As John Travolta so eloquently puts it in "Greased Lightning:"

Yep, Shelma, I remember that line very well. LOL!!

I honestly do believe there is a delay or server lag sometimes, because you can sit there and refresh your earnings for an hour at a time (sometimes) and not see a change.  Even on high-earnings days.  Although those seem to be fewer and further between, lately.  It might be a technical thing.

I don't think Shutterstock is "skimming" or limiting us in our income potential.  All contributors are the backbone that helped them gain and continue to hold their top spot in the microstock market.  They haven't been shady in the past, and let's hope it stays that way.

I also agree with this dealy but anyway when i say that i think that there is a earning limit is watching my earning history, not my current day earning, i think that the limit is not day by day but month by month.

As you say... "All contributors are the backbone that helped them gain and continue to hold their top..." maybe for this reason they try to give a reasonable earning acording to your country, im pretty sure that if you pay the money that i earn to a Canadian he just is gonna stop uploading images because he can go outside and earn about 3000-5000 US$ per month, so you really need to pay better to people in other countries (for example)... i dont know it is just a theory

Backbone? us the contributors?  Oh dear, well maybe some eight or nine years back we could afford the luxury of that thought. Things have changed my friend.
Today we are numbers, just numbers among millions of other numbers and if a member quits today he or she is replaced within five seconds.

u r the wisest of all the ppl here!!!
most of us live in a dream world thinking we r still the backbone, when in fact we are just the necessary part of that body part which is useful to everyone of us because every morning we have to use it to get rid of things our body don't need .
you know which body part i mean.

it's like the reality with telemarketing employees, or politics. i was just walking home last night and i notice a grafitti on a political ad, it read..."same old sh*t, just a different a$$hole!".
well, that's what microstock is like  the telemarketer agents who walk in to work all fullofsh*t screaming to the boss, "we want you to listen to us, or else..."
and without a moment's thought, the boss gave them the "or else" ...
and fills the empty call centre in a day with another bunch of eager beavers looking for employment.

your images are perfect, you cannot earn 2k  with food, understand that.


i think you all are overreacting, if i have big sod ,next day is 90% average or little less.  That is fact. Other fact is you have to work every day and that brings results. thats all.

Quote

I still have the hope of earn similar amounts that some users report (2k per month or more) which is almost impossible to earn working in my country...

I have same feeling. I'm pretty sure that if I ask someone what is my monthly revenue, he will say much more that actually is. Of course, if he is from a country with high living standard.

your images are perfect, you cannot earn 2k  with food, understand that.

I really dont understand what you mean with that... my images are'nt about food...

I do believe I saw a similar thread a while ago...something about capping downloads. This conspiracy is just as loony.

If earnings are down, it's because of competition. Sometimes, you have competitors and other times, you are the competitor. There are no cap on downloads or earnings. People need to face reality and start upping their game.

your images are perfect, you cannot earn 2k  with food, understand that.

Why not ? I believe that are many people who earn much more than that only with food pictures.

I do believe I saw a similar thread a while ago...something about capping downloads. This conspiracy is just as loony.

If earnings are down, it's because of competition. Sometimes, you have competitors and other times, you are the competitor. There are no cap on downloads or earnings. People need to face reality and start upping their game.

What is loony about widespread corporate greed and fraud?  Let's see some facts to back up your blind faith in the unimpeachable honesty of the microstock industry.  Slinging insults around doesn't make your arguments convincing, quite the contrary.  As far I can see there have been no independent audits to demonstrate that fraud isn't conducted on a systematic scale within the industry. It's long overdue that people realise that the microstock industry is a multi-million dollar industry who's single most important lodestone is the bottom line on the balance sheet. Profit.  It's an industry run by accountants and big investors. They don't know who we are. They don't care how many hours it takes to create a single image, the care, the effort, the imagination.   Anyone who believes that microstock is some altruistic business is simply living in a utopian dream world.
They draw a veil of secrecy over their internal workings. And until some whistle blower from the inside exposes the whole thing, or lawyers get to examine the books, we'll never really know what goes on.  But one thing is sure. If the big microstock companies were really concerned about showing how honest they were they'd invite independent auditors in and the results proving how honest and altruistic they were would be circulated with great fanfare to each one of us.  The pall of secrecy that they take great pains to maintain undermines any confidence we should have in their probity.
A message to those SS/Getty etc stooges on this forum. Let's see some hard facts.

