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Author Topic: down the toilet  (Read 79568 times)

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jonbull

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« Reply #200 on: January 30, 2017, 08:49 »
0
anyway strange sunday with 30 dollar with a 28 extend sale...good see extended again in january. good feeling fro a great february. i'm planning adding 2000 images per month. se if and how improve.

I feel its a complete waste adding new images at the moment since they will probably just disappear to the land of nobody. Once they've sorted out this buyer problem mentioned above it might be worth the effort.

i don't know it depends...i upload generic content , travel editorial etc...in last months only new content sells. after i uploaded i see some new files from last batch sells. actually i'm uploading 100 files from a big backlog i had and i'm seeing the new files most of them sells in the first week, while old not sell good, only those who are in first page in popular.
in my opinion if you stop uploading you won't sell nothing.


« Reply #201 on: January 30, 2017, 08:52 »
0
I'm not uploading regulary and this January is my BME with number of sales. Had better earning months though...

derek

    This user is banned.
« Reply #202 on: January 30, 2017, 09:23 »
+2
anyway strange sunday with 30 dollar with a 28 extend sale...good see extended again in january. good feeling fro a great february. i'm planning adding 2000 images per month. se if and how improve.

I feel its a complete waste adding new images at the moment since they will probably just disappear to the land of nobody. Once they've sorted out this buyer problem mentioned above it might be worth the effort.

i don't know it depends...i upload generic content , travel editorial etc...in last months only new content sells. after i uploaded i see some new files from last batch sells. actually i'm uploading 100 files from a big backlog i had and i'm seeing the new files most of them sells in the first week, while old not sell good, only those who are in first page in popular.
in my opinion if you stop uploading you won't sell nothing.

last week I uploaded 24 files all just vanished just gone. Friday last week I uploaded 8 files and they show. its a hit and miss affair. Prior to that no uploading for three months and I sold more then ever. There is no way of telling anymore.

« Reply #203 on: January 30, 2017, 09:35 »
+3
My stock photo income is going down every month and it looks like January will be even worse than December.  So, I'm probably out, at least for now.  We always knew microstock's days were numbered.

On the bright side, I'm 20 pages into writing my doomsday novel and I should be done with it much faster now that I don't feel the need to shoot and upload new photos. ;D

« Reply #204 on: January 30, 2017, 09:38 »
+4
Every day I get up and hope that today will be the day when I start to see some improvement, but it just keeps going from bad to worse.

No sales = no motivation = no point.

Shutterstock, are you taking notice of the fact that we no longer consider you to be No1? Can you do something to save us, or are your sales just as bad?

There has been talk for months on your forum about tech issues, new site features in the pipeline, etc. etc. but every change you make hits us in the back pocket. Are you just fighting fires, in an attempt to jolly along old technology and to stave off a haemorrhage of buyers, or are all these changes actually what you intended?

It would be so good if someone from Shutterstock would actually say something to us, because we are all getting hoarse from shouting at a wall.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2017, 10:09 by KuriousKat »

jonbull

    This user is banned.
« Reply #205 on: January 30, 2017, 09:39 »
0
anyway strange sunday with 30 dollar with a 28 extend sale...good see extended again in january. good feeling fro a great february. i'm planning adding 2000 images per month. se if and how improve.

I feel its a complete waste adding new images at the moment since they will probably just disappear to the land of nobody. Once they've sorted out this buyer problem mentioned above it might be worth the effort.

i don't know it depends...i upload generic content , travel editorial etc...in last months only new content sells. after i uploaded i see some new files from last batch sells. actually i'm uploading 100 files from a big backlog i had and i'm seeing the new files most of them sells in the first week, while old not sell good, only those who are in first page in popular.
in my opinion if you stop uploading you won't sell nothing.

last week I uploaded 24 files all just vanished just gone. Friday last week I uploaded 8 files and they show. its a hit and miss affair. Prior to that no uploading for three months and I sold more then ever. There is no way of telling anymore.

in my opinion 24 8 ...this number cannot compete....i'm not judging the quality...but we are talking about 100000 every day.....persoanlly i only upload batch of minimum 100 file....they stay longer in first pages of new....to upload 8 files and hope to sell them they must be very niche photos so if you search for them they are in first page for days......if you shoot a business man talking to iPhone how long can you hope it will stay in first pages of new content?

jonbull

    This user is banned.
« Reply #206 on: January 30, 2017, 09:41 »
0
Every day I get up and hope that today will be the day when I start to see some improvement, but it just keeps going from bad to worse.

