Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

grandillusion · Joined: 31 Jan 2005 Posts: 92

I've been reading the forums longer than I've been a member...

I noticed a pattern, toward the beginning and ends of the months there seems to be more "having a great week!" posts, and in the middle more "having a bad week" posts...

Via email, Joe Gough suggest this was due to new subscribers joining at the beginning of the month, and then old subscribers leaving rushing to get more photos at the end when the subscription will run out.

My suggestion is to smooth out sales, why not try bumping up the max downloads in the middle of the month just as an experiment.

This only being a valid suggestion if the above observations are true. Only those with access to the site stats would know if the middle of the month is indeed less than the end. But having a few bonus days a week might enliven things regardless.

MHD · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:03 pm

I like the idea of bonus days!

That could be a lot of fun!

StuartE · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:20 pm

In a subscription model where people all join at the start of the month, that would certainly be a great idea - but I don't think ShutterStock works quite like that - if you join today, your subscription expires at this time next month - perhaps people think to get their 'month's' worth they should join up only in the first few days, but somehow I doubt it...

Add to that, I had a definite 'surge' mid last month, record downloads, etc... if people download more as their subscription runs out, I should see a surge in the middle of this month, too, right??

The figure that would most interest me, is how many people that subscribe actually hit their download limit - and on a daily basis? As a percentage, of course, as vague as it needs to be - but it's that kind of thing that would give an idea of if a 'bonus' day is even worthwhile - if it's only a small percentage of leeches gathering the full 25 (or in the old model, more than 25), why offer them a bonus at all?

Cheers,
Stuart

MHD · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:36 pm

True...
But how many dont hit the 25 due to cation (ie keeping them in reserve in case of a designer emergency)

grandillusion · Joined: 31 Jan 2005 Posts: 92

I bet a few bonus days would kick things off. Just because people are fickle animals and not logical robots. Even if they never reach the download limit.

At the other stock site, I once had a 5/day upload limit, it seemed restricting even though I only reached that limit occasionally on weekends. Now I have a 40/day limit and I still seldom reach 5/day even on weekends, but I feel like I have more freedom even though I don't use it. It's all psychological.

I think the 25/day might limit the impulse downloads if they know they might be REQUIRED to download some images for a client project later.

Off-peak easings are in place in many industries...power, communciations, travel, etc. SS could consider some off-peak easing of DL limits to see what happens.

StuartE · Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2005 9:51 pm

Well here's my month so far, week by week, with obviously one day missing from this week so far:
1-7th = 91
8-14th= 90
15-21st = 111
22-27th= 117

That means my 'bad weeks' were the first two of the month, right? Anyone else want to total theirs up, just to see if there's a neat pattern, or the figures are more random?

Cheers,
Stuart

pkest · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 66

We also should remember that Jon is banking on subscribers not dling all they can. If I am doing the math right, a full dl of 25 images/day for 30 days would result in payouts of $170+ where the subscription only cost $139. The break even point is somewhere around 20/per day so I don't think they'll be doing anything to promote more dls by subscribers. This is also why they have to be so watchful of someone subscribing just to dl their own images since money could actually be made that way.

LuvThatVert:) · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:22 pm

I think begin mid or end of month does not affect sales at all.
More fluctuations woud happen when buyers take days off on holidays.

To comment on pkest, it is only fair to expect John to make money.
Thats why I also expect future changes to adjust and maintain a balance so John or us don't make an exesive amt percentagewise.

I am sure john knows going either way (too greedy or too generous) is bad for bussiness in general.

pkest · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 66

StuartE · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:11 pm

If you look at the 'value for money' of ShutterStock compared to many other stock sites, you'll find the variety of images, the quantity of images, and the generous limits all combine to make it very attractive to designers - both big and small - either way, the quantity who have nothing better to do than leech images should always be higher than the professional image gatherers, who the limit is there to stop - even if some people do download their whole 750, I reckon it would be balanced out by the people who get 'what they need' and are comfortable that the limit isn't really a 'limit'... Jon would have studied the average usage of the site before making the 'limit', remember... and I'm sure he'd be able to work with a professional designer who needed more than his 25 for a specific job and wanted to dip into 'tomorrows' downloads, too... :-)

And pkest, the safeguards have always been in place to stop someone downloading bulk quantities of their own images... that would be the simplest fraudulent activity to automatically 'catch'... most downloading is going to be random, spread amongst multiple galleries - if you did that, you couldn't download enough to cover your subscription fee, and if you didn't download lots of other images you'd get spotted straight away... :-)

Cheers,
Stuart

flutterby · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 69 Location: easthampton, ma

I think that it's a mid-month slump. just like when you realize it's tuesday and it's a long long way to friday.

i hate that.

and yet, someone just informed me that it is wednesday. so, rock on!

-becca