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Do you think an image of a person or group of people is more likely to sell (over it's lifetime) than a still life image?

Not necessarily. I have images of both a woman in a bikini and an apple and the apple sells much better!

Seriously I must be the only photographer who hired a model for a half-day beach/fitness shoot and it turned out that the images I took of the location, when scouting it the day before, actually outsold the images taken with the model. Nothing wrong with the model or the images it's just that they simply weren't unique enough to stand out (amongst the millions of girl-in-bikini-on-beach shots) unlike the location shot which, if I say so myself, was pretty good!

What about a woman in a bikini eating an apple 

One of the first conclusions I came to after testing Lookstat was that my people shots were a waste of time ..

Agree, unless the "woman on the beach shot" is very unique it's not going to sell very well. With over 250,000 beach images it's pretty tough to stand out. Finding good unique ideas that haven't been done to death is the challenge.

yeah whatever next thing you're going to tell me is that there's too many woman wearing headsets isolated on white ... oh wait LOL 

I think people pics can to get overdone because with a model people tend to get large series - different poses and expressions. Then the sales are spread out over all of them. How many expressions can you get with that apple? Also if you are going for the beautiful people sorts of shots, then they really do need to be beautiful people, and if you are going for everyday people shots, then they need to be doing something useful or in an interesting location. I think the tightening down on model releases will decrease submission of the amateur's friends and family sorts of pics over time.

An outstanding people pic can do quite well but I am always amazed at how many people's best sellers are some sort of completely everyday background or object though.

Yeah, what "tightening" do you envision?  It's legally watertight.  Either people sign it or don't.

Isn't it easy to work out what sells best?  Just go and look at all the best selling portfolios.  Lots of them specialize in people but there are some that don't have any.  My conclusion is that what you photograph doesn't matter much, its the concept and how it can be used by designers that matters.