Quote from: Bad Robot on May 01, 2021, 19:28

Quote from: Horizon on May 01, 2021, 16:06
Hope you all realize that we as contributors see a different search then the registered buyer!!...old news I know but still!...if I was to search using a certain keyword which is highly popular I have 7 pics on the first page and they would of course sell like crazy but they dont!!  not even once!....why? because in reallity and with the buyers search the pics are probably way down the line!

I have a customer account and I see the same problems

I also have a customer account and I see the same BUT thats because I registered in my real name, same as you!...same name as contributor because you ID yourself!....dead easy to manipulate a search!....btw. this is old news!

Hope you all realize that we as contributors see a different search then the registered buyer!!...old news I know but still!...if I was to search using a certain keyword which is highly popular I have 7 pics on the first page and they would of course sell like crazy but they dont!!  not even once!....why? because in reallity and with the buyers search the pics are probably way down the line!

Quote from: Bad Robot on May 01, 2021, 15:04

Quote from: Horizon on May 01, 2021, 13:29
As soon as SS and Adobe take a nose-dive Alamy will change its algorithm to suit everybody they've been doing this for years. Then when SS and Adobe comes up to the surface again Alamy will change it back to suit their editorial members. The little old group that stand for about 80% of turnover!

Proof of this statement?

Just my own and a few thousand old-timers observation throughout the years......anyway just wait and see for yourself.

As soon as SS and Adobe take a nose-dive Alamy will change its algorithm to suit everybody they've been doing this for years. Then when SS and Adobe comes up to the surface again Alamy will change it back to suit their editorial members. The little old group that stand for about 80% of turnover!

Quote from: alexandersr on April 12, 2021, 16:30
Well a macrostock became a microstock site. That's it!

Yes indeed but I guess they really have no options left but to turn Micro-stock or else they bite the dust. Like so many others!...besides Alamy have touted micro-stock photographers for ages they did it here at the MSG a few years back!

Quote from: cascoly on March 24, 2021, 22:58

Quote from: Uncle Pete on March 23, 2021, 19:31

Quote from: cascoly on March 23, 2021, 01:52.

and of course this is NORMAL for company officers after an IPO - those posting otherwise just show their ignorance of how IPO & laissez-faire capitalism in general work.  after the IPO, principals could not sell for a set # of years - looks  like that date has arrived & officers et al are able to realize $ for their stock.

...
Sorry about the second part, I don't do partisan politics anymore. Too many divisions and loaded questions also agendas and twisted party politic situations. ....

didnt want a political discussion - but just commenting that too much whinging ignores the forest for the toothpicks - the complaints  are only a data point confirming a much larger reality

Quote from: Uncle Pete on March 23, 2021, 19:31

Quote from: cascoly on March 23, 2021, 01:52

Quote from: Uncle Pete on March 22, 2021, 13:46...

The company has plenty of cash. The hateful thinking who ignore the facts, wishful but distorted thinking, the company is doing just fine. People, many others besides  Stan and Jon have been selling big blocks of stock. Easily documented for months and months because it has to be reported. Jon has millions if not a billion, he doesn't need to care. ...

and of course this is NORMAL for company officers after an IPO - those posting otherwise just show their ignorance of how IPO & laissez-faire capitalism in general work.  after the IPO, principals could not sell for a set # of years - looks  like that date has arrived & officers et al are able to realize $ for their stock.

Yes there was full disclosure last year that Jon was selling some of his stock. Also that sale was handled by a third party, not himself. I had to go look, but the search says standard is 90 - 180 days. That's long gone.

Sorry about the second part, I don't do partisan politics anymore. Too many divisions and loaded questions also agendas and twisted party politic situations. I can summarize by saying, they are all crooks and cons and only care about their own power and influence. "How can you tell if a politician is lying" ANS: "Their lips are moving."

We need to work forward and together not keep splitting and dividing into sides and factions and extremist offshoots. Nothing is simple except people who follow the party line, without thinking or looking at the values and ideas of each position. Party people are usually dull and simple blind followers.

Another more positive way of saying this is, I see good on both sides, depending on the situation and the particular arguments. No party lines for me to toe, which means all sides will dislike me. Hopefully on an equal basis? 

Amen to that!  well said!

Quote from: cascoly on March 23, 2021, 01:54

Quote from: Horizon on March 22, 2021, 20:46
Getty is SO incredibly in debt that the bailiffs are practically knocking on the door and they are living on other peoples money! how could they possibly buy SS?? end even so who would possibly want to buy SS?

absolute nonsense (and wishful thinking)- where do you get your info? did you do ANY research?  they're struggling, like many other companies due to the pandemic.  learn how the world works!, large debt has never stopped companies from raiding larger, well funded companies, gutting them for profits & giving the leftovers to GoodWill!

they still show a (slight - single digit) increase in earnings each year

altho i had multiple discs licensed with the legacy company Photo-Disc that Getty bought many years ago, I have no connection w the company

Well, hehe!  thats what I am saying above actually. You should have read that!...theyre all struggling!...I also used photodisc ages back and it was a complete waste of time!

