilm.
74K. Wow.
Almost as many as me .. 8)
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Congratulations Wilm.
74K. Wow.
Almost as many as me .. 8)
Hi Debbie,
I figured you'd hit the six-figure downloads long ago. But you are always so modest - so I was not sure. 8) ;D
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Congratulations Wilm.
74K. Wow.
Almost as many as me .. 8)
Hi Debbie,
I figured you'd hit the six-figure downloads long ago. But you are always so modest - so I was not sure. 8) ;D
I wish...
And you got all those 'teensy weensy' downloads with your 'teensy weensy' port Wilm.
You clearly went wrong there and should have uploaded many thousands more ;D
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Today for the first time, i had 10 downloads on Shutterstock in one day, all < $0,15
Should i be happy? :)
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Today for the first time, i had 10 downloads on Shutterstock in one day, all < $0,15
Should i be happy? :)
At the beginning of the year you should be happy about it, because then you are a level higher earlier. Now it doesn't matter much.
Maybe because your photos are increasing in ranking? :)
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Today for the first time, i had 10 downloads on Shutterstock in one day, all < $0,15
Should i be happy? :)
Sounds like mixed feelings.
I try to determine how I feel about it by looking at my aggregated earnings across all the agencies I contribute to over a bigger period of time.
Microstock can be very fluctuative. After two and a half years of contributing to microstock agencies, I learned that a run of bad days, weeks or even months can be compensated by good ones. Or a temporarily struggling agency can be compensated by an agency that's on a roll.
Spread your eggs, don't let a stubbornly struggling chicken ruin your day and look at how the bigger picture looks for you.
Then make up your feelings :)
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Today for the first time, i had 10 downloads on Shutterstock in one day, all < $0,15
Should i be happy? :)
Yes, It's a start that could lead to much more. I remember doing a dance in the house on my first sale in 2011 8)
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Today for the first time, i had 10 downloads on Shutterstock in one day, all < $0,15
Should i be happy? :)
At the beginning of the year you should be happy about it, because then you are a level higher earlier. Now it doesn't matter much.
Maybe because your photos are increasing in ranking? :)
When I think about this, I can't really be happy when I get a 17c download, because of my higher level, instead of a 10c download. I keep remembering when I was new and 25c was the lowest, crummiest commission, and how I moved up and up. Now we don't just have levels, that are almost irrelevant, we get reset every January. :(
Rock and a hard place. Give up and keep taking the money or stand up and get nothing?
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You clearly went wrong there and should have uploaded many thousands more ;D
In my next life I will try, Deb. :P
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Today for the first time, i had 10 downloads on Shutterstock in one day, all < $0,15
Should i be happy? :)
Congrats! And yes, you should be happy if it was the first time from my Point of view. No matter what it brought in.
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You clearly went wrong there and should have uploaded many thousands more ;D
In my next life I will try, Deb. :P
I was being ironic Wilm.
You are a prime example where quality over quantity works.
I could probably have uploaded tens of thousands more images than you and have sold a fraction of what you have sold.
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iStock / Getty was good for me in October as the details have just emerged. In fact my BME since joining the agency, though the royalties are pretty low (19% for images and video combined). Videos were the big earner here. Shutterstock is powering on this month with some pretty good video sales and even a couple of good image sales. Adobe's free image giveaway is clearly working very well, shame it is killing sales this month. Pond5 barely has a pulse. Overall though pretty good as this is all helpful while I'm going through a household move interstate.
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You clearly went wrong there and should have uploaded many thousands more ;D
In my next life I will try, Deb. :P
I was being ironic Wilm.
You are a prime example where quality over quantity works.
I could probably have uploaded tens of thousands more images than you and have sold a fraction of what you have sold.
I know, Debbie. We've known each other long enough for that. And thank you - again - for your kind words.
If I was more motivated, I would have uploaded more pictures. But of course we are not talking about thousands and not hundreds. In fact, I would pretty much know what I would produce. But right now, I just don't have the drive. Maybe it will come again.
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Adobe's free image giveaway is clearly working very well, shame it is killing sales this month.
I did my personal math and came to the conclusion that Adobe's free selection is a losing proposition. It flushes money into the cash once and then brings losses for the remaining 11 months. That is the reason why I do not participate.
In addition, I firmly believe that the campaign produces false impulses that, on balance, harm the entire industry.
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My SS revenue this month has finally taken over AS. It took a little longer this November, but all I needed was a few high large commissions/sales and SS once again has taken the lead.
You take the good with the bad with SS, but in the long run SS has always been the best performer for me.
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Adobe's free image giveaway is clearly working very well, shame it is killing sales this month.
I did my personal math and came to the conclusion that Adobe's free selection is a losing proposition. It flushes money into the cash once and then brings losses for the remaining 11 months. That is the reason why I do not participate.
In addition, I firmly believe that the campaign produces false impulses that, on balance, harm the entire industry.
Totally agree Wilm, I've never participated in this program either.
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As the tortoise carrying my sales meanders on arthritic legs towards the end of another month I wonder ... how are others doing?
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As the tortoise carrying my sales meanders on arthritic legs towards the end of another month I wonder ... how are others doing?
Shutterstock dead, Istock dead and Adobe (since at least my reshuffle) dead after the first week of November.
But maybe it's just me ;)
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As the tortoise carrying my sales meanders on arthritic legs towards the end of another month I wonder ... how are others doing?
Good.
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I did my personal math and came to the conclusion that Adobe's free selection is a losing proposition. It flushes money into the cash once and then brings losses for the remaining 11 months. That is the reason why I do not participate....
what 'math' leads to that conclusion? even for those with reduced sales (and many are reorting no reduction in sales), correlation is not causation
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I did my personal math and came to the conclusion that Adobe's free selection is a losing proposition. It flushes money into the cash once and then brings losses for the remaining 11 months. That is the reason why I do not participate....
what 'math' leads to that conclusion? even for those with reduced sales (and many are reorting no reduction in sales), correlation is not causation
I checked how many of my images that Adobe Stock had selected for free selection were downloaded from AS over a four-week period and what revenue I generated. I extrapolated the revenue over a 12 month period. If sales continue like this for the remaining 11 months, I will not make a financial profit by releasing them in free selection.
I based this on the numbers I know from many other providers. So I can get an approximate idea of what percentage of the images AS has selected from my portfolio for the free selection would be accepted.
In addition, the images will continue to be purchased from other agencies. So there would be the additional risk that they no longer bring in anything there when the buyers see that they cost nothing at AS.
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As the tortoise carrying my sales meanders on arthritic legs towards the end of another month I wonder ... how are others doing?
Shutterstock dead, Istock dead and Adobe (since at least my reshuffle) dead after the first week of November.
But maybe it's just me ;)
Good on Shutterstock, poor everywhere else tho.
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Compared to the last 4 months this month is 50% down :'(
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Decent but below October/November expectations for iStock/Getty and Shutterstock. The positive side of me expected a slight peak, which didn't came.
But I did had my best month ever at Adobe Stock.
What really stands out for me is the lack of sales volume at smaller agencies.
They shrunk even more the past two or three months.
I really wonder: how long are they able to keep their boat afloat?
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As the tortoise carrying my sales meanders on arthritic legs towards the end of another month I wonder ... how are others doing?
Shutterstock dead, Istock dead and Adobe (since at least my reshuffle) dead after the first week of November.
But maybe it's just me ;)
Good on Shutterstock, poor everywhere else tho.
Perhaps should add that I had my BME on iStock last month.
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what 'math' leads to that conclusion? even for those with reduced sales (and many are reorting no reduction in sales), correlation is not causation
I checked how many of my images that Adobe Stock had selected for free selection were downloaded from AS over a four-week period and what revenue I generated. I extrapolated the revenue over a 12 month period. If sales continue like this for the remaining 11 months, I will not make a financial profit by releasing them in free selection.
first, thanks for supplying some details.
i'm confused though, AS said the images selected for free were those that HADN'T generated any income. also, how did you decide which 4-week period to use? given how stochastic the market is, extrapolating is unlikely to be statistically significant over any such period.
In addition, the images will continue to be purchased from other agencies. So there would be the additional risk that they no longer bring in anything there when the buyers see that they cost nothing at AS.
as has been discussed many times, there's little evidence buyers shop across agencies, esp'ly if they have subscriptions.
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stock is dead, crypto is the only way forward
Crypto to day/options trading or run a lemonade stand in winter will make you a better living than stock video/photos these days sadly....
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what 'math' leads to that conclusion? even for those with reduced sales (and many are reorting no reduction in sales), correlation is not causation
I checked how many of my images that Adobe Stock had selected for free selection were downloaded from AS over a four-week period and what revenue I generated. I extrapolated the revenue over a 12 month period. If sales continue like this for the remaining 11 months, I will not make a financial profit by releasing them in free selection.
first, thanks for supplying some details.
i'm confused though, AS said the images selected for free were those that HADN'T generated any income. also, how did you decide which 4-week period to use? given how stochastic the market is, extrapolating is unlikely to be statistically significant over any such period.
I do not know the source of your information, but it is wrong.
I currently have 68 images that are eligible for free selection. And these images have reached more than 500 downloads so far.
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Decent but below October/November expectations for iStock/Getty and Shutterstock. The positive side of me expected a slight peak, which didn't came.
But I did had my best month ever at Adobe Stock.
What really stands out for me is the lack of sales volume at smaller agencies.
They shrunk even more the past two or three months.
I really wonder: how long are they able to keep their boat afloat?
Probably not too much longer, no one can compete with free, unless they are selling contributors content in bulk under the table they might start folding.
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Decent but below October/November expectations for iStock/Getty and Shutterstock. The positive side of me expected a slight peak, which didn't came.
But I did had my best month ever at Adobe Stock.
What really stands out for me is the lack of sales volume at smaller agencies.
They shrunk even more the past two or three months.
I really wonder: how long are they able to keep their boat afloat?
Probably not too much longer, no one can compete with free, unless they are selling contributors content in bulk under the table they might start folding.
October was a BME in terms of vol/£... also had a BDE and BWE. November has been steady and a little below Nov last year but up on the average for Nov.
Ever since the 1st batch if free images being accepted at AS, I haven't seen any reduction in sales... in fact, quite the opposite.
Edit. Just to state I've been doing this FT for about 10 years now... the agencies I deal with over that time have changed but, it's rather nice to see BME etc still cropping up!
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The 12 week trend on AS no longer has any high-sale spikes on the trend line which is a first since I started to build my port in 2019.
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what 'math' leads to that conclusion? even for those with reduced sales (and many are reorting no reduction in sales), correlation is not causation
I checked how many of my images that Adobe Stock had selected for free selection were downloaded from AS over a four-week period and what revenue I generated. I extrapolated the revenue over a 12 month period. If sales continue like this for the remaining 11 months, I will not make a financial profit by releasing them in free selection.
first, thanks for supplying some details.
i'm confused though, AS said the images selected for free were those that HADN'T generated any income. also, how did you decide which 4-week period to use? given how stochastic the market is, extrapolating is unlikely to be statistically significant over any such period.
In addition, the images will continue to be purchased from other agencies. So there would be the additional risk that they no longer bring in anything there when the buyers see that they cost nothing at AS.
as has been discussed many times, there's little evidence buyers shop across agencies, esp'ly if they have subscriptions.
Since my downloads at AS are relatively constant, it doesn't really matter which 4-week period I choose.
Here I have made a screenshot. 68 images were suggested by AS for the free section. How many of them would be accepted, I don't know either, of course, but I assume about 10% - according to what I have heard from other contributors. That would be 7 images. Would bring in $35 for a year.
All 68 images had at least 1 download - up to 40 downloads as you can see. Together there were 513.
The red dots show the images that were sold at AS this month.
This year my RPD at AS is $1.23. Extrapolated to a year, 120 sales x $1.23 = $147.60. To bring in the same money, 30 images would have to be accepted in the free section. That would be 44% of the images selected. That many were not accepted at any of the contributors I know.
In addition, there is another important calculation factor that should be taken into account. Many of the selected images have very similar counterparts in my portfolio, many of which were also purchased this month - about 75 times. I am very sure that most of them would not have been bought if there was the very similar image in the free section.
And this is true only for AS. You may be right that customers at other agencies will not look in the free section at AS if they have a subscription elsewhere. But the On Demand, Enhanced and SOD purchases are more interesting anyway. These would then possibly also be omitted if the customers see that they can get the image elsewhere for free.
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Compared to Shutterstock I have sold very little on AS.
My photos are not unique, so I suspect that similar images can also be found as free, which makes my photos less likely to sell.
I would almost certainly have made more if I had entered the promotion and some of the selected photos had been accepted by Adobe as free.
But..... If nobody had taken part or if Adobe hadn't started this free promotion, I'm sure I would have made more money.
So I continue to object to this system of free photos.
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I did my personal math and came to the conclusion that Adobe's free selection is a losing proposition. It flushes money into the cash once and then brings losses for the remaining 11 months. That is the reason why I do not participate....
what 'math' leads to that conclusion? even for those with reduced sales (and many are reorting no reduction in sales), correlation is not causation
I checked how many of my images that Adobe Stock had selected for free selection were downloaded from AS over a four-week period and what revenue I generated. I extrapolated the revenue over a 12 month period. If sales continue like this for the remaining 11 months, I will not make a financial profit by releasing them in free selection.
I based this on the numbers I know from many other providers. So I can get an approximate idea of what percentage of the images AS has selected from my portfolio for the free selection would be accepted.
In addition, the images will continue to be purchased from other agencies. So there would be the additional risk that they no longer bring in anything there when the buyers see that they cost nothing at AS.
Adobe doesn't select images for free, we do. I only picked those that didn't have sales. Now I have money instead of nothing.
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I did my personal math and came to the conclusion that Adobe's free selection is a losing proposition. It flushes money into the cash once and then brings losses for the remaining 11 months. That is the reason why I do not participate....
what 'math' leads to that conclusion? even for those with reduced sales (and many are reorting no reduction in sales), correlation is not causation
I checked how many of my images that Adobe Stock had selected for free selection were downloaded from AS over a four-week period and what revenue I generated. I extrapolated the revenue over a 12 month period. If sales continue like this for the remaining 11 months, I will not make a financial profit by releasing them in free selection.
I based this on the numbers I know from many other providers. So I can get an approximate idea of what percentage of the images AS has selected from my portfolio for the free selection would be accepted.
In addition, the images will continue to be purchased from other agencies. So there would be the additional risk that they no longer bring in anything there when the buyers see that they cost nothing at AS.
Adobe doesn't select images for free, we do. I only picked those that didn't have sales. Now I have money instead of nothing.
Of course. We indicate which ones we want to add to the free photos, but Adbe selects from them.
In my answer I indicate that I (just like you) would have earned more if I had participated.
But..... If nobody had taken part or if Adobe hadn't started this free promotion, I'm sure I would have made more money. Because now all my photos have to compete with similar free photos.
It is easy for Wilm to decide, because he assumes that he will earn more if he does not participate (I know his photos and I think he is right).
I earn more if I participate, but I'm against the system. If I were making a whole lot more, I would probably participate. I'm not that principled. :)
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I did my personal math and came to the conclusion that Adobe's free selection is a losing proposition. It flushes money into the cash once and then brings losses for the remaining 11 months. That is the reason why I do not participate....
what 'math' leads to that conclusion? even for those with reduced sales (and many are reorting no reduction in sales), correlation is not causation
I checked how many of my images that Adobe Stock had selected for free selection were downloaded from AS over a four-week period and what revenue I generated. I extrapolated the revenue over a 12 month period. If sales continue like this for the remaining 11 months, I will not make a financial profit by releasing them in free selection.
I based this on the numbers I know from many other providers. So I can get an approximate idea of what percentage of the images AS has selected from my portfolio for the free selection would be accepted.
In addition, the images will continue to be purchased from other agencies. So there would be the additional risk that they no longer bring in anything there when the buyers see that they cost nothing at AS.
Adobe doesn't select images for free, we do. I only picked those that didn't have sales. Now I have money instead of nothing.
Diana,
Adobe selects images as "eligible for free selection".
For me, that's 68 images. All of them had at least one download, as I have shown in the screenshot.
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Adobe doesn't select images for free, we do. I only picked those that didn't have sales. Now I have money instead of nothing.
That's right, eligible means nothing as 5-10% seem to be accepted and nothing that I marked do not allow for free was selected. ;) I can't see how anyone can use as an example, images that were not accepted and they didn't allow to be, as some kind of data for what might have been, since it hasn't happened yet.
Myself I allowed 45 illustrations that have no sales, or less than 3 sales lifetime, anywhere. AS picked two and I have $10. The lifetime earnings for each of those images is under $1 each over the years. Not difficult to see, that I have money in my pocket instead of imagining what might be, that hasn't happened in the past?
as has been discussed many times, there's little evidence buyers shop across agencies, esp'ly if they have subscriptions.
Debated, discussed and for the most part, agreed, that buyers do not shop price and don't shop agencies for the same images, as some have suspected over the years. I'd guess that more recent big deals by agencies are designed to hold clients to the low price contract, make sales stable as the big shared licenses are for a flat rate, and this in effect locks people who have the multi-seat license, into the images from one agency.
What I mean is, buyers are even less likely to shop by price now, than they would have been in the past.
Small time, limited buyers, might shop price, but the people who buy the most and make up the majority of our income, do not. It appears that subscriptions and contracts make up the majority of our download volume?
Sales on Adobe for myself are up 40% for the same 3 month period as 2020. I haven't uploaded a mass of new images either. Purely personal, I admit, but same images, same place, and sales are up since the free images program. Which although I can't attribute the increase to the free images, I can't ignore that sales are up.
Conclusion: My sales have not been hurt by the free image offerings.
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Adobe selects images as "eligible for free selection".
For me, that's 68 images. All of them had at least one download, as I have shown in the screenshot.
Adobe said they only selected images that had 4 or fewer DL in the last year. anyway, you choose whether any image is available for the free collection
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Conclusion: My sales have not been hurt by the free image offerings.
I have the same feeling, looking at short term. My past half year has been very decent despite growing free collections.
But long term is another story I guess. When I look at image credits in media outlets, the amount of Unsplash credits is still on the rise. Also premium outlets, glossy magazines, seem to use them very regularly. They use images from free collections wherever they can. At least that's my observation, and it would be foolish to think that this has no effect on our sales. Without free collections, these images would have generated sales. Probably small subscription sales, true, but still it's quite a volume.
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Yesterday i had a really big SOD on Shutterstock: $170
Nice!
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Second WME.
Only AS and iS performing normal.
DT dead. 123rf nearly dead. CS dead. DP lousy RPD. SS lousy RPD.
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Shutterstock: OK
Adobe: Slow
Alamy: Dead
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Compared to November 2020 I lost about 10% in $$$ yet I doubled last years output in producing new images.
For some reason my new images are not selling like most folks where they see instant sales on the first day :-\
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But long term is another story I guess. When I look at image credits in media outlets, the amount of Unsplash credits is still on the rise. Also premium outlets, glossy magazines, seem to use them very regularly. They use images from free collections wherever they can. At least that's my observation, and it would be foolish to think that this has no effect on our sales. Without free collections, these images would have generated sales. Probably small subscription sales, true, but still it's quite a volume.
