Now regarding the discussion of statistics, portfolio sizes, etc., I found some interesting data from 2019 on Adobe Stock from Robert.

There were 462,000 contributors there in 2019. You were considered a contributor if you had at least 1 image in your portfolio.
According to this statistic, a good 60% of all contributor portfolios contained only 1 to 10 images. And only 5% of all portfolios contained more than 1000 images.

Of course, I don't know if this is the case with shutterstock as well. But it can be assumed that there are parallels.

https://www.alltageinesfotoproduzenten.de/2019/06/05/analyse-der-portfolios-bei-fotolia-und-adobe-stock/

Is it possible that in your table contributors were confused with paying users, Pete? The difference between 1.6 million and 190 K is just too big for me...

Quote from: Uncle Pete on January 06, 2022, 17:06

Quote from: Annie on January 06, 2022, 10:08

Yes, that's true, Wilm. But I meant there's a lot of high earners here on the MSG forum - the people most likely to vote on this Microstock Poll, not all 1.6m contributors.

Pete, help! (lol)

Another old one. Not mine, it was from someone who was data crawling SS somehow.



If this is correct, under 10% in 2016 had 1 or more images. Same source, in 2018 - 17877 contributors had over 1,000 images.

111,418 is a new member # registered in 2008 of the 128,623 total contributors registered at the end of the year.

A new Artist just uploaded image #2,101,861,852 (of her 5 images) she's contributor #319,430,041

Assuming that the numbers are continuous, that's how many contributors now.  319,430,041  ?

Hmmm,

If you look at the annual report from 2016, you get a significantly different figure regarding the amount of contributors.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on January 06, 2022, 15:47

Quote from: ouatedeP on January 06, 2022, 11:54

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on January 06, 2022, 11:24

Quote from: Annie on January 06, 2022, 10:08

Yes, that's true, Wilm. But I meant there's a lot of high earners here on the MSG forum - the people most likely to vote on this Microstock Poll, not all 1.6m contributors.

Pete, help! (lol)

I am really not sure if that's true. There's a couple, but I am always surprised by how often people who post here regularly and I assumed did this for a living (or even have blogs and channels devoted to the industry) say things like "I had an EL on SS so that made a big difference/ doubled my income for the month".

There's a lot of people who post enthusiastically because this is a hobby they are passionate about, rather than because they are big earners or pros. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all but it can be misleading.

same with people not meeting the second level threshold at Alamy, which i would have expected would be a minimum for someone who took time to upload there for years. Even with 20% drop in gross fees, that still means they were making less than $150 a year before.  again nothing wrong,

True, true, true, we're sometimes playing different games at different levels and in a different business or some are working at a hobby. I'll answer for myself, as a hobbyist, Alamy last year =  $303.53 but with the dropping prices and commissions, I don't expect to have made the $250 needed to keep the 40% level. If I'm looking at my average earnings, and months Etc. I tend to discount the rare and occasional EL I might get on SS. It's not reliable and I agree, that some people who have big swings, are getting that, because of a big sale, that throws the averages and data off.

That's why RPD isn't my favorite statistic, unless I only count sales that don't include the one "Big One" here and there. I like to see what's real, instead of the exceptions? Even RPI is flawed, as I could just delete the non-selling failures and have a great looking number, which is make believe.

Now about the poll and what I think I know. From memory, Leaf was using real numbers in the early years, and based everything off the top site as 100 and everything below was then a relative number. Later he changed it to 5 points for every dollar. If the sites shows 10 then you might expect to make $50 a month. Even that is not an exact number.

Before a number shows on the right, 50 people have to enter their data. If you hover over Canva right now, as an example, 12 people voted and the average is 16.8 that could change any time, but without 50 votes, you won't see that.

I'm not running down the poll but just going to point out some easy statistical flaws. It's on a volunteer basis. Right there, it's not impartial and only includes people who want to contribute. There's no cross checking for accuracy. If I liked Agency X and wanted to boost their appearance, I could put in double what I make. And if I didn't like Agency Z I could have $0 earnings every month, even if I had closed my account, because that's a way to get some revenge and make them look bad.

An agency that wanted to look good, like a new one, could have shills voting to make their earnings look great and attract new users.

While the poll is statistically flawed, it is relative, so assuming that aside from all the questions about data, most people are putting in real numbers, it's relative.

