Quote from: AM24 on June 14, 2025, 15:56

Quote from: Pacesetter on June 14, 2025, 05:09

Quote from: SuperPhoto on June 14, 2025, 01:28
Any idea why the adobe sales are so low right now? And how to get them back up? Thanks!

I have a theory but I note from discussions on FB others are reporting slow sales on Adobe with some suggestions of public holidays and special days such as Eid etc happening around the world. We had a public holiday on Monday which definitely affected my sales this week.

My theory is, and I know this is gonna sound bizarre, like I've gone BS crazy even, is Shutterstock are winning back customers from Adobe! I'm finding higher commission sales are returning on Shutterstock this past two months while those higher commission sales have fallen on Adobe Stock.

How to get them back up on Adobe Stock is a question I couldn't answer but if there's any truth to my theory I think having strong ports on as many agencies as possible is probably the way to combat slow sales on any one agency. I had three consecutive slow months overall in February, March and April and much better results in May and going well so far in June (overall). So some of this could be algorithm changes or time of year. I often read contributors experience a summer slump in the northern hemisphere if that could also be a contributing factor? But otherwise I am reading contributors posts on FB saying sales are slow on Adobe as well.       

I agree, Pace. I just checked and can see very similar to you. With some exceptions on AS but similar increase in SS sales.

Here a few things that come to mind:

1. AS deleted a lot of files recently. Remember what they used to tell us on the old SS forum? 'Never delete any files because you never know what is going to sell'.

2. SS merged with Getty.

3. There is a huge swing away from Adobe products to more user-friendly platforms. I must admit the only Adobe product I use now is PS for photo editing. Everything else (in particular, all my design work) I can do on Canva. And I have a background in graphic design and was originally trained on Adobe Indesign - but that is all old hat now. Designer's (buyers) don't want that difficulty anymore. Canva is just growing and growing all the time with new features. And if you have a Pro account, you can download any elements (photos, videos, illustrations, etc, etc) you need from there, which (the non-free stuff) come from Getty contributors - so maybe SS now as well?

4. Social media. Did I read somewhere that you have done well on Youtube? I've been following this new agency on social media out of curiosity. Its following has jumped from 20k+ to now 31k in just a couple of weeks. One thing it does is tell their followers Canva hacks. (I must admit I even learnt a few really good things). This agency is pure Millennial market stuff but it demonstrates a potential buyer trend in these directions.


The exception I mentioned above with regard to AS sales, is that I have quite a few PNGs on AS that I put up a year or so ago, specifically suitable for Adobe Express (Canva clone) users and they are still selling extremely well.

Hope you are well.
Cheers!

I have never had anything to do with Canva. It just wasn't on my radar. Don't even really know much about it. But in the last week I learned two things: 1) there is a fascinating article about how they are wholeheartedly embracing AI and doing anything and everything they can to accelerate what it offers to their users/customers. I have no horse in that race but it sounds like they are really trying (and succeeding) in differentiating themselves in the marketplace. 2) my wife, who works at a school, mentioned off the cuff just the other day that almost all teachers and many students use Canva for all kinds of things from posters/flyers to full fledged completed videos. She said many educators all over the country use it- like it has become a de facto solution. Very interesting stuff. For those that have been around a while, wasn't Canva just kind of a third tier agency with low pricing and generally poor sales? Or am I mistaken?

Leaf, thanks for kicking the server and getting things going again.

Quote from: Evaristo tenscadisto on May 09, 2025, 16:59
At the end of last year, when Pond5 announced the changes to exclusive rates—from 60% to 40%—and dataset earnings—from 60% to 20%—I estimated here in the forum that the actual loss would be at least 50% of my monthly income.

I was wrong. It's significantly more—closer to a 63% drop. So for every $1,000 I used to earn in 2024, I now make around $370.
In my case, I've already lost thousands in just the first four months.

But this is all a matter of perspective—what's bad for me may be good for other contributors, and likely is. Otherwise, how can we explain the fact that Pond5 adds half a million new clips every month?
Most of the new contributors seem to come from Eastern Europe, Russia, and Asia—usually from Bangladesh or India—with some portfolios containing over 100,000 clips.

