Quote from: farbled on October 02, 2018, 21:39

Quote from: Uncle Pete on October 01, 2018, 14:10

Quote from: PZF on October 01, 2018, 14:02
Definitely not a cap for me. Just wondering if there is a floor.....

My question is how do they set the earnings range for each of us and why are they so different from person to person? (yes as Farbled says cap suggests only a limit) And this is just a question because my earnings are flat, but not within a dollar a month as some say, or the same every day.

For me, it's pretty much the top ten sell over and over, nearly daily, but for certain numbers of times a month, then the rest, seem to sell on a as needed basis by subject or buyer needs. How would an earnings range control the specific downloads?

Good questions for someone who works there. As it is, I only have my end result and no way to find out. I wouldn't even try speculating how its possible or what statistical anomaly is affecting me and a few others.

Well I want them to update my quota to a higher number! 

As you know, I don't doubt what you see and someone else saw their earnings drop in half suddenly one January, I think it was 2016, and those numbers haven't returned.

My sales fluctuate up or down from whatever normal might be, I'll just use my average month, the seasonal I can understand. But I don't have the same as some people report, same day after day or nearly identical totals month by month. I have better than average months and average months. The lower, below average are usually during the seasonal times. Nothing that I would call unexpected.

I don't track day by day, because they are so variable. Yes I look and I see during the month and no change, Saturday is my worst day. Has been for years.

Sept. this year was the worst since 2014. Oct. is ahead of the past four years. My downloads and income is quite variable.

Again, the exact amount of sales and revenue again. Patheticly predictable and restricting. I loath what SS has become.

At September 2018 - 600 downloads per mounts , 2017 - over 700, 2016- over 1200, 2015 - over 1200, 2014 - over 1700, 2013 - over 2100.
Yes, it's stable. :-(
Hardly to have some sales in US.

Well, the third week of September was great for me, but my cap must be high enough that it didn't impact the fourth week...

Steve

No!  There are ups and downs with some good days that seem encouraging, but overall my earnings each month are less that half of what they were for the same month in 2016... despite adding over 5000 good images to my portfolio during that time.  Overall my portfolio is earning less than it did in 2010 and is almost back to 2007 levels.

Every action I have seen on the part of Shutterstock only makes this problem worse.  Things such as cutting our extended license fees, cutting video rates to as low as $1.50, aggressively recruiting inexperienced photographers in volume (I just read another public relations article put out by SS on how you can become a millionaire shooting for them) and burying good professional work under crap.

They are also irritating buyers.  I saw a complaint forum that had hundreds of complaints against SS in how their accounts were being handled.  Working the their Empire State Building offices seems no picnic either.  On Glassdoor SS employees don't have very kind things to say.

SS seems to respond to every problem they have by doing more of what created them in the first place,

Quote from: Herg on September 24, 2018, 13:45

Quote from: derek on September 24, 2018, 10:42

Quote from: Herg on September 24, 2018, 08:53
Terrible, abysmal etc etc etc. Ss is run by Muppets.

Better work harsmarter like the expert in the forums. Who is Barry btw ?

I dont know if true or not so dont quote me on it!  but I personally know somebody who worked there since the very start ( not now though) well something drastic must have happened because they have got rid of all people associated with oringer?? and replaced them with a cheap younger Admin team not even getting half the wages as the prior! hence no experience what so ever!...true or not?
This could explain a lot!  some years back Getty had Internal politics problems and for a couple of years nothing worked as it should everything went downhill. They finally got new staff admin etc and slowly things got back to normal, only seems the damage was done they lost some really famous photographers and buyers. I dont think many here remember that since it was around 2010.

Trouble is once this starts within a corp it might hold for a year or two but sooner or later the downhill starts it might not have an effect on sales in the beginning its enough with bad investments etc, etc!

Look at IStock some years back it was enough that loads of members complained giving a terrible picture in public forums and the word went around! and Istock nearly crashed!

And looking at the work, nothing special to brag about in my opinion.

This could explain some things, such as a review on Glassdoor I saw on what it was like to work in the corp offices.  It is common for a company that has gone public to have a power play brought on by the stockholders and push the management that built the company out to squeeze higher profits, usually to the demise of the company.  Ii was never thrilled with Shutterstock's business methods, but it has grown steadily worse since they went public and particularly in the last couple years. 

Still utterly tragic. A huge over a cliff fall off since April that never recover3d, only October is MUCH WORSE than September so far.

And still the doors are wide open for inexperienced amateur tripe to flood the place, and they have the audacity to whine in the forums asking why their 20 images haven't sold

DEPRESSING.

