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Author Topic: Shutterstock sales is sinking deeply...  (Read 100700 times)

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« Reply #325 on: July 21, 2015, 10:24 »
0
Do you really think it is so simple as your port dying once the new contributor bump expires?  I suspect the bump is now longer than it used to be.

If your images are well above average, your initial bump will give your port the momentum to last a few years, once you hit 38 cents. And once your images hit shutterstocks predetermined kill switch age. Your best selling images will be demoted overnight to Dante's lowest levels in the search; never to be seen again. Imagine your surprise when new images also find poor placement in the search.

So you think you have any control over your earnings....
http://forums.submit.shutterstock.com/topic/75288-so-you-think-you-have-any-control-over-your-earnings/


wow, i think that sums me up too. i went back to see when my sales dumped big time and the large 28 to 100 singles disappeared. it was from the time i was a 38 cts "elderly".
is this just us, or normal occurence with 38 cent-ers.?


« Reply #326 on: July 21, 2015, 10:37 »
+3
You are not alone, it has happened to most everyone I know with older ports. They just do not want to bring themselves or others down by talking about it in public. Occasionally on very bad months they express their frustration on various forums, but if you talk to them in private most have no problem sharing the reality of the new normal at shutterstock.

I do know a few with very specialized ports who are not seeing as large of drops, but their best selling images have been demoted.

Rinderart

« Reply #327 on: July 21, 2015, 11:57 »
+3
You are not alone, it has happened to most everyone I know with older ports. They just do not want to bring themselves or others down by talking about it in public. Occasionally on very bad months they express their frustration on various forums, but if you talk to them in private most have no problem sharing the reality of the new normal at shutterstock.

I do know a few with very specialized ports who are not seeing as large of drops, but their best selling images have been demoted.

I;ve been around a long time, I talk to LOTS of people and I agree 100%.

« Reply #328 on: July 21, 2015, 14:04 »
+10
September marks my 10th anniversary with Shutterstock, and oddly enough, so far this summer has been my best ever in terms of overall revenue.  It's the first summer where I didn't experience any drops in revenue and actually had decent increase in revenue...a very nice change of pace.

Hongover

« Reply #329 on: July 21, 2015, 14:40 »
+2
Do you know any indies who just upload to SS specifically?  Not to mention there are other ways the find out what new niches are selling.  Most of the sites put out newsletters monthly suggesting what subjects are HOT.  I am sure a lot of us who been at this awhile have had the experience of discovering a good niche and then a couple months later it is outed by the agencies. Not to mention some of the top selling factories have employees paid to do this research.

See, this is the type of negativity that's making this forum so gloom. 80% of contributors are struggling, but there are still the 20% doing well. And the funny thing is, the successful contributors don't disclose much and they don't want to talk about their success because someone is always there to tell them that their portfolio is going to fall off the search results or how they're going to see a massive decline soon.

Not all contributors are alike and not all of us think the same way when it comes to image creation. That's why some people are still doing well while many are not. And FYI, one of my little obscures image with no demand had 3 downloads on a Sunday and it's averaging 2 downloads a days now.

Let people do their research. Without proper domain knowledge, it's as good as a half-assed effort. Keep telling me how other contributors are going to push me out of the search results, because I'm preparing more images to push other people's images out of the search results.

« Reply #330 on: July 21, 2015, 15:12 »
+6
Do you know any indies who just upload to SS specifically?  Not to mention there are other ways the find out what new niches are selling.  Most of the sites put out newsletters monthly suggesting what subjects are HOT.  I am sure a lot of us who been at this awhile have had the experience of discovering a good niche and then a couple months later it is outed by the agencies. Not to mention some of the top selling factories have employees paid to do this research.

See, this is the type of negativity that's making this forum so gloom. 80% of contributors are struggling, but there are still the 20% doing well. And the funny thing is, the successful contributors don't disclose much and they don't want to talk about their success because someone is always there to tell them that their portfolio is going to fall off the search results or how they're going to see a massive decline soon.

Not all contributors are alike and not all of us think the same way when it comes to image creation. That's why some people are still doing well while many are not. And FYI, one of my little obscures image with no demand had 3 downloads on a Sunday and it's averaging 2 downloads a days now.

