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No sales in August

Started by whosvegas, August 25, 2020, 11:27

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whosvegas

Since the SS earnings structure change, there is a drop in my AS sales

Used to have 1 to 4 sales a week

But in August not a single sale!

Is it the vacation period, Corona or is there to much compatition (since the SS structure change)?

How are your August sales on AS?

trabuco

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

MPfoto71

30 Downloads in August, rpd €0,86
(29 Downloads in Juli, rpd €1,68)

Main areas: Surface backgrounds, Clouds and sunsets, Landscape and some very few covid related images - which don't sell ;-)

Firn

#3
Adobe is on a persistan downwards spiral for me. Since the beginning of July basically every week is worse than the one before.
This month so far I don't even have half the sale numbers of July and July was already worse than June with an rpd of half of June's. Low download numbers and unfortunately also almost only low $-sales.

I am not sure where the problem is, since Mat Hayward claimed that they are having more customers than ever - yet my overall position is also staying the same, so at least everyone who was in a better position than me must be doing equally poorly. Mat also said that in order for images to sell, we should add a "Corona filter" to our images, but I mostly do dog, objects, plants and flatlays, so there is not much possibilities to portrait these things in times of Corona (though I did photograph dogs with face masks - did fairly well on other agencies, but not on Adobe. So I am out of ideas.)

To be fair, August doesn't seem to be a good month for me on all agencies, but on no other agency the change is so drastic. While on iStock and SS my earnings are down by around 20-25% compared to previous months, on Adobe it's by over 70%.

Mimi the Cat

60 sales with Adobe so far.

However August has been very slow you should also bear in mind that a lot of Europe usually has August as a vacation especially Germany

offisapup

Yes, zero sales in August. Even though AS has never been big agency for me, I used to see at least a few downloads a week till July. There's a bit of a decline on SS but just a decrease of 10 percent. More downloads on IS this month than June and July. So this drastic fall appears to be restricted to AS which is increasingly looking like DT or DP for me.

WD3 Photography

I've sold 17 images on Adobe Stock during August 2020. Earnings £10.30  :)

alexandersr

#7
Quote from: whosvegas on August 25, 2020, 11:27
Since the SS earnings structure change, there is a drop in my AS sales

Used to have 1 to 4 sales a week

But in August not a single sale!

Is it the vacation period, Corona or is there to much compatition (since the SS structure change)?

How are your August sales on AS?
I have some sales around 30 Euros in AS.

qunamax

Quote from: whosvegas on August 25, 2020, 11:27
Since the SS earnings structure change, there is a drop in my AS sales

Used to have 1 to 4 sales a week

But in August not a single sale!

Is it the vacation period, Corona or is there to much compatition (since the SS structure change)?

How are your August sales on AS?

1 to 4 sales a week is marginally different to 0 sales a week. In other words it's so easy to drop from 4 to 0 for whatever reason and main one being more competing images. If you had say 50 sales a week and dropped to 0 that would be an indicator that something is really wrong.

Pauws99

August has markedly slowed for me after a couple of good months as it did last year. I'm not a big fish so I wouldn't draw any conclusion other than Adobe doesn't seem in any kind of crisis.

Jo Ann Snover

August sales at Adobe Stock have been good (not spectacular but almost exactly the same $$ as 2019 for August 1-25). Given the economic situation, that's reassuring

Firn

Quote from: qunamax on August 25, 2020, 16:32

1 to 4 sales a week is marginally different to 0 sales a week. In other words it's so easy to drop from 4 to 0 for whatever reason and main one being more competing images. If you had say 50 sales a week and dropped to 0 that would be an indicator that something is really wrong.
My sales dropped by around 150, still not sure that leades to the conclusion that there was anything wrong with Adobe as others say they are doing fine.

pics2

I've noticed that new files don't sell like they used to until few months ago. It looks like Adobe changed search algorithm also. Too bad because the one before this change was really fair  for new files to get deserved chance to prove themselves. Staying for month in this privileged position, that's what they said on their webinars. I really hope this is not permanent and that they will get back to the previous search algorithm. If they do follow SS path of ignoring new files, I'm really going to lose my last reserves of energy for producing new content. So discouraging.

alexandersr

Quote from: pics2 on August 25, 2020, 18:35
I've noticed that new files don't sell like they used to until few months ago. It looks like Adobe changed search algorithm also. Too bad because the one before this change was really fair  for new files to get deserved chance to prove themselves. Staying for month in this privileged position, that's what they said on their webinars. I really hope this is not permanent and that they will get back to the previous search algorithm. If they do follow SS path of ignoring new files, I'm really going to lose my last reserves of energy for producing new content. So discouraging.

I see why I only sell old images.

MatHayward

Quote from: whosvegas on August 25, 2020, 11:27
Since the SS earnings structure change, there is a drop in my AS sales

Used to have 1 to 4 sales a week

But in August not a single sale!

Is it the vacation period, Corona or is there to much compatition (since the SS structure change)?

How are your August sales on AS?

