Author Topic: What's your weekly ranking and how many images? (Read 79744 times)

cobalt · « **Reply #1125 on:** November 29, 2024, 08:31 »

November is the first month yoy with zero growth.

So, while I enjoy the sales I am also frustrated, as every month before was nearly 100% more. And now in my most important season the growth has abruptly stopped.

I have spent a lot of time trying to understand why.

Last year I was on the bestseller list for one week, in that week my sales rose by 30%. This is missing this year.

Last year I also uploaded a lot of holiday images that arrived in November/December. This year over70% of my current uploads/arrival are already for spring and summer.

Perhaps that is an explanation?

I am really not sure, the lack of growth is very abrupt.

Of course I am grateful for the sales, but concerned going forward.

And another motivator to do more video and normal photos for all agencies.

JustAnImage · « **Reply #1126 on:** November 29, 2024, 10:27 »

Quote from: cobalt on November 29, 2024, 08:25

I am enjoying every moment for as long as the fun lasts.

I really wish I could get this income all year round.

And I am sure that you will succeed. You look very closely at your figures and your images, at niches that might open up.
That will definitely pay off in the long term - now you basically “only” need material every season and you have good sales for every season

At least that's what I keep thinking - diversifying the portfolio further will eventually result in more constant downloads - that's the hope :-)

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #1127 on:** November 29, 2024, 12:18 »

Quote from: nasos_zovo on November 29, 2024, 07:18

Quote from: cobalt on November 29, 2024, 01:06
I just love this time of the year

pos 856, files 7050

Is the position based on the number of downloads or on earnings? For example, someone might be in position 15,000 and have $300 in earnings—how does that work?

As @cobalt wrote, supposedly DL only. That's what we have been told by Adobe via their advocate.

About Thanksgiving, assuming that Position is relative to everyone else, then pretty much everyone should have the same lower numbers, which means, everyone should have about the same position, as any other week. Maybe that doesn't happen, but logically, that's what would be expected. The exception is, if someone has better preforming images during the holiday season.

If the highest number is 32,500 which someone said they had, when they were not -0- anymore, then 900, or "under 1,000" is the top 3% of all people who are reported. It could only be better than the top 3%, if people with one DL fall below the top 32,500, for example. We don't know.

You want scary? My numbers right now: Downloads 25, Position 15,550 (in the middle), 1,031 Images. I admit that I'm terrible, don't try hard and don't have many images. So if I'm in the middle, just imagine how bad things are for people doing worse than 15,550?

pancaketom · « **Reply #1128 on:** November 29, 2024, 12:52 »

People who sell more in the USA presumably will be down this week while those that do better elsewhere might be up.

It seems most of my latest sales are from the old best sellers from a year or more ago, but my sales don't seem to be all that good. I haven't been uploading much lately though. Also a lot more .31 custom sales than I would like, possibly slightly offset by the rare but nice sub sale for more than 2$.

cobalt · « **Reply #1129 on:** November 29, 2024, 15:03 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 29, 2024, 12:18

You want scary? My numbers right now: Downloads 25, Position 15,550 (in the middle), 1,031 Images. I admit that I'm terrible, don't try hard and don't have many images. So if I'm in the middle, just imagine how bad things are for people doing worse than 15,550?

The really scary part is that there are people with 30k ai files with a lower rank than yours. Even if they automated their ai process, they still spent countless hours chasing a dream that will never come true.

I wish agencies would give more honest information about what kind of income can be reasonably achieved.

On ebay or etsy there are many people with high sales stores that make 30k a month and run their business with employees.

In the stock world there are probably just 10 producers who make over 30k a month and I doubt that even africa studios or yuri arcurs make more than 250k a month.

Compared to other webstores you can have that target the normal population, stock is a very, very niche buyer group.

We saw here that only if you get into the inner circle of less than 100 will you go over 1200 a week at Adobe.

And to make a reliable 500 a week, you need to be around rank 500.

If you are mostly selling images of course, for video it is different.

If agencies would put out a general statement something like: 30 000 producers make 50-100 dollars a month, 8000 make around 3-400 a month, 2000 make around 6-800 a month and less than one thousand make around 1000 a month...that would put things into perspective and give people real information to try and understand their chances.