Let people do their research. Without proper domain knowledge, it's as good as a half-assed effort. Keep telling me how other contributors are going to push me out of the search results, because I'm preparing more images to push other people's images out of the search results.

Let contributors who have been around much longer than you have report their own results.

Quit telling us how we should think, what we should do and what we should submit.

You seem to know a great deal about who is and who is not successful and your positive spin in the face of shared experience from those with large ports who have been here much longer than yourself; reminds me of the spin a zealous shutterstock community leader would use to attract new contributors. If you are going for referral $$$ you should talk to a few contributors who got stiffed by SS on the referral side.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2015, 15:15 by gbalex »

Hongover

« Reply #331 on: July 21, 2015, 16:18 »
+4
Let contributors who have been around much longer than you have report their own results.

Quit telling us how we should think, what we should do and what we should submit.

You seem to know a great deal about who is and who is not successful and your positive spin in the face of shared experience from those with large ports who have been here much longer than yourself; reminds me of the spin a zealous shutterstock community leader would use to attract new contributors. If you are going for referral $$$ you should talk to a few contributors who got stiffed by SS on the referral side.

I don't care about their results. I only care about my own results.

I'll stop telling people how they should think as contributors when people stop being so negative or when people stop telling me how my sales are going to fall soon. "Enjoy your newbie bump" from everyone sounds like "I can wait for you to fail" in a nicer tone.

And some of you guys seem to enjoy telling people that. I've seen some of the portfolios and believe me, many of them with thousands of images aren't that impressive. I have over a decade of design and art direction experience (agency & corporate) and I'm not going to pretend and say I'll download those photos for projects. Conversely, I have talked about how some contributors who are doing well with incredible portfolios. We're all creatives, I get it. We don't think for once that our portfolio is not good enough, but the reality is that not all portfolios are created equal. Some has high artistic value, but low commercial value and there are portfolios with low artistic value, but high commercial value.

The reality is that experience is not linear. If you guys keep telling me that based your experiences, I'm going to see my sales fall...what good can I get from listening to that? So I can be like everyone else who has seen their sales decline? No thanks. I have plenty of experience from different fields and so far, it has translated well into microstock. I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Thanks!

« Reply #332 on: July 21, 2015, 16:54 »
+6
Let contributors who have been around much longer than you have report their own results.

Quit telling us how we should think, what we should do and what we should submit.

You seem to know a great deal about who is and who is not successful and your positive spin in the face of shared experience from those with large ports who have been here much longer than yourself; reminds me of the spin a zealous shutterstock community leader would use to attract new contributors. If you are going for referral $$$ you should talk to a few contributors who got stiffed by SS on the referral side.

I don't care about their results. I only care about my own results.

I'll stop telling people how they should think as contributors when people stop being so negative or when people stop telling me how my sales are going to fall soon. "Enjoy your newbie bump" from everyone sounds like "I can wait for you to fail" in a nicer tone.

And some of you guys seem to enjoy telling people that. I've seen some of the portfolios and believe me, many of them with thousands of images aren't that impressive. I have over a decade of design and art direction experience (agency & corporate) and I'm not going to pretend and say I'll download those photos for projects. Conversely, I have talked about how some contributors who are doing well with incredible portfolios. We're all creatives, I get it. We don't think for once that our portfolio is not good enough, but the reality is that not all portfolios are created equal. Some has high artistic value, but low commercial value and there are portfolios with low artistic value, but high commercial value.

