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Author Topic: Shuttterstock out when the next sale is 10 cent  (Read 18158 times)

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SVH

« on: November 16, 2021, 13:42 »
+8
The title says it all.

Above the fact I'm tired of their AI system that rejects photo's that are perfectly focussed and they say they're not, I'm really fed up with 10 ct sales. On adobe I get at least 33 cts equaling 3,3 sales on Shutterstock. Getting tired of this company.

Next 10ct sale and I'm gone.



Suspect

« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2021, 13:56 »
+15
That'll be very soon then.

« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2021, 14:06 »
+5
25 out of 25 editorials approved yesterday. 9 out of 10 commercial rejected today for focus. The funny part that only approved photo is the photo with focus issues from my point of view.

As for 10 cents. I have the great run with one photo. ~50 downloads in 1 months, and I earn whopping $8.79 !

thijsdegraaf

« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2021, 14:10 »
+3
The title says it all.

Above the fact I'm tired of their AI system that rejects photo's that are perfectly focussed and they say they're not, I'm really fed up with 10 ct sales. On adobe I get at least 33 cts equaling 3,3 sales on Shutterstock. Getting tired of this company.

Next 10ct sale and I'm gone.

It's a mixed feeling. The sympathy for the company is disappeared.
But as long as I earn more on average than at Adobe, I'll keep uploading. If that wasn't the case anymore I would probably stop uploading. But to remove all the photos, while you still get money for it, doesn't make much sense to me. Doug Jensen once rightly wrote on the Shutter forum That the job is already done, so why not leave it there and collect the money?
And what is the alternative. After entering the 10 cents, I also started uploading to Alamy and Adobe. But next year I will go to 20% at Alamy and you can even earn less than 10 cents for a photo.
Years ago I was told that people fled from IS to SS for the same reason.
If I also upload a photo to Adobe and Alamy at the same time, it's not much more work to do it to Shutterstock as well, and it's not such a disaster if it gets rejected.

For Real

« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2021, 14:58 »
+2
I agree with leaving the images that are ready there as well.

« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2021, 15:10 »
+6
25 out of 25 editorials approved yesterday. 9 out of 10 commercial rejected today for focus. The funny part that only approved photo is the photo with focus issues from my point of view.

As for 10 cents. I have the great run with one photo. ~50 downloads in 1 months, and I earn whopping $8.79 !

At 10 cents an image, if you want to buy a 1000$ lens, you will have to sell 10000 images.. At 120 images a month, that's about 7 years.  Ouch !!

« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2021, 15:34 »
+3
Out of my last 10 sales there, 6 were for 10 cents and the highest was 49 cents - pathetic!  I won't delete them - as others have said may as well get something from your past work - but stopped uploading when they made the change and have no plans to start back up.  Still get the occasional high-value sale, but not enough to make the whole enterprise worthwhile - leaves more time to play with the cats, which is much more rewarding.

« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2021, 16:41 »
+5
I know I'm making myself unpopular here, but I am getting a little bored with these 10 cent discussions.

Nobody wants to get only cents for their images, that's why I left for example iStock. It just didn't fit, but I'm not making a big deal out of it.

If I had only 10 cent sales at Shutter, I would say goodbye and that's it.

But there are still some who earn good money with Shutter. I myself see sales in the double digits every day, which compensate for these stupid cent sales.
Except for Alamy, I don't have those sales anywhere, not even Adobe. That still makes Shutter my best agency.

The annoying review is another story.

And as Thijs rightly says, what are the alternatives? Exclusively 25 cent sales at Deposit?

So now you can jump all over me  ;)


SVH

« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2021, 16:53 »
+2
Rpd
Adobe=1.57
Shutterstock = 0.37

It's extra, I know. But why bother?

SVH

« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2021, 17:02 »
+1
Anyone knows how to delete all your photo's at once or close your account in one single action?

For Real

« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2021, 17:36 »
+4
Anyone knows how to delete all your photo's at once or close your account in one single action?

I take it that you got your next $.10 sale  :(

« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2021, 18:11 »
+2
Anyone knows how to delete all your photo's at once or close your account in one single action?

Unless you know how to write a script of some kind, you can only remove them one at a time.  You can close your account instead, but the best way to make sure your assets are removed is to do it yourself, get the payout (if you have one) and either let your account stay open or just request to close it.

marthamarks

« Reply #12 on: November 16, 2021, 18:42 »
+6

Next 10ct sale and I'm gone.

