My average for dreamstime this year is around 77 cents.

I get most sales for 35 cents and sometimes  for 2 dollars, sometimes also a special sale for 15 dollars. Videos sell for 3.70 -  10.31

I have around 4700 files.

Longterm I hope to get a payout every three months but at the moment I am happy with one payout a year.

Upload is very easy and they usually sell files that never get a sale on Adobe, so I see it as an easy add on.


It will probably become interesting when I have 30k files...in 10 years or so...

Do you think in 10 years Dreamstime would be alive? I have read here, several times, microstock business is downhill!

My best advice on Deadtime is:  Don't waste your time.  End of story

Re will they be there in 10 years.  Most likely not.  But then whole Human driven Microstock is likely to be extinct in favour of generative AI

I have been hearing stock is dead since I started in 2005.

And unsplash and all the free files were supposed to be the last coffin.

Now it is nearly 2025 and here we are.

Main difference:  There was no generative AI until recently.

My average for dreamstime this year is around 77 cents.

I get most sales for 35 cents and sometimes  for 2 dollars, sometimes also a special sale for 15 dollars. Videos sell for 3.70 -  10.31

I have around 4700 files.

Longterm I hope to get a payout every three months but at the moment I am happy with one payout a year.

Upload is very easy and they usually sell files that never get a sale on Adobe, so I see it as an easy add on.


It will probably become interesting when I have 30k files...in 10 years or so...

I must agree with you sales is very low and I am not sure is worth my time

Like I said there are billions of free and legally usable images already.

So why are people still buying stock?

Because they want the variety and inspiration.

Sunset over nature is easy to do in ai.

But try old lady doing yoga.

Suddenly you have to decid a million details

alone, in the gym, with a coach, indoors, outdoors, following an app, with a futuristic visor, which yog pose, what kind of lighting  - frontal, rembrant, diffise, hair up or down or short hair, a little sweaty and tired, or smooth and meditative, closed eyes?, what kind of clothes, nail polish on hands and feet? which ethnic group, how old exactly, frail looking, overweight�

etc�


to use ai properly you need to understand all the details that make a great imahe and give it vibe.

Otherwise you will just be prompting endlessly or just getting a near identical copy of what millions of others liked.

But browing a stock agency needs no visual media skills, you can just select from millions of choices.

And then maybe use ai to refine the selected image.

I know several people who tried to drop their stock contracts and just use ai, they all reactivated their contracts.

Those who were not trained photographers realized quickly they did not even have the vocabulary to describe what they needed and those that had a media background found browising a library with huge content much, much faster.

The problem not knowing exactly what you want and how to describe it will remain forever, no matter how much ai improves.

As for money the sales come to ports that do very, very detailed research into what is needed, not to those who just produce endless duplicates.

The ai cannot tell you what will sell.

So as long as the agencies have gigantic gaps in their collections, I will have a job.

I am not just selling images, I am selling solutions to questions.

The ai cannot see the question.

But anyone truly convinced stock is over, please organize your business life accordingly and focus your energy on your next project.

I just restarted uploading 18 months ago. You know yourself it takes time.

The goal is to reach a reliable 400 dollars a year and looking at people writing here that seems very doable.

Several agencies bringing in 2-400 a year and suddenly it is 800-1200 more.

Why should I not take some add on money, for files that you can mass upload while waiting for the bus?

The self generated ai images have no legal protection at all. Only if you buy ai images via Adobe will a company get the legal protection of the Adobe license.

Another reason why many companies feel they cannot safely use ai, the legal limbo is too complicated and still in flux.

We anyway only sell to the people that really need a professional legal license and who value the time of their employees and understand that 5 minutes on a stock site is much faster than an afternoon prompting.

But thank you for the flowers...I am documenting my journey back to a full time income, because so many people have been genuinely concerned think that I am crazy with what I do.

But here we are, roughly two years later and I am already at a part time job level (minimum wage).

Next level will be a minimum wage full time income and then hopefully, maybe in 2026/27, I will be back with a real full time income.

We will see.

I am basing the project on all the empty gaps I see. If I ever have the impression the gaps are filled, I will move on.

But with millions of files missing and with video maybe 1 billion files missing, this job looks pretty endless from my angle.