Author Topic: Shutterstock is an embarassment (Read 24278 times)

blvdone · « **Reply #100 on:** July 05, 2023, 08:42 »

Quote from: Elijah on July 05, 2023, 07:44

Any reasonable contributor would laugh at what Doug says...
- 5 minutes to colour-grade the quality video, provide metadata and upload/submit
- 348$ per hour earning rate
- not including travel and fuel costs in the calculation.

C'mon, guys, why are you splitting hairs and dealing with semantics when such BS is being shovelled right in front of you?
It defies logic and experience on such a spectacular level that even the discussion about it should seem preposterous.
He's trying again to sell courses - fine by me, but not at the expense of gaslighting contributors into believing such outlandish claims.

Exactly. It's ridiculous to make $348/hr claim. It's disingenuous at least to make such a bogus claim to unsuspecting newbies. It's laughable. lol In reality, many people in the industry knows it can often end up less than minimum wage per hour after 3, 4 years of low/no sales.

Zero Talent · « **Reply #101 on:** July 05, 2023, 09:45 »

Elijah · « **Reply #102 on:** July 05, 2023, 09:52 »

Quote from: Doug Jensen on July 04, 2023, 18:22

I came by, made the little baby cry, and now I'll leave before he wants me to change his dirty diaper.

Seriously Doug... this is the level you expect us to go down to?

Big Toe · « **Reply #103 on:** July 05, 2023, 09:55 »

Quote from: Zero Talent on July 04, 2023, 21:07

Quote from: Big Toe on July 04, 2023, 19:17
Quote from: Zero Talent on July 04, 2023, 17:35
Sure thing.

Then my ♾️/hour stands correct, since almost all my photos and videos are made while on vacation, or on trips paid by my company, thus I had zero production costs.
And since I also enjoy keywording, not just shooting and processing, then I also have zero keywording costs.

This makes my hourly rate ♾️/hour

Well, I guess you can see it that way. I would question, though, whether it makes sense for you to calculate an hourly rate at all, since in your case, you seem to be enjoying windfall profits for basically doing nothing, similar to winning the lottery. You would not usually calculate an hourly rate for that either.

Not really, I am not doing "nothing", I am spending TIME on this lucrative hobby. But time is not free. Time is money.

Time may be taken away from doing some even more lucrative business.
Or from learning a new skill than may pay back much more in the future.

Or simply, time is taken away from the family. I am sure that many of us know well how many times our partners were upset with the amount of time we spent on this passion.

Now, what could possibly be more lucrative than an infinite amount of money per hour?

You cannot have it both ways. Either you are doing stock photos because it is what you love, without financial considerations and then what does it matter that something else would earn you more money, when it is just a hobby?

Or else, you do stock fotografy, or at least parts of it for the money and then you can calculate your earning per hour, either considering all time invested or only the time you would invest anyway, if you would not earn anything, because it is your hobby.

Quote from: Zero Talent on July 04, 2023, 21:07

Not accounting for ALL the time spent doing this work, while claiming that money is falling from the sky at a rate of $348/hour (only to impress people), because only the keywording time matters, is a fallacy.

Anyway, it will be also interesting to see a tax return from Mr. Jensen, to understand if he truly claimed zero expenses, for this business. I have my doubts here, but even so, what I said above remains a fact: time is money.

Allt hat being said, the $348/hour is a different story. Even if we accept the premises for the calculations, I have some trouble believing the claim that Doug can process and keyword a file in five minutes. But that is a different issue.

Zero Talent · « **Reply #104 on:** July 05, 2023, 10:11 »

Quote from: Big Toe on July 05, 2023, 09:55

Now, what could possibly be more lucrative than an infinite amount of money per hour?

You cannot have it both ways. Either you are doing stock photos because it is what you love, without financial considerations and then what does it matter that something else would earn you more money, when it is just a hobby?

Obviously that's absurd. It is a logical tool used to prove that the Jensen hypothesis is flawed.

My point is that Time is never free. Time costs money even when you do something you enjoy.
Time is probably our most expensive resource, and it must be accounted for.

Think about this:

Would you swap your life with Warren Buffet - one of the richest and most respected people in the world?
Or with a person with only 100 USD in her/his pocket?

Buffet is 92. The poor person is 18.

