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Author Topic: Shutterstock video sales getting worse every months now.  (Read 19514 times)

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« Reply #25 on: June 11, 2019, 03:03 »
0
...not fixed for me. They go up or down $50, $100, $200.

It's funny how many posts about bad sales we're getting when sales are fixed. ;) You'd think all months would be the same then, i.e., no bad sales.

I don't say anything about your sales or anyone elses  ::)

Read what I said about MY sales.  Within $1 per month for the last 5 months

Yes, I don't doubt YOUR sales were like that. But why did they choose to fix YOUR sales?

How many images do you have? It's quite natural that the demand for certain content stays consistent.

Travel to London isn't 1 million people one month, 25,000 the next, 4 million the month after that. No, it stays quite consistent, with gradual change over time.


« Reply #26 on: June 11, 2019, 04:29 »
+3
And they claim sales aren't fixed ~ yeah right  ::)

This happened to me recently in a period of 3 or 4 weeks. Can someone explain?

- Three consecutive Mondays with the exact same number of sales.

- Followed by three consecutive Tuesdays with the exact same of downloads.

- And two similar and consecutive Wednesdays.

- And two Thursdays with the difference of a single download. But the following two Fridays were equal but higher.

- And two consecutive Fridays with same number of downloads. But the previous Friday was equal to the following two Fridays. Which means that in five weeks I could count two variations of daily downloads. So I can add a new pattern here.

- The weekend was more irregular but always is.

Could this be a coincidence? Really?

So, in this period I can say that the number of downloads I had were the number of downloads I was allowed to have. If I want to be positive I may say that this allowed me to have those sales, otherwise I could have less.

I understand that we may have roughly the same downloads per week based on our portfolio. But that number being achieved by having consecutive weeks almost xeroxed days from the previous week?

One thing no one can convince me at this time. That the downloads we have are not controlled by Shutterstock.

« Reply #27 on: June 11, 2019, 04:43 »
+1
And they claim sales aren't fixed ~ yeah right  ::)

This happened to me recently in a period of 3 or 4 weeks. Can someone explain?

Well, first we need to know how many downloads we're talking about. Single digit? 3, 4? Double digit? 44, 45? Triple digit? More?

When the average person goes grocery shopping every Monday, they might buy two cartons of milk and one pack of eggs. They don't suddenly buy 5 cartons of milk and 4 cartons of eggs. No, it stays the same. And, on average, this is true for the entire population. And then we see a change over certain holidays like Christmas, or if they're having people over, but then the guests would probably buy a bit less since they didn't have to cook that night.

This is why the store roughly sells the same amount of milk and eggs every week. And not 1,000 cartons one week, and 23 the next. Unless it's Easter, but that's reflected in image sales as well.

---

I'm not saying it's IMPOSSIBLE that they shift around the search results based on previous sales (although that would be quite stupid, since it would be better to reward high sellers), but also that wild swings as well as even sales are both normal.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2019, 04:51 by increasingdifficulty »

« Reply #28 on: June 11, 2019, 04:59 »
+5
The numbers I'm referring are NOT single digits.

And it does not matter if they are single, double, triple or whatever. I believe it's impossible to have consecutive Mondays, followed by consecutive Tuesdays and so on with the exact same number of sales each day for weeks.

Plus, I just took a look at the three Mondays sales and they are completely diverse.

One has more seasonal images and almost all subscriptions. Other has a lot of travel and all subscriptions and the third basically religions themed with a lot of OD and SO.

Sorry, but I do not believe this is due to season, portfolio, demand, etc. The exact same downloads each day for weeks with very diverse themes sold? LOL

Comparing the needs of tenths of thousands buyers across the world with the need of a single person regarding supermarket needs is non-sense.

I've been with SS for over a decade and this is really strange to me.

« Reply #29 on: June 11, 2019, 05:08 »
0
And it does not matter if they are single, double, triple or whatever.

Oh, it doesn't? Well, that tells me everything I need to know... (hint, it matters one heck of a lot).

Comparing the needs of tenths of thousands buyers across the world with the need of a single person regarding supermarket needs is non-sense.

Not at all. And if you read the post the habits of one person (but maybe instead of milk, the next likes tomatoes) stretches out to the entire population, which is why a store doesn't sell 1,000 cartons one week, and 23 the next.

