MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Adobe Stock => Topic started by: blvdone on February 26, 2024, 07:57
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My ranking as of now is 1,220th with 9,808 photos in my Adobe Stock portfolio. Last week was at about the same ranking too. My lifetime ranking is around 1,600th. So, I made a progress after adding 3,000 AI generated photos since last September or so. I think many with higher ranking have a lot less photos/images on their portfolio than I do.
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Weird. Don't even have one.
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Weird. Don't even have one.
Click "Dashboard" and select "This Week" on the pulldown menu.
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Weird. Don't even have one.
Click "Dashboard" and select "This Week" on the pulldown menu.
Still nothing unfortunately
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You do not have a rank when your ranking is higher than a certain number. I think it was 40.000.
I still do not really understanding how ranking works.
I have a slightly worse weekly ranking than blvdone, but more downloads, so download number does not seem to be the (only) factor. Maybe revenue?
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You do not have a rank when your ranking is higher than a certain number. I think it was 40.000.
I still do not really understanding how ranking works.
I have a slightly worse weekly ranking than blvdone, but more downloads, so download number does not seem to be the (only) factor. Maybe revenue?
Alright, then that's explains why I can't see my ranking.
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Lifetime: 4200
This week (Monday noon) : 25 dl 1850º
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No idea how the weekly ranking is working, doesnt seem right
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My ranking as of now is 1,220th with 9,808 photos in my Adobe Stock portfolio. Last week was at about the same ranking too. My lifetime ranking is around 1,600th. So, I made a progress after adding 3,000 AI generated photos since last September or so. I think many with higher ranking have a lot less photos/images on their portfolio.
Hey blvdone,
since the current ranking is somewhat behind schedule (this is not a real-time display), it would be more meaningful to post these values at the weekend.
Less tends to happen at the weekend and the weekdays are usually included in the ranking on Sunday, which only shows "movement" every 1-2 days.
Last week I had:
- 149DL, position 3,260
- 38k assets - of which approx. 4k videos, 7k AI images, 27k photos (mainly backgrounds and textures that almost dont sell)
Have a sunny day@all,
Michael
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No idea how the weekly ranking is working, doesnt seem right
Do you also sell videos? I think the ranking is solely based on image sales.
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My ranking as of now is 1,220th with 9,808 photos in my Adobe Stock portfolio. Last week was at about the same ranking too. My lifetime ranking is around 1,600th. So, I made a progress after adding 3,000 AI generated photos since last September or so. I think many with higher ranking have a lot less photos/images on their portfolio.
Hey blvdone,
since the current ranking is somewhat behind schedule (this is not a real-time display), it would be more meaningful to post these values at the weekend.
Less tends to happen at the weekend and the weekdays are usually included in the ranking on Sunday, which only shows "movement" every 1-2 days.
Last week I had:
- 149DL, position 3,260
- 38k assets - of which approx. 4k videos, 7k AI images, 27k photos (mainly backgrounds and textures that almost dont sell)
Have a sunny day@all,
Michael
That's true, but my last week's rank and this week's rank is about the same.
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It would be nice if we managed to compile our rankings and try to make a sense out of it. I have attached my current ranking. But I also agree that it is more relevant towards the end of the week. Thet is why I am also giving last week's stats
At the end of last week, these were my numbers:
Weekly Rank 3,010
Weekly Downloads/Revenue 154/$119
Portfolio Size 19.500 assets (mostly images, AI and non-AI; only ~200 videos and ~300 vectors)
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The "ranking" seems to be based on a fixed time every day (seems to update 1x per day). Not sure what time (I think it might be 12:00 a.m. PST).
It's calculated on your downloads at "that" specific point in time. So for people who have "more" downloads and "lower" ranking - it just means you had more downloads "after" the ranking was calculated.
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It's true, it updates once a day. I think it reflects your position in the respective week (Mon-Sun), not in the last 7 calendar days. And I base this assumption on the fact that on Monday morning, until you get your first download, the weekly ranking will not be displayed at all. After your first download occurs, it just resumes Sunday's ranking, and then updates during the day.
LE: And this behaviour only occurs on Monday, no other day. Though it's strange and confusing that they chose to take last week's ranking as the starting point in the new week, instead of reseting it in the first day.
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The other thing is the weekly ranking is for that particular week, so a week with major holidays might have a lot less downloads required for a higher ranking. based on my not scientific looking at it over the last year sales on Adobe have been going up faster than my own sales which are going up. I haven't followed the path of the AI though or uploaded all that many images.
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No idea how the weekly ranking is working, doesnt seem right
Do you also sell videos? I think the ranking is solely based on image sales.
Yes, i sell both, but look, another update for today and the position is not moving, no idea.
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No idea how the weekly ranking is working, doesnt seem right
Do you also sell videos? I think the ranking is solely based on image sales.
Yes, i sell both, but look, another update for today and the position is not moving, no idea.
You must have made a few good video sales today already. Nice!!
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No idea how the weekly ranking is working, doesnt seem right
Do you also sell videos? I think the ranking is solely based on image sales.
Yes, i sell both, but look, another update for today and the position is not moving, no idea.
You must have made a few good video sales today already. Nice!!
No, those are images.
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No idea how the weekly ranking is working, doesnt seem right
Do you also sell videos? I think the ranking is solely based on image sales.
Yes, i sell both, but look, another update for today and the position is not moving, no idea.
You must have made a few good video sales today already. Nice!!
No, those are images.
Oh nice!! It's very rare for me to have high price image sale on Adobe Stock. Maybe once or twice a sale over $10/photo.
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Yes it's not completely clear the timing and the way in wich numbers are calculated, by the way in general terms it's useful to understand your own trend
Sorry I don't remember how to attach the screenshot, I'm actually number 2980 this week with 31 downloads (around 27 USD, but it doesn't count for position.... I think)
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This ranking system is pretty meaningless for video contributors. It's obvious to me when I see people sharing screenshots of their rank on Discord that it is solely based on number of downloads not earnings.
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This ranking system is pretty meaningless for video contributors. It's obvious to me when I see people sharing screenshots of their rank on Discord that it is solely based on number of downloads not earnings.
You're right - I've been observing this for a while now - the rank rises if you have a lot of downloads in a week, but with few but high downloads the rank still falls.
So it seems to be all about the number of downloads without average selling prices (RpD) - which is particularly meaningless for video sellers and high-priced sales.
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At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
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Down 10 spots to 1,230th from yesterday this week as of today.
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At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
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My weekly ranking is typically between high 9000s to high 12000s. At current it is right on 11000. I've 826 photos, 212 illustrations and 2054 videos.
I still get a good number of photo downloads considering the small port size and I don't have any AI contents.
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more downloads, more money
when i reached pos 250 very briefly over the holidays i was earning a lot more and had over 100 sales a day.
then i dropped back down because i did not have enough content for january
my port is still very small, so i have drastic swings. with more content and more diversification there will hopefully be a more stable and higher weekly rank.
the rank also helps to see how overall downloads are doing. sometimes i move up although sales volume goes diown. then i know it is an overall drop.
a better factor would be a sales to port size indicator. that would give me visually the efficiency of my port.