I'm quite prepared to believe in fraud - in fact its'  inevitable to some degree the problem I have with the capping theory is I don't see how it benefits the agency and given the state of their IT systems I'm not sure they would be capable of implementing it.

I'm not sure about US company law but certainly companies quoted on stock exchanges such as SStock are audited.

Agreed. But there's a big difference between auditing the accounts, which involves accountants ensuring that the P&L, salaries, and running costs, liquid and fixed capital declarations etc are accurate, so that a correct tax declaration, dividends and end of year accounts is made, and on the other hand ensuring that each supplier is paid according to his or her agreements with the corporation.   I know, as I've managed some big internal audits into US companies in the past. These are two very different activities, with very different aims.  The independent audit that I'm refering involves rigorously following the sales/individual to their payments for a sample of contributors.  Just to illustrate my point for those who haven't had any experience with auditing. An accountant auditing the accounts wouldn't care what category of contributor was in, say in the FT complex model.  He would only care about the overall payments made to each supplier.  The accountant if he spared a thought in that direction, would assume that each supplier would raise a fuss if he wasn't paid properly.
The advantage with the microstock model in terms of hiding the fraud, is that the supplier has no way of knowing exactly what he should be paid, as he doesn't get to see the direct sales of his products.

Companies will do whatever it takes to improve their financial position. If they find that something improves finances, and it's not unethical or illegal, why not? And obviously some companies don't even care if it's unethical or illegal.

It's all probability.

Quote from: nicksimages on September 26, 2015, 07:12

It is funny how people love conspiracies these days.
And sad at the same time.

If you believe what you write, why do you not prove it?

It is so easy. Use a IP anonymizer and look where some of your images are in the results. After big sales, look if the positions are changed.

So many report so many conspiracies, but no one ever proved anything.

All nonsense.

Actually had you been a bit longer in this game and with a lets say a five times bigger portfolio. Believe me you would notice the differences.
There is no need to prove anything, it speaks for itself, unless of course you assume this business is the one and only business that is honest to the point of stupidity.

Lets face it, if a business, any business whatever model can improve their revenue they would be complete fools not to.

The repeatability for those with larger ports (I have almost 4,000 assets on SS) who have a monster day/week and then repeatedly see the next week or two fall the face of the planet happens all the time. Not one time.  If I have no stellar days/weeks, my income is fairly level loaded day over day. The behavior is then reproduced the next time I have a big day/week. I have enough evidence in my own experience over years to know this IS GOING TO HAPPEN.  Last week I had two good days ($150 or so per day). The entire last week has been at $13, $16, $10 per day, WAY BELOW MY DAILY AVERAGE.

Very frustrating but very factual.

Quote from: Mantis on September 26, 2015, 08:22

Quote from: weymouth on September 26, 2015, 08:07

Quote from: nicksimages on September 26, 2015, 07:12

It is funny how people love conspiracies these days.
And sad at the same time.

If you believe what you write, why do you not prove it?

It is so easy. Use a IP anonymizer and look where some of your images are in the results. After big sales, look if the positions are changed.

So many report so many conspiracies, but no one ever proved anything.

All nonsense.

Actually had you been a bit longer in this game and with a lets say a five times bigger portfolio. Believe me you would notice the differences.
There is no need to prove anything, it speaks for itself, unless of course you assume this business is the one and only business that is honest to the point of stupidity.

Lets face it, if a business, any business whatever model can improve their revenue they would be complete fools not to.

The repeatability for those with larger ports (I have almost 4,000 assets on SS) who have a monster day/week and then repeatedly see the next week or two fall the face of the planet happens all the time. Not one time.  If I have no stellar days/weeks, my income is fairly level loaded day over day. The behavior is then reproduced the next time I have a big day/week. I have enough evidence in my own experience over years to know this IS GOING TO HAPPEN.  Last week I had two good days ($150 or so per day). The entire last week has been at $13, $16, $10 per day, WAY BELOW MY DAILY AVERAGE.

Very frustrating but very factual.

I know! and agree with you. Same thing is happening here and to everyone I know. I have a massive port, still happening though.

Just that some people have a hard time digesting this and prefer a make believe world nice and cosy.

Right. I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. I meant to say a monster week the week before last, then last week was among the worst I have had when my port was only 500 images. 

Maybe your big days and ELs are coming because they promoted your ports?  It's funny when you're having a good day or week it's all because your images are great but when you have a bad day it's a conspiracy to keep you down.  Seems just as likely that your bad days should be the norm and SS is boosting you up to unnatural levels on your good days.