Big Toe · « **Reply #105 on:** July 05, 2023, 11:01 »

Quote from: Zero Talent on July 05, 2023, 10:11

Quote from: Big Toe on July 05, 2023, 09:55

Now, what could possibly be more lucrative than an infinite amount of money per hour?

You cannot have it both ways. Either you are doing stock photos because it is what you love, without financial considerations and then what does it matter that something else would earn you more money, when it is just a hobby?

Obviously that's absurd. It is a logical tool used to prove that the Jensen hypothesis is flawed.

My point is that Time is never free. Time costs money even when you do something you enjoy.
Time is probably our most expensive resource, and it must be accounted for.

Think about this:

Would you swap your life with Warren Buffet - one of the richest and most respected people in the world?
Or with a person with only 100 USD in her/his pocket?

Buffet is 92. The poor person is 18.

Doesn't your example show the opposite of what you claim? Obviously, there is no equivalency between money and time.

Buffet cannot buy himself more time with his money (or only to a limited degree with better healthcare) and the 18 year old person cannot necessarily monetize the years they have ahead of them.

Zero Talent · « **Reply #106 on:** July 05, 2023, 11:38 »

Quote from: Big Toe on July 05, 2023, 11:01

Doesn't your example show the opposite of what you claim? Obviously, there is no equivalency between money and time.

Buffet cannot buy himself more time with his money (or only to a limited degree with better healthcare) and the 18 year old person cannot necessarily monetize the years they have ahead of them.

No it doesn't. If you consider Time as being free, meaning no Time is factored in the equation, then you have something divided by zero, in other words the absurdity of ♾️.
Or $348 as per "Jensen's financials", when you only consider 5 minutes for keywording, without considering the Time for planning, shooting, processing, etc.
Obviously, when you factor all this missed Time, then the infamous $348/hour will fall down fast to realistic values.

Playing games, because you enjoy gaming, is not free. You could use that Time to shoot and process clips, for example.
So playing games for fun, is depriving you of that revenue, costing you the money you missed.
You should always treat Time as a valuable resource, which is never free. This why we have the expression "wasting Time".

Those who chose the 18 years old option are evaluating Time at more than $110 Billions (Buffet's worth) / 74 years difference/ 365 days per year / 24 hours per day = ~$170k/hour >> $0/hour

Just_to_inform_people2 · « **Reply #107 on:** July 05, 2023, 14:56 »

Quote from: Zero Talent on July 05, 2023, 11:38

Quote from: Big Toe on July 05, 2023, 11:01

Doesn't your example show the opposite of what you claim? Obviously, there is no equivalency between money and time.

Buffet cannot buy himself more time with his money (or only to a limited degree with better healthcare) and the 18 year old person cannot necessarily monetize the years they have ahead of them.

No it doesn't. If you consider Time as being free, meaning no Time is factored in the equation, then you have something divided by zero, in other words the absurdity of ♾️.
Or $348 as per "Jensen's financials", when you only consider 5 minutes for keywording, without considering the Time for planning, shooting, processing, etc.
Obviously, when you factor all this missed Time, then the infamous $348/hour will fall down fast to realistic values.

Playing games, because you enjoy gaming, is not free. You could use that Time to shoot and process clips, for example.
So playing games for fun, is depriving you of that revenue, costing you the money you missed.
You should always treat Time as a valuable resource, which is never free. This why we have the expression "wasting Time".

Those who chose the 18 years old option are evaluating Time at more than $110 Billions (Buffet's worth) / 74 years difference/ 365 days per year / 24 hours per day = ~$170k/hour >> $0/hour

Not necessarily. If you work from 9 to 5, you have an hourly wage right (probably a monthly salary but still).

Then you have to commute to work. One takes ten minutes, the other two hours. This time is not factored in. Then you probably drink coffee in the morning, you take a shower (who wants to smell when getting at work?). You eat breakfast because you need some energy to do your work. You sleep during the night to be able to do your work the next day.

So it can be quite arbitrarily what you may count or not as being part of how much time it actually costs to make this hourly wage/monthly salary.

You count in this and that. Doug counts in this and that. You disagree but both of you are not wrong or right.

And in that sense Doug came out better asking you for your calculation with an open vision while you only ridiculed him and did not show how you would calculate stuff.

Zero Talent · « **Reply #108 on:** July 05, 2023, 15:43 »

Quote from: SVH on July 05, 2023, 14:56

Not necessarily. If you work from 9 to 5, you have an hourly wage right (probably a monthly salary but still).