Another problem that someone above pointed out, people who come here are active and care. Whether that means someone like me who has a hobby and likes the extra income, or someone very serious who lives from their work. I don't take the poll, because I'd just bring the numbers down.  But lets look at who does? If the people here are serious and that's why they read here and maybe many more people who aren't don't come here... the poll will reflect numbers for active and more serious artists.

I have some past information which has aged off into time, but back when we could see what people were making on iStock, numbers and downloads, the poll here showed me that the poll here and the forum, represented the top 5% of all microstock contributors. That fits well with the 100 million people who joined and never sold one image or the 60 million who signed up and never did much, maybe never made payout, or the hobby people like myself who keep contributing in small numbers, year after year.

The poll isn't what someone can expect, and isn't what someone new will make, it is what someone who's serious and has been established for some time, might make.

For a hopefully fair example of that, right now 61 people voted that they make around $30 a month on DT. That's the top people with good collections, maybe thousands of images. Not what someone new will make after a few years. Not me, and not the average person, but the top people.

Old fun, I dropped this. Here's the most recent version (I think?) Some of these places are gone. Something else is that less and less have the 50 votes. Look at how the numbers have been dropping for earnings at some of them.



I hope that answered some questions and I hope if I missed something or have something wrong, that someone will correct that.

Thanks for your detailed response, Pete.

Of course, numbers can be cheated. And of course the numbers are not necessarily correct. Not today and not many years ago.

But from your screenshot, it still paints an interesting and sad picture.

The way it looks to me, there is only one agency left with a positive trend. And that is not a good omen for the microstock business.

Sorry, I had an error message. Therefore, my answer is now there twice.

$11.34 for 45 downloads from shutterstock.
$42 for 33 downloads at AS.

Last year it took me until January 11 to reach level 1. After that it got better with the downloads. Let's see what happens this year.

$11.34 for 45 downloads from shutterstock.
$42 for 33 downloads at AS.

Last year I had to wait until January 11 to reach level 2. After that it got better. Let's see how it goes this year.

Quote from: Annie on January 05, 2022, 23:32
Hi Wilm :-)

Those numbers are too low for average revenue. There are some high earners on here.

Unless they have changed it in recent years, I am fairly sure its a percentage of $500.

Hopefully, Pete, Leaf or a Diamond member can confirm or explain.

Hello Annie, 

I'm not so sure about that.

In 2019, shutterstock paid $US 164,000,000 to contributors. With the introduction of the new revenue structure, I expect it may have been just as much or even less in 2020.
(Unfortunately, shutterstock did not publish this figure in 2020. Then you could see how much the new revenue structure has cost us contributors).

In 2020, there were 1,600,000 contributors.

The numbers are in the 2019 and 2020 annual reports.

On average, each contributor earned US$100 per year from shutterstock. That's $8 a month.

Quote from: Annie on January 05, 2022, 20:14

Quote from: Uncle Pete on January 05, 2022, 17:14
If I find 2021 I'll update. Not that this is high science, but it might be interesting to watch?

Site    Earnings Rating January 2020 vs 2022 January numbers

Shutterstock    73.7   51.6
AdobeStock      50.5   55.7 
iStock          23.9   26.6
IS exclusive    64.3   69
Pond5           14     10.1
Alamy           10.7   12.6
123RF           6.4    5.6
Dreamstime      4.6    4.9

Pete, can you explain to others, especially the new people, exactly what those numbers mean?

We spoke about it once and I recall you said, its a percentage of $500.

So for example, AS 55.7 means the average month earnings of contributors who participated in the poll = $278.50 (500 x 55.7%)

Is that correct?

Annie,

I had interpreted the numbers to be the monthly average revenue in $ US, based on the information provided by the contributors.

But even if that's wrong, shutterstock has definitely seen a significant decline in that.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on January 05, 2022, 17:14
If I find 2021 I'll update. Not that this is high science, but it might be interesting to watch?

Site    Earnings Rating January 2020 vs 2022 January numbers

Shutterstock    73.7   51.6
AdobeStock      50.5   55.7 
iStock          23.9   26.6
IS exclusive    64.3   69
Pond5           14     10.1
Alamy           10.7   12.6
123RF           6.4    5.6
Dreamstime      4.6    4.9

Thanks Pete!

That is indeed interesting. Especially as far as shutterstock is concerned.

Quote from: oscarcwilliams on January 04, 2022, 14:16
Just to start the New Year--Istock is going to reset to level (1) just like Shutterstock. It is a sad day for photographers who are treated so unfairly.