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It is obvious why Adobe only indicates the number of downloads with the ranking.
Otherwise with several data points as user rankings, you could use a statistical approach to scale up how much revenue the first rankings generate. The statistical distribution is probably similar to Benford's law.
But yeah Adobe could easily integrate more useful user statistics for the own port like earning per download, earning per image, share of sold images, best selling categories, etc.
Would be a favor for every contributor.
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Down to 1,250th today. I want to consistently go above 1,000th. That's my goal this year.
If there are 100,000 contributors, 1,000th is top 1% elite. Not bad. I'm usually the bottom 99% in anything else.
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I think if adobe gave better stats tools, it would help people to analyse their own ports much better. especially now that people can grow huge ports faster with ai.
a simple sales to port size, both as a total but also as an important weekly metric would help many people refocus.
also stats on acceptance/declines would certainly help.
what i like about the adobe system is that it is very dynamic. although my port is small it can move up very, very fast if my content is right for the season.
and of course it then crashes quickly if the time is over.
but if you focus on what is needed even a newbie account actually has a chance.
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197 downloads = position 1,250 (blvdone)
112 downloads = position 2,560 (me)
So 85 downloads less puts me 1,310 positions lower
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197 downloads = position 1,250 (blvdone)
112 downloads = position 2,560 (me)
So 85 downloads less puts me 1,310 positions lower
May I ask how many files you got?
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May I ask how many files you got?
[/quote]
Just shy of 19,900
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May I ask how many files you got?
Just shy of 19,900
[/quote]
That's a lot. Is that together with videos?
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197 downloads = position 1,250 (blvdone)
112 downloads = position 2,560 (me)
So 85 downloads less puts me 1,310 positions lower
Actually totally makes sense. It’s nearly half the downloads.
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That's a lot. Is that together with videos?
About 200 videos and about 300 vectors. The rest are images (both AI and non-AI)
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I think if adobe gave better stats tools, it would help people to analyse their own ports much better. especially now that people can grow huge ports faster with ai.
a simple sales to port size, both as a total but also as an important weekly metric would help many people refocus.
also stats on acceptance/declines would certainly help.
what i like about the adobe system is that it is very dynamic. although my port is small it can move up very, very fast if my content is right for the season.
and of course it then crashes quickly if the time is over.
but if you focus on what is needed even a newbie account actually has a chance.
Absolute agreement.
I wonder why Adobe doesn't integrate such statistics and provide a guideline on how you would analyze them in order to build a profitable portfolio.
I mean you could even give out an image ranking for a search prompt with keywords, which potentially a user would use.
The model taken from fotolia is simply outdated and dates back to the 2010s or even earlier when there wasn't so much content back. Agencies would just want enough contributors submitting stuff.
Now, after 20 years of experience in the industry, you could actually start to slowly change the submit flow and make things easier for contributors as compensation for lower commissions.
@blvdone
Nice! Have found your pond portfolio. I like the time lapses. Looks like from a professional television documentary.
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That's a lot. Is that together with videos?
About 200 videos and about 300 vectors. The rest are images (both AI and non-AI)
I don't make that much. Have around 2500 images and 500 videos. Downloads are very little.
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This is for today Friday
It is probably best to look at Sunday evening stats
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I'm down further. I'm panicked!!
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Honestly, this ranking is useless, just focus on something else.
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At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
Because it makes you FEEL good. To know you had more downloads than an invisible unnamed bunch of people.
Just like - who really cares if a facebook post you make has "1" like, vs "100 likes", vs "1000 likes". For all you know, facebook could be inflating those numbers (and - they actually have used fb users as an "experiment" to see if they could manipulate half a million people's emotions without their consent, just by what they showed them. Apparently the experiment was successful). But it makes you FEEL good if "1000 people liked your post" as opposed to "1" person... :P
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Progressed from weekly position of 11,000 to 10,700 with 14 further sales. Not great but RPD is better and above average. I knew early on when I started MS in 2019 I was not going to be able to achieve high volume like the above contributors, so pivoted focus to video - my recommendation for any beginner in stock with no or little collection of photos or specialized niche in demand as there more earning potential with overall fewer files.
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Down 100 spots since Monday. I feel depressed now. But nobody here ranked higher than me in photos? My main thing is stock videos. I thought most here were doing better than me in stock photos. I don't sell videos on Adobe Stock because I'm Pond5 Exclusive only for videos.
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@superphoto
I am interested in the weekly rank data because i want to rebuild my full time stock income. Not just from Adobe of course.
Seeing where other people stand during the same week is very helpful to get an understanding how many more files i will probably need to get where I want to be for Adobe.
My goal is to reach a reliable 300 dollars or more per week from Adobe.
And looking at the data, it looks doable and I won‘t need 50 000 files.
I obviously still have to upload a lot more, I only have 4000 files.
And to diversify from seasonal content.
msg not taking my screen shots so
today
115 downloads, 87,46, 4000
currently 4017 files
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Progressed from weekly position of 11,000 to 10,700 with 14 further sales. Not great but RPD is better and above average. I knew early on when I started MS in 2019 I was not going to be able to achieve high volume like the above contributors, so pivoted focus to video - my recommendation for any beginner in stock with no or little collection of photos or specialized niche in demand as there more earning potential with overall fewer files.
That is a very good return for only 45 sales. Video is apparently really worth it. Much better average than photos.
Congratulations.
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Down 100 spots since Monday. I feel depressed now. But nobody here ranked higher than me in photos? My main thing is stock videos. I thought most here were doing better than me in stock photos. I don't sell videos on Adobe Stock because I'm Pond5 Exclusive only for videos.
Rank 1080 here.
I think most of the contributors with ranks between 0-500 are probably not individual contributors anyways, but mass production companies with employees like Africa Studio and you will not find them posting here.
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Down 100 spots since Monday. I feel depressed now. But nobody here ranked higher than me in photos? My main thing is stock videos. I thought most here were doing better than me in stock photos. I don't sell videos on Adobe Stock because I'm Pond5 Exclusive only for videos.
Rank 1080 here.
I think most of the contributors with ranks between 0-500 are probably not individual contributors anyways, but mass production companies with employees like Africa Studio and you will not find them posting here.
Nice to see somebody higher than me!! I disagree with you on mass production companies theory. I think most in top 500 are individuals. Probably half the top 50 may be production companies.
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In my season I made it into the top 500, which meant over 100 dl a day on weekdays.
So I think the top 500 are doable for a single artist all year round with the right content and enough content. probably 30k+ files.
top 50 or maybe 100 for the studios and production companies.
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This thread is really surprising to me...
First, because lots of people are sharing their earning stats and portfolio size all of a sudden, that is unexpected...
Second, it sheds some light on how the rank is calculated (downloads + earnings).
And, I expected that top 1k ranks would earn much more, which is somewhat discouraging... :-\
I guess top 100 is where the real money is...
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We don‘t know how many people share a rank.