No sales = no motivation = no point.

Shutterstock, are you taking notice of the fact that we no longer consider you to be No1? Can you do something to save us, or are your sales just as bad?

There has been talk for months on your forum about tech issues, new site features in the pipeline, etc. etc. but every change you make hits us in the back pocket. Are you just fighting fires, in an attempt  jolly along old technology and to stave off a haemorrhage of buyers, or are all these changes actually what you intended?

It would be so good if someone from Shutterstock would actually say something to us, because we are all getting hoarse from shouting at a wall.

shutterstock is earning the same or more money....for a user that lose money and download other gain them.... many talk about fotolia...but i have random 2 download day....dreamstime and stock are by far even this month much better than fotolia and ss is still by far the best gainers. so shutter stock cannot do nothing for u or me....we only have to upload content.

« Reply #207 on: January 30, 2017, 10:16 »
0
Every day I get up and hope that today will be the day when I start to see some improvement, but it just keeps going from bad to worse.

No sales = no motivation = no point.

Shutterstock, are you taking notice of the fact that we no longer consider you to be No1? Can you do something to save us, or are your sales just as bad?

There has been talk for months on your forum about tech issues, new site features in the pipeline, etc. etc. but every change you make hits us in the back pocket. Are you just fighting fires, in an attempt  jolly along old technology and to stave off a haemorrhage of buyers, or are all these changes actually what you intended?

It would be so good if someone from Shutterstock would actually say something to us, because we are all getting hoarse from shouting at a wall.

shutterstock is earning the same or more money....for a user that lose money and download other gain them.... many talk about fotolia...but i have random 2 download day....dreamstime and stock are by far even this month much better than fotolia and ss is still by far the best gainers. so shutter stock cannot do nothing for u or me....we only have to upload content.

I'll reserve judgement on that until I see the financial for 2016, due to be released at the end of next month. I suspect that sales for footage have increased, and topped up the profits very nicely, but I would be very curious to see whether the profit for image sales is anywhere near in line with the actual image ingestion.

« Reply #208 on: January 30, 2017, 10:21 »
0
Have written to @shutterstockcontrib on twitter to ask:
"Hi @ShutterstockReq Seems there are serious trbls on website... Lots of my files not displaying for several days.. Any solution soon ? Thx"

derek

    This user is banned.
« Reply #209 on: January 30, 2017, 10:41 »
0
anyway strange sunday with 30 dollar with a 28 extend sale...good see extended again in january. good feeling fro a great february. i'm planning adding 2000 images per month. se if and how improve.

I feel its a complete waste adding new images at the moment since they will probably just disappear to the land of nobody. Once they've sorted out this buyer problem mentioned above it might be worth the effort.

i don't know it depends...i upload generic content , travel editorial etc...in last months only new content sells. after i uploaded i see some new files from last batch sells. actually i'm uploading 100 files from a big backlog i had and i'm seeing the new files most of them sells in the first week, while old not sell good, only those who are in first page in popular.
in my opinion if you stop uploading you won't sell nothing.

last week I uploaded 24 files all just vanished just gone. Friday last week I uploaded 8 files and they show. its a hit and miss affair. Prior to that no uploading for three months and I sold more then ever. There is no way of telling anymore.

in my opinion 24 8 ...this number cannot compete....i'm not judging the quality...but we are talking about 100000 every day.....persoanlly i only upload batch of minimum 100 file....they stay longer in first pages of new....to upload 8 files and hope to sell them they must be very niche photos so if you search for them they are in first page for days......if you shoot a business man talking to iPhone how long can you hope it will stay in first pages of new content?