As far as I understood it correctly only exclusive contributors are concerned:

Non-exclusive
Contributors typically sign to iStock as non-exclusive. Your Downloads do not impact your royalty rate if you are a non-exclusive contributor. Find out more about exclusivity.

And for exclusive contributors there is a difference compared to shutterstock:

If you reach a higher Download Target you will receive the corresponding higher royalty rate on new licenses in the following month. You can only move up during the year, but the Download total you end the year on determines your starting royalty rate for the next calendar year, so your starting rate can move up or down.

On January 01, each year, every contributor's Download total is reset to zero.

I interpret it this way:
If the contributor reaches 5000 photo downloads by the end of the year, he will receive 30%. This 30% is still valid for January. If he has less than 1000 photo downloads in January, he drops back to 25%.

The bottom line is that agencies will pay less and less. And you have to upload more and more to stay on the same level financially.

Quote from: Firn on January 04, 2022, 12:16

Quote from: [email protected] on January 04, 2022, 12:01
I made $190 last month on shutterstock and  My income has not reset to zero yet. anyone having this issue ?

Yes, my earnings also haven't reset.
Usually I would not worry about it, because sometimes it can take a bit longer, because I had to update my tax form and wasn't sure the update had gone through (as I kept getting notifications that it needed to be updated, even though I already had) so I was not sure I would get my payment this month and  contacted support and was told that there was nothing to worry about, the payment process was delayed because of the holiday weekend. Since this was not an answer from real support, but just an "expert contributor", I don't know how much validity it has.

Exactly the same happened to me, Firn. I had submitted my new W8BEN and several days later got the same notification.

The payout will follow in the next days.

Quote from: thijsdegraaf on January 04, 2022, 11:02

Quote from: Wilm on January 04, 2022, 10:44

Quote from: Findura on January 04, 2022, 08:59

Quote from: H2O on January 03, 2022, 17:58
It's about the talent not uploading, sure your going to get the odd person who will continue too, but overall the bigger picture is, the majority of creative people are not going to be uploading and this will in time have an impact, I predict (and it is the Season for predicting) that five years from now Shutterstock will be a mere shadow of what it was five years ago.

When I started in 2019, SS was number 1 for the majority of contributors in terms of revenue and downloads.
And that is still the case today. Still the majority of contributors write that SS is the 'best horse in the race'. Also with me.
SS are the best sellers. There is no downward trend to be seen.
Anyone who wants to make money must logically be with the number 1 agency.

I had a very steep upward trend with shutterstock. I started there in November 2010 and it went steeply uphill until 2015. In 2012, shutterstock was better than Fotolia (Adobe Stock) for the first time.  Since 2016, I have been going downhill with shutterstock. Since 2018 Adobe Stock is better than shutterstock again.

In the poll results, shutterstock was listed as the number 1 for a very long time. Meanwhile, it is often the case that Adobe Stock is number 1. This is despite the fact that there is no money to be made there in editorial for many contributors.

I don't know how many contributors offer their numbers in the Poll results. But if that number is high enough to indicate a trend, you can see that your statement is not a blanket statement.

Can't that be because you upload new photos to Adobe and not to Shutterstock Wilm? (I know your port on Shutterstock well, the one on Adobe not)

Thijs,

I also uploaded very little to Adobe Stock. But at the time when shutterstock was going downhill for me, I uploaded as much there as I did on Adobe Stock.
I don't know exactly, but maybe there is some element in shutterstock's algorithm that penalizes you for uploading little. And with AS, I don't think there is.

Anyway: Obviously most of the contributors at shutterstock meanwhile don't earn more than at AS. And that used to be different.

Quote from: Findura on January 04, 2022, 08:59

Quote from: H2O on January 03, 2022, 17:58
It's about the talent not uploading, sure your going to get the odd person who will continue too, but overall the bigger picture is, the majority of creative people are not going to be uploading and this will in time have an impact, I predict (and it is the Season for predicting) that five years from now Shutterstock will be a mere shadow of what it was five years ago.

When I started in 2019, SS was number 1 for the majority of contributors in terms of revenue and downloads.
And that is still the case today. Still the majority of contributors write that SS is the 'best horse in the race'. Also with me.
SS are the best sellers. There is no downward trend to be seen.
Anyone who wants to make money must logically be with the number 1 agency.