The reality is that experience is not linear. If you guys keep telling me that based your experiences, I'm going to see my sales fall...what good can I get from listening to that? So I can be like everyone else who has seen their sales decline? No thanks. I have plenty of experience from different fields and so far, it has translated well into microstock. I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Thanks!

i find this rather insightful from someone who has been with ss since feb of this year.
telling the others who have been with ss for over a decade , even, to stop being negative.
it isn't being negative. if someone says to you after the stock market crash they lost money and it's time to call it quits, they are not being negative, they speak from actual experience.

as for those contributors doing well not coming out to let you know. you did not read what Laurent mentioned about these contributors?

why would we want to let you think it's bad pitching for ss this early in the game.
oh well, we will talk to you after you discard your placenta or after you come home from your honeymoon  ;D

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #333 on: July 21, 2015, 17:13 »
+3
Tangentially, there was a bloke (?) who for a time posted a lot here who didn't photograph himself, but seemed to be the semi-sleeping partner who was financing one or more photographers and submitting to iS as an exclusive who a couple of years ago was forever on here and saying that people who weren't constantly on the up and up were clearly cluelss and incompetent, he was always increasing his sales month on month and just dissed everyone else.
Anyway, suddenly his sales started to reduce, and after a couple of months (s)he was gone from here. Unless they're back in a different guise, of course.

Still, you can tell us all in five years' time how great it still is.

Hongover

« Reply #334 on: July 21, 2015, 17:34 »
+3
Let contributors who have been around much longer than you have report their own results.

Quit telling us how we should think, what we should do and what we should submit.

You seem to know a great deal about who is and who is not successful and your positive spin in the face of shared experience from those with large ports who have been here much longer than yourself; reminds me of the spin a zealous shutterstock community leader would use to attract new contributors. If you are going for referral $$$ you should talk to a few contributors who got stiffed by SS on the referral side.

I don't care about their results. I only care about my own results.

I'll stop telling people how they should think as contributors when people stop being so negative or when people stop telling me how my sales are going to fall soon. "Enjoy your newbie bump" from everyone sounds like "I can wait for you to fail" in a nicer tone.

And some of you guys seem to enjoy telling people that. I've seen some of the portfolios and believe me, many of them with thousands of images aren't that impressive. I have over a decade of design and art direction experience (agency & corporate) and I'm not going to pretend and say I'll download those photos for projects. Conversely, I have talked about how some contributors who are doing well with incredible portfolios. We're all creatives, I get it. We don't think for once that our portfolio is not good enough, but the reality is that not all portfolios are created equal. Some has high artistic value, but low commercial value and there are portfolios with low artistic value, but high commercial value.

The reality is that experience is not linear. If you guys keep telling me that based your experiences, I'm going to see my sales fall...what good can I get from listening to that? So I can be like everyone else who has seen their sales decline? No thanks. I have plenty of experience from different fields and so far, it has translated well into microstock. I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Thanks!

i find this rather insightful from someone who has been with ss since feb of this year.
telling the others who have been with ss for over a decade , even, to stop being negative.
it isn't being negative. if someone says to you after the stock market crash they lost money and it's time to call it quits, they are not being negative, they speak from actual experience.

as for those contributors doing well not coming out to let you know. you did not read what Laurent mentioned about these contributors?

why would we want to let you think it's bad pitching for ss this early in the game.
oh well, we will talk to you after you discard your placenta or after you come home from your honeymoon  ;D

So what do you think I should do? Should I call it quits before it's too late? :P

You know, this is isn't the first time and it won't be the last. People doing something for a long time telling someone relatively new to the game that he/she won't succeed because they are no longer successful. Or kinda like how a parent whose experience is completely different telling their child that they won't succeed in their chosen field. Or like a bunch of people with a completely set of experiences telling you that your startup won't work. I don't see the point of it.

You know what's the natural reaction to that? People will try to prove you wrong and some will persevere. Having said it, I'll play the role of the "high energy naive upstart" for you guys. And I'm planning my honeymoon to Italy later in the year. Expect to see more pictures of grapes, pasta, wineries and the Piazza dei Miracoli on SS when I get back.  ;)

memakephoto

« Reply #335 on: July 21, 2015, 17:53 »
+8
Let contributors who have been around much longer than you have report their own results.

Quit telling us how we should think, what we should do and what we should submit.

You seem to know a great deal about who is and who is not successful and your positive spin in the face of shared experience from those with large ports who have been here much longer than yourself; reminds me of the spin a zealous shutterstock community leader would use to attract new contributors. If you are going for referral $$$ you should talk to a few contributors who got stiffed by SS on the referral side.

I don't care about their results. I only care about my own results.