You are missing the point and btw 2 out of these 8 have already sold and they are niched. Sales wasn't the issue here. The first 24 files just vanished thats my point. I wrote to support and still no anwer, wrote again but no answer

Dangerous uploading 100 files! with the kind of review system at SS it seems very much like Alamy the chances are if they find just one file that dont meet the technical requirements they ban the whole lot.

jonbull

    This user is banned.
« Reply #210 on: January 30, 2017, 11:09 »
0
anyway strange sunday with 30 dollar with a 28 extend sale...good see extended again in january. good feeling fro a great february. i'm planning adding 2000 images per month. se if and how improve.

I feel its a complete waste adding new images at the moment since they will probably just disappear to the land of nobody. Once they've sorted out this buyer problem mentioned above it might be worth the effort.

i don't know it depends...i upload generic content , travel editorial etc...in last months only new content sells. after i uploaded i see some new files from last batch sells. actually i'm uploading 100 files from a big backlog i had and i'm seeing the new files most of them sells in the first week, while old not sell good, only those who are in first page in popular.
in my opinion if you stop uploading you won't sell nothing.

last week I uploaded 24 files all just vanished just gone. Friday last week I uploaded 8 files and they show. its a hit and miss affair. Prior to that no uploading for three months and I sold more then ever. There is no way of telling anymore.

in my opinion 24 8 ...this number cannot compete....i'm not judging the quality...but we are talking about 100000 every day.....persoanlly i only upload batch of minimum 100 file....they stay longer in first pages of new....to upload 8 files and hope to sell them they must be very niche photos so if you search for them they are in first page for days......if you shoot a business man talking to iPhone how long can you hope it will stay in first pages of new content?

You are missing the point and btw 2 out of these 8 have already sold and they are niched. Sales wasn't the issue here. The first 24 files just vanished thats my point. I wrote to support and still no anwer, wrote again but no answer

Dangerous uploading 100 files! with the kind of review system at SS it seems very much like Alamy the chances are if they find just one file that dont meet the technical requirements they ban the whole lot.

well my story already told ...i never upload in the good years don't know why...laziness?...good sales with a bunch of files...last years i decide to upload all the backlog...very big made of travel still life editorial etc...
in the last month i uploaded a lot fo files and have a 75% acceptance rate. i never experienced a 100% refusal probably cause i never upload 100 similar files. of 100 probably just 4 5 are similar to others.
today anyway is very slow. because i not uploaded nothing from friday.
but i have uploaded and send to review 120 files today and 300 waiting to be sent tomorrow and next tomorrow. i want see how much will impact sales the day after the approval.

« Reply #211 on: January 30, 2017, 11:46 »
0
Since mentioned, I must have missed them, but I'm from Serbia and decently active in photographic communities and I've yet to come across such a productions companies, look for photographers or even anyone mentioning them. There are individuals here and there and that's all.

https://www.stocksy.com/lumina

this is from serbia very good quality...i'd like to know their cost of production..i suspect very low...

in micro there are more russian and ukraine production

I don't know where my reply went, obviously not here.. Anyway, that's a legit high-end company, with that kind of quality and experience they are probably doing a lot of other stuff. But nothing in their photos seems cheap I tell you, yes rent is cheaper, models are cheaper (I don't think these guys work only with friends and people who like being photographed for free) and similar, but taxes are not cheap, creating west world lifestyle atmospheres and tech in a post socialist, post war, post bombed country is not cheap or easy, even in the capital city. Also while people work here for 200-250 euros average (at best) those photographers aren't making those photos for anything less than 1000 euros a month, minimum. I was more having on my mind kind of pseudo companies creating average photos or even spam, this is something else, this isn't cheap at all.

jonbull

    This user is banned.
« Reply #212 on: January 30, 2017, 11:54 »
0
Since mentioned, I must have missed them, but I'm from Serbia and decently active in photographic communities and I've yet to come across such a productions companies, look for photographers or even anyone mentioning them. There are individuals here and there and that's all.

https://www.stocksy.com/lumina

this is from serbia very good quality...i'd like to know their cost of production..i suspect very low...