Then you have to commute to work. One takes ten minutes, the other two hours. This time is not factored in. Then you probably drink coffee in the morning, you take a shower (who wants to smell when getting at work?). You eat breakfast because you need some energy to do your work. You sleep during the night to be able to do your work the next day.

So it can be quite arbitrarily what you may count or not as being part of how much time it actually costs to make this hourly wage/monthly salary.

You count in this and that. Doug counts in this and that. You disagree but both of you are not wrong or right.

And in that sense Doug came out better asking you for your calculation with an open vision while you only ridiculed him and did not show how you would calculate stuff.

A realistic calculation, as several others have suggested, must be done like for a regular business, no matter if you may, or may not have fun doing that business (while wishing everybody to be lucky enough to also enjoy doing their main jobs, not just microstock)

Include the time spent planning, the time spent traveling (or a proportion of it), the time spent shooting, the time spent editing, storing the files, the time spent keywording, maintaining/upgrading your equipment, then deduct amortization and depreciation, and any other expenses, as indicated by the IRS rules (which, btw, are also allowing for some meal deductions, fyi), etc.

Basically talk to an accountant if all this feels overwhelming.

Only then you may arrive at the realistic hourly/rate, instead of that $348/hour non-sense based only on feelings, on fun or not fun.

Btw, I didn't ridicule him. I simply proved him wrong.

Elijah · « **Reply #109 on:** July 06, 2023, 05:30 »

I'm not sure what the fuss is about. I think Doug's earnings can be easily bumped up to 600$ per hour. Some examples.

- If the person immensely enjoys keywording, it's a passion, so why include it in calculations? Should be dropped off the list.
- Resubmitting AI rejections and regular rejections from other agencies is actually fun. Looking at this green bar moving while a file is being uploaded is tantalizing. In fact, resubmitting is such fun that deleting an asset and resubmitting it again is a legit passage of time. So again, why count resubmissions toward time spent?
- Enjoy scouting locations before shooting? (Some drone pros do that before shooting footage). Why count this towards your time if you would do this for fun anyway.
- The list is long. Love flying planes or driving across the country? Total fun, who doubts it? Travel photographers can take it off the list.
- Need to buy SD cards and external disks? Spending money is fun, no need to include it. That's why people enjoy shopping on the weekends.
- Keeping up with backups of your footage and copying stuff over to external devices? Again, this is fun, people do it just out of passion for backups.
- Paying for stock submitter for multiple uploads? Love it! Charging multiple batteries? Fun! Oh, almost forgot.... the wonders of maintaining equipment. It's a dream come true.

And don't forget the spiritual aspect of it - laughing all the way to the bank is a liberating and enlightening experience.

There is literally an unlimited potential for inflating your earnings by excluding fun things. Give Doug some slack, he is pretty conservative with his exclusion list.

Elijah · « **Reply #110 on:** July 06, 2023, 05:53 »

Quote from: Zero Talent on July 05, 2023, 15:43

Btw, I didn't ridicule him. I simply proved him wrong.

I see no problem with ridiculing and lighthearted fun. After all, if we are being gaslighted it justifies a little pushback.

Just_to_inform_people2 · « **Reply #111 on:** July 06, 2023, 10:36 »

Quote from: Zero Talent on July 05, 2023, 09:45

The last time I saw Jeniffer she didn't look like the photo on the right, close, but not exactly. So that means that Doug is right because this statement is false

Zero Talent · « **Reply #112 on:** July 06, 2023, 11:21 »

Quote from: SVH on July 06, 2023, 10:36

The last time I saw Jeniffer she didn't look like the photo on the right, close, but not exactly. So that means that Doug is right because this statement is false

Here you go, show us more of your meme analysis skills:

alison1414 · « **Reply #113 on:** July 06, 2023, 11:28 »

I recently found an image of mine on Shutterstock being offered as a "Free Download." I NEVER authorized this. I deleted all my images then and there. It was already not what it used to be since they messed with the forum. They can bite me.

