My twitter feed is chock full of people advising other people how not to fail at everything - largely because they themselves discovered early on they were useless at everything and it was easier to make money pointing other people in the (not necessarily) right direction. Guaranteed to wind me up but I attract them with targeted hash tags so I can in turn pimp my snaps to them.

"Exciting News" usually means I have to put on my wellington boots and grab a shovel and wade through a festering swamp of BS to discover which bit (if any) is exciting and for whom. All whilst keeping an eye out for the metaphorical crocodiles trying to eat my income as well as my arse.

There isn't going to be a revolution, neither will there be a mass deletion day and SS are not going to change their minds and hand Rex features their business back.

I predict Laurin will ask SS for a raise in 2015. Oh, you already have.

I'm all for a raise* and I don't need to be convinced that SS can afford it. Problem is, any raise would no doubt beget demands for another and another and the cost would ultimately be met by the buyers not the shareholders. Whoever heard of a shareholder agreeing to a lower dividend just to keep suppliers/buyers or employees happy? Given that, I'd be interested to hear from anyone how an agency might reset buyer expectations in a market we helped the agencies create.

*At the very least a level or two above .38 cents to strive for.

Middle Tier Muppets

Been that way for most months since January 2014 for me

I predict that I will be none the wiser after reading all the predictions.

Personally, I can only act on my own successes and failures since everything else is outside of my control. Also, the only information I have that I can guarantee has been doggedly accumulated and is authentic and accurate is on my laptop. We have very little to go on since the agencies (probably for competitive reasons) are extremely stingy and poorly organised when it comes to providing their contributors with any data or trends or customer feedback that will help us make business decisions....I predict that won't change.

As for resolutions, I plan to diversify more fully this year and join the footage brigade and will also work harder to improve my limited success in illustration by learning Adobe.

What were the predictions for 2014 and did any of those come to fruition?

Always thought the CV thing was Hippy thinking from code heads trying to justify their salaries. Fail.

Three items that seem to have fallen out of their luggage in their rush to catch the gravy train:

1) Serving the Customer
2) Nurturing the Supplier
3) Trusting the Product

You could probably say that about the many western companies presently being eaten alive by Asian, African and South American entrepreneurs.

I've contacted all three of my buyers but they are on holiday in North Korea and have no internet access.

Nice gesture though.

But their language has always been strangely Sovietesque - like trying to understand Kremlin reports of factory machine parts output during the Brezhnev era

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You're right though. Anyway, maybe I'm thick but I lost sight of their strategy a long time ago. If they think this will do much harm to Shutterstock they ought to read Moby Dick and find out what happened to the Pequod.

I take everyone's claims - poor, spectacular or otherwise, with a pinch of salt and take action on the numbers I see in front of me.