Today I came to the conclusion that SS is NOT reporting all sales. Here's why:

1 - When I go to the Image Gallery Stats and sort by downloads, it's not really in order. There are files with 0 sales in front of files with 1 sale, files with 2 sales in front of files with 3 sales and so on. No big deal so far.

2 - In my Image Gallery sorted by Popular, I have files with 0 downloads side by side with files with 1 download, being both recent images uploaded in the same batch. Ok getting suspicious now.

3 - Again in the Image Gallery sorted by Undiscovered, those same files with apparently 0 downloads DO NOT appear in the search, meaning they were sold.

Rest assured that I have nothing in the Delayed Earnings tab.

This must be investigated. Check your own stats and you will probably see the same for some specific images. I first noticed a few months ago but thought it was just a one image bug - and after checking again I'm pretty convinced this is happening.

I would like to hear an official explanation for this.

Quote from: Nikovsk on August 22, 2014, 00:05
Today I came to the conclusion that SS is NOT reporting all sales. Here's why:

1 - When I go to the Image Gallery Stats and sort by downloads, it's not really in order. There are files with 0 sales in front of files with 1 sale, files with 2 sales in front of files with 3 sales and so on. No big deal so far.

2 - In my Image Gallery sorted by Popular, I have files with 0 downloads side by side with files with 1 download, being both recent images uploaded in the same batch. Ok getting suspicious now.

3 - Again in the Image Gallery sorted by Undiscovered, those same files with apparently 0 downloads DO NOT appear in the search, meaning they were sold.

Rest assured that I have nothing in the Delayed Earnings tab.

This must be investigated. Check your own stats and you will probably see the same for some specific images. I first noticed a few months ago but thought it was just a one image bug - and after checking again I'm pretty convinced this is happening.

I would like to hear an official explanation for this.

I completely agree. Something is wrong. Today and yesterday were like weekends. I am 50-80 percent lower than my average.

The easiest images to spot are the ones with 0 sales in front 1 sale on the "Image Gallery Stats" tab when you sort by total purchases. Then check your "Image Gallery" sorted by undiscovered and you won't find those files there.

what the? really?

Quote from: Nikovsk on August 22, 2014, 00:05
Today I came to the conclusion that SS is NOT reporting all sales. Here's why:

2 - In my Image Gallery sorted by Popular, I have files with 0 downloads side by side with files with 1 download, being both recent images uploaded in the same batch. Ok getting suspicious now.


I would like to hear an official explanation for this.

yes, just checked, popular has a bunch of non-sellers, and worse, new images which have never seen the light of day.

oh well, i am sure there is nothing wrong with it 

just the usual glitch like the robotic reviewers 

there is no cause to be alarmed ,chill !!! 

I see clips appear on that cute little map that shows where sales are made and I never see the cute little entry on the sales grid. I wondered about this lately.

Since it was introduced the Image Gallery Stats has been buggy and it's still listed as a beta function, I wouldn't put much faith in the numbers it displays. As to whether all sales are being reported or not I have no idea.

Quote from: Mantis on August 22, 2014, 00:23
I completely agree. Something is wrong. Today and yesterday were like weekends. I am 50-80 percent lower than my average.

Mantis, I don't think the unreported sales are that relevant. From my data it's about 10% of sales maybe? And it's not new, this has been going on at least for 3 months.

Quote from: Zeus on August 22, 2014, 00:54
I see clips appear on that cute little map that shows where sales are made and I never see the cute little entry on the sales grid. I wondered about this lately.

Zeus, I don't remember ever seeing these suspect images showing up in the map.

Quote from: PhotoBomb on August 22, 2014, 01:01
Since it was introduced the Image Gallery Stats has been buggy and it's still listed as a beta function, I wouldn't put much faith in the numbers it displays. As to whether all sales are being reported or not I have no idea.

Fair enough. But I have a recent series of 5 images which only one was sold. When I do an "undiscovered" search on SS like a buyer, why only 2 images show up instead of 4? That's 2 unreported sales right there.

Either their whole search system is buggy (which I doubt) or sales are not showing up.
Try it with your own images. This is really worrisome.

It always amazes me when contributors discount database errors.

The applications should be pulling the correct information 100% of the time. If not that is conformation that the database information is incorrect, jacked up or that the applications that use that information are not working correctly.

Thanks for sharing this info, I have know for some time that the most popular sort order is not showing the correct sort order.  It looks like they have demoted some of my files because they show up below images that have fewer sales.

On inspection I also have some files that supposedly have 0 downloads which are not showing up on the undiscovered page. They pull these files using code that contains a database query.  All the files which have zero downloads should be populating the undiscovered page.

Quote from: gbalex on August 22, 2014, 01:57
It always amazes me when contributors discount database errors.

The applications should be pulling the correct information 100% of the time. If not that is conformation that the database information is incorrect, jacked up or that the applications that use that information are not working correctly.

I don't like to blow my own horn, but I have 30 years of experience in software development. And I agree with gbalex 100%.   If the data is inconsistent, then something is wrong.  And it could be VERY wrong.  There's no way to know until the root cause of the problem is correctly identified.

If someone calls you and says he sees smoke coming out of your attic, you don't sit back and tell yourself well, it's just the attic, I don't go up there much.

Quote from: Nikovsk on August 22, 2014, 01:33

Quote from: Zeus on August 22, 2014, 00:54
I see clips appear on that cute little map that shows where sales are made and I never see the cute little entry on the sales grid. I wondered about this lately.

