Author Topic: How are sales going?- Shutterstock (Read 130562 times)

cobalt · « **Reply #525 on:** March 12, 2014, 17:29 »

gbalex,

have you tried talking to someone from SS directly? They have admins for "contributor success", would´t it be worth contacting them?

I am new to SS, so I don´t know how accessible the staff is,but since they even send people here, would´t it be worth a try?

gbalex · « **Reply #526 on:** March 12, 2014, 18:02 »

Quote from: cobalt on March 12, 2014, 17:29

gbalex,

have you tried talking to someone from SS directly? They have admins for "contributor success", would´t it be worth contacting them?

I am new to SS, so I don´t know how accessible the staff is,but since they even send people here, would´t it be worth a try?

Thanks for the concern cobalt. Yes I contacted them multiple times and got no where. I know of at least 6 other contributors who have also contacted them and they received the same non response we did.

cobalt · « **Reply #527 on:** March 12, 2014, 18:23 »

I am sorry to hear that. Losing nearly half your income from an agency in one night is very serious.

Diversification is really important for us all.

gbalex · « **Reply #528 on:** March 12, 2014, 19:34 »

Quote from: cobalt on March 12, 2014, 18:23

I am sorry to hear that. Losing nearly half your income from an agency in one night is very serious.

Diversification is really important for us all.

Thank you, I completely agree with your assessment. If we look at this or any business with rose colored glass's and fail to diversify or heed the warning signs, we leave ourselves vulnerable to rough roads.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #529 on:** March 12, 2014, 19:44 »

Quote from: gbalex on March 12, 2014, 18:02

Quote from: cobalt on March 12, 2014, 17:29
gbalex,

have you tried talking to someone from SS directly? They have admins for "contributor success", would´t it be worth contacting them?

I am new to SS, so I don´t know how accessible the staff is,but since they even send people here, would´t it be worth a try?

Thanks for the concern cobalt. Yes I contacted them multiple times and got no where. I know of at least 6 other contributors who have also contacted them and they received the same non response we did.

what things do you have in common with those 6 contributors? 10 years at SS? same or different content? level of earnings? do they contribute to many agencies? give us more information so we can understand your experience

gbalex · « **Reply #530 on:** March 12, 2014, 19:59 »

Quote from: luissantos84 on March 12, 2014, 19:44

Quote from: gbalex on March 12, 2014, 18:02
Quote from: cobalt on March 12, 2014, 17:29
gbalex,

have you tried talking to someone from SS directly? They have admins for "contributor success", would´t it be worth contacting them?

I am new to SS, so I don´t know how accessible the staff is,but since they even send people here, would´t it be worth a try?

Thanks for the concern cobalt. Yes I contacted them multiple times and got no where. I know of at least 6 other contributors who have also contacted them and they received the same non response we did.

what things do you have in common with those 6 contributors? 10 years at SS? same or different content? level of earnings? do they contribute to many agencies? give us more information so we can understand your experience

Louis after the remarks you and a few others have made to me on these boards, why would I entertain any of your questions?

As for the other people who have experienced drops, don't you think it should be up to them to give you the details? Some of them talk about it on shutterstock. Ask them yourself, if you genuinely care about their welfare!

zeamonkey · « **Reply #531 on:** March 12, 2014, 23:25 »

Quote from: Jaak on March 12, 2014, 13:02

I am newbie at micro. I have 120 images at Shutterstock. Three month ago I added 100 images and now my income is about 30.- USD per month for 120 images.
Of course these first 20 images I added several years ago are "dead images" already. Nobody can see them today. I am on lowest royalty level, it is 25 cents. I see some 1,88 USD sales per image too.
Sales are same for three month. Pretty stable.