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You are not wrong about FREE, be it stock agencies free collections or the free stock sites themselves, I am seeing the same thing in Canada, media outlets using stock photos and video now but more and more it's the free sites OR it from an agency that has deal with another agency, just saw Toronto snowstorm coverage on Toronto media via the Chinese communist state media and the photographer was a freelancer selling through Getty, then somehow the Chinese state media got it and our very own Toronto media got it from them.
Even if an agency offers to pay for your images or videos at a fair price to make up their free collection, unless you're planning to retire and walk away from the business it's not worth it.
Media companies and large production companies will use free if they can get it especially if the quality is ok and it fits their needs.
What's needed is an end to free anything but also a forensic accounting of all these deals agencies have and that won't happen and that's why this has become a ticket to bankruptcy.
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....
Even if an agency offers to pay for your images or videos at a fair price to make up their free collection, unless you're planning to retire and walk away from the business it's not worth it.
Media companies and large production companies will use free if they can get it especially if the quality is ok and it fits their needs.
What's needed is an end to free anything but also a forensic accounting of all these deals agencies have and that won't happen and that's why this has become a ticket to bankruptcy.
these are the same arguments film stock photographers used when digital microstock started about 20 yrs ago (when a stock image routinely paid $150-300+).
maybe the future of microstock is going to be ALL free images for consumers, with photographers getting 1-time payments of $5 by agencies to build their collections. that's more than many images would make in their lifetime.
wrt microstock, photographers need to get out of the artist mind-set - we're not creating fine art; we're feeding a commodity beast. i'd rather make $100 by selling 20 out of a batch of 100, than wait for those 100 to sell 1000 times (probably optimistic estimate)
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Media companies and large production companies will use free if they can get it especially if the quality is ok and it fits their needs.
What's needed is an end to free anything but also a forensic accounting of all these deals agencies have and that won't happen and that's why this has become a ticket to bankruptcy.
[/quote]
these are the same arguments film stock photographers used when digital microstock started about 20 yrs ago (when a stock image routinely paid $150-300+).
maybe the future of microstock is going to be ALL free images for consumers, with photographers getting 1-time payments of $5 by agencies to build their collections. that's more than many images would make in their lifetime.
wrt microstock, photographers need to get out of the artist mind-set - we're not creating fine art; we're feeding a commodity beast. i'd rather make $100 by selling 20 out of a batch of 100, than wait for those 100 to sell 1000 times (probably optimistic estimate)
[/quote]
Those are good points, that was before my time with the film stock photographers but this fellow does editorial and severe weather, sells direct and for an appropriate price, https://stormhighway.com/footage/rates.php and now that same content can be had for free or nearly free.
As for everything going FREE, I can totally see it going that way for video and stills sadly, agencies buying wholesale is not bad either like you say but they won't buy from everyone so many will be leaving the business one way or another.
I think it's going that way and the smaller independent contributor will find it hard to impossible to continue to make a living here.
Google search up streaming music royalty calculator and see what they make off streaming and downloads now vs selling CD's, artists fought and lost that battle long ago and now you need to be a social media powerhouse, sell merch and tour and even then it's a struggle but not everyone is big enough to tour.
If you're as big as BTS or OK ONE ROCK and a few others then you can do ok but for the rest you're not making a living of the music. It's like all forms of digital media just has no value anymore, can't compete with free and you need to give your work away for free to promote your work.
At the end of the day STARTUPS kill industries and put millions out of work, these agencies are all startups, from hard working taxi drivers who lost the battle to UBER to pizza delivery jobs for college students all gone to food delivery apps so this industry. Startups call it disruption and talk about how great it is to not need humans, I don't see anything great about it.
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If you're as big as BTS or OK ONE ROCK and a few others then you can do ok but for the rest you're not making a living of the music. It's like all forms of digital media just has no value anymore, can't compete with free and you need to give your work away for free to promote your work.
Very many good points in your posting.
Digitization has its advantages and disadvantages. The same applies to book authors, who earn much less money with e-books.
I myself have quite a large vinyl record and book collection. To these things I have a special reference, can name authors, song title, singer, album name.
When I download music or books digitally, I usually don't know the author or artist within the next few days. You somehow lose the relationship to things, you only consume.
I miss the times when you explored the world with a printed guidebook without Gps. And somehow it also has its charm, when you get lost with your paper street map.
o.k., was a bit off topic ;)
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....
Even if an agency offers to pay for your images or videos at a fair price to make up their free collection, unless you're planning to retire and walk away from the business it's not worth it.
Media companies and large production companies will use free if they can get it especially if the quality is ok and it fits their needs.
What's needed is an end to free anything but also a forensic accounting of all these deals agencies have and that won't happen and that's why this has become a ticket to bankruptcy.
maybe the future of microstock is going to be ALL free images for consumers, with photographers getting 1-time payments of $5 by agencies to build their collections.
I'm not sure I got that right.
Here in Central Europe, no one can produce an image for $5, upload it and create keywords. This contributor would starve.
A portfolio of 20,000! images would bring $100,000. That is nothing compared to the time and cost to create that amount of images.
If that were the future, and I've said this before, the microstock business would be dead in many countries from a contributor perspective.
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If that were the future, and I've said this before, the microstock business would be dead in many countries from a contributor perspective.
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You're 100% it would be dead in many countries if it isn't already, I do editorial video in Ontario Canada and it's a ticket to bankruptcy, trying to learn swing and options trading and get out of camera work for good, it's literally a ticket to bankruptcy trying to sell on Pond5 and Shutterstock and doing editorial so I don't need to pay models or have a studio and it's still become a complete lost cause.
I knew it was on shaky ground but I think it's basically over as a way to make a living.
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You're 100% it would be dead in many countries if it isn't already, I do editorial video in Ontario Canada and it's a ticket to bankruptcy, trying to learn swing and options trading and get out of camera work for good, it's literally a ticket to bankruptcy trying to sell on Pond5 and Shutterstock and doing editorial so I don't need to pay models or have a studio and it's still become a complete lost cause.
I knew it was on shaky ground but I think it's basically over as a way to make a living.
What's your historical experience in Microstock? Did you use to make more in times past?
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I knew it was on shaky ground but I think it's basically over as a way to make a living.
[/quote]
What's your historical experience in Microstock? Did you use to make more in times past?
[/quote]
I was doing ok with editorial video mostly on Pond5 and a little on SSTK and Newsflare, then 2021 happened and it slowed and this September income fell to $0 but I did make $80 today on Newsflare, used to make $3500/month on Pond5 alone so it's quite the drop especially this fall and despite the recession, the fall season is the selling season so I held out some hope, didn't happen.
Now we have most COVID related travel hassles coming back around the world so you'd think stock video and photos would be doing quite well but they are not so I think it's all these deals and partnerships and programs that do everything but drive OUR sales, that, plus the free stuff and changing consumer interests.
It's a few things all added up coming together but if customers can get it for free or nearly free I think it's ending or over.
I do editorial which has helped until now as those clips aren't easily recreated on set and I leave the fine art to those with better equipment and skills but just today I saw this on social media https://twitter.com/MarsScientific/status/1466135315672879109?s=20
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At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is yearly revenue. I have made sales for 23000$ (7000$ net)for 1 license and 0.001$ for Getty connect sales. The biggest selling image at Istock has brough me 20.000$ net so more than that big sales. At the best times in micro 2012 I was earning more with them 6 yearly figures than with Getty.
Everyone has to crunch his numbers and see where his work fits. You might be very talented and people want to pay you hundred or thousands of dollars to use your image or you might be very efficient at producing stock. At SS there quite a few with hundred of thousands of images in their portfolio. Quite horrible work many times but hey they sell at low prices and for the customers it is good enough
Stock is not the same for everyone. The same as the stock market. Some make money shorting, others with long investing, other day trading, technical, fundamentals.......That's the beauty of it You have some lee way to adapt your working style to it.
....
Even if an agency offers to pay for your images or videos at a fair price to make up their free collection, unless you're planning to retire and walk away from the business it's not worth it.
Media companies and large production companies will use free if they can get it especially if the quality is ok and it fits their needs.
What's needed is an end to free anything but also a forensic accounting of all these deals agencies have and that won't happen and that's why this has become a ticket to bankruptcy.
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...;
At the end of the day STARTUPS kill industries and put millions out of work, these agencies are all startups, from hard working taxi drivers who lost the battle to UBER to pizza delivery jobs for college students all gone to food delivery apps so this industry. Startups call it disruption and talk about how great it is to not need humans, I don't see anything great about it.
sure - like railroads, oil pioneers, ford, gm,chrysler,ibm, apple,google,amazon,intel,nike,starbucks,...../..... those d'ned startups!
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Interesting to see the poll results have Shutterstock in the lead again. Despite the rhetoric, the reality is AdobeStock are performing badly in recent times.
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Interesting to see the poll results have Shutterstock in the lead again. Despite the rhetoric, the reality is AdobeStock are performing badly in recent times.
Oh right, the poll... just had a look. What's going on at Envato?
It started to rain gold overthere?
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Interesting to see the poll results have Shutterstock in the lead again. Despite the rhetoric, the reality is AdobeStock are performing badly in recent times.
More people worship the rising than the setting sun.
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Last month on Shutterstock was my best this year and second best ever for revenue. Downloads were good and RPD was better although not great.
Adobe was okay. Not great but not terrible either.
The end of November was a bit slow and December has started slowly which is disappointing in that, effectively, December is a three week month due to the Christmas and New Year holiday.
Not looking forward to the reset on Shutterstock in January.
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...;
At the end of the day STARTUPS kill industries and put millions out of work, these agencies are all startups, from hard working taxi drivers who lost the battle to UBER to pizza delivery jobs for college students all gone to food delivery apps so this industry. Startups call it disruption and talk about how great it is to not need humans, I don't see anything great about it.
sure - like railroads, oil pioneers, ford, gm,chrysler,ibm, apple,google,amazon,intel,nike,starbucks,...../..... those d'ned startups!
Well....some startups are good and have opened up opportunities to the masses that didn't previously exist and some people made a good living for awhile but then the math comes home to roost and they have to start paying back their investors and cutting commissions for the people on the platform and that's what we see in the stock video/photo industry, it's not sustainable for them either, they have overhead and staff plus have to pay back investors millions at 30% interest or they have shareholders to be accountable to like SSTK.
My longer term worry about the gig economy is this, there is so little money to be made, take this stock video industry for example but also others, as this cohort eventually gets to retirement age OR if a health problem comes up they have no pension, no benefits, and probably not much savings. now what?.
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...;
At the end of the day STARTUPS kill industries and put millions out of work, these agencies are all startups, from hard working taxi drivers who lost the battle to UBER to pizza delivery jobs for college students all gone to food delivery apps so this industry. Startups call it disruption and talk about how great it is to not need humans, I don't see anything great about it.
sure - like railroads, oil pioneers, ford, gm,chrysler,ibm, apple,google,amazon,intel,nike,starbucks,...../..... those d'ned startups!
..
My longer term worry about the gig economy is this, there is so little money to be made, take this stock video industry for example but also others, as this cohort eventually gets to retirement age OR if a health problem comes up they have no pension, no benefits, and probably not much savings. now what?.
ok, but that's a problem with laissez-faire capitalism & the gig economy, not ALL startups - plus, unlike most industrial countriies, the US has a porous safety net, esp'ly with no national health care system
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I was doing ok with editorial video mostly on Pond5 and a little on SSTK and Newsflare, then 2021 happened and it slowed and this September income fell to $0 but I did make $80 today on Newsflare, used to make $3500/month on Pond5 alone so it's quite the drop especially this fall and despite the recession, the fall season is the selling season so I held out some hope, didn't happen.
Yeah that's a huge fall on sales. I was not a big seller on Pond5 but definitely seen a big drop from May 2021 onwards, which has been disappointing.
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Yeah that's a huge fall on sales. I was not a big seller on Pond5 but definitely seen a big drop from May 2021 onwards, which has been disappointing.
[/quote]
Same here but I attributed it to the so-called summer slump plus the COVID recession we are still in and so I kept producing editorial video and uploading and operating off a credit card to stay afloat and then some September 1 sales went to zero and as of today still at zero.
This is April 1 2019 all over again when by some magic customers just stopped buying stock at P5 and then they came galloping to our rescue with the exclusive program and contributors lost even more money as sales didn't happen with all those new exclusive accounts.
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Absolutely terrible sales on both Shutterstock and Adobe. I expected December to be poor but thought the fall-off would be in the last third of the month due to the holidays rather than at the beginning.
Anyone else notice a big drop in sales?
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Absolutely terrible sales on both Shutterstock and Adobe. I expected December to be poor but thought the fall-off would be in the last third of the month due to the holidays rather than at the beginning.
Anyone else notice a big drop in sales?
Editorial video here and same, terrible to the point I considered buying one of my own clips to see if the system was working.
Lots of things coming together at the worst time and something are the agencies doing but not all, we are still in the worst recession since the depression and while some media talk about a shortage of workers no one can find a job.
That, and there is a massive amount of debt people and businesses who survived COVID took on and that's coming due now.
Every time I see a story here in Canada "employers can't find workers" I say I can start tomorrow, bored out of my mind now that stock has failed, can't even get a job in fast food and I've applied everywhere here.
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Absolutely terrible sales on both Shutterstock and Adobe. I expected December to be poor but thought the fall-off would be in the last third of the month due to the holidays rather than at the beginning.
Anyone else notice a big drop in sales?
Editorial video here and same, terrible to the point I considered buying one of my own clips to see if the system was working.
Lots of things coming together at the worst time and something are the agencies doing but not all, we are still in the worst recession since the depression and while some media talk about a shortage of workers no one can find a job.
That, and there is a massive amount of debt people and businesses who survived COVID took on and that's coming due now.
Every time I see a story here in Canada "employers can't find workers" I say I can start tomorrow, bored out of my mind now that stock has failed, can't even get a job in fast food and I've applied everywhere here.
I think many employers are being tight wads and crybabies, carrying on about not enough staff and then not giving anyone less than the ideal candidate a go.
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Interesting to see the poll results have Shutterstock in the lead again. Despite the rhetoric, the reality is AdobeStock are performing badly in recent times.
Oh right, the poll... just had a look. What's going on at Envato?
I've been completing the poll for a change!
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Interesting to see the poll results have Shutterstock in the lead again. Despite the rhetoric, the reality is AdobeStock are performing badly in recent times.
Not for me, BME at Adobe and still going strong. I will say, I have a bunch of Holiday images. 8)
I admit that depending on content there are swings in the agencies and what sells. Throughout the years, January and June are my worst months.
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Lots of things coming together at the worst time and something are the agencies doing but not all, we are still in the worst recession since the depression and while some media talk about a shortage of workers no one can find a job.
That, and there is a massive amount of debt people and businesses who survived COVID took on and that's coming due now.
Every time I see a story here in Canada "employers can't find workers" I say I can start tomorrow, bored out of my mind now that stock has failed, can't even get a job in fast food and I've applied everywhere here.
[/quote]
I think many employers are being tight wads and crybabies, carrying on about not enough staff and then not giving anyone less than the ideal candidate a go.
[/quote]
Exactly, another story from local media here in Toronto this morning, https://kitchener.citynews.ca/local-news/labour-shortage-impacting-over-half-of-small-businesses-report-4849504?s=09 (https://kitchener.citynews.ca/local-news/labour-shortage-impacting-over-half-of-small-businesses-report-4849504?s=09) starts off talking about a worker shortage and ends with talking about automation and employee-less stores and restaurants.
It's about a shortage of people who will work for less than min wage or work for just a few short shifts a week on call OR they want the workers from India under the temporary foreign worker program in Canada so they don't have to pay min wage or benefits. There is no worker shortage, not in this economy, we have everyone from new grads to people with experience all ready and willing to start tomorrow, every homeless shelter in the province of Ontario is full and it's not all drugs, def no worker shortage here or in the US.
As for the "ideal candidate", I could write an essay on that one, even for the more entry level jobs here they want you thin, fit, super healthy and hot looking and that's for both the guys and girl, you'd think they are hiring out of gymnastics classes these days and for the other jobs at higher levels it's all about looks and style and personality, you still need that degree in computer science or whatever and have the tech skills but that's only part of it.
For online/remote interviews many places are using software to scan faces to get the right "look" that the company wants. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/22/ai-hiring-face-scanning-algorithm-increasingly-decides-whether-you-deserve-job/ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/22/ai-hiring-face-scanning-algorithm-increasingly-decides-whether-you-deserve-job/)
And the job interview questions?, almost nothing related to the work I'm applying for, I am looking for "anything I can do" now that stock has ended as a way to make a living so anything from fast food to cleaning, painting to driving to light factory work to whatever and what a wake up call it's been.
The stress of this business and it's failure plus the pending bankruptcy has taken it's toll on physical appearance, I look exhausted, tons of stuff I can still do and I'm a workaholic but I'm not gonna be able to look like I'm 17 with a baby face if that's what they want!, 17 with 35 years experience.......
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Lots of things coming together at the worst time and something are the agencies doing but not all, we are still in the worst recession since the depression and while some media talk about a shortage of workers no one can find a job.
That, and there is a massive amount of debt people and businesses who survived COVID took on and that's coming due now.
Hi Level6,
I do sympathise with your situation, with you not able to find a job, and I do agree there is massive credit bubble ready to explode (never before the private sector, businesses and the governments have build up such an amount of debt) but I ask you,
what does it has to do with Microstock Photography?
Should you not be somewhere else to discuss these problems?
Or is it that you want to warn us not to go full-time for Microstock photography because you cannot get a decent job after it?
Then it has relation to this forum and then I'd understand.
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Shortly before the middle of the month.
December 1 to 13, 2021 compared to December 1 to 13, 2020
At AS
Downloads: - 7%
Revenues: + 21.8%
For SS
Downloads: - 25.1%
Revenues: + 50.5%
AS vs. SS
Downloads AS compared to SS: 76%
Revenues AS compared to SS: 125.2%
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Shortly before the middle of the month.
December 1 to 13, 2021 compared to December 1 to 13, 2020
At AS
Downloads: - 7%
Revenues: + 21.8%
For SS
Downloads: - 25.1%
Revenues: + 50.5
AS vs. SS
Downloads AS compared to SS: 76%
Revenues AS compared to SS: 125.2%
For SS, So far, I'm about even on December 2020 in downloads but have already surpassed all of December 2020 in revenue largely thanks to a rather good SOD.
For AS, I'm also tracking pretty much at the same level as December 2020.
First week of December was terrible but things have picked up a bit this last wek.
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How are your sales this month?
Mine are poor in numbers and money (on Shutterstock) ...
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I seem to be suffering from Invisible Port Syndrome (which is closely related to Invisible Sales Syndrome).
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How are your sales this month?
Mine are poor in numbers and money (on Shutterstock) ...
Ditto, for me, with SS!! Numbers of downloads are not as bad as the earnings for me, but lower than its been in years. Compared to last January there are less OD's and less larger SOD's to make up the diffference in dollars. First time in forever that Adobe is now my top.
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Shitterstock is a pile of beans this month but I'm sure Stan Pavlosky is doing alright ::)
To put some context on shitterstock
Jan 2018 ~ $318 sales 287 rpd 1.11
Jan 2019 ~ $212 sales 287 rpd 0.73
Jan 2020 ~ $125 sales 225 rpd 0.56
Jan 2021 ~ $100 sales 218 rpd 0.45
Jan 2022 ~ $50 sales 157 rpd 0.32 (up to Jan 28)
:(
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So, as we reach the end of the month, I can say that my sales are just as bad as last January's, but my RPD is better. 33 cents (S'stock).
