Xmas is over, sales are going down as expected. Lifetime rank now at 6040.

Im curios how are your sales on the first 4 days of the year, very slow start here.

Quote from: DaLiu on January 04, 2026, 15:43
Im curios how are your sales on the first 4 days of the year, very slow start here.

For Adobe I just checked the period 22 Dec - 5 Jan of this year compared to previous years and the last time I made less than this period 22 Dec 2025 - 5 Jan 2026 was 22 Dec 2022 - 5 Jan 2023 which was three years ago. So it is indeed slow.

Maybe this is (at least) partly due to there only been one working week day on Friday (though it is Monday evening here now in Sydney) and many likely took leave on that day to extend their holiday break through to 5 Jan. I'm also seeing here in Australia some businesses taking leave through to 8 January.   

Haven't had 1 sale on Shutterstock or Pond5 this year so far. I had an email from Shutterstock extending their 30% discount so they may well be struggling to see sales. Also will be interesting to see how SSTK share price goes because it is way down for the beginning of the year 2026 when I figure investors expect to feast on a bigger share of revenue. At this time of year last year the share price was over $30 and this year same time is under $19.   

Quote from: Pacesetter on January 05, 2026, 10:24

Quote from: DaLiu on January 04, 2026, 15:43
Im curios how are your sales on the first 4 days of the year, very slow start here.

For Adobe I just checked the period 22 Dec - 5 Jan of this year compared to previous years and the last time I made less than this period 22 Dec 2025 - 5 Jan 2026 was 22 Dec 2022 - 5 Jan 2023 which was three years ago. So it is indeed slow.

Maybe this is (at least) partly due to there only been one working week day on Friday (though it is Monday evening here now in Sydney) and many likely took leave on that day to extend their holiday break through to 5 Jan. I'm also seeing here in Australia some businesses taking leave through to 8 January.   

Haven't had 1 sale on Shutterstock or Pond5 this year so far. I had an email from Shutterstock extending their 30% discount so they may well be struggling to see sales. Also will be interesting to see how SSTK share price goes because it is way down for the beginning of the year 2026 when I figure investors expect to feast on a bigger share of revenue. At this time of year last year the share price was over $30 and this year same time is under $19.

I'm not sure shitterstocks goal is actually to 'make' money - I think they are just cutting ad costs for promoting the site - because they want their sister sites (also owned/operated by blackrock/vanguard - so its actually the parent companies) trying to push people towards subscription based services based off of massive theft to try and cut contributors out of the loop, like midjourney (funded privately via these companies)/runway (funded via google, which is 'owned' by the alphabet company, which is 'owned' by blackrock/vanguard),/open ai (49% 'owned' by micro$hit, which in turn is 'owned' by blackrock/vanguard)/etc.

So basically - blackrock/vanguard once they acquired shitterstock, pond5, etc (not 'just' them, but one of them)- are deliberatley trying to trash the company/sales - to simultaneously 'sqeeze' contributors so they will accept whatever peanuts they give them for unlimited/lifetime 'ai licensing' of their assets (or they just steal them outright, what shitterstock did "then" gave the option to "opt out") - so they can then turn around and promote their "subscription" based services which cut out the actual contributors...

Bigger picture of what is really going on...

Quote from: SuperPhoto on January 05, 2026, 19:35

Quote from: Pacesetter on January 05, 2026, 10:24

Quote from: DaLiu on January 04, 2026, 15:43
Im curios how are your sales on the first 4 days of the year, very slow start here.

For Adobe I just checked the period 22 Dec - 5 Jan of this year compared to previous years and the last time I made less than this period 22 Dec 2025 - 5 Jan 2026 was 22 Dec 2022 - 5 Jan 2023 which was three years ago. So it is indeed slow.

Maybe this is (at least) partly due to there only been one working week day on Friday (though it is Monday evening here now in Sydney) and many likely took leave on that day to extend their holiday break through to 5 Jan. I'm also seeing here in Australia some businesses taking leave through to 8 January.   

Haven't had 1 sale on Shutterstock or Pond5 this year so far. I had an email from Shutterstock extending their 30% discount so they may well be struggling to see sales. Also will be interesting to see how SSTK share price goes because it is way down for the beginning of the year 2026 when I figure investors expect to feast on a bigger share of revenue. At this time of year last year the share price was over $30 and this year same time is under $19.