It could be 10 000 people or more sharing the rank 1000
There are a lot of old timers with huge portfolios that never post publicly.
There are also very large Russian or Asian language stock communities.
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We don‘t know how many people share a rank.
It could be 10 000 people or more sharing the rank 1000
There are a lot of old timers with huge portfolios that never post publicly.
There are also very large Russian or Asian language stock communities.
That's not how ranking works, you can't share a rank
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of course you can
you just need to have the same level of downloads
we also learned that it is based on no of downloads, not money.
so people could have a lower rank, but might be earning much more. good news for the video people
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This thread is really surprising to me...
First, because lots of people are sharing their earning stats and portfolio size all of a sudden, that is unexpected...
Second, it sheds some light on how the rank is calculated (downloads + earnings).
And, I expected that top 1k ranks would earn much more, which is somewhat discouraging... :-\
I guess top 100 is where the real money is...
Yes, the ranking is strictly based only on how many photo/image downloads, not revenue. Video sales are totally excluded. And yes, you need to make it to top 100 to make a living from stock photo sales imo. That's very difficult.
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If you only do Adobe then yes, but if you have well established quality ports in many places, even if income is currently going down, there still are a lot of full time stock families.
Maybe not living in central London or New York, but 1200 - 3000 dollars can feed many families. And production is also a lot cheaper, hiring models and actors is very affordable in many countries.
The full timers often also have access to some of the high end agencies where sales volume is less, but the individual sale is higher.
But most people doing stock full time have gone dark on public forums. They do keep talking in closed little groups on social media.
But this thread is helpful to give people realistic expectations. It can help to balance the screaming youtube influencers.
Stock is very hard work and often better as a hobby than a full time job.
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This thread is really surprising to me...
First, because lots of people are sharing their earning stats and portfolio size all of a sudden, that is unexpected...
Second, it sheds some light on how the rank is calculated (downloads + earnings).
And, I expected that top 1k ranks would earn much more, which is somewhat discouraging... :-\
I guess top 100 is where the real money is...
Yes, the ranking is strictly based only on how many photo/image downloads, not revenue. Video sales are totally excluded. And yes, you need to make it to top 100 to make a living from stock photo sales imo. That's very difficult.
That's not right, I upload both photos and videos, and very rarely I get photo sales there, sometimes 0 photo sales a week or even o photo sales a month. But I regularly get video sales, and my rank stay in between 15000-20000, even on the weeks when I get 0 photo sales
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Awesome earnings!
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1700 today for weekly with 29 pages. (Can’t find where is my file count?)
My downloads are getting higher than my earnings, not many sales than one dollar.
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1700 today for weekly with 29 pages. (Can’t find where is my file count?)
My downloads are getting higher than my earnings, not many sales than one dollar.
Your file count is lower left hand corner on the main dashboard. Just scroll down, and you'll probably see something like:
ALL(xxx) | Illustrations | Photos | etc, etc...
If you have 29 pages, means you probably have about 2900 files, since they list 100 items/page.
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Awesome earnings:
SuperPhoto, 😻wow!!!!! My brain is blown in several ways: congratulations on 1st place! Your number is so large that I can’t even compute it 🤣 Your earning are higher than your downloads? and lastly, did you photoshopped this screenshot or created it with AI? 😉
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Awesome earnings!
😻wow!!!!!
Thanks :) Secret is taking lots of pictures of bananas :)
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Awesome earnings!
😻wow!!!!!
Thanks :) Secret is taking lots of pictures of bananas :)
And that is no joke! 🤣
“Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s controversial art piece, “Comedian,” made headlines back in 2019 after being sold for $120,000, a hefty price for a piece that is, quite literally, just a banana and a strip of duct tape.”
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Weekly Rank: 1,230
Downloads: 306
Total assests: 1,758
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Awesome earnings:
SuperPhoto, 😻wow!!!!! My brain is blown in several ways: congratulations on 1st place! Your number is so large that I can’t even compute it 🤣 Your earning are higher than your downloads? and lastly, did you photoshopped this screenshot or created it with AI? 😉
Whaaaaaaaat? You mean you don't think that is a REAL screenshot of earnings? :P
Watch this video to hear the 'whaaaat' :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXnybkQ24v0&t=10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXnybkQ24v0&t=10)
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1700 today for weekly with 29 pages. (Can’t find where is my file count?)
My downloads are getting higher than my earnings, not many sales than one dollar.
Not bad for less than 3,000 images. Very efficient!!
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Weekly Rank: 1,230
Downloads: 306
Total assests: 1,758
Not bad for having zero talent!! If you had a talent, you would go above top 100!!
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Awesome earnings:
SuperPhoto, 😻wow!!!!! My brain is blown in several ways: congratulations on 1st place! Your number is so large that I can’t even compute it 🤣 Your earning are higher than your downloads? and lastly, did you photoshopped this screenshot or created it with AI? 😉
Whaaaaaaaat? You mean you don't think that is a REAL screenshot of earnings? :P
Watch this video to hear the 'whaaaat' :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXnybkQ24v0&t=10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXnybkQ24v0&t=10)
Yeah, never doubted you for a moment. ::)
We don‘t know how many people share a rank.
It could be 10 000 people or more sharing the rank 1000
That's not how ranking works, you can't share a rank
Cobalt is correct, ranks are brackets not precise numbers. People do share ranks.
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Awesome earnings!
My guess is you probably are in top 100. People who are doing very well wouldn't want to share their stats. I wouldn't be surprised if you are Yuri Arcurs.
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Weekly Rank: 1,230
Downloads: 306
Total assests: 1,758
For someone with no talent whatsoever :D, your performance is and remains absolutely impressive! Congratulations on these figures - that's really very good.
I have fewer pictures in my portfolio, but I'm more than clearly behind you. May I ask where your lifetime ranking is?
I have now slipped to position 2,700 and was once at 1,100 many years ago with a much smaller portfolio. In the meantime, 1,600 contributors have overtaken me. I'm too lazy and I don't seem to have the right touch for successful files anymore.
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Weekly Rank: 1,230
Downloads: 306
Total assests: 1,758
For someone with no talent whatsoever :D, your performance is and remains absolutely impressive! Congratulations on these figures - that's really very good.
I have fewer pictures in my portfolio, but I'm more than clearly behind you. May I ask where your lifetime ranking is?
I have now slipped to position 2,700 and was once at 1,100 many years ago with a much smaller portfolio. In the meantime, 1,600 contributors have overtaken me. I'm too lazy and I don't seem to have the right touch for successful files anymore.
Hey Wilm, Thanks!
I've always maintained that it's not about talent or artistry. It's all about engineering and understanding how to use tools efficiently to replicate successful outcomes. 😉
My lifetime rank is 1,360.
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The end of yet another disappointing week :)
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Weekly Rank: 1,230
Downloads: 306
Total assests: 1,758
For someone with no talent whatsoever :D, your performance is and remains absolutely impressive! Congratulations on these figures - that's really very good.