Pacesetter · « **Reply #114 on:** July 06, 2023, 17:56 »

William Perry · « **Reply #115 on:** July 06, 2023, 19:06 »

Looking for alternatives am looking for alternatives. Has anyone tried Art Storefronts? If so what has your experience been? Is it worth the money?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lowls · « **Reply #116 on:** July 07, 2023, 08:42 »

Interviewer: Good to catch up with you again DJ so since SSs new payment tier system and the introduction of A.I. and free give aways, have you found that your bottom line has moved south at all.
DJ For sure but you know because I listen to my own advice ... via my online course ... I have managed to diversify to soften the blow. And my average income from stock is a modest $348.00 per hour.
Interviewer Only Fans right?
DJ *smirk ... feetfinder ... bunions and calves like canned corned beef next to a bar fire, who knew.
Interviewer Before you discovered your new audience what kept the money rolling in?
DJ Well it was being modest and quietly humble. I think having someone to look up to in the industry really was what saw my meteoric rise in popularity with the gullible iPhone owners of Bangladesh struggling through their formative years. And of course they saw a famous, rich, videographer who's talent bordered on prodigy and yeah, they thought collectively, they wanted some of that. Of course I was duty bound then to rise to the heights of the pedestal everyone I had ever met put me on. And I exceeded their expectations. Obviously. I taught them they needed three things to equal my success.
1. My course.
2. State of the art computer.
3. A Shutterstock profile.
That's it.
Interviewer What about a camera?
DJ I don't count that because I already had a camera.
Interviewer A camera set-up worth in excess of $60,000.00+ bucks.
DJ Whinging about equipment wastes my time. If you want to be a successful stock videographer then you'll buy professional equipment but not before you've bought my course.
Interviewer You've also got access to regular rocket launches and regularly film and TV location contracts.
DJ Right and the money I make from stock footage is just stuff I would film anyway even if I didnt have those press passes and contracts. I would just do it from much, much, further away.
Interviewer Well thanks DJ it has been my honour to catch up.
DJ If anyone does want to change their life and become a less worthless human for once and excell please find my course at alphamalesnapper.com/ronburgundy and remember ... you're only one snap away ... ☝️😉 ... from the top.

Elijah · « **Reply #117 on:** July 12, 2023, 08:23 »

Quote from: Lowls on July 07, 2023, 08:42

Interviewer: Good to catch up with you again DJ so since SSs new payment tier system and the introduction of A.I. and free give aways, have you found that your bottom line has moved south at all.
DJ For sure but you know because I listen to my own advice ... via my online course ... I have managed to diversify to soften the blow. And my average income from stock is a modest $348.00 per hour.
Interviewer Only Fans right?
DJ *smirk ... feetfinder ... bunions and calves like canned corned beef next to a bar fire, who knew.
Interviewer Before you discovered your new audience what kept the money rolling in?
DJ Well it was being modest and quietly humble. I think having someone to look up to in the industry really was what saw my meteoric rise in popularity with the gullible iPhone owners of Bangladesh struggling through their formative years. And of course they saw a famous, rich, videographer who's talent bordered on prodigy and yeah, they thought collectively, they wanted some of that. Of course I was duty bound then to rise to the heights of the pedestal everyone I had ever met put me on. And I exceeded their expectations. Obviously. I taught them they needed three things to equal my success.
1. My course.
2. State of the art computer.
3. A Shutterstock profile.
That's it.
Interviewer What about a camera?
DJ I don't count that because I already had a camera.
Interviewer A camera set-up worth in excess of $60,000.00+ bucks.
DJ Whinging about equipment wastes my time. If you want to be a successful stock videographer then you'll buy professional equipment but not before you've bought my course.
Interviewer You've also got access to regular rocket launches and regularly film and TV location contracts.
DJ Right and the money I make from stock footage is just stuff I would film anyway even if I didnt have those press passes and contracts. I would just do it from much, much, further away.
Interviewer Well thanks DJ it has been my honour to catch up.
DJ If anyone does want to change their life and become a less worthless human for once and excell please find my course at alphamalesnapper.com/ronburgundy and remember ... you're only one snap away ... ☝️😉 ... from the top.

LOL.

Diana Herrmann · « **Reply #118 on:** July 25, 2023, 08:46 »

Quote from: stockman11 on June 23, 2023, 16:26

My SS earnings used to be 15x higher than now, and they just keep nosediving from month to month. Once a good earner, now abomination. Seems like it will join mid-tier agencies soon. Inexcusable.

During this same time, my Adobe Stock earnings has been growing, and Istock has been consistent.

I'm considering to start treating SS like the other mid-tier agencies and completely stop uploading there.

