Hi All. I have been a Pond5 contributor since 2012. While I do not have a ton of clips up there (300 or so), I have some unique clips. 2017 I averaged over $400/month (with less footage up there). 2018 much more volatile with best month being $621 and worst being $235.

2019 however peaked in February and has been dropping like a rock ever since with last month sales being $70.

Has anyone else experienced drop off? Did they change their algorithm or something?

Check the Pond5 forums. They were/are conducting a test. This test puts a $50 price cap on some searches, and a $80 on others. So if you have clips priced above those price points, Pond5 have intentionally been excluding your clips from the search results. If they can't be be found, they cannot possibly have a chance to sell. Then some staff rep had the nerve to make a post in that thread saying that the test results were positive, which of course means positive for Pond5's bottom line. That excludes everyone he was directly talking to in the forums, who unanimously expressed disappointment and frustration at what's clearly a factor in widely experienced sales drops. This is how disconnected they have become from their former identity of being the most contributor-friendly stock site. Those days seem to be officially over.

He added that they can't be bothered to inform us when they run these asinine tests. Be prepared for a lot more of this non-sense.

This is due to subscription plans on other agencies guyd..be aware that supporting those subscription plan agencies you will lose sales elsewhere..
Btw it's only a test that will end soon,but artists are wsrned that they can't sell the same clips for peanuts on subscription and sell it elsewhere at normal price with no consequences..

Hi All. I have been a Pond5 contributor since 2012. While I do not have a ton of clips up there (300 or so), I have some unique clips. 2017 I averaged over $400/month (with less footage up there). 2018 much more volatile with best month being $621 and worst being $235.

2019 however peaked in February and has been dropping like a rock ever since with last month sales being $70.

Has anyone else experienced drop off? Did they change their algorithm or something?

My story is equal to yours, same number of clips, sales and same drop in sales. My last 4 months have been very low.
The only difference is that I started in 2015 on Pond5.
Looking at the prices of the competition clips, yes they were lowered the values, by Pond5 I think.
When this happened to me, I raised my prices as they were before.
Maybe I was penalized in the search for results.
  Similar videos to mine by some competitors are between $ 25 and $ 50 for HD and I was between $ 59 and $ 79.
Some videos, which I did not sell or with very little sales, I lowered the value to $ 49 for who knows, be in search of results.
The clips that I always had excellent sales kept the same values of $ 69 and $ 79 HD

But yes, tough times in Pond5, at least for me too.

�.. The imagery market it at its end.

not at all - demand is still growing, but supply is growing much faster - it's just becoming harder to make the kind of $ we could a year ago

Quote from: liveoutloud on August 02, 2019, 06:51

Hi All. I have been a Pond5 contributor since 2012. While I do not have a ton of clips up there (300 or so), I have some unique clips. 2017 I averaged over $400/month (with less footage up there). 2018 much more volatile with best month being $621 and worst being $235.

2019 however peaked in February and has been dropping like a rock ever since with last month sales being $70.

Has anyone else experienced drop off? Did they change their algorithm or something?

My story is equal to yours, same number of clips, sales and same drop in sales. My last 4 months have been very low.
The only difference is that I started in 2015 on Pond5.
Looking at the prices of the competition clips, yes they were lowered the values, by Pond5 I think.
When this happened to me, I raised my prices as they were before.
Maybe I was penalized in the search for results.
  Similar videos to mine by some competitors are between $ 25 and $ 50 for HD and I was between $ 59 and $ 79.
Some videos, which I did not sell or with very little sales, I lowered the value to $ 49 for who knows, be in search of results.
The clips that I always had excellent sales kept the same values of $ 69 and $ 79 HD

But yes, tough times in Pond5, at least for me too.

Fairly similar story here, except I started at P5 in 2009. My income rose steadily, peaking in 2014, but maintained about the same level all the years through last year. But this year has been a disaster.