I had a very steep upward trend with shutterstock. I started there in November 2010 and it went steeply uphill until 2015. In 2012, shutterstock was better than Fotolia (Adobe Stock) for the first time.  Since 2016, I have been going downhill with shutterstock. Since 2018 Adobe Stock is better than shutterstock again.

In the poll results, shutterstock was listed as the number 1 for a very long time. Meanwhile, it is often the case that Adobe Stock is number 1. This is despite the fact that there is no money to be made there in editorial for many contributors.

I don't know how many contributors offer their numbers in the Poll results. But if that number is high enough to indicate a trend, you can see that your statement is not a blanket statement.

Quote from: Firn on December 31, 2021, 17:13

Quote from: DavidK on December 31, 2021, 17:04

Quote from: Wilm on December 31, 2021, 12:20

But here's a question: How many images have you uploaded to shutterstock this year?

I think I see where you are going with that Wilm, and if I'm right it highlights what to me is probably the most profound change in microstock over the years. A trend which I'm afraid will continue well past 2022.

Earnings growth at one time much was more in line with portfolio growth. It was never a direct correlation obviously, but it was as I say, more predictable. I remember when feeding the beast used to be the mantra, and for a while it seemed to work. Now not so much.

If I take my numbers it's like this:
I have 8900 images in my port right now. I added around 2500 in 2021. That's an 28%increase. But my earnings increased by 107% on Shutterstock from 2020 to 2021.

Then you were very hardworking and have earned the gain also honestly!

And in your case you have been adequately rewarded for your work - at least at shutterstock.

Happy new year to all of you! 

Quote from: Firn on December 31, 2021, 13:05

Quote from: Wilm on December 31, 2021, 12:20

The biggest negative part of my personal development has shutterstock. Compared to my best year, I have 5,250 fewer downloads there in 2021. Since the RPD there was $0.88 in my best year and now it's 0.61, the financial losses are much higher in percentage terms.

See Wilm, I have always had a bit different approach to this than most people here seem to have. I don't care much about download numbers or RPD. It's a number you use to determine the worth an agency attaches to your photos, but it doesn't really translate well for me in regards of the time/costs - earnings relation and it doesn't pay my bills. You could have a RPD of 10$, but if your shoots are very expensive, because you rent locations and hire models, you could still end up getting less money for your time and costs than someone who just takes photos of his backyard flowers and has an RPD of 0.30$.

What I care about is how much money I get for my work at the end of the month. How much time did I spend to take, keyword and edit the photos? Did I spend time creating props, driving to locations or did I spend money on props for the photos? And these factors are alwys the same on all agencies. I don't soend more time or money on photos I submit to Shutterstock than on Adobe, Alamy or iStock. So why should I care for the RPD? I have a much betrter  RPD on Alamy for example than on Shutterstock.  What use is the high RPD on Alamy to me? The money I earn from them is pocket money at best. The money I get from Shutterstock pays my rent and has more than doubled within the past year.

And, if I remmeber correctly, you were one of the people who said you hardly submit new content to Shutterstock anymore? Because that's something I see a lot - people who say they rarely submit new images or don't submit new images at all, but then are frustrated that their income declines. Maybe submitting some images and then just watching them make you money without submiting new content is something that used to work on Shutterstock years ago. I don't know. This is only my 4th year doing microstock. But nowadays, at least from my experinece, you have to keep putting effort into it if you want to see a reward. For me that seems to work.

Firn, that's right, I don't upload anything to shutterstock anymore. That's what I had written.

Shutterstock used to be my favorite agency a few years ago. But it has deteriorated so much there that I just don't have the motivation to feed the database there anymore.

I don't have any costs for the creation of my images. I don't need models, no studio, no studio rent or equipment, no staff, I don't drive anywhere to shoot. It's the other way around. When I'm somewhere, I take pictures there. I don't have expensive photo equipment either, I still take photos with my compact camera. My "cost" is in the time I have to invest to create an image, upload it and create keywords. It's my hourly wage. And when someone keeps lowering the hourly wage while taking in more and more, I feel screwed.

With Adobe Stock, my RPD is double what it is with shutterstock. I didn't get enough downloads together to get the full CC for free, because I didn't make the 5000 - unfortunately. I have never made it there. Even in my best year, I would have been just under 130 downloads short. But in our other forum you may have read that there are some contributors who have easily made it. By the way, one of them who makes it has less than 600 images in his portfolio. So that's an additional financial incentive to make an effort there. And I don't see that incentive with the other agencies anymore.