in micro there are more russian and ukraine production

I don't know where my reply went, obviously not here.. Anyway, that's a legit high-end company, with that kind of quality and experience they are probably doing a lot of other stuff. But nothing in their photos seems cheap I tell you, yes rent is cheaper, models are cheaper (I don't think these guys work only with friends and people who like being photographed for free) and similar, but taxes are not cheap, creating west world lifestyle atmospheres and tech in a post socialist, post war, post bombed country is not cheap or easy, even in the capital city. Also while people work here for 200-250 euros average (at best) those photographers aren't making those photos for anything less than 1000 euros a month, minimum. I was more having on my mind kind of pseudo companies creating average photos or even spam, this is something else, this isn't cheap at all.

i said it-s a good quality as stocksy agency...in micro you find similar agency with similar style also,....there a re a lot if you search for country like russia or ukraine.
well most of their stuff come from ikea...model renting cheap is 80% of cost.
i don-t think they will spend more than in ukraine or russia and i know how much cost a shooting like that there....believe me, no more than 300 dollar for complex situation...while in usa or italy for similar shooting you need at least 1000.
and the earning are the same....or you think the photographer in western world are lazier_ if they paid 300 dollar for shooting they would shoot every day three times...
in kiev with a good looking girl with already stock photography experience, photogenic, i pay no more than 50 dollar day for very experienced....location most of time, like bar restaurant shop are free, owner want simply photos, even apartment or luxury flat are free most of times for photos, they want you make some nice shot of apartment for them....try to do this in western world.
they not produce millions of file because thy want work more, they simply have ridiculous cost of production.

jonbull

    This user is banned.
« Reply #213 on: January 30, 2017, 11:57 »
0
Since mentioned, I must have missed them, but I'm from Serbia and decently active in photographic communities and I've yet to come across such a productions companies, look for photographers or even anyone mentioning them. There are individuals here and there and that's all.

https://www.stocksy.com/lumina

this is from serbia very good quality...i'd like to know their cost of production..i suspect very low...

in micro there are more russian and ukraine production

I don't know where my reply went, obviously not here.. Anyway, that's a legit high-end company, with that kind of quality and experience they are probably doing a lot of other stuff. But nothing in their photos seems cheap I tell you, yes rent is cheaper, models are cheaper (I don't think these guys work only with friends and people who like being photographed for free) and similar, but taxes are not cheap, creating west world lifestyle atmospheres and tech in a post socialist, post war, post bombed country is not cheap or easy, even in the capital city. Also while people work here for 200-250 euros average (at best) those photographers aren't making those photos for anything less than 1000 euros a month, minimum. I was more having on my mind kind of pseudo companies creating average photos or even spam, this is something else, this isn't cheap at all.

taxes depends on earning but believe me they are much much smaller than western country...in ukraine probably u not rich 18% maximum, in russia near, i don't know serbia but i suspect no more than 30% for very high earning.
sure they earn very good money for their country....i was just saying that 1000 euro in these countries are good salary...sure u not make a luxury living but believe me u live while in europe try to live and work with a salary of 1000 euro.
that's why i'm relocating in ukraine soon:))

OM

« Reply #214 on: January 31, 2017, 09:02 »
+3
Seems to me that the real damage to sales is being done by the change in 'search'. When a potential buyer clicks on one of your images, they used to be offered similar images (based on keywords) from YOUR portfolio (same artist). Now the offering of alternatives is often not from your portfolio and is a pixel-based/color-pattern similarity search. If I were a buyer who had searched using keywords, I'd be seriously annoyed at SS offering these pixel-based alternatives because often they're totally irrelevant.

Another thing I've just noticed about the search is that in the past is that the keyword order changed as the image sold more frequently. Keywords appeared to be ordered on the basis of popularity as the image sold.....not any more. Keywords are now purely in alphabetical order as they appear under the image selected. Hardly surprising that sales of established portfolios have changed drastically (mostly for the worse according to contributors here).