Without seeing your portfolio it's very difficult for my to evaluate so I can only speculate here. The first thing that everyone should keep in mind is that there are natural waves in sales that occur throughout the year, every year. To get an accurate comparison you really need to evaluate your sales from the same date range in previous years. This is not a super busy month in general for stock but that doesn't mean there aren't sales happening around the world, all day, every day...there are.

If your peak is only 1-4 downloads per week, that volume is too low to expect consistent activity, therefor your results will likely be unpredictable. Having a swing of only 4 downloads to either 0 or 8 is not unusual. Again, without seeing your portfolio I can only guess so I must assume you either don't have a large enough portfolio, your content is not meeting the current demands of customers (which are dramatically different this year than years past for obvious reasons) or you have a large portfolio with relevant content but it is poorly indexed and difficult to find.

My advice is to evaluate your portfolio with impartial eyes and decide what is missing. Create an action plan that includes a realistic goal..say 25 new images per week for example. Write out a shot list to solidify the plan. Then, most importantly...pick up your camera, slap a memory card in it and start to create! It's the only way to improve your sales. The market has dramatically changed this year. It is unrealistic to expect the same results for the same effort you put forward in the past. There is massive potential still in microstock but you have to put in the effort to take advantage.

I wish you the very best of luck!

Mat Hayward

cascoly

my sales are consistent for the last 6 months, tho this month RPD is higher

non-sales are unlikely to be because of people shifting from SS to AS since many/most were alrerady on AS, plus the nuber involved is small compared to AS total images
Steve Estvanik 
travel & photo blog https://cascoly-images.com

HalfFull

From my experience, July and August tend to be the slower months at Adobe. I've still had over 900 sales in the last 30 days but this is down by a reasonable chunk compared to normal months. Overall this year, Adobe has improved for me compared to other agencies that have seen a reduction so sales are out there.

Give it till the 2nd week of September... things are normally on the up again by then.


whosvegas

Quote from: MatHayward on August 25, 2020, 20:30
Quote from: whosvegas on August 25, 2020, 11:27
Since the SS earnings structure change, there is a drop in my AS sales

Used to have 1 to 4 sales a week

But in August not a single sale!

Is it the vacation period, Corona or is there to much compatition (since the SS structure change)?

How are your August sales on AS?

Without seeing your portfolio it's very difficult for my to evaluate so I can only speculate here. The first thing that everyone should keep in mind is that there are natural waves in sales that occur throughout the year, every year. To get an accurate comparison you really need to evaluate your sales from the same date range in previous years. This is not a super busy month in general for stock but that doesn't mean there aren't sales happening around the world, all day, every day...there are.

If your peak is only 1-4 downloads per week, that volume is too low to expect consistent activity, therefor your results will likely be unpredictable. Having a swing of only 4 downloads to either 0 or 8 is not unusual. Again, without seeing your portfolio I can only guess so I must assume you either don't have a large enough portfolio, your content is not meeting the current demands of customers (which are dramatically different this year than years past for obvious reasons) or you have a large portfolio with relevant content but it is poorly indexed and difficult to find.

My advice is to evaluate your portfolio with impartial eyes and decide what is missing. Create an action plan that includes a realistic goal..say 25 new images per week for example. Write out a shot list to solidify the plan. Then, most importantly...pick up your camera, slap a memory card in it and start to create! It's the only way to improve your sales. The market has dramatically changed this year. It is unrealistic to expect the same results for the same effort you put forward in the past. There is massive potential still in microstock but you have to put in the effort to take advantage.

I wish you the very best of luck!

Mat Hayward
Thank you for your answer!

My port is (around 900 assets):
https://stock.adobe.com/nl/contributor/205508976/photosis

Since the price drop on SS, I started uploading less (the first month i uploaded nothing new). My guess  is, that is also a cause.

steheap

Whosvegas - one thing I talk about a lot on my blog - you need to be able to explain the use case (at least to yourself) when taking and uploading images. Unless you can explain how someone would pay for and use your image, then it isn't really worth uploading. I think a number of your images suffer from a distinct lack of "use case".

Steve
Stock Photo Blog: http://www.backyardsilver.com

marthamarks

#19
I've had 33 image sales on Adobe so far this month, including several with higher royalties.

Many of those were of blooming prairies in Illinois, taken a year ago this month. So that could explain why they're selling well this year.

Astrantia

I had 15 sales on AS so far this month.
Before corona times it was about twice as much......

Chichikov

About 30% of my average sales :(
Vacation?
Covid-19?
Water on Mars?

WaterView

My sales are down to 1/3 of a regular month this year on Adobe Stock

rod-09

AS is getting worst every month comparing to last years earnings. Very frustrating!!!

2019: JUNE = $ 123.19  / JULY =  $ 238.28  / AUGUST =  $ 155.50
2020: JUNE =  $ 86.34  / JULY =  $ 53.20  / AUGUST =  $ 51.45

If this goes on I´ll have to close my account. Not worth all the work!

whosvegas

The last day of the month, i had 1 sale  :)