Zeus, I don't remember ever seeing these suspect images showing up in the map.

I should say that I don't think there is anything amiss with Shutterstock. I'm not sure what the discrepancies are, but I don't think they are malicious.

I asked shutterstock several weeks ago about apparent footage sales shown on the map, but didn't ever show up on the daily sales page.  They replied that when a customer downloads a purchased footage clip, after the initial sale, it still can show up on the map.

Quote from: lbarn on August 22, 2014, 03:42
I asked shutterstock several weeks ago about apparent footage sales shown on the map, but didn't ever show up on the daily sales page.  They replied that when a customer downloads a purchased footage clip, after the initial sale, it still can show up on the map.

So if the buyer goes back to get the clip again for whatever reason, it shows on the map but they don't pay for it because they already have?

Quote from: Zeus on August 22, 2014, 03:06

I should say that I don't think there is anything amiss with Shutterstock. I'm not sure what the discrepancies are, but I don't think they are malicious.

No, not malicious.  But it is a problem if sales are not being reported right for any reason.  Especially if many people reporting the same issue.

Image Gallery Stats is Beta
A beta version of a software is far to be a fully working version, so what can we expect of it?
How can you think that it is reliable?

Probably somebody did not yet understood what is the Beta version of a software...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

there's only one way to catch them red handed : buying a dozen of your images over a few days and see if all the sales are reported correctly, carefully taking screenshots of every step.

this could be a signal that they're desperate to show steady growth to their investors in wall street when they know very well that the stock industry is stable and is not growing at all so in the best scenario SS sales will remain the same or similar over time and there's no reason for their stock quotation to keep growing at all ... actually it's already overestimated by a long shot and it can only go down sooner or later.

Quote from: Hobostocker on August 22, 2014, 06:25
there's only one way to catch them red handed : buying a dozen of your images over a few days and see if all the sales are reported correctly, carefully taking screenshots of every step.

this could be a signal that they're desperate to show steady growth to their investors in wall street when they know very well that the stock industry is stable and is not growing at all so in the best scenario SS sales will remain the same or similar over time and there's no reason for their stock quotation to keep growing at all ... actually it's already overestimated by a long shot and it can only go down sooner or later.

Be careful, that is not allowed as per the Shutterstock TOS. Better have a friend from another country buy some images to cover tracks.

But I do not think Shutterstock is deliberately under-reporting sales. Database errors could still be an issue. I am constantly amazed by how poor sales are lately. 3 big ales this month take attention away from the fact that my sales are abysmal. If they have data base issues, that would explain.

All of this speculation hinges on the assumption that `popular` and `undiscovered` are determined soley by sales and not by sales and views.  No way to know since SS does not report views to us.  Or tell us how the sort works.

But why ask here? Just email SS.  Certainly no one here can give you an answer.

Quote from: jatrax on August 22, 2014, 07:44
All of this speculation hinges on the assumption that `popular` and `undiscovered` are determined soley by sales and not by sales and views.  No way to know since SS does not report views to us.  Or tell us how the sort works.

But why ask here? Just email SS.  Certainly no one here can give you an answer.

I highly doubt a customer support agent is going to tell you that there is an issue, even if there is one. For the simple fact, they will not know. The reply will be polite and telling you all is fine and dandy. As always.

The only benefit is that if enough people send emails, someone from HQ will take note and maybe an explanation in the forum will follow.


ETA: I do think you are correct in saying views also count against their image stats.

Quote from: Beppe Grillo on August 22, 2014, 06:04
Image Gallery Stats is Beta
A beta version of a software is far to be a fully working version, so what can we expect of it?
How can you think that it is reliable?

Probably somebody did not yet understood what is the Beta version of a software...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

So their whole search is Beta? It could be something like what happened to P5, but it's going on for so long that I don't know what to think of. It could be special buyers getting content for free. Who knows? Until we get a detailed explanation from the SS guy, I won't pretend everything is fine.

I used five of my own images in a facebook ad campaign.  All the sales appeared within a day.

Quotee.  You may not use the Shutterstock service as a means of transferring your Content to a single customer or to a small number of customers nor may you download your own Content. Such activity constitutes a material breach of the TOS. If you engage in such activity, Shutterstock may avail itself of all rights it has hereunder, including but not limited to terminating your account and/or retaining any accrued but unpaid royalties.

https://submit.shutterstock.com/terms/

Quote from: Nikovsk on August 22, 2014, 10:04

Quote from: Beppe Grillo on August 22, 2014, 06:04
Image Gallery Stats is Beta
A beta version of a software is far to be a fully working version, so what can we expect of it?
How can you think that it is reliable?

Probably somebody did not yet understood what is the Beta version of a software...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

So their whole search is Beta? It could be something like what happened to P5, but it's going on for so long that I don't know what to think of. It could be special buyers getting content for free. Who knows? Until we get a detailed explanation from the SS guy, I won't pretend everything is fine.

I don't know if the whole search is Beta, but you cannot rely on Beta software to test anything and draw valid conclusions.
And about the "Undiscovered" in the portfolio page, as I know it exists only in english, in the other languages it is called (something like) "random" (Aléatoire in French, Casuale in Italian, Al azar in Spanish, случайные  in Russian, etc.), so if think that the use of the word "Undiscovered" could be a mistake.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on August 22, 2014, 10:15
I used five of my own images in a facebook ad campaign.  All the sales appeared within a day.

why would you pay to use your own photos?

Using Shutterstock images in Facebook ads is free, though we still get paid for the usage.