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For people who upload mostly video, but also some photos

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Brightontl:

--- Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on October 03, 2017, 20:21 ---
--- Quote from: Brightontl on October 03, 2017, 14:23 ---But this is not all. Even more than this is the pattern within the month that made me think about a cap at first: as an example, three days ago, the last day of September, I was way below my allocated monthly income and quite surprised about it, but I knew something would happen. In fact that day I had my BDE with a deluge of high priced sales and I finished the month exactly where I expected.

--- End quote ---

I'm not sure if you're joking... but just in case. Any cap would serve one of three purposes. To make you more money than you would if there was no cap. To make you the same money as you would if there was no cap. Or or make you less money than you would if there was no cap.

If it's to make you the same money, then there's no point in having a cap... so we'll say it's not that. If it;s to make you more money than you would if there wasn't a cap, then that means SS are paying out more money than they are bringing in. The odds of them wanting to do that are minimal... so we'll say it's not that.

What we're left with, is a cap that makes you less money than you would if there wasn't one. If so, why would you be miraculously pushed a bunch of 'fake sales' on the last day of the month to increase your current earnings? A cap that means you earn a certain amount every month isn't really a 'cap', it's more of a base amount or a minimal earnings amount. And if they're not fake sales then they're probably real sales... sales that you would have got whether there was a cap or not.

But still, I'm very curious... taking into account what your sales look like now, with the cap, what would your sales look like if there wasn't a cap? Do all sites have this cap? If not, how do your sales figures look at other sites compared to SS? Is there some kind of visual indicator when looking at your sales figures that makes it clear there is a cap at SS and not elsewhere?

--- End quote ---
I said that a better word instead of "cap" is "monthly allotted income".
I am not talking about fakes sales at SS, rather about a sort of tap that is turned sometimes on and sometimes off. Bear in mind that this may also be beneficial for me: when my tap is on and I get plenty of sales it is also because someone else's is turned off at the moment.

The behaviour of Fotolia is very similar to SS: I get the same income at the end of each month for 5-6 months in a raw, then I go a step up in earnings (5-10% more) and then again 5-6 months at the same levels.
SS and Fotolia are certainly the most sophisticated search engines.

P5 sales are much more erratic (loads of up and down from month to month), sales are not concentrated in a few files (like SS and FT), but much more spread around. Files start to sell after a very long time (at least one year) and the files that are sold are generally ones that I consider good ones. In other words P5 behavior seems to be the most "natural" one.

VB (now SB): I had 4 sales the first month I joined (welcome aboard package), with about 50 files, then for 2 years I had 2 sales per month, every single month (with a portfolio growing to almost 3,000 files). Never sold the same file twice there and the quality of files selling there are the bottom of the barrel: if I uploaded a totally black clip it would probably sell there. This September sales went totally crazy and I sold a huge amount, but I fear that it is another welcome aboard after re branding.

The reasons beyond sales control are very widely used on the web and are extremely important in SEO (notably Google and YT search engine) and they have been endlessly discussed by SEO specialists.
Two of the main point in agencies search engines are: 1) avoiding to present constantly the same content to customers - 2) having as many contributors happy (so that they keep bringing fresh content).

Finally, the last thing in the world I am interested in is that you or anybody else in this forum believe in what I am saying. Really I could not care less.
The only reason why I am discussing this kind of thing is because I want to detect patterns in the search engine in order to organise my work accordingly. Already in this thread I have detected a couple of interesting patterns.

Trying to win endless arguments or personal fights in this forum does not bring me any money, so I leave it to others

increasingdifficulty:

--- Quote from: Brightontl on October 04, 2017, 03:40 ---I said that a better word instead of "cap" is "monthly allotted income".
I am not talking about fakes sales at SS, rather about a sort of tap that is turned sometimes on and sometimes off. Bear in mind that this may also be beneficial for me: when my tap is on and I get plenty of sales it is also because someone else's is turned off at the moment.

The behaviour of Fotolia is very similar to SS: I get the same income at the end of each month for 5-6 months in a raw, then I go a step up in earnings (5-10% more) and then again 5-6 months at the same levels.
SS and Fotolia are certainly the most sophisticated search engines.
--- End quote ---
No, they're not.

And the tap you're describing is called natural variance. Buyers are PEOPLE. There are people with projects and ideas behind the computer screens buying clips. Not robots looking to reach the exact quota of field aerials every week. People don't do the exact same things every day, but over a longer period of time, with enough people, behaviors average out.


--- Quote from: Brightontl on October 04, 2017, 03:40 ---P5 sales are much more erratic (loads of up and down from month to month), sales are not concentrated in a few files (like SS and FT), but much more spread around. Files start to sell after a very long time (at least one year) and the files that are sold are generally ones that I consider good ones. In other words P5 behavior seems to be the most "natural" one.
--- End quote ---

Why is that natural?


--- Quote from: Brightontl on October 04, 2017, 03:40 ---VB (now SB): I had 4 sales the first month I joined (welcome aboard package), with about 50 files, then for 2 years I had 2 sales per month, every single month (with a portfolio growing to almost 3,000 files). Never sold the same file twice there and the quality of files selling there are the bottom of the barrel: if I uploaded a totally black clip it would probably sell there. This September sales went totally crazy and I sold a huge amount, but I fear that it is another welcome aboard after re branding.
--- End quote ---

Yes, makes perfect sense. You don't think it could have anything to do with INCREASED marketing since they rebranded? Use LOGIC.



--- Quote from: Brightontl on October 04, 2017, 03:40 ---Two of the main point in agencies search engines are: 1) avoiding to present constantly the same content to customers - 2) having as many contributors happy (so that they keep bringing fresh content).
--- End quote ---

I think you are wrong on both points. The point of the search engines is to present the content that a buyer is most likely to buy, so they don't go a competing site.

What do you think makes the most sense to a business (not a communist business)? To give a little to everyone (and intentionally upset good content producers), or to make the GOOD, STRONG sellers happy so they continue to invest money and time into producing quality content? I believe in option number 2, which makes capping sales a very counterproductive idea.

I would suggest you do this:

List a number of common searches (like London, timelapse, new york, smile, happy people, etc. etc.).

Search for them every day using 2-3 different browsers, logged in, and logged out. And you can use a VPN to change your IP address.

Screenshot the search results every day for a month.

Come back with the results.

Here's a hint: the clips I have that are popular show up at the same spot (more or less) no matter what browser, what IP, what part of the month, or the year, I test the search. And guess what, when they have enough sales, they move UP. Not down. ALL microstock search engines reward recency and sales.

If your theory was valid, they would be hidden sometimes. By the way, all microstock engines are MUCH, MUCH more primitive than Google/YouTube. I can assure you that.

increasingdifficulty:
By the way, the default sorting option is Popular in the Shutterstock search engine, making it even less likely that some results are removed when they reach a certain number of sales...

silveandalu:
Hello everybody, I read this topic with interest because I am a video contributtor , but I also started to upload some pics (basically frames of my 4K videos), and I was worried when I read all this thing that some people say about to get down the video sales if you uplad pics... But then there are other people that say that it isnt a math thing, that sometimes the sales down other ups, but is not because images... And that for them the sales doesnt affected by the uploading pics...

I would like to ask if you still thinking that the uploading images is  bad for videos? please with facts and stats... Thanks!!

ccbcc:
So if it's almost the end of the month, and you reached your cap, people can't buy your footage anymore?
Are your files moved a few pages down in the search results? Or do they disappear completely?
Have you tried buying your own footage at the end of the month, to see what happens?

From my point of view, this cap does not exist.

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