Low number of SOD's lately. Does anyone else experience this as well?

Yes totally. It's almost like Shutterstock is giving new contributors better positioning over old farts like me to encourage & motivate them to upload new, fresh content so they don't just give up.  There certainly doesn't seem to be any commitment to the longer-term contributors who've shown their support and dedication over the last 7 years. Now, this is how I feel and what I believe is happening, but I have no proof other than my ALL OF A SUDDEN horrible sales over the last few months. Yea, a SOD here and there but the overall downloads, especially OD's is nearly non existent. I have over 3000 files on SS. Yesterday I made $1.24 in OD.

Quote from: Valo on September 04, 2014, 00:43

I made 50 dollars in the last 7 days, I have over 2100 images and footage. 

So why the sad face ? I would be very happy with that amount on that number of files.

It is a third of what I used to make. That is sad, hence the sad face.

im a newbe to this game
i just made 3000$ on shutter
is that good or bad compared to you guys?

How long you been there? and how many Images?

Quote from: Noedelhap on September 04, 2014, 05:08

Low number of SOD's lately. Does anyone else experience this as well?

Yes totally. It's almost like Shutterstock is giving new contributors better positioning over old farts like me to encourage & motivate them to upload new, fresh content so they don't just give up.  There certainly doesn't seem to be any commitment to the longer-term contributors who've shown their support and dedication over the last 7 years. Now, this is how I feel and what I believe is happening, but I have no proof other than my ALL OF A SUDDEN horrible sales over the last few months. Yea, a SOD here and there but the overall downloads, especially OD's is nearly non existent. I have over 3000 files on SS. Yesterday I made $1.24 in OD.

+1

Accumulating empirical data seems to suggest they are handing out port demotions based on the years we joined. I have seen three tiers of image placement demotions and have been at SS since 2004. And yes the drops show up on a graph very clearly. Sudden drops with no recovery.

July and August were ugly in comparison to last year and the previous 8 years. In fact I had better sales in 2006. In the short term it looks to me like they are taking full advantage of the increased earnings that IS defectors bring in the form of lower royalty payments. Ask yourself why did they disable the TOP 50 weekly images. The simple TOP 50 query worked perfectly for 9 years and they had no problem outing our best sellers for those 9 years. It is plain that Shutterstock does not want us to see the contents of that TOP 50 Query now that they have demoted our ports.

i made 50$ yesterday with 1200 images

Quote from: Valo on September 04, 2014, 00:43

I made 50 dollars in the last 7 days, I have over 2100 images and footage. 

I have days of 100 dollars, what is your point?

Quote from: gbalex on September 04, 2014, 10:26

Quote from: Mantis on September 04, 2014, 07:39

Quote from: Noedelhap on September 04, 2014, 05:08

Low number of SOD's lately. Does anyone else experience this as well?

Yes totally. It's almost like Shutterstock is giving new contributors better positioning over old farts like me to encourage & motivate them to upload new, fresh content so they don't just give up.  There certainly doesn't seem to be any commitment to the longer-term contributors who've shown their support and dedication over the last 7 years. Now, this is how I feel and what I believe is happening, but I have no proof other than my ALL OF A SUDDEN horrible sales over the last few months. Yea, a SOD here and there but the overall downloads, especially OD's is nearly non existent. I have over 3000 files on SS. Yesterday I made $1.24 in OD.

+1

Accumulating empirical data seems to suggest they are handing out port demotions based on the years we joined. I have seen three tiers of image placement demotions and have been at SS since 2004. And yes the drops show up on a graph very clearly. Sudden drops with no recovery.

July and August were ugly in comparison to last year and the previous 8 years. In fact I had better sales in 2006. In the short term it looks to me like they are taking full advantage of the increased earnings that IS defectors bring in the form of lower royalty payments. Ask yourself why did they disable the TOP 50 weekly images. The simply TOP 50 query work perfectly for 9 years and they had no problem outing out best sellers, they just do not want us to see the contents of that query now that they have demoted us.

Shutterstock have said that the influx of IS contributors did have an effect and they have also said that the search algorithm also considers image age, depending on the search query and whether age is relevant or not. For example if I need an image showing fashion they will show new images. If I need a cut-out of a symbol of some sort, age does not matter.

Lets assume all of the above is accurate. If the search algorithm considered image age over port age, our new images would sell over our old images.

Instead I am seeing exactly the opposite. My new images do not sell, my best sellers have been killed off entirely and the only ones that sell are mediocre old images in my port that did not sell well in the past.

Shutterstock can blow all the smoke and mirrors that they want, we can see what they have done by looking at sales patterns. If they have nothing to hide they can re enable the TOP 50 images again so that every one can see which ports the search currently favors.

gbalex, I am not disagreeing with you, just wanted to add my two cents. I am sure I tell you nothing new.

cobalt, thats great, I have good days too. Does not mean there is no problem. 

Quote from: Mantis on September 04, 2014, 07:39

Quote from: Noedelhap on September 04, 2014, 05:08

Low number of SOD's lately. Does anyone else experience this as well?

Yes totally. It's almost like Shutterstock is giving new contributors better positioning over old farts like me to encourage & motivate them to upload new, fresh content so they don't just give up.  There certainly doesn't seem to be any commitment to the longer-term contributors who've shown their support and dedication over the last 7 years. Now, this is how I feel and what I believe is happening, but I have no proof other than my ALL OF A SUDDEN horrible sales over the last few months. Yea, a SOD here and there but the overall downloads, especially OD's is nearly non existent. I have over 3000 files on SS. Yesterday I made $1.24 in OD.

