Ron is right. Overall sub downloads and OD's are down. Subs are down 50% for me but when I get a video sale or SOD it pushes me back into "the norm". Once SOD's, EL's and OD's die for good, that's it.  We are now relying on "miracle-type downloads" to make the month.

As far as Rinder's comments, they are true but shouting it out on the form is not going to work as we probably make up .01% of all contributors.  To regain control you either leave, find other outlets to sell, accept being taken advantage of (most of us do this now, I do) or influence 90% of contributors who the agencies are relying on to pull their content. That is next to impossible.....unfortunately.

For microstock, my bolded statement is the only solution.

I think we are in a situation globally where people who work for a living are cornered... but I also think ppl like microstockers with their passive income and many outlets are somewhat better off than most working for a monthly paycheck. Look at the fotolia situation: they got intimidated enough to start giving back more through that new subscription royalty system, which actually did bump up my income there significantly. It's not huge thing but it's not negligible. We could also op out of DPC. You might say "of course we could" but many working as an employee don' have these choices at all when changes come along.

But I agree this is not enough. We sould push our advantages as far as possible before we lose them, but most don't do it. Many didn't even opt out of  DPC f.e.... Shame on them!

My D/L's have been pitiful since last Thursday...things don't pick up soon, I may not make a payout for the first time in 6 years. I usually reach payout before the 10th of the month, this is awful.   

same here, last Wednesday afternoon.
but this does not include everyone!
Some people of us hit the lottery. Very very bad lottery

Quote from: Albert Martin on January 30, 2015, 06:04

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on January 29, 2015, 18:26

Quote from: Albert Martin on January 28, 2015, 07:20

Unfortunately all solutions are at SS management side. Not at all in contributors hands... I'd say that the most significant problem in this diminishing sales is overabundant crap images acceptance. And, stupid search which gives advantage to cheaper images from newbies who are in 25c or 33c tiers. Established contributors have to deal with wall which comes up to doubling portfolio size if they want to keep their earnings pace.
Who needs that kind of photo?

as all here know, i am one of the biggest ss objector when it comes to their problem with us.
but here i have to be pro ss re: your statement about overabundant crap
who needs that kind of photo bit.


the way i see it, u should be happy that if it is true. the more  overabundant crap
who needs that kind of photo being approved ... the better for you the better for me.
the downloaders are not blind, they can see the difference.


i wish u are right, as the more overabundant crap ss accepts the better my portfolio is going to look.

Dude, shhhh! they might really read what you wrote. But, anyhow they will not understand what you are talking about. Most of those 10000+ images stockers have more than 4/5 of pure crap in their ports. That is why they woo yay on crap photo I showed here

Maybe they should label 'Horrible Post' after you get -5 

-8 as I am writing this now.

No point in fighting with windmills. They are static. They are wind-driven. And they never change! Listen to Rinder... I just had quite sarcastic approach which was not understood by those giving me minuses. Maybe some agency insiders did that? If contributors did that then we are all doomed!

Its not that my sales are sinking deeply, I do have the most weird days.

One day I make 95$ the next day I make 9.50$, I cant grasp that.

Plus the site is down again.

Quote from: Albert Martin on February 17, 2015, 19:25

Quote from: No Free Lunch on January 30, 2015, 21:15

Quote from: Albert Martin on January 30, 2015, 06:04

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on January 29, 2015, 18:26

Quote from: Albert Martin on January 28, 2015, 07:20

Unfortunately all solutions are at SS management side. Not at all in contributors hands... I'd say that the most significant problem in this diminishing sales is overabundant crap images acceptance. And, stupid search which gives advantage to cheaper images from newbies who are in 25c or 33c tiers. Established contributors have to deal with wall which comes up to doubling portfolio size if they want to keep their earnings pace.
Who needs that kind of photo?

as all here know, i am one of the biggest ss objector when it comes to their problem with us.
but here i have to be pro ss re: your statement about overabundant crap
who needs that kind of photo bit.


the way i see it, u should be happy that if it is true. the more  overabundant crap
who needs that kind of photo being approved ... the better for you the better for me.
the downloaders are not blind, they can see the difference.


i wish u are right, as the more overabundant crap ss accepts the better my portfolio is going to look.