4 days to go, but unfortunately, 2 of them are at the weekend, which for me is hopeless.
May your end of the month be good.
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Shitterstock is a pile of beans this month but I'm sure Stan Pavlosky is doing alright ::)
To put some context on shitterstock
Jan 18 ~ $318 sales 287 rpd 1.11
Jan 19 ~ $212 sales 287 rpd 0.73
Jan 20 ~ $125 sales 225 rpd 0.56
Jan 21 ~ $100 sales 218 rpd 0.45
Jan 22 ~ $50 sales 157 rpd 0.32 (up to Jan 28)
:(
For a few moments there, I thought you were talking your daily rates for January 2022, not your January totals since 2018 (had to read an older post for context). Was thinking, what's wrong with this guy, he earns hundreds of dollars a day on a bad month ha ha.
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The worst month ever. This is for my non-exclusive account. Zero stock animation sales (never before). Pond 5 (zero), Envato motion graphics category (zero), Shutterstock 167 images 0.22$ rpd / Adobe Stock 39 images 0.87$ rpd. Just start to upload my portfolio to Alamy and Dreamstime but not sure is it worth it? It's interesting that some of my bestseller photos have the exact copy in animation version and almost zero sales. I guess there is no connection between the still image and animation content demand.
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Shitterstock is a pile of beans this month but I'm sure Stan Pavlosky is doing alright ::)
To put some context on shitterstock
Jan 2018 ~ $318 sales 287 rpd 1.11
Jan 2019 ~ $212 sales 287 rpd 0.73
Jan 2020 ~ $125 sales 225 rpd 0.56
Jan 2021 ~ $100 sales 218 rpd 0.45
Jan 2022 ~ $50 sales 157 rpd 0.32 (up to Jan 28)
:(
For a few moments there, I thought you were talking your daily rates for January 2022, not your January totals since 2018 (had to read an older post for context). Was thinking, what's wrong with this guy, he earns hundreds of dollars a day on a bad month ha ha.
I wish ;D
I see the confusion so I corrected it to show the years ;)
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I seem to be suffering from Invisible Port Syndrome (which is closely related to Invisible Sales Syndrome).
It's Saturday = zero day. ;D
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It will be by far the worst month ever at shutterstock. There I now also have the lowest RPD of all agencies. $0.30.
For comparison:
January 2021 $0.43
January 2020 $0.59
January 2019 $0.65
January 2018 $0.82
...
At AS, it's $1.17 in January 2022, which means I'd have to achieve four times the amount of downloads at shutterstock to earn the same as I do at AS. And I am very far from that.
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It will be by far the worst month ever at shutterstock. There I now also have the lowest RPD of all agencies. $0.30.
For comparison:
January 2021 $0.43
January 2020 $0.59
January 2019 $0.65
January 2018 $0.82
...
At AS, it's $1.17 in January 2022, which means I'd have to achieve four times the amount of downloads at shutterstock to earn the same as I do at AS. And I am very far from that.
Wilm, that's bitter, of course, and it's for sure not much fun under these circumstances.
I myself had imagined the month after the first week worse but the sales have recovered. My January RPD is at 62 cents, ok not the best, but that was to be expected.
In terms of revenue, this January was much better than December 2021.
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Got few more sales on dreasmtime than in december.
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It will be by far the worst month ever at shutterstock. There I now also have the lowest RPD of all agencies. $0.30.
For comparison:
January 2021 $0.43
January 2020 $0.59
January 2019 $0.65
January 2018 $0.82
...
At AS, it's $1.17 in January 2022, which means I'd have to achieve four times the amount of downloads at shutterstock to earn the same as I do at AS. And I am very far from that.
Wilm, that's bitter, of course, and it's for sure not much fun under these circumstances.
I myself had imagined the month after the first week worse but the sales have recovered. My January RPD is at 62 cents, ok not the best, but that was to be expected.
This at least is twice as much as mine, Ralf. 62 cents would be very acceptable to me because my lifetime RPD at shutterstock is also only 0.69.
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Shitterstock is a pile of beans this month but I'm sure Stan Pavlosky is doing alright ::)
To put some context on shitterstock
Jan 18 ~ $318 sales 287 rpd 1.11
Jan 19 ~ $212 sales 287 rpd 0.73
Jan 20 ~ $125 sales 225 rpd 0.56
Jan 21 ~ $100 sales 218 rpd 0.45
Jan 22 ~ $50 sales 157 rpd 0.32 (up to Jan 28)
:(
For a few moments there, I thought you were talking your daily rates for January 2022, not your January totals since 2018 (had to read an older post for context). Was thinking, what's wrong with this guy, he earns hundreds of dollars a day on a bad month ha ha.
Oh, that would have meant over $9,500 just in shutterstock in one month for Mimi for 2018. There weren't that many sellers who could do that at the time.
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Shitterstock is a pile of beans this month but I'm sure Stan Pavlosky is doing alright ::)
To put some context on shitterstock
Jan 18 ~ $318 sales 287 rpd 1.11
Jan 19 ~ $212 sales 287 rpd 0.73
Jan 20 ~ $125 sales 225 rpd 0.56
Jan 21 ~ $100 sales 218 rpd 0.45
Jan 22 ~ $50 sales 157 rpd 0.32 (up to Jan 28)
:(
For a few moments there, I thought you were talking your daily rates for January 2022, not your January totals since 2018 (had to read an older post for context). Was thinking, what's wrong with this guy, he earns hundreds of dollars a day on a bad month ha ha.
Oh, that would have meant over $9,500 just in shutterstock in one month for Mimi for 2018. There weren't that many sellers who could do that at the time.
I did correct the post to show whole years ;)
Anyway in the meantime my RPD dropped to $0.31 while Adobe is $0.87
I'll make just over $50 for January 2022 on shitterstock
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Shitterstock is a pile of beans this month but I'm sure Stan Pavlosky is doing alright ::)
To put some context on shitterstock
Jan 18 ~ $318 sales 287 rpd 1.11
Jan 19 ~ $212 sales 287 rpd 0.73
Jan 20 ~ $125 sales 225 rpd 0.56
Jan 21 ~ $100 sales 218 rpd 0.45
Jan 22 ~ $50 sales 157 rpd 0.32 (up to Jan 28)
:(
For a few moments there, I thought you were talking your daily rates for January 2022, not your January totals since 2018 (had to read an older post for context). Was thinking, what's wrong with this guy, he earns hundreds of dollars a day on a bad month ha ha.
Oh, that would have meant over $9,500 just in shutterstock in one month for Mimi for 2018. There weren't that many sellers who could do that at the time.
I'll make just over $50 for January 2022 on shitterstock
Oh crap! It is sad to have to read this.
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I joined this forum years ago but never really posted much. Since the main site I went to died, I figured I should jump back in here.
I'm guessing my sales aren't normal after the pay cut on SS, but I actually have 637 sales on SS for Jan 2022. Of course, RPD is down. If it wasn't for the video sales, my over all income would definitely be pathetic. Adobe sales are picking up with 289 sales so far. I don't do models/lifestyles so that limits a lot of sales from what I've heard.
Anyway. Hello everyone.
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Nice to see you here Sheila.
There is also a Hummer Thread here which is, sadly, Sari & Wendy-less, but good for talking about wildlife.
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A normal month for me
It seams that the new price structure worked out positive for me.
Last year i had bigger sales (one realy big SOD) then before
A long time my biggest photo sale was $3,--
And over the year, i also earned more.
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Now I have it in black and white. It was by far the worst month ever on shutterstock.
My worst month up to this point was my first month - November 2010. In January 2022, I am down 41.6% compared to that month. And this, although I got only $0.25 for each subscription as a beginner in the former level 1, and not $0.38 - former level 4.
My first shutterstock download is from November 9, 2010, which means that I earned much more in only 22 days compared to January 2022 with 31 days.
Compared to my best shutterstuck month, I earned exactly one-eighth.
January was bad overall. I missed the four figure downloads overall. AS was also worse than the previous January. But there the minus is "only" 21,2%. However, I must say that January 2021 was above average for me there.
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Wilm, having read your sales posts since I joined the Sstock forum in 2019, it is sad to read this one :-\
It will be interesting to see how Sstock itself is doing. I believe they are reporting this month.
I hope that February is a good month for all of us.
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Wilm, having read your sales posts since I joined the Sstock forum in 2019, it is sad to read this one :-\
It will be interesting to see how Sstock itself is doing. I believe they are reporting this month.
I hope that February is a good month for all of us.
Thanks, Deb!
Yes, I'm curious about the numbers as well.
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January was also my worst month ever on Shutterstock, a long list of 10 cent sales.
Adobe Stock is the only decent site now.
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Here's a link to my January 2022 earnings report:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/02/01/january-2022-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
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SS DLs about normal, 800+. $ pants... 0.44 RPD.
AS was good. Increase in DLs (+35%) and £s (10%+) compared to last Jan. £s comfortably in the ££££. Even iS was up 30% compared to last Dec. Just SS going down the pan!
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I find it remarkable that Shutterstock runs so differently individually.
I upload regularly myself and Shutter is still in first place despite the reset.
I would be interested to know if those who have a bad Shutterstock experience still upload material at all?
Some have probably deactivated a certain time their portfolio, perhaps that also plays a role.
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I still upload t them. Volume of sales is the same for me.... it's just that they took more of what should have been my money due to the reset.
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I find it remarkable that Shutterstock runs so differently individually.
I upload regularly myself and Shutter is still in first place despite the reset.
I would be interested to know if those who have a bad Shutterstock experience still upload material at all?
Some have probably deactivated a certain time their portfolio, perhaps that also plays a role.
If you upload a lot of new photos, which are easy to find, a buyer can also see some older photos of you (listed there), which are in the same category. As a result, they may be bought more often and therefore sink less quickly.
Or is this a wrong theory? :-\
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I find it remarkable that Shutterstock runs so differently individually.
I upload regularly myself and Shutter is still in first place despite the reset.
I would be interested to know if those who have a bad Shutterstock experience still upload material at all?
Some have probably deactivated a certain time their portfolio, perhaps that also plays a role.
If you upload a lot of new photos, which are easy to find, a buyer can also see some older photos of you (listed there), which are in the same category. As a result, they may be bought more often and therefore sink less quickly.
Or is this a wrong theory? :-\
I had one really good-selling shot of old books and I later uploaded more shots of the same (but sufficiently different to pass the 'similars' rejection). The newer shots did tend to piggy-back on the original one but the big problem with SS compared to AS is that when you get a dl at SS, you'll see that a number of alternatives are proposed. These alternatives seem chosen by some similar visual only algorithm without heed to keywords or subject matter and there's often not one of your own 'similars' there. In this case there is one of my similars there but the other 6 are not. AS on the other hand does show your shots from the same series which, I think, gives you more chance.
January 2022. WME at SS by a long chalk. Came $5 short of minimum payout ($35) at SS with 132 dls (usually 160-200) and a totally pathetic $0.24 RPD. AS 52 dls and $0.69 RDP for Jan 2022. Still OK for no effort and no worries cuz January is commissioned work month...ka-ching, ka-ching! ;D
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Double posting :-X
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I find it remarkable that Shutterstock runs so differently individually.
I upload regularly myself and Shutter is still in first place despite the reset.
I would be interested to know if those who have a bad Shutterstock experience still upload material at all?
Some have probably deactivated a certain time their portfolio, perhaps that also plays a role.
If you upload a lot of new photos, which are easy to find, a buyer can also see some older photos of you (listed there), which are in the same category. As a result, they may be bought more often and therefore sink less quickly.
Or is this a wrong theory? :-\
Thijs, I have no idea.
But reading the posts here, Shutterstock seems to be only a matter of sink or swim and little in between.
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I looked up a photo of a spider of mine. The pictures of my other spiders are next to it and below it. (one is not a spider but a Red Harvestman :) )
I am satisfied with this. I don't know if that's also because I have a spider catagory.
But maybe it will look different in a month.
At Adobe, the same image shows three spiders and two beetles on a much smaller scale.
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I find it remarkable that Shutterstock runs so differently individually.
I upload regularly myself and Shutter is still in first place despite the reset.
I would be interested to know if those who have a bad Shutterstock experience still upload material at all?
Some have probably deactivated a certain time their portfolio, perhaps that also plays a role.
If you upload a lot of new photos, which are easy to find, a buyer can also see some older photos of you (listed there), which are in the same category. As a result, they may be bought more often and therefore sink less quickly.
Or is this a wrong theory? :-\
I had one really good-selling shot of old books and I later uploaded more shots of the same (but sufficiently different to pass the 'similars' rejection). The newer shots did tend to piggy-back on the original one but the big problem with SS compared to AS is that when you get a dl at SS, you'll see that a number of alternatives are proposed. These alternatives seem chosen by some similar visual only algorithm without heed to keywords or subject matter and there's often not one of your own 'similars' there. In this case there is one of my similars there but the other 6 are not. AS on the other hand does show your shots from the same series which, I think, gives you more chance.
Thanks for the explanation, I hadn't noticed that before.
Despite this fact, I have on average about 4- 5 times as many downloads on Shutterstock compared to Adobe for the same portfolio. That makes up for the worse RPD in terms of final revenue.
By the way, I like your book shots :D
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AS is consistently about 1/2 of SS income, (except for last month where AS & SS were about the same, due to an SS drop)
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In spite of AS not taking any editorial shots of mine, giving a portfolio 3500 image short of other sites, my earnings there were the best this month: $162. Alamy was $136 and SS was rubbish ($70).
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AS is consistently about 1/2 of SS income, (except for last month where AS & SS were about the same, due to an SS drop)
Same for me usually except this month when AS actually brought in more money than SS. Hardly surprising though at SS...reverting to Level 1 on Jan 1st not only means that almost every sub sale is 10 cents but ODDs and SODs are also around half what I'd normally get in Level 3 (usually achieved in Feb-March). For contributors it truly is a diabolical system intended to enrich the senior management and their stock options by boosting the SS Q1 profits. No doubt there's a huge amount of back-slapping and high-fiving at that first quarter's earnings announcement meeting!
Thanks Ralf. I must have felt inspired with my new and first full-frame DSLR and 85mm lens! I think the original shot got a big boost from eBay using it in a guide to pricing antique and vintage books.
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AS is consistently about 1/2 of SS income, (except for last month where AS & SS were about the same, due to an SS drop)
For me SS was still better than Adobe, as always, despite the level reset.
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Jan 2022 is the worst month since 2013 also for me. Average downloads, but low RPD (0,65 all agencies / 0,94 - 2021 | 0,51 SS / 0,76 - 2021).
There is a reason why there is a lack of big sales on SS.
SS pushes for subscription packs because their earning is higher due to unsold photos in packages.
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SS pushes for subscription packs because their earning is higher due to unsold photos in packages.
This could be a reasonable explanation indeed.
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This could be a reasonable explanation indeed.
Yes ... Pavlovsky himself said so in the latest financial reports.
Subscribers are increasing both in number and in average revenue per customers.
2020 255000 subscribers
2021 336000 subscribers
2020 $328 average revenue per customer
2021 $361 average revenue per customer
But downloads are the same ... (44.3 2021 vs 43.4 2020)
So revenue per download (Three Months Ended September) is:
2020 $3.79
2021 $4.30
Revenue per download was:
2013 $2.35
2015 $2.85
2017 $3.24
My RPD:
2013 $0.59
2015 $0.75
2017 $0.88
2020 $0.83
2021 $0.76
2022 (Jan $0.51)
So, real royalty earnings % is:
2013 0.59/2.35= 25.10%
2015 0.75/2.85= 26.31%
2017 0.88/3.24= 27.16%
2020 0.83/3.79= 21.89%
2021 0.76/4.30= 17.67%
17.67% (not 30 or 35% of level 4 o 5) is very close to Istock's actual 15% ... a real theft against contributors.
I do stock full time and unfortunately I have to pay my expenses and SS is still 40% of my income. I hate them with all my heart. I'm thinking of quitting, but it's not an easy choice.
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SS pushes for subscription packs because their earning is higher due to unsold photos in packages.
This could be a reasonable explanation indeed.
Canva has improved to my 2nd best earner due to their subscription sharing - netting double AS each month and approaching SS
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Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
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Nice to see you here Sheila.
There is also a Hummer Thread here which is, sadly, Sari & Wendy-less, but good for talking about wildlife.
Thanks. I'll have to look that up. Love wildlife photography when I can get a chance to do it. I have contact with Sari and Wendy off forums so I still keep up with them :)
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This could be a reasonable explanation indeed.
Yes ... Pavlovsky himself said so in the latest financial reports.
Subscribers are increasing both in number and in average revenue per customers.
2020 255000 subscribers
2021 336000 subscribers
2020 $328 average revenue per customer
2021 $361 average revenue per customer
But downloads are the same ... (44.3 2021 vs 43.4 2020)
So revenue per download (Three Months Ended September) is:
2020 $3.79
2021 $4.30
Revenue per download was:
2013 $2.35
2015 $2.85
2017 $3.24
My RPD:
2013 $0.59
2015 $0.75
2017 $0.88
2020 $0.83
2021 $0.76
2022 (Jan $0.51)
So, real royalty earnings % is:
2013 0.59/2.35= 25.10%
2015 0.75/2.85= 26.31%
2017 0.88/3.24= 27.16%
2020 0.83/3.79= 21.89%
2021 0.76/4.30= 17.67%
17.67% (not 30 or 35% of level 4 o 5) is very close to Istock's actual 15% ... a real theft against contributors.
I do stock full time and unfortunately I have to pay my expenses and SS is still 40% of my income. I hate them with all my heart. I'm thinking of quitting, but it's not an easy choice.
Of course, this is not an easy choice, Baumann. We already had this topic in the shutterstock forum. Shutterstock knew exactly that countless contributors had no choice because this was their main source of income. As I wrote there, the ugly face of capitalism was revealed because the new revenue structure was introduced at the very time when many contributors had lost other sources of income through Corona. And because this was the case, many contributors could not simply delete their portfolios from shutterstock, which they would certainly have liked to do out of conviction.
The largest contributor - Africa Studio - did it. I have a lot of respect for that, because some employees have to be paid. I am sure that the decision was very difficult for them.
I myself did not do it. I am only a tiny light. But I couldn't bring myself to give up a four-figure income per year. Nevertheless, my shutterstock motivation is at absolute zero.
-
Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
Similar here: SS earnings for Jan were 10.7% better than last year, and the total MS income for Jan was 12.3% better (and second-best January ever).
-
The largest contributor - Africa Studio - did it. I have a lot of respect for that, because some employees have to be paid. I am sure that the decision was very difficult for them.
Covid or not the new man in charge was going to make more money because his bonus depended on that. You can make any unsubstantiated claim you want, you would have the be inside Stans mind or on the board of directors at the very least to know? Jon left, and I'll make my own unsubstantiated claim that he was the one who stood up for us and holding the pay, until he left the business to someone else. Remember Jon owned over 50% so he could run things as he wanted. That's not true anymore.
Africa Studio did what?
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio) 1,306,255 stock photos
New Africa https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica) 825,023 stock photos
Some people are doing better, but I'd agree, most are not. How can anyone replace 38 cents a download with 10 cents and make the same? The only saving part is, we are paid an increasing percentage for the sales. There's nothing about the reset that doesn't suck for everyone!