As others have said, it isn't just P5. I had the worst month in a decade on SS: 2 sales the entire month! I didn't even know that was possible. In fact, across all sites, last month was my worst month since January 2010 (when my port had about 3 dozen clips in it, ha!). 

Check the Pond5 forums. They were/are conducting a test. This test puts a $50 price cap on some searches, and a $80 on others.

As shady as one could consider that test to be, it was only live during these last two weeks, so hardly responsible for any slowdown since February...

Demand is growing, supply is growing faster. It really is as simple as that in my opinion. It's not easy anymore, and even with the best clips around it's a struggle to be seen.

It seems a lot of people have a hard time understanding that the chance of YOUR clip being in front of the eyes of a buyer at the right time when there are 17.5 MILLION clips to choose from is pretty small. We humans can't imagine how great of a number 1 million is.

When something is easy to make and the equipment required to make it now is available to most people, supply goes up and the price comes down.

I don't think many (if ANY) contributors actually make much more than $1.50 per video clip per month....

Well actually...

...(not animations)

Ah, ok... never mind! 

$1.49 per clip per month for 2019 so far. They've been increasing again (slightly) from a bit of a dip though... if you don't include January then it's $1.59... and if you go just on the last three months then it's $1.67.   

"As shady as one could consider that test to be, it was only live during these last two weeks, so hardly responsible for any slowdown since February..."

THIS test had only been running that long. And it most definitely would have caused a massive slowdown for any sellers offering clips above the excluded price points. In case you didn't know, this test was accidentally stumbled upon by a contributor. That's not "considered" to be shady, that's straight-up behind the back betrayal of trust. It's also likely that several other asinine tests have been running since February and before. Remember, Pond5 refuses to inform us of these tests. It is incredibly naive to assume this was the only sales damaging blunder they've made this year.

"It seems a lot of people have a hard time understanding that the chance of YOUR clip being in front of the eyes of a buyer at the right time when there are 17.5 MILLION clips to choose from is pretty small."

What a condescending comment. And the irony is the failure to understand that search results don't bring up every clip every made. On a specific given search term, a clip isn't competing with "17.5 million clips". Many searches have fewer than 500 results, many other niche topics less than 100. When Pond5 excludes every clip over $50 or $80 from a search, that is a major problem that more contributors in that price range should be aware of, and very vocal about. Attacking the intelligence of the contributors who are actively speaking up about this is just unnecessarily rude. Try to comprehend that.

THIS test had only been running that long. And it most definitely would have caused a massive slowdown for any sellers offering clips above the excluded price points.

Yes, and you replied using that as the reason that liveoutloud's sales had "been dropping like a rock" since February. So we should have interpreted that as them ruining sales on purpose since February?

In case you didn't know, this test was accidentally stumbled upon by a contributor. That's not "considered" to be shady, that's straight-up behind the back betrayal of trust.

Yes, I have read all the posts in all of the threads regarding this. Every single one. My wording was a polite way of saying it was shady. I fully agree there.

I test the search almost every week to see if action needs to be taken. I haven't seen this price discrimination before.

It is incredibly naive to assume this was the only sales damaging blunder they've made this year.

Well, sales damaging for some does not mean sales damaging for all. You have around 35-40 people posting in the P5 threads. They make up a very, very small part of the 17.5 million total clips online.

What I find very naive is the constant talk of "caring about the individual contributor". With many thousands, this is only done by trying to raise sales on average. Some individuals will always suffer. Of course, in all of our minds, "me" is what is most important.

My 2019 is better than my 2018, so from my perspective the so called "sales damaging blunders" have not been sales damaging at all. And this is with the 20% non-exclusive cut since March, so the amount spent is actually a lot higher than 2018. The same would be true for SpaceStockFootage, even though that's for animations mostly. His average is close to the same DESPITE the cut.