I have about 1300 images in the portfolio - on average for the agencies where I offer. I would have to double the images to make up for my losses from previous years. And if RPD is $0.10 at some point, I would have to upload six times the amount of images to make the same income. But then my hourly wage would just be way too low for me.

I also wouldn't work for an employer who cut my pay while my cost of living and his profit went up. And I certainly wouldn't work there more for the reduced pay. But as I wrote before: Everyone has to decide for himself. I will let it expire there - with all the resulting negative consequences, which you have already correctly indicated.

But here's a question: How many images have you uploaded to shutterstock this year?

Quote from: Firn on December 31, 2021, 09:28
Since everyone's predictions for 22 seem so gloomy, I thought I would share some numbers to give some people hope that maybe not all is lost in microstock. I am sure it's not the "good old days" anymore and rerquired more work these days, but it's not just all going downhills.
I am not one of the "big players" in microstock, I don't make tons of money from it, but it's till a nice amount each month that contributes greatly to covering my living costs, so definitely more than just pocket change.

Shutterstock earnings
January 20->21: +131%
February 20->21: +214%
March 20->21: +151%
April 20->21: +74%
May 20->21: +132%
June 20->21: +140%
July 20->21: +148%
August 20->21: +123%
September 20->21: +45%
October 20->21: +98%
November 20->21: +23%
December 20->21: +11%

iStock earnings
January 20->21: +76%
February 20->21: +117%
March 20->21: +130%
April 20->21: +62%
May 20->21: +158%
June 20->21: +50%
July 20->21: +79%
August 20->21: +131%
September 20->21: +33%
October 20->21: +79%
November 20->21: +170%

Adobe earnings
January 20->21: +41%
February 20->21: +50%
March 20->21: +56%
April 20->21: -11%
May 20->21: -12%
June 20->21: -45%
July 20->21: +99%
August 20->21: +131%
September 20->21: +35%
October 20->21: +53%
November 20->21: +37%
December 20->21: +50%

My conclusions for 2021 and prediction for 22: Not everything is on the decline. If you  keep putting effort into microstock, there is still a reward in in, income can still increase. I don't have any plans (mostly for the lack of ideas) to find a different way to sell my photos, but only plan to expand my portfolio and hopefully further increase my earnings.
Also, some conclusions at least from my portfolio:
The level earning structure on SS doesn't seem to be so bad, at least if you rise in level fast.
iSTock and SS, the agencies most people seem to hate are not only the ones that earn me the most money, but also the ones where my income improved the most in 21 compared to 20.
- Adobe, which averyone praises so much, is the agenciy with the smalles increade in earnings, even with a decline in earnings compared to 2020 during some months. Me and Adobe will probably never become good friends.

I didn't add the numbers for the small agencies, because it's so much work and also because I only joined most of them this year, so I don't have numbers to compare. On Alamy my earnings seem to be a bit better than in 20. At least they are more frequent, but with the many very low sales and me still waiting for sales from 9 months ago to clear, it's not so easy to get proper numbers. Last year Dreamstime was my best-selling agency of the "small ones", but both sale numbers and earnings are now on the decline, so not much hope for my future there.

Firn, unfortunately I cannot share your positive listing. I think that the negative trend will continue and the RPD will continue to decline.
Everyone must judge for themselves whether the effort is still worth it.

The biggest negative part of my personal development has shutterstock. Compared to my best year, I have 5,250 fewer downloads there in 2021. Since the RPD there was $0.88 in my best year and now it's 0.61, the financial losses are much higher in percentage terms. Since I also don't upload anything there anymore, the downloads will continuously decrease even more and the revenues will decrease accordingly even more significantly. Also because it will take me longer to get back to my original level.
But I don't want to fight against a decreasing RPD with more work - I don't want to reward shutterstock with useless extra work.
The same is true for other agencies. When I upload something, which is rare at the moment, I focus on Adobe Stock. Because there, download numbers and revenue have increased slightly for me, and RPD has remained fairly stable, at least over the last 4 years, even though I've uploaded very little there, too.

But with almost all agencies, the continuously decreasing RPD is clearly visible.