Getty is SO incredibly in debt that the bailiffs are practically knocking on the door and they are living on other peoples money! how could they possibly buy SS?? end even so who would possibly want to buy SS?

Quote from: Microstockphoto on March 14, 2021, 22:55

Quote from: Horizon on March 12, 2021, 15:48


Thats right Pete!  but of course they will lure plenty of noobs to do this for dimes and cents and the poor sods will fall for it! not knowing that dayrate photography following layouts and briefs is min,  $1000 a day. In places like N.Y and London its double!

here he is, hello lagereek

Dang!! you got me! good detective work!...now lets see how many seconds it will take before I'm on my way! haha!

Quote from: Uncle Pete on March 12, 2021, 15:12

Quote from: ShadySue on March 11, 2021, 19:07

Quote from: Uncle Pete on March 11, 2021, 18:53
Before I deleted the email, I noticed this.

Briefs are moving home! Soon you will be able to browse briefs and submit your content, all in ESP. And we're not stopping there... later in the year we will be introducing a new, simpler look to the ESP website, so stay tuned!

Maybe [idle speculation] too many people were opting out of the briefs emails, or ignoring them.

I not at all interested in being paid peanuts for jobs that should be contracted at day rates. Small wonder people have ignored these offers.

Thats right Pete!  but of course they will lure plenty of noobs to do this for dimes and cents and the poor sods will fall for it! not knowing that dayrate photography following layouts and briefs is min,  $1000 a day. In places like N.Y and London its double!

Briefs??? haha! yes thats what we work with in assignment photography and thats assocoated with dayrates!

I wouldnt encourage anybody nowadays. Imagine the embarrassment when they ask how much you earn and you tell them 0.10c a piece! they will tell you to go and see a shrink!

Joebenning!  No you got it wrong its not a matter of evil agencies. Its a matter of if you want to support a business that is going from bad to worse support a business who is surviving on the basis of robbing its suppliers.
You talk about supply and demand hahaha! that conclusion was on the agenda 10 years back but you wasn't here then.

Many people here you understand see their livelihood just fading away and see their portfolios of tens of thousands of images being virtually useless! not a pretty picture.
So to come here with lots of waffle and quasi philosophy isnt a good thing.

SS being a quantity game rather then quality this is a funny thing! so is non looking for quality buyers!

Quote from: Tenebroso on January 08, 2021, 08:54
I'm lost. Are you commenting that a person who is on the left or extreme left, like me, because there is no more left, peaceful and non-violent, someone from the maximum European left like me, should I give away the money if I win it? That I should live in a cardboard house? And have an old car?

I think that the concepts of the old Berlin wall must be overcome. It is, a kind of trauma phobia that haunts you. A real panic to the leftists or communists. Is incredible.

It reminds me of the oriental phobia, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I think being a communist is my identity. If you think it is a disease, I clarify, I do not feel bad about being from the maximum left in Europe. Not radical or violent.

And if there was something that is defined further to the left, I would be there. I love the north pole, polar bears and life. I love, respect for everyone except the extreme right. I don't consider them human, they only bring tears, sadness and blood.

No, I don't give my money away. Nor am I against piling up money.

Everything is made by history, apparently the fascists killed him for being gay, the best poet in all of history. He is my beacon. I love poetry and the real human being.

Being an anti fascist is the most honest thing that makes life great. What is not normal is to be a fascist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca

Haha! you know being a communist just means that you have nothing else to do. You are lost in a dellusion! you should give away all your money all your belonings thoughts and ideals. You should be clutching Mao's little red instead of trying to make a buck in micro-stock!

This little growth is the contributors money that went straight down their pockets! nothing else. So whats next? how are they going to maintain their growth? by stealing from us yet again and again and again??

Quote from: Pauws99 on March 06, 2021, 08:11

Quote from: Uncle Pete on March 05, 2021, 17:22

Quote from: Pacesetter on March 05, 2021, 13:41

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on March 05, 2021, 13:23
They are going to see an epic first quarter thanks to the reset and lower payments to contributors generally.

Longer term I don't think they have a clue what the next step will be. Share holders are going to want to see more growth and they are in a tail spin.

Revenue increases 2% in 2020 and  3% in 2019 compared to 11.9% in 2018 and 12.7% in 2017. They are in a tail spin and instead of reacting by coming up with innovative products they simply put their hands in our pockets and filled theirs.

