David Calvert

I have a very small portfolio… around 800 pics and videos combined. I managed my highest amount of downloads ever this month - namely 99, and I also got to Level 4, but I made less money than last month where I had 89 downloads. Rather demoralising.

I hit Level 4 a few weeks ago. I'm still getting mostly 0.10 - 0.14 sales...

In my view, this data is potentially misleading the customer. They may buy the image on the premise that it hasn't been used elsewhere, when the opposite is actually the truth.

Apologies if this hasn't been covered before - I'm always late to the party. Just spotted the 'Asset Data' shown below images of mine, which appears to be inaccurate. As an example, this image shown here claims popularity is 'low' and 'not used yet'. Wrong. It's been sold nearly 30 times and has appeared online in countless places. I then have another shot that has sold less than this image and is classed as 'high' popularity and 'commonly' used. Why bother showing this data when it's clearly innacuate?

If they are silhouettes, I would try commercial first. If they reject it, submit them as editorial.

Managed to get to Level 4 this month, but I have been rewarded with lots of 0.10 sales.

May started off reasonably OK...ish, but in the last week, sales have fallen through the floor.

Why not submit it as editorial? Anything I submit where property is prominent in the shot, I submit it as editorial, and it gets through.

It's getting your keywords right, which is something you'll learn as you go along. As an example, if you submit a photo of a dog, don't just put 'dog'. Put its breed too, the colour and look of it's fur etc. If you submit a plant, don't just put 'plant', put what species it is, what colour the flowers are etc. If your keywords are too generic, your shots will get lost. There's also the matter that your shots have to be of a high quality too. I've only been shooting stock for just over a year, and I'm still learning. I still have a comparatively small portfolio - only around 580 photos, bu

I always try to remain positive that I will get a decent amount for my shots - and that happened here last week. One buyer bought 5 of my shots, and I received $137.00 for each of them!

Here they are https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shutterstock-reports-first-quarter-2021-financial-results-301277258.html

Out of curiosity, do you have to submit a tax form every year, or if your circumstances haven't changed, can you carry on using the same form that has been approved by SS?

I've just gone into Level 3 with a portfolio of 570 images.

After a pretty dismal month, I've woken up to find that I've sold 5 images at $137... each! Great start to the day!!

April has been rubbish for me. I'm way down on last month. On the plus side, I've managed to get to level 3 with less than 600 images in my port, which I think is quite good. Pond 5 has been bad too. Not a single download for a month.