Several of the images from my first batch 3 years ago are still my best sellers today, despite age and rise in commision level. They actually sell much better than anything new I've uploaded in 2013.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #532 on:** March 13, 2014, 01:01 »

Gbalex, if you and the others saw this drop a year ago then it coincided with the dropping of crowns over the gdrive affair. Could it be that the resulting influx of ex-exclusives hit some key areas of your portfolio and you lost out because of the extra competition?
I can guarantee you there was no policy decision made to hide the portfolios of long-established, high-paid contributors, because if there was I would have been buried, too (I joined in October 2004 and have always been in the top pay group, ever since they started introducing different levels). I haven't heard Gostwyck complaining, either, and I think he joined in 2005.
So if there is no malice it follows that your problem lies somewhere else, and the only thing I can think of is that some files that had had not previously been visible, either because they were buried or because they had only just arrived, went into competition with your best-sellers and you lost out.
That would be most likely to happen if your sales relied heavily on a small niche that others had trouble getting into, or if you were heavily reliant on a very small group of files for a large percentage of your income, so the loss of pole-position for a handful could hit you hard.
Or you could believe that Oringer picked on your portfolio specifically for demotion while leaving Gostwyck and me alone. But I don't think that is a conspiracy theory that will fly.
I can't see your portfolio so I can't be more specific about why it might have been vulnerable to competition.

Ron · « **Reply #533 on:** March 13, 2014, 02:00 »

Quote from: gbalex on March 12, 2014, 18:02

Quote from: cobalt on March 12, 2014, 17:29
gbalex,

have you tried talking to someone from SS directly? They have admins for "contributor success", would´t it be worth contacting them?

I am new to SS, so I don´t know how accessible the staff is,but since they even send people here, would´t it be worth a try?

Thanks for the concern cobalt. Yes I contacted them multiple times and got no where. I know of at least 6 other contributors who have also contacted them and they received the same non response we did.

Was it a non response or was it a response just not confirming your theory?

I think Baldrick hit the nail.

JPSDK · « **Reply #534 on:** March 13, 2014, 04:11 »

When I have looked into sales surges in the past, like 3-4 well selling pictures suddently stopping to sell, it was always competition. I was out competed by better new pictures from other photographers.
Thats ok, then you can compete back.

Then I think I have seen a pattern when a picture reaches the age of one year, it has to have really many sales to stay alive,
but im not sure of this one.

I have not seen any sign of decrease when I reached the 38 level.

Beppe Grillo · « **Reply #535 on:** March 13, 2014, 04:59 »

I have got a $79.69 SOD
But I don't understand to what kind of sale (licence/price) it corresponds.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #536 on:** March 13, 2014, 05:16 »

Quote from: Beppe Grillo on March 13, 2014, 04:59

I have got a $79.69 SOD
But I don't understand to what kind of sale (licence/price) it corresponds.

It's from some partner agency - that's all we know about SODs.

BoBoBolinski · « **Reply #537 on:** March 13, 2014, 06:01 »

"Generally 100 images should produce $20 per month thus you are doing well..."

Is this a generally considered accurate remark? That is not a big incentive to drop exclusivity at IS.

cobalt · « **Reply #538 on:** March 13, 2014, 06:07 »

only on SS. You are not moving from istock to SS. You are going to get income from many sources.

But from what I hear the number is higher, but I guess that depedns on the portfolio amd the volume of regular uploads.

SS has around 300 million dollars in revenue and is growing, Fotolia around 150, so together they are already bigger than istock. Plus the other agencies, macro sales and video.

Ron · « **Reply #539 on:** March 13, 2014, 06:31 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on March 13, 2014, 05:16

Quote from: Beppe Grillo on March 13, 2014, 04:59
I have got a $79.69 SOD
But I don't understand to what kind of sale (licence/price) it corresponds.

It's from some partner agency - that's all we know about SODs.

I dont think SODs are partner sales. Its SS negotiating a price with the buyer and the licence includes sensitive use.

The royalties are clear on those as well.

Single/Two Image On Demand

20% of sale price received (up to $80)*
25% of sale price received (up to $100)*
28% of sale price received (up to $112)*
30% of sale price received (up to $120)*
* Or more, based on sale price received.

https://submit.shutterstock.com/earnings_schedule.mhtml

BoBoBolinski · « **Reply #540 on:** March 13, 2014, 06:31 »

I'm mainly vectors.

cobalt · « **Reply #541 on:** March 13, 2014, 06:34 »

I ahve no idea how the vector people are doing, sorry. all I looked at is photo and video. I am sure you can find people here who can give you numbers. There must be blogs by vector artists documenting their sales.