Quote from: Herg on October 06, 2018, 23:51
And still the doors are wide open for inexperienced amateur tripe to flood the place, and they have the audacity to whine in the forums asking why their 20 images haven't sold

Is 20 images "flooding the place"?
If they ask for advice when they only have 20 images, and if they take the advice, they could go on to do well. We all had to start somewhere. (That's a general observation, not specific to SS)

Quote from: ShadySue on October 06, 2018, 23:55

Quote from: Herg on October 06, 2018, 23:51
And still the doors are wide open for inexperienced amateur tripe to flood the place, and they have the audacity to whine in the forums asking why their 20 images haven't sold

Is 20 images "flooding the place"?
If they ask for advice when they only have 20 images, and if they take the advice, they could go on to do well. We all had to start somewhere. (That's a general observation, not specific to SS)

Of course, we all did BUT my problem is with SS suddenly lowering the bar. It's like letting peo0le enter university that didn't pass their exams. And add all those small ports together and we have millions of images.  A few years ago they had standards and it took me about 3 or 4 attempts to get n with my best images.

Quote from: Herg on October 07, 2018, 00:15

Quote from: ShadySue on October 06, 2018, 23:55

Quote from: Herg on October 06, 2018, 23:51
And still the doors are wide open for inexperienced amateur tripe to flood the place, and they have the audacity to whine in the forums asking why their 20 images haven't sold

Is 20 images "flooding the place"?
If they ask for advice when they only have 20 images, and if they take the advice, they could go on to do well. We all had to start somewhere. (That's a general observation, not specific to SS)

Of course, we all did BUT my problem is with SS suddenly lowering the bar. It's like letting peo0le enter university that didn't pass their exams. And add all those small ports together and we have millions of images.  A few years ago they had standards and it took me about 3 or 4 attempts to get n with my best images.

Seems like many damaging things iS do, SS want to copy. And to some extent, vice versa.

Quote from: Herg on October 07, 2018, 00:15

Quote from: ShadySue on October 06, 2018, 23:55

Quote from: Herg on October 06, 2018, 23:51
And still the doors are wide open for inexperienced amateur tripe to flood the place, and they have the audacity to whine in the forums asking why their 20 images haven't sold

Is 20 images "flooding the place"?
If they ask for advice when they only have 20 images, and if they take the advice, they could go on to do well. We all had to start somewhere. (That's a general observation, not specific to SS)

Of course, we all did BUT my problem is with SS suddenly lowering the bar. It's like letting peo0le enter university that didn't pass their exams. And add all those small ports together and we have millions of images.  A few years ago they had standards and it took me about 3 or 4 attempts to get n with my best images.

Yes, this is my problem too with SS. They have no regard for quality anymore. Just a garbage pile with a few good gems to find in the rubble. Much of the new content is embarrassing to the company in my opinion (or just spam images).

Yep, they have screwed up my income there in the last 5 months to almost a flatline. An absolute bunch of neandrathols in shirts with no clue about photography.

Quote from: Herg on October 07, 2018, 18:57
"bunch of neandrathols in shits"

Was that a Freudian slip

I guess you meant "Neanderthals in suits" but I prefer your version better 

Yes it was a typo. I'm angry and getting more bitter but not quite at that level of stooping just yet.

Noticed a pattern when reading about htis os SS forums, ppl who are happy with the changes seems to have very amateurish of not downright questionable content, ppl who's DLs are down seem to have very professional ports.

Quote from: topol on October 08, 2018, 12:49
Noticed a pattern when reading about htis os SS forums, ppl who are happy with the changes seems to have very amateurish of not downright questionable content, ppl who's DLs are down seem to have very professional ports.

Seems buyers might not agree.........I'm not sure anyone is actually happy with the way SS have gone recently they just don't take it as if SS have some personal vendetta against them and are deliberately trashing their own profits just to spite them.

Quote from: topol on October 08, 2018, 12:49
Noticed a pattern when reading about htis os SS forums, ppl who are happy with the changes seems to have very amateurish of not downright questionable content, ppl who's DLs are down seem to have very professional ports.

I gave up on the SS forum long ago it was taken over by fools demanding to know why their two or three photo portfolios weren't making huge sales even though they were the usual rubbish

The way they are accepting spam and crap, I don't think it will return to normal

Lets concentrate on Adobe instead, lets give them the cream of our crop!......SS is screwing many of us BIG-Time and in every single way. All revenue is going into specific pockets and the rest of us are expendible. Well lets look upon this cheapo site as expendible and anyone doubting this is a complete cretin!

Quote from: Sammy the Cat on October 08, 2018, 22:57

Quote from: topol on October 08, 2018, 12:49
Noticed a pattern when reading about htis os SS forums, ppl who are happy with the changes seems to have very amateurish of not downright questionable content, ppl who's DLs are down seem to have very professional ports.

I gave up on the SS forum long ago it was taken over by fools demanding to know why their two or three photo portfolios weren't making huge sales even though they were the usual rubbish

That might be the one of the reason why this is all happening. I can imagine they bombarded SS with emails and whatever by tens of thousands, and the staff decided to heavily skew the searches for a while to try promoting previously bad sellers.

Quote from: Pauws99 on October 08, 2018, 13:36

Quote from: topol on October 08, 2018, 12:49
Noticed a pattern when reading about htis os SS forums, ppl who are happy with the changes seems to have very amateurish of not downright questionable content, ppl who's DLs are down seem to have very professional ports.

Seems buyers might not agree.........I'm not sure anyone is actually happy with the way SS have gone recently they just don't take it as if SS have some personal vendetta against them and are deliberately trashing their own profits just to spite them.