I'll stop telling people how they should think as contributors when people stop being so negative or when people stop telling me how my sales are going to fall soon. "Enjoy your newbie bump" from everyone sounds like "I can wait for you to fail" in a nicer tone.

And some of you guys seem to enjoy telling people that. I've seen some of the portfolios and believe me, many of them with thousands of images aren't that impressive. I have over a decade of design and art direction experience (agency & corporate) and I'm not going to pretend and say I'll download those photos for projects. Conversely, I have talked about how some contributors who are doing well with incredible portfolios. We're all creatives, I get it. We don't think for once that our portfolio is not good enough, but the reality is that not all portfolios are created equal. Some has high artistic value, but low commercial value and there are portfolios with low artistic value, but high commercial value.

The reality is that experience is not linear. If you guys keep telling me that based your experiences, I'm going to see my sales fall...what good can I get from listening to that? So I can be like everyone else who has seen their sales decline? No thanks. I have plenty of experience from different fields and so far, it has translated well into microstock. I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Thanks!

i find this rather insightful from someone who has been with ss since feb of this year.
telling the others who have been with ss for over a decade , even, to stop being negative.
it isn't being negative. if someone says to you after the stock market crash they lost money and it's time to call it quits, they are not being negative, they speak from actual experience.

as for those contributors doing well not coming out to let you know. you did not read what Laurent mentioned about these contributors?

why would we want to let you think it's bad pitching for ss this early in the game.
oh well, we will talk to you after you discard your placenta or after you come home from your honeymoon  ;D

So what do you think I should do? Should I call it quits before it's too late? :P

You know, this is isn't the first time and it won't be the last. People doing something for a long time telling someone relatively new to the game that he/she won't succeed because they are no longer successful. Or kinda like how a parent whose experience is completely different telling their child that they won't succeed in their chosen field. Or like a bunch of people with a completely set of experiences telling you that your startup won't work. I don't see the point of it.

You know what's the natural reaction to that? People will try to prove you wrong and some will persevere. Having said it, I'll play the role of the "high energy naive upstart" for you guys. And I'm planning my honeymoon to Italy later in the year. Expect to see more pictures of grapes, pasta, wineries and the Piazza dei Miracoli on SS when I get back.  ;)

No one is telling you you won't succeed and it's not a case of a bunch of grumpy negative people pouncing on you for being positive.

You come on here and speak with such authority as if you've been at it for years but you have almost no experience. Less than a year doesn't give you the insight to tell people how they should feel about an industry some have been in for over a decade.

You're the know-it-all who, on his first day of work at a new job, tries to tell the veterans what's what. They find that annoying.

Be positive all you want but don't talk as if you have seen it all. Being an app developer and buying stock photos gives you no cred.

« Reply #336 on: July 21, 2015, 18:13 »
+1
Do you know any indies who just upload to SS specifically?  Not to mention there are other ways the find out what new niches are selling.  Most of the sites put out newsletters monthly suggesting what subjects are HOT.  I am sure a lot of us who been at this awhile have had the experience of discovering a good niche and then a couple months later it is outed by the agencies. Not to mention some of the top selling factories have employees paid to do this research.

See, this is the type of negativity that's making this forum so gloom. 80% of contributors are struggling, but there are still the 20% doing well. And the funny thing is, the successful contributors don't disclose much and they don't want to talk about their success because someone is always there to tell them that their portfolio is going to fall off the search results or how they're going to see a massive decline soon.

Not all contributors are alike and not all of us think the same way when it comes to image creation. That's why some people are still doing well while many are not. And FYI, one of my little obscures image with no demand had 3 downloads on a Sunday and it's averaging 2 downloads a days now.

Let people do their research. Without proper domain knowledge, it's as good as a half-assed effort. Keep telling me how other contributors are going to push me out of the search results, because I'm preparing more images to push other people's images out of the search results.

Sorry that my years of experience sound like negativity to you.  Feel free to go on your months of speculation instead.