Dude, shhhh! they might really read what you wrote. But, anyhow they will not understand what you are talking about. Most of those 10000+ images stockers have more than 4/5 of pure crap in their ports. That is why they woo yay on crap photo I showed here

Maybe they should label 'Horrible Post' after you get -5 

-8 as I am writing this now.

No point in fighting with windmills. They are static. They are wind-driven. And they never change! Listen to Rinder... I just had quite sarcastic approach which was not understood by those giving me minuses. Maybe some agency insiders did that? If contributors did that then we are all doomed!

actually -10 but who's counting.

 What made me upset is that you called out another artist onto the carpet.  They have over 50,000 images in their collection and you pick one that you feel is not up to your standards.  It has been said numerous times not to post another artist's work on this site yet you did it -especially a negative remark.

Hopefully you learn something on this post and how to respect others....

Dude, I don't care about respect. What do I get from respect? What do you get from respect? NOTHING! Posting another artist's work here is usual thing. That what you say is no-no may be valid for you. But, other people don't behave like that. I saw many other examples with publicly devastating many authors on this forum. Just look through this and search. I won't name them but there are many people who even got false charged from their fellow contributors. Also such fellow contributors even publicly posted links to other people's portfolios... What the heck respect? Regarding 50000 images contributors - it is well known that massive portfolios have crap in them. That one I showed here is just one of numerous examples how such 50000 images contributors are burying other people's images with crap. Period.

[EDIT] If that rule you are talking about is valid, then people who runs this site should delete all such posts and links with issuing warnings to those who are breaking those rules. Respect in this industry is for stupid. You don't respect even your own work. It is just all about making few bucks more. No matter if you will kill someone elses reputation or sales - that is ok if your plus is higher. Come on! If you don't think that way you should find some more respected job. Sure thing is that you respect your work so much that you are ready to sell it for dollar or fraction of it.

Something fishy going on! since the crash on Thursday my port is like invisible to buyers. just a few subs and that is not normal

I have the same feelings 

Quote from: Sebalos on February 20, 2015, 07:10

Quote from: suzbah on February 20, 2015, 07:06

Something fishy going on! since the crash on Thursday my port is like invisible to buyers. just a few subs and that is not normal

I have the same feelings 

I agree totally. I have 3000 video clips and 150 photos and usually get a similar amount of income each week. This week it's fallen off a cliff. However I think it's possible SS death wish scheme of growing the Bigstock footage library may finally be showing signs of destroying the SS footage business

Maybe so, but the sales drop off is not just footage.  I am photos only and sales are 40% dowm on usual.

This month will be my best on SS by roughly $300 thanks to a big SOD (not normal), but if I remove the SOD I would have a very normally low-average month, but it's a short month, too.

You got $300 SoD??  How did you do this?! I thought max is 1/3 of this...

My SoDs are very poor this month but OD is nice. However, far from BME...

No point in fighting with windmills. They are static. They are wind-driven. And they never change! Listen to Rinder... I just had quite sarcastic approach which was not understood by those giving me minuses. Maybe some agency insiders did that? If contributors did that then we are all doomed!

2 things i never do on forums
1- pay attention to minuses
2- never qualify those who disagree by giving snide remarks

1 thing i always do on forums
1- speak my piece.

as many others say, there is always the IGNORE button they can use... if they disagree.
calling me out is never going to work.

it should never work on you either. just say your piece. we may disagree with you
but if we still think we are not fighting the same war, we are more stupid than we give ourselves the discredit for being peanut-vendor instead of flipping burgers or squeegeeing cars at intersections.

I several times poited to search problems, but there was no reaction from SS on this. Seems it is planned, they can name it testing or favoring etc but search results are not what expected for many keywords, and for many too much foods returned. For me SS sales are declining and growing other sites altogether. BTW - in search results majority of images do not have keyword which was searched. From today noticed that search brings only 1-2 relevant images and all other have no relation to searched keyword

This is one of major agruments against exclusivity of photographer. You cannot prevent agency's play with your products, and giving exclusivity will be against photographer at the end. Agency will decide to expose your images or not, or whole your port. At beginning there is "democracy" but then there rest only interests of people in relation to business or its officers. This then gives space for another player and the cycle repeats.

My customers went to Fotolia
Lucky me