Author Topic: How are sales going?- Shutterstock (Read 130565 times)

Sheriff · « **Reply #725 on:** September 08, 2014, 13:49 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on September 08, 2014, 13:35

as others mentioned, it is like everyday is a weekend with SS these past months.
and no one still thinks they turned off the switch for older contributors.

Time to move on pilgrim! You see the others nailing ELs like wolf getting sheep in the pen you have to look at yourself not blame others...

Pixart · « **Reply #726 on:** September 08, 2014, 14:21 »

Has the power gone down in Europe perhaps? My recent sales map has only been displaying North America. Are we turned off in different parts of the world?

Valo · « **Reply #727 on:** September 08, 2014, 14:35 »

Quote from: Pixart on September 08, 2014, 14:21

Has the power gone down in Europe perhaps? My recent sales map has only been displaying North America. Are we turned off in different parts of the world?

I only have a handful of sales in Europe today. The exact opposite from you.

wordplanet · « **Reply #728 on:** September 08, 2014, 14:40 »

Quote from: Pixart on September 08, 2014, 14:21

Has the power gone down in Europe perhaps? My recent sales map has only been displaying North America. Are we turned off in different parts of the world?

I've got recent sales in Europe (Africa & N America too) showing up, including at least one new one today in Europe. I usually get several in S America and Asia but on my map right now - I don't think anything's been turned off, I think it's just random. How many of your last sales show up on the map at once? 15 or 20? Maybe they're just out of the rotation?

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #729 on:** September 08, 2014, 16:11 »

Quote from: Sheriff on September 08, 2014, 13:49

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on September 08, 2014, 13:35
as others mentioned, it is like everyday is a weekend with SS these past months.
and no one still thinks they turned off the switch for older contributors.

Time to move on pilgrim! You see the others nailing ELs like wolf getting sheep in the pen you have to look at yourself not blame others...

ah yes, a reviewer or official in disguise. new member LMAO.

and back to topic, what do you call the rest of those here who are in consensus to me???
i noticed you got -5 just before i came in to respond

Sheriff · « **Reply #730 on:** September 08, 2014, 16:52 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on September 08, 2014, 16:11

Quote from: Sheriff on September 08, 2014, 13:49
Quote from: etudiante_rapide on September 08, 2014, 13:35
as others mentioned, it is like everyday is a weekend with SS these past months.
and no one still thinks they turned off the switch for older contributors.

Time to move on pilgrim! You see the others nailing ELs like wolf getting sheep in the pen you have to look at yourself not blame others...

ah yes, a reviewer or official in disguise. new member LMAO.

and back to topic, what do you call the rest of those here who are in consensus to me???
i noticed you got -5 just before i came in to respond

If things are so bad on SS than why are they a 92.3 on the earnings poll? Why are a lot of other folks staying they are having BME with SS? Strictly speaking for myself- if my sales are slumping I look to see what areas I am weak in (which is a lot) such as categories (i.e., Xmas, Food, people) and address them. I know that I have some serious gaps in my portfolio thus missing out on the holidays or seasons. Than I ask what skills can I improve upon- how to process my images better or composition. Can anyone on this site say that they don't need to get better?

On the negative points- do you actually keep count? I don't especially since I might say things that folks don't want to hear...

Gino · « **Reply #731 on:** September 09, 2014, 09:17 »

Well.... I knew I would step on some toes... And I might again... I just hope you understand that I am not willingly trying to insult people.

You take Rinderart as a sample. I have looked at his portfolio and yes he is a good photographer but I also see many images that are looking outdated and with bad Photoshop cut outs and fake backgrounds were you can see they are pasted and look fake. All those images now have better alternatives that were not there 5 years ago. And there just is not much demand for art and portraits. A few years back there was less competition so he would sell more since there were not so many alternatives. But at this point there are so many more commercial images that will sell better

I also am a buyer so that is my advantage. I know what I want so that is what I shoot. I buy images every month on Shutterstock and if I look at this portfolio there is just not so much that I could use. This portfolio is to artistic and not commercial so there is the exact reason for sales going down. No cap, no wall, no algorithms. Just a portfolio with quality images but not very commercial and loosing from fresh commercial looking images.

Being a photographer for 10, 20 or even 50 years or having 5000 plus images does not make someone a better stock photographer or photographer even. I was not lying about my income and there are members on this forum I have shown my statistics. Stock is about knowing the market, knowing what sells and what is in demand. Not just shooting images and putting them online.

So I'm sorry. But looking at this particular portfolio I still understand why sales are going down for him. (Sorry Rinder I mean no offense just being honest)

gbalex · « **Reply #732 on:** September 09, 2014, 09:52 »

Gino I could offer links to ports that use to make 3 to 4 times the amount you currently make that have seen hits of 50 to 70 drops. I am sure that if they wanted this type of exposure they would post themselves. No one wants this kind of attention and you would not either. However if you think it can not happen to you, you are wrong.

Their ports are top shelf and sell well at every site they are upload to including macro and yet shutterstock and previously fotolia are the only one they are seeing these kinds of drops. I think your assumption of superiority will be costly to your business in the end. New submitters have been given a gift and they would be wise to make hay while the sun shines because very few niches will be immune the bitter economics of site greed.

Gino · « **Reply #733 on:** September 09, 2014, 10:09 »

@gbalex: first of all thanks for not shouting.

I am suspecting a wave of insulting after this post but good to see the first is not like that.

