Anyone else see weird numbers this month in your daily estimate?

Does it seem like there was a search algorithm change? I was having a pretty great year on Storyblocks until last Wed or Thurs, when my earnings suddenly had a massive drop. Sometimes these hiccups happen at Storyblocks, then get corrected the next day, but this one has been going 5 days or so. Anyone else see something like this last week?

Anyone still contributing to Storyblocks?

For those who are, did you see a big change in your estimated August earnings around Aug 16?

For me, it looks like downloads will be flat, and revenue will be down 20%. 

Is anyone else seeing an effect so far from this?

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I had great sales on Tues and Wed, and today -- apparently the first full day of this being in effect -- my sales are in the toilet.  I'll probably end up 70% down from the last few days. Possibly lower than a Saturday.

Anyone else seeing this effect already?

For context, I have thousands of videos on both ss and as. Traditionally earn several hundred a month in videos at each site.

SS sales are up and AS are down. For the past several months.  Not what everyone here wants to see, but it's reality.

I haven't seen any $.30 video downloads yet, but a ton of $1.00 earnings yesterday and today.  The higher priced commissions were coming in pretty regularly up until a few days ago, and it's like they turned off that faucet and turned on the $1.00 and less faucet.

I had been reserving judgment on the 'new normal' at Shutterstock, thinking my video earnings might be holding up fine in the new scheme. I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. No longer. Unless things turn around, you can count me in the camp removing their SS ports. I know I'm one of their top earners -- they've called me multiple times in the past to bounce ideas around, and in doing so said they were contacting their top 100 or so contributors by revenue.  I'm no Africastudio, but I think they'll take notice if I leave.

I was bracing for the worst when I saw the announcement, but so far, my June is looking better than June 2019. Yes, the .10 subs are awful, but I'm also seeing a high number of subs well over the usual .38 -- many over 1.00.  Video sales got off to a slow start, but now they're coming in at a nice pace.  And the dreaded 1.50 Clip Pack commissions are nowhere to be seen.  I'm seeing quite a few Clip Pack sales over 20.00 which rarely happened prior to the change.  So a mixed bag overall, but all in all it appears to be a net positive for my port. Everyone's mileage will vary, of course.

Still not looking forward to Jan 2021. The reset is an insult and needs to be changed.

As the author of the original post, I might as well weigh in with my current perspective.

First, the tiny sliver of good news, at least for me. My 2020 'feels' pretty similar to 2019 so far. Even in these early days of the virus ravaging the planet (and yes -- these are still the early days -- it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better), my sales 'seem' pretty flat to last year. I say 'feel' and 'seem' because a few years ago I stopped doing detailed, daily tracking that I had been doing my first 8 years in micro. It had become too depressing tracking the downward spiral. So now I'll occasionally check SS or AS to see how much I made in the same month a year ago and based on these infrequent checks, I'm holding the line.

Now for the bad...

I decided a year or two ago that continuing to upload at a breakneck pace was pointless. New uploads just don't sell. For me anyway, they take a while to get noticed and then start selling. And this lack of instant gratification has been seriously demotivating. So now, I'm uploading a small fraction of my old daily output, for two reasons: I still get a bit of creative fulfillment, and I fear that if I completely stop, my sales will drastically drop. (Still have to 'feed the beast' just to keep it alive.)

My overall micro revenue is down about 1/3 from its peak in 2014.  At that time, it accounted for half my total income. I was comfortably supporting a family of six on my two incomes, and thankfully I had saved a lot for my kids' future college tuitions. Now the kids range from midway through college to about to start, and that financial burden is no longer a concern. So in a large way, my objective for microstock has been met, and my expectations for it to be a big money maker for me are no longer there.

Plus, my 9 to 5 career has done well as micro has been sinking -- earning a fair amount more in my "real job" than I did in 2014. So I don't lose sleep over micro's future. With the risks much lower for me, I'm even considering what I'll do when the inevitable happens and the big agencies start cutting our royalty rates. I'm toying with setting up a site that could eventually give away all my work for free, supported by Google and affiliate ads. Prior to doing micro, I ran a few sites like this and made a decent side income from it, and I may just return to those roots if and when the big players slash my micro income to the point of being a footnote on my tax returns.

So, thanks microstock, it has been a nice ride, and I'll continue to enjoy the view as the train slows for its eventual stop. But when that day comes, I'll move on, thankful for the experience but ready for the next chapter.

It's a nightmare, if you don't file it right.  You have to make a line item on Schedule C for "duplicate reported income" or something along those lines.  I have to re-check my previous year's tax return every year that I file, because I forget.  One year I was soft-audited and it said I had owed 5 figures in back taxes.  HA!  If only.  It happened to me 2 years in a row, until I figured out how to correct it.

Hey there, thanks for that tip.  Still wondering how to handle it this year. If you find the specifics again, could you please share?

What you need these days is what you needed in the old days: ability to spot topics that are not adequately covered (more demand than supply) and supply it!  Yes, it's getting harder as competition increases, but as far as I can tell, 95% of contributors are copycats (probably more now than ever).  The copycats will eventually catch on to your new subjects and duplicate your work shamelessly, but by the time they're fighting over the scraps you've left behind, you'll be on to your next new subjects.  Always be staking new ground and staying a step or two ahead of the unoriginal thieves, and you're one of the smart ones and will continue to thrive.

For me:
- Nearly equal income on SS and AS
- Both earning about the same as 2019 so far
- Port is about 99% the same on both (due to a very infrequent 'similar' rejection on SS.)

Haven't been checking in on 123 lately, figuring it's on the ropes and not worth worrying about.  But I just looked in on my feb earnings and I'm doing $20-$30 a day which is about the same as 2019, so maybe it's leveling out?