I'm not sure shitterstocks goal is actually to 'make' money - I think they are just cutting ad costs for promoting the site - because they want their sister sites (also owned/operated by blackrock/vanguard - so its actually the parent companies) trying to push people towards subscription based services based off of massive theft to try and cut contributors out of the loop, like midjourney (funded privately via these companies)/runway (funded via google, which is 'owned' by the alphabet company, which is 'owned' by blackrock/vanguard),/open ai (49% 'owned' by micro$hit, which in turn is 'owned' by blackrock/vanguard)/etc.

So basically - blackrock/vanguard once they acquired shitterstock, pond5, etc (not 'just' them, but one of them)- are deliberatley trying to trash the company/sales - to simultaneously 'sqeeze' contributors so they will accept whatever peanuts they give them for unlimited/lifetime 'ai licensing' of their assets (or they just steal them outright, what shitterstock did "then" gave the option to "opt out") - so they can then turn around and promote their "subscription" based services which cut out the actual contributors...

Bigger picture of what is really going on...

Whatever they are doing is bizarre. Maybe they don't care about shareholders and their organization's value. Check out the attached SSTK share price compared to this time last year and 5 years ago. Probably reflects contributor earnings because if contributors aren't earning income from sales ultimately Shutterstock is not either. Maybe there is a method to the madness but I find it very strange. 

down, down, down

need to start uploading again soon. I have been cruising on doing nothing for 8 months. That is not sustainable.

My Adobe Stock sales are beginning to return to some normalcy after the deepest declines in earnings over the end-of-year / beginning-of-year holiday period in a number of years across the agencies.   

For me, it's an upward trend.

Quote from: Pacesetter on January 07, 2026, 11:02
My Adobe Stock sales are beginning to return to some normalcy after the deepest declines in earnings over the end-of-year / beginning-of-year holiday period in a number of years across the agencies.

Let's see if you think still the same at the end of the month. My guess it's just some early sales, like also last year, and not the beginning of long term trend. But I wish you well and hope it will last the whole month.

Noticable though that Pacesetter is position position 14,250 with 16 downloads and $72.05 revenue versus Cobalt with position 3,700 with 14 downloads and $11.93 revenue.
That clearly indicates, as someone stated here before, that past week is clearly of influence on your position.
So with all the examples given here, I would say, revenue does not matter, your previous week's position does matter and your current downloads matter.
But then again, who cares 

.

Thankfully a return to a bit more normalcy this week. Sales numbers and position are low but at least revenue is reasonable...

I wonder how much the top hundred rankers are making per day.

earnings from jan 5 to jan 10

good year start

.

having a good start to the year, prob my highest ever rank

...

It was a good week for me. I can't complain.

Mostly I share on Discord. But this is my current rank, will probably start uploading again next week. At least a little bit.

Quote from: cobalt on February 17, 2026, 14:24
Mostly I share on Discord. But this is my current rank, will probably start uploading again next week. At least a little bit.

Yes, you be the slave if that what it needs to climb up the ladder. If it is not the quality of your content you upload but the number and frequency you upload then maybe we all should think about this algorithm? I would for one not participate in it. I try to supply my best work (that is what it says in their guidelines) and when I am all done and ready with it (it might take a few months, I have other things to do, like earning actual money), I upload it.

Why so aggressive? Not interested, just don't comment? Also for not uploading since September I am fine with the result. 8200 files, it is ok.

Will get back in late spring or summer. Busy with other things unfortunately.

If my quality is so bad, why are customers buying?

Lifetime rank now 5980, so a long way to go to reach top 1000 or 500? level.

Quote from: cobalt on February 17, 2026, 18:44
Why so aggressive? Not interested, just don't comment? Also for not uploading since September I am fine with the result. 8200 files, it is ok.

Will get back in late spring or summer. Busy with other things unfortunately.

If my quality is so bad, why are customers buying?

Don't mean to be aggressive but you always blame your position on not uploading enough. I think that uploading enough or not should not determine your position. It should be the content you have ever uploaded and if it sells or not. Not only new stuff sells, on the contrary I think.