My P5 sales are also down significantly. Like depressingly so. I literally remember the day I got the email from Tom Crary saying they were merging with SS. I remember it so well because it was just a horrible thing to read and the feeling of darkness and dread was palpable. In my heart I knew then that P5, which had at one time been an excellent and exceptional agency, was going to be destroyed by all the same terrible policies and practices that plagued SS. I got that email in May of 2022 and so now, three years later, we see that, yes, in fact the sale of P5 to SS was a major disaster and letdown for most (and maybe all) of us. What a shame they couldn't have just kept going like they were. I know the payday was probably very good for the executives- it's understandable. But what a shame for the rest of us.

Evaristo, with typical algorithm changes and SEO shakeups I agree that other contributors can and maybe usually benefit- i.e. the sales just shift to a different contributor. But in this case I think the overall mojo and appeal of P5 as an independent, more selective and higher quality agency and platform overall has subsided and declined, thus leading to a decline in overall traffic and sales across the board. I have no data or figures to support this- it's just my hunch.

I also think the overall uncertainly in the worldwide economy is also a major factor in lower stock sales across the board right now. But even if the macro-economic factors were not in play, I still think P5 would be down simply by virtue of being absorbed by the goons at SS.

As an aside, look at the contributor portal and trends/ideas pages at P5- nothing updated since 2023. And, even worse, they removed all the specialized search queries to see how sales were for a particular clip, contributor, genres, etc. That used to be so valuable. Again, such a shame.

Things always change but this one was truly unfortunate. Crazy that it has been three years now.

Quote from: kuriouskat on March 24, 2025, 10:04

Quote from: Ukko on March 22, 2025, 20:58
I'm in the exact same situation - just waiting for a final $9 payout before closing my account. Seeing the dramatic drop in sales over the years, it really feels like there's no longer anything to gain by staying. Definitely time to move on.

I have $20 to go until next payout, but then I'm shutting it down. Although it will be time consuming, I'm planning on deleting all content before asking for account closure.

Smart to delete content yourself first. Doesn't guarantee they won't still somehow profit from it but most certainly better than trusting them to manage/delete the data properly.

Sales have been slower for me overall since April of this year. June was okay but everything else since April has been down significantly. So far October is slow as well. I think the strikes have contributed but I think the bigger issue is the very dim economic environment that most of the world is in. Sales are down in many industries and this has a trickle down effect to marketing and creative aspects. Hopefully it rebounds when economic conditions improve, which I think it will. But it could be a year or more until then, unfortunately.

Thank you for that- it works and good to have for the future. It also seems like the main site is back online as well. Perhaps the issue was only on my end. Thank you again!

When I attempt to visit the Nimia site (www.nimia.com) I get a 'down for maintenance' message. It says it's a momentary disruption but this has been the condition for at least most of today. Wondering if anyone has noticed this earlier than today?

Thanks!

Understood. Thank you.

Quote from: J_Stock on October 25, 2022, 13:25
I was on Dissolve for 5 years.  Sales were decent, but they really didn't like that a portion of my portfolio was on subscription sites, so they forcibly reduced all my pricing to ridiculously low amounts, despite the fact that many of my Dissolve clips were NOT on other subscription sites.  So when my contract was up (they make you sign a 5-year contract), I didn't renew.  But they did give out the best quality t-shirts at NAB, which I still wear to this day.  Before the price reduction on my clips, I was doing about $500-$1000/mo there.

Just to clarify, if you don't renew do they automatically remove all of your assets and delete your account? And this 5-year contract, does that mean the clips there are exclusive with them?

Thanks.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 11, 2022, 16:18

Quote from: mossback on April 10, 2022, 21:48

Nice graphic. It sums up the history very well.

Thank You

It could have been better with a third line, curved from the base, slowly arching up to the middle and only gradually increasing from that. That's a total assumption on my part, but lets say demand rose equally along with competition (supply), until 2016 at which time it leveled off. The competition keeps climbing at a higher rate.

That's an imaginary point where Supply / Demand / and value all intersected. It's there as Equilibrium. That point could have been 2012 or 2018, specifics don't matter. The graphic represents that at some time, everything was equal and working for us.

Ever since then, Value has dropped and Supply has skyrocketed and demand is slowing down, but still growing.

Understood on all counts.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 10, 2022, 17:09

Nice graphic. It sums up the history very well.

Very late to the party here but please count me in as another refugee. SS is a shell of what it once was. Long, long ago I was actually proud to be associated with them. I haven't felt that way in years. They foist more and more nonsense on us and continuously insult our intelligence. The forum announcement is just one prime example.

In any case, stay strong and best wishes to all.