« Reply #215 on: January 31, 2017, 13:40 »
0
Seems to me that the real damage to sales is being done by the change in 'search'. When a potential buyer clicks on one of your images, they used to be offered similar images (based on keywords) from YOUR portfolio (same artist). Now the offering of alternatives is often not from your portfolio and is a pixel-based/color-pattern similarity search. If I were a buyer who had searched using keywords, I'd be seriously annoyed at SS offering these pixel-based alternatives because often they're totally irrelevant.

Another thing I've just noticed about the search is that in the past is that the keyword order changed as the image sold more frequently. Keywords appeared to be ordered on the basis of popularity as the image sold.....not any more. Keywords are now purely in alphabetical order as they appear under the image selected. Hardly surprising that sales of established portfolios have changed drastically (mostly for the worse according to contributors here).

You are correct. I've watched the keywords change on sold files and stay the same on unsold, from same upload. I watched the words go to alpha sort. I could guess that the search didn't change but the keywords did. And expect they will change again.

Currently upload order of keywords makes no difference on SS. Changing the order, doesn't matter. When they fix whatever broke, the sort will be back to agency priority and order.

Anybody who doubts this, go look at your keywords from the buyers site. Alpha sorted. Look at edit keywords on your file on SS, different order. Now look at the original file on your computer, not the same as the SS file that you can edit.

SS still arranges keywords on our pages, into a different order than upload, and buyers, different from submit our site.

Anyone else get this more then every before looking at SS site? "Secure Connection Failed"

« Reply #216 on: January 31, 2017, 14:56 »
0
A late surge of ELs and SODs turned January into a decent month. I didn't expect that much from January anyway. That late surge gives me hope that February will be a good month despite being a short one.

Companies should have their budgets figured out by now and they should have more of a stock budget in the upcoming month. Just like everyone else, my sales has fallen a bit as well, by about 20%. With the new format, I think good content and good keywording is more important than ever. SS has really made the entire site a bit more competitive among contributors and if you half-ass anything, it's going to be rough.


« Reply #217 on: January 31, 2017, 15:27 »
0
This January was ok, but these last 2 days are dead like a bad weekend, and this is unusual - last day of each month has always been a good day for me, even if it was a so-so month.
Or could it be due to Chinese New Year?

« Reply #218 on: January 31, 2017, 15:44 »
0
This January was ok, but these last 2 days are dead like a bad weekend, and this is unusual - last day of each month has always been a good day for me, even if it was a so-so month.
Or could it be due to Chinese New Year?

LOL, I hope that was a joke? It was Saturday January 28th, the dreaded year of the Rooster Saturday. Which is possibly the worst day of the week to start with.

I had to look because dollars down, sales up. I had a good SO last year which is the difference. 2015 same numbers of sales as 2017, same dollars as 2016. In 2014 same number of sales, much less money.

In round numbers, it's pretty much unchanged in three years for me.

« Reply #219 on: February 01, 2017, 13:51 »
+2
down the toilet

Is this where finally end our newest and best submissions,
resulting of a decade of experiencing the microstock industry?
« Last Edit: February 01, 2017, 18:27 by Oligo »

OM

« Reply #220 on: February 01, 2017, 18:14 »
0
Seems to me that the real damage to sales is being done by the change in 'search'. When a potential buyer clicks on one of your images, they used to be offered similar images (based on keywords) from YOUR portfolio (same artist). Now the offering of alternatives is often not from your portfolio and is a pixel-based/color-pattern similarity search. If I were a buyer who had searched using keywords, I'd be seriously annoyed at SS offering these pixel-based alternatives because often they're totally irrelevant.

Another thing I've just noticed about the search is that in the past is that the keyword order changed as the image sold more frequently. Keywords appeared to be ordered on the basis of popularity as the image sold.....not any more. Keywords are now purely in alphabetical order as they appear under the image selected. Hardly surprising that sales of established portfolios have changed drastically (mostly for the worse according to contributors here).

You are correct. I've watched the keywords change on sold files and stay the same on unsold, from same upload. I watched the words go to alpha sort. I could guess that the search didn't change but the keywords did. And expect they will change again.

