#On Adobe I have a lot of trouble getting new images sold and I am even considering to not upload new images there. They are not getting noticed anway, so it seems like a waste of time.  I think more than any change in region-based image display the lack of promotion of new work to customer is my biggest problem on Adobe.#

Could it be, that you have more trouble with selling new photos since around February? I really do not remember well when, but for sure I got an email or information via other way, but surely from Adobe itself, that they do not want to support new images anymore, but support best selling images and contributors in the future to get all time in search results on the top - which also means: customer ALWAYS see the same images coming up and cannot search for newest images (anymore)!

Mat even did not answer my question about this!
Because if it is true, then indeed uploading new images makes no sence anymore, if we are not one of the selected best sellers on Adobe - maybe even them will not benefit from their new images anymore. Adobe thinks they have enough good images and want to concentrate on that best selling images. They do not care that customer might want to search for new images. The old ones must be enough - especially for the NEW countries, who also only get selected images - FOR FREE, because usually these new countries are to poor to buy images. So Adobe is already happy, if they pay for their software. And for that they give away best images to them.

BTW: If that all is true: Not only uploading new images is not worth it anymore, also IF you keep on uploading new images: all the advices about keywording and titles is not worth to follow anymore, too, because instead of giving a chance to get a good ranking for new images in the first 30 days, they will now directly rank on lowest ever!

Lets hope, this time Mat will answer about this situation.
I also asked Adobe via support team, but did not get any satisfying answer. Only bla blabla.
Not telling us the truth of it to the point itself says all what we need to know:
Stay away from Adobe, if you are not one of the best sellers there.
Do not upload any new images - waste of time!
If you have OLD images which sells regularly, you might find out there is no difference between now and before the change of Adobe. Which means: Keep them online! But all new images better upload to agencies which give new images a chance.

AND keep in mind: they will give away best images! So, in a way they also treating their best seller contributors.

I am still confused about their regions: what is it behind it: just poor regions or at least religion reasons? Because MOST of these countries are moslem countries.

pinterest - free site?
I thought it is similar to facebook and instagram to find people viewing your photos and with a direct link to the POD site, they MIGHT click on it and buy.

Just today I wanted to contact Adobe again, because I want to close my account after one year with NO SALES. But yes, already many months most of my images I uploaded to Adobe via wirestock and got some sales there.
But before I even could start writing Adobe about closing my personal account, I saw that I got an email from adobe: MY FIRST SALE on my personal account. RPD 23 Cent!!!!! Not 33 or something like that.
Hey, never get a sale, but now seems to be I got the first sale under new payment - see exciting announcement!
23 Cent is much more than I expected, but still not the 33 garant Cent from the PAST. YES! It starts now.

But that does not change my mind/decission: I will close my account and upload them to wirestock. But I am still curoius if I should leave Adobe totally now - even not submit to Adobe via wirestock?? Wirestock told me already, that they fall under the same payment announcement like every contributor. Lets see 1 or 2 more month. Then I might ask wirestock to delete all my images on Adobe there too.

Am I right!
The new chance for that bad sellers on adobe! Wow! I am happy!

Thanks for your ideas and experiences.

Yes, wordpress was in my mind, too. I was only afraid I might missing something else. Lets see, what others will tell. but seems like wordpress should be a good start.
And yes, getting traffic to wordpress is indeed another, if not the most important question.

I forgot to explain:

My intention is to get traffic from the website to my POD-sites, secondary to Stocksites like pond5 and Alamy (maybe Zoonar and photocase).

I was also banned from the forum with no warning and I rarely posted. Contributor account is still going though but will leave SS when I reach $35 threshold which is taking a lo-ng time due to the miserly lo-ow DL payments. Wish I could leave now but can't afford to forfeit my earnings with the time I've put in there.

Somebody wrote here that we get our payment even if it is below the 35 $, if we close our account.
I also still do not really believe it and wanted to ask SS about that, but that day even the moderators links were not working - and of course there is no chance anymore to contact directly to SS support and get someone to answer from SS itself. So i am also curious, should I wait until I can get my payout or not? but it will for sure take much longer than for you, because when SS started the new payment, I deleted all better photos and only left the worst and some normal photos, which - why ever - until now get sales regulary.

I also did a little search and informed Adobe support about these issues nobody can understand. Mat also disappears longer than guessed ...  a sign that something is going wrong on Adobe and Mat has to meet the Adobe team before answer anything else here?

Well, my first guess of course, was that Moslem countries are the ones who cannot reach the full content. Then I thought it might be �only� poor countries: Indeed difficult to find out, because in the list on change region is a title Europe, Africa, but NO African country is listed - even no South Africa! Then I clicked on Rumania, Hungary and India and Phillippeans, the only little poorer countries I found, but the full content is shown for them. So, is it at least really a religion thing? Strange!

