All this time, I thought it was about the subject, composition, colors, keywords, descriptions, and finding areas/ideas that are under supplied, to fill a need. Images that buyers want and need. But apparently (according to some people here) it's all about luck, the search placement and random chance.

Then I'll say, worrying about analyzing what has sold, then making more of what sells, or "Learning from 16 years of stock photos that didn't sell", is a waste of time. It's just all about luck. 

Closed down at $22.80. Its just $0.80 above it's IPO on 12 October 2012. Down it goes in step with downward earnings.

Nice graph, I was looking at that yesterday. The people who got in and then sold when the stock had doubled or tripled, aren't crying. Long ago, I was of the opinion that SSTK was a good $30 stock.

I keep looking at this part of the deal, and can't understand why the price of SSTK isn't higher? "Shutterstock shareholders can choose one of three options at closing: $28.85 in cash per share, 13.67 shares of Getty Images stock per share, or a combination of 9.17 Getty Images shares and $9.50 in cash per Shutterstock share."

Cash = $28.85
or
GETY 2.045 x 13.67 = $27.95
or
 (9.17 shares) $18.79 + $9.50 = $28.29

Any of these are at worst $5/$6 better that the cost per share of SSTK. What's missing? Why aren't people buying at $22 to get back $28?

SSTK $21.38 Monday morning, dividends paid to owners of record.
GETY 2.055

It just doesn't look like anyone important, is looking forward to the merger.

what's funny about this is i have posted and sold kind of similar images.  the concept being junk food looking greasy and unappetizing. could be used for an article about clogged arteries or obesity.

Some of the strange images, that I upload now and then as a joke or filler, have actually sold on multiple sites. Heck if I know why. Unlike planned shots with great lighting, aligned subjects, all organized and they just died. I did one of cooking a pizza on a gas grill, and it's not that special. It was sold for an article, "Never cook a pizza on a grill" 

They also don't have to compete against each other with lower prices, I am confident prices will rise after the merger.

Yes I hope you are right. Not just editorial. As soon as this merger was announced, Adobe stock went down.

SSTK is down, GETY is down. I don't see many people ready to jump into this new plan. Getty just refinanced their debt, which helps a little. SSTK had earnings below expectations and a drop in sold images. They were popular like a fad, when things go up, the advisors sell these stocks to the granny's. SSTK is a dividend stock as well.

When the fad slows and the earnings don't reach expectations and people don't see growth in the company or their future, they are pretty fast to abandon and look for something new and better. You can get GETY shares for $2 and change right now. Last 4 months they have been under $3 and treading water.

I hate to say it, but this is going to be interesting to watch. We aren't in control we aren't even pawns that are involved in the game or the plans.

I just recalled that this can be found in the dashboard if you click on lifetime.  I had forgotten it was there.  I'm pretty sure that it does carry over from Fotolia.

And I have to say, WOW I'm impressed with the results so far. Many more people, in the better position than I expected. I should know better. There was a time when the poll results worked and based on what IS reported, the MSG forum was in the top 5% of all IS contributors.

I used Chrome instead of Safari today and had no issues with the new uploader. I suppose I could alert SS support about the Safari issues, however often in the past when I have reported bugs the support staff were extremely polite but nothing ever got actioned.

Yes, you said that right. It's like, "Thank You, but we're just pretending to care or listen" 

Your results could be very helpful to others who use Safari. As I mentioned before, someone I know says her phone doesn't work now. I'm pretty sure she has an iPhone. Next would be, iPhone with something other than Safari, might work. Thanks for the idea.

Quote from: Stock4Me on February 23, 2025, 09:43

Only 1289 people in the world ahead of you. Very small number of people making a living at this while sales and income are dropping.

The estimated annual revenues from the merger between Getty and Shutterstock will be 2 billion dollars.

Given the earnings of us, contributors, we can estimate that Adobe Stock also has 1 billion in revenues.

Total 3 billion from the 3 main competitors in this market.