-
Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
Similar here: SS earnings for Jan were 10.7% better than last year, and the total MS income for Jan was 12.3% better (and second-best January ever).
Well done.
Somebody said recently on one of these threads (think it was 'DavidK') that the difference between 10c and 38c is not really that big, the real money to be made in microstock nowadays is from large SODs. [ and video EL sales ]
Just thought I would add that here, because I was thinking the same myself at the time. And they are still there on SS, if not more so.
-
The largest contributor - Africa Studio - did it. I have a lot of respect for that, because some employees have to be paid. I am sure that the decision was very difficult for them.
Africa Studio did what?
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio) 1,306,255 stock photos
New Africa https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica) 825,023 stock photos
Some people are doing better, but I'd agree, most are not. How can anyone replace 38 cents a download with 10 cents and make the same? The only saving part is, we are paid an increasing percentage for the sales. There's nothing about the reset that doesn't suck for everyone!
Hmmm, I was absolutely sure that they were no longer there. And when they didn't show up in riptok's analysis either, I saw that confirmed.
But you are absolutely right, I can definitely find them.
https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/ (https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/)
-
The largest contributor - Africa Studio - did it. I have a lot of respect for that, because some employees have to be paid. I am sure that the decision was very difficult for them.
Africa Studio did what?
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio) 1,306,255 stock photos
New Africa https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica) 825,023 stock photos
Some people are doing better, but I'd agree, most are not. How can anyone replace 38 cents a download with 10 cents and make the same? The only saving part is, we are paid an increasing percentage for the sales. There's nothing about the reset that doesn't suck for everyone!
Hmmm, I was absolutely sure that they were no longer there. And when they didn't show up in riptok's analysis either, I saw that confirmed.
But you are absolutely right, I can definitely find them.
https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/ (https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/)
Their port was actually gone for a while. Everyone was rooting for them, thinking they had pulled the plug because of the new level structure, but it was back shortly after. Why it was gone we will never know. Maybe someone falsely reported some photos as stolen and SS took down the port - It has happened before - and then restored it when they saw the mistake. Maybe they negotiated a special deal with SS.
But, to be honest, I do not think the new level structure works in their disadvantage.
If I can make it to level 4 on the first month, I am sure they, with their port, with the qualitry of mages and quantity, will probably make it to level 6 within a month and whatever losses they might make in that first weeks they will surely make up with the 5% extra on level 6 for the rest of the year. They are probably making more money now than before.
-
Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
Similar here: SS earnings for Jan were 10.7% better than last year, and the total MS income for Jan was 12.3% better (and second-best January ever).
Well done.
Somebody said recently on one of these threads (think it was 'DavidK') that the difference between 10c and 38c is not really that big, the real money to be made in microstock nowadays is from large SODs. [ and video EL sales ]
Just thought I would add that here, because I was thinking the same myself at the time. And they are still there on SS, if not more so.
The difference may not seem much when looking at one sale but, over the course of a day 50 x $0.1 = $5 where as 50x $0.38 = $19. If this consistently happens over 20 days over a month then your down $280. But yes, the bigger sales do make a bigger impact... just becoming less common on SS of late with the push to subscription models!
-
The largest contributor - Africa Studio - did it. I have a lot of respect for that, because some employees have to be paid. I am sure that the decision was very difficult for them.
Africa Studio did what?
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio) 1,306,255 stock photos
New Africa https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica) 825,023 stock photos
Some people are doing better, but I'd agree, most are not. How can anyone replace 38 cents a download with 10 cents and make the same? The only saving part is, we are paid an increasing percentage for the sales. There's nothing about the reset that doesn't suck for everyone!
Hmmm, I was absolutely sure that they were no longer there. And when they didn't show up in riptok's analysis either, I saw that confirmed.
But you are absolutely right, I can definitely find them.
https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/ (https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/)
Their port was actually gone for a while. Everyone was rooting for them, thinking they had pulled the plug because of the new level structure, but it was back shortly after. Why it was gone we will never know. Maybe someone falsely reported some photos as stolen and SS took down the port - It has happened before - and then restored it when they saw the mistake. Maybe they negotiated a special deal with SS.
But, to be honest, I do not think the nerw level structure works in their disadvantage. If I can make it to level 4 on the first month, I am sure they, with their port, with the qualitry of mages and quantity, will probably make it to level 6 within a month and whatever losses they might make in that first weeks they will surely make up with the 5% extra on level 6 for the rest of the year. They are probably making more money now than before.
Thanks for the explanation, Firn!
-
Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
Similar here: SS earnings for Jan were 10.7% better than last year, and the total MS income for Jan was 12.3% better (and second-best January ever).
Well done.
Somebody said recently on one of these threads (think it was 'DavidK') that the difference between 10c and 38c is not really that big, the real money to be made in microstock nowadays is from large SODs. [ and video EL sales ]
Just thought I would add that here, because I was thinking the same myself at the time. And they are still there on SS, if not more so.
Annie, first of all congratulations to you and the other successful ones. It is at least reassuring that there are still some contributors who are trending positively.
I have no idea whatsoever how it looks like for you other contributors, but for me the numbers at shutterstock look like this:
Anteile an den Einnahmen seit Beginn
46.4% subscriptions
30.6% ODs
6.4% Enhanced
16,6% SODs
Almost half of my revenue comes from subscriptions. These are where the percentage reduction due to the new revenue structure is most noticeable. That's how I explain the decline in revenue.
My total RPD is at 0.69. In 2020 at 0.65 and in 2021 at 0.59. In short: The SODs bring me nothing. They do not compensate for the losses in subscriptions. The RPD is down 14.5%. And it will go down further - I'm sure of it.
For those who offer videos, it is probably difficult to calculate.
-
Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
Similar here: SS earnings for Jan were 10.7% better than last year, and the total MS income for Jan was 12.3% better (and second-best January ever).
Well done.
Somebody said recently on one of these threads (think it was 'DavidK') that the difference between 10c and 38c is not really that big, the real money to be made in microstock nowadays is from large SODs. [ and video EL sales ]
Just thought I would add that here, because I was thinking the same myself at the time. And they are still there on SS, if not more so.
The difference may not seem much when looking at one sale but, over the course of a day 50 x $0.1 = $5 where as 50x $0.38 = $19. If this consistently happens over 20 days over a month then your down $280. But yes, the bigger sales do make a bigger impact... just becoming less common on SS of late with the push to subscription models!
I sell up to 1000 DLs a month on SS, at times more, and I dont have that problem. There are quite a few people here that make over 500 DLs/month as well. By the end of January we are all on at least L4, and thats not counting the Wirestock people. At these levels, one starts to see a lot more higher subs prices up to $1/sub. I am also finding I can get much higher SODs than before. Overall my RPD for Jan was higher than the previous year.
But the point is, and the reason why I liked what DavidK said, and it was my observation as well, was that we shouldn't just focus on the 10c part - or it will drive us crazy. I doubt very much if there is anyone here with an RPD of 10c. But once again, it all depends on your own individual port.
-
Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
Similar here: SS earnings for Jan were 10.7% better than last year, and the total MS income for Jan was 12.3% better (and second-best January ever).
Well done.
Somebody said recently on one of these threads (think it was 'DavidK') that the difference between 10c and 38c is not really that big, the real money to be made in microstock nowadays is from large SODs. [ and video EL sales ]
Just thought I would add that here, because I was thinking the same myself at the time. And they are still there on SS, if not more so.
The difference may not seem much when looking at one sale but, over the course of a day 50 x $0.1 = $5 where as 50x $0.38 = $19. If this consistently happens over 20 days over a month then your down $280. But yes, the bigger sales do make a bigger impact... just becoming less common on SS of late with the push to subscription models!
I sell up to 1000 DLs a month on SS, at times more, and I dont have that problem. There are quite a few people here that make over 500 DLs/month as well. By the end of January we are all on at least L4, and thats not counting the Wirestock people. At these levels, one starts to see a lot more higher subs prices up to $1/sub. I am also finding I can get much higher SODs than before. Overall my RPD for Jan was higher than the previous year.
But the point is, and the reason why I liked what DavidK said, and it was my observation as well, was that we shouldn't just focus on the 10c part - or it will drive us crazy. I doubt very much if there is anyone here with an RPD of 10c. But once again, it all depends on your own individual port.
Yeah I know. I'm also a level 4 after 2nd week in Jan. I was just making the point that with SS pushing for large subs packages (as per their own minutes), we'll see a creep towards more and more $0.10 and over time this will impact on our net take from the agency
-
Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
Similar here: SS earnings for Jan were 10.7% better than last year, and the total MS income for Jan was 12.3% better (and second-best January ever).
Well done.
Somebody said recently on one of these threads (think it was 'DavidK') that the difference between 10c and 38c is not really that big, the real money to be made in microstock nowadays is from large SODs. [ and video EL sales ]
Just thought I would add that here, because I was thinking the same myself at the time. And they are still there on SS, if not more so.
The difference may not seem much when looking at one sale but, over the course of a day 50 x $0.1 = $5 where as 50x $0.38 = $19. If this consistently happens over 20 days over a month then your down $280. But yes, the bigger sales do make a bigger impact... just becoming less common on SS of late with the push to subscription models!
I sell up to 1000 DLs a month on SS, at times more, and I dont have that problem. There are quite a few people here that make over 500 DLs/month as well. By the end of January we are all on at least L4, and thats not counting the Wirestock people. At these levels, one starts to see a lot more higher subs prices up to $1/sub. I am also finding I can get much higher SODs than before. Overall my RPD for Jan was higher than the previous year.
But the point is, and the reason why I liked what DavidK said, and it was my observation as well, was that we shouldn't just focus on the 10c part - or it will drive us crazy. I doubt very much if there is anyone here with an RPD of 10c. But once again, it all depends on your own individual port.
Yeah I know. I'm also a level 4 after 2nd week in Jan. I was just making the point that with SS pushing for large subs packages (as per their own minutes), we'll see a creep towards more and more $0.10 and over time this will impact on our net take from the agency
There you go, focusing on the downside - which hasn't even happened yet.
My main issue is why people keep complaining about the 10c's. Its been what? A year and a half now, and there are still those who want to keep talking about it - or worse say how its going to get worse!
I will never in a million years understand that. To me, its simple, you make a decision and you make the most of it. You leave SS or you stay. If you cant leave then you still try and make the most if it. But constantly focusing on the negatives & complaining never helps, and in fact prevents one finding a more proactive approach and better solutions.
-
Jan 2022 income up 8% compared to January 2021.
(USD comparison, not including exchange rate)
Similar here: SS earnings for Jan were 10.7% better than last year, and the total MS income for Jan was 12.3% better (and second-best January ever).
Well done.
Somebody said recently on one of these threads (think it was 'DavidK') that the difference between 10c and 38c is not really that big, the real money to be made in microstock nowadays is from large SODs. [ and video EL sales ]
Just thought I would add that here, because I was thinking the same myself at the time. And they are still there on SS, if not more so.
The difference may not seem much when looking at one sale but, over the course of a day 50 x $0.1 = $5 where as 50x $0.38 = $19. If this consistently happens over 20 days over a month then your down $280. But yes, the bigger sales do make a bigger impact... just becoming less common on SS of late with the push to subscription models!
I sell up to 1000 DLs a month on SS, at times more, and I dont have that problem. There are quite a few people here that make over 500 DLs/month as well. By the end of January we are all on at least L4, and thats not counting the Wirestock people. At these levels, one starts to see a lot more higher subs prices up to $1/sub. I am also finding I can get much higher SODs than before. Overall my RPD for Jan was higher than the previous year.
But the point is, and the reason why I liked what DavidK said, and it was my observation as well, was that we shouldn't just focus on the 10c part - or it will drive us crazy. I doubt very much if there is anyone here with an RPD of 10c. But once again, it all depends on your own individual port.
Yeah I know. I'm also a level 4 after 2nd week in Jan. I was just making the point that with SS pushing for large subs packages (as per their own minutes), we'll see a creep towards more and more $0.10 and over time this will impact on our net take from the agency
There you go, focusing on the downside - which hasn't even happened yet.**
Lol... yeah I know :) thanks for the prod. I need to pop my headphones back on with some positive tunes while working... maybe a bit of meditation midday to improve focus.
Normally my RPD is around $0.95 and so feeling a little negative at the moment when Jan was $0.44. Strangely, last year the drop was quite small compared to normal so maybe this years January is the other extreme!
Just a shame they're not more like AS... both $ and mentality towards their contributors. The work Mat and Adobe does with their webinars shows more of a caring approach to contributors.
-
The largest contributor - Africa Studio - did it. I have a lot of respect for that, because some employees have to be paid. I am sure that the decision was very difficult for them.
Africa Studio did what?
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio) 1,306,255 stock photos
New Africa https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica) 825,023 stock photos
Some people are doing better, but I'd agree, most are not. How can anyone replace 38 cents a download with 10 cents and make the same? The only saving part is, we are paid an increasing percentage for the sales. There's nothing about the reset that doesn't suck for everyone!
Hmmm, I was absolutely sure that they were no longer there. And when they didn't show up in riptok's analysis either, I saw that confirmed.
But you are absolutely right, I can definitely find them.
https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/ (https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/)
Their port was actually gone for a while. Everyone was rooting for them, thinking they had pulled the plug because of the new level structure, but it was back shortly after. Why it was gone we will never know. Maybe someone falsely reported some photos as stolen and SS took down the port - It has happened before - and then restored it when they saw the mistake. Maybe they negotiated a special deal with SS.
But, to be honest, I do not think the new level structure works in their disadvantage.
If I can make it to level 4 on the first month, I am sure they, with their port, with the qualitry of mages and quantity, will probably make it to level 6 within a month and whatever losses they might make in that first weeks they will surely make up with the 5% extra on level 6 for the rest of the year. They are probably making more money now than before.
They will make more because of the levels and better % now. You're right, high volume makes more. They were gone less than a month disabled and restored.
-
The largest contributor - Africa Studio - did it. I have a lot of respect for that, because some employees have to be paid. I am sure that the decision was very difficult for them.
Africa Studio did what?
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/africa+studio) 1,306,255 stock photos
New Africa https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica (https://www.shutterstock.com/g/newafrica) 825,023 stock photos
Some people are doing better, but I'd agree, most are not. How can anyone replace 38 cents a download with 10 cents and make the same? The only saving part is, we are paid an increasing percentage for the sales. There's nothing about the reset that doesn't suck for everyone!
Hmmm, I was absolutely sure that they were no longer there. And when they didn't show up in riptok's analysis either, I saw that confirmed.
But you are absolutely right, I can definitely find them.
https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/ (https://petapixel.com/2021/07/23/how-to-rank-on-the-first-page-of-top-queries-on-stock-photo-sites/)
Something interesting in that article (but not really relevant to this discussion for which I apologize!).
....."A notable user account is “Designs Stock,” which has only 3,300 images in their portfolio but has as much traffic as account “wavebreakmedia” with 570,000 images. Also, the “betto rodrigues” account has the most traffic in the list of all 14,000 authors that we analyzed."
Betto Rodrigues account has the most amount of traffic but seems to have no or very few sales on their first page of 'top images'. Bizarre!
-
Something interesting in that article (but not really relevant to this discussion for which I apologize!).
....."A notable user account is “Designs Stock,” which has only 3,300 images in their portfolio but has as much traffic as account “wavebreakmedia” with 570,000 images. Also, the “betto rodrigues” account has the most traffic in the list of all 14,000 authors that we analyzed."
Betto Rodrigues account has the most amount of traffic but seems to have no or very few sales on their first page of 'top images'. Bizarre!
[/quote]
Probably people searching for particular models of cars, just to have a look. Not buyers.
-
Slower than February usually is for me (on Sstock)
Maybe it's the long-term effect of no longer uploading.
I had an O/D yesterday of $1.16. Once I would have been disappointed with that, but now it represents 11 dimes it pleased me. Doh.
Hoping that sales pick up soon and that everyone has a good month.
-
UNCLE PETE:
Some people are doing better, but I'd agree, most are not. How can anyone replace 38 cents a download with 10 cents and make the same? The only saving part is, we are paid an increasing percentage for the sales. There's nothing about the reset that doesn't suck for everyone!
ANNIE:
My main issue is why people keep complaining about the 10c's. Its been what? A year and a half now, and there are still those who want to keep talking about it - or worse say how its going to get worse!
I will never in a million years understand that. To me, its simple, you make a decision and you make the most of it. You leave SS or you stay. If you cant leave then you still try and make the most if it. But constantly focusing on the negatives & complaining never helps, and in fact prevents one finding a more proactive approach and better solutions.
I think that if you read the 2 quotes above it becomes a bit clearer with regard to who is complaining (or just commenting?) still (after 1.5 years) and who isn't.
When the 'new' payment schedule was invented by Sstock I thought at the time that it's aimed at the 'high fliers' and it is, of course, (some of?) the high fliers who are benefitting.
I think that the fewer downloads you get, then probably the more noticeable the dimes become.
It hardly matters to me because I am a little baby minnow in the ocean of stock, but some other sized fish are evidently still feeling the pain.
Apologies for the mixed metaphors 🤔
-
Feb slower, much slower than Jan ... after 7 days RPD $0.37 (Jan was $0.51 - level 4 mid January) ... only 0.10 0.12 0.15 0.17 0.19 ... >:(
First 7 days of 2021 RPD $1.09 ...
Incredible ... maybe it's time to close my account. :-\
-
UNCLE PETE:
Some people are doing better, but I'd agree, most are not. How can anyone replace 38 cents a download with 10 cents and make the same? The only saving part is, we are paid an increasing percentage for the sales. There's nothing about the reset that doesn't suck for everyone!
ANNIE:
My main issue is why people keep complaining about the 10c's. Its been what? A year and a half now, and there are still those who want to keep talking about it - or worse say how its going to get worse!
I will never in a million years understand that. To me, its simple, you make a decision and you make the most of it. You leave SS or you stay. If you cant leave then you still try and make the most if it. But constantly focusing on the negatives & complaining never helps, and in fact prevents one finding a more proactive approach and better solutions.
I think that if you read the 2 quotes above it becomes a bit clearer with regard to who is complaining (or just commenting?) still (after 1.5 years) and who isn't.
When the 'new' payment schedule was invented by Sstock I thought at the time that it's aimed at the 'high fliers' and it is, of course, (some of?) the high fliers who are benefitting.
I think that the fewer downloads you get, then probably the more noticeable the dimes become.
It hardly matters to me because I am a little baby minnow in the ocean of stock, but some other sized fish are evidently still feeling the pain.
I'm complaining, or at the very least, observing what I think is true, but I'm staying. I made a choice for myself how I wanted to do this, continue or not. Everyone is free to do what they think is best. I've learned to ignore the people who have nothing to talk about except, why everyone else should quit SSTK. The most amusing is anyone who stays with their own SSTK account open and spends most of their time here, telling us why we should leave?
If I read your post right, yes, the people who sell the most and have a higher volume, are going to benefit or at worst, earn the same as before. Someone like myself, who doesn't get many downloads a month, will drop about 60%. There's no way that 10c instead of 38c is making more money. :) And I mean, based on downloads staying the same. In fact not only do I make less per DL, but I'm getting less than I used to as the times change and the competition grows.
Mostly what this change has done to my minimal efforts is, I upload more to other sites now and concentrate on images that might do better on other places. When SS earned the most, they were the place I worked at supplying. Now they don't so I'm concentrating more on others.