This Geoblocking comes from where and whom? Did Adobe geoblocking these countries from themselves or that countries did not allow Adobe to sell there software in that countries (maybe because these countries are mostly not really like America)


AND:
I tried to find out the ranking of my pics.
I have one serie about a beef calf, partly on Adobe, partly on Adobe via wirestock and on Adobe via eyeEm. Interesting: ALL my pics didn�t appear in which country ever. THAT MEANS: APPROVED IMAGES ON ADOBE IS NO GARANCY FOR APPEARING IN SEARCH RESULTS!
But via my account or via special search I found them from eyeEm online, but not via this normal search. Very strange!

(Just a information beside all this: If you were thinking Selected Partner , which changed to Partner and then usually online on Getty, hey yes, they nearly all also online on Adobe, but for standard license! Not premium as I guessed. so if you only want to upload your best content to best paying agencies: On Adobe via eyeEm you will get only that 35 Cent! and from that only 25% via eyeEm. To avoid that, you should upload them to Adobe first! Then hopefully Adobe do not select that similar images via eyeEm. But anyway: via eyeEm it is not worth it after they also went down with their payment.)

I found out myself!
I had to change my region ON ADOBE!!!!!!
Now all images appear - in the USA, where so many want to buy photos from Indonesia!!!!!!!! But Indonesian customer are not allowed to buy photos from Indonesia!!!!!! STRANGE politic/strategy!

But I have an idea:
In Indonesia and many other countries, who get discriminated from Adobe, are many, maybe the most using Adobe software for free (cracked version), because they do not have the money for it. - hey, not me! LOL I use other real free software.
But THAT makes sense!
And that also means it is not a religion discriminating! All poorer countries! That�s it!

Adobe does not want them to use the full libary.
Well, Adobe, do not forget: For example in Indonesia: There might be 10 or 20 (from 200 total) million Indonesian using Adobe software for free, but there are also 10 million rich people here and so maybe still million people paying hard for that software. But even these rich people have no access to the full libary!

Really discriminating.
Or what is the �human and logical and not discriminating� real reason for doing that?
Not only the customer from these poor countries, also the most contributors from all over the world cannot understand, why their images are not offered worldwide!

Now I understand why I have so little sales on Adobe - hey my sales were all from images I shot in a rich country - Singapore! Yes!
Well, now I get an idea about Adobe�s way. But still do not know WHY!
Mat, please try to find out why. Thank you very much, if you this time answer. You seem to be still away. Hopefully you come back soon for so many questions, not only in this thread.

Sebastian Radu, thank you for the reminder that indeed little money get paid out from shutterstock (and eyeEm), if you close the account.
After deleting 99% of my images there and left the worst one, I was not thinking that I could ever get money from that.

Annoying and indeed unfair, if it is like that.

But Adobe even changed the ranking of NEW images some month ago to promote the best sellers - or with other words: They don�t want new images shown up first, before the best sellers. So all the advices about keywording and 30 days for the ranking is not worth anymore.
I think in this forum one or two members mentioned that their old images still sell as usual, but no sale from their new photos.
So, Adobe support some best seller images or contributor for the future and all others and their images will directly go down in ranking / even not get ANY chance to get up in ranking - no chance anymore! BTW: There is no option for a filter for NEW photos (anymore), isn�t it?
I wrote about it in another thread and hoped Matt will answer to it, but that time he seemed to be disappeared for a longer time. i hope, he was not ill. Now with this new announcment he will even not have the time anymore to answer it.

Good for Adobe: No sales, giving up, not good seller contributor will go away from Adobe and Adobe does not have to handle so many photos anymore.

And there is another one called �this file is included abonnement (subscription)�. These files contributor opt in for selected files, too. So, Pond5 is not giving away anything, which is not signed as that from the contributor.

Quote from: Bad Robot on April 19, 2021, 22:08

Quote from: duns123 on April 19, 2021, 06:50

Quote from: Shelma1 on September 15, 2020, 14:23

It was in the works long before Pavlovsky became CEO, IMO. Getting rid of customer service for contributors, tons of rejections for established contributors, flooding the site with similars, allowing 50 identical keywords until we put up a big stink, smaller and smaller royalties and fewer and fewer big sales...that all started years ago.

Shutterstock was never about helping contributors make a living or being a viable business long term. Its only purpose was to make Oringer, the investors, and a couple of chosen others rich.

Well said and totally true. Can I ask someone on the forum if I can leave SS as a contributor BEFORE I get to the minimum payout? I can't say what I earned so far but had over 60 DLs but not close to the min threshold. I was only there for a few months when they cut the payments last May.
I read in the T&C's that if you close your account before reaching it you lose your earnings. If true not a fair deal at all.
Oh here's a little drawing that I did about them The guy in the pinstripe suit is the CEO of SS. The drawing's not very good but it's funny I think.

If you read it in the T&Cs that you'll lose your earnings then that is exactly what will happen.

If you ask Shutterstock to make a payment and close the account, they will pay any amount above $1.00. You don't have to reach minimum payout or lose your earnings.

Definitly? REAL?

Maybe to many contributor deleting their accounts now and your name might be similar to someone, so that they deleted your images instead?