Any idea why the adobe sales are so low right now? And how to get them back up? Thanks!

I have a theory but I note from discussions on FB others are reporting slow sales on Adobe with some suggestions of public holidays and special days such as Eid etc happening around the world. We had a public holiday on Monday which definitely affected my sales this week.

My theory is, and I know this is gonna sound bizarre, like I've gone BS crazy even, is Shutterstock are winning back customers from Adobe! I'm finding higher commission sales are returning on Shutterstock this past two months while those higher commission sales have fallen on Adobe Stock.

How to get them back up on Adobe Stock is a question I couldn't answer but if there's any truth to my theory I think having strong ports on as many agencies as possible is probably the way to combat slow sales on any one agency. I had three consecutive slow months overall in February, March and April and much better results in May and going well so far in June (overall). So some of this could be algorithm changes or time of year. I often read contributors experience a summer slump in the northern hemisphere if that could also be a contributing factor? But otherwise I am reading contributors posts on FB saying sales are slow on Adobe as well.         

@Superphotos, sales were going well in the beginning of the month but have fallen on Adobe this week. Overall this month, earnings are higher on Shutterstock than Adobe. IStock seems to be performing well so far this month with 60 videos downloaded as of 13 June. ETA 2 sales on Pond5 for $30 each which is probably not bad... for Pond5.   

I had another decent sale on Shutterstock with $150 - another aerial drone video shot. Attached is the sale in May and new sale in June.

Quote from: Pacesetter on May 31, 2025, 23:54

Finally a better month following three consecutive poor months with $1300 on the microstocks and bit over $500 on YouTube for $1800 USD total for May 2025.

You made $500 on youtube, in adsense in a month? How many clips? That would be like... 71k views only?

Yes around high 70k views ended up at $530 which I think is pretty good  for second month monetized. I added 4 videos to the channel during May. I'm doubtful I will make 500 this month as RPD has fallen some and don't know why but we'll see how it goes as only early days in the new month.

I think I've just lost a further 9 or so files on Adobe port. Still have old files waiting to be reviewed but no just go after the accepted files instead and take them out. These agencies can't criticise Trump for his apparent policy madness when they are just as BS crazy themselves.

And a further 8 + 14 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 6 + 9 contents (just updating this each time i see a drop - don't know if its photos or videos) just gone now. Adobe's free collection is over (I didn't participate) and now their razor gangs are out on a rampage to tear up ports. 

Oh that's right, nearly forgot... gotta make room for......


 

Travel for the purpose of microstock is no longer a consideration for me. In 2023 it was a different story when adding to ports translated to increased sales and income but that's no longer the case for me (others' experience might be much different).

Always last, but here we are!
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

I don't think you're last. How's Injustice For All end up this week? He's a trooper with creating content but going by his recent posts is struggling with sales.

Had a slower week this week myself both in terms of downloads and earnings...

Quote from: Pacesetter on May 31, 2025, 03:12

Quote from: stoker2014 on May 31, 2025, 02:46

Quote from: Pacesetter on May 30, 2025, 23:20

He had a crack at my thread about monetizing a drone YouTube channel - which btw is actually my best performing platform this month.

How many subscribers do you have and how many views does one video have? 

Post a screen image of your weekly rank and revenue for Adobe Stock on the 'What's your weekly ranking and how many images' (link below) then I'll post a screen image of my YouTube Channel Analytics for 28 days which includes current numbers of subscribers, number of subscribers added in last 28 days, number of views + watch time (hours) + estimated revenue for the last 28 days. I'll even throw in my weekly rank and earnings on Adobe which is a bit low this week for good measure. C'mon bro, let's see some of that Ukrainian talent.   

https://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/what's-your-weekly-ranking-and-how-many-images/msg614407/?topicseen#new

Considering your unfriendly and aggressive tone, as well as your lack of response to the question on the topic you raised, we can conclude that I was right.
 

If your channel can be easily found on YouTube, then I could of course go to your channel, see the number of subscribers and see how many views your drone videos have. But this question is not my area of ​​professional interest, it is also possible that you are hiding your channel, and the lack of an answer from you to a simple question confirms my previous assumptions.
 

I also want to say that you are trolling.
 

Sounds a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. But anyway, that's just my negotiation and offer to reveal some information as I'm genuinely interested in seeing some of your microstock data and willing to provide some of my own data in response to your generous sharing.

Charline, thanks for sharing your results here. Your work is beautiful - I especially love the black and white images.
I never thought of using YouTube to promote my fine art work (and TBH, I don't plan to start a YouTube channel) but it's interesting to see what types of promotion work to sell fine art. Thanks for sharing your success here.

We are all photographers here and, while it's not stock, sharing ideas for making money from our work outside of stock is always interesting.

I noticed stoker2014 was trolling you here, criticizing your time spent doing video because it wasn't "needed" if you make $$$$ a month from the rest of your work - if you live where I do, in a NYC suburb, you need several $$$$ a month to live comfortably, and if Charline (Orchidpoet) is in Toronto, she does too - so questioning her earnings because she is looking for more ways to earn makes no sense. Her bio says she is a writer as well as a photographer, and as she pointed out, she made $560 on a single print.   There is nothing that says her top price is $250 - maybe google translate isn't working well for you.

How much you make is a very private matter for most people and how much you need to live on depends on where you live.

I see people selling their work via FAA for drastically different prices (often way too little IMHO) and it's good to see someone who places a value on their work. Thanks for sharing the link to your site. Again, beautiful work!

Agree with all this and there are a number of microstock photographers selling via FAA and similar and do very well. Steve Heap often does updates about his sales in print. Also noticed some of Charline (Orchidpoet) work is featured on the site and receives a lot of praise so very well done.

Stocker2014 criticizes everything. He's previously criticized the use of using drones for microstock which alone has earned me 1000s of dollars. He had a crack at my thread about monetizing a drone YouTube channel - which btw is actually my best performing platform this month. So Stocker2014 should really get back to minding his own, working on his own ports so he can start making a couple of dollars instead of just looking forward to Adobe's next free collection offer or the next elusive data set payout.   

Agree with Cobalt that Shutterstock have abandoned marketing Pond5. It's just gone downhill. They dont seem to care that entire accounts are closing down there as I've seen posted on the Pond5 contributor forums. I found out last night I been accepted on Storyblocks  so gonna start uploading there. I hear mixed results with SB but it's got to be much better than Pond Dive.

$40.31... I thought agencies had given up bothering to pay contributors for this usage but I suppose it's only natural payments would decline as ai machines now only learn from new content uploaded.

Cobalt,

Yes  it was RPD of 45 cents ($0.45) for photos and RPD of $4.34 for video on iStock in April which is almost 10x for video than photos.