You are right, I did jump to a conclusion, your schpiel sounded exactly like Hongover's; who has stated that he is a new contributor. I failed to read your user name.

Yet you recently joined MSG and actively deride "old timers".

Quote from: Rose Tinted Glasses on July 27, 2015, 15:02

I make a full time go of it on micorstock and I also make a full time go of it with the big boys. It's actually very entertaining to hear little kids who think they know it all and take the piss out of us old timers at every chance they get and yet they are struggling to make it all work out. You are funny. Granted, if you had the skill you would most likely be doing the same thing. Most successful photographers that I know do as it's a no brainer. Nothing stopping you is there?

Ha, ha, I love my regular job and I have no intention to become a full time photographer. I know for sure that I will never be close to make what I normally make, from photography only.

What I find interesting is that, what I get from a weekend hobby seriously competes with what some "old timers" complain about, around here. Still, I would never brag that I have "the skills", since I know that there is always something new to learn, no matter how advanced you believe you are

Mark my words: those "funny little kids", as you condescendingly call us, will eat an ever bigger slice of your pie. And there is nothing you can do about it!

I am becoming wary of new participants sporting encouraging user names and recounting glowing site reviews. This site will not be useful to the majority of contributors, if it is filled with users promoting sites.

Quote from: gbalex on August 05, 2015, 16:16

Quote from: Hongover on August 05, 2015, 15:43

You've exposed me. I am a SS community leader and my mission is to recruit new contributors by the millions so that our overlord, SS can meet the $104 Million revenue target for the 3rd quarter of 2015.

Our shareholders have not been happy with our linear growth. They want to see exponential growth and in order to do that, we must keep our portfolio fresh and in demand. This will ensure our sustainability and consistency as the market leader and crush all with our steel heel boots, especially the maker of Flash, which has cause more security problems than people can count.

As a SS community leader, I'm going to share what type of photos will be in demand for the next year...adorable rodents. If you have a lot of those in your portfolio, get ready for a killing in 2016. You're welcome!

Re: "in order to do that, we must keep our portfolio fresh and in demand. This will ensure our sustainability and consistency as the market leader"

Words uttered by every fresh naive new contributor.

Please!

Words of an embittered "old school", unable to adapt to a different reality.

Please!

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

It must take a special type of denial, arrogance or salesmanship to convince yourself and others; that out of Over 50 Million Images. Your ports contains fresh new content while those who have been at this a long while, have port which contain only old school images.

i think that just sums it all up. we are not being sarcastic or anything towards hongover etc
although it may sound harsh. but the fact is not the problem with you and me and all contributors old and new. it's like when global economy took over and greedy politicians back boiler room businesses with subsidies to their quick turnover of employees. all just to fill the pockets of these businesses who got rich off the backs of taxpayers before they close down their HO in countries like USA, Canada,Uk,etc to move to India, etc.

ss is no different. they no longer care if 1k is crumbs for someone living in USA or UK, they can pay out 75 bucks to someone in some 3rd world country where 75 bucks buys alot more .
it's not rocket science to make snapshots for microstock. you don't even have to have photography 101. many of the "masters" of microstock were no better than the newbies coming in today.

and if you ask the shareholders , they really don't give NFA whether contributors who made ss what they are today are now pissedoff with their attitude . they see the bottom line
and they will prefer someone who will cheer with getting a mere 75 bucks a month
than someone who expect to continue to get even 40 K p.a.

like they say with bandboys too, clubs will hire bands who think getting a case of beer is great
when we were kids, we got paid 400 bucks a night. microstock is no different.

who cares if the kids today don't play anything like they do in the 60s??? no one cares
when they think lady gaga is incredible. microstock is no different

We can easily see where shutterstock is headed or for than matter not headed; by looking to the world regions where shutterstock is actively hosting events and recruiting "Community Leaders" whom they use to attract, train and produce thousands of new contributors.

The ongoing contributor acquisition & site marketing speak expressed here, is likely being repeated by lecture and event attendees. Who are falsely lead to believe older contributors are passe and out of touch with current market needs. Wishful thinking bred out of financial want or need, lead them to believe that the fates older contributors are experiencing by being left out of the shutterstock search will not await them; if only they work smarter with increased diligence.

http://forums.submit.shutterstock.com/topic/76588-writers-wanted-for-stock-photography-advice-
"We also host lectures by Shutterstock's staff about which photos are on high demand and what Shutterstock is looking for in the year to come. We organize lectures, workshops, courses, photowalks and other events."