Maybe, but imho there are 2 things more pro contributors often forget:

- Many if not most of the buyers aren't very refined taste ppl. Few of my super best sellers are downright lame if not some of my worst shots. Whenever they pop up for me on the net somewhere, I still can't get what . they like about them.

- In such a huge system with so many merchandise and customers, you can sneakily 'force' things on ppl quite effectively without them noticing for a long time, like google skewing search results either for marketing or political reasons.

Quote from: topol on October 09, 2018, 11:48
- In such a huge system with so many merchandise and customers, you can sneakily 'force' things on ppl quite effectively without them noticing for a long time, like google skewing search results either for marketing or political reasons.

There are only a hundred places in the first 100 search results and if your file doesn't find its way into one of those then its chances of a sale are slim. It's not really about forcing things on people, just that the search algorithm has to find a way of ordering files and if there are 10,000 returns in a search then the chance of any file making it into the top 1% to get seen are slim. If age is factored in, old files are going to struggle to maintain position.

Quote from: topol on October 09, 2018, 11:48

Quote from: Pauws99 on October 08, 2018, 13:36

Quote from: topol on October 08, 2018, 12:49
Noticed a pattern when reading about htis os SS forums, ppl who are happy with the changes seems to have very amateurish of not downright questionable content, ppl who's DLs are down seem to have very professional ports.

Seems buyers might not agree.........I'm not sure anyone is actually happy with the way SS have gone recently they just don't take it as if SS have some personal vendetta against them and are deliberately trashing their own profits just to spite them.

Maybe, but imho there are 2 things more pro contributors often forget:

- Many if not most of the buyers aren't very refined taste ppl. Few of my super best sellers are downright lame if not some of my worst shots. Whenever they pop up for me on the net somewhere, I still can't get what . they like about them.

- In such a huge system with so many merchandise and customers, you can sneakily 'force' things on ppl quite effectively without them noticing for a long time, like google skewing search results either for marketing or political reasons.

I think often people mistake buyers requirements which is "fit for purpose" with some perceived requirement for technically and artistically brilliant photographs. If two pictures are equally fit for purpose whose to say which one should be ranked higher? The market decides quality not fellow professionals.

Quote from: Pauws99 on October 09, 2018, 13:52

Quote from: topol on October 09, 2018, 11:48

Quote from: Pauws99 on October 08, 2018, 13:36

Quote from: topol on October 08, 2018, 12:49
Noticed a pattern when reading about htis os SS forums, ppl who are happy with the changes seems to have very amateurish of not downright questionable content, ppl who's DLs are down seem to have very professional ports.

Seems buyers might not agree.........I'm not sure anyone is actually happy with the way SS have gone recently they just don't take it as if SS have some personal vendetta against them and are deliberately trashing their own profits just to spite them.

Maybe, but imho there are 2 things more pro contributors often forget:

- Many if not most of the buyers aren't very refined taste ppl. Few of my super best sellers are downright lame if not some of my worst shots. Whenever they pop up for me on the net somewhere, I still can't get what . they like about them.

- In such a huge system with so many merchandise and customers, you can sneakily 'force' things on ppl quite effectively without them noticing for a long time, like google skewing search results either for marketing or political reasons.

I think often people mistake buyers requirements which is "fit for purpose" with some perceived requirement for technically and artistically brilliant photographs. If two pictures are equally fit for purpose whose to say which one should be ranked higher? The market decides quality not fellow professionals.

No, this is visual arts, even if not high art, qualified people decide what is quality not the plebs. They may prefer to buy whatever they want, but they have no say in what beauty or aesthetic is... or more accurately they simply can't tell at all which is proven every single day as they just find amazing whatever they are told to, otherwise there wouldn't be a fashion rotation in just about everything. Also I have the aesthetic-attractive shots where I already say saving them 'this will be a seller' and they almost always are sellers. So actual real aesthetic does count even here, it is the more reliable part of the system.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on October 09, 2018, 13:10

Quote from: topol on October 09, 2018, 11:48
- In such a huge system with so many merchandise and customers, you can sneakily 'force' things on ppl quite effectively without them noticing for a long time, like google skewing search results either for marketing or political reasons.

There are only a hundred places in the first 100 search results and if your file doesn't find its way into one of those then its chances of a sale are slim. It's not really about forcing things on people, just that the search algorithm has to find a way of ordering files and if there are 10,000 returns in a search then the chance of any file making it into the top 1% to get seen are slim. If age is factored in, old files are going to struggle to maintain position.

I was on the other side opf this system as 'buyer' for many years (art director/graphic artist) and I wouldn't say it's actually that severely bad, we usually went through quite a few pages (at least 10+), but there is a tight limit for sure. Imho if you can manipulate the search and put things you want in those first dozen pages, you are kinda forcing them on ppl. The reason is that most workplaces, businesses have subscriptions and some loyalty to sites, and you have limited time. So going to other sites is not an option, and you simply have no time for more than, let's say, 15 pages. You are watching the clock and you have to pick one from those.