Many customers sort by newest every week to lightbox the interesting fresh files in their projects. So not being visible in the new files search, means you are not visible in a critical customer search.

It all depends on content of course. If you can do open heart surgery with full model and property releases then you have very little competition and will be easily visible.

But I do a lot of things like greeting cards, food, isolated objects, visually simple looking stuff with lots of competition so being seen with fresh searches makes a big difference for my sales. And that is on all agencies.

I do try to look for missing content for the German market and that content is not as affected. But easter and christmas cards is an endless fight.

Once a file has found its rank, even a simple apple on white, it can sell stabily for many years.

I did not want to take such a long break, but my mother passed away and now I have not just do lots of paperwork but clearing of apartment, cellars and even my parents old house, which was sold a few years ago but still has their things. The new owner is waiting to buy the neighbours house to tear them both down.

etc...

Life. Once all that is done, it will be interesting to start a new stock life. I could even travel and combine it with stock.

Not trying to win art prizes. Just want to serve my customers who like to buy my files.

Getting into a nice 50 files a week rhythm will make a big difference.

I will never be a mass uploader, I simply don't know how.

ETA

Overall not really sure what your problem is. You say your portfolio is superior quality to mine and much older and probably larger, so you are earning more than me anyway.

If you don't really need fresh files to stay at a high rank, good for you.

Quote from: cobalt on February 17, 2026, 19:01
Overall not really sure what your problem is. You say your portfolio is superior quality to mine and much older and probably larger, so you are earning more than me anyway.

If you don't really need fresh files to stay at a high rank, good for you.

You are getting me all wrong. I did not say my portfolio is superior to yours, or older or larger. It was not meant as a personal attack, so apologies if you encountered it as such. I was merely talking about the game Adobe is playing according to you. That you will be punished if you don't upload all the time. That is what you always say; your position is lower then you want because you have not uploaded enough. So, just saying, if that is the case, then I would find that unreasonable on Adobe's part. The quality of a contributor's work should matter, not the frequency or numbers of assets being uploaded. I don't want to play that game.
Condolances on the passing of your mother by the way.

Quote from: SimonSays on February 18, 2026, 06:32

Quote from: cobalt on February 17, 2026, 19:01
Overall not really sure what your problem is. You say your portfolio is superior quality to mine and much older and probably larger, so you are earning more than me anyway.

If you don't really need fresh files to stay at a high rank, good for you.

You are getting me all wrong. I did not say my portfolio is superior to yours, or older or larger. It was not meant as a personal attack, so apologies if you encountered it as such. I was merely talking about the game Adobe is playing according to you. That you will be punished if you don't upload all the time. That is what you always say; your position is lower then you want because you have not uploaded enough. So, just saying, if that is the case, then I would find that unreasonable on Adobe's part. The quality of a contributor's work should matter, not the frequency or numbers of assets being uploaded. I don't want to play that game.
Condolances on the passing of your mother by the way.

Thank you.

I don't think Adobe or the agencies are playing games with us.

The reality is that several million files are being accepted every week. That is simply the dynamics of having a portfolio on such high volume platforms.

If your content is very unique that makes it easy to find, but otherwise you need regular uploads for visibility in newest search.

It is true that I complain a lot about not uploading or not uploading enough. Mostly I am voicing genuine personal frustration that life keeps getting in the way of doing stock.

I have done a lot of research looking for missing conteng especially for the German market and there is so much I would lobe to do. I hope by summer I will finally be able to get imto a regular production flow.

I did experiment a lot with ai, now it is a tool I can use, but simply from a production standpoint taking images with camera is much easier and also a lot cheaper. You get it right the first time and have full control over everything.

Main focus will be video, but there are also a lot of interesting things you van take pictures with.

The situation with getty shutterstock is confusing, but overall I am optimistic that customers will always prefer to browse millions of files instead going out and taking their own pictures or prompting an afternoon to get it right.

I believe we will still have buyers in 10 years.

Probably a few more media types coming, like special enhanced 3d visuals or content optimized for ,,walkimg through" with a visor. Or at soem point holographic projevtion files.

eta

sorry for all the typos