And they always, every week, sell more candy on Saturdays than on Mondays. Coincidence?

georgep7

« Reply #30 on: June 11, 2019, 06:01 »
0
Quote
with a lot of OD and SO.

Sorry for the offtopic, but what is OD and SO mean?

« Reply #31 on: June 11, 2019, 06:05 »
+2
And it does not matter if they are single, double, triple or whatever.

Oh, it doesn't? Well, that tells me everything I need to know... (hint, it matters one heck of a lot).

Comparing the needs of tenths of thousands buyers across the world with the need of a single person regarding supermarket needs is non-sense.

Not at all. And if you read the post the habits of one person (but maybe instead of milk, the next likes tomatoes) stretches out to the entire population, which is why a store doesn't sell 1,000 cartons one week, and 23 the next.

And they always, every week, sell more candy on Saturdays than on Mondays. Coincidence?

Listen, I'm on the Microstock, Mid and Macrostock business for almost 15 years and have a portfolio just under 20.000 images across several agencies. I've told you that my sales are NOT single digits and I live solely from Stock income.

I have a lot of images on the first page of competitive themes, and I've been featured on SS lightboxes a lot of times.

I'm not someone with 100 mediocre images that produce 100 more, doubling the portfolio which impacts clearly the earnings and with luck strikes one good image creating continuous BME's (I've been there). Contributors earning 0,25c and being promoted by SS to avoid paying 0,38c to older members earning them more money.

Your supermarket comparison is non-sense from the point of view of a contributor.

I just told you that my sales from the several Mondays were very different in terms of themes each week. From your logic they should be somewhat the same in terms of themes. After all people always buy the same amount of milk and eggs each week, right? They are not buying the sames images to me except the ones that are best sellers. Not only in terms of themes but varied greatly in terms of subscriptions vs OS and SO.

You cannot say that having the same number of sales on a weekday for several weeks is normal. Even more when that happens to whole weeks for several weeks! You just can't!
« Last Edit: June 11, 2019, 06:07 by MicroVet »

« Reply #32 on: June 11, 2019, 06:06 »
+1
Quote
with a lot of OD and SO.

Sorry for the offtopic, but what is OD and SO mean?

"On Demand" and "Single & Other"

dpimborough

« Reply #33 on: June 11, 2019, 06:34 »
+1
...not fixed for me. They go up or down $50, $100, $200.

It's funny how many posts about bad sales we're getting when sales are fixed. ;) You'd think all months would be the same then, i.e., no bad sales.

I don't say anything about your sales or anyone elses  ::)

Read what I said about MY sales.  Within $1 per month for the last 5 months

Yes, I don't doubt YOUR sales were like that. But why did they choose to fix YOUR sales?

How many images do you have? It's quite natural that the demand for certain content stays consistent.

Travel to London isn't 1 million people one month, 25,000 the next, 4 million the month after that. No, it stays quite consistent, with gradual change over time.

"Yes, I don't doubt YOUR sales were like that. But why did they choose to fix YOUR sales?"

There are others who have also reported similar none variations.

3,100 images of a varied set of subjects including editorial, food, travel, industrial and historical.

No ducks, flowers and other common stuff.

Statistically the likelihood of hitting the same values every month for 6 months are negligible.

I should add the annual figures (over 4 years) are all within a spit of eachother too at a $50 variance over $x,xxx



« Last Edit: June 11, 2019, 06:36 by Sammy the Cat »

« Reply #34 on: June 11, 2019, 09:21 »
+7
I have been with Shutterstock for seven years. I have a lot of experience with them and my Shutterstock earnings have passed $220K.

I firmly believe that Shutterstock does manipulate my earnings by turning my port on and off. Either that or at certain times of the month my port is moved to a very low position in the search results.

Everyday I have several video sales on Pond5 and at least one on Adobe. So far this month I have had 3 sales on Shutterstock. Today is the 11th of the month and my port is earning again. I believe my port was off/low search for the first 10 days this month.

It never used to be this way but now they definitely control my earnings. They have decided how much to allow me to earn.

« Reply #35 on: June 11, 2019, 10:34 »
+5
I`m glad that older and established contributors are willing to participate here... this is not conspiracy, It`s happening, obviously...