I can't sit around waiting for the OD, EL and Singles, "big sales" Etc., to make up for the tiny, minimum dime payments. I'll take those dimes and I'll work on finding other ways to make more money. Adobe passed SSTK last year and keeps on making me more, every month. They get the images and new ideas, created for what they sell.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Znzd2pwG/pete-with-dime-200.gif)
I am working on what to shoot this Summer, for other sites. Easy enough? Instead of quitting, I'm adapting.
-
The February RPD has increased by 10% compared to January's and is now at an incredible $0.34 - the new levels have really made a difference ;-) Admittedly, February at AS is also well below average in terms of RPD.
Still, my all-time Adobe Stock revenue is expected to overtake Shutterstock's by the end of the year. Although I have just a touch more than half the downloads there. Just a short time ago, I would have thought it impossible that this would ever happen.
-
Stats after the first half of the month.
shutterstock
February 01-14, 2022 vs. 2021
DLs minus 5%
Revenues plus 31.4%
AS
February 01 to 14, 2022 vs. 2021
DLs minus 28%
Revenues minus 66.4%
February 2021 at AS was very good, March even better. I hope that this will also go up significantly this year.
AS vs. SS revenues, February 01 to 14, 2022 vs. 2021: +7.5%
-
My sales have picked up during the second half of the month ..
-
SS Jan 2022 Photos : RPD 0,41 $
SS Feb 2022 Photos : RPD 0,20 $
SS Jan 2022 Videos : RPD 6,54 $
SS Feb 2022 Videos : RPD 6,86 $
Over 60 picture DL's at SS in february and only 12 picture DL's at AS.
Over 20 video DL's at SS in february and only 1 video DL at AS.
AS has been selling very little of my media since the beginning of the year.
It seems like there is an unofficial reset there similar to SS where the reset is official.
-
March 2022 was significantly worse than March 2021.
AS
downloads minus 21.3%
income minus 15.1%
Shutterstock
downloads minus 21.1%
income minus 2.2%
In terms of income, shutterstock is 36% behind Adobe Stock in March 2022. In March 2021, the difference was 44.4%.
I don't know yet about istock. With the small agencies it is partly a minus of 50%.
-
Shutterstock
downloads minus 21.1%
income minus 2.2%
I'd be happy with these numbers
Shutterstock:
dowload plus 5.4%
income minus 37%
::)
Adobe has been doing well though, my best earner this month, which hasn't happened in over 1,5 years. Not anywhere as good as Shutterstock or iStock during a good month, but since my Adobe income has been either stagnating or declining for months, I won't complain about a positive development, no matter how small.
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Shutterstock
downloads minus 21.1%
income minus 2.2%
I'd be happy with these numbers
Shutterstock:
dowload plus 5.4%
income minus 37%
::)
Adobe has been doing well though, my best earner this month, which hasn't happened in over 1,5 years. Not anywhere as good as Shutterstock or iStock during a good month, but since my Adobe income has been either stagnating or declining for months, I won't complain about a positive development, no matter how small.
I had some big SODs at shutterstock. Without them it would have been a disaster! But there seems to be a big decrease concerning ODs. I had 4 days in a row in march without a single OD! And only one day with 4 ODs.
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In terms of total earnings across the four agencies I contribute to (Sstock, Adobe Stock, iStock, Pond5) I just had my BME - exceeding my previous BME (which incidentally was back in June 2020) by 26 percent. So pretty happy with this result and feel my recent content upload activities are beginning to produce results. I am also seeing much better results on Adobe Stock and Pond5. Already starting well for April with a couple of sales on Pond5.
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Shutterstock
downloads minus 21.1%
income minus 2.2%
I'd be happy with these numbers
Shutterstock:
dowload plus 5.4%
income minus 37%
::)
Adobe has been doing well though, my best earner this month, which hasn't happened in over 1,5 years. Not anywhere as good as Shutterstock or iStock during a good month, but since my Adobe income has been either stagnating or declining for months, I won't complain about a positive development, no matter how small.
I had some big SODs at shutterstock. Without them it would have been a disaster! But there seems to be a big decrease concerning ODs. I had 4 days in a row in march without a single OD! And only one day with 4 ODs.
I had no big sales on Shutterstock in this year so far. :-\ And, yes, I agree that the amount of ODs has decreased, for me actually drastically. I had 750 sales on Shutterstock in March and only 22 of these were ODs - Multiple as low as 0.15$. ::)
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Not bad: second-best March overall, behind March 2017.
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Shutterstock
downloads minus 21.1%
income minus 2.2%
I'd be happy with these numbers
Shutterstock:
dowload plus 5.4%
income minus 37%
::)
Adobe has been doing well though, my best earner this month, which hasn't happened in over 1,5 years. Not anywhere as good as Shutterstock or iStock during a good month, but since my Adobe income has been either stagnating or declining for months, I won't complain about a positive development, no matter how small.
I had some big SODs at shutterstock. Without them it would have been a disaster! But there seems to be a big decrease concerning ODs. I had 4 days in a row in march without a single OD! And only one day with 4 ODs.
I had no big sales on Shutterstock in this year so far. :-\ And, yes, I agree that the amount of ODs has decreased, for me actually drastically. I had 750 sales on Shutterstock in March and only 22 of these were ODs - Multiple as low as 0.15$. ::)
Oh, Firn, I'm sorry for you! That sounds really bad!
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Not bad: second-best March overall, behind March 2017.
Hi Zero, I thought you always said that your sales were going down the drain but looking at your graph it seems pretty stable and even improving over the years. Or are these just downloads and has revenue dropped year by year?
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Not bad: second-best March overall, behind March 2017.
Hi Zero, I thought you always said that your sales were going down the drain but looking at your graph it seems pretty stable and even improving over the years. Or are these just downloads and has revenue dropped year by year?
Hmm... Are you sure? I don't remember having said that!
It doesn't sound like me. I'm an optimist. ;)
Maybe for some outlets, like 500px?
But feel free to quote me and we can clarify specifics!
(these are dollars, not downloads)
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Not bad: second-best March overall, behind March 2017.
Hi Zero, I thought you always said that your sales were going down the drain but looking at your graph it seems pretty stable and even improving over the years. Or are these just downloads and has revenue dropped year by year?
Hmm... Are you sure? I don't remember having said that!
It doesn't sound like me. I'm an optimist. ;)
Maybe for some outlets, like 500px?
But feel free to quote me and we can clarify specifics!
(these are dollars, not downloads)
Well maybe I'm confused then. Great progress though, compliments :)
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Not bad: second-best March overall, behind March 2017.
That your pictures sell well, I am not surprised and is also known to me. They are very good.
That you can still increase, triggers in me the question: Do you still upload regularly?
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Not bad: second-best March overall, behind March 2017.
That your pictures sell well, I am not surprised and is also known to me. They are very good.
That you can still increase, triggers in me the question: Do you still upload regularly?
Not really. A few items a week, if any. Mostly old stuff previously discarded for not being good enough.
There is not much increase from where I stand.
For the past few years, I'm oscillating around similar amounts, and that's more than OK.
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Not bad: second-best March overall, behind March 2017.
That your pictures sell well, I am not surprised and is also known to me. They are very good.
That you can still increase, triggers in me the question: Do you still upload regularly?
Not really. A few items a week, if any. Mostly old stuff previously discarded for not being good enough.
There is not much increase from where I stand.
For the past few years, I'm oscillating around similar amounts, and that's more than OK.
And probably good video sales as well. ;)
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Here's a link to my brutally honest monthly report for March:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/03/31/march-2022-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
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Here's a link to my brutally honest monthly report for March:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/03/31/march-2022-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
OUCH - looks like another turd month. Not too far off from mine, although minus anything from SS and I generally do a bit better on Alamy (I got 17 of those 3 cent sales - some for multiple times plus a few real sales too) and DT (still peanuts). Although I think it is still possible to make $ at this it requires a combination of hard work, skill, and luck and almost for sure with a similar effort you could do much better at something else.
Good luck with the drone - I've played around with a dji mini but haven't bothered trying to upload anything from it - maybe I should, but for a few bucks it hardly seems worth the effort.
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Firstly, since I’ve begun reporting I have never seen an average return per downloads at Shutterstock below 40cents, with March at just 36cents
SS is total waste of time. My March RPD there is 0.214. Coupled with senseless AI rejection policy I can't honestly figure any good reason to keep uploading or expect anything there anymore
On Alamy I had BME with RPD 193.94 net & they are, besides Adobe, IMHO only agency out there worth working with
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SS is total waste of time. My March RPD there is 0.214.
~50 cents for me last 3 months on SS.
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SS is total waste of time. My March RPD there is 0.214.
~50 cents for me last 3 months on SS.
March RPD on SS:
$1.10/dl overall
$0.70/dl for images
$17.5/dl for videos
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SS is total waste of time. My March RPD there is 0.214.
~50 cents for me last 3 months on SS.
Now that you mentioned it, I looked. Lifetime is .70 and 2022 RPD is 25 cents. No denying that things have changed for me.
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My lifetime is $1.77 on SS, but it's slowly going down.
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My RPD on Shutterstock has taken nosedive since I stopped uploading, although number of downloads has remained constant. It would be interesting to see if there is connection? I doubt as it would need some fine algorithm adjustments which I don't think they can be bothered with. It is more likely related to overall large sub packages policy shift
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We're now into the 4th day of the new month and it's about this time I like to conduct an early microstock performance review.
For this task, I needed to deploy high-powered performance computing systems to calculate the total gross contributor earnings on my Shutterstock portfolio.
This allows for fast and accurate calculations where large voluminous sets of diverse and complex data are involved.
I'm sure my stock contributor colleagues will agree the results of these calculations are extraordinary:
By the 4th day of April 2022, my Shutterstock port had generated an eye-watering earnings amount of:
0.10 cents !!
I just can't explain this incredible result.
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The future prognosticator suggests that if you really keep putting in the hard work you could double these results in the next month.
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The future prognosticator suggests that if you really keep putting in the hard work you could double these results in the next month.
Strewth! If I can achieve that, contributors on Facebook group will scream at me: 'Show us your port!!'
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My RPD on Shutterstock has taken nosedive since I stopped uploading, although number of downloads has remained constant. It would be interesting to see if there is connection? I doubt as it would need some fine algorithm adjustments which I don't think they can be bothered with. It is more likely related to overall large sub packages policy shift
I kept on uploading and my RPD took a nosedive too. 0.26$ for March, which is very low. March 2021 my RPD was 0.72.
Whether it's algorithm or policy shift to large subscription packages I don't know. I would guess the latter.
But it still can be algorithm thing, as they might push some portfolio's more towards subscription sales and others more towards OD's.
Technically it's possible.
All I know for sure is that nearly every sale on SS is a sub, OD's are scarce and when they happen commissions are low.
Last year I had bigger sales (let's say 20$ and more) every month. This year: none.
So yes. Something has changed :)
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March was better than Feb for me at SS, reached level 5 but poor compared to AS. Sales volume at AS is 100% more than SS and 360% more $ than SS.
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since we're declaring SS changes based on personal experience and tiny datasets - nothing's changed in SS search! my RPD has been steady .50 to .60 over last 2 years
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since we're declaring SS changes based on personal experience and tiny datasets - nothing's changed in SS search! my RPD has been steady .50 to .60 over last 2 years
Nothing has changed for my searches that I monitor. RPD has dropped since the new dime sub program and I can see how many are the 750 multi-seat plan. But as always, we all don't have the same images or type of content. My ODs average $2.25 now.
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Not a day over $10 this month. Pathetic.
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My April RPD so far (Apr 6) on SS is, believe or not, 0.144, with 0 DLs last 2 days, which never happened before in midweek even with only tiny tiny port
I have written them off, but it does make me sad as I still remember getting excited about first couple of downloads, then ELs (Samsung high-res monitors), etc. Alamy fire continuing from March into April & I feel much more positive about them on all fronts. It usually works that way
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Gee so all agencies purchase their algorithms from Walmart. ;D Last month, dopamine hits left and right. This month, only rising cortisol and blood pressure.
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I was very excited to start uploading my art to stock website, reading this thread was very depressing lol.
Did I arrive too late to the party?
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My April RPD so far (Apr 6) on SS is, believe or not, 0.144, with 0 DLs last 2 days, which never happened before in midweek even with only tiny tiny port
I have written them off, but it does make me sad as I still remember getting excited about first couple of downloads, then ELs (Samsung high-res monitors), etc. Alamy fire continuing from March into April & I feel much more positive about them on all fronts. It usually works that way
SS is looking pretty slim so far this month :(. Seems they have a long term downtrend which is not the case for all agencies.
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I was very excited to start uploading my art to stock website, reading this thread was very depressing lol.
Did I arrive too late to the party?
Unfortunately, 15+ years too late. But you can still make money if you have a good port and good, sellable images/illustrations. You just have to give it a try. I started in 2004, and once I had a couple hundred images online, I started making money. And my stuff isn’t that good. I uploaded to several sites. I haven’t uploaded for years now, and I only have images at Adobe. I can still cash out every couple of months, but it’s not retirement income, which is what my plan was. When Sean Locke complains, you know things are bad. 😔
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I was very excited to start uploading my art to stock website, reading this thread was very depressing lol.
Did I arrive too late to the party?
Well you can see what @cathyslife wrote plus the fact that others who started later, in 2008, like myself, saw good and happy times, until at least 2012 at the latest. Yes, if someone at the top of the game as Sean, has his sales dropping, you can be sure, the market is over saturated and depressed. I don't mean psychology I mean business and returns for work, income is terrible.
Not for everyone, but relative to what things were, many more are seeing drops. A small group of talented people are still holding on very well. I'm just happy that I didn't count on residual income, as that plan has become unrealistic. Most of us have watched commissions, agencies, and prices spiraling into into the sewer. We could make something from volume and many "good enough" images.
Now you have to be the best of the best and often only get peanuts for pay. The days of fair and good prices and value seem to be dwindling. If you can make attractive, in demand products, you can still make some money.
While there's a slight variance in the when, my personal experience was 2012 as pretty much the turning point. Where Microstock as a good side income, skidded out of control and hit the wall.
(https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/straight-skid-marks-that-end-600w-1820536994.jpg)
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What Uncle Pete said.
I was late to the party, started in 2016 & keep hearing these tales about "good old times". It makes sense, as smartphone/low cost camera revolution changed the market & caused saturation. Top it with wrong strategy micros addressed the issue (just look what SS did last yr) and this is why situation is the way it is.
There is still $$ that can be made in photography. Demand has not dropped, if anything increased. But expecting "sales" from SS or Getty IMHO means devaluing your work & can only bring frustration. There are other ways. It really starts though with quality and then ability to market your own work. And first and foremost you must enjoy photography, not just do it monetization purposes.
Just my 5 cents
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Sales are a shocker so far this month and when I compare to the same time period in 2021 and 2020, it's actually worse than what I thought.
So looking at Shutterstock for the same period in April (to date) comparing current earnings in 2022:
2021 : 5%
2020 : 4.5%
I would have to multiply current earnings x 20+ times to be at levels in 2021 and 2020 when I had smaller ports (much smaller in 2020).
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Sales total of 1 DL on SS so far this month. Only good thing is the photo sold is my joint best seller with 16 DLs. but sales usualy pick up later in month.
I'm Also with adobe, DT, pond5 (for video only) & Alamy & 0 sales on those. Loads of zooms on alamy but sales don't show for months on there.
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Same here. Really, really quiet, on Adobe, Shutterstock and Istock. But I have a small portfolio so my numbers are insignificant but still. Very strange.
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sales steady across all agencies for last 12 mo, including MTD. normal # of sales on SS & AS. RPD steady also
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Past couple of weeks have taken a nosedive for me, few sales at not so great prices. Maybe buyers are cutting back on budgets - high inflation?
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Same here. Really, really quiet, on Adobe, Shutterstock and Istock. But I have a small portfolio so my numbers are insignificant but still. Very strange.
I've said the same about myself. When I had 1,000 images, it wasn't enough to say anything reliable. The fluctuations were unpredictable and there would be big swings. Small portfolio, and that's true. One EL changed the whole month.
Now with over 5,000 on SS, I still have ups and downs and there's nothing to say, it's not just random. Of course my view is the random part is based on what people want and need, but still, there's nothing consistent about my sales. Nothing on IS or AS either.
I think people with more variety could see better even downloads, I don't have that. And yes AS I do better over the holidays in the Fall because I have more of that there. I do some good in the Spring on SS for other reasons.
Well maybe Saturday is predictable, when nothing happens anywhere? But that's not downloads or sales.
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SS about average, maybe a little less and AS performing well. IS ok, maybe a little better than average and the rest just bouncing around as they normally do
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In general, Adobe Stock has been doing well for me, but I have been keeping an eye on the values of custom sales. Initially I was on the lookout for sub-38¢ amounts - and there have only been a tiny handful at 33¢.
What I have noticed is the steady downward trend in the last couple of months of the over $1 custom sales. This composite screenshot is of each "first of its value" royalty - in other words there have been many more at each value, but looking at the dates and amounts over just the last two months shows the trend. From $1.36 down to $1.25
Edited May 10 to note that the custom sales have been inching back upwards in the last month. Today saw a couple at $1.34; last week some at $1.33 & $1.32; the week before that $1.31, and before that $1.28. To top it off there was only one at 33¢ in the last month.
Nice to see a positive (for the contributor) trend!
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In general, Adobe Stock has been doing well for me, but I have been keeping an eye on the values of custom sales. Initially I was on the lookout for sub-38¢ amounts - and there have only been a tiny handful at 33¢.
What I have noticed is the steady downward trend in the last couple of months of the over $1 custom sales. This composite screenshot is of each "first of its value" royalty - in other words there have been many more at each value, but looking at the dates and amounts over just the last two months shows the trend. From $1.36 down to $1.25
I think Adobe is aiming at subscription only. So you only get 0.33, 0.66 or 0.99. I don't believe Adobe is aiming at doing EL's or OD's unless somebody here says they get them frequently. But that is just my two cents. So great they pay 3.3 times SS minimum but I don't expect never more then 0.99 from them. Except for the private person that pays a little more but always under the $5 mark. Anyone got a $100 plus commission?
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In general, Adobe Stock has been doing well for me, but I have been keeping an eye on the values of custom sales. Initially I was on the lookout for sub-38¢ amounts - and there have only been a tiny handful at 33¢.
What I have noticed is the steady downward trend in the last couple of months of the over $1 custom sales. This composite screenshot is of each "first of its value" royalty - in other words there have been many more at each value, but looking at the dates and amounts over just the last two months shows the trend. From $1.36 down to $1.25
I think Adobe is aiming at subscription only. So you only get 0.33, 0.66 or 0.99. I don't believe Adobe is aiming at doing EL's or OD's unless somebody here says they get them frequently. But that is just my two cents. So great they pay 3.3 times SS minimum but I don't expect never more then 0.99 from them. Except for the private person that pays a little more but always under the $5 mark. Anyone got a $100 plus commission?
I got one on Adobe for $26.40 today - not close to $100 but better than the usual 99 cents to a few dollars per download. It doubled my earnings there for the month so far since I have a small portfolio (633 files). Not statistically significant, but there are still some okay custom sales.
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...I got one on Adobe for $26.40 today - not close to $100 but better than the usual 99 cents to a few dollars per download....