Why wait? Are you expecting some miracle to occur???

« Reply #13 on: November 16, 2021, 19:05 »
+2
The title says it all.

Above the fact I'm tired of their AI system that rejects photo's that are perfectly focussed and they say they're not, I'm really fed up with 10 ct sales. On adobe I get at least 33 cts equaling 3,3 sales on Shutterstock. Getting tired of this company.

Next 10ct sale and I'm gone.

Good luck finding an agency that sells more of your images and is as easy to work with.



« Reply #14 on: November 16, 2021, 19:09 »
+2
I know I'm making myself unpopular here, but I am getting a little bored with these 10 cent discussions.

Nobody wants to get only cents for their images, that's why I left for example iStock. It just didn't fit, but I'm not making a big deal out of it.

If I had only 10 cent sales at Shutter, I would say goodbye and that's it.

But there are still some who earn good money with Shutter. I myself see sales in the double digits every day, which compensate for these stupid cent sales.
Except for Alamy, I don't have those sales anywhere, not even Adobe. That still makes Shutter my best agency.

The annoying review is another story.

And as Thijs rightly says, what are the alternatives? Exclusively 25 cent sales at Deposit?

So now you can jump all over me  ;)

I'm not about to jump all over you for writing the truth.
People should do what suits them best but it makes no sense to me to desert the market leader.

OM

« Reply #15 on: November 16, 2021, 19:50 »
+1
Out of my last 10 sales there, 6 were for 10 cents and the highest was 49 cents - pathetic!  I won't delete them - as others have said may as well get something from your past work - but stopped uploading when they made the change and have no plans to start back up.  Still get the occasional high-value sale, but not enough to make the whole enterprise worthwhile - leaves more time to play with the cats, which is much more rewarding.

Exactly. Haven't uploaded for 2 years nor will I ever again......still money for nothing even though it is only 20% of what it used to be. Should that drop to 10%, then I might consider deleting my and their biggest money-makers. Leave 'em with the trash!

« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2021, 00:32 »
+1
I have the same problem. Just had a photo rejected for being out of focus which all other agencies accepted. How do I avoid rejections for similar? I took a photo on a dark grey texture background and the same one on white so that they can cut it out. The one on white was rejected for being similar. Bigstock rejected 2 photos for being similar who are absolutely not similar at all. Do they even look at the photos? I was thinking of buying a new camera but what for? I already paid more into it than I get paid.


thijsdegraaf

« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2021, 03:28 »
+2
I have the same problem. Just had a photo rejected for being out of focus which all other agencies accepted. How do I avoid rejections for similar? I took a photo on a dark grey texture background and the same one on white so that they can cut it out. The one on white was rejected for being similar. Bigstock rejected 2 photos for being similar who are absolutely not similar at all. Do they even look at the photos? I was thinking of buying a new camera but what for? I already paid more into it than I get paid.

I had uploaded two different photos of a statue in Slovenia a year ago, one of which was rejected as similar. When I searched Shutterstock, I saw that someone else had submitted the exact same photo. I tried again this month out of curiosity, but it was rejected again for similar. So it wasn't rejected because of my other photo, which is what I thought at first. I understand they've gotten stricter on that with the sheer amount of photos they have.
If I have slightly similar photos, I don't upload them at the same time. Then you at least have less chance that they will be rejected because of similar.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2021, 03:34 by thijsdegraaf »

Brasilnut

  • Author Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock & Blog

« Reply #18 on: November 17, 2021, 03:36 »
+5
For the past year or so I've been sending pretty much all my microstock stuff to Wirestock and not having to worry about SS's silly AI nonsense. Don't even know or care if it gets through or not. Same with clips.

« Reply #19 on: November 17, 2021, 04:00 »
+2
I know I'm making myself unpopular here, but I am getting a little bored with these 10 cent discussions.

Nobody wants to get only cents for their images, that's why I left for example iStock. It just didn't fit, but I'm not making a big deal out of it.

If I had only 10 cent sales at Shutter, I would say goodbye and that's it.

But there are still some who earn good money with Shutter. I myself see sales in the double digits every day, which compensate for these stupid cent sales.
Except for Alamy, I don't have those sales anywhere, not even Adobe. That still makes Shutter my best agency.