PS....If you are a designer who has been buying and using stock for years, you would be shocked to learn the identities and success levels of some of us who you are criticizing and complaining about.  If you really have bought that much stock you have bought a lot of it from most of us long timers.  To a certainty.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2015, 18:23 by PixelBytes »

Hongover

« Reply #337 on: July 21, 2015, 19:22 »
+2

No one is telling you you won't succeed and it's not a case of a bunch of grumpy negative people pouncing on you for being positive.

You come on here and speak with such authority as if you've been at it for years but you have almost no experience. Less than a year doesn't give you the insight to tell people how they should feel about an industry some have been in for over a decade.

You're the know-it-all who, on his first day of work at a new job, tries to tell the veterans what's what. They find that annoying.

Be positive all you want but don't talk as if you have seen it all. Being an app developer and buying stock photos gives you no cred.

You love me already, don't lie. Do you know what I find annoying? People equating experience to a time period IN a field as opposed to accumulation of experiences that deals with specific methods. I'm inexperienced when it comes to photography and I'm not even close to as good of many of the people here. However, when it comes to keyword research, metadata creation, stock photo usage/buying, search engine optimization, market trends, I have more experience than most people on here. Before I started uploading to SS, I've already uploaded over 1000 files elsewhere and dealt with different search engines and their nuances.

You make it seem like Microstock is rocket science. It isn't. Microstock isn't as profitable as it used to be, but then again, what is? What I do know is that in every saturated market, there are always niches to exploit. And from what I've seen, some veterans are far too discouraged to even give it a try.

Hongover

« Reply #338 on: July 21, 2015, 19:42 »
0
Sorry that my years of experience sound like negativity to you.  Feel free to go on your months of speculation instead.

PS....If you are a designer who has been buying and using stock for years, you would be shocked to learn the identities and success levels of some of us who you are criticizing and complaining about.  If you really have bought that much stock you have bought a lot of it from most of us long timers.  To a certainty.

Don't take it personally. If your experience tells me that I'm heading toward inevitable failure, it's not something I want to hear. No upstart wants to hear cynicism or doubt. If that's something I'll face eventually, it's something I'll face on my own and I'll learn to adapt. Isn't the best education one's failure and learning from that failure?

And yes, I've download over 1200 images. Over 800 for my personal projects. 300 food pictures and 300 popular isolated objects for apps, 100 landscapes and about 100 random objects for a game I developed. This on top of the 400+ images related to healthcare, business, technology, vectors and random backgrounds I downloaded for work. I would not be surprised if I paid for one or few of your images.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2015, 19:44 by Hongover »

« Reply #339 on: July 21, 2015, 20:13 »
+3
See, this is the type of negativity that's making this forum so gloom. 80% of contributors are struggling, but there are still the 20% doing well. And the funny thing is, the successful contributors don't disclose much and they don't want to talk about their success because someone is always there to tell them that their portfolio is going to fall off the search results or how they're going to see a massive decline soon.

Not all contributors are alike and not all of us think the same way when it comes to image creation. That's why some people are still doing well while many are not. And FYI, one of my little obscures image with no demand had 3 downloads on a Sunday and it's averaging 2 downloads a days now.

Let people do their research. Without proper domain knowledge, it's as good as a half-assed effort. Keep telling me how other contributors are going to push me out of the search results, because I'm preparing more images to push other people's images out of the search results.

So you side stepped the question of referrals nicely. If I had a nickle for every newbie preaching unbridled success to every referral he can drum up by driving people to his site & this one, I would be rich.

As for the success of your obscure images, your view of success is much different than my own.


Hongover

« Reply #340 on: July 21, 2015, 21:43 »
+1

So you side stepped the question of referrals nicely. If I had a nickle for every newbie preaching unbridled success to every referral he can drum up by driving people to his site & this one, I would be rich.

As for the success of your obscure images, your view of success is much different than my own.

I haven't used referrals, so I really don't have anything to say about that subject. I'm not exactly ready to spam my Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter feed asking people to use SS. I think we both know there are enough contributors at SS and referring more will only create more competition.

Success is always relative. Those images are a success compared to other my images with no downloads. If every one of my images get 2 downloads a day, I would quite my job.

« Reply #341 on: July 22, 2015, 03:37 »
+5
Believing in microstock Success is quiting your job, good luck  8)

I once believe that, and almost quit my job ... I am glad I didn't take that step.


Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #342 on: July 22, 2015, 06:06 »
+3

So you side stepped the question of referrals nicely. If I had a nickle for every newbie preaching unbridled success to every referral he can drum up by driving people to his site & this one, I would be rich.

As for the success of your obscure images, your view of success is much different than my own.

I haven't used referrals, so I really don't have anything to say about that subject. I'm not exactly ready to spam my Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter feed asking people to use SS. I think we both know there are enough contributors at SS and referring more will only create more competition.

Success is always relative. Those images are a success compared to other my images with no downloads. If every one of my images get 2 downloads a day, I would quite my job.

If any of us got two downloads a day for each of our images, we'd all quit our jobs. I'd be getting almost 16,000 DLs per day then, and there are people here who'd be getting a lot more. But reality is what you're actually experiencing...you have one image that gets 2 DLs per day. I have some that get many more per day "in season," but I still don't make enough to quit my day job. The vast majority of images don't sell or hardly sell, unless you have a truly exceptional port (and there are a few people who do).

« Reply #343 on: July 22, 2015, 13:41 »
+1
My top earner made one or 2 DL a day on SS for a few years, then one day - bam - gone from page one usually line one or 2 and I couldn't find it searching out about 30 pages (out of 8,000 or something crazy). A month or so later I found it on page 3 and it got back to page 2. Now just one or 2 d/l per week. For subjects with lots of competition search position is almost everything. Sure, you have some influence on search position with keywords and image quality, but if you think that is all important you are sadly mistaken. It is more like the lottery situation mentioned above. Every excellent image with good keywording is another ticket but that doesn't mean you are going to win.

This month sales are weird (and mostly down)- more sales on Sunday than Wed or Monday (both like a weekend). I haven't had a good sales day all month that didn't have an EL or not tiny SOD. Usually there are a few with just regular subs and ODD.

« Reply #344 on: July 23, 2015, 08:59 »
+1
My month on SS started out so poorly but picked up so much this past week that it's already my BMY and my third best month ever. In the past 10 days I've had a huge upswing on SS, Alamy, and various POD sites. July is usually really slow for me - the thing that has really changed is that SS has become so unpredictable. I used to get a predictable number of downloads each month and unless I had ELs, a predictable income from SS which grew as my port grew.  This year it's become so unpredictable - scary slow for the first half of the month but since the 13th sales are better than ever. Just weird.

My #3 earner (with tons and tons of competition) got a ton of DLs for three years and dropped off the map this past year and I'm not even at the 38 cent level yet, though it's back on p1 now so I hope it picks up again. My top 2 are still getting regular downloads (one with tons and tons of competition, one niche) but not as many - it's been nearly 5 years. Nearly all my best sellers were uploaded in 2011. They say the average life of a stock photo is 5 years, so that could account for the downturn I've seen this year.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2015, 09:05 by wordplanet »

memakephoto

« Reply #345 on: July 25, 2015, 12:48 »
+4

No one is telling you you won't succeed and it's not a case of a bunch of grumpy negative people pouncing on you for being positive.

You come on here and speak with such authority as if you've been at it for years but you have almost no experience. Less than a year doesn't give you the insight to tell people how they should feel about an industry some have been in for over a decade.

You're the know-it-all who, on his first day of work at a new job, tries to tell the veterans what's what. They find that annoying.

Be positive all you want but don't talk as if you have seen it all. Being an app developer and buying stock photos gives you no cred.

You love me already, don't lie. Do you know what I find annoying? People equating experience to a time period IN a field as opposed to accumulation of experiences that deals with specific methods. I'm inexperienced when it comes to photography and I'm not even close to as good of many of the people here. However, when it comes to keyword research, metadata creation, stock photo usage/buying, search engine optimization, market trends, I have more experience than most people on here. Before I started uploading to SS, I've already uploaded over 1000 files elsewhere and dealt with different search engines and their nuances.

You make it seem like Microstock is rocket science. It isn't. Microstock isn't as profitable as it used to be, but then again, what is? What I do know is that in every saturated market, there are always niches to exploit. And from what I've seen, some veterans are far too discouraged to even give it a try.