Currently upload order of keywords makes no difference on SS. Changing the order, doesn't matter. When they fix whatever broke, the sort will be back to agency priority and order.

Anybody who doubts this, go look at your keywords from the buyers site. Alpha sorted. Look at edit keywords on your file on SS, different order. Now look at the original file on your computer, not the same as the SS file that you can edit.

SS still arranges keywords on our pages, into a different order than upload, and buyers, different from submit our site.


Anyone else get this more then every before looking at SS site? "Secure Connection Failed"

You're right. Buyer's site in private browsing gives completely different (alpha sorted) order. In contributor mode it's alphabetical.

« Reply #221 on: February 01, 2017, 19:56 »
0
Seems to me that the real damage to sales is being done by the change in 'search'. When a potential buyer clicks on one of your images, they used to be offered similar images (based on keywords) from YOUR portfolio (same artist). Now the offering of alternatives is often not from your portfolio and is a pixel-based/color-pattern similarity search. If I were a buyer who had searched using keywords, I'd be seriously annoyed at SS offering these pixel-based alternatives because often they're totally irrelevant.

Another thing I've just noticed about the search is that in the past is that the keyword order changed as the image sold more frequently. Keywords appeared to be ordered on the basis of popularity as the image sold.....not any more. Keywords are now purely in alphabetical order as they appear under the image selected. Hardly surprising that sales of established portfolios have changed drastically (mostly for the worse according to contributors here).

You are correct. I've watched the keywords change on sold files and stay the same on unsold, from same upload. I watched the words go to alpha sort. I could guess that the search didn't change but the keywords did. And expect they will change again.

Currently upload order of keywords makes no difference on SS. Changing the order, doesn't matter. When they fix whatever broke, the sort will be back to agency priority and order.

Anybody who doubts this, go look at your keywords from the buyers site. Alpha sorted. Look at edit keywords on your file on SS, different order. Now look at the original file on your computer, not the same as the SS file that you can edit.

SS still arranges keywords on our pages, into a different order than upload, and buyers, different from submit our site.


Anyone else get this more then every before looking at SS site? "Secure Connection Failed"

You're right. Buyer's site in private browsing gives completely different (alpha sorted) order. In contributor mode it's alphabetical.

It's different everywhere we can see, very strange. I'd hope that what I sent them would at least be the same, but it's re-ordered. And then as some have pointed out, what buyers see, may not be what gets searched. We can't assume that anything behind the curtain is what's really used.

That Alpha display might just be display. I don't think our upload order matters. And this is just theory unless I do some testing and find proof, the order that changes with downloads is showing us what's really used. But that makes the most sense.

SS reorders words based on their searches, and the ones most searched and most used for downloads, get moved to the front. It's all about customers, buyers and their searches.

Remember the problem with spammed titles. Same works for spammed keywords.

Words used for a sale, go to the front. By default words not used will go backwards and files not downloaded will be unaffected. If it's really smart, and using the same as Alamy has for years,  views without a buy, will move that word down the list.

Think about that.

Positive rank for words on sold files, negative rank for words viewed and not sold. Spam will get a file penalized for vague or misused keywords.


« Reply #222 on: February 01, 2017, 20:13 »
+1
except the spammed titles were all over the first pages of the searches

« Reply #223 on: February 02, 2017, 01:14 »
+1
Do you think its better if you have less keywords then? For example 10, less to worry about, most relevant keywords only. The order wont matter a lot.

« Reply #224 on: February 02, 2017, 04:05 »
0
Just to add in, as a newbie with some 150 photos, January was my BME but I can clearly see the pattern why, I started uploading regularly 3-5 images a day and as soon as they go on sale they sell (depending on the type and demand for it) and then the next day it's back to where it was.
It has a logic, buyers come and sort by NEW, but beyond I can't comprehend how could a buyer stumble upon my photos in a sea of others, there is just that much keywords, I could go with more unique images but that hasn't proved fruitful before, some things are just in high demand and some things aren't I guess.
Still it could be that my sample is so small to pull any meaningful conclusion.


 

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