I think that's the royalty on a full price extended license.
They are good to get, absolutely, but in a different category from standard licenses. It's unfortunate that the labels on royalties are so vague.
Earlier this month I received two $13.20 custom royalties - I suspect those were for extended licenses at a very cut rate. Extended license sales are less frequent as the license terms for standard have become more generous. In March there was a royalty of $21.12 which I think was a reduced price extended license.
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Had it not been for a $25 SOD on April 1st, I think I would be struggling to make minimum payout this month. Since April 1st, all other sales have only amounted to $13 at SS. Sales at AS amount to $20 so far and I don't have to swear at the screen as I do when seeing all the 10 cents at SS!
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April was my fourth worst month ever. I have not managed to reach four-digit download numbers.
At shutterstock ist was my second worst month ever - only a bit better than January 2022. RPD $0,44. Compared to $0,93 at AS.
Dreamstime and 123rf almost dead - $50 together.
Bad times! :(
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April was okay although the week after Easter was very soft. Not great but not terrible either.
At SS I didn't quite hit my target and RPD was down compared to February and March. However, overall, SS is tracking at about the same levels as 2021.
At AS I had a good number of downloads but RPD was also down. So far this year, RPD at AS is down 22% compared to 2021. However, more downloads than in 2021 means that revenue is at about the same level.
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Anyone got a $100 plus commission?
I received a straight $70 commission for a clip sale on Adobe the other day. That was always their full 4k commission before subs came in. It was for one of my clips that often sell as establishing shots (for movies, documentaries, tv shows, etc) that are outside the standard subscription models on SS and now I suspect on AS too.
The $100+ commissions are typically for these type of clips sales with extra seats.
You are probably talking just photos, but with the value of video sales falling on AS, I thought it is worth noting.
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Alamy started strong with several $$ sales 1st half of April, but then it all stopped like someone turned off the pipe. Adobe strong # of DLs but lots of 0.36, DT in double digits (barely) and SS in freefall without parachute, like with most everyone else. IS plenty of DLs but this is never accurate so I don't hold my breath.
First 4 months of '22 I made more than in entire '21, helped by some direct sales for the book made through personal website. We'll see what happens next
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Anyone got a $100 plus commission?
I received a straight $70 commission for a clip sale on Adobe the other day. That was always their full 4k commission before subs came in. It was for one of my clips that often sell as establishing shots (for movies, documentaries, tv shows, etc) that are outside the standard subscription models on SS and now I suspect on AS too.
The $100+ commissions are typically for these type of clips sales with extra seats.
You are probably talking just photos, but with the value of video sales falling on AS, I thought it is worth noting.
Good one, Annie!
I also got a $70 sale, but this one was the best of April on AS.
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Anyone got a $100 plus commission?
I received a straight $70 commission for a clip sale on Adobe the other day. That was always their full 4k commission before subs came in. It was for one of my clips that often sell as establishing shots (for movies, documentaries, tv shows, etc) that are outside the standard subscription models on SS and now I suspect on AS too.
The $100+ commissions are typically for these type of clips sales with extra seats.
You are probably talking just photos, but with the value of video sales falling on AS, I thought it is worth noting.
Good one, Annie!
I also got a $70 sale, but this one was the best of April on AS.
$160+ Brilliant!!
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Anyone got a $100 plus commission?
I received a straight $70 commission for a clip sale on Adobe the other day. That was always their full 4k commission before subs came in. It was for one of my clips that often sell as establishing shots (for movies, documentaries, tv shows, etc) that are outside the standard subscription models on SS and now I suspect on AS too.
The $100+ commissions are typically for these type of clips sales with extra seats.
You are probably talking just photos, but with the value of video sales falling on AS, I thought it is worth noting.
Good one, Annie!
I also got a $70 sale, but this one was the best of April on AS.
Nice! :)
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I had sort of given up on SS in Q1 this year but on April 1st I got a SOD for $25 and another for $15 later in the month. This month started slowly but today I got a $37.50 SOD which definitely helps compensate the raised BP from all the 10 centers! Still undecided about whether I'll start supplying them with anything new as account has been 'dormant' now for 2 years.
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Finally, some light at the end of the tunnel, but it isn't really from stock photos....
https://backyardsilver.com/say-again-earnings-from-stock-photography-have-increased/
(https://backyardsilver.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/EarningsApril2022.png)
Steve
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Just calculated my April '22 numbers => Second-best April, behind April 2017. Not bad!
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Just calculated my April '22 numbers => Second-best April, behind April 2017. Not bad!
So it's the same for you: AS has overtaken Shutterstock in terms of revenue? That was different for you too, wasn't it?
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Just calculated my April '22 numbers => Second-best April, behind April 2017. Not bad!
So it's the same for you: AS has overtaken Shutterstock in terms of revenue? That was different for you too, wasn't it?
It's not the first month when it happens. It's true that my SS share has declined. But what matters is that my total is still OK. That's why is never a good idea to be exclusive with anyone.
Here is my SS-AS gap graph:
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May '22 was my Best May Ever, by some margin.
Not bad! :D
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May '22 was my Best May Ever, by some margin.
Not bad! :D
Very good! I'm happy for you! Fine portfolio!
I would like to report comparable. But unfortunately I can not. My May 2022 was very modest. Everything is okay at AS, the other agencies are extremely weak. Both in terms of downloads, as well as in terms of revenue. RPD is getting worse and worse at shutterstock, 123rf and DP. And at istock it was pretty bad in May too.
I have once tried stockperformer as a free trial. Although not all downloads are recorded there (I have problems with the getty/istock statistics) I get there for May the info that I am at 86%. But that can not be true from my point of view, when I see my lousy download numbers.
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May '22 was my Best May Ever, by some margin.
Not bad! :D
Well done! Why am I not surprised ;)
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Subberstock is firing on all cylinders so far this month while not a bad month in May - did most of the heavy lifting. Go Subber! Other sites like P5 and iStock did poorly. Adobe did very well in May too though slow start so far in June. ETA Adobe has started to fire up!
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Subberstock is firing on all cylinders so far this month while not a bad month in May - did most of the heavy lifting. Go Subber! Other sites like P5 and iStock did poorly. Adobe did very well in May too though slow start so far in June. ETA Adobe has started to fire up!
Good start of the month on SS, indeed:
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Subberstock is firing on all cylinders so far this month while not a bad month in May - did most of the heavy lifting. Go Subber! Other sites like P5 and iStock did poorly. Adobe did very well in May too though slow start so far in June. ETA Adobe has started to fire up!
Good start of the month on SS, indeed:
Awesome download payments. On Shutter I've had 6 video downloads in June for an RPD of $15.05 and together with some image sales on SS and AS am already at three figures just a couple of days into the new month. This is not my BE in short-term results (since starting in Feb 2019) and nothing compared with ZTs above, but I'm happy with this start for June 2022.
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Subberstock is firing on all cylinders so far this month while not a bad month in May - did most of the heavy lifting. Go Subber! Other sites like P5 and iStock did poorly. Adobe did very well in May too though slow start so far in June. ETA Adobe has started to fire up!
Good start of the month on SS, indeed:
Congrats once more!
I'm guessing those were video sales, right?
For me it's the worst start of the month ever for shutterstock. I only have 29 downloads for $4.47. No idea what's going on there.
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Subberstock is firing on all cylinders so far this month while not a bad month in May - did most of the heavy lifting. Go Subber! Other sites like P5 and iStock did poorly. Adobe did very well in May too though slow start so far in June. ETA Adobe has started to fire up!
Good start of the month on SS, indeed:
Congrats once more!
I'm guessing those were video sales, right?
For me it's the worst start of the month ever for shutterstock. I only have 29 downloads for $4.47. No idea what's going on there.
Sorry misread the post. Please ignore. :)
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Subberstock is firing on all cylinders so far this month while not a bad month in May - did most of the heavy lifting. Go Subber! Other sites like P5 and iStock did poorly. Adobe did very well in May too though slow start so far in June. ETA Adobe has started to fire up!
Good start of the month on SS, indeed:
Awesome download payments. On Shutter I've had 6 video downloads in June for an RPD of $15.05 and together with some image sales on SS and AS am already at three figures just a couple of days into the new month. This is not my BE in short-term results (since starting in Feb 2019) and nothing compared with ZTs above, but I'm happy with this start for June 2022.
Well done, Zero and Pacesetter! Yes, when the video gods are smiling, it really helps. The past month has been good for me too.
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unpredictability is one constant of this business it seems. Today I had mid $$ on Alamy, double digit SOD on Shutter (is that even possible anymore??) and quite a few photos nominated by Adobe that will translate into triple digits even with 10% rate
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Worst 1/3 june in 10 years in shutterstock
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It was the worst month ever for me at shutterstock. This is primarily because I only had 14 non-subscriptions (i.e. ODs, SODs, Enhanced). Last year it was 75 in June. My RPD in June was $0.34.
It was just a normal month at Adobe. There were fewer significantly fewer downloads than June 2021, but the revenue is almost identical. RPD was $1.40 - over four times that of shutterstock.
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I just scraped in to my BME for the combined earnings across the four agencies I contribute to, thanks to a $1.72 image sale on Shutterstock in the closing hours of the month, which shows how close it is. Was disappointed I missed a monthly earnings goal, though I made it if I include the three assets on the AS program but I'm not counting those as I don't consider those being the business.
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Here's my detailed monthly earnings report, as usual!
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/07/01/june-2022-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
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Average month for me.
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Typical summer slump time for me, but total income for June came in similar to June last year (up by $51.53). Total calendar year slightly up overall by $593.52 compared to same period last year.
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I think I'm having the apocalyptic natural disaster pandemic global supply chain crisis economic recessionary slump this month.
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10 days into the month, poll results still don't have any numbers for shutterstock - not to mention the other agencies. Are the numbers for shutterstock in general so bad that nobody posts them anymore?
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10 days into the month, poll results still don't have any numbers for shutterstock - not to mention the other agencies. Are the numbers for shutterstock in general so bad that nobody posts them anymore?
48 People have voted for Shutterstock so far, so just two more to go. The rating is 21.9 at the moment, so less then half of the rating for AdobeStock. You can see that if you hover with the mouse pointer above the agencies names.
Perhaps it would make sense to reduce the number of voters necessary for the rating to be displayed, perhaps to 25 or 30.
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10 days into the month, poll results still don't have any numbers for shutterstock - not to mention the other agencies. Are the numbers for shutterstock in general so bad that nobody posts them anymore?
48 People have voted for Shutterstock so far, so just two more to go. The rating is 21.9 at the moment, so less then half of the rating for AdobeStock. You can see that if you hover with the mouse pointer above the agencies names.
Perhaps it would make sense to reduce the number of voters necessary for the rating to be displayed, perhaps to 25 or 30.
Thanks for the info! :)
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It seems that SS is not more relevant anymore. That's good news. Let's hope they fall so hard that we will see them under Alamy soon on the poll chart.
10 days into the month, poll results still don't have any numbers for shutterstock - not to mention the other agencies. Are the numbers for shutterstock in general so bad that nobody posts them anymore?
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I see them on the poll chart.
They are listed as second behind Adobe.
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I see them on the poll chart.
They are listed as second behind Adobe.
Yes, Firn, now shutterstock is also visible - but only since this morning.
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Ah, I see. I had not looked at the poll before you mentioned it.
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I see them on the poll chart.
They are listed as second behind Adobe.
As I wrote yesterday, they were just two votes shy of the threshold.
Now they have exactly 50 votes, so two people have voted for them in the meantime.
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It seems that SS is not more relevant anymore. That's good news. Let's hope they fall so hard that we will see them under Alamy soon on the poll chart.
10 days into the month, poll results still don't have any numbers for shutterstock - not to mention the other agencies. Are the numbers for shutterstock in general so bad that nobody posts them anymore?
since only 2 agencies have rec'd enough votes, it's more likely shows a lack of interest in the poll itself - there are thousands of members here, yet only a tiny % have ever voted.
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10 days into the month, poll results still don't have any numbers for shutterstock - not to mention the other agencies. Are the numbers for shutterstock in general so bad that nobody posts them anymore?
The poll results are there but you have to hover over the agency name to see them.
If you are talking about the graph then July's results are shown in the following month (August) its always been that way.
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Not the biggest sale I've had (that was June 2020) but the biggest commission on a single download with this video and am already well into my BME before this dropped in...
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Not the biggest sale I've had (that was June 2020) but the biggest commission on a single download with this video and am already well into my BME before this dropped in...
Congrats to you! :)
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Not the biggest sale I've had (that was June 2020) but the biggest commission on a single download with this video and am already well into my BME before this dropped in...
Congrats to you! :)
Thank you Wilm :)
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Quite an extraordinary month with July not only my BME but doubled my earnings on my previous BME in June 2022. Have to give credit where it's due... Shutterstock was the big performer in July by a long way. Pond5 did pretty good, Adobe and Is/Getty not bad either.
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For me it was my worst month ever. :'(
Reading Alexandre's numbers, I guess I can still consider myself lucky, but after 12 years of microstock, it's really frustrating.
After all, I only offer at 7 agencies. And at 5 of them, RPD is extremely down. With CS it's okay, but I have so few downloads that it doesn't matter. How it is with videos I don't know, but with images I find it scary.
The current RPD values (for comparison the former values)
CS: $ 1.8 (1.69)
AS: $ 0.93 (1.41)
IS: $ 0.59 (0.68)
DP: $ 0.45 (0.42)
DT: $ 0.44 (1.20)
SS: $ 0.44 (0.79)
123rf: $ 0.32 (0.97)
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Decent month, the second-best July after 2019, with SS leading the way by some margin.
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July was my worst month this year.
SS was very good, but P5 was significantly worse and had almost no subscription sales.
AS is down because they deleted my portfolio after 3 years of work.
SS Pictures RPD : $0,25
SS Videos RPD : $13,56
P5 Videos Exclusive RPD : $22,13 (marketplace) / $8,31 (subs)
P5 Videos Non-Exclusive RPD : $11,60 (marketplace) / $12,80 (subs)
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Best August Ever, pulled-up by a strong month on SS.
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Best August Ever, pulled-up by a strong month on SS.
Congrats! And all this without any talent! :P ;D
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Best August Ever, pulled-up by a strong month on SS.
Congrats! And all this without any talent! :P ;D
Yep, no talent. Just learning, work and technique.
Thanks!
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Second best month (August 2022) next to last month (July 2022) which incidentally, stands as the best month ever.
Best August (only fourth August since starting) with a 138% increase over previous best August in 2021.
Best month ever on Adobe Stock. Second best month on Shutterstock.
Overall, a good month.
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August was also very good for me.
For SS, it was the best month of the year in terms of downloads and revenue.
SS picture RPD : $1.25
SS video RPD : $17.11
P5 Exclusive video RPD : $9.26
P5 Non-Exclusive video RPD : $11.30
(respectively market place + subscription)
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Despite my customers and buyers taking the entire last week of the month off from buying, still managed to reach my 2nd best month ever. Had my BME on:
* Adobe Stock
* iStock
* Pond5
Shutterstock was underwhelming for September.
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September was also my second best month. SS far ahead with DL's and revenue.
SS Image RPD : $0.83
SS Video RPD : $13.56
My new account with Adobe (1 month old) has a few DL's already too.
AS video RPD : $18.50
Pond5 is extremely bad this month regarding RPD.
P5 Exclusive video RPD : $6.24
P5 non-exclusive video RPD : $4.85
(market place + subscription)
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September was pretty flat for me at both SS and AS. Downloads slightly below average and quite a lot lower than September 2021. RPD average but definitely better than September 2021.
Still ahead of 2021 for total downloads and total revenue.
However, worth considering that I had a big Covid related seller in 2021 that has run its course (as expected). So I have managed to replace that with new material that is selling. Uploaded quite a lot in July/August and hoping that material starts to get traction.
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Here's a link to my September report which includes some updates on trips / gigs:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/09/30/september-2022-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
Alex
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Super stuff, you and @steveheap are my must reads at the start of every month. A more pragmatic realistic look vs the more pushy "buy my course" kinds on YouTube and facebook
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SS: RPD $0.65
by this pace, my AS revenue will surpass SS for the first time in 12 years
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I was away for the past few weeks, and I was able to summarize Sep 22 only today.
It was a good month:
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Despite the biggest EOTM dud this year (felt like it anyway), still ended up having my BME overall in October exceeding my previous best month in July 2022 by 24%. Had a BME on Pond 5, a second-best month on Shutter and a second-best month on iStock. Adobe recovered pretty well toward the EOTM.
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Dear colleagues - here's a link to my monthly brutally honest report for the month that was Oct.
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/11/01/october-2022-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
Alex
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Good month for me, with SS leading the pack, closely followed by AS:
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november revenues. third best month this year
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november :
SS : best month ever -> picture RPD $2,38 -> video RPD $13,70
AS : less than a quarter downloads from october -> video RPD $20,76
P5 : extremely bad, I may close my P5 accounts soon if this keeps up -> video RPD $7,55 (non-exclusive) / video RPD $9,60 (exclusive)
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A good month, best of this year, and second best November, with interesting BMEs on iStock and P5 (non-exclusive)
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On SS, November was a poor month (3rd worst this year) for revenue and the worst month of the year for downloads.
On AS, November was the best month of the year for downloads and 3rd best for revenue. AS revenue and downloads January to November are ahead of the full year numbers for 2021.
On SS there is a definite fall off in downloads in the second half of the year. The average for July - November is down 11% compared to the average for January to June. On the plus side, revenue from January to November is ahead of full year revenue for 2021.
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november :
SS : best month ever -> picture RPD $2,38 -> video RPD $13,70
AS : less than a quarter downloads from october -> video RPD $20,76
P5 : extremely bad, I may close my P5 accounts soon if this keeps up -> video RPD $7,55 (non-exclusive) / video RPD $9,60 (exclusive)
I am not sure if RPD mean something My RPD with Alamu is $ 29 but I sold only 2 images in November, will be good if I sold fifty images with same RPD :) or 50% smaller
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I finally got around to adding up my sales including the little earners and late reporters (I'm talking to you Getty - and I noticed Feb and Mar sales there were lower than what I had earlier recorded - <1$, but what's up with that?).
In any case it was an ok month - just a few $ above the new (much lower) normal now that sales and or prices and % I get have fallen pretty much across the board and I am off of SS and essentially off of iS (I did leave a few images there - mostly ones that weren't accepted elsewhere).
It doesn't inspire me to work on new stuff, but I am hoping that the brutal hemorrhaging of income is mostly over - until AI generated content takes over or the bean counters decide that it is best to prop up their quarterly numbers on the backs of the contributors again. In any case there I have only about 30% left to go from the peak (for me in 2012). Too bad inflation has prices for everything but stock photos about 30% higher in the same time frame.
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I earned not much. It is the first time that I could not withdraw money from SS.
https://www.anadolustok.com/konu-kas%C4%B1m-2022-sat%C4%B1%C5%9Flar%C4%B1 (https://www.anadolustok.com/konu-kas%C4%B1m-2022-sat%C4%B1%C5%9Flar%C4%B1)
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BME for earnings in November by a significant lead.
Even without the $807 commission, I still would have achieved a second best month.
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Happy New Year, everybody!
2022 was a good year for me, and December was the best December, so far.
All the best in 2023!