Because the youtubers make it appear that building a stock webstore is like building a shop on etsy or ebay. From zero to 4k a month in six easy steps...no knowledge required...

But our webstores have no viral component, we don't accumulate 10 million followers and we don't get paid for people just clicking on our files.

And reaching a reliable 1000 a month is usually a multi year process.

There are many other things you can do online that will earn you more money and will probably be a more reliable longterm income.

But people are putting a crazy amount of time and effort into something that will never pay off for them.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #1130 on:** November 29, 2024, 16:29 »

Quote from: cobalt on November 29, 2024, 15:03

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 29, 2024, 12:18

You want scary? My numbers right now: Downloads 25, Position 15,550 (in the middle), 1,031 Images. I admit that I'm terrible, don't try hard and don't have many images. So if I'm in the middle, just imagine how bad things are for people doing worse than 15,550?

The really scary part is that there are people with 30k ai files with a lower rank than yours. Even if they automated their ai process, they still spent countless hours chasing a dream that will never come true.

I wish agencies would give more honest information about what kind of income can be reasonably achieved.

On ebay or etsy there are many people with high sales stores that make 30k a month and run their business with employees.

In the stock world there are probably just 10 producers who make over 30k a month and I doubt that even africa studios or yuri arcurs make more than 250k a month.

Compared to other webstores you can have that target the normal population, stock is a very, very niche buyer group.

We saw here that only if you get into the inner circle of less than 100 will you go over 1200 a week at Adobe.

And to make a reliable 500 a week, you need to be around rank 500.

If you are mostly selling images of course, for video it is different.

If agencies would put out a general statement something like: 30 000 producers make 50-100 dollars a month, 8000 make around 3-400 a month, 2000 make around 6-800 a month and less than one thousand make around 1000 a month...that would put things into perspective and give people real information to try and understand their chances.

Because the youtubers make it appear that building a stock webstore is like building a shop on etsy or ebay. From zero to 4k a month in six easy steps...no knowledge required...

But our webstores have no viral component, we don't accumulate 10 million followers and we don't get paid for people just clicking on our files.

And reaching a reliable 1000 a month is usually a multi year process.

There are many other things you can do online that will earn you more money and will probably be a more reliable longterm income.

But people are putting a crazy amount of time and effort into something that will never pay off for them.

Yes, unfortunately that's true. Microstock is not worth the effort at all.
It's brutal how many hours of work you can put in and not see any success.

I spent countless hours earlier this year not even making 5 USD/month so I stopped creating AI images.

After the release of the Flux model in October, I started again and managed to create about 10k new images in about 6 - 7 weeks (2 hours / day = about 100 hours). I am currently scaling up and uploading about 100 to 120 images per day (about 1 hour per day).

I currently have about 45 USD outstanding per week and am trying to get up to 500 USD per month.

So yeah, it's just peanuts.

cobalt · « **Reply #1131 on:** November 29, 2024, 21:02 »

Over all agencies combined a reliable 500 a month is very doable.

Just focusing only on Adobe and ai makes it extremely hard.

The vast majority of content sold is not ai.

And video, although it has a smaller customer group, is still wide open.

The people that earn best are those that combine doing stock with other online web shops where they sell to the general public. Or those that have their own channels or blogs for food, lifestyle, problem solving.

They use their own stock materials to build another online business where they earn a lot more.

But this is not discussed in stock forums.

pancaketom · « **Reply #1132 on:** November 29, 2024, 21:05 »

The agencies rely on a lot of people chasing the dream of a decent stable income as well as hobbyists who are glad to get pennies to keep their supply of images high and the prices they have to pay to get them low. They have no real interest in discouraging people from submitting - unless they are only submitting junk, then they should be discouraged, but even a complete hack gets lucky every once in a while and can producer a modest seller.

If you have drive and talent there are definitely better ways to make money. If you don't have drive and talent there are also better ways to make money.

cobalt · « **Reply #1133 on:** November 29, 2024, 21:12 »

I hopefully have drive and talent and will get back to a fulltime income.

