Despite actively trying to build my SS portfolio by submitting, I have experienced 18 consecutive days of stagnant sales at SS. My sales have dropped to between 1 - 9 sales a day.

As of 12/05/2008 I had made $22.20 for the month.

Anyone else experiencing this.

great blog buddy. love reading it.

I have a feeling Miz is right.

What exactly did the 'Miz' say?

In any event, my sales as well are almost nonexistant this month, though I have only had time to upload a couple of shots. We all know about feeding the darn beast to get sales.

Could quite possibly be time to cut and run.
I'm thinking about closing my SS account and going exclusive on IS if subs sales start to take off there.

Might as well wait and see how much we get from the raise tomorrow.

Trouble I have with IS is I cannot seem to build my portfolio. After 3 years I still only have 40 odd files. They seem to reject almost everything I send despite sales on those files at DT and SS.

What I find disturbing is my DLs for my first Monday were 18 for a portfolio of 7; for my second Monday it was 20 DLs for a portfolio of 192. At this rate I'll need to produce around 20,000 images per week to make a living. Better quit messing with these forums and get to work!!

The last months I was getting used to selling between 30 and 35 a day and sometimes 40+ but this month is a disaster. I have sold half of what I sold a month ago. I am so sorry about this. I don't want to go exclusive, I want to be able to sell my photos where ever I want to and SS was my second seller. I really hope something will turn out for the best but with the subscriber prices they ask I am afraid  they have placed themselves on the sideline now...

Despite actively trying to build my SS portfolio by submitting...

The answer is very simple one - you're not trying hard enough. You have 184 images online... that's what I upload in 2 weeks (soon I will upload more than 200 a week).  I will upload around 300 photos next week after 3 weeks of rest. It is a competition and you have to compete with many folks like me who produce more than you.

There are more than 40000 new photos added to Shutterstock each week. Most are crap but it is still a lot which makes your small portfolio invisible to buyers.

184 photos online and 40000 photos added each week. You can't expect good sales if you do some math with these numbers. I don't understand people with small portfolios complaining about slow sales. You haven't put enough effort into this - where the sales would come from? I have portfolio of about 3500 photos and after 3 weeks without new uploads my sales are down 3 times. But I don't complain - I was lazy and here is the punishment.

I know I sound very harsh - but it is a reality - unless you're really talented, you need to put effort to get good results. No pain - No gain !! There is no longer easy money at microstock.

...same here! Maybe I`m to fresh with 5 days on SS, but there are some variations every day..My best day was with 25 sales, but 10 is my average..Is that normal or I have to work harder, `cause just have ~30 photos in my gallery?! Thanks

Quote from: trucic on May 16, 2008, 02:10

...same here! Maybe I`m to fresh with 5 days on SS, but there are some variations every day..My best day was with 25 sales, but 10 is my average..Is that normal or I have to work harder, `cause just have ~30 photos in my gallery?! Thanks

I suspect that if you don't add to your portfolio, that 10 DLs/day average will start dropping. This is most contributor's experience on SS. I had nearly 300 DLs on my first full month on SS (last July). I haven't bettered that yet, even though I've added many more images.

You've got some good stock-worthy shots on there though.

I suspect most people understand the importance of coming in with a solid collection of images to achieve acceptance, thereby giving them a good starting portfolio. This gives an initial rush of sales.