Time of day wasn't exactly my point.  The fact that the submission was received, opened reviewed and rejected (for something that I can't even see), email sent and received in 6.5 minutes was the point.  I just have a hard time believing that there are reviewers sitting at their screens any time of day, any where in the world waiting for a photo to be submitted so they can review it. 

Maybe reviewing has also become cutthroat....  artists are so selfish we have never considered the poor reviewers starving for their next photo to arrive...

The review ques do ebb and flow.  There are times when the images available to review are low.

As for Shutterstock I don't really believe their response. I think are likely using the proprietary image pre screening mentioned in the Form 424B4 SEC filing before reviews.

No, I do not, never have, work/ed for SS.

i have attended their dinners or talks here in Cologne just like many other artists here in Germany.

They have events in Berlin,frankfurt, hamburg and i think munich. There was a list somewhere where they would go next.

Stacey has worked as a SS community builder, don't know if she is still doing it.

I also don't know if there is any speciliased person for my region, I think the SS berlin office is responsible for it all.

I also don't have access to any "Special" resources, I wish I did, then maybe my photos would sell better.

You do have access to resources that are not available to most shutterstock contributors.  Shutterstock is not offering these events to the majority of shutterstock contributors.

The guidance on high demand images alone would be helpful.

Since last April I have been seeing a few posts for Shutterstock community events which feature, lectures, workshops, courses, photowalks, etc.

Thou I have looked for local events and contact information for local Shutterstock Community Leaders. I have yet to find any of these community events offered in my region of the world. So far they seem to be limited to priority regions and as such very few contributors. I did find a few that are not in my region by googleing "Shutterstock Community Leaders" & "Shutterstock Community Events"

I have talked to long term contributors in the Shutterstock community; who have consistently done the most to build the contributor community at Shutterstock, as well as helping untold numbers of fellow contributors over the last ten years. Those active long term supporters have heard nothing at all about these events. Nor have they been invited to participate.

Is there a list available on shutterstock which offers a list of regional & local Shutterstock Community Leaders, so that everyone can assess these resources? 

At the very least is there a video available to everyone who contributes to Shutterstock, which lists the high demand images Shutterstock is looking for in the year to come; as detailed during during community event lectures which seem to be limited to a small number of contributors?

An example of posts on Shutterstock outlining resources available to contributors in limited regions.

http://forums.submit.shutterstock.com/topic/76588-writers-wanted-for-stock-photography-advice-

website/

Calling all Shutterstock contributors with experience having something to share !!!

I'm a local Shutterstock community leader in Amsterdam running the Amsterdam Photo Club, We have created a new website called FastTrackToStockPhotography.com (sponsored by Shutterstock), and we are now looking for writers, Give advise on how to succeed as a Shutterstock contributor, or share your knowledge of taking high quality photos. In return, we will showcase your website and portfolio.

Snip

There are several local Shutterstock communities around the world. We create events helping photographers get through the Shutterstock submission process. We also host lectures by Shutterstock's staff about which photos are on high demand and what Shutterstock is looking for in the year to come. We organize lectures, workshops, courses, photowalks and other events.

From the top of my head, so far there are active Shutterstock communities in the UK, Canada, Netherlands, Brazil, Japan, Spain and United Arab Emirates. All working together to organise free events to help Shutterstock contributors develop their portfolios.

Congrats to Scott. Just curious. When he was at SS what did he do for contributors that this move to Adobe means good things for us? And I ask this because as a fresh IS non-exclusive I didnt keep track so I really have no idea.

A negative would be his involvement with Bigstock with its price undercutting. How involved was he in those decisions?

A plus would be his experience at shutterstock and his willingness to communicate with contributors. Thou his job responsibilities have included "Contributor Marketing" and "Artist Relationship Building".

Shutterstock needs some competition. I wonder how many employees Adobe snagged from Shutterstock? It could explain the recent uptick in shutterstock employee losses reported at Glassdoor.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbraut

Experience
Vice President, Content
Shutterstock (SSTK) and Offset
October 2011 � January 2015 (3 years 4 months)New York, NY

Shutterstock is a leading provider of photos, illustrations, and video for licensing, operating in more than 150 countries and 20 languages. Shutterstock�s mission is to connect contributors to over one million creative business professionals directly through its two-sided marketplace and also through collaborations with companies like Facebook, where Shutterstock is integrated into their ad platform. Shutterstock supports an international contributor community of over 70,000 talented photographers, videographers, illustrators, and content partners.