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Yeah I had my best December though have only had for Decembers to date. Overall did pretty well considering the last week was almost dead for sales with only one decent commission on Shutterstock. I'm yet to make my first sale in 2023! ;D
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My only comment is that from where I sit (mostly photo portfolio) SS revenues are declining and AS revenues are increasing.
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My only comment is that from where I sit (mostly photo portfolio) SS revenues are declining and AS revenues are increasing.
the more important question is which agency produces the most income? for me SS consistently earns about twice what AS does.
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My only comment is that from where I sit (mostly photo portfolio) SS revenues are declining and AS revenues are increasing.
the more important question is which agency produces the most income? for me SS consistently earns about twice what AS does.
Used to be that SS was on top, more than the rest added together, but this year, (and last year since the new deal) SS is half and Adobe has more than doubled for me. I don't expect it's the same for everyone and I have no video, plus 90% of the images on SS are not acceptable on AS and visa versa. Apple and Oranges, except for the dollars part.
Nice bonus, I still squander my earnings on new gear, cameras, lenses, special equipment, or limited release scotch. IS paid for a bottle of Orkney Highland Park cask strength release No. 2, and WS bought me a cask strength Glenlivet Enigma.
I got this fine Nikon TME dark field microscope, used, and I've been playing with the objectives for macro. Might be nice to get it working and use the camera mount?
(https://i.postimg.cc/q7g8Tzrz/Nikon_TME.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/VLqVP9r6/nikon_10x_and_cent.jpg)(https://i.postimg.cc/cCSs4CrR/lincolm_10x-01_web.jpg)
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My only comment is that from where I sit (mostly photo portfolio) SS revenues are declining and AS revenues are increasing.
the more important question is which agency produces the most income? for me SS consistently earns about twice what AS does.
Used to be that SS was on top, more than the rest added together, but this year, (and last year since the new deal) SS is half and Adobe has more than doubled for me. I don't expect it's the same for everyone and I have no video, plus 90% of the images on SS are not acceptable on AS and visa versa. Apple and Oranges, except for the dollars part.
Nice bonus, I still squander my earnings on new gear, cameras, lenses, special equipment, or limited release scotch. IS paid for a bottle of Orkney Highland Park cask strength release No. 2, and WS bought me a cask strength Glenlivet Enigma.
I got this fine Nikon TME dark field microscope, used, and I've been playing with the objectives for macro. Might be nice to get it working and use the camera mount?
(https://i.postimg.cc/cCSs4CrR/lincolm_10x-01_web.jpg)
love your self-portrait!
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January is the worst month of the year for me - going back to my first January in 2020.
So begs the question, how did January 2023 go for my combined portfolio earnings given I spent all 2022 uploading over 800 videos and (no more than) about 100 images for each site?
Well, I can only hope that January 2023 will (again) be my slowest month for this year...
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I have been focussing on Adobe. My port there is still below 2000 files. But January 22 I made 17 dollars, this January I made 192 dollars.
I haven't really uploaded in years, but been working at it for the last 4 months and finally the port is waking up again.
Weekly payouts are now possible. Next goal: 100 dollars a week on Adobe.
I think the generative ai content really helps to bring fresh eyes to my port. Once there, they probably also take anything else they need. A lot of old bestsellers are beginning to wake up.
The next three months I will focus more on video again. Had a few sales on pond5 and even a video sale on Dreamstime, also on Adobe.
I hope by end of the year I have at least 4k files on Adobe and over 6k on istock.
Also will try to make a much better effort for istock.
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My January 2023 at SS was significantly better than January 2022.
Image revenue has been very poor, on par with 2021, but video revenue has been ok, on par with September 2022.
At AS, my January revenues were about one-eighth of SS revenues.
Pond5 is too bad, I don't even need to talk about it.
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Average January for me.
Also one of those few occasions when AS outshined (outshone ;)?) SS.
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I am reading in a lot of places that Adobe had an usually good January, several producers reporting best January ever on Adobe.
Maybe the gen ai collection is bringing them a lot of attention and new customers.
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I am reading in a lot of places that Adobe had an usually good January, several producers reporting best January ever on Adobe.
Maybe the gen ai collection is bringing them a lot of attention and new customers.
I am one of these people who has a very good January on Adobe, but your theory doesn't make sense to me, because in that case, wouldn't each agency that sells AI images (or even SS that basically lets you generate your own AI images), not experience the same? But for me it's just Adobe that's doing unusually well for a January. All other agencies, including the ones that allow AI generated images, are doing as poorly as was to be expected from a January.
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Well there must be a reason. Clearly the Adobe sales team is doing something right.
Perhaps they have new enticing offers unrelated to gen ai?
I only know of Dreamstime that has ready gen ai content. Shutterstock just offers the abilty to create ai content, but from the feedback I read, the quality is extremely poor. They don‘t have beautiful ready files to download.
Is anybody else taking ai except adobe and dreamstime??
Both istock and SS don‘t, they would be the largest competitors.
ETA
looks like I jinxed myself, only 4 dl today….
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I am reading in a lot of places that Adobe had an usually good January, several producers reporting best January ever on Adobe.
Maybe the gen ai collection is bringing them a lot of attention and new customers.
Yes Adobe January sales was double SS sales for me :D
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Is anybody else taking ai except adobe and dreamstime??
Both istock and SS don‘t, they would be the largest competitors.
Alamy, Dreamstime, PantherMedia, FineArtAmerica, Canva (They have their own AI generatior like SS), Zoonar, Depositphotos. And these are just from the 10 agencies I submit to. I don't even know how many of the 40 stock agencies that are listed on this forum's poll also accept AI content.
To me none show any increase in sales similar to Adobe. And the increase in sales on Adobe started for me already in the last quarter of last year.
I don't know the reason as well, I just don't think it is AI content, because it doesn't make sense to me that it would drive more customers to Adobe, but not other sites (And I do not sell AI content at all). I think it must be a different factor, maybe something as simple as a big advertisement campaign, maybe the acquirement of Figma.
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Well, then it must be great marketing by Adobe. They have the advantage of combining photoshop with stock, perhaps they made customers a great new offer.
Deposit rejected my gen ai.
Might try adding some to Alamy.
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Deposit rejected my gen ai.
I do not know their rules, I could not find any information, but when I do an image search for "generative AI" in their database I get thousands of results with AI generated content.
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i dont do month over last years since data is too noisy, so i use 4 month running average. eg, Jan was in top 4 months over last 2 years on that basis. but that just shows the problem with monthly comparisons! most of the month's bump was huge jump from Alamy distributions. take that out & jan was worst month in 3 yrs, but slightly ahead of 4 mo avg over last year. (canva report later this month will improve that)
most due to cratering of SS in Jan, and for 1st time AS > SS even tho the AS increase was a moderate rise over avg of last 6 months
as the proverb goes, one bad month doesn't predict much of anything
IRL many other changes since last year high inflation, high gas prices, war in Ukraine,...
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Hi. I am new here. on the market for 4 months. I only send to 3 agencies. ss, adobe and gettyimage. in January a total of 50 sales and about 17 dollars. https://www.shutterstock.com/pl/g/tastystyle (https://www.shutterstock.com/pl/g/tastystyle)
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As for shutterstock, it couldn't be worse!
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I am reading in a lot of places that Adobe had an usually good January, several producers reporting best January ever on Adobe.
Maybe the gen ai collection is bringing them a lot of attention and new customers.
Yep, same here. I had over 3 times as many DLs on SS than adobe but earnings on both were nearly the same. Best ever month on adobe. (with less than half the no. of photos in my port than SS)
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I am reading in a lot of places that Adobe had an usually good January, several producers reporting best January ever on Adobe.
Maybe the gen ai collection is bringing them a lot of attention and new customers.
My January at AS was up 35% on the previous Jan. Nice start to the year.
Overall, 2022 was an extremely good year at AS. I hit 100k lifetime dls mid way through the year and ended up with near on 30k for the year which was a good step up from 2021. I have zero AI imagery...for now anyway.
I prefer quality over quantity these days but I do need to pull my finger out a bit more and increase the 19k port size a bit more than I did last year.
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I am reading in a lot of places that Adobe had an usually good January, several producers reporting best January ever on Adobe.
Maybe the gen ai collection is bringing them a lot of attention and new customers.
My January at AS was up 35% on the previous Jan. Nice start to the year.
Overall, 2022 was an extremely good year at AS. I hit 100k lifetime dls mid way through the year and ended up with near on 30k for the year which was a good step up from 2021. I have zero AI imagery...for now anyway.
I prefer quality over quantity these days but I do need to pull my finger out a bit more and increase the 19k port size a bit more than I did last year.
Congrats! Impressing stats!
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Very impressive results indeed. Just goes to show there's still plenty of money to be made in this provided got the right content and enough of it.
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How cool is Pond. How well, he sells:
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Two charts...
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Here's a link to my February earnings report:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/03/01/february-2023-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
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Two charts...
Is your port primarily video? Only curious because for stills I am seeing Adobe #1 iStock #2 and SS a close #3.
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Two charts...
Is your port primarily video? Only curious because for stills I am seeing Adobe #1 iStock #2 and SS a close #3.
Yes, the results for agencies would probably be in reverse if just still images
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Here's a link to my February earnings report:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/03/01/february-2023-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
I've pretty well given up on the whole blue pill red pill sh-it from the so-called stock agencies.
I'm getting interviews for non teaching roles in schools where the pay is a lot better.
This microstock business is run by shysters for their own benefit.
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Good February for me.
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March 2023 was a very slow start for mine. Still, I ended up +18% over January though down -21% from February. As at end March 2023, my total earnings are 205% over the same three-month period for 2022 - due to a lot more uploading of video in the past 16 months. Two charts attached...
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Average March for me:
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Wow. March was the worst month on Shutterstock since the very first month I started, Jan 2014.
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Wow. March was the worst month on Shutterstock since the very first month I started, Jan 2014.
So I don‘t have to feel bad they kicked me out…
They are dropping for many people. Perhaps keeping a forum, positively interacting with producers and sensible royalties would have been better for their business.
Which producer is going to recommend clients to them?
But I am sure somebody brilliant will have the perfect solution…cut the royalties even more. 5 cents instead of 10 cents. Or 1 cent??
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Wow. March was the worst month on Shutterstock since the very first month I started, Jan 2014.
So I don‘t have to feel bad they kicked me out…
They are dropping for many people. Perhaps keeping a forum, positively interacting with producers and sensible royalties would have been better for their business.
Which producer is going to recommend clients to them?
But I am sure somebody brilliant will have the perfect solution…cut the royalties even more. 5 cents instead of 10 cents. Or 1 cent??
I suspect the next exciting news will be some sort of less than transparent revenue share scheme where SS gets more and we get less.
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Average April for me:
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Was a dismal April across the sites, except I/S.
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April 2023 was second-best month so far this year despite a painfully slow last-week of the month. The three attachments should tell the remaining story...
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April 2023 was actually not so bad at Adobe (I don't use Shutterstock anymore) on numbers alone, but due to the 10% royalty cut (Euro -> Dollar) only rather weak.
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Overall May was not a bad month considering a couple of agencies turned slow. May is third best month so far in 2023. Pleasing to see Adobe Stock performing really well and has now left Pond5 in its dust trail.
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Good month for me.
Second best May behind May 22 and the best month of this year.
Adobe was #1, slightly better than SS.
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Good month for me.
Second best May behind May 22 and the best month of this year.
Adobe was #1, slightly better than SS.
Look like Your DT+DP=P5
I don't make videos,I have a few including some animations,but I stopped in this branch because in my opinion it takes too much time to create videos that sell,and given the royalties that go around today for videos,I think still content works best for me.
However I don't know how to create more than 10 contents a day for years,I will never be able to do such a thing,if anyone knows this secret please tell me! :D
interesting thanks.
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Good month for me.
Second best May behind May 22 and the best month of this year.
Adobe was #1, slightly better than SS.
Look like Your DT+DP=P5
I don't make videos,I have a few including some animations,but I stopped in this branch because in my opinion it takes too much time to create videos that sell,and given the royalties that go around today for videos,I think still content works best for me.
However I don't know how to create more than 10 contents a day for years,I will never be able to do such a thing,if anyone knows this secret please tell me! :D
interesting thanks.
I create much less than this. I can only work 1 or 2 days on the weekends. An item requires 30 minutes (or more) of post-processing minutes for me.
In 2022, I barely uploaded the minimum Adobe required for the free all-apps subscription.
This year, I somehow managed to upload about 100 assets (video+photos)
My total port is under 2k assets (photos + videos).
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SS revenues are slowly declining.
AS revenues are slowly increasing.
June AS payout will be almost the same as SS payout. This is unprecedented so far.
There used to be months when SS had ten times the revenue of AS, most of the time SS revenue was three times that of AS.
Pond5 gave me a nice surprise in April. My Exclusive account received extra payments :
Partner Earnings and Dataset Earnings.
Strangely, my non-exclusive account did not receive such payments.
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SS revenues are slowly declining.
AS revenues are slowly increasing.
June AS payout will be almost the same as SS payout. This is unprecedented so far.
There used to be months when SS had ten times the revenue of AS, most of the time SS revenue was three times that of AS.
Pond5 gave me a nice surprise in April. My Exclusive account received extra payments :
Partner Earnings and Dataset Earnings.
Strangely, my non-exclusive account did not receive such payments.
Look like yours April 2023 was better than October,July and August 2022,this last month not really good maybe,but you had a very good December and January.
For me December and January are often slow months.
This year on SS so far every month has been better than 2022
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June '23: not a great month (second worse this year ahead of January only).
Adobe is for the 2nd time in a row (3rd time this year), my #1.
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I actually had my best June to date as shown in the attached monthly comparison chart. Included in the earnings is the Adobe Free Collection but represents less than 4% of the overall earnings for the month.
June was my best month of 2023 to date and best month since November 2022. The better overall earnings is due to all four main agencies (iStock / Shutterstock / Pond5 / Adobe Stock) performing well and significant growth of the video ports especially since relocating back to Sydney in November 2021 where I have access to much more places to capture content.
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Best month for a long time - $4433 all told. More details on my blog: https://backyardsilver.com/earnings-from-photography-in-june-2023/
Steve
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^^ excellent month, Steve!
Here's my monthly report, a decent month for me with among other sales, a book cover.
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/06/30/june-2023-brutally-honest-earnings-report-a-strong-overall-month-finally/
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July was not my worst month this year.
May was.
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So July 2023 was my second-best performing month of the year and second month where I feel I achieved a satisfactory monthly earnings result.
Only thing is, unlike June where all agencies performed strong, July it was Shutterstock the only agency that did well while the other three (Pond5, iStock, Adobe Stock) didn't. It's not good because if the only one performing agency has a poor month then it impacts the overall result significantly.
Shutterstock accounted for 60% of the overall earnings in July 2023. This was due to video sales performing strong while other agencies cannot seem to deliver on video as well as Shutterstock does. Still images is another story altogether where Adobe Stock typically performs best.
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My earnings in august are quite ok.
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an average month on SS,an excellent month on AS thanks to the best sale of this year for images,and a splendid video sale,BME on Depositphotos that this month has surpassed my remote imagination.
a powerful month,keep it up! :D
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Focussing on the Adobe recovery at the moment.
August 2022, with 1300 files and basically no uploads for 9 years I earned 15.73 usd ( or euros at the time).
This year, with around 2500 files I earned 181.91 usd with 201 downloads.
Last few days saw an uptick in seasonal content.
September will see a focus on video but also more normal photos and less ai prompting. But I still have a huge backlog of files to process.
Still have a very long way to go to rebuild my income, but as long as I get sales in a reasonable manner, I am optimistic.
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Here's a link to my monthly report. Alamy were super impressive this month...ever since I called them a microstock agency a few months ago they have been doing well for me lol
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/08/31/august-2023-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
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Good month for me (best since Nov '22):
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For me it was better than July.
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Not as good as July but July was exceptional.
At SS, downloads slightly on the low side but decent revenue. At AS, good downloads but a little weak on revenue.
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Adobe Stock continues to show really strong growth in monthly $$ - up 22% on August 2022 which was itself up 10% over 2021. For a summer month, it's really good (better than any of the months in 2022 except Nov & Dec). I have zero AI content.
If you look at download growth August 23 it's up 40% over 2022 and that was up 23% over 2021. In other words higher volume growth than income growth. I continue to track subscription versus custom downloads as well as the occasional sub-38¢ download (just one at 33¢ in August) so the good news is that the RPD is largely stable over the last couple of months (although down from earlier years).
I stopped uploading to Adobe Stock in June because inspections had become so unpredictable I didn't want to deal with the frustrations.
iStock did reasonably well in July (I'll know August next month) - I decided in June and early July to upload a big chunk of my portfolio there (I had removed all but 100 images I can't license anywhere else in 2013 over the Getty-Google deal). I have just shy of 1800 images there. Sales volume is a small fraction of that at Adobe Stock, but in spite of a few of the sub-10¢ royalties the overall RPD was 63¢. The highest royalty (my share) was $21.60 and the lowest 2¢
Dreamstime continues to bump along with a very slim volume of sales - mostly 35¢ subscriptions, but one $7.90 credit sale. They don't do anything anti-contributor, so for now they can stay.
Pond5 photo sales are sad - nothing at all in August.
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September 2023 was a BME for me but not surprising with a huge $923.35 commission on Shuttestock. But even without counting that sale, I still reached my earnings goal for the month for all agencies combined (SS, AS, Is, P5), as I have now for the previous three months since June. There was also a BME for Shutterstock and BME for Adobe Stock - and that BME for AS does not include the payment for AI training. So overall September was a very good month and I'm hoping that the work I've put into my ports since November 2021 are starting to pay off with sustained overall higher earnings.
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Here's a link to my detailed earnings/news report for Sept 2023:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/09/30/september-2023-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
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Good month overall, with BME for AS, even after excluding the unwanted AI payments.
Abysmal for SS.
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September 2023 for me was the month in which I earned the most since 2018,since I started in microstock,and this was possible thanks to Adobe Stock.
keep it up Adobe,keep it up! :D
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for aug my #1 was istock but just a few percent ahead of adobe. ss was a distant 3rd, earning less than half the other 2 agencies. the download count is always higher on SS but its mostly dimes so it doesn't add up to half the other two (istock has a few tiny sales too but the avg is much higher than ss). still haven't sold a single video, dunno what you folks are doing (my portfolio is quite small but growing). (edit: i said sept but istock numbers are not up yet, updated to say aug)
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For September 23 I will reach around 450 dollars with 2800 files on adobe and around 1500 videos in different places.
My Eyeemport is currently dead due to bankrupcy and my 4400 files on istock are still not "activated" because I didn't upload anything in September and very little this year.
Just Adobe was 347 dollars including the ai bonus. September 22 it was 23 dollars with 1300 files and after not uploading for nearly a decade.
The ai files are beginning to pick up as well, they were moving very slowly before.
Last week I had 75 downloads on Adobe and made it to a weekly rank of around 5900.
For 2800 files that is ok.
eta
this is the trend for my ai files. Picking up sales slowly.
still not using midjourney. looking forward to dall e 3 and hoping firefly improves
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Day 4 of October and already on SS I'm at ¼ of my total September sales. Hopefully that's an indication that things are picking up. Maybe because the writer's strike is over?
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Day 4 of October and already on SS I'm at ¼ of my total September sales. Hopefully that's an indication that things are picking up. Maybe because the writer's strike is over?