And from 3 billion only 1000/1500 contributors manage to make a full-time salary?

This is incredible in my eyes.

But I wonder: Do the agencies take a slice of the profit too big or is the cake divided into too small slices? 

Aside from "where do you live" and all that. And how much is enough to live on.

I think the answer to your two part question is both. As an example of the agencies taking too much of a slice for themselves. How would someplace like 123RF or Deposit be able to stay in business, if they paid us a fair share. They are both companies that are staying alive, only because they can still make some sort of profit, from artists who supply images and video for a minuscule earnings reward. Eventually they will fail. I'm surprised they are still in business.

Is the cake divided into too small of a slice because of too many contributors? Maybe, but as you pointed out, only the top, the factories and maybe some like Cobalt, who make a serious effort to produce new work, and also study what sells and what's in demand, are making enough to possibly make a living wage from Microstock.

Using the more recent number and I still say it's like a cork floating on the waves, the rank/position, goes up and down. What we should be looking at is not the crests and troughs, but the average position. Looking at things daily for a weekly rank is just too many points and too variable. The best view, in my opinion,is at most Monthly, once a month.

That number will reflect the income and download, peaks and valleys with the average, in a more sensible form. Looking at daily income from Microstock is just watching too close. Also since there are the obvious trends, Saturday stinks, Sunday isn't very special, Friday people are usually working a short day... weekly average, makes for a smoother viewpoint. Unfortunately the "Position" from Adobe is unreliable in any sense, since it's only downloads, not income.

The fact that no one knows how it works and the claim that it's 7 days, including the last 7 days, which is impossible, because it goes back to zero on Sunday night, makes the who idea of watching position, daily, or weekly, even more absurd.

Oh yeah, back to the question. Sorry. Yes I think you are right on both points. The agencies don't pay us a fair percentage. Adobe comes the closest, at 33%. The rest that are 15% or the one that includes the silly dime Singles and the reset are a terrible insult. But then, it's a take it or leave it marketplace for many people, as there's no other way to scuffle for nickles and dimes, from making Stock Products.

The losers, bottom feeder agencies, don't have enough sales volume to make sense for anyone who's actually trying to make a living from Microstock. The only favorable consideration is, the artist already has all the images, with the data, so it's really not much additional effort to add images to the parasite agencies. On an individual level, that might work and be helpful, but for the entire industry, every time, someone adds images to the parasites that don't pay well and are giving us an insulting low percentage, that undercuts the agencies that do give us a reliable return and volume.

So, while we may not be competing directly with our own images, the effect of supporting the parasites is driving the value of the entire market down. And that's where the low paying agencies beat us all into the ground with low pay and low earnings, because too many people are so desperate that they will take fractional cents from places like Freepik or Envato or Miricanvas and so many others.

Whether it's 2,000 accounts, or some other debatable number, the point is, there's not enough business, not enough return and not enough money, for someone to make a living wage from Microstock, except for a very small number of people or businesses. That's in the World! Pretty elite business that says, only 1% of the people who are trying to make a living at it, are a success.

I will admit, people who try and are serious are more than 1%, it's just that if there are 200,000 people who have something online, the return on that is dismal. Personally, from experience and the past, I'd say it's very possible that 5% of the people who work at Microstock are making a true business profit.

For Cobalt as an example, being 2,000 or 3,000 is pretty good and a compliment to her hard work, smart work, paying attention and doing what's right. If I'm usually around 25,000 sometimes higher, sometimes lower, and I represent part time, hobby. That shows something about how few people are serious or making money from this. To be clear, not weeks or months, and I only started when Adobe bought FT, my Lifetime right now is 26,200th.

I'm not very good, I don't work hard, I barely have 1,000 images (1,046), I don't do video. 26,200 of all the people on Adobe. What's the message about how successful others are? And Adobe is my best agency right now, but lifetime I've made more on SS or Alamy, since I started in 2008.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on February 21, 2025, 12:42

What operating system, computer hardware, browser? We shouldn't have to guess? Honestly no one can give you an accurate, intelligent answer, without knowing what you are using to connect.