But I am doing it with my eyes open and nearly 20 years experience in stock.

I also have other ideas for my stock content, but I need a lot more content before I can attempt that.

On etsy or ebay or blogs or channels that are directed at the general public and allow monetizing a huge group of followers, it is possible to build a full time income.

But it is never easy and will also take years.

eta

I actually believe the agencies would benefit most if they made the earnings prospect more clear.

Especially if they couple that with a "uniqueness" factor, a number or visual symbol that would let contributors know when they upload how rare their image is.

Or something like "a similar file is available 2137800 in the collection"

Just give people good tools and I am sure many would try to find the actual niches.

cobalt · « **Reply #1134 on:** December 02, 2024, 01:53 »

Monday morning, pos 756, files 7100

Last year the highest I made just for one day was pos 250. I doubt it will happen this year.

But anything inside 1000 is fine and very motivational.

Now I just need to figure out how to stay in these levels all year round.

Longterm goal for Adobe is reliable inner 500.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #1135 on:** December 02, 2024, 15:19 »

I only had 900 and something, so I made an effort to get to 1,000. Sort of a sideways joke, because those who recall, one of the regulars here years ago, had a personal mission to make it to 10,000 files, in a year on SS. (and he did) I don't hear from him anymore, but as he pounded the keys and made more and more photos, he also saw what sold and did more of anything like that. In the end, some very good numbers.

Today 4DL, Position 17,700th and I'm doing this to point out how 4 DLs puts me near the middle, which is sad if anyone looks at the overall situation. I like Adobe, don't get me wrong, I'm just saying, if I'm in the middle, wow, there's not much going on for the next 15,000 people.

Quote from: pancaketom on November 29, 2024, 21:05

The agencies rely on a lot of people chasing the dream of a decent stable income as well as hobbyists who are glad to get pennies to keep their supply of images high and the prices they have to pay to get them low. They have no real interest in discouraging people from submitting - unless they are only submitting junk, then they should be discouraged, but even a complete hack gets lucky every once in a while and can producer a modest seller.

If you have drive and talent there are definitely better ways to make money. If you don't have drive and talent there are also better ways to make money.

I don't blame the agencies for taking money and they don't really say how much you can make. OK I need to qualify that, the top and the honest agencies, don't make those promises. The biggest push for "make money on Microstock" was people selling referrals and their book or their courses. There was more money in that, until the agencies had enough people and didn't need the social marketing. Just like levels and pay for us, they took away, referral bonuses, except for people who bring in new buyers.

I'm a hobbyist and no I'm not happy making pennies. But that's all that's out there, unless someone is dedicated, smart and hard working. If there was any easy money, that's over and gone.

The most surprising thing I see is, new people come here and read and ask questions and they try to find some secret, how to make money. Most of the forum is honest and says,"You're too late" but the new people keep trying new agencies, new schemes, new programs with empty promises, and they just don't get past entry levels, because, that's all that's left. Free sites, who would ever believe the numbers they claim for giving away your work?

Next new person who reads this... join the top five agencies, work hard and upload, don't bother with the "next big thing".

cobalt · « **Reply #1136 on:** December 02, 2024, 16:16 »

For 1000 files your rank is fine. You have enough experience, if you wanted to earn more money you would just upload more useful content.

I feel sorry for the young people who are being misled and lied to.

Our ports do not suddenly go "viral" and cannot generate 300 000 dollars a month after accumulating many views or followers.

That component is totally missing.

There is no advertising revenue coming into our ports just for views.

We sell to professional webdesigners who have very specific needs for their projects. They only bookmark ports that have well researched and fact based interesting content.

But the people who are ready to pay for pictures is much, much smaller than the group of people who are willing to buy stickers and mugs and T-shirts.

The general public is not our customer.

This is why I think having a thread like this is so helpful.

Here people can see that if you want to make around 1000 dollars a month on Adobe alone, you need to get into the top 1000 ports rank.

That is a very small group of people.

And obviously people keep moving in and out. I will leave these higher levels 3 weeks from now...

But the ai gold rush will fade, like all other magic trends.

Ai is here to stay of course but I think next year a lot of customers will want to keep adding fresh and real content. Especially with people, food and travel.

Nothing beats the real thing.

Plus - the ai look, especially the midjourney look, is getting really old and tired.

I remember the guy who made a commitment to upload 10k editorial images to Shutterstock. It was a really interesting journey to follow.

Wonder how he is doing now.

I will keep documenting my journey, but mostly for the old timers who are thinking of getting back in.

For the newbies there is a lot more to learn, especially how to do research for missing content and evaluating buyer markets and interests.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #1137 on:** December 02, 2024, 17:43 »

While you're still laminating and dwelling in the past, I can only say that with AI for beginners, the possibilities have improved massively.

I mean, in the past, it took a decade to build a large portfolio, but today it's just 2 months with 2-3 hours of computer time in the evening without even leaving the house.

Beginners nowadays don't need photographic skills, but only moderate IT skills.

Sure you won't make millions like Yuri did in the past but still it will be possible for them earn some hundred bucks / week.

I also predict that within the next 3 years, Shutterstock & Co. will allow AI-generated images, because the image quality will increase massively again. I strongly bet that the Flux Model will improve further enormously, because it's licensed now by Elon Musk / X.

wds · « **Reply #1138 on:** December 02, 2024, 19:49 »

While there may be vastly more images made available for sale via AI, where will the demand for all those extra images come from?.....

pancaketom · « **Reply #1139 on:** December 02, 2024, 20:04 »

Quote from: wds on December 02, 2024, 19:49

While there may be vastly more images made available for sale via AI, where will the demand for all those extra images come from?.....

Companies training AI models?

Probably it will be like it has been in the past - modest increase in demand spread out among more and more assets. Whatever the algorithm pushes and the buyers want will sell. Everything else, not so much. At some point much of the "AI" stuff will be indistinguishable from normal photos so the flood will impact other assets more and more until the sites create their own "AI" images based on the best sellers and what people search on and then it will be game over for everyone else. How long that takes is an unknown, but probably shorter than a lot of people think.

cobalt · « **Reply #1140 on:** December 02, 2024, 21:53 »

30 years ago people predicted that speech to text would replace all keyboards and all interactions would be by just talking to your computer and maybe a few hand gestures in the air.

Yet here we are still typing.

I agree with poster above that ai is a great opportunity for many people to earn 300 dollars a month which is life changing for them.

But it is also true that demand for images will not suddenly explode because our customer groups are not growing exponentially like the producer uploads, especially for content created with ai.

However, whether it is normal photos or ai, the majority of content uploaded are just duplicates of duplicates.

So depending on what your genre is, there is not as much competing content being uploaded as people think.

I believe as long as the libraries of all agencies have these gigantic gaps in their collections, somebody who is willing to dig into themes can still make good money.

cobalt · « **Reply #1141 on:** December 03, 2024, 02:27 »

This will probably be the best week of the year.

And lower than last year.

pos 721, files 7100

JanieR · « **Reply #1142 on:** December 03, 2024, 05:33 »

I'd be interested to know how many of those sales are videos Cobalt?

cobalt · « **Reply #1143 on:** December 03, 2024, 07:10 »

99% are images, I have few videos and few video sales. Next year I want to become better at video.

I had an extended license for 21 dollars for an image this week, so the average looks higher.

Also I send most of my videos to Blackboxglobal, so those sales don't show up in my Adoberank.

Bauman · « **Reply #1144 on:** December 03, 2024, 08:23 »

Quote from: cobalt on December 03, 2024, 07:10

99% are images, I have few videos and few video sales.

Congratulations on your ranking and sales Cobalt!

Do you know how many of the sales are AI and how many are normal images (photo or illustration)? In percentage.

cobalt · « **Reply #1145 on:** December 03, 2024, 08:34 »

I uploaded nearly only ai the last two years and at the moment 80% of the port is ai. So sales are mostly ai.

But this will change when I go back to uploading non ai next year.

Ai does not sell better than camera images, it all depends if it is needed content and useful and both sell equally well or equally bad.

My ilustrations, all ai, sell badly. But I have no experience as an illustrator and probably don't understand the market. i also didn't do a lot of research into illustrations. I just focused on learning how to make illustrations with ai and uploaded what I personally like but it obviously is not interesting for customers. Probably too simple.