According to the earnings rating, Adobe is double SS.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #119 on:** July 26, 2023, 11:49 »

Quote from: Diana Herrmann on July 25, 2023, 08:46

Quote from: stockman11 on June 23, 2023, 16:26
My SS earnings used to be 15x higher than now, and they just keep nosediving from month to month. Once a good earner, now abomination. Seems like it will join mid-tier agencies soon. Inexcusable.

During this same time, my Adobe Stock earnings has been growing, and Istock has been consistent.

I'm considering to start treating SS like the other mid-tier agencies and completely stop uploading there.

According to the earnings rating, Adobe is double SS.

AdobeStock    74.4
Shutterstock    35.2 (roughly $75 a month for the best people who volunteer to take the poll)
Dreamstime    3
iStock 29
Alamy 10
Deposit 2.8
Bigstock 2.5

I'm small time and used to make, on average, $100 a month on SSTK. Same images and more, some months just over $10 but on average is closer to $25. Keep in mind, the on average part. The only thing that props up SSTK is an occasional $50 sale, the rest are dimes.

AS now a consistent $50 a month. AS 979 images, SS 5,429 images. Yes they are in many instances different images, because of what each agency accepts. DT? HA!

A cross of images that are on AS and SS and it's taking years to reach the $100 to decide if I want to continue or drop them. Alamy pays 20% now and iStock actually trudges on, slow but steady.

Joining more agencies is not my answer. Working for the ones that pay and ignoring the bottom feeders and parasites, is my way to distribute. No reason to get so desperate for cheap pay, that will never grow or amount to anything significant. There is no Mid-Tier anymore. Barely a handful of good agencies, ($50 a month) and all the rest are low earners or low value.

Dump the chumps, work the ones that pay best.

dragonblade · « **Reply #120 on:** July 29, 2023, 00:53 »

Quote from: Elijah on July 05, 2023, 07:44

He's trying again to sell courses - fine by me, but not at the expense of gaslighting contributors into believing such outlandish claims.

That's not the only thing he makes outrageous claims about. On the old SS forum, he stated that I didn't have any experience selling stock videos. I'm sorry but that is complete nonsense. I was selling stock videos on SS long before he joined that now extinct forum. And I had also sold videos through P5 as well.

Despite Doug Jenson's lies, I think I did okay with such a small video port on SS. In actual fact, it sounded like I did better than him when he first started on SS. In the beginning, I made three video sales from a port of 35 videos. I recall Doug saying that had about 200 videos or so when he first started on SS and made less sales than I did. Later on, I doubled the size of my video port and that effectively doubled my video sales.

Injustice for all · « **Reply #121 on:** July 31, 2023, 10:36 »

Best month of the year on SS thanks to several good single sales,so a much better month than AS,i earned more than double on SS compared to AS this month.
Also on Depositphotos i had good sales this month,maybe this is due to the fact that i recently resumed uploading on DP after a break of a couple of years.

Jens G · « **Reply #122 on:** August 04, 2023, 06:58 »

I just noticed that I have not had any OD sales since the middle of May. About 5% of my sales used to be OD's, but now there are none.

Have others noticed the same trend?

JustAnImage · « **Reply #123 on:** August 04, 2023, 07:22 »

Quote from: Jens G on August 04, 2023, 06:58

I just noticed that I have not had any OD sales since the middle of May. About 5% of my sales used to be OD's, but now there are none.

Have others noticed the same trend?

Just checked my last 3 month - about 1 in 40 sales was OD, that rate is decreasing for me too.

dtemm12390 · « **Reply #124 on:** August 05, 2023, 16:07 »

see these two screenshots ⬇️

No reply even after many emails and 19 days ?? my account has not been activated even after proofs ?
i emailed them multiple times and with different E-mail address also. now they are not responding.

I think my account was deleted by Shutterstock on the first day without any valid reason. They are not responding, and it seems they cannot recover it. Do you consider this to be Shutterstock's fraud? What do you think?

what should i do now ?

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Author Topic: Shutterstock is an embarassment (Read 24278 times)

blvdone

Zero Talent

Elijah

Big Toe

Zero Talent

Big Toe

Zero Talent

Just_to_inform_people2

Zero Talent

Elijah

Elijah

Just_to_inform_people2

Zero Talent

alison1414

Pacesetter

William Perry

Lowls

Elijah

Diana Herrmann

Uncle Pete

dragonblade

Injustice for all

Jens G

JustAnImage

dtemm12390

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