I have fewer pictures in my portfolio, but I'm more than clearly behind you. May I ask where your lifetime ranking is?
I have now slipped to position 2,700 and was once at 1,100 many years ago with a much smaller portfolio. In the meantime, 1,600 contributors have overtaken me. I'm too lazy and I don't seem to have the right touch for successful files anymore.
I've always maintained that it's not about talent or artistry. It's all about engineering and understanding how to use tools efficiently to replicate successful outcomes. 😉
Yes, I know! I remember our discussions. We won't come together on this because I disagree with you - as you know. Many people have technical know-how. But aesthetically useful and marketable results are not based on technology alone. Ultimately, however, it doesn't matter, because for the pure numbers it doesn't matter whether technical or aesthetic means lead to success.
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Awesome earnings!
My guess is you probably are in top 100. People who are doing very well wouldn't want to share their stats. I wouldn't be surprised if you are Yuri Arcurs.
Hehe. I'll advise you to watch the same video I advised the other person, when saying "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXnybkQ24v0&t=10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXnybkQ24v0&t=10)
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We don‘t know how many people share a rank.
It could be 10 000 people or more sharing the rank 1000
There are a lot of old timers with huge portfolios that never post publicly.
There are also very large Russian or Asian language stock communities.
That's a total BS saying 10,000 people sharing the rank. No evidence whatssoever. If 10,000 people are sharing the rank 1,000, the next rank after 1,000 is 11,000. It's more like 10 people sharing rank 1,220. Thus the next rank is 1,230.
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You don‘t know that.
There are huge non english language stock groups. Perhaps 10k is an exaggeration but there are a lot more people active and successful than you see in this group. At pos 4000 it could very easily be 2000 people.
I.keep getting round number positions all the time - 4000, 3200, 3000 or even 250 etc…so it is brackets of people with same or close dl numbers.
It is not supposed to be an exact total ranking system
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Once you pass the 1000 mark, it becomes exact. No longer rounded
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I will check my screenshots from the happy days. That would be really interesting, if you get into the top 1000 the ranking is real?
dec 26 pos 253, dec 28 pos 263
I don‘t know why I cannot upload my screenshots? I keep getting an error message.
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I will check my screenshots from the happy days. That would be really interesting, if you get into the top 1000 the ranking is real?
dec 26 pos 253, dec 28 pos 263
I don‘t know why I cannot upload my screenshots? I keep getting an error message.
If you are using a newer Mac, screenshots are generated in very high resolution. You then simply have to reduce the size by half. I assume that you can then upload them.
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Managed to check my rank.
About 47 000 😂😂
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Be interesting to state ranking and earnings
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You don‘t know that.
There are huge non english language stock groups. Perhaps 10k is an exaggeration but there are a lot more people active and successful than you see in this group. At pos 4000 it could very easily be 2000 people.
I.keep getting round number positions all the time - 4000, 3200, 3000 or even 250 etc…so it is brackets of people with same or close dl numbers.
It is not supposed to be an exact total ranking system
My rankings are all in increments of 10. So yeah, 10 people share the rank probably, not 100 nor 1,000. That's bogus.
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since the rankings are based on download numbers it makes sense that there will be a lot of people sharing ranks, especially at the middle of the bell curve for download numbers. There probably aren't that many people getting over a few 100 images a week (see previous post for how many), but in there are probably a lot of people getting the exact same number of downloads in the 10-50 range.
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since the rankings are based on download numbers it makes sense that there will be a lot of people sharing ranks, especially at the middle of the bell curve for download numbers. There probably aren't that many people getting over a few 100 images a week (see previous post for how many), but in there are probably a lot of people getting the exact same number of downloads in the 10-50 range.
Yes, just imagine how many people have (making up a number) 20 DLs this week. The system at Adobe isn't going to make a group for 20-21-22-23-24 Etc.
Many people, and I'm one, if I look right now at my weekly rank, it's just showing - - - and I know someone who has a lifetime that's that, because she hasn't made enough sales yet to be ranked at all. It's just a relative number to tell us, personally, how we are doing, compared to other people. And the fact that someone might have 30,000 images or 3,000 and someone else has 30, the rank is meaningless.
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since the rankings are based on download numbers it makes sense that there will be a lot of people sharing ranks, especially at the middle of the bell curve for download numbers. There probably aren't that many people getting over a few 100 images a week (see previous post for how many), but in there are probably a lot of people getting the exact same number of downloads in the 10-50 range.
Yeah, of course at that low rank of 1-20 downloads per week, there are many ties.
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I will check my screenshots from the happy days. That would be really interesting, if you get into the top 1000 the ranking is real?
dec 26 pos 253, dec 28 pos 263
I don‘t know why I cannot upload my screenshots? I keep getting an error message.
The highest that I noticed was 800. (I have to click something specific for my rank to show - lifetime or weekly - at times I can’t make it to appear, even in the same week. Maybe it’s a bug)
This website doesn’t accept.jpeg, but only accepts.jpg It also accepts png even they are in larger format. I actually have to go to photoshop to convert the file - a pain.
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Be interesting to state ranking and earnings
Some people did, did I miss you sharing it as well?
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Slow start this week. It's depressing.
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I will check my screenshots from the happy days. That would be really interesting, if you get into the top 1000 the ranking is real?
dec 26 pos 253, dec 28 pos 263
I don‘t know why I cannot upload my screenshots? I keep getting an error message.
The highest that I noticed was 800. (I have to click something specific for my rank to show - lifetime or weekly - at times I can’t make it to appear, even in the same week. Maybe it’s a bug)
This website doesn’t accept.jpeg, but only accepts.jpg It also accepts png even they are in larger format. I actually have to go to photoshop to convert the file - a pain.
I'm trying to understand what you wrote?
Here's what the site accepts:
Allowed file types: doc, gif, jpg, mpg, pdf, png, txt, zip
Restrictions: 4 per post, maximum total size 2000KB, maximum individual size 500KB
This could be important... maximum individual size 500KB
Here's what I think is the lowest position is, which could be thousands of people. No downloads will show - - - at the beginning of the week.
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Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
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Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
Nice!!! Congrats for this! :)
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Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
You must have a great portfolio!!
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Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
Congratulations! Especially as a solo artist this is a fantastic result.
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Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
Very impressive!
How many years did it take to upload 20k of images? Traditional photos or AI?
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Here's what I think is the lowest position is, which could be thousands of people. No downloads will show - - - at the beginning of the week.
Can you tell how many total contributors Adobe has?
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Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
Nice!!! Congrats for this! :)
Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
You must have a great portfolio!!
Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
Congratulations! Especially as a solo artist this is a fantastic result.
Highest position = 97 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
Very impressive!
How many years did it take to upload 20k of images? Traditional photos or AI?
Thanks everyone... appreciated.
I just checked my ranking spread sheet and it was actually 79 not 97 as my best performing week. Right numbers just wrong order.
If I remember correctly I started with Fotolia/Adobe sometime around 2013/14. I used to upload a lot to begin with but I've learned volume isn't necessarily king. Quality, quality, quality is my mantra now so I try to avoid volume for the sake of it. I'd rather submit 10 good images a month than 100 average. I love what I do so I feel very lucky in that sense!