The annoying review is another story.

And as Thijs rightly says, what are the alternatives? Exclusively 25 cent sales at Deposit?

So now you can jump all over me  ;)

I'm not about to jump all over you for writing the truth.
People should do what suits them best but it makes no sense to me to desert the market leader.

Right. It's an inconvenient truth. No matter how much I dislike some of the practices of Shutterstock, and how much I want to like some other agencies, the hard fact is that Shutterstock is consistently my top performer. Every month. Half of my microstock income of 2021 comes from evil Shutterstock. When I leave out emotions about how I feel about being a contributor to their wealth and thus agreeing with how they treat contributors, it would be a foolish idea to ditch them.

So yeah, I leave my emotions out, accept that I have to struggle myself through their crazy review process and I gruntingly collect the money which is a frustrating journey due to cheapasscrappy 10 cent trains rolling by day after day. But every now and then a nicely decorated luxury wagon is hidden in the train, as if they forgot to take it out, and a lot of my earnings at Shutterstock can be accounted those bigger commissions, which mainly float between 20 and 60 dollar for me. I don't see those coming in at Adobe at all, and at 15% commissions they are very scarce at iStock/Getty. In the end, I just booked myself a nice getaway trip in December from the money I earned on Shutterstock this year (to recover from the psychological trauma caused by dealing with them. ;-) ) And I reward myself with some extra gear (thinking about a decent macro lens because I didn't explore that part yet) with the earnings from the rest. Without Shutterstock I would have to choose.

After Shutterstock announced the change in earnings, I disabled my portfolio for a while. Joined the protest. At the same time, I dramatically increased my portfolio's on other agencies, and also included a few new opportunities by using Wirestock, Eyeem, Zoonar, you name it. While they surely bring in some extra cash, none of them come close to what Shutterstock brought in when I enabled my portfolio again. For most agencies, Shutterstock earnings are a tiny dot in the far distance, almost out of sight completely unreachable.

Now, this is my current situation, and it might differ from others. My earnings increased, a lot of others saw a decrease. So I fully understand and sympathize with the ones who ditched them. From what I read, they have a very fair reason to do so: if it doesn't feel right to stay, then leaving is certainly the right decision. No discussion. I just think most of them are still, despite decrease in earnings, throwing away one of the bigger pieces of their microstock earnings cake. And that's fine. Dignity has a price. But for me, right now, it's just too expensive.

« Reply #20 on: November 17, 2021, 04:10 »
+3
I had uploaded two different photos of a statue in Slovenia a year ago, one of which was rejected as similar. When I searched Shutterstock, I saw that someone else had submitted the exact same photo. I tried again this month out of curiosity, but it was rejected again for similar. So it wasn't rejected because of my other photo, which is what I thought at first. I understand they've gotten stricter on that with the sheer amount of photos they have.
If I have slightly similar photos, I don't upload them at the same time. Then you at least have less chance that they will be rejected because of similar.

Also my experience Thijs. They'd better tag their rejections with "We currently don't need more images of this subject in our database" instead of bugging contributors with fake focus rejections. Subjects that are not well represented get through way easier than hopelessly saturated topics.

Killer shot from the Canal Grande in Venice? Rejected. Out of focus sir.
Crappy cheap ass panorama landscape straight out of outdated smartphone from a landscape in one of the lesser known outskirts of Spain? There you go, thanks for uploading, accepted!

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #21 on: November 17, 2021, 04:43 »
+3
I know I'm making myself unpopular here, but I am getting a little bored with these 10 cent discussions.

Nobody wants to get only cents for their images, that's why I left for example iStock. It just didn't fit, but I'm not making a big deal out of it.

If I had only 10 cent sales at Shutter, I would say goodbye and that's it.

But there are still some who earn good money with Shutter. I myself see sales in the double digits every day, which compensate for these stupid cent sales.
Except for Alamy, I don't have those sales anywhere, not even Adobe. That still makes Shutter my best agency.

The annoying review is another story.

And as Thijs rightly says, what are the alternatives? Exclusively 25 cent sales at Deposit?

So now you can jump all over me  ;)

Same with the 25 cent discussions for video. Those that have left seem to be under the impression that that's all you ever get now, 25 cents and no higher! Sure, I get a few at that price, but my RPD average for November is $32, so it's not all doom and gloom.