What a condescending comment. And the irony is the failure to understand that search results don't bring up every clip every made. On a specific given search term, a clip isn't competing with "17.5 million clips". Many searches have fewer than 500 results, many other niche topics less than 100. When Pond5 excludes every clip over $50 or $80 from a search, that is a major problem that more contributors in that price range should be aware of, and very vocal about. Attacking the intelligence of the contributors who are actively speaking up about this is just unnecessarily rude. Try to comprehend that.

This wasn't directed at you, and I apologize if you interpreted it that way. BUT, I stand by that many of the P5 posters SEEM to not understand the basics of an incredibly high increase in supply. Just because they sold a lot when it was easier does not mean it will stay that way forever.

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on August 03, 2019, 09:09

Quote from: Daryl Ray on August 03, 2019, 08:07

THIS test had only been running that long. And it most definitely would have caused a massive slowdown for any sellers offering clips above the excluded price points.

Yes, and you replied using that as the reason that liveoutloud's sales had "been dropping like a rock" since February. So we should have interpreted that as them ruining sales on purpose since February?

Quote from: Daryl Ray on August 03, 2019, 08:07

In case you didn't know, this test was accidentally stumbled upon by a contributor. That's not "considered" to be shady, that's straight-up behind the back betrayal of trust.

Yes, I have read all the posts in all of the threads regarding this. Every single one. My wording was a polite way of saying it was shady. I fully agree there.

I test the search almost every week to see if action needs to be taken. I haven't seen this price discrimination before.

Quote from: Daryl Ray on August 03, 2019, 08:07

It is incredibly naive to assume this was the only sales damaging blunder they've made this year.

Well, sales damaging for some does not mean sales damaging for all. You have around 35-40 people posting in the P5 threads. They make up a very, very small part of the 17.5 million total clips online.

What I find very naive is the constant talk of "caring about the individual contributor". With many thousands, this is only done by trying to raise sales on average. Some individuals will always suffer. Of course, in all of our minds, "me" is what is most important.

My 2019 is better than my 2018, so from my perspective the so called "sales damaging blunders" have not been sales damaging at all. And this is with the 20% non-exclusive cut since March, so the amount spent is actually a lot higher than 2018. The same would be true for SpaceStockFootage, even though that's for animations mostly. His average is close to the same DESPITE the cut.

Quote from: Daryl Ray on August 03, 2019, 08:07

What a condescending comment. And the irony is the failure to understand that search results don't bring up every clip every made. On a specific given search term, a clip isn't competing with "17.5 million clips". Many searches have fewer than 500 results, many other niche topics less than 100. When Pond5 excludes every clip over $50 or $80 from a search, that is a major problem that more contributors in that price range should be aware of, and very vocal about. Attacking the intelligence of the contributors who are actively speaking up about this is just unnecessarily rude. Try to comprehend that.

This wasn't directed at you, and I apologize if you interpreted it that way. BUT, I stand by that many of the P5 posters SEEM to not understand the basics of an incredibly high increase in supply. Just because they sold a lot when it was easier does not mean it will stay that way forever.

Too true.

I see a lot of contributors complaining that have been with P5 a while.
And I also see a lot of really good new contributors too.
Always got to keep an eye on the competition, why am I selling less? Perhaps its because there are newer better clips than mine?
Metaphorically speaking.

Also with reference to the 17.5 million clips being in direct competition with each other.
Type in say "young millennial caucasian couple romantic"
And there's 1400 clips.

Filming a drone view of the countryside at sunset might be different.

I sometimes despair at the amount of clips there are, then I look at the amount of clips in direct competition to mine and there aren`t that many. 1000 to 100 depending on the search and subject.

contributors at pond5 are complaining a sudden huge drop from april...
if it was all about competition and new contributors like you said  the drop would be slow and steady....

Whow!

How do the people that went exclusive feel now?

Some people pulled their ports from other agencies and brought everything to pond5.

But unless they priced everything at the lowest possible price for 4k all their content is excluded from the searches?!

I thought the whole idea of going exclusive was to help stabilize prices??

This is a very dishonest move. They should have warned all artists that their income will drop drastically during that test.