just checked the forum stats and in 6 months MSG went from 10k users to 28k

a lot of people reading but not sharing or participating (not to mention the ones not even registered), this is just a curious fact that shows how stock is far from dead

just checked the forum stats and in 6 months MSG went from 10k users to 28k

a lot of people reading but not sharing or participating (not to mention the ones not even registered), this is just a curious fact that shows how stock is far from dead

MS is indeed far from dead.  In fact, I expect the money spent on ms images to grow steadily for several years.  

But it will be harder and harder every day for a new contributor to achieve any success.  It's been pointed out many times here that the pie may be growing, but your own slice of it could be getting smaller and smaller, because there's so many more people like you grabbing for a piece.  

Some advice to people just starting now:

- This is hard work.  Your technical skills have to be near perfect to get accepted these days at the agencies that matter.  But that's just getting your foot in the door.  That doesn't mean you'll actually get sales.

- You need to have a unique vision.  A copycat can no longer just borrow ideas from top selling images and expect to do well.  If it doesn't get you called out and banned, it still won't help you sell, since the established pics almost always keep selling well, while a glut of copycat images sit around the bottom of searches.

- With rare exceptions, a huge portfolio is necessary to drive decent sales.  

- A good business sense may be more important than artistic skills.  Yes, you need the creative know-how to make your pictures, but you need to study the market and figure out what buyers actually want and how you can serve those needs better than anyone else.  A marketing 101 class would be time well spent, perhaps even better than a photography or illustration course.

I'm not out to discourage anyone, just painting an honest picture about the world of microstock today.  If you're talented, with unique vision, hard-working, willing to put in the months and years to build a large port, and with good marketing sense to know where to be focusing your efforts, you can do well.  But every day the odds are stacked more and more against you.  Still, best of luck... I'd like to see more creative people (not copycats) entering microstock... it builds credibility and customer satisfaction for the market, which in the big picture, helps us all.

geat advice and several suggestions even for 'old'timers

it really is a numbers game and there are very few people who can do it with a small portfolio

Copying is chasing your tail. Those are old best seller, new need to be fresh and original.

We, the old members are: masters of our craft, hailed as beyond approach of sanity.

new members:  piss-poor images and ideas. I dont even know where they come from?  the woodworks perhaps.

We, the old members are: masters of our craft, hailed as beyond approach of sanity.

new members:  piss-poor images and ideas. I dont even know where they come from?  the woodworks perhaps.

Wow!!  "beyond approach of sanity" seems apt though.....

Quote from: lagereek on April 03, 2012, 08:58

We, the old members are: masters of our craft, hailed as beyond approach of sanity.

new members:  piss-poor images and ideas. I dont even know where they come from?  the woodworks perhaps.

Wow!!  "beyond approach of sanity" seems apt though.....

All photographers are lobotomized, gliomas, in the upper left temple!  makes us totally insane to become photographers in the first place. Trying to sell something that didnt take longer then an average of 125th/ sec, we are a strange breed indeed.

Quote from: lagereek on April 03, 2012, 09:28

Quote from: heywoody on April 03, 2012, 09:05

Quote from: lagereek on April 03, 2012, 08:58

We, the old members are: masters of our craft, hailed as beyond approach of sanity.

new members:  piss-poor images and ideas. I dont even know where they come from?  the woodworks perhaps.

Wow!!  "beyond approach of sanity" seems apt though.....

All photographers are lobotomized, gliomas, in the upper left temple!  makes us totally insane to become photographers in the first place. Trying to sell something that didnt take longer then an average of 125th/ sec, we are a strange breed indeed.

    At 125th/sec of work per image, I've only got a few days in this business. No wonder all my friends with real jobs think I'm overpaid.
I only got into this because my high school science teacher told me photographers are "robbers without guns" and I thought that sounded like the job for me.

Good one!  Helmut Newton, once said to his wife. " marvellous business this, isnt it, I spend a few seconds in front of my camera and I can invoice for, 20K. What a fantastic business" .

He was not joking!  thats what he got.

Quote from: lagereek on April 03, 2012, 09:28

Trying to sell something that didnt take longer then an average of 125th/ sec, we are a strange breed indeed.

    At 125th/sec of work per image, I've only got a few days in this business. No wonder all my friends with real jobs think I'm overpaid.
I only got into this because my high school science teacher told me photographers are "robbers without guns" and I thought that sounded like the job for me.

Hey, I wish you guys would share your workflow!  How do you manage to get saleable images for 125/second? 

I seem to be wasting a lot of time planning shoots, collecting props, hiring models, dealing with paperwork, editing images, uploading, and maintaining my equipment.  I must be doing it wrong! 

Most veteran folks here as well as newbies overlook one of the great perks of microstock. I discovered it by accident simply by uploading less than six images in the entire 2011 period and less than 24 images in all of 2010.

The perk: THE INCOME KEEPS COMING IN just by sitting on one's fat behind. The only work I do is check the sites occasionally and request payouts when they reach the payout threshold. Common knowledge here is that your income would dry up rather quickly because of the new images streaming in by the tens of thousands. What I've found is that my best, say, 25 or 30 images (out of 600+ per site), keep pulling in about the same sales month after month. The mediocre ones (5-10 per year) keep plodding along also at about that rate. The lousy ones still suck.

I scratch my head at this continuing income stream. Must be my superior shooting or flawless key-wording.

As good an example of "hitting the nail on the head" as I've seen in quite a while 

Good one!  Helmut Newton, once said to his wife. " marvellous business this, isnt it, I spend a few seconds in front of my camera and I can invoice for, 20K. What a fantastic business" .

He was not joking!  thats what he got.

Just think how much more Newton could have made if he'd realised he was supposed to stand behind the camera!

Quote from: jbarber873 on April 03, 2012, 09:55

Quote from: lagereek on April 03, 2012, 09:28

Trying to sell something that didnt take longer then an average of 125th/ sec, we are a strange breed indeed.

    At 125th/sec of work per image, I've only got a few days in this business. No wonder all my friends with real jobs think I'm overpaid.
I only got into this because my high school science teacher told me photographers are "robbers without guns" and I thought that sounded like the job for me.

Hey, I wish you guys would share your workflow!  How do you manage to get saleable images for 125/second? 

I seem to be wasting a lot of time planning shoots, collecting props, hiring models, dealing with paperwork, editing images, uploading, and maintaining my equipment.  I must be doing it wrong! 

  Sometimes, when i really want to take my time and do a good job, I shoot at 1/60/sec

just checked the forum stats and in 6 months MSG went from 10k users to 28k

a lot of people reading but not sharing or participating (not to mention the ones not even registered), this is just a curious fact that shows how stock is far from dead

I suspect a lot of those new members are bots that have since had accounts closed (would the account still be counted in the figures?) or signed up and failed to auto-post. Remember there have been quite a few spam threads and posts in those six months.

I love conspiracy theories as much as the next guy but...

All the new members are mostly spammers. Somehow they find a back door to sign up without using the captcha.  I haven't managed to plug it (yet), so they sign up.. but with the other spam filter features they don't manage to do anything.. just sign up.  I'm guessing around 50-150 actual new members sign up each month.

Hi leaf,

Have you tried this?

http://www.microstockgroup.com/off-topic/spams-in-my-site/msg215528/#msg215528

It might seem simple but it has worked for me on my personal website since the day I implemented it