Steve Bower

Miliusx, I'm not sure any one including Shutterstock totally understands how this is going to affect contributors but a few things appear to be the likely results. First off, I think the majority of our subscription sales currently come from the big subscription plans (i.e. yearly 9,000 image plans or monthly 750 image plans). The smaller plans probably will be a very small percentage of our subscription plan sales. If this is true, and I think that is what most contributors are assuming, our payout on the majority of our subscription sales will remain at .10 or slightly above that regardless of our tier (see chart above). Even if we reach the highest tier or percentage (40%). the payout from a yearly 9,000 image buyer would be .10. Most of us currently make the majority of our income from subscription sales and if these assumptions are correct, in my case I will be making nearly 74% less on every subscription sale all year long (.38 minus .10 is a reduction of .28 on each sub sale or 73.68% less). In addition, until I make it to tier four or 30%, I will be making much less on the ODs SOs and ELs than I am currently making. Bottom line: it appears that we are going to be making substantially less each year and to make matters worse we have to start all over at the lowest level each year (our downloads are reset to zero each year on Jan 1st). My assumptions may be incorrect but it is obvious this change will never result in a higher payout to me unless all my competition closes their accounts and the buyers have only my portfolio for their nature and landscape images. I plan on waiting to see if my assumptions are correct but . . . .

Evelyn and Dinesh, Thanks for the kind words!

Wilm, I want to assure you, I took no offence at what you said, none at all. Few people understand my "humor" even if they've spoken English all their lives.

Steve, Earnings and downloads are about half what they use to be in the good old days. It's still worth my time and I still love photography and the challenge to do it better than I did it yesterday but it's definitely not as rewarding. The truth of the matter is, I would continue to do it even if I didn't make any money.

icsnaps, Thanks for the encouragement! I wish I could do what you do but I'm in love with nature and have no desire to shoot anything else.

Milo J, Well Said! Like I mentioned in my original post, this is far more than I ever expected when I started this journey. I's definitely become more than a hobby.

Debby, Thanks, I can always count on you to say something nice!

No Problem! I was just pulling your chain (American expression for "kidding you"). Sorry, a lot is lost in the translation.

Based upon my portfolio, it appears that new uploads are no longer given quite the same prominence as they were before. My newest uploads appeared on page two rather than the first page where they appeared, pre-shuffle. I assume this is part of the changes I mentioned in my previous two posts.

Thanks Wilm. I knew someone was going to ask that question and spoil it for me. About the same time Konstanin L. did. No, I'm not going to make it easy. I knew Doug made his 30k annually but it was my attempt to acknowledge as many of the REAL big earners in my post. Sorry, I missed you and Milleflore Images.

I'm reluctant to post anything after seeing the superlative revenue reports by Konstanin L and icsnaps but given the fact that I don't shoot video and I only have a 3000+ portfolio of mostly landscape, travel and nature images, I'm still happy with the numbers. As shown by the screen print of my Earnings Summary, I finally reached $30,000,00 in SS earnings (just like Doug Jensen). It took me a little longer, OK, a lot longer but it's still a lot more than I thought I would earn when I first started.

The recent changes seem to extend far beyond our portfolio order. If you search specific keyword/keywords (i.e. great blue heron) the images shown does not seem to include the usual collection of similar images from one contributor which you saw previously. I've only checked a few keywords so I may have jumped to a conclusion but I am hopeful. In addition, if you find one of your images in your keyword search, I suggest you click on it as I think you'll see several improvements. The "similar images" you'll see from other contributor's portfolios is the usual collection of AI chosen images which LOOK "similar" to the computer. These images (IMO) are useless as they don't use the keywords searched by the buyer. This hasn't changed as far as I can tell. The exciting improvement is that below the "AI similar images" are photos from your portfolio titled "same artist", "more from this artist" or "collection" which actually uses the keywords you listed for that image or a category (i.e. "animals"). It no longer shows your whole portfolio, just applicable images chosen from your portfolio by the computer (not just your sets) using the specific keywords from that image or a "category" of similar images within your portfolio. This allow a potential buyer to see images (in your portfolio) he is actually looking for (based upon keywords) not an arbitrary AI collection that looks somewhat similar. IMO, this has to improve the odds that a buyer will find an image from our portfolio rather than the competition's portfolio. I'm sure there are other positives and negatives to these changes but these appeared to be improvement which should benefit our individual sales.

Like Marco, my top images (pre-reshuffle) were mostly new images in the order they were uploaded. Now, my best selling images have moved up considerably (one even made it to the first page) and the recently sold new images have been properly rewarded with a place on the first page. Like most who have commented, I don't understand the high ranking of a lot of my image but I'm favorably surprised that a lot of my new non-selling "favorites" are now displayed on the first or second page of my portfolio. Hopefully, all these changes won't adversely affect sales but overall the new arrangement to my portfolio is a definite improvement. I also clicked on a number of my images to check out the "similar images" and it appears that they have made some improvements there as well. I didn't do a thorough investigation but it appears that they are now using keywords when displaying similar images from your portfolio. That would be a definite improvement if that is in-fact what they are doing.

Debby, Thanks for the encouraging words. They are uncommon in the forum these days.

Debby, Like everything else here, I think Continual sales if you stop uploading, varies with each portfolio. What may be true for your port, would not apply to mine or the portfolio of any number of other people. I've been here quite some time and my sales (especially recently) have been from those images that have crept on to the first few pages of the "top Image" search for the most obvious keyword (i.e. Florida beach, bullfrog, armadillo, engine, etc.). Recent uploads, of the same subject matter, even if much more appealing, better technique, etc. never see the light of day and aren't downloaded. A long pause in uploading would have little impact on my sales but I don't think this would be true for a new contributor that has not had multiple years to move his images up in the algorithm search. I'm of the opinion that Phil's analysis regarding the use of "new image search" is correct. Similars have made this frustrating and far too challenging. In addition, since new images are given a boost, the pandemic of similar images continues to infect the "Top Image Search" as well. I would have expected the crack down on "similars" would have corrected this problem but it appears that this too is being inconsistently applied. End of rant. I don't think there is a pat answer for your question, and past experience on this question, may not provide much help in today's circumstances. One more opinion.