Let me compare the current RPD from 2021 with the one from 2015:

Adobe Stock
2015 RPD = $ 1.38
2021 RPD = $ 1.23
Down 11%

dreamstime:
2015 RPD = $ 1.29
2021 RPD = $ 1.15
Down 11%

shutterstock:
2015 RPD = $ 0.75
2021 RPD = $ 0.61
Down 18.7%

Deposit:
2015 RPD = $ 0.59
2021 RPD = $ 0.43
Down 27.2%

123rf:
2015 RPD = $ 0.98
2021 RPD = $ 0.65
Down 33.7%

iStock:
2015 RPD = $ 0.58
2021 RPD = $ 0.64
Up 10.2%

Quote from: everest on December 27, 2021, 07:57
Yes you can. I now make over 50.000$ year on photos and videos. It is more tough every year. My peak was at 150.000$ year so yeah feeling the pressure.

I have made over 23k for a photo in the "good old days" and dozens over 2k. Now it is very rare. That's not the game anymore. You should not count on those rare sales

You are right that for retirement and a side income stock is not bad. You probably spent way more on equipment, software, gas, computer, time. But if that's just a hobby it is fine. Usually hobbies don't get any returns at all so. But don't be deluded and take those costs into consideration before saying you made 2000$ in a year if you spent 4000 to get there.

So your stock has shown at National Geographic. Well done. Does it mean something, or will it get to enjoy the national photographer life or revenue. I doubt it. But if that makes you happy go ahead. I understand that people might feel amazing for their 1s of glory.

By the way the market reality is not dependent on SS, as I have not made a single penny on them as they don't carry any of my creative work. So every dollar of the 50k earned has been made somewhere else. Trust me . If your work is good you will get your work purchased . No need to be in the SS cheap marketplace  where you are a small fry among millions of assets and you are being paid 10c a pop

You see . Your reality is different to some that are a little more experienced in this game. Nothing wrong that you go after your reality but take into account that many other ones exist and with a much better return that the loosing Shutterstock proposition.

Quote from: William Perry on December 26, 2021, 17:41
No one said you can make a living at stock.

But a $1,000 sale for one photo ain't bad.

Make your bread somewhere else, but in retirement not a bad gig.

Through stock some of my photos have shown up in National Geographic publications.

So get out if you want to make a living .  As one senior person in Stock told me about people leaving SS because of the cut in commissions "good".  Less competition.  By the way, she is not working at SS.

This is simple market reality.

$50.000 still is very impressing! May I ask how many images and videos there are in your Portfolio? And those 50.000 are not only at shutterstock, I guess?

This is not a problem. Africa Studio is not one person, but a conglomerate of contributors. As long as you have contractually regulated the rights of use, that's absolutely fine.

Quote from: cascoly on December 26, 2021, 18:43

Quote from: Wilm on December 23, 2021, 22:23
....
You are cordially invited for raclette. And of course, feel free to take pictures. The tabletop is brand new and makes a very nice background. And: It's not far. Only 12,000 kilometers! We have a guest room for you...

when we skied in Switzerland or France & went out for raclette we were always told we had to have it with a particular white wine (which they just happened to have) and that otherwise the cheese would form an indigestible ball in the stomach!!

we were going to have wine anyway, so didn't need the upsell

often we'd go skiing the week before xmas & drive home xmas day with all traffic in other direction

if not skiing, for thankx & xmas we'd usually trade dinners w friends - turkey both times but different trimmings

Hello cascoly,

yes, the subject of wine & cheese is tricky.

In Roquefort in France they serve blue cheese with sweet white wine. The more intense, older and saltier the cheese, the sweeter the wine. An incredible combination, even if you don't like blue cheese like me.

White wine is often served with a cheese platter. Usually there is also fruit. Fruit, cheese and white wine is often a difficult combination. It can lead to problems.

I don't know whether white wine or red wine is the better choice though.

What I do know is that the Swiss drink mostly white wine with raclette - and also with cheese fondue. But tea is supposed to be even better than white wine, because it's supposed to be more digestible.

My personal conclusion: the raclette with the red wine was very tasty and is very good to us! 

Quote from: Annie on December 24, 2021, 18:59

Quote from: Wilm on December 23, 2021, 22:23

Quote from: Annie on December 23, 2021, 19:33
Oh, wow! Look at all the wonderful food ideas. Yum !

Martha, Beef Wellington sounds fantastic.

Wilm, I have heard of raclette before but thank you for your mouth-watering description. I would love to photograph something like that. Would make a great flatlay. And yes - the Rosemount wine! I forgot. We were supposed to 'share' that when I reached 100k DLs on SS this year. I was so busy and distracted at the time that I never posted it to SS forum.