« Reply #36 on: June 11, 2019, 11:10 »
+1
I don't know much about video sales since they are very rare for me, but photo sales have been sad for a while and are pretty lame this month. I also notched up my first 0 sales weekday yesterday.  I've had a few 0 sales days on weekends in the last few years and in my first months, but not on a weekday. Maybe not ever since I got my first 7 accepted, certainly not since I had more than 20 or so accepted.

jonbull

    This user is banned.
« Reply #37 on: June 11, 2019, 13:25 »
+4
it's clear that ss control in a way the engine and the position of each contributor...the pattern of sales are always the same despite the growing content library. and in my case is not 5 months its'3 years...the line is practically the same every year, in the first 6 month thee difference compared to last year is something like 20 dollar and i'm talking of 4 digit sum, more than 5000 to understand....in addiction seems like every month the path is to reach a sum, often with some sod at the end of month.
now in the last 5 days i'm down 80% daly, after midweek zero sales. only best seller sells , everything else is non existent. personally i0ve stopped any download to ss. i prefer risk to sell nothing in stocksy, through addictive stock, and cavan images, than upload content of good to very quality to an agency with zero quality control and a search engine that simply can bury your folio in a bit,like happened since 4 june.
clearly we don't have the proof, and i think is very hard to find,because i think if therewereofficial sign that they control sales this could be a complete break of contract and potentially any contributor could sue the for damages and lost earning.

jonbull

    This user is banned.
« Reply #38 on: June 11, 2019, 13:29 »
+4
in addiction think of this...they are not growing..every quarter the growth is becoming a negative loss compared the past quarter...how can they achieve better financial results with a falling market? one key is sells images of low end contributor paying 25 cent compared to 38 cent...it's near 50 & less royalty and if we consider million of download we begin understand that we are talking off a giant sum of money, not  thousand buck...that's why they have lost any interest in quality control and accept everyday thousand of contributor who don't have a clue of what they are selling

« Reply #39 on: June 11, 2019, 17:04 »
0
It's half the Adobestock video sales this month now.  1/3 the Pond5's video sales probably.  Since they started promoting their own contents under the Eighth Wonder name, our contents got pushed back on searches and sales started to fall drastically.  I have no hope on Shutterstock at this point to be honest.  Pond5 and Adobestock are our future.  Shutterstock's business model now is to create own contents by imitating top selling contents and keep 100% of sales to themselves.  This week's sale at Shutterstock is like 1/5 of last year's peak.  Horrible.

Maybe you are just shooting the same stuff.

dpimborough

« Reply #40 on: June 12, 2019, 02:48 »
+1
It's half the Adobestock video sales this month now.  1/3 the Pond5's video sales probably.  Since they started promoting their own contents under the Eighth Wonder name, our contents got pushed back on searches and sales started to fall drastically.  I have no hope on Shutterstock at this point to be honest.  Pond5 and Adobestock are our future.  Shutterstock's business model now is to create own contents by imitating top selling contents and keep 100% of sales to themselves.  This week's sale at Shutterstock is like 1/5 of last year's peak.  Horrible.

Maybe you are just shooting the same stuff.

Maybe you should read what helloitsme wrote.


Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #41 on: June 12, 2019, 13:29 »
0
It's half the Adobestock video sales this month now.  1/3 the Pond5's video sales probably.  Since they started promoting their own contents under the Eighth Wonder name, our contents got pushed back on searches and sales started to fall drastically.  I have no hope on Shutterstock at this point to be honest.  Pond5 and Adobestock are our future.  Shutterstock's business model now is to create own contents by imitating top selling contents and keep 100% of sales to themselves.  This week's sale at Shutterstock is like 1/5 of last year's peak.  Horrible.

Maybe you are just shooting the same stuff.

Maybe you should read what helloitsme wrote.

Well I did and most of the thread is contradictions, saying sales are dropping, sales are steady and sales are rigged, fixed or as it's been called before "capped".

But the OP wrote: Shutterstock's business model now is to create own contents by imitating top selling contents and keep 100% of sales to themselves.

Now the whole subject has been hijacked by the usual conspiracy theories.

So I'll try to get back to the question, what portfolios are SS owned, content that copies and imitates artists, so SS can keep 100% instead of paying us.

Do I dare ask, if they are stealing our sales, how can so many people be paid, exactly the same for months and months or over years. From what I read, nearly everyone is losing income and sales, not running flat. The people with fixed income must be special and get special treatment that the rest of us don't. Because year after year, sales and income has been dropping, since 2012?  :o

Running flat would be a prize and I'd like the same income that's reliable, month after month. How do I get on the fixed income train?