Day 5 of October and I'm on 3% of total September sales :). Things are random...
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Day 4 of October and already on SS I'm at ¼ of my total September sales. Hopefully that's an indication that things are picking up. Maybe because the writer's strike is over?
Day 5 of October and I'm on 7% of total September sales.
And yesterday was my first working day in 12 years where I didn't hit $10 ... 50 sales for $8 ... With 5,000 files, I was used to make $40-50 a day before 2020 and $25-30 a day this year.
SS is in a nosedive.
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day 5 and not only is AS 10x the $ of SS (with half as many files) but also has more total downloads
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Day 4 of October and already on SS I'm at ¼ of my total September sales. Hopefully that's an indication that things are picking up. Maybe because the writer's strike is over?
Day 5 of October and I'm on 7% of total September sales.
And yesterday was my first working day in 12 years where I didn't hit $10 ... 50 sales for $8 ... With 5,000 files, I was used to make $40-50 a day before 2020 and $25-30 a day this year.
SS is in a nosedive.
The problem is: This story will continue. Feeding the beast day by day seems to become even more neccessary.
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Bad month for me. P5 i got snake eyes. Very unusual. DP Iusually get $50-60, I got $20. SS way down. Normal is $250 and I managed $125. IS was actually up about $50 over the same month last year.
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Bad month for me. P5 i got snake eyes. Very unusual. DP Iusually get $50-60, I got $20. SS way down. Normal is $250 and I managed $125. IS was actually up about $50 over the same month last year.
My pond5 has had 1 sale in 7 weeks. Very unusual as well. My average is 200/month
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Mayday,mayday,mayday!All the agencies are in free fall!
Shutterstock is dead for photos and vectors too,perhaps the only thing that can be uploaded to SS are videos.
In the first 10 days of October 2018,when I only had around 300 photos I earned more than these first 10 days of October 2023,although now I have several thousand contents more.I have already abandoned uploading photos and vectors to SS,and I'm sorry because it was a really good agency,the only thing I didn't like was the change in the royalty structure.
Luckily there is Adobe Stock,the only one that continues to get better and better! :D
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Bad month for me. P5 i got snake eyes. Very unusual. DP Iusually get $50-60, I got $20. SS way down. Normal is $250 and I managed $125. IS was actually up about $50 over the same month last year.
My pond5 has had 1 sale in 7 weeks. Very unusual as well. My average is 200/month
Here we are half way through October and my P5 sales are still dead. Zip in September and zip in Oct so far. I typically have 8-9 sales in that 6-week span.
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So far this month, Shutterstock sales are very slow. I'm at about 50% of the volume I would normally expect.
Adobe sales are normal.
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Bad month for me. P5 i got snake eyes. Very unusual. DP Iusually get $50-60, I got $20. SS way down. Normal is $250 and I managed $125. IS was actually up about $50 over the same month last year.
My pond5 has had 1 sale in 7 weeks. Very unusual as well. My average is 200/month
Here we are half way through October and my P5 sales are still dead. Zip in September and zip in Oct so far. I typically have 8-9 sales in that 6-week span.
Any idea as to why? These guys have been my top earner since I started 8 years ago.
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So far this month, Shutterstock sales are very slow. I'm at about 50% of the volume I would normally expect.
1.2 stars
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com (https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com)
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Bad month for me. P5 i got snake eyes. Very unusual. DP Iusually get $50-60, I got $20. SS way down. Normal is $250 and I managed $125. IS was actually up about $50 over the same month last year.
My pond5 has had 1 sale in 7 weeks. Very unusual as well. My average is 200/month
Here we are half way through October and my P5 sales are still dead. Zip in September and zip in Oct so far. I typically have 8-9 sales in that 6-week span.
Good month here: 5 sales so far: 199,56$.
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Bad month for me. P5 i got snake eyes. Very unusual. DP Iusually get $50-60, I got $20. SS way down. Normal is $250 and I managed $125. IS was actually up about $50 over the same month last year.
My pond5 has had 1 sale in 7 weeks. Very unusual as well. My average is 200/month
Here we are half way through October and my P5 sales are still dead. Zip in September and zip in Oct so far. I typically have 8-9 sales in that 6-week span.
Good month here: 5 sales so far: 199,56$.
Awesome. Glad someone is doing good.
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Excellent
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September 23 was around 390 dollars, the majority from Adobe.
September 22 Adobe was 23 dollars with around 1300 files. Sept 23 it was 243 dollars with around 2800 files. For October Adobe is already 219 dollars. Christmastime.
Otherwise video is still my best earner.
Need to upload much, much more.
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My income in 2023 compared to 2022 :
Adobe Stock : + 43%
Shutterstock : + 16%
Pond5 (1) Exclusiv : - 56%
Pond5 (2) Non-Exclusiv : - 59%
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December 2023 was my best December ever, and 2023 was a good year, overall: only 2.7% worse than 2022, which is above my expectations.
Happy New Year, everybody!
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I/S Great
A/S OK
S/S Terrible.
I've been with Shutterstock over 15 years. They were great but slowly felt like I was getting screwed over. Now...hmmm, pondering if there is any future with them.
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For 2023 .....
SS - Downloads +7.53%, Revenue +55.85%
AS - Downloads +29.17%, Revenue +52.36%
But ......
On SS, I increased the size of my portfolio by 32.18%. It feels like I'm uploading a lot of content for relatively little increase in downloads.
On AS, I increased the size of my portfolio by 26.71% so increase in downloads roughly matches increase in portfolio.
Nevertheless, increase in revenue on both SS and AS is very welcome and largely down to some pretty big sales during the year.
My expectation for 2024 is that AS revenue will continue to improve while SS revenue will probably stagnate or go down a bit.
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One more graph below:
In 2023, SS was only 5 out of 12 months better than AS (the big September dip is due to the FireFly compensation and, at the same time, because of an abysmal SS performance).
December looks like an outlier. The trend in favor of AS is obvious.
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2022 vs 2023:
AS:
138% increase in downloads
35% increase in sales revenue
6% increase in portfolio size
P5:
6% decrease in downloads
23% decrease in sales revenue
3% increase in portfolio size
SS:
2% decrease in downloads
23% decrease in sales revenue
5% increase in portfolio size
Interesting that P5 and SS both had similar decrease in sales revenue.
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2023/2022
I focused on Adobe, where I only had 1300 files and did not upload for 10 years.
I added around 2300 files and my income increased over 900% year on year. Reached a weekly rank of 253 for a brief moment, now back down to 1040.
Basically from next to nothing to months with several hundred and one month over 1800 dollars with 2-3k files.
This year I want to make a big push for video. And also try to „activate“ istock with normal photos and videos.
Will still submit every day to Adobe and try to round out my port with themes that I have simply never offered.
Especially illustrations, every illustration sale is a sale I never would have had.
I really hope I can activate istock. My old port is still my largest port.
eta: now 1670...hm, need more stuff for spring
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2023/2022
I focused on Adobe, where I only had 1300 files and did not upload for 10 years.
I added around 2300 files and my income increased over 900% year on year. Reached a weekly rank of 253 for a brief moment, now back down to 1040.
Basically from next to nothing to months with several hundred and one month over 1800 dollars with 2-3k files.
This year I want to make a big push for video. And also try to „activate“ istock with normal photos and videos.
Will still submit every day to Adobe and try to round out my port with themes that I have simply never offered.
Especially illustrations, every illustration sale is a sale I never would have had.
I really hope I can activate istock. My old port is still my largest port.
eta: now 1670...hm, need more stuff for spring
8)
Congrats! Using cleverness and skill you deserve your success. Excellent job in 2024 !!!
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December 2023 was my best December ever, and 2023 was a good year, overall: only 2.7% worse than 2022, which is above my expectations.
What kind of FAA stock do you have?
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December 2023 was my best December ever, and 2023 was a good year, overall: only 2.7% worse than 2022, which is above my expectations.
What kind of FAA stock do you have?
I have about 500 photos there.
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Reached a weekly rank of 253 for a brief moment, now back down to 1040.
Basically from next to nothing to months with several hundred and one month over 1800 dollars with 2-3k files.
Did you really have this incredible increase in earnings or did I read it wrong? :o
I had read your September and October earnings on Adobe and they were good (250-300 dollars), but a far cry from $1800 in one month!
Sept 23 it was 243 dollars with around 2800 files. For October Adobe is already 219 dollars. Christmastime.
How can you increase your earnings from 250 to 1800 dollars a month in such a short time? :o
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Reached a weekly rank of 253 for a brief moment, now back down to 1040.
Basically from next to nothing to months with several hundred and one month over 1800 dollars with 2-3k files.
Did you really have this incredible increase in earnings or did I read it wrong? :o
I had read your September and October earnings on Adobe and they were good (250-300 dollars), but a far cry from $1800 in one month!
Sept 23 it was 243 dollars with around 2800 files. For October Adobe is already 219 dollars. Christmastime.
How can you increase your earnings from 250 to 1800 dollars a month in such a short time? :o
I asked myself the same question.
Okay, if there was a weekly ranking of 253 at some point last year, that's quite realistic with the $1,800 in Adobe alone in one month.
But what I don't understand is that if you were at $250 to $300 in September and October, that equates to a weekly ranking of somewhere between 6,000 and 18,000 - depending on the RPD.
I've never seen such a big difference in weekly ranking without a significant change in the size of the portfolio.
What happened in that week when the weekly ranking was 253 and what happened afterwards that it is now so far away from that again?
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istock sales for december are up and i'm pleased to report my biggest ever image sale ($52.50) helping make it by far my biggest agency for the month. adobe 2nd and a decent though underwhelming month at SS.
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40% of my port is seasonal content that only wakes up end of the year. I usually make more than half my income in the last 2-3 months.
What was unusual this time is that September, October only had a slow rise, then November went up a lot and I landed on the Adobe bestsellerlist. That seems to have boosted the port again and December I just kept on having sales until new year. Usually it all falls off middle of December. Also had a lot of additional sales of non seasonal content in December.
It was very unusual. Now I am down to a weekly rank of 3800.
An interesting experience, but I doubt I can replicate it.
I have read about other people that had an unusually good season on Adobe this year. Perhaps Adobe took on a lot of new customers end on year? Or new api deals?
The total amount for the season was more than double of what I was expecting, however it was the way it was distributed over the season that I have never seen before.
eta:
This was the first time I had (ai) illustrations. Maybe that helped a lot because it brought a different customer group to my port. Adding a lot more illustrations is a big thing on my to do list this year.
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My SS downloads are going greater and greater, strange thing is in the last year i see more and more SO sales and almost dissapeared the On Demand ones.
Today sales:
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40% of my port is seasonal content that only wakes up end of the year. I usually make more than half my income in the last 2-3 months.
What was unusual this time is that September, October only had a slow rise, then November went up a lot and I landed on the Adobe bestsellerlist. That seems to have boosted the port again and December I just kept on having sales until new year. Usually it all falls off middle of December. Also had a lot of additional sales of non seasonal content in December.
It was very unusual. Now I am down to a weekly rank of 3800.
An interesting experience, but I doubt I can replicate it.
I have read about other people that had an unusually good season on Adobe this year. Perhaps Adobe took on a lot of new customers end on year? Or new api deals?
The total amount for the season was more than double of what I was expecting, however it was the way it was distributed over the season that I have never seen before.
eta:
This was the first time I had (ai) illustrations. Maybe that helped a lot because it brought a different customer group to my port. Adding a lot more illustrations is a big thing on my to do list this year.
Thanks for the explanation, cobalt. Now it is absolutely understandable how there are such huge differences in your downloads and your ranking. This is also the case with other providers who specialize in seasonal products.
But: $1,800 in one month only at AS is really strong! Congratulations!
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My SS downloads are going greater and greater, strange thing is in the last year i see more and more SO sales and almost dissapeared the On Demand ones.
Today sales:
This can also be read from many other contributors. It's the same for me. There are now also more SODs than subscriptions. But they are often SODs for minimal amounts - many for $0.10. I preferred the old days when there were few SODs, but they usually brought a lot of money.
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@Wilm
Thank you :)
It is certainly very motivating to upload to Adobe. Longterm my goal is to have this as a steady base income over the whole year. Probably needs 30k files to be reliable.
The sales also carried me over 6000 downloads, so I should be eligible for the full creative suit, which would be fantastic.
Like I said the main focus this year will be video. I will still do ai, especially illustrations, and also take up normal photos again, but video is where I believe are the biggest gaps in all collections.
-----
My last year video income. I didn‘t really add content, so this is the result for basically doing nothing.
.pond5 1046 clips - 246 dollars
Adobe 243 mostly really old clips - 266 dollars
Blackboxglobal 505 files - 555 dollars
A few others with 20 dollars
---
Goals for 2024
I hope I can upload 1500 clips in total this year. More would be great, perhaps I can optimize my video workflow this year.
Overall the goal for 2024 is
- another 1500 ai photos/illus
- 1000 normal photos, maybe including eyeem iphone content if they wake up again
- 1500 videos
That would be around 4000 files accepted.
Not sure if I can actually make that.
Last year it was around 2800 files (over all content types and agencies)
But also spent a lot of time learning how to prompt.
And of course: quality over quantity.
30-40% of my time is just research, looking either for what is missing or how can I recreate generic content with a few details that makes them new. Ideallx new over all agencies.
Not always possible of course, some basic things, backgrounds flowers hearts, will be everywhere.
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Do you submit your ai illustrations in Jpeg format or EPS?
@Wilm
Thank you :)
It is certainly very motivating to upload to Adobe. Longterm my goal is to have this as a steady base income over the whole year. Probably needs 30k files to be reliable.
The sales also carried me over 6000 downloads, so I should be eligible for the full creative suit, which would be fantastic.
Like I said the main focus this year will be video. I will still do ai, especially illustrations, and also take up normal photos again, but video is where I believe are the biggest gaps in all collections.
My last year video income. I didn‘t really add content, so this is the result for basically doing nothing.
.pond5 1046 clips - 246 dollars
Adobe 243 mostly really old clips - 266 dollars
Blackboxglobal 505 files - 555 dollars
A few others with 20 dollars
I hope I can upload 1500 clips in total this year. More would be great, perhaps I can optimize my video workflow this year.
Overall the goal for 2024 is - another 1500 photos/illus
1000 normal photos, maybe including eyeem iphone content if they wake up again
1500 videos
That would be 4000 files accepted.
Not sure if I can actually make that.
Last year it was around 2800 files (over all content types and agencies)
But also spent a lot of time learning how to prompt.
And of course: quality over quantity.
30-40% of my time is just research, looking either for what is missing or how can I recreate generic content with a few details that makes them new. Ideallx new over all agencies.
Not always possible of course, some basic things, backgrounds flowers hearts, will be everywhere.
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jps, they are ai creations
One day i would like to learn how to make my own from scratch.
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The reason I asked was because adobe illustrator can easily convert them to vectors.
But, last I knew they didn't allow ai vector uploads. Wanted to find out if that policy have changed.
jps, they are ai creations
One day i would like to learn how to make my own from scratch.
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But, last I knew they didn't allow ai vector uploads. Wanted to find out if that policy have changed.
Yes, that policy has changed, and AI vectors are allowed, but they need to adhere to Adobe Stock's vector guidelines.
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40% of my port is seasonal content that only wakes up end of the year. I usually make more than half my income in the last 2-3 months.
What was unusual this time is that September, October only had a slow rise, then November went up a lot and I landed on the Adobe bestsellerlist. That seems to have boosted the port again and December I just kept on having sales until new year. Usually it all falls off middle of December. Also had a lot of additional sales of non seasonal content in December.
It was very unusual. Now I am down to a weekly rank of 3800.
Thanks so much cobalt for the explanation. In fact it is truly incredible to have these differences!
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My SS downloads are going greater and greater, strange thing is in the last year i see more and more SO sales and almost dissapeared the On Demand ones.
Today sales:
This can also be read from many other contributors. It's the same for me. There are now also more SODs than subscriptions. But they are often SODs for minimal amounts - many for $0.10. I preferred the old days when there were few SODs, but they usually brought a lot of money.
Monday 12 SOs, all of then 10¢ each for a whole, whopping, $1.20 :(
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Thanks so much cobalt for the explanation. In fact it is truly incredible to have these differences!
I was quietly hoping that my port would remain higher longer, once it reached such a high position.
But that didn't happen. Within 20 days I dropped from 253, down to 4280. Now bouncing around 4200-3600.
On the other hand, if you have something useful a port can move up very, very fast.
That the system is so dynamic is a great bonus and very motivating.
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It was a surprisingly good January, despite the SS reset.
AS compensated for everything and more.
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Zero Talent, do you upload videos to 123rf via FTP?
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Indeed AS was great in January. Best month on AS since 2018 (not counting the AI bonus from September 2023) :)
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January was my BME on AS, mainly Ai images + average video sales.
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Zero Talent, do you upload videos to 123rf via FTP?
I use Stocksubmitter, not FTP, but I stopped uploading videos to 123RF long ago.
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Highlights for my month:
- 3 book covers at Arcangel
- 3 decent clip sales at Pond5
- AS beat SS for first-time ever for me
Lowlights:
- Record low average RPD at SS
- Many images licensed by major publications where I earned <$10/each
Link to the full earnings and news report including YT version:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2024/01/31/january-2024-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
Alex
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Indeed AS was great in January. Best month on AS since 2018 (not counting the AI bonus from September 2023) :)
Is there a way for a contributor to see what the exact amount of the "AI Bonus" was?
Never mind, figured it out!
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AS appreciably better than January 2023
- Download +88%
- Revenue +107%
SS marginally better than January 2023 for downloads but better for revenue
- Download +3.6%
- Revenue +57%
SS still better than AS for revenue but AS is catching up fast.
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Below average February for me:
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12% less than Jamuary 24, 31% more than Feb 23.
I am disappointed
istock and a few smaller ones are still missing, but it won't change much.
Adobe was by far the strongest agency, but they are also the place that gets the most uploads.
Trying to process more videos for BB and pond5, hope that can help with diversification.
I am quite frustrated with spring/easter results. Although I can find my files in often very good search positions, sales are very slow. I mean I have daily sales for the genre but it is much less than I was expecting.
Will try to upload more non seasonal content to get more balance.
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"Not great, not terrible..."
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2024/02/29/february-2024-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
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"Not great, not terrible..."
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2024/02/29/february-2024-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
thanks for sharing, this is useful. appreciate seeing the best sellers and the shots you have in the archangel slideshow are terrific.
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February 2024
AS - 38.1%
SS - 37.4%
Alamy - 16.7%
Wirestock - 6.0%
DS + DT + BS - The rest (negligible)
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I had my best February ever overall which would be expected when you've uploaded some 1200 additional videos over the year. But it's mixed results as below.
February 2023 vs February 2024 Earnings
These percentages proudly brought to you by Calculator Soup :D
https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/percent-change-calculator.php (https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/percent-change-calculator.php)
- Shutterstock = 37.7072% decrease
- Pond5 = 41.5312% decrease
- iStock = 9.16212% increase
- Adobe Stock = 321.93% increase
- Combined Agencies = 10.2993% increase
Clearly Adobe Stock is excelling while others waver or decline. Was only a year ago when I was struggling to get Adobe to perform well against other agencies and now it has come so far.
Overall achieved my satisfactory monthly earnings in February 2024 - the first since November 2023. Hoping to see Shutterstock and Pond5 pick up again.