I think the one subject that people are afraid to talk about... because it may hurt the feeling of some contributors is that not all portfolios are created equal and to further extend that, not all photographers and not all designers are equal. Some people use duration of time spend on something as a measure of skill and ability. It isn't.

It's been demonstrated time and time again that you don't need to spend 20 years or even 10 years on something to be good at it. It doesn't matter if someone is newbie. If they have the skills, they have the skills. I'm fortunate enough to be in a position to see young kids as young as 18 outperforming people with 20 years of experience in a number of fields. It's crazy to see, but it's reality. One reason is because they're optimistic and they open their mind to knowledge as opposed to cynicism developed over years of frustration and a closed mind because they think they know everything.

There is a reason why Zuckerberg is a billionaire and I'm not. There's a reason why Jon Oringer at age 42 (founded SS at the 'inexperienced' age of 29) is the billionaire owner of SS and people much older than him are not. There's a reason why some people's small portfolios are performing beyond expectations while others with large portfolios are barely performing. Sometimes an adjustment of mindset is all you need to become more successful at something. Telling someone to "up their game" may sound harsh, but it's also a brutally honest suggestion.

theres been many factors why sales are dropping and cumulatively all these factors are hurting our earnings at SS. constant algorithm changes, more contributors, lowering of acceptance criteria, rapid increasing number of images, new competition from Adobe, lowering of royalties, you name it. and wanting the old days back is understandable, but never will happen, so really, accept it or move on. constantly ranting about is not going to help anyone, look at Paulie Walnuts, hes not ranting, hes changing his ways, and is now picking the fruits.

as for entitlement as cathyslife calls it, i dont think many people here think they are entitled. i certainly dont feel entitled to anything, the Op sounds entitled to me though. i dont respect people that think they are better than others, out with the old, in with the new, we need a change of guard in this business, its like bread, old bread goes stale, its not nice anymore, it needs to be fed to the ducks (pun intended)

PS: this communication from shutterstock explains some of why people see changes in their sales

Quote

Posted 11 September 2015 - 03:38 PM by vincent shutterstock

The search engine algorithm is proprietary, and there are numerous reasons why we are not going to share what it is. The algorithm is constantly tested and changed (several times a year, not just once every few years) with the simple goal of increasing downloads for all contributors.
 
Why and how we change the search engine algorithm is very simple: we test a new algorithm in a select market or on a random part of our customer base. If the new one gets more downloads we change it for all customers, if the new one does not result in more downloads we revert to the old one. We will always choose the algorithm that gets the most downloads.
 
Ultimately our goal is to keep it fresh and keep the customers interested (i.e. downloading) so an image showing on top of the search result for 8 years may be good for Laurin, but it is very bad for everyone else because customers do not want to see the same image every time for 8 years and will go elsewhere if it does as our tests have shown.
 
some links from our support center:
http://support.shutt...bat02/000006579
http://support.shutt...bat02/000006621

When they are playing we are loosing!!! Loosing big!!! And I don't think that that is good for both of us in long term!!!

Then I'll also suggest a solution. If your old images are not selling, consider updating the keywords. Nobody does it right the first time. If the algorithm changed and no longer favor your old images, then make some changes to the metadata. The system may see it as an updated image and re-sort its ranking. I've done it before and I've seen results.

While it may be boring, it's a lot cheaper and less time consuming than creating new content. If you have total confidence in your work, then it will rise up the rankings. I believe that the best will always rise to the top on SS. It's only a matter of time.

Quote from: KuriousKat on July 16, 2016, 02:01

Quote from: Minsc on July 15, 2016, 21:49

I think the one subject that people are afraid to talk about... because it may hurt the feeling of some contributors is that not all portfolios are created equal and to further extend that, not all photographers and not all designers are equal. Some people use duration of time spend on something as a measure of skill and ability. It isn't.

................ Telling someone to "up their game" may sound harsh, but it's also a brutally honest suggestion.

I think you are totally missing the crux of the matter here.

No one is denying that there are some outstanding small portfolios that will outstrip many of the larger ones every day of the week, or that there are young and inexperienced 18 year olds oozing talent that some of us will only ever dream of - that's a given.

However, what you are failing to address here is that many of us are seeing sudden sales anomalies.

I measure the success of my portfolio by number of downloads achieved, and that has suddenly shifted, while my portfolio has remained 'equal'. Coming to this forum is to see if anyone has any tangible reasons that may explain this shift, is a sensible way to try and find either a solution or a method to address the problem, it is not about having a moan for the sake of it.

Telling people to 'up their game', whilst it may be 'harsh and brutally honest', is inappropriate in this set of circumstances.

Then I'll also suggest a solution. If your old images are not selling, consider updating the keywords. Nobody does it right the first time. If the algorithm changed and no longer favor your old images, then make some changes to the metadata. The system may see it as an updated image and re-sort its ranking. I've done it before and I've seen results.

While it may be boring, it's a lot cheaper and less time consuming than creating new content. If you have total confidence in your work, then it will rise up the rankings. I believe that the best will always rise to the top on SS. It's only a matter of time.

I went back and looked at my stuff that's selling. They all have one thing in common. They're all somewhat difficult to get shots or have higher production costs. All of it is probably older than 2011 when I stopped shooting for micro.

It's interesting that even with buffet style subscriptions none of my old newbie snapshot stuff is getting downloaded. It's all stuff that probably would have been good as macro a few years ago.

Quote from: ShadySue on July 17, 2016, 13:30

The bottom line with all the open agencies is, "It can always get worse".

Except Yay unless they come round my house and rob me