No AI. For the work I do I just see too many mistakes that I'd have to correct. Not as much control/precision. By the time I've found the right AI image and corrected it, I could have taken / drawn it myself 😂. But, each to their own. It's what works for you that counts.
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I am really impressed and it gives me hope.
You are currently king/queen of the solo artists jungle on msg...:)
I agree on the quality part, but I also experiment a lot so my port looks a little mixed.
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Slow start this week. It's depressing.
Mystery solved: accounts can share a rank!
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Slow start this week. It's depressing.
Mystery solved: accounts can share a rank!
If 10 people had the same number of sales, of course. But not 10,000 people having the same number of sales at this level. Maybe at the very bottom, it's possible 10,000 contributors share a rank with 0 sale.
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If I remember correctly I started with Fotolia/Adobe sometime around 2013/14. I used to upload a lot to begin with but I've learned volume isn't necessarily king. Quality, quality, quality is my mantra now so I try to avoid volume for the sake of it. I'd rather submit 10 good images a month than 100 average. I love what I do so I feel very lucky in that sense!
Are you not afraid to be featured on top sellers list by uploading only best images that will sell? After copycats, I started to delude my portfolio.
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Slow start this week. It's depressing.
Mystery solved: accounts can share a rank!
If 10 people had the same number of sales, of course. But not 10,000 people having the same number of sales at this level. Maybe at the very bottom, it's possible 10,000 contributors share a rank with 0 sale.
That's true, but people with 0 sales do not get a rank. Look on Monday morning, just after Midnight. No sales, No rank.
Can you tell how many total contributors Adobe has?
Not really. We don't know anything about artist account numbers either. But if mine is 13-14 years old and 205931477 and yours in new, subtract and see how many new users since 2010. There are all kinds of pitfalls in trying to estimate how many users. Active users or dormant people who once uploaded, or DOA accounts of people who signed up and never upload or had any images accepted.
205 million? ;D JoAnn's ID number is so low that Adobe software doesn't recognize her sometimes. Not enough digits.
Here's a number that might be of interest? In 2018 on Shutterstock, there were 17,877 artists who had 1,000 or more images. But SS said how many millions of contributors they had signed up.
I can't give a good answer, but I think what you would want to know is, how many active users and "active" would be our definition. Should we say, uploaded 20 images in 2023, or 100, or ??? That's pretty minimal and that's your competition. That and up. All of this is difficult to understand or define with any accuracy. That's why there are so many guesses and assumptions on the forum. We just don't know, and they (Adobe) aren't telling.
Good Luck, your main concern, and I don't mean this in a smart ass manner, you should be looking at what you produce and upload and your sales, and worried less about how images are ranked in a search, or how many images your competition has, or who or how many others are doing the same thing. Unlike many other businesses, knowing your competition in stock, isn't really useful for making yourself better or more money. Knowing what sells, yes of course, but not who or how many?
Your most important knowledge and information should be, how to make good and useful images that buyers want to download. And maybe as you move along, what is a waste of time, shooting, uploading and editing, because there's not enough demand?
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@halffull - at a rank of 79 (or even hovering around 100), what approximate # of downloads is that per week?
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Very slow this week and yet my ranking is slightly better than last week - which suggests everyone else is likely having a relative slow(er) week. RPD is also way down this week.
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I'm moving on up from 1,400 yesterday to 1,320 today. God is good!!
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Slow start this week. It's depressing.
Mystery solved: accounts can share a rank!
If 10 people had the same number of sales, of course. But not 10,000 people having the same number of sales at this level. Maybe at the very bottom, it's possible 10,000 contributors share a rank with 0 sale.
That's true, but people with 0 sales do not get a rank. Look on Monday morning, just after Midnight. No sales, No rank.
Can you tell how many total contributors Adobe has?
Not really. We don't know anything about artist account numbers either. But if mine is 13-14 years old and 205931477 and yours in new, subtract and see how many new users since 2010. There are all kinds of pitfalls in trying to estimate how many users. Active users or dormant people who once uploaded, or DOA accounts of people who signed up and never upload or had any images accepted.
205 million? ;D JoAnn's ID number is so low that Adobe software doesn't recognize her sometimes. Not enough digits.
Here's a number that might be of interest? In 2018 on Shutterstock, there were 17,877 artists who had 1,000 or more images. But SS said how many millions of contributors they had signed up.
I can't give a good answer, but I think what you would want to know is, how many active users and "active" would be our definition. Should we say, uploaded 20 images in 2023, or 100, or ??? That's pretty minimal and that's your competition. That and up. All of this is difficult to understand or define with any accuracy. That's why there are so many guesses and assumptions on the forum. We just don't know, and they (Adobe) aren't telling.
Good Luck, your main concern, and I don't mean this in a smart ass manner, you should be looking at what you produce and upload and your sales, and worried less about how images are ranked in a search, or how many images your competition has, or who or how many others are doing the same thing. Unlike many other businesses, knowing your competition in stock, isn't really useful for making yourself better or more money. Knowing what sells, yes of course, but not who or how many?
Your most important knowledge and information should be, how to make good and useful images that buyers want to download. And maybe as you move along, what is a waste of time, shooting, uploading and editing, because there's not enough demand?
I’m just curious, the only thing that I worry about are copycats. I think hard to come up with unique ideas and it’s disappointing to see them ripped off, including word for word descriptions, etc.
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My ranking as of now is 1,220th with 9,808 photos in my Adobe Stock portfolio. Last week was at about the same ranking too. My lifetime ranking is around 1,600th. So, I made a progress after adding 3,000 AI generated photos since last September or so. I think many with higher ranking have a lot less photos/images on their portfolio than I do.
Not sure I understand how it work I have maybe 10K as well photos
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Awesome earnings!
😻wow!!!!!
Thanks :) Secret is taking lots of pictures of bananas :)
Obviously photoshoped, From the last intervew with Yuri Arcurs I see not even him do that by any means...and he got a RPD almost 3usd per download....crap.
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Awesome earnings!
😻wow!!!!!
Thanks :) Secret is taking lots of pictures of bananas :)
Obviously photoshoped, From the last intervew with Yuri Arcurs I see not even him do that by any means...and he got a RPD almost 3usd per download....crap.
"Obviously" photoshopped? :) I can - actually honestly say - Adobe Photoshop did not touch that image... :)
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If I remember correctly I started with Fotolia/Adobe sometime around 2013/14. I used to upload a lot to begin with but I've learned volume isn't necessarily king. Quality, quality, quality is my mantra now so I try to avoid volume for the sake of it. I'd rather submit 10 good images a month than 100 average. I love what I do so I feel very lucky in that sense!
Are you not afraid to be featured on top sellers list by uploading only best images that will sell? After copycats, I started to delude my portfolio.
Not really, although I prefer to sail under the radar and never share or preview anything I do. I try to stay dark.
@halffull - at a rank of 79 (or even hovering around 100), what approximate # of downloads is that per week?
