Anyone know any more about the sudden drop in Enhanced License Downloads this month (assuming it is still affecting more contributors than me!)?

I plotted out my earnings from Shutterstock over the past 18 months and separated out subscriptions, on demand, EDs and single sales. I have to go back to June 2011 to find a month with zero Enhanced license downloads.

Steve

Funny to see we have about the same amount of subsales and OD. Only difference is I almost always have 1 EL a month, you 3 to 4.

I finally got one EL today - so I didn't end the month with zero! It made me think about the history of EDs on Shutterstock (at least my experience). Others have talked about a sudden increase, but mine have been more stable:

This shows the percentage of the different categories of license each month from SS - goes up and down a bit, but no real changes in the past 18 months for me.
Then I looked at the growth in files and did my earnings follow suit - at first glance, not too great a picture:

However, if you normalize this and look at the earnings per download - there are signs that that is growing with time, and the earnings per online file seems pretty stable at around 20c per file per month. I guess that shows that I am not getting worse at the quality (or saleability) of my images. I'm not getting better either!


Bit more explanation on my blog, but this is the main conclusion - add more files and you make more money...

Steve

I agree. It's still possible to grow your portfolio and see your earnings increase. My SS earnings since the start of the year:

Rob

You have a very nice return on uploaded images - probably three times better than me on Shutterstock. Do you do photos or illustrations? I'm jealous!

Steve

Just photos. I got 5 ELs this past month, which is more than the usual 2-3. But total downloads overall was still up so I'm happy with the sales growth matching my efforts to get more uploaded. The quality of my images has also mostly improved.

I don't have a tax deduction because I'm set up as an LLC.

Edit:
I do have three video clips there that I just started doing, but they're horrible and have had no sales.

SS, is still great but something has happend, dont know what? there seems to be no search change, yet the sales are not what they used to be. There are much less ELs and SODs,  this fact alone is very worrying.

Same here.  They are still outperforming the other micros, but by a much slimmer margin than earlier in the year. 

Quote from: lisafx on August 01, 2012, 12:04

Quote from: Lagereek on August 01, 2012, 10:51

SS, is still great but something has happend, dont know what? there seems to be no search change, yet the sales are not what they used to be. There are much less ELs and SODs,  this fact alone is very worrying.

Same here.  They are still outperforming the other micros, but by a much slimmer margin than earlier in the year. 

Yes they are but its worrying somehow because the SS pattern have changed drastically, its simply not the same as only three weeks back?  as I said, dont know what they have done but something has had a negative turn on SS?  as far as sales that is.

I just did a search on one of my best selling images.  The relevant search is completely wak. 

The first and second page were filled with non relevant images from two members with very large ports. The images were displayed in the sequence they were shot.  The second page was filled with images from one submitter with the entire set of disgusting looking and non relevant images food images that were almost identical to each other displayed in sequence.

The most popular search showed similar results. The images that actually earned a position in the most popular search via good sales were no where to be found. I guess if you want to kill best sellers while also promoting the images of a chosen few these new search results are an ideal way to accomplish that!

SS  continued to perform as my best reseller, is just nearby to met my FT income, what is falling like a stone since 12 months. June was really bad, but in July they're back by Earnings and with best Average by Image. And SS have only the pictures i gave to any other agency, FT has tripple the images and most of them exclusive.
Looks like it's time to shift. How i hate this moment and this decision. When picture management takes more time and earns more profit than make good images...
Blame on you FT, you had all of my hope and support...you treat it like crap!

Do buyers use Relevant search? I hope not because although my images are properly keyworded they are nowhere to be found using that search criteria.
I thought most buyers use the default, which is popular?
As far as I'm concerned Popular and New are the only criteria required in a search engine, let the images do their work.
I like what Fotolia is doing though atm, promoting new work which is needed in this huge pile of imagery.

One solution to this problem would be having a checkmark or menu like Panthermedia has.
Spammers could then get punished for improper keywording.



Anyway this is a sales thread, we shouldn't be discussing this in here (although it's related)

Hello, how are the sales going in shutterstock.
For me its been 6days since files got approved. Sales have gone a lot down for me. How are they going for you all??

What can i say.... I had July my BME on SS. lots of EL's and OD. Not bad...

Anyone know any more about the sudden drop in Enhanced License Downloads this month (assuming it is still affecting more contributors than me!)?

I plotted out my earnings from Shutterstock over the past 18 months and separated out subscriptions, on demand, EDs and single sales. I have to go back to June 2011 to find a month with zero Enhanced license downloads.



Steve

Can you believe I have never had a Enhanched download on SS? How much do they pay for it?

I have been very active on SS since March, I have 820 images in the portfolio and over 500 sales in these months, but no ED...is that because almost my entire portfolio is made of Editorials? Why else?

Please let me know if I am making some mistake...thanks!

Quote from: steheap on July 30, 2012, 10:39

Anyone know any more about the sudden drop in Enhanced License Downloads this month (assuming it is still affecting more contributors than me!)?

I plotted out my earnings from Shutterstock over the past 18 months and separated out subscriptions, on demand, EDs and single sales. I have to go back to June 2011 to find a month with zero Enhanced license downloads.



Steve

Can you believe I have never had a Enhanched download on SS? How much do they pay for it?

I have been very active on SS since March, I have 820 images in the portfolio and over 500 sales in these months, but no ED...is that because almost my entire portfolio is made of Editorials? Why else?

Please let me know if I am making some mistake...thanks!

The $28 downloads are crazy unpredictable.  Some months I may get 10 and some I get zilch.  This month I only have one so far.  It is an unknown as to why some moments in time are hot and others are cold.  Hang in there, keep uploading.