Shelma1 · « **Reply #542 on:** March 13, 2014, 06:39 »

I'm a vector artist, but I've never been exclusive at iStock, so I can't offer you a direct comparison re: exclusivity. Like most people, I make about 3x more at SS than at iS, but I have a larger port at SS. This year SS outpaced iS in earnings per dl for me, thanks to larger licenses. My earnings per dl at SS are rising and at iS are dropping, so that trend seems likely to continue.

BoBoBolinski · « **Reply #543 on:** March 13, 2014, 06:51 »

Interesting, thanks, I'd love to hear from someone who's made the transition from exclusive happily, most reports I get are not so good. I would love to be not dependent at IS, at the moment just can't afford it. I may be pushed though, if the upcoming subscriptions make income drop. As an exclusive i get the benefit of getty sales too, which are the only growth area at IS.

dirkr · « **Reply #544 on:** March 13, 2014, 07:13 »

Quote from: BoBoBolinski on March 13, 2014, 06:01

"Generally 100 images should produce $20 per month thus you are doing well..."

Is this a generally considered accurate remark? That is not a big incentive to drop exclusivity at IS.

I think there are no generally accurate numbers, it too much depends on the saleability of the images in one's portfolio.

But speaking strictly numerical averages, that seems to be about right.

The last numbers published by Shutterstock (posted here) speak of 28 million paid downloads in the last quarter of 2013 with a library size of 33 million images (plus 1,5 million videos).

So without being to exact, that would mean you can expect an average of one download per image per quarter, or 100 images would attract around 30 downloads per month.

Shutterstock also states a revenue per download of $2,43 in the same period, so assuming an average royalty in the range of 25% - 30% a total contributor revenue of $20 per month for a 100 images portfolio seems to be roughly fitting.

Of course that does not tell much about a specific portfolio.

Microstock Posts · « **Reply #545 on:** March 13, 2014, 08:04 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on March 11, 2014, 08:45

Yesterday, I made 50% more off of ODDownloads than 25aDay. Interesting.

It's not unusual for contributors to get a fair proportion of their revenue from sales that are not subs.

http://www.microstockposts.com/just-how-much-of-a-subscription-site-is-shutterstock

luissantos84 · « **Reply #546 on:** March 13, 2014, 08:27 »

Quote from: Microstock Posts on March 13, 2014, 08:04

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on March 11, 2014, 08:45
Yesterday, I made 50% more off of ODDownloads than 25aDay. Interesting.

It's not unusual for contributors to get a fair proportion of their revenue from sales that are not subs.

http://www.microstockposts.com/just-how-much-of-a-subscription-site-is-shutterstock

right, 42% of my total earnings aren't subs

ShadySue · « **Reply #547 on:** March 13, 2014, 08:28 »

Quote from: BoBoBolinski on March 13, 2014, 06:51

Interesting, thanks, I'd love to hear from someone who's made the transition from exclusive happily, most reports I get are not so good. I would love to be not dependent at IS, at the moment just can't afford it. I may be pushed though, if the upcoming subscriptions make income drop. As an exclusive i get the benefit of getty sales too, which are the only growth area at IS.

But check out this month's GI sales thread - more than the usual number of people reporting large blocks of the month with no sales in Feb, when they'd have expected a lot more based on 'usual' performance, and more than the usual number of people reporting very small value sales.

Interestingly, admin have chosen not to comment on either of these issues, not even just to say, "tough, that's how it is".

ShadySue · « **Reply #548 on:** March 13, 2014, 08:29 »

Quote from: BoBoBolinski on March 13, 2014, 06:51

Interesting, thanks, I'd love to hear from someone who's made the transition from exclusive happily, most reports I get are not so good.

I would expect it to take well over a year, and would depend how many of the other dubious agencies (i.e. they might decide if they're staying on at iS as indie, who cares?) people want to spread to.

tickstock · « **Reply #549 on:** March 13, 2014, 08:32 »

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: How are sales going?- Shutterstock (Read 130562 times)

cobalt

gbalex

cobalt

gbalex

luissantos84

gbalex

zeamonkey

BaldricksTrousers

Ron

JPSDK

Beppe Grillo

BaldricksTrousers

BoBoBolinski

cobalt

Ron

BoBoBolinski

cobalt

Shelma1

BoBoBolinski

dirkr

Microstock Posts

luissantos84

ShadySue

ShadySue

tickstock

Related Topics

Sponsors

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors