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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: vitekprchal on February 01, 2018, 08:08

Title: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: vitekprchal on February 01, 2018, 08:08
Hey guys,
How's going?

I was looking for some discussions about this topic but haven't found any. So, let me try to start one.

I was browsing through my statistics and all that microstcok/bundle sites and thinking how our field has changed during last years. As a mostly shutterstock & creativemarket person I have to say that competition is getting more and more huge. We got unlimited subscription sites, vast graphic resource bundles and else. I mean, how many "doodle packages" customer needs before he stops buying? Especially when he can get thousands of them in a sale for 30bucks or so.  As a result, every upcomming creation gets harder and harder to sell. For example, my new products on CM sold only 4 or 5 times during last months. (2 years ago you'd get houndereds). Similar to the SH, new uploads performing really bad.

So, after all - based on my stats. In 2017 I made only 1k or 2k from all of my new illustrations, products, fonts... What made my salary was my old stock content - all of these images which build stong positions during years of succes. I mean, everything new I create won't do any good for me.

By math, I need around 400 new shutterstock illustrations each month to made my income. That's more than I'm able to make in 2years time.

---------------------

Are you experiencing same? Do you have any solution how to keep up in 2018 and future years? What causes this trend?

Good luck,
Vitek
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: GraniteCove on February 01, 2018, 08:51
I think you've already answered your own question. Sheer volume and availability. It's a question we're all faced with to some extent. For myself I've been actively focusing on direct client work and so far it's working out very well. I just don't see a sustainable future in micro any longer. As you say, the law of diminishing returns makes growth virtually impossible for most today. The way I see it the future of microstock will be split between the big factory producers and the hobbyists. And by hobbyist I don't mean sub par or second rate, I just mean anyone who does not need the income from micro to survive.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: sgoodwin4813 on February 01, 2018, 09:32
I just mean anyone who does not need the income from micro to survive.

Yes, that.  For survival, I hear that McDonalds is still hiring ...
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: niktol on February 01, 2018, 10:37

1. Are you experiencing same? 2. Do you have any solution how to keep up in 2018 and future years? 3. What causes this trend?

Good luck,
Vitek

1. No
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: JET LI on April 22, 2018, 06:06
I think you've already answered your own question. Sheer volume and availability. It's a question we're all faced with to some extent. For myself I've been actively focusing on direct client work and so far it's working out very well. I just don't see a sustainable future in micro any longer. As you say, the law of diminishing returns makes growth virtually impossible for most today. The way I see it the future of microstock will be split between the big factory producers and the hobbyists. And by hobbyist I don't mean sub par or second rate, I just mean anyone who does not need the income from micro to survive.

This is my opinion exactly. Thats why i was looking into POD sites as an alternative, however i hear thats even worse. Time to work direct with clients i think....thats where you will get the best return on your time investment.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: alexandersr on April 22, 2018, 20:40
I just mean anyone who does not need the income from micro to survive.

Yes, that.  For survival, I hear that McDonalds is still hiring ...

Does Mc Donald's hire old people?
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on April 23, 2018, 02:55
I noticed that a lot of the people who were making big money selling vector packs and brushes a few years ago then moved on to selling people courses on how to make money selling vector packs and some are now even moving one step removed from that, to selling more general motivational courses/ books or how to marketing courses.

Too many designers to compete designing>Sell tools for designers>Too many people selling tools for designers>Sell courses to people selling tools for designers>Too many people selling courses for selling tools for designers>Sell courses for people on how to make courses and market them.

It all leaves a bad taste in the mouth. On every step if the people could make money doing the thing they are trying to teach they would be doing the thing, not selling courses in doing the thing. It misleads everyone down the chain so they can line their own pockets.

No solutions here, just a thought.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Pauws99 on April 23, 2018, 03:30
Its harder to get a job at McDonalds than to submit stock ;-). Just because you upload stuff doesn't mean you are owed a living ;-).
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Josephine on April 23, 2018, 06:36
mainstream images are completely out, sparking ideas are always in - no matter what.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: GraniteCove on April 23, 2018, 07:31
mainstream images are completely out, sparking ideas are always in - no matter what.

Very true. Unfortunately though in microstock mainstream is where the money is. I have a number of top ranked niche images that combined don't generate the income of even one popular generic image. Niche work and concept shots are great for the portfolio but the subject or idea needs to become mainstream before it makes any real money. By the time it has sparked though the competition has already stepped in and either copied it outright or produced a superior version. Either way, the turnover for microstock images is just too short now for me to make a reasonable ROI. Obviously my criteria for a reasonable ROI will not be the same as others. I live in an expensive part of the world where yes, even McDonald's pays better than micro nowadays. And they hire old people too!

Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Josephine on April 23, 2018, 10:04
Going for Microstocks is like any other business, itīs a day by day struggle.

Young people come up with better ideas, are more creative, more innovative. Old people are backward-looking all the time, they simply are stuck in the mud.... and complain. Call it generation gap.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: angelawaye on April 23, 2018, 11:07
May I ask what your age group is for "old people"? Curious ...
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: trek on April 23, 2018, 11:08
Going for Microstocks is like any other business, itīs a day by day struggle.

Young people come up with better ideas, are more creative, more innovative. Old people are backward-looking all the time, they simply are stuck in the mud.... and complain. Call it generation gap.

Maybe they look backwards because history repeats itself...
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Josephine on April 23, 2018, 11:31
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Shelma1 on April 23, 2018, 11:45
So if someone started in microstock at age 18, when they reached age 25 "Josephine" would consider them old and backward-looking. Lol.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Josephine on April 23, 2018, 12:04
big misunderstanding... after seven years in the Microstock business... not according to the age
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Clair Voyant on April 23, 2018, 12:14
Going for Microstocks is like any other business, itīs a day by day struggle.

Young people come up with better ideas, are more creative, more innovative. Old people are backward-looking all the time, they simply are stuck in the mud.... and complain. Call it generation gap.

I am old...
I remember when photos were worth more than $0.25 and sold for an absolute minimum of $50 and more often than not in the average range of $300-$500 dollars and regularly more than $1000 and occassionally for $5000+
Old people like me are backward looking all the time wondering why the young people with all their better ideas and innovation decided to take a once lucrative business and devalue it.
Now I can imagine it will be all the old peoples fault for not providing you a self entitled future of success cause you were innovative enought to want to work for pennies and sacrifice yourself for your self applauding creative better ideas.
You can keep it.

Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Shelma1 on April 23, 2018, 12:35
big misunderstanding... after seven years in the Microstock business... not according to the age

No misunderstanding. Simple math.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Pauws99 on April 23, 2018, 13:03
Going for Microstocks is like any other business, itīs a day by day struggle.

Young people come up with better ideas, are more creative, more innovative. Old people are backward-looking all the time, they simply are stuck in the mud.... and complain. Call it generation gap.

I am old...
I remember when photos were worth more than $0.25 and sold for an absolute minimum of $50 and more often than not in the average range of $300-$500 dollars and regularly more than $1000 and occassionally for $5000+
Old people like me are backward looking all the time wondering why the young people with all their better ideas and innovation decided to take a once lucrative business and devalue it.
Now I can imagine it will be all the old peoples fault for not providing you a self entitled future of success cause you were innovative enought to want to work for pennies and sacrifice yourself for your self applauding creative better ideas.
You can keep it.
And how much did it cost to afford the equipment and materials as well as the training and technical expertise to produce sellable images?...the world has moved on just like it did for precision watchmakers and almost any other industry you care to name. Nothing to do with young vs old just the way things are.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: dpimborough on April 23, 2018, 13:07
May I ask what your age group is for "old people"? Curious ...

Probably anyone over the age of six :D
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: dpimborough on April 23, 2018, 13:08
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

What a sweeping generalization  ::)
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: cthoman on April 23, 2018, 13:10
LOL. I have enough ideas to work on until I die. It's just nobody wants to pay for them. :D
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Pauws99 on April 23, 2018, 13:12
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

What a sweeping generalization  ::)
If it were applied to any other group it would be considered racist/sexist etc of course.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: angelawaye on April 23, 2018, 13:13
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

Why 7 years? May I ask how long you have been in the business? You seem to know a lot about it.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Pauws99 on April 23, 2018, 13:16
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

Why 7 years? May I ask how long you have been in the business? You seem to know a lot about it.
6 years 11 months I'm guessing ;-).
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: dpimborough on April 23, 2018, 14:53
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

Why 7 years? May I ask how long you have been in the business? You seem to know a lot about it.
6 years 11 months I'm guessing ;-).

Oh judging by the fact they registered here
    September 30, 2016,

Probably a lot less than that :D
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: ShadySue on April 23, 2018, 15:15
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

Why 7 years? May I ask how long you have been in the business? You seem to know a lot about it.
6 years 11 months I'm guessing ;-).

Oh judging by the fact they registered here
    September 30, 2016,

Probably a lot less than that :D
According to them, (in an earlier post) 4.5 years.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: namussi on April 23, 2018, 22:09
I think you've already answered your own question. Sheer volume and availability. It's a question we're all faced with to some extent. For myself I've been actively focusing on direct client work and so far it's working out very well. I just don't see a sustainable future in micro any longer. As you say, the law of diminishing returns makes growth virtually impossible for most today.

No.... it's THE CAP. Woohahahahahahahhaha.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: PaulieWalnuts on April 24, 2018, 00:59
Going for Microstocks is like any other business, itīs a day by day struggle.

Young people come up with better ideas, are more creative, more innovative. Old people are backward-looking all the time, they simply are stuck in the mud.... and complain. Call it generation gap.