Just taken a look at that time. Daily figures then ranged between 220 - 320 a day... about 1700 for that week. If I achieve that again I'd be very happy. I'm a realist though, 100's is a good high!
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A little better, but still slow for the season
currently 4060 files
pos 3760, 126dl so far, 92 usd
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Highest position = 97 79 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
That is worth quoting for the turn of the page. 8) 400 is a very nice number.
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No hope here. Down 150 spots in 2 days. Lowest rank in a few weeks. Maybe stock photo is not for me.
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No hope here. Down 150 spots in 2 days. Lowest rank in a few weeks. Maybe stock photo is not for me.
It's been a slower week I think and probably slower for many other contributors too. But you're making over $200 per week just from images alone which is really good in my view. Well done! You'd easily more than double that if you had videos.
Personally my most important metric is the sum of all $$$ (not downloads) at the end of the month from the agencies I contribute to. I would never be able to compete on volume (even against myself) which is why I pivoted my focus to video with generally higher earnings per download.
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No hope here. Down 150 spots in 2 days. Lowest rank in a few weeks. Maybe stock photo is not for me.
It's been a slower week I think and probably slower for many other contributors too. But you're making over $200 per week just from images alone which is really good in my view. Well done! You'd easily more than double that if you had videos.
Personally my most important metric is the sum of all $$$ (not downloads) at the end of the month from the agencies I contribute to. I would never be able to compete on volume (even against myself) which is why I pivoted my focus to video with generally higher earnings per download.
I had like 7,000 video clips on Adobe Stock, but deleted all due to cheap video sub sales becoming 80% of sales and RPD for video collapsing to ridiculous level. I'm happy with Pond5 Exclusive and get 60% of price I set by myself.
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No hope here. Down 150 spots in 2 days. Lowest rank in a few weeks. Maybe stock photo is not for me.
It's been a slower week I think and probably slower for many other contributors too. But you're making over $200 per week just from images alone which is really good in my view. Well done! You'd easily more than double that if you had videos.
Personally my most important metric is the sum of all $$$ (not downloads) at the end of the month from the agencies I contribute to. I would never be able to compete on volume (even against myself) which is why I pivoted my focus to video with generally higher earnings per download.
My download number and sales $$ is higher than last week, but ranking is much lower this week. It's weird. Must be many people doing well this week.
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No hope here. Down 150 spots in 2 days. Lowest rank in a few weeks. Maybe stock photo is not for me.
It's been a slower week I think and probably slower for many other contributors too. But you're making over $200 per week just from images alone which is really good in my view. Well done! You'd easily more than double that if you had videos.
Personally my most important metric is the sum of all $$$ (not downloads) at the end of the month from the agencies I contribute to. I would never be able to compete on volume (even against myself) which is why I pivoted my focus to video with generally higher earnings per download.
My download number and sales $$ is higher than last week, but ranking is much lower this week. It's weird. Must be many people doing well this week.
It is a bit strange. My downloads are down this week by -20%. Sale $$$ are down -52%. Yet the damage to the ranking despite these lower results is just -0.5%.
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remember the ranking has nothing to do with $, only download numbers, and it seems to be compared to everyone else, so you need a lot less downloads in a low week - say xmas to new year - than you would on a good week to get the same rank.
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very, very slowly clawing my way back up. spring is starting to sell.
pos 3520, 4072 files
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255 dl 1430 rank
Pretty much the same downloads, earnings and position this week as a previous one, but not nearly as good as in January and early February. I had a Valentine best seller that dried up, Easter sold about only 10 times so far
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We rely so much on individual bestsellers. It is fun to see them blow up fast, but depressing when it goes back down.
Trying to diversify my content for better balance.
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We rely so much on individual bestsellers. It is fun to see them blow up fast, but depressing when it goes back down.
Trying to diversify my content for better balance.
My number one image sells 1,000% more often than my second most popular image. If I wasn’t looking right at the stats I wouldn’t believe it. I’m always a little worried the algorithm will change and my sales will go way down.
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
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Hi,
I don't know what happened but in the last 10 - 14 days sales have dropped drastically. Is it just me? And my rank has fallen sharply..
:-\
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Hi,
I don't know what happened but in the last 10 - 14 days sales have dropped drastically. Is it just me? And my rank has fallen sharply..
:-\
I don't see that. How many photos do you have? Are your bestsellers seasonal? Maybe there are massive amount of AI food photos added to Adobe Stock recently. I was generating a few food photos too although not approved yet.
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Last week haven't sold anything. Now I'm uploading again around 500 files, including some videos. Have around 3k files including 500 videos.
Thinking maybe to start trying Ai images.
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Hi,
I don't know what happened but in the last 10 - 14 days sales have dropped drastically. Is it just me? And my rank has fallen sharply..
:-\
I don't see that. How many photos do you have? Are your bestsellers seasonal? Maybe there are massive amount of AI food photos added to Adobe Stock recently. I was generating a few food photos too although not approved yet.
I have more than 10k of which about 4k are AI.
It's very strange because sales have dropped sharply, as if someone "put me on pause"...
I will try to generate new content and not food and see what happens.
I don't have many seasonal images.
Thanks anyway for your reply.
:)
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I can also confirm the decline. I haven't much sales that before (around 15 sells / ~ 10 USD a week) but now been fallen behind (to 5 to 7 sells / ~ 4 - 5 USD) with a port of approx 1,300 AI images. Currently I try to reset the port and deleted all portraits (approx 500 images) and starting reuploading them with much better quality (AI upscaler). Gonna also try different keywords.
What I have noticed is that AI generated food and some niche content are much better selling than people images. Gonna also try some product / poster mockups, interior shots and skin / facial care / product advertising motifs.
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Hi,
I don't know what happened but in the last 10 - 14 days sales have dropped drastically. Is it just me? And my rank has fallen sharply..
:-\
I don't see that. How many photos do you have? Are your bestsellers seasonal? Maybe there are massive amount of AI food photos added to Adobe Stock recently. I was generating a few food photos too although not approved yet.
I have more than 10k of which about 4k are AI.
It's very strange because sales have dropped sharply, as if someone "put me on pause"...
I will try to generate new content and not food and see what happens.
I don't have many seasonal images.
Thanks anyway for your reply.
:)
No problem!!
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
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It is spring break in the US, if you have a lot of content for that market you will feel it.
You feel any public holiday and general vacation time.
Should pick back up next week and work will continue until the start of the summer holiday season.
During the day I even feel the German lunch break, from 12:30 - 2:30pm. Then the US starts getting in at around 3:30 my time, that drops off by around 10 pm my time.
etc…
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
I think he makes up for it with exclusive Pond5 sales. How's your Pond5 sales blvdone? You must be earning at least 1,000 to 2,000 each month with your ports?
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
I think he makes up for it with exclusive Pond5 sales. How's your Pond5 sales blvdone? You must be earning at least 1,000 to 2,000 each month with your ports?
I sincerely hope that it is much, much more for him.
His port is huge and he sets high quality prices.