Accumulated experiences. Ok.

You're an expert in microstock because you have bought stock photos.

Awesome. I'm going to pretend I'm you for a second:

I've used apps on my ipad so I'm an app developer. I know it all because I've used apps and I can tell you you're doing it totally wrong. Trust me I'm an expert, I've used apps before. I also saw a TV show on brain surgery. I'm a surgeon. I could take your brain apart and put it back together and it would work just as well as it does now. Cause I saw it on TV.

I've been to a website so I am an expert on the internet. I ate a vegetable once so I'm a farmer. Someone took my photo once so I'm a fashion model, I've eaten a lot of food so I'm a chef.

Ok enough, it's exhausting being you and knowing everything.

Hongover

« Reply #346 on: July 25, 2015, 16:23 »
+4

No one is telling you you won't succeed and it's not a case of a bunch of grumpy negative people pouncing on you for being positive.

You come on here and speak with such authority as if you've been at it for years but you have almost no experience. Less than a year doesn't give you the insight to tell people how they should feel about an industry some have been in for over a decade.

You're the know-it-all who, on his first day of work at a new job, tries to tell the veterans what's what. They find that annoying.

Be positive all you want but don't talk as if you have seen it all. Being an app developer and buying stock photos gives you no cred.

You love me already, don't lie. Do you know what I find annoying? People equating experience to a time period IN a field as opposed to accumulation of experiences that deals with specific methods. I'm inexperienced when it comes to photography and I'm not even close to as good of many of the people here. However, when it comes to keyword research, metadata creation, stock photo usage/buying, search engine optimization, market trends, I have more experience than most people on here. Before I started uploading to SS, I've already uploaded over 1000 files elsewhere and dealt with different search engines and their nuances.

You make it seem like Microstock is rocket science. It isn't. Microstock isn't as profitable as it used to be, but then again, what is? What I do know is that in every saturated market, there are always niches to exploit. And from what I've seen, some veterans are far too discouraged to even give it a try.

Accumulated experiences. Ok.

You're an expert in microstock because you have bought stock photos.

Awesome. I'm going to pretend I'm you for a second:

I've used apps on my ipad so I'm an app developer. I know it all because I've used apps and I can tell you you're doing it totally wrong. Trust me I'm an expert, I've used apps before. I also saw a TV show on brain surgery. I'm a surgeon. I could take your brain apart and put it back together and it would work just as well as it does now. Cause I saw it on TV.

I've been to a website so I am an expert on the internet. I ate a vegetable once so I'm a farmer. Someone took my photo once so I'm a fashion model, I've eaten a lot of food so I'm a chef.

Ok enough, it's exhausting being you and knowing everything.

I think you're taking things way too personally. If you haven't noticed already, you're stooping to personal attacks.

I'm not even gonna retaliate, but you need to relax and stop taking your anger out on the internet.

« Reply #347 on: September 02, 2015, 02:45 »
0
gotta love the rollercoaster ride that is shutterstock, from BMY (july) to WMY (august), rooosh

« Reply #348 on: September 02, 2015, 03:22 »
+3
You are not alone, it has happened to most everyone I know with older ports. They just do not want to bring themselves or others down by talking about it in public. Occasionally on very bad months they express their frustration on various forums, but if you talk to them in private most have no problem sharing the reality of the new normal at shutterstock.

I do know a few with very specialized ports who are not seeing as large of drops, but their best selling images have been demoted.


Amen to that!  been there since 2005 and its on its way down for sure and almost all so called "oldies" agree to that. I had sort of come to expect it and not surprised. It's the same right across the board, rights-managed, royalty-free or microstock. No difference. :)

madman

    This user is banned.
« Reply #349 on: September 02, 2015, 06:58 »
0
From last Dec,sales of Shutterstock started to being sinking and sinking and never come back :(. more photo uploaded,more visitor on photo portfolio,more nice photo ( i suppose) but less download. It really not good.

IMO, because of every day joining new contributors for selling images, I think the newcomers are recently increased too much, if the oldest members continuously wins, what will win new ones? if someone win, then someone must be lose I think.


 

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