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Author Topic: it's possible to live only selling photos in microstock site?  (Read 51594 times)

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« Reply #150 on: October 18, 2017, 06:34 »
0
Can you send me a link to your stock footage? Thanks.

They're at the bottom of his posts.

First three didn't work.


SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #151 on: October 18, 2017, 06:38 »
+1
Fotolia and all the rest work. Shutterstock has never worked... iStock is new though, used to work, will look into that.

« Reply #152 on: October 18, 2017, 06:40 »
0
Fotolia and all the rest work. Shutterstock has never worked... iStock is new though, used to work, will look into that.
Yep, Last three work.

So you make a living off this small handful of video clips?
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 06:43 by goober »

« Reply #153 on: October 18, 2017, 07:00 »
+4
The key is usability. Not number of clips.  :)

Too many contributors (not talking about you, just in general) upload way too much crap and way too many similars and they don't realize it actually hurts their sales.

Very simple example: 1,000 buyers buy a picture of a roe deer from you, and you have 100 images, just slightly different. Head turned 45 degrees. Head turned 40 degrees. Head turned 35 degrees etc. That's 10 per image and they are likely to be spread out. If you only kept 5-10 of the very best, those 1,000 sales would go to those pictures, and your search ranking would go up, up, up. Diluting your own sales with too many similars is a very bad strategy.

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #154 on: October 18, 2017, 07:05 »
+6
Hi, i'm new in this business, i wuold like to know if it's possible to live only selling photos in microstock site?

Possible yes. For you, it depends. Run some numbers.

I'd say 5 cents USD return per image per month (RPIPM) is a safe number to start with. It varies probably between $0 and $1 depending on the quality of your work but I'd say 5 cents is average. Here in the US most people would probably need at least 50,000-100,000 sellable and accepted images to replace their day job. Unless you're an image factory with a team of people processing images that's a big number to hit. If you live in an area where $600 per year is livable then 1,000 images may not be a bug hurdle.

This doesn't include figuring in additional business expenses, business taxes, equipment, or anything else related to the business. Meaning, you may need $60,000 income to replace your day job but your annual business expenses are $10,000 so you may need to earn more than $70,000 just to end up with $60,000.

200,000 images x .05 PIPM = $10,000 per month or $120,000 USD per year
100,000 images x .05 PIPM = $5,000 per month or $60,000 USD per year
10,000 images x .05 PIPM = $500 per month or $6,000 USD per year
1,000 images x .05 PIPM = $50 per month or $600 USD per year

You'd also probably need to produce at least 25-50% of your total portfolio every year to maintain that income. Meaning if your income breakeven portfolio is 10,000 images you'd need to produce 2,500 to 5,000 new images every day for income stay the same.

So possible? Yes. Depends on where you live, your income needs, and your ability to produce the required amount of images and keep producing all year every year.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #155 on: October 18, 2017, 07:11 »
+2
Sure do! Those are my non-exclusive clips. I also have an exclusive account at VideoHive which contains some After Effects templates, which account for a reasonable portion of my income.

On a side note, I like how you wanted to check out my portfolio, in what I can only assume was some kind of attempt to invalidate my argument based on whether I do or do not manage to live only selling microstock... when whether I do or don't manage to live only selling microstock was never part of my argument. Classy move!

« Reply #156 on: October 18, 2017, 07:33 »
0
Hi, i'm new in this business, i wuold like to know if it's possible to live only selling photos in microstock site?

Possible yes. For you, it depends. Run some numbers.

I'd say 5 cents USD return per image per month (RPIPM) is a safe number to start with. It varies probably between $0 and $1 depending on the quality of your work but I'd say 5 cents is average. Here in the US most people would probably need at least 50,000-100,000 sellable and accepted images to replace their day job. Unless you're an image factory with a team of people processing images that's a big number to hit. If you live in an area where $600 per year is livable then 1,000 images may not be a bug hurdle.

This doesn't include figuring in additional business expenses, business taxes, equipment, or anything else related to the business. Meaning, you may need $60,000 income to replace your day job but your annual business expenses are $10,000 so you may need to earn more than $70,000 just to end up with $60,000.

200,000 images x .05 PIPM = $10,000 per month or $120,000 USD per year
100,000 images x .05 PIPM = $5,000 per month or $60,000 USD per year
10,000 images x .05 PIPM = $500 per month or $6,000 USD per year
1,000 images x .05 PIPM = $50 per month or $600 USD per year

You'd also probably need to produce at least 25-50% of your total portfolio every year to maintain that income. Meaning if your income breakeven portfolio is 10,000 images you'd need to produce 2,500 to 5,000 new images every day for income stay the same.

So possible? Yes. Depends on where you live, your income needs, and your ability to produce the required amount of images and keep producing all year every year.

Interpolating my current sales I would need about 40,000 images to get $10k per month, if I only sold at Shutterstock. If spread all over, I suppose that number would be 20-30,000.

I have 0 images of people (except a few anonymous hands). Only nature, wildlife, cities. If you throw quality people shots in the mix I would think the number of needed images would go way down, maybe to 10,000 for really usable images.

Seeing how some people keyword their 10,000 images I'm not surprised they're not seeing many sales.

City skylines without mentioning the city, or country, are my favorite. Do they think I want a picture of a random no-name city to go with my travel blog about Manchester?
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 07:40 by increasingdifficulty »

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #157 on: October 18, 2017, 07:50 »
0
Hi, i'm new in this business, i wuold like to know if it's possible to live only selling photos in microstock site?

Possible yes. For you, it depends. Run some numbers.

I'd say 5 cents USD return per image per month (RPIPM) is a safe number to start with. It varies probably between $0 and $1 depending on the quality of your work but I'd say 5 cents is average. Here in the US most people would probably need at least 50,000-100,000 sellable and accepted images to replace their day job. Unless you're an image factory with a team of people processing images that's a big number to hit. If you live in an area where $600 per year is livable then 1,000 images may not be a bug hurdle.

This doesn't include figuring in additional business expenses, business taxes, equipment, or anything else related to the business. Meaning, you may need $60,000 income to replace your day job but your annual business expenses are $10,000 so you may need to earn more than $70,000 just to end up with $60,000.

200,000 images x .05 PIPM = $10,000 per month or $120,000 USD per year
100,000 images x .05 PIPM = $5,000 per month or $60,000 USD per year
10,000 images x .05 PIPM = $500 per month or $6,000 USD per year
1,000 images x .05 PIPM = $50 per month or $600 USD per year

You'd also probably need to produce at least 25-50% of your total portfolio every year to maintain that income. Meaning if your income breakeven portfolio is 10,000 images you'd need to produce 2,500 to 5,000 new images every day for income stay the same.

So possible? Yes. Depends on where you live, your income needs, and your ability to produce the required amount of images and keep producing all year every year.

Interpolating my current sales I would need about 40,000 images to get $10k per month, if I only sold at Shutterstock. If spread all over, I suppose that number would be 20-30,000.

I have 0 images of people (except a few anonymous hands). Only nature, wildlife, cities. If you throw quality people shots in the mix I would think the number of needed images would go way down, maybe to 10,000 for really usable images.

Seeing how some people keyword their 10,000 images I'm not surprised they're not seeing many sales.

City skylines without mentioning the city, or country, are my favorite. Do they think I want a picture of a random no-name city to go with my travel blog about Manchester?

You're at .25 cents RPIPM which these days I'd say seems decent. I'd guess that's better than most people are getting minus the top earners.

« Reply #158 on: October 18, 2017, 07:56 »
0
You're at .25 cents RPIPM which these days I'd say seems decent. I'd guess that's better than most people are getting minus the top earners.

Yes, that is the Shutterstock only average, and like I said, I don't have any people shots. Looking at other portfolios I would be very surprised if there aren't people/portfolios with averages 10x better than mine.

For example, Uber Images have 5-6,000 images and (based on their own reports) seem to be making quite a bit more than $10,000 per month. I would guess closer to $20,000.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 08:17 by increasingdifficulty »

THP Creative

  • THP Creative

« Reply #159 on: October 18, 2017, 10:25 »
+2
Yes, it is possible. But everyones view on what it means to 'live' on microstock income will vary.

If you live cheap, and work hard it is possible. But it is becoming harder to do so.

« Reply #160 on: October 18, 2017, 19:50 »
0
Sure do! Those are my non-exclusive clips. I also have an exclusive account at VideoHive which contains some After Effects templates, which account for a reasonable portion of my income.

On a side note, I like how you wanted to check out my portfolio, in what I can only assume was some kind of attempt to invalidate my argument based on whether I do or do not manage to live only selling microstock... when whether I do or don't manage to live only selling microstock was never part of my argument. Classy move!

Your argument is that I might not have been successful if I had started a local business. Genius. Others here wanted me to be as successful as Bill Gates or compared running a small business to winning major poker tournaments which is idealistic crapola.
What I said originally is that in my opinion it's better to start a local business that supplies the needs of people around you. I know lots of people who have done this successfully.

I checked out your port to see if you're a newcomer and to see your quality and I see that your quality is quite high and you've found a niche. Congrats. I don't know where you live or what your cost of living is. I don't know how long you've been doing it. So this could all be a giant pissing comp.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #161 on: October 19, 2017, 00:30 »
0
But your argument is that you should have started a business... as that would have been more successful than selling stock. My argument is based on fact (that you might have been successful or you might have not), yours is based on conjecture that your business would have been more successful than selling stock. Non-genius.

I'm originally from the UK but I've been travelling the US, Australia and South East Asia for the last 18 months or so. Mainly SEA though, and I've spent most of my time in Siem Reap in Cambodia where I'm currently renting an apartment. Yes, the cost of living is very cheap here. In theory, you could survive with a small studio, food, bills and not much else for $250 a month. In reality, you're looking at $500 to $750 a month for a reasonable standard of living. Anything over $1000 and you're doing pretty well.

That's pretty irrelevant though, to whether I could or couldn't live on stock income, as I make considerably more than that (my rent in Siem Reap is $1000 a month), and as long as I steer clear of places like London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles etc... I could get by relatively easily in most countries, purely on my stock income. 

I uploaded my first stock item in 2009 and started doing stock full time in 2014. I now stick in a day or two a week. Sometimes more, sometimes considerably less.

« Reply #162 on: October 19, 2017, 03:10 »
0
But your argument is that you should have started a business... as that would have been more successful than selling stock. My argument is based on fact (that you might have been successful or you might have not), yours is based on conjecture that your business would have been more successful than selling stock. Non-genius.

I'm originally from the UK but I've been travelling the US, Australia and South East Asia for the last 18 months or so. Mainly SEA though, and I've spent most of my time in Siem Reap in Cambodia where I'm currently renting an apartment. Yes, the cost of living is very cheap here. In theory, you could survive with a small studio, food, bills and not much else for $250 a month. In reality, you're looking at $500 to $750 a month for a reasonable standard of living. Anything over $1000 and you're doing pretty well.

That's pretty irrelevant though, to whether I could or couldn't live on stock income, as I make considerably more than that (my rent in Siem Reap is $1000 a month), and as long as I steer clear of places like London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles etc... I could get by relatively easily in most countries, purely on my stock income. 

I uploaded my first stock item in 2009 and started doing stock full time in 2014. I now stick in a day or two a week. Sometimes more, sometimes considerably less.

Well the video guys do seem to be fairing better than the rest. A few dollars per sale is better than a few cents.

After 20 plus years of pushing pixels I'm looking to do something different and I admire my friends who are reaping the rewards of creating solid small businesses. So long.

« Reply #163 on: October 19, 2017, 04:06 »
0
You don't need expensive investments, especially for photos, nearly all my gear is several years old and used when I buy it.

Only 4k video has forced me to buy a better computer, but if you stick to hd a 3 year old computer should be fine.

And yes, of course, I would suggest working with people.

If you don't want to hire models and your family is camera shy, you talk to small businesses. Take pictures and videos for their business and agree on what you can use for your portfolio. It will give you authentic content.

Hiring a pro photographer is expensive, so make it a win win and you get good content.

But even just being very systematic even without people shots...every week you document how a local recipe is prepared, invite friends and family for a free meal and take pictures of just hands eating, if they are to camera shy.

Or working in te garden at different times of year, the greenhouse, building a boat, going fishing.

The main thing is to make it a planned shooting.

Do some research of what the agencies already have. Is anything missing?

Make a moodboard (some scetches) of all the images you need to tell the story of the process you are documenting.

How much copy space, which camera angle, shallow dof or all in focus, any special color theme...and what is the color of the year anyway? etc....

The more planning goes into a shoot, the better the pictures, even if it is a series about folding napkins.

csm

« Reply #164 on: October 19, 2017, 05:49 »
+1
Sure do! Those are my non-exclusive clips. I also have an exclusive account at VideoHive which contains some After Effects templates, which account for a reasonable portion of my income.

On a side note, I like how you wanted to check out my portfolio, in what I can only assume was some kind of attempt to invalidate my argument based on whether I do or do not manage to live only selling microstock... when whether I do or don't manage to live only selling microstock was never part of my argument. Classy move!


In my eyes all of your handful of clips are winners, and that`s what counts :)
As mentioned before, it`s quality that counts.

Too many people still seem to think, 10 00 images online and they will be alright as far as sales go, 10 000 of what? I always think.
10 000 images of ducks on a pond or 10 000 lifestyle / people images for instance?

My philosophy has always been to take images that say something, not of something...

I look back 10 years ago and I was earning a good living from 300 images!
How times have changed!

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #165 on: October 19, 2017, 08:02 »
0
Thanks! I try my best to figure out what people might need or want, and I try and put a bit of effort into making stuff reasonably scientifically accurate. Not too much, as accurate isn't exactly sexy... but I've seen clips where the Earth is spinning in the wrong direction or the moon looks like it's 1000 miles away from the Earth etc.

Sometimes my ideas of what will sell pay off.... sometimes they don't. I've done some where I've spent a day on a clip and it's never sold. Others where i've spent an hour and it's a best seller. I'll get there!

csm

« Reply #166 on: October 19, 2017, 08:16 »
0
Thanks! I try my best to figure out what people might need or want, and I try and put a bit of effort into making stuff reasonably scientifically accurate. Not too much, as accurate isn't exactly sexy... but I've seen clips where the Earth is spinning in the wrong direction or the moon looks like it's 1000 miles away from the Earth etc.

Sometimes my ideas of what will sell pay off.... sometimes they don't. I've done some where I've spent a day on a clip and it's never sold. Others where i've spent an hour and it's a best seller. I'll get there!


I know the feeling, in the past I did a lot of images that were composites, and some took many months to complete, but I was working on other ideas at the same time!

Some sold well and some didn`t.
And other ideas that didn`t take too long to complete sometimes sold better.
Just the nature of stock I suppose, you never know!

I love astronomy, so I really admire your work.

What software are you using to create your ideas in?
I always wanted to learn Cinema 5D, but never got round to it, now I spend most of my time working on videos in After Effects.


csm

« Reply #167 on: October 19, 2017, 08:46 »
0
Thanks! I try my best to figure out what people might need or want, and I try and put a bit of effort into making stuff reasonably scientifically accurate. Not too much, as accurate isn't exactly sexy... but I've seen clips where the Earth is spinning in the wrong direction or the moon looks like it's 1000 miles away from the Earth etc.

Sometimes my ideas of what will sell pay off.... sometimes they don't. I've done some where I've spent a day on a clip and it's never sold. Others where i've spent an hour and it's a best seller. I'll get there!

Have you done any clips yet of Tabby`s Star?
(Dyson Sphere maybe?)
That really intrigues me.
I`d love to know what`s going on there!

« Reply #168 on: October 21, 2017, 11:17 »
0
I think I figured it out once with my RPI that somewhere around 4000 images would pay the bills ... assuming the relationship was linear. It's not but :/ meh

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #169 on: October 22, 2017, 00:28 »
0
Yeah I use Cinema 4D and After Effects. If there's no 3D models or its just motion graphics stuff then I just use After Effects. Use a lot of the Trapcode suite for stars and rocket smoke and the like.

No Dyson spheres yet but maybe one day!

Came up with the idea for this a while back and as you can see it's made me quite a bit. I'm now slowly working my way through as many countries and US states as I can...

https://videohive.net/item/world-map-kit/15743461
« Last Edit: October 22, 2017, 00:30 by SpaceStockFootage »

« Reply #170 on: October 22, 2017, 01:41 »
+1
I think I figured it out once with my RPI that somewhere around 4000 images would pay the bills ... assuming the relationship was linear. It's not but :/ meh
That number was almost the same for me. A mix of 4000 images and some 200-300 videos to get me by. Still in the phase of getting  a up, lets hope the math works

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


« Reply #171 on: October 22, 2017, 23:50 »
+4
I think I figured it out once with my RPI that somewhere around 4000 images would pay the bills ... assuming the relationship was linear. It's not but :/ meh
That number was almost the same for me. A mix of 4000 images and some 200-300 videos to get me by. Still in the phase of getting  a up, lets hope the math works

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Well I figured I could get by with about 1000 images, by the time I got there it was up to about 3000, I've got over 3000 now, but make less than I did with about 2000.

« Reply #172 on: October 23, 2017, 14:10 »
0
I think I figured it out once with my RPI that somewhere around 4000 images would pay the bills ... assuming the relationship was linear. It's not but :/ meh
That number was almost the same for me. A mix of 4000 images and some 200-300 videos to get me by. Still in the phase of getting  a up, lets hope the math works

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Well I figured I could get by with about 1000 images, by the time I got there it was up to about 3000, I've got over 3000 now, but make less than I did with about 2000.
So i guess the smart idea is to give up? Or do we try harder?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


« Reply #173 on: October 23, 2017, 15:23 »
+2
So i guess the smart idea is to give up? Or do we try harder?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Yes, the most common answer by successful people on the question "What made you successful?" is:

 "I gave up".

« Reply #174 on: October 24, 2017, 03:11 »
+1
Love how you phrased that.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk



 

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