But because I made thousands of them, I will eventually upload them all. But I am not making new ones.

My old photos created in 2005-2012 are still selling very reliably. And of course sales went up for everything once I started being active again.

The biggest disadvantage is that only on Adobe can you make reliable money with ai.

Normal camera photos can go anywhere.

So simply for maximum money it is necessary to get back into doing normal shootings.

it is also much easier to get what you want and I can do both photos and videos in the same shooting.

Most people with a full time income are still doing only camera, just a few have added ai.

eta

If I had not done ai and just focused on creating normal photos and videos which I also could have sent everywhere I would have made more money. Probably quite a bit more money, because learning about ai took a lot of time.

On the other hand I now understand a new tool, so longterm it should work out.

Bauman · « **Reply #1146 on:** December 03, 2024, 09:52 »

Quote from: cobalt on December 03, 2024, 08:34

I uploaded nearly only ai the last two years and at the moment 80% of the port is ai. So sales are mostly ai.

But this will change when I go back to uploading non ai next year.

Thanks. I agree.

AI has some advantages: fast (image production can be 5-10 times faster than a photograph), no equipment needed, and the learning period is very fast.

But the disadvantages are: the images all have the same style, they all seem to be from the same author, customers risk getting tired quickly, images taken from reality are more authentic and today's marketing seeks authenticity, some details (especially in landscape AI) such as trees, meadows are really bad or even unreal and many buyers are very careful about this (if you were a publisher would you publish a travel guide or a travel magazine with an AI photo?).

Dividing the portfolio between AI images and photographic/illustration images is definitely a great long-term idea. The important thing is to find the right niches. And this is not very easy.

I remain faithful to photography. I don't like Ai, it tires me out very quickly. To do AI I would need another account. I don't want to risk my photography portfolio with the risk of being suspended or banned for an error in uploading AI images (copyright and more).

cobalt · « **Reply #1147 on:** December 03, 2024, 10:09 »

The risk of port closure can also happen to non ai ports. Some criminals test their stolen credit cards on your files and boom...the adobe hunter killer algo closes you down....shoot first talk later...

Which is a major reason I want to have many videos on bb. it is a form of insurance. If criminals do bad things with a bb file, the individual artist is not closed down, neither is bb. Suddenly it is possible to resolve these issues in a civilized way.

I am sure it is the same for other distributor ports, like wirestock.

Ai is a very interesting tool, the reason so many ai files look the same is because producers just copy paste the exact same prompts.

They don't try to be creative and do their own thing.

Over time some artist will stand out and have an ai port with their own look.

But I think next year we will se many producer go back to their etsy stores. Or use video ai for youtube channels.

I have been following more ai blogs and it is amazing how much money these sticker or wallpaper stores can generate when they become known and viral.

This going viral thing and getting millions of followrs is somethig we don't have.

At some point the newbies will figure that out and that they have been lied to.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #1148 on:** December 04, 2024, 04:57 »

Quote from: Bauman on December 03, 2024, 09:52

Dividing the portfolio between AI images and photographic/illustration images is definitely a great long-term idea. The important thing is to find the right niches. And this is not very easy.

Yeah, this is absolutely the key for maximizing profit.
Creating generic stuff via AI, which has no expectations about authencitiy, e.g. fashion, lifestyle, seasonal topics, graphic templates, etc. and taking photos for landscapes, travel vacation hot spots, medical tools, etc.

But I think classic photo shoots will become niche in Microstock in the long term. Most content beeing sold on Adobe is generic.

By the way this week is quite strong.
Sofar 51 sales with 54,69 $. Position 7840.
The top 100 will earn nice $$$ this month.

cobalt · « **Reply #1149 on:** December 05, 2024, 04:27 »

pos 665, files 7100

but sadly it will probably be less this December than last

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Author Topic: What's your weekly ranking and how many images? (Read 79744 times)

cobalt

JustAnImage

Uncle Pete

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cobalt

Andrej.S.

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Uncle Pete

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Andrej.S.

wds

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Bauman

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