I never intended for anyone here to troubleshoot this for me! I can contact SS support for that. But fyi my operating system, computer hardware, browser are Mac OS 14.6.1, Apple M2 Studio, Safari 17.6. I will try with Chrome instead next time I upload.

Oh I see the problem, you're a MAC user.  Seriously your system should work better than anything I have. Dell Precision T5500 2009 that runs Windows 10, and Firefox.

Can anyone advise how to use the new version successfully?

Can't be answered unless "anyone" knows your OS, computer and browser. And me answering that it works fine for me, doesn't help you at all, even if I tell you my system. Too bad it wasn't easy like, it doesn't work on phones.

Good Luck, you aren't the only one with these problems, so maybe all the people who find it isn't working, should get together and share their system configurations and look for the common point of failure.

As for the new system, which we didn't ask for and didn't need, I adjusted and adapted and it's better than the old, in many ways, now that I learned how to use it. The catalog manager is not better, it's over complicated and difficult. The sort by "Top Performers" is limited to 25 per page, which is a waste of time, if I'm looking for something.

Quote from: synthetick on February 20, 2025, 05:37

I tried to use the new one but after I entered my description, keywords, category and Illustration file type and tried to submit, most of what I had entered disappeared!...

one suggestion is to add meta data to your images before uploading - will save time other agency uploads.

multiple images w meta have all been easily submitted w the new system

Same for me, no problems. I will say that someone else told me, laptops and desktops work fine, phones and tablets don't. There could be an answer in that.

I'm on a desktop, running windows 10 and using Firefox. Most of the time, on any site that I have problems, it turns out Firefox is the worst and Chrome or Edge work better.

So as always, when someone says, some site or software isn't working, the first thing they should include is, the hardware, OS and Browser, otherwise the answers might mean nothing and make no sense.

Example:

I tried to use the new one but after I entered my description, keywords, category and Illustration file type and tried to submit, most of what I had entered disappeared! I tried doing it in different orders, and saving multiple times during the process but no matter what I did I lost my inputs and couldn't submit. I ended up using the suggestion above about getting to the legacy version via the keywording tool and was able to submit that way. Can anyone advise how to use the new version successfully?

What operating system, computer hardware, browser? We shouldn't have to guess? Honestly no one can give you an accurate, intelligent answer, without knowing what you are using to connect.

@Uncle Pete

I believe that all these numbers are useful to guide strategies.

The more accurate the data analysis, the fewer mistakes you risk making.

Sorry for any mistakes, but it's Google Translate's fault 

Guiding strategy is what I was talking about, that is good and knowing the market, the trends an demands.

Watching some unreliable, inconsistent, unexplained "Position" that's only relative to others downloads (maybe?) that doesn't match our actual downloads or anything else, is a waste of time. Position is relative and only compares us to, others, where we don't know what they have uploaded or what they sold. The data is just a number.

There is no accurate data to analyze.

"I believe that all these numbers are useful to guide strategies."

If you are looking at what sells, and where and for how much. Yes. The only way to see ahead.

Any errors are all mine, and I know I'm the one who made them. 

Yep - there was a database error.  I got it fixed yesterday morning.
I've also managed to stop some of the spam, which should help speed a little bit (hopefully)

You might find it less peculiar, if you knew the rank is calculated based on the performance from the last 7 days, not based on the performance from the current week (which are the download count numbers you see on your dashboard). No conspiracy theory here 

Good to know and that explains why the numbers, don't match, the DL numbers.  When I was tracking this with a group of people, we had the same anomalies. People with the same DLs and different ranks. People with the same rank and different DL numbers.

The seven days makes good sense and resolves that conflict. I guess what you are saying is, when the counter resets on Sunday night, the week, doesn't reset. Although when I have no new DLs on Monday morning, my rank is - - -. As if I have no rank and no downloads.

Thank You