I am old...
I remember when photos were worth more than $0.25 and sold for an absolute minimum of $50 and more often than not in the average range of $300-$500 dollars and regularly more than $1000 and occassionally for $5000+
Old people like me are backward looking all the time wondering why the young people with all their better ideas and innovation decided to take a once lucrative business and devalue it.
Now I can imagine it will be all the old peoples fault for not providing you a self entitled future of success cause you were innovative enought to want to work for pennies and sacrifice yourself for your self applauding creative better ideas.
You can keep it.

I am old too. The right photos made available to the right buyers by a good businessperson will still sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars for a single use license. The assumption that all photos are now only worth a few pennies due to microstock isn't accurate.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: jonbull on April 24, 2018, 07:40
Going for Microstocks is like any other business, itīs a day by day struggle.

Young people come up with better ideas, are more creative, more innovative. Old people are backward-looking all the time, they simply are stuck in the mud.... and complain. Call it generation gap.

I am old...
I remember when photos were worth more than $0.25 and sold for an absolute minimum of $50 and more often than not in the average range of $300-$500 dollars and regularly more than $1000 and occassionally for $5000+
Old people like me are backward looking all the time wondering why the young people with all their better ideas and innovation decided to take a once lucrative business and devalue it.
Now I can imagine it will be all the old peoples fault for not providing you a self entitled future of success cause you were innovative enought to want to work for pennies and sacrifice yourself for your self applauding creative better ideas.
You can keep it.

ITS calles   ccompetition. what makes your image special was the cost of production and the competition. the firs is practically zero the second is one zillion.
once a good tomato photo could sell for a thousand now there are one billion tomato photos. very simple. is not that now people are so stupid or want less money, is that once there were 1000 stock photographer, now 1000000000000 stock. simply.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Uncle Pete on April 24, 2018, 11:16
May I ask what your age group is for "old people"? Curious ...

Oh, fat old bald people like me for sure.  :)

Anyone who gets set in their ways will be old, stale and lose their creativity. You can call it the generation gap. I think they left the C off Rap. But I like Lady Gaga and Adell, Meghan Trainor and some other newer artists. Stagnant creativity or only looking back, is "old". Looking forward and accepting change is "new". I can listen to Zappa or Van Morrison and have a good time, but I don't block out everything new, just because it's new and different.

It's not your age that matters, but where your head and heart are at. You can be old in years and young at heart. Your mind can be forward and open to innovation, but be old in years. You can be young and has arrested development, stuck in the past or at some age. Because change is new and good and resistance to change is OLD! Of course the bones don't move like they used to, I'm don't leap walls like I used to, but not much one can do with mind over matter to change that part of old.

That's my personal answer but it's not just about dates and ages or how many years I've been doing stock.

I'll work on the rest: "paper or plastic"? Do you want fries with that"? "hand me my walking stick", "I remember the good old days..." Yeah get over the past, look to the future.  8) 
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: angelawaye on April 24, 2018, 11:23
* straight Uncle Pete! Cheers!
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: MicroVet on April 24, 2018, 12:01
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

That is not true. I still have ideas, I just keep forgetting them on my way to the studio. And sometimes I also forget why I was going there or where I am.

Dr. Josephine, is this a symptom of being in the stock business for 12 years?

Maybe you could prescribe a dose of instagram and free sharing social networks. The young people there seem to have a lot of ideas. Still confused why they live in their parents house at age 35, though...
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: Uncle Pete on April 24, 2018, 13:00
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

That is not true. I still have ideas, I just keep forgetting them on my way to the studio. And sometimes I also forget why I was going there or where I am.

Dr. Josephine, is this a symptom of being in the stock business for 12 years?

Maybe you could prescribe a dose of instagram and free sharing social networks. The young people there seem to have a lot of ideas. Still confused why they live in their parents house at age 35, though...

Best answer so far.

I'll add this:

(https://s5.postimg.cc/dcxlk6yo7/uncle-scrooge-_KKT.jpg)
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: loop on April 24, 2018, 16:05
old are those, who are in the Microstock business for more than 7 years. They ran out of new ideas. And they remember the golden days.

I've been in ms for more of 10 years and I have not any shortage of ideas. What is also true is that I can't shoot some of these ideas because the returns don't justify the the associated expenses. So, I can only shoot about 30-40% of what I would shoot.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: PaulieWalnuts on April 24, 2018, 23:10
I just mean anyone who does not need the income from micro to survive.

Yes, that.  For survival, I hear that McDonalds is still hiring ...

Does Mc Donald's hire old people?

McDonalds is hiring people who can assist customers with using self service kiosks.
Title: Re: Stock are not selling anymore? What is our future?
Post by: PaulieWalnuts on April 24, 2018, 23:14
Going for Microstocks is like any other business, itīs a day by day struggle.

Young people come up with better ideas, are more creative, more innovative. Old people are backward-looking all the time, they simply are stuck in the mud.... and complain. Call it generation gap.

I don't think it's entirely age based. It's how willing and able you are to analyze and adapt to trends and change. If you are doing the same old stuff that worked five or ten years ago then you'll probably be disappointed regardless of your age.