Quote from: Findura on May 19, 2025, 11:09

SS has closed my account after 3 years of inactivity.
They say it's because of an image that violates the terms of use. But I don't believe them. I had already deleted this picture 3 years ago.

I have the suspicion that they generally do this with inactive accounts.
If you read the reviews for SS on trustpilot, then you know what kind of business strategy ss has.

Now I have experienced for myself how ss wipes out several years of hard work without contacting me first, without asking me a question beforehand.
SS wipes out human existences at the touch of a button and without any scruples.

I don't see why would they close your account if it's still generating revenue for them, unless someone there calculated that they pay more for hosting your goods than it generates, which I doubt.

I can't understand that either. And that's why I suspect SS has dirty ulterior motives.
In 2022, I had over 6,000 dollars in income. In 2023, I had over $7,000 in income. And in 2024, I also had over $7,000 in income.
That means SS made a lot of money from my videos. And now they're voluntarily giving it up for no REAL reason?
Because this one picture that SS didn't like and that hasn't even been in my portfolio for 3 years, that didn't cause any damage, that's not a real reason.
They were looking for a reason to ban me. I wonder why?

SS has closed my account after 3 years of inactivity.
They say it's because of an image that violates the terms of use. But I don't believe them. I had already deleted this picture 3 years ago.

I have the suspicion that they generally do this with inactive accounts.
If you read the reviews for SS on trustpilot, then you know what kind of business strategy ss has.

Now I have experienced for myself how ss wipes out several years of hard work without contacting me first, without asking me a question beforehand.
SS wipes out human existences at the touch of a button and without any scruples.

January was very bad. Revenue was only 28% of the revenue in December.
But SS revenue is significantly higher than AS and P5 revenue every month.

February is already looking much better. Got another nice $150-surprise.

I think SS is not dead but very much alive.
P5 is showing signs of dying in my opinion. Had 60% less revenue in 2023 compared to last year.

Nothing was stolen here. The images from free websites may be used for books.

Orchidpoet:
I was only at level 3. I'm not sure why I've never had any $0.25 clip-pack sales. Last December, my lowest clip-pack sale was $2.46, while my highest clip-pack sale was $28.96. On average, my clip pack sale was $10.64 last month. I would like to know if others are also experiencing many $0.25 clip pack sales like you do.

I haven't had any clip sales under $1 at SS either. On all levels. I got up to level 4. And the $1 sales are rare. I usually get a bit more for it.

The highest sale in December was $98.

My December RPD for videos on SS is $10,26.

Best Agencies for pictures :
Shutterstock
Adobe Stock
iStock
Dreamstime
Alamy
123rf

Best Agencies for videos :
Shutterstock
Adobe Stock

Until a few months ago, I would have added Pond5 to the video list. But not anymore. I had 60% less income in 2023 than in the previous year. It looks like there are going to be big changes at Pond5.

iStock sells a lot of videos for 6 cents. I've read that, but it's not my experience.

I only have portfolios with three agencies: SS, AS and Pond5. And since this year I only upload to SS and AS.

Now I can no longer select a thumbnail for videos?
At what second is an automatic thumbnail created? It seems like it's at 00:05 in most cases ?
In one of my videos, SS selected the thumbnail at 00:14.
So it is not clear.

edit:
Everything is fine. Only now have I seen that I can switch to the old SS version.

My income in 2023 compared to 2022 :

Adobe Stock : + 43%
Shutterstock : + 16%
Pond5 (1) Exclusiv : - 56%
Pond5 (2) Non-Exclusiv : - 59%

At the time, I had only received a detailed explanation from AS after 14 weeks as to why they had blocked my account and that it would remain blocked.
And they allowed me to open a new account, which I did immediately after receiving the message.

This was my thread:
https://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/adobe-stock-has-locked-my-account/

Was a different reason than AI, but it was also a very annoying experience for me, and I also felt it was disproportionate.
And because AS did not write a reason, I was partly ridiculed here in the forum and considered untrustworthy.
The only thing missing was that someone called me a troll.

Unlike me, you, @JustAnImage, fortunately received an explanation immediately.
I suspect the following possibility : AS makes you wait a few more weeks and then officially locks your account and allows you to open a new account at the same time.
That's how it was with me.
Of course, it can also be completely different.

Really? For me, the number of subscription downloads is stable with normal fluctuations.
But the regular downloads have decreased a lot this year.

The trend is clear. The income is getting smaller.
I stopped my work as a contributor at the beginning of this year. Now I have a new job.

For me, the RPD from AS is fine:
8,14 $ April
10,13 $ May
7,66 $ June

July was not my worst month this year.
May was.