But again I don't mean to insult anyone so I hope people can respect my opinion. I would like to see portfolio's like that. But until now I am not seeing people complaining in the forums with good portfolio's. So for me it's just seeing is believing. And I keep hoping you guys are wrong since I sure as hell don't want this to happen to me.

gimages · « **Reply #734 on:** September 09, 2014, 10:28 »

Hi,
Would u mind if I look at your port, and how to find it?
Thanks,

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #735 on:** September 09, 2014, 10:28 »

Quote from: Gino on September 09, 2014, 03:23

.....Instead of complaining I think people should look more serious to their portfolio. I know... you see me as a newbee since I am on SS for just 2 years. But I do make 4k at this moment per month and my earnings are growing also every month. .....

Hi Gino. There is something you also need to bear in mind when considering your earnings. I am going to try and explain how "the wall" works in this industry.

With very hard work and a bit of talent anyone can still increase their earning from a standing start for several years, I would say around 5. But images have a shelf life. Across a portfolio typically an image or a set of images will make returns in the pattern of 5,4,3,2,1 for the first five years. You can see this in articles from the people that made "stock performer", you can see it yourself if you have a large portfolio and a stats package to accurately break down your earnings across all sites. There are very few individual images that are exceptions to this rule, and no large portfolios.

If you look at calendar years sometimes it can appear that the pattern is something like 4,5,4,3,2,1, but this is misleading; a product of the time of year the image is uploaded. If I uploaded an image in June year 1 would only have 6 full months to perform in the first calendar year.

So now imagine that you upload the same number of images every year. Year one you make an income of "5", year two you make 5+4 (the returns from new images uploaded plus 4 from the images from the previous year) year three 5+4+3 and so on you get the pattern 5, 9, 12, 14, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15. You hit a “wall” at earnings of 15 (whatever monetary value that is for you based on your image quality and upload rate).

Improving image quality or upload numbers can theoretically push the wall back a couple of years, but the reality is all your competitors are doing the same thing and libraries are growing too fast, so income will slide.

pancaketom · « **Reply #736 on:** September 09, 2014, 10:34 »

What I think some people are missing is good or bad portfolio there were some sudden drops in income for some folks. I think that this is due to some search changes that hit older more stable portfolios rather than any targeted changes designed to hit older contributors (but had someone at SS pointed out that these changes would hurt established ports I don't think that they would have cared). Changes that would tend to hurt older portfolios are things like penalizing older images, smaller images, etc. Also the location based search could have severe consequences for someone not located near a major market or who is not located near where their previous buyers were. Those severe drops layered on top of the relatively easy early success and the continued competition with the massive expansion of the SS total image tally can make it appear that SS is targeting long time contributors with older ports.

Personally 2012 was my best year despite adding a fair number of images since then (but not keeping pace with the % added to SS as a whole). I also saw my best selling image go from the first line in the first page in search to somewhere in the middle of the second page one day (for a single word search with over 700 pages of results). Had I had a lot more images with similar placement in search that change would have been much more severe to my overall earnings.

gimages · « **Reply #737 on:** September 09, 2014, 10:46 »

thanks man,it's been awhile.

Valo · « **Reply #738 on:** September 09, 2014, 11:34 »

Another abysmal day. I think we are being outpaced faster than we can imagine. I remember they were adding 70K images per week, now its 350k images per week. More than a million per month. Shutterstock just doesnt need to give us raise, they hold all the cards. Even if 10,000 contributors pull their portfolios, they still have plenty. They are in control now and they will never have any reason to give us a raise. And I have no illusion of ever increasing my earnings by adding more images. If I add 100 today, Shutterstock will add 50,000. It is amazing really, those numbers are staggering.

Nikovsk · « **Reply #739 on:** September 09, 2014, 11:44 »

My two best sellers which used to sell 2-3 times every day were pushed down the search.
Not thrilled about it, they should come up with the best algorithm and leave it like that.

The search should change slowly according to sales and not with these sudden changes.

Rinderart · « **Reply #740 on:** September 09, 2014, 12:40 »

Quote from: Gino on September 09, 2014, 09:17

Well.... I knew I would step on some toes... And I might again... I just hope you understand that I am not willingly trying to insult people.

You take Rinderart as a sample. I have looked at his portfolio and yes he is a good photographer but I also see many images that are looking outdated and with bad Photoshop cut outs and fake backgrounds were you can see they are pasted and look fake. All those images now have better alternatives that were not there 5 years ago. And there just is not much demand for art and portraits. A few years back there was less competition so he would sell more since there were not so many alternatives. But at this point there are so many more commercial images that will sell better

I also am a buyer so that is my advantage. I know what I want so that is what I shoot. I buy images every month on Shutterstock and if I look at this portfolio there is just not so much that I could use. This portfolio is to artistic and not commercial so there is the exact reason for sales going down. No cap, no wall, no algorithms. Just a portfolio with quality images but not very commercial and loosing from fresh commercial looking images.

Being a photographer for 10, 20 or even 50 years or having 5000 plus images does not make someone a better stock photographer or photographer even. I was not lying about my income and there are members on this forum I have shown my statistics. Stock is about knowing the market, knowing what sells and what is in demand. Not just shooting images and putting them online.

So I'm sorry. But looking at this particular portfolio I still understand why sales are going down for him. (Sorry Rinder I mean no offense just being honest)

Love the honesty. But why was my stuff outdated in 2 weeks? Got an answer for that. And we all have some crap in our ports and thanks for the critique, I would Like the honor to critique yours also. pls. you can put it in a PM if ya want. I wanna see what one of the best is, Or successful at least for penny stock.

leaf · « **Reply #741 on:** September 09, 2014, 14:42 »

sorry this thread has gotten out of control. I've now locked it and will remove the insulting posts.

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Author Topic: How are sales going?- Shutterstock (Read 130565 times)

Sheriff

Pixart

Valo

wordplanet

etudiante_rapide

Sheriff

Gino

gbalex

Gino

gimages

Justanotherphotographer

pancaketom

gimages

Valo

Nikovsk

Rinderart

leaf

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