It should be a full time production income at least.
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
I think he makes up for it with exclusive Pond5 sales. How's your Pond5 sales blvdone? You must be earning at least 1,000 to 2,000 each month with your ports?
I sincerely hope that it is much, much more for him.
His port is huge and he sets high quality prices.
It should be a full time production income at least.
I might be inspired to go Pond5 exclusive if blvdone could show his results given how he feels his performance is poor on Adobe, it would be an inspiration to get a glimpse on his Pond5 success strategy.
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
I think he makes up for it with exclusive Pond5 sales. How's your Pond5 sales blvdone? You must be earning at least 1,000 to 2,000 each month with your ports?
I sincerely hope that it is much, much more for him.
His port is huge and he sets high quality prices.
It should be a full time production income at least.
I might be inspired to go Pond5 exclusive if blvdone could show his results given how he feels his performance is poor on Adobe, it would be an inspiration to get a glimpse on his Pond5 success strategy.
all i've heard about p5 recently is sales have nosedived since the takeover. i currently have $0 lifetime sales and have stopped uploading months ago. i'd be surprised if it was different for exclusives though i'm sure a much larger port will still earn a few crumbs.
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
Yeah, definitely I'm not an expert like you are. I really suck despite doing stock videos since 2011. I would love to learn from you!!!
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
I think he makes up for it with exclusive Pond5 sales. How's your Pond5 sales blvdone? You must be earning at least 1,000 to 2,000 each month with your ports?
I had a BME on Pond5 in October 2022. That was after Shutterstock takeover. I had most of my Pond5 bestsellers at the time as exclusive. Last year was difficult due to the industry wide slow down since May. But the way Adobe Stock video sales were going down rapidly due to cheap video subs just like how Shutterstock video sales went down after their video sub introduction, I made a decision to delete all videos from Adobe Stock and go all in Pond5 Exclusive. That's instant 50% royalty increase for non-exclusive clips I had on Pond5. So, it's very possible I still would've made more money last year if I didn't delete all my videos from Adobe Stock, but I was happy not seeing those $2.80 video sub sales on Adobe Stock. Instead, my RPD on Pond5 is still above $50 probably. This year so far has been bad on Pond5 to be honest. It's getting more and more difficult. But Adobe Stock started giving out 4k clips for the same price as HD on video subs now. So, I think I made the right decision to delete my videos early to preserve value of my products. Some Pond5 Exclusive contributors who set their prices really high are surprisingly doing well.
Check out this thread I posted on Pond5.
https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=246291911&page=1 (https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=246291911&page=1)
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
I think he makes up for it with exclusive Pond5 sales. How's your Pond5 sales blvdone? You must be earning at least 1,000 to 2,000 each month with your ports?
I sincerely hope that it is much, much more for him.
His port is huge and he sets high quality prices.
It should be a full time production income at least.
I might be inspired to go Pond5 exclusive if blvdone could show his results given how he feels his performance is poor on Adobe, it would be an inspiration to get a glimpse on his Pond5 success strategy.
But some do well on Pond5 while others don't for some reason. So, my move isn't for everybody. It takes time for new clips to start selling on Pond5 compared to Adobe Stock or Shutterstock.
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
Yeah, definitely I'm not an expert like you are. I really suck despite doing stock videos since 2011. I would love to learn from you!!!
you can sign up for my course, "i earned $10k a week doing stock for an hr in my spare time." i'll PM you the link and a 10% off promo code, i'm sure it'll help.
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Hi,
I don't know what happened but in the last 10 - 14 days sales have dropped drastically. Is it just me? And my rank has fallen sharply..
:-\
I don't see that. How many photos do you have? Are your bestsellers seasonal? Maybe there are massive amount of AI food photos added to Adobe Stock recently. I was generating a few food photos too although not approved yet.
I have more than 10k of which about 4k are AI.
It's very strange because sales have dropped sharply, as if someone "put me on pause"...
I will try to generate new content and not food and see what happens.
I don't have many seasonal images.
Thanks anyway for your reply.
:)
I have very similar 10k photos port with 4k AI and 6k real photos, but sales have been consistent this year. I don't think it's an industry-wide problem.
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again slowly rising
4120 files pos 3270
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Slow start this week. I'm just not good at this. I should quit.
10,000 photos now. 0 video. I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.
agreed, you're not very good at this. i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.
I think he makes up for it with exclusive Pond5 sales. How's your Pond5 sales blvdone? You must be earning at least 1,000 to 2,000 each month with your ports?
I had a BME on Pond5 in October 2022. That was after Shutterstock takeover. I had most of my Pond5 bestsellers at the time as exclusive. Last year was difficult due to the industry wide slow down since May. But the way Adobe Stock video sales were going down rapidly due to cheap video subs just like how Shutterstock video sales went down after their video sub introduction, I made a decision to delete all videos from Adobe Stock and go all in Pond5 Exclusive. That's instant 50% royalty increase for non-exclusive clips I had on Pond5. So, it's very possible I still would've made more money last year if I didn't delete all my videos from Adobe Stock, but I was happy not seeing those $2.80 video sub sales on Adobe Stock. Instead, my RPD on Pond5 is still above $50 probably. This year so far has been bad on Pond5 to be honest. It's getting more and more difficult. But Adobe Stock started giving out 4k clips for the same price as HD on video subs now. So, I think I made the right decision to delete my videos early to preserve value of my products. Some Pond5 Exclusive contributors who set their prices really high are surprisingly doing well.
Check out this thread I posted on Pond5.
https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=246291911&page=1 (https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=246291911&page=1)
I appreciate your honesty with your experiences and agree there is an industry wide slowdown - probably not surprising with global inflation and economies slowing etc. I've had a brief look at the thread you posted on Pond5 and will have a better read later.
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I appreciate your honesty with your experiences and agree there is an industry wide slowdown - probably not surprising with global inflation and economies slowing etc. I've had a brief look at the thread you posted on Pond5 and will have a better read later.
For clarity... it's actually massive theft of wealth through massive money printing under the guise of "saveukraine"/"convidpayments", etc... money printing (aka "inflation") is a way of "taxing" ppl without them reallly knowing it... if they make things 2x as expensive as before, they've essentially "stolen" 50% of people's wealth via money printing...
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I appreciate your honesty with your experiences and agree there is an industry wide slowdown - probably not surprising with global inflation and economies slowing etc. I've had a brief look at the thread you posted on Pond5 and will have a better read later.
For clarity... it's actually massive theft of wealth through massive money printing under the guise of "saveukraine"/"convidpayments", etc... money printing (aka "inflation") is a way of "taxing" ppl without them reallly knowing it... if they make things 2x as expensive as before, they've essentially "stolen" 50% of people's wealth via money printing...
Sure it is. It was always in history. Wealth inequality can only arise through robbery, theft and exploitation. Today's financial system is completely decoupled from a productivity-influenced economy and has become nothing more than a financial casino.
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I appreciate your honesty with your experiences and agree there is an industry wide slowdown - probably not surprising with global inflation and economies slowing etc. I've had a brief look at the thread you posted on Pond5 and will have a better read later.