I agree, recent actions by Shutterstock are indicative of a company in trouble and reacting in panic. At best, unsustainable, at worst a concrete wall dead ahead.

I don't know about tailspin, but the revenue benefits from cutting our earnings are going to go flat. Investors want growth. The other key word mentioned above is innovation. Without innovation, growth will absolutely go flat and then cause the stock price to drop. One thing that works in their favor, competition isn't doing much to take away customers.

I don't think the company will fail or go under, but they won't be interesting to investors and the flat earnings will just mean flat share prices. Jon has been selling, he's smart. When Stan gets his big bonus that we provided from our losses, he should sell as soon as he can.

Back to $40 again and maybe lower by the end of 2021 if they don't come up with something better than steal from the poor to pay the rich.

The Microstock boom has run it's course.

The comany is not in any trouble they are maximising short term gain as they see little future for the stock industry in terms of revenue growth. Contributors who take their photography business seriously should look to do the same and find more innovate/lucrative ways of using their skills.

Oh sorry I forgot! the company is doing brilliant and shareholders are over the moon! The company is famous for treating contributors with respect and even increasing their royalty payments.
Thank God I joined this company in 2005!  just couldnt get any better!.." Semper ama"

This is a company in trouble!! panic reactions just about everywhere!...the more contributors leaving the more trouble!

Quote from: Zero Talent on March 05, 2021, 19:35

Quote from: Horizon on March 05, 2021, 16:30
Hahaha!  but you're right his port is terrible!

Be a man, like blvdone, and say it on the SS forum! 

  yeah right!!

Hahaha!  but you're right his port is terrible!  how childish as if they haven't got better things to do. Shows you the present mentality of the place!

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on March 04, 2021, 23:18

Quote from: wds on March 04, 2021, 22:36

Quote from: Pauws99 on March 04, 2021, 19:43

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on March 04, 2021, 19:01
Part of the problem is every newcomer doesn't realize it's in decline and many don't care. So if they only earn $100 from 10,000 images they wouldn't know any better.

It's:

• Better than nothing
• Better than collecting dust on computer
• Good enough for them
• A hobby so financials like profits matter
• Amazing someone wants to pay anything for their photos
• Helps pay the bills during tough times
• And on and on

I'm sure a lot of people are selling at a loss and don't even know it. Spend time and money on equipment, props, models, gas, and never hit break even.

If you have the equipment and travel to those places anyway the cost is in effect zero. I gave up with models as it lost money. Now I just do stuff that is extremely easy to produce....it doesn't sell much but it only costs me time that I would probably be wasting anyway. To invest money in production costs  seems very risky to me at this point.

Problem is (for the stock sites) because of the declining return for photos,  more and more photogs will give up on high production value and there will be less and less marketable images for the sites to sell because it isn't worth it for the photogs any more.

Right. Some of the sites had content requests along the lines of "attractive elderly couples playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship". So assuming you aren't already going on a cruise with your attractive elderly grandparents and their friends, this would seem to be a difficult, high effort and high cost shoot. Back when RM sites were paying top dollar you could probably quickly break even. Now? I doubt it unless you worked out some special deal for premium non-subscription licensing. Otherwise, it's a lot of pennies, nickles and dimes to turn a profit.

I doubt it. I work with a couple of very high-end older agencies and its just the same with vanishing incomes! just a year back or so the average sale was around 100 dollars but today its around 10 or 15 dollars. Its just bad all over. If anything I recon micro-stock has given a "bad" name? its always had a sort of tarnished reputation but now people are actually sneering at it!

Quote from: Pauws99 on March 04, 2021, 19:36

Quote from: Horizon on March 04, 2021, 18:15
Portfolio size isnt the important thing at all. There used to be some sort of an Industrial guy with just 4000 images and he was earning well over 5K a month. The last I hear he was shooting assignments only but he said he was 70% down and that was over a year back!  he deactivated his port needless to say!

If its who I think it is I woudn't take those claims too seriously  .

Well it wasn't me that said it! it was an article in the Sony Image magazine last year and newsletter. Apparently some four stock photographers shoot lots of images for Sony Technicals using their latest cameras and in the newsletter they were talking stock photography!..so I don't know? just saying really.

Portfolio size isnt the important thing at all. There used to be some sort of an Industrial guy with just 4000 images and he was earning well over 5K a month. The last I hear he was shooting assignments only but he said he was 70% down and that was over a year back!  he deactivated his port needless to say!

Actually joking apart but Digital is not far from the truth about Ukranian women, just have a look at many of their names! its not men, seems that the majority at SS anyway are in fact women walking around with little smartphones!

Its also true that most of their big names left long ago and they was also here in the forum making it interesting!