As VP of Content, I have led content strategy, content growth, operations, contributor marketing, service and IP compliance (marketplace trust and integrity) efforts. I have been responsible for business development with content contributors and partners, informing business strategy and developing international market insights in Europe, South America and Asia.
General Manager, Video / Footage

Shutterstock
January 2011 � October 2011 (10 months)

Responsible for P&L, general management, eCommerce and product development for video products at Shutterstock. Developed artist relationships with 4K and HD videographers and cinematographers. Oversaw 10x growth of the video collection to 2.4M clips.

General Manager, Bigstock
Shutterstock
September 2009 � February 2011 (1 year 6 months)

Broad general management, eCommerce and product development responsibilities for Bigstock, a leading credit-based stock image agency and a subsidiary of Shutterstock.

Responsible for P&L (Profit and Loss Statement), revenue growth, product development, product roadmap, strategic planning, product marketing, budgeting, internationalization, customer acquisition, content, operations and customer relations.

Good news

Try looking at more than one page, I looked at aprox 30/40 pages and picked the lowest quality content and quality from each page.

Quote from: Hongover on July 21, 2015, 21:57

I wonder how new photographers are able to get into SS with such high rejection rates. It's extremely hard to get 7/10 images approved these days.

I think its because they want newbie content because they pay less commission.

Lets take a look at the new content coming in these days using the commonly used keyword food.  www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?searchterm=food&sort_method=newest&page=1

As you can see the shutterstock reviewers are consistently letting in plenty of LCV images with questionable content and quality. I opened around 30 of these new images and then navigated to the photographers portfolios. Without exception they were all new contributors who had started submitting in 2015.

Now back to the review issue, with content like that coming in and much better content and quality being rejected everyday, we really need to ask what is wrong with the review process.

Quote from: PixelBytes on July 20, 2015, 13:42

Do you know any indies who just upload to SS specifically?  Not to mention there are other ways the find out what new niches are selling.  Most of the sites put out newsletters monthly suggesting what subjects are HOT.  I am sure a lot of us who been at this awhile have had the experience of discovering a good niche and then a couple months later it is outed by the agencies. Not to mention some of the top selling factories have employees paid to do this research.

See, this is the type of negativity that's making this forum so gloom. 80% of contributors are struggling, but there are still the 20% doing well. And the funny thing is, the successful contributors don't disclose much and they don't want to talk about their success because someone is always there to tell them that their portfolio is going to fall off the search results or how they're going to see a massive decline soon.

Not all contributors are alike and not all of us think the same way when it comes to image creation. That's why some people are still doing well while many are not. And FYI, one of my little obscures image with no demand had 3 downloads on a Sunday and it's averaging 2 downloads a days now.

Let people do their research. Without proper domain knowledge, it's as good as a half-assed effort. Keep telling me how other contributors are going to push me out of the search results, because I'm preparing more images to push other people's images out of the search results.

Let contributors who have been around much longer than you have report their own results.

Quit telling us how we should think, what we should do and what we should submit.

You seem to know a great deal about who is and who is not successful and your positive spin in the face of shared experience from those with large ports who have been here much longer than yourself; reminds me of the spin a zealous shutterstock community leader would use to attract new contributors. If you are going for referral $$$ you should talk to a few contributors who got stiffed by SS on the referral side.

I don't think for once I'm in control of my income when it comes to microstock. I've seen too much and know too much to not see that it's always a matter time before something changes. I've seen Apple changed their search algorithm 4 times. I've seen a site I was contributing to and making good money on changed their algorithm to favor new contributors. It favor them so much that their work gets put on top, eventually pushed down by content one day newer than theirs.

I'm not exactly new to this game. If my sales go down next week, I won't act surprised or sad or discouraged. I understand that it's the nature of the beast, a beast I've dealt with many times. And dealing with this beast has taught more more than few things: Things are not black and white. My sales are not going to hit a wall...it may fall a little, but it won't be a hard fall. I'm prepared to have some of my images fall down the search rankings, but I also know that some of my images will NEVER fall down the rankings, because there is nothing else like it.

Do you really think shutterstock knows or for that matter cares which images they are sending to the nether regions. They are doing it based on port and image age, it does not matter how great they are or how many are available. Talk to a few people who have been around for a while, we all managed to cling to the notion we had untouchable unique images, that is until the "day" they permanently dropped out of the search.