+1

Accumulating empirical data seems to suggest they are handing out port demotions based on the years we joined. I have seen three tiers of image placement demotions and have been at SS since 2004. And yes the drops show up on a graph very clearly. Sudden drops with no recovery.

July and August were ugly in comparison to last year and the previous 8 years. In fact I had better sales in 2006. In the short term it looks to me like they are taking full advantage of the increased earnings that IS defectors bring in the form of lower royalty payments. Ask yourself why did they disable the TOP 50 weekly images. The simple TOP 50 query worked perfectly for 9 years and they had no problem outing our best sellers for those 9 years. It is plain that Shutterstock does not want us to see the contents of that TOP 50 Query now that they have demoted our ports.

I cannot make any other conclusion than I have been pushed down the food chain. SS probably doesn't care what I think or how this affect me personally, or any other contributor for that matter. What would be nice is to know if there's anything I can do about it other than give up.  My new stuff never sells, my video sales have stopped and my ods are non existent. This is months in the making, not a few bad days.

Quote from: gbalex on September 04, 2014, 14:05

If they have nothing to hide they can re enable the TOP 50 images again so that every one can see which ports the search currently favors.

I don't really understand that thing you have about the top 50.
If you want to see which images are favored by the search, do a search and see what appears first...

What he is saying is that the top 50 really never changed much over the years, or changed very rarely here and there.  You could click on any of those images and see the artist, their port, how long they have been with SS, etc.  Now the top 50 is gone because Shutterstock does not want us to see that those top 50 are no longer the top 50. The top 50 is likely now replaced by new contributors which would be proof of our theory.  Gablex's assumptions are, in my opinion, correct. They killed the top 50 so that we could not verify that they indeed changed the search to punish the long timers and see that they are replaced by new contributors, perhaps once who required special deals in the search over us long timers as a side deal for them to come over to SS. There can really be no other explanation. Today was another disaster for me on SS by the way. The way things are going I will make $350 this month, 500 less than normal. It really is that bad for me.

Quote from: Mantis on September 04, 2014, 17:29

Quote from: dirkr on September 04, 2014, 17:01

Quote from: gbalex on September 04, 2014, 14:05

If they have nothing to hide they can re enable the TOP 50 images again so that every one can see which ports the search currently favors.

I don't really understand that thing you have about the top 50.
If you want to see which images are favored by the search, do a search and see what appears first...

What he is saying is that the top 50 really never changed much over the years, or changed very rarely here and there.  You could click on any of those images and see the artist, their port, how long they have been with SS, etc.  Now the top 50 is gone because Shutterstock does not want us to see that those top 50 are no longer the top 50. The top 50 is likely now replaced by new contributors which would be proof of our theory.  Gablex's assumptions are, in my opinion, correct. They killed the top 50 so that we could not verify that they indeed changed the search to punish the long timers and see that they are replaced by new contributors, perhaps once who required special deals in the search over us long timers as a side deal for them to come over to SS. There can really be no other explanation. Today was another disaster for me on SS by the way. The way things are going I will make $350 this month, 500 less than normal. It really is that bad for me.

+1  +1  +1

ah yes, yes, yes,
but ...
there is someone who is amongst us who keep telling us we are trolls against SS,
and that our imagination of the switch being flipped is yet another one of our whines and trolls.

i can see why SS would turn the switch off for regular sellers in favour of newbies. they pay them less, and they (newbies) will be reporting BME every month when their monthly sales go from  zero to five .
as i said before, the first batch of  opium  is always free.

Yea that's Uncle Pete. He's actually a good guy and he is usually right. In this case I would disagree with him, but we are all entitled to our opinion. If his opinion of me is that I am a troll, he would be wrong  there too. But I do love reading his opinions. He's a smart guy.

I like Uncle Pete too, but Etudiante, your description of your cousin made me literally LOL!!

Hello,

To learn more about our search methods and philosophies, please see this thread (scroll down) and this thread.

To clear up some of the rumors:

• We don't cap earnings. 
• The "top image" reports need fixing as we update areas of the site; there was nothing intentionally turned off. This issue is in the backlog and something that gets considered relative to other development priorities.   
• Our algorithms are targeted and optimized towards delivering the best individual images and videos to customers based on how they respond (i.e., do they download and purchase more); portfolios aren't promoted or penalized. 

Portfolio size is really just one factor of many in terms of having successful earnings.  Certain image categories are much more covered (or competitive) than others, so portfolio diversity; keyword quality and amount; upload timing; supplying fresh content (customers look for it); having something unique about your images in terms of subject matter / quality / keywording, etc. -- they're all factors that can result in one portfolio having more consistent success than another. 

Best,

Scott
VP of Content
Shutterstock

Accumulating empirical data seems to suggest they are handing out port demotions based on the years we joined. I have seen three tiers of image placement demotions and have been at SS since 2004. And yes the drops show up on a graph very clearly. Sudden drops with no recovery.

I don't see that at all and I'm with SS since October 2006. I add around 300 to 400 photos a year to my port which is now at around 3.500 photos. My income has been stable over the last five years, which I consider a success given the rapid overall growth of the database and the nature of the majority of my port (editorial sports).

Of course I see seasonal variations, my Marches are always better than my Julys - much like everyone else's, I suppose. What I don't see is empirical evidence of an active demotion of my port just because of its age. Newcomers always enjoyed an exposure bonus at SS, but (a) this wears off after around six months and (b) the effect used to be stronger in the past - but this might also be due to the evergrowing database.

There seemed to be some experimentation with the search engine during July and August, because I sold photos which otherwise never see the light of day. With the beginning of September, sales are back where I expect them to be...