I uploaded in December 2023, approved 7'th Jan 2024.
According to Jo Anns comment, it needs to be approved in 2023.

So apparently I missed it because of the approval time. Seems a bit unfair but, hey, it is what it is.

Hi Matt,
Went to check now and I have 500+ downloads, and 30+ uploads in 2023.
However, I did not get my redeem code. I went to double check my upload approval, and most of them occurred in January, even though the files were uploaded  early December.
Is this supposed to be like this? Do I not qualify because of that?
I thought the rule was "images uploaded in 2023".

Quit trying to criticize everything you don't agree with. I personally have had contact with Alex by email and he is a great, helpful guy.
Keep in mind that for 100 people reading and enjoying the content, there will be a couple of criticizing posts. The negative always seems to outweight the positive. Human nature, I suppose.
Alex, just keep doing what you are doing, man.

Quote from: Brasilnut on September 26, 2019, 00:06
Having a monster month on SS...

Thats hilarious and sad at the same time to me  .  My BME by far was june. This Sept is my worst month this year so far. Hasnt been so bad since april last year, and i had half the portfolio I have today.
It just shows that sales are seasonal.
br,
Joao

Hi,
I am trying to login to ESP but they don´t accept my login anymore. I´ve tried to change the password but the site show a problem when I try to change it (complains about my username).
Anyone else going through the same thing?
Thanks

Quote from: farbled on July 27, 2018, 02:20
Hahaha good! Anyone who wants to see mine, here's one:

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/farbled

Wow. Thats a lot of food. Great port.
PS: gonna complain to my wife about her cooking..

I have used QHERO in the past. Its free, web and simple. It sucks because its an extra step in the workflow, though.

I´ve got just bellow 2.000 pictures in shutterstock now. I earn aprox $40 dollars a month. I don´t think I have a stellar portfolio, but its not terrible either.
I´d say the $1/year rule applies to all of the agencies together. I confess I am a bit bellow that, earning around $0,75 for the for an average of 1500 pictures at all agencies together.
Don´t know if I´ll continue to increase my portfolio, to be honest. Too much work for little payback.
br,
Joao

ShadySue, I always hear about this cannabis man but have never seen his portfolio. What´s his username?
thanks!

Thats something I struggle with. How to know what to shoot ... and that´s the million dollar question.
My question to you guys is: Do you choose based on experience of you selling clips, or do you have an external tool to do it? (google trending topics, suggested themes by the agencies, keyword.io numbers, etc)?
I´m not asking for you workflow, I know thats trade secret, but where do you look to find "what customers want"?
Thanks!

It´s absolutely insane... he has 260.000 photos...
I really wonder how much he sells...

Quote from: Brightontl on June 04, 2018, 21:54
I believe that the size of a portfolio is a very overstated idea.
In the last year I have been uploading only 30-40 clips per month, as opposed to 150-250 before (I have been busy with other projects, as some of you might have noticed :-)), and my sales have actually increased.
Of course, now I don't upload any similar clips and I pay a lot of attention to quality rather than quantity

I must start doing this, photos and footage alike. But I always think "what is the buyer wants this slightly different view".
The only question is: is it only a matter of "being more work for me (keywording, post processing, etc)" or does it actually affect sales?
BTW, love your youtube channel!

 Thank you so much for the response!!

increasingdifficulty,
I'm begining with timelapses and still choosing the tools for the trade.
Do you use after effects exclusively ours do you use LRtimslapse?
Do you use premiere at all?
is the warp stabilizer enough for timelapses or do you normally go into tracking?
I'd greatly appreciate your feedback.
BR
jpbarcelos

Wow, that video is just brilliant. Even thought i´d think that the individual timelapses would be very relevant for stock, what really makes it come together are the transitions. I don´t know if those could be brough to stock, though.
ps: newbie here, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
br,

Hi guys,
Just out of curiosity (as I never resubmit any rejected images as editorial): Do they sell regularly as editorial?
I get the impression from the forum (silly me) that editorial images sell waaaay too little, and aren´t worth the bother. Obviously there could be cases of people who earn a living shooting only editorial, but in general, are they likely to sell just a little as commercial, or a lot less ?
thanks!

Quote from: christiano on May 04, 2018, 15:39

Quote from: Brasilnut on May 04, 2018, 14:29

Anyway, need to stop myself from checking so often.

me too! 

me three!!

You can try and use stocksubmitter. Depending on the volume you upload, it´s free.
But here´s the cool part. Even if you upload more than 33 files per month, you can still use it to upload automatically to all sites at once, and then manually submit on each site.
Do try it. I don´t get anything for saying that.
br,
joao

Quote from: Pauws99 on April 12, 2018, 09:37

Quote from: jonbull on April 11, 2018, 17:33

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 11, 2018, 16:51

Quote from: Pauws99 on April 10, 2018, 22:04

Quote from: jonbull on April 10, 2018, 19:41
clearly they messed with the algorithm and sales  stops again...i hate them really i will sacrifice all my sales to see them go bankrupt.

No one's forcing you to have your work on their site.

And what they label a button, a tab or a link doesn't change where it leads and what it does. It's just a name. Yes the search changes all the time, not to hurt us personally or any of that hogwash but to make the most sales for the company and make the best results for the buyers, so they will download more. It's not about us as an individual.

But I still say the best results for buyers would be clean up the inappropriate keywords and duplicate inch by inch image spamming. That would make the buyers happy and me too.  I'd start by issuing warnings about spammed keywords and give people a month to fix them. If not, start removing images and accounts. Sorry, none of us are indispensable or irreplaceable at this stage. Reminder: 188,996,528 royalty-free stock images / 1,398,139 new stock images added this week 

They don't care anymore. IS doesn't care, they accept almost anything, SS doesn't care, neither one does, unless there's some potential legal problem. Adobe is the last one, except the smaller specialty and selective agencies, that actually holds image standards up. Adobe passed IS, remember when IS was the top agency?

The gold rush is over, we're in for the long grind now. The rapid growth and expansion has passed. Competition is flooding the market. New competition, new photos, new illustrations, remember the race to the bottom, where we get less and less for the same number of downloads? We're there. Remember slice of the pie, spreading the same number of sales, over many more people? We're there.

And at the same time the small agencies are slowing down more, and some will be closing. FT sold, BS sold, even TS owned by Getty, a huge collection of agencies they bought, is closing and being merged into iStock. If anyone cares to look at this from a business perspective, marketing, supply vs demand, all this along with the consolidation or mergers at the top, makes perfect sense.

Video is the last frontier for now. Make money while you can.

i completely disagree on stock...
they not accept everything...most of the b...it in ss are not not in stock...sure they lowered the standard, but ss killed any possible standard...go to the forum of ss and see those newbie asking why their images not sell...most have portfolio that i really cannot even imagine how you could only think to upload that stuff....in stock i cannot find so many  garbage photos...

just a search comparison.,,

cheesecake terms..

https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/cheesecake?phrase=cheesecake&sort=best   49,349Images

https://www.shutterstock.com/search?search_source=base_landing_page&language=en&searchterm=cheesecake&image_type=all    112000 images

https://it.fotolia.com/search?k=cheesecake&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aall%5D=1&search-submit=Ricerca  67.408 images

is not a case that all my new files have visit and practically i'm selling only new files there and every month i grow 30%  , while in ss i grow  yes but thanks to old photos mostly with good position in search engine...the day they mess up with search engine i won't sell anymore cause my new files won't sell.

I doubt the world really needs new pictures of cheese cake.

Lol. That´s what I get from the discussion as well... 

After 4 days without sales I got 7 sales just this morning. I wonder if they don´t report for a while a then throw all sales together in one bundle all at once.

@Brasilnut,
No worries.
I have your book too.

I wonder if you could do that with any photos taken on unsplash. According to them, their license is:

"All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible."

I think, in you case, it would classify as valid under their license. But I am as far as one can get from a specialist on the theme.

I´ve never tried it.

i´m going on my longest period without sales in Shutterstock since I began uploading more frequently.

Curiously bigstock and AS have generated more than shutterstock so far.

And as long as I am here, I might as well ask:
Out of all the video editing courses and youtube videos out there, would you guys recommend any one specific?
ps: not necessarity related to stock, more a "videography for photographers" kind of thing.
thanks in advance!

@increasingdifficulty, there are some diferences though. There is a long thread here in forum about what is the best format to upload (h265, prores, photojpeg) and pros and cons of each format. And other talking what sw to edit (some people indicating AE, some people PR, some people MPEG Streamclip, basically beacause you wouldn´t need a timeline for editing short clips for stock.
So: there are some details specific to stock.
But in general I agree with you: most succesfull stock photographers won´t create this course. But it could make them some money. I am sure Steve Heap has had a good return from his books (I´ve bought it, I can tell you that).

@izzikiorage There is also another blog from Alexandre Rothenberg that´s also useful:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/