« Reply #22 on: November 17, 2021, 05:54 »
+5
The $0.10 is a symbolic value. Of course, there are also the double-digit downloads. But they also existed before the new revenue structure.

In my case, I have an average monthly loss of $63 in subscriptions, compared to the income when each sub brought in $0.38. That's a loss of $750 per year. I can't compensate these losses with the double-digit downloads, because they haven't become more than before. Therefore, RPD is declining for me.

I can certainly understand that contributors want to close their account because they are frustrated, perhaps also in combination with the difficult selection.
I personally would not do that. It would destroy years of work and you give up revenue. You can just let it expire, not invest any more work and take the money that still comes in.

Fact is: The poll results clearly show that shutterstock has lost the position 1. Adobe Stock is the market leader.


« Reply #23 on: November 17, 2021, 06:05 »
+4
I know I'm making myself unpopular here, but I am getting a little bored with these 10 cent discussions.

Nobody wants to get only cents for their images, that's why I left for example iStock. It just didn't fit, but I'm not making a big deal out of it.

If I had only 10 cent sales at Shutter, I would say goodbye and that's it.

But there are still some who earn good money with Shutter. I myself see sales in the double digits every day, which compensate for these stupid cent sales.
Except for Alamy, I don't have those sales anywhere, not even Adobe. That still makes Shutter my best agency.

The annoying review is another story.

And as Thijs rightly says, what are the alternatives? Exclusively 25 cent sales at Deposit?

So now you can jump all over me  ;)

I'm not about to jump all over you for writing the truth.
People should do what suits them best but it makes no sense to me to desert the market leader.

Right. It's an inconvenient truth. No matter how much I dislike some of the practices of Shutterstock, and how much I want to like some other agencies, the hard fact is that Shutterstock is consistently my top performer. Every month. Half of my microstock income of 2021 comes from evil Shutterstock. When I leave out emotions about how I feel about being a contributor to their wealth and thus agreeing with how they treat contributors, it would be a foolish idea to ditch them.

So yeah, I leave my emotions out, accept that I have to struggle myself through their crazy review process and I gruntingly collect the money which is a frustrating journey due to cheapasscrappy 10 cent trains rolling by day after day. But every now and then a nicely decorated luxury wagon is hidden in the train, as if they forgot to take it out, and a lot of my earnings at Shutterstock can be accounted those bigger commissions, which mainly float between 20 and 60 dollar for me. I don't see those coming in at Adobe at all, and at 15% commissions they are very scarce at iStock/Getty. In the end, I just booked myself a nice getaway trip in December from the money I earned on Shutterstock this year (to recover from the psychological trauma caused by dealing with them. ;-) ) And I reward myself with some extra gear (thinking about a decent macro lens because I didn't explore that part yet) with the earnings from the rest. Without Shutterstock I would have to choose.

After Shutterstock announced the change in earnings, I disabled my portfolio for a while. Joined the protest. At the same time, I dramatically increased my portfolio's on other agencies, and also included a few new opportunities by using Wirestock, Eyeem, Zoonar, you name it. While they surely bring in some extra cash, none of them come close to what Shutterstock brought in when I enabled my portfolio again. For most agencies, Shutterstock earnings are a tiny dot in the far distance, almost out of sight completely unreachable.

Now, this is my current situation, and it might differ from others. My earnings increased, a lot of others saw a decrease. So I fully understand and sympathize with the ones who ditched them. From what I read, they have a very fair reason to do so: if it doesn't feel right to stay, then leaving is certainly the right decision. No discussion. I just think most of them are still, despite decrease in earnings, throwing away one of the bigger pieces of their microstock earnings cake. And that's fine. Dignity has a price. But for me, right now, it's just too expensive.

I created my own site to sell my best images, and the ordinary ones are sold elsewhere... but not on shutterstock, not worth the efforts. You might think 10c and image is reasonable, but it will go down to 1c sooner or later, unless you do something...

SVH

« Reply #24 on: November 17, 2021, 06:23 »
+5
You can just let it expire, not invest any more work and take the money that still comes in.

Yes that is maybe the wiser thing to do. Got frustrated yesterday seeing the 10ct downloads coming in, over and over again. I'll just stop uploading to them and try not to bother about the sales anymore. No effort should lead to no frustration, I guess  :)


 

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