« Reply #42 on: June 12, 2019, 13:49 »
0
Quote from: Sammy the Cat
Read what I said about MY sales.  Within $1 per month for the last 5 months

I say total coincidence and no conspiracies.  This is my 12-month trend:  Full of ups and downs.

« Reply #43 on: June 12, 2019, 14:05 »
0
My sales have been going up every year, so no conspiracy for me either, I'm not following the trend.

Now looking at the pattern of my sales over each years, there's always been a drop between March and June, followed by an increase from July to November. So my guess is that bigger sales will make their come back in July and over the summer.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #44 on: June 12, 2019, 21:26 »
0
Mines even more uppy-downy! If there is a cap then it fluctuates wildly!


dpimborough

« Reply #45 on: June 13, 2019, 03:25 »
+1
Mines even more uppy-downy! If there is a cap then it fluctuates wildly!

Images yes  ~ Not for video :D

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #46 on: June 13, 2019, 05:13 »
+1
Mines even more uppy-downy! If there is a cap then it fluctuates wildly!

Images yes  ~ Not for video :D

Yeah I mean it just wouldn't make sense for there to be a cap on video earnings. But images... it's perfectly clear why they cap them and not video.

« Reply #47 on: June 14, 2019, 02:01 »
+4
I never understood why people here gets so heated up about the "cap" theory.
SS has by far the most sophisticated algorithm of all agencies.
They aim to make as many contributors happy (not having just a handful making huge gains, but spreading the gain a bit more), they push people to upload regularly (if you don't upload for a few weeks your sales go down), and they punish people spamming, or uploading too many similar clips (in my experience the ratio between clips in portfolio to sales is very important). Also they rotate the files in a way that customers don't find always the same images in their searches.
It does make perfectly sense to me.
I do only video, SS is my best agency by country miles (it makes more than all other combined) and last month was my BME at SS.

I must admit that IN MY PORTFOLIO, I noticed several points of behavior underlined by people in the "cap" theory camp:
- Sometimes a month starts very well and by the middle of the month I get almost to my average gain, then my sales stop completely for the next two weeks
- Other times the months starts incredibly poorly, but I do not worry because in the last days I get extremely high priced sales and I end up around my average
- Without any doubt there are weeks where only one of my files sells, always the same one (but can still be a decent week because the same file sells a lot), other weeks where all my files sell, old or new ones
- If I upload regularly and my ratio of sales per clip remains good, every seven or eight months my average income goes up by a decent step (I get a pay rise)

This happens for my portfolio, because of my geographical location, because of the time when I started contributing, because of the kind of clips I do.
For other portfolios it might be totally different.
I still do not understand why people must get so heated up and mistrust what other people say.
And anyway, I am very happy that SS algorithm has a cap system

« Reply #48 on: June 14, 2019, 09:54 »
+3
Mines even more uppy-downy! If there is a cap then it fluctuates wildly!

Images yes  ~ Not for video :D

Yeah I mean it just wouldn't make sense for there to be a cap on video earnings. But images... it's perfectly clear why they cap them and not video.

Yes it's clear for the most of us, but Brightontl is "very happy that SS algorithm has a cap system" because his video portfolio probably is not capped.
Brightontl, SS don't need to cap video because they pay all contributors 30%. But if you do images there's a very big % difference between the contributor levels and they want to keep these money for themselves.
And I'm sure they don't try to make contributors happy. Because how to be happy if I work harder and harder, to produce more and more, better and better images and they artificially stopped my progress and even don't care if my income falls from $3000 to $700!
That's why many "people here gets so heated up about the "cap" theory"!!! Capisce?

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #49 on: June 14, 2019, 12:59 »
+1
Oh I think everyone understands why someone be upset if there was a cap in place... that's not the issue. I think everyone just doesn't understand why so many people think there's a cap in place without any evidence to support the theory. And having similar sales on a monthly basis doesn't really constitute evidence. These caps and whatever other theorys are doing the rounds at the time... they always just feel a little bit like:

"ok, my sales aren't what they used to be and/or aren't what I feel they should be. Who is to blame for this? I have no idea... so I should invent some kind of theory that would explain it, even if there's no evidence to support that theory. Great, now I have something/someone to blame and can sleep better and night." 


 

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