Of course, Rosemount Estates is here in my home state, but Wilm - because our winery industry here is one of our big exports, I am always interested to hear how much you would pay for a bottle of that wine overseas?

Pete - thanks for the shrimp recipe!! Yum. We would call them prawns here - and do you remember the old Australian 'put a shrimp on the barbie' tourism ads with Paul Hogan??

https://youtu.be/95OovSKEtfs

Hello Annie,

the Rosemount Estate Shiraz is about $8 here, the Cabernet Sauvignon is $9.

But for you to just hide the 100,000 downloads is outrageous! You can't be that busy that you forget to post that! 

Congratulations on this well-deserved milestone! Super! 

You are cordially invited for raclette. And of course, feel free to take pictures. The tabletop is brand new and makes a very nice background. And: It's not far. Only 12,000 kilometers! We have a guest room for you...

I forgot to answer the DLs part.

Yeah, I reached it 3 months ago, late September. I knew it was coming up and one morning I opened up my SS dashboard and there it was. It had just ticked over to 100,002 or something.

But Sept and Oct were horrendously busy months. I was helping with my husband's accounting business and we were working really long days every day. No breaks. No days off.

But I printed it out and was going to frame it. (Which I still havent got around to doing)

Fine, Annie, I'm happy for you! Well deserved - no question! But it would also have been sad if your stringent approach would not pay off.

I wish you every success for 2022!

Sorry, I just understood. It now seems to be about this year.

In December, a download at $ 70.70 was the highest. In November and October $40 each. In July I had two at $35 each. In May it was one for $80 and one for $60. April $86 and $36. All others were less than $30.

Quote from: DavidK on December 26, 2021, 17:56

Quote from: Asthebelltolls on December 26, 2021, 16:17

Quote from: Dumc on December 26, 2021, 05:50
My highest this year: 72$, 66$, 64$, 48$ and plenty in the 15-25$ range (level 4)
My highest ever: 98$

Highest for video: 120$ (this month, level 2)

What a complete and totally useless topic and response. Share with us Dumc, how much would you have made pre-2018 before the SS slashed commissions? Are you an agent working for the SS? When you cuddle up to them do you thank them each time for being so generous? You have no idea how all of us collectively are delighted to learn your SS story and success. Just goes to show it doesn't matter how much the industry slashes commissions when you're a brilliant photographer and videographer. You'll still make 72$, 66$, 64$, 48$, 15-25$, 98$ and 120$.

I can only guess that you and Dumc have a history? If not that seems a bit over the top.

I wasn't going to respond to this thread at all because really it's no ones business but my own. However "all of us collectively" is not accurate and I just want to let you know that you are definitely not speaking for me. First though I want to make clear that I am not an agent of SS or any other agency for that matter. I'm neither a fan nor a hater of any of them. To me they're just a necessary means to an end and my emotional attachment to all or any of them is probably on par with their emotional attachment to me. I don't consider myself "brilliant" at anything, especially photography and video, and like you I'm also not thrilled with what's happening to the market right now.

That's why I am actually delighted to hear about Dumc's numbers. It shows that maybe just maybe there's a little more to be eeked out of this industry at least for a little while. That is while we're still in the transitional period of Shutterstock's move to subscription only. For myself all I will say is that my portfolio is tiny (887 images, 137 videos). So far this month on SS I've had 562 downloads for a total of $561.41. You can do the math but it's obviously similar to Dumc in that they are far from .10 downloads. It's also an average RPD which has been more or less consistent for me since the new earnings structure. Some months it's more. Some months it's less. It's actually the overall number of downloads that are down for me. Would I have made more before the cut? Perhaps, but it's impossible to tell for sure. Too many variables and moving parts right now. All I know is that to me the difference between 10 cents and 38 cents is negligible anyway, and always has been. It's the higher value sales that keep me in for now. Once those dry up completely with microstock it's all useless anyway.

So yes, good for you Dumc!

Those are excellent numbers, David! To get 560 downloads with a portfolio of this size just on shutterstock is really good these days. I used to have as many downloads a month as images in the portfolio back in the golden days. But for me, that's a thing of the past.

I can't keep up with the astronomical numbers by far! Two SODs at $120 each in one day was my personal highlight. For photos, because videos I have never made.

Quote from: Unamas on December 23, 2021, 23:32
Interesting portfolio https://www.shutterstock.com/g/pisanstock?sort=newest

Thank you very much for this impressing source of inspiration!