For clarity... it's actually massive theft of wealth through massive money printing under the guise of "saveukraine"/"convidpayments", etc... money printing (aka "inflation") is a way of "taxing" ppl without them reallly knowing it... if they make things 2x as expensive as before, they've essentially "stolen" 50% of people's wealth via money printing...
Sure it is. It was always in history. Wealth inequality can only arise through robbery, theft and exploitation. Today's financial system is completely decoupled from a productivity-influenced economy and has become nothing more than a financial casino.
Most people don't "get" that.
What "does" have value is "assets" though.
That is why "they" are purchasing land, massive amounts of it.
But your "digital assets" also have value. It's up to you to decide what nominal value you assign to it.
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Had a nice sales day yesterday and my ranking jumped above 1,200th. Maybe I shouldn't quit stock photo. Not making me a billionaire like it did for Jon Oringer, but helps me pay some bills.
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Your port is great. Just double it.
And your sales will still keep growing as more and more customers find and bookmark you.
Adobe can generate an income of thousands of dollars a month even for single artists.
You understand the customers really well, so your success is well deserved.
With 20k files I wouldn't be surprised if you make over 2k a moth just from Adobe.
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Your port is great. Just double it.
And your sales will still keep growing as more and more customers find and bookmark you.
Adobe can generate an income of thousands of dollars a month even for single artists.
You understand the customers really well, so your success is well deserved.
With 20k files I wouldn't be surprised if you make over 2k a moth just from Adobe.
Thanks!! You're doing well for your 4k port size too!!
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1700 this week with 53 downloads per day (14 of various images, the rest is my one bestseller) and about 3k images
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that is great success for 3k files.
there are people with 20k ports that never reach that level.
i dropped today to 3410. but i sold two videos which added 50 dollars, so i am fine.
good to see videos pick up on adobe. it makes up for the slow sales on pond5.
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
A bit off topic, but may I ask what soft are you using to create Ai images? Thinking of adding some to my port too,
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
A bit off topic, but may I ask what soft are you using to create Ai images? Thinking of adding some to my port too,
Midjourney. We have too many contributors uploading AI images now. So please don’t start doing it!!
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
A bit off topic, but may I ask what soft are you using to create Ai images? Thinking of adding some to my port too,
Midjourney. We have too many contributors uploading AI images now. So please don’t start doing it!!
With so many people doing exclusive AI images since you don't need any expertise in the field, it's a good time to switch to a real photographer and try to find a niche which AI don't cover it or can't replicate it.
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
A bit off topic, but may I ask what soft are you using to create Ai images? Thinking of adding some to my port too,
Midjourney. We have too many contributors uploading AI images now. So please don’t start doing it!!
Well, I still can give it a try anyway :). Nothing will stop me to try, it's just a learning curve. My main thing is still photography, but here in UK when the weather is rubbish, I still can create some images using Ai.
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
A bit off topic, but may I ask what soft are you using to create Ai images? Thinking of adding some to my port too,
Midjourney. We have too many contributors uploading AI images now. So please don’t start doing it!!
Lol? With AI there are so many possibilities to create stuff, which is not yet there. One just need more imagination than copy pastas of bestsellers.
So you wouldn't even compete in this case.
I would advise to start with Stable Diffusion XL models and the AI upscaler (ControlNet, Tile Preprocessor, UltraSharp Upscaler).
It's more flexible and if you search a little bit longer much cheaper than Midjourney.
I'm currently playing with some portraits at the ocean cliffs during sunset. The skin texture looks more realistic than the of Midjourney's waxed ones.
https://ibb.co/xSzxMjD
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that is a beautiful portrait.
working from your own computer is not just cheaper, but also private!!
maybe during this year I can learn to install stable on my computer. I am just worried that my system is not strong enough, my computer is from 2019. Perhaps my graphic card and system are too old?
fwiw I moved up in the weekly rank again, now pos 3140 with 4160 files. better, but still much slower than I was hoping for. But a good mix of sales, including old photos.
uploading attachments via my tablet/safari not working. currently only works on the computer.
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
A bit off topic, but may I ask what soft are you using to create Ai images? Thinking of adding some to my port too,
Midjourney. We have too many contributors uploading AI images now. So please don’t start doing it!!
Lol? With AI there are so many possibilities to create stuff, which is not yet there. One just need more imagination than copy pastas of bestsellers.
So you wouldn't even compete in this case.
I would advise to start with Stable Diffusion XL models and the AI upscaler (ControlNet, Tile Preprocessor, UltraSharp Upscaler).
It's more flexible and if you search a little bit longer much cheaper than Midjourney.
I'm currently playing with some portraits at the ocean cliffs during sunset. The skin texture looks more realistic than the of Midjourney's waxed ones.
https://ibb.co/xSzxMjD
Thanks a lot. Is that a soft to install on my laptop to generate Ai images? Can these be uploaded on Stock sites afterwards ?
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Cobalt, you are so kind. Thank you. Glad to read that your videos selling well!
Faustvasea, don’t think it will work on the laptop, not enough memory. I would suggest Midjourney or Firefly. Both turn key, however, don’t expect to generate something worth uploading right away - there is a learning curve for quality that sells. Plus from what I’ve read so far, images that do sell usually go through post production.
The best thing is no limit to try recreate your ideas! I love it. If my photography was selling as well as my AI, I would stick with photography.
my computer is a work station with dual processor Zion 64gb Ram Nvidia 4070 graphics card with 24 gb of video memory
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Cobalt, you are so kind. Thank you. Glad to read that your videos selling well!
Faustvasea, don’t think it will work on the laptop, not enough memory. I would suggest Midjourney or Firefly. Both turn key, however, don’t expect to generate something worth uploading right away - there is a learning curve for quality that sells. Plus from what I’ve read so far, images that do sell usually go through post production.
The best thing is no limit to try recreate your ideas! I love it. If my photography was selling as well as my AI, I would stick with photography.
Thanks. I was looking at midjourney, but seems a bit expensive. I haven't seen any prices for firefly. I'm sure I can learn to generate Ai images. I still prefer normal photography, as I'm using my gear and love walking around.
So basically even Ai images need to be edited?
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In my opinion, all AI images need to be edited, at times quite heavy. I use Photoshop with healing brush then Lightroom. Most of the images are too small, so you’ll have to upscale them with Topaz or Photoshop. For me, it takes faster to edit my photos, but I don’t take enough of photos to make a difference in stock.
I pay $60 per month for MJ with stealth option, through still I cough some of my files out in search.
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In my opinion, all AI images need to be edited, at times quite heavy. I use Photoshop with healing brush then Lightroom. Most of the images are too small, so you’ll have to upscale them with Topaz or Photoshop. For me, it takes faster to edit my photos, but I don’t take enough of photos to make a difference in stock.
I pay $60 per month for MJ with stealth option, through still I cough some of my files out in search.
I already have couple of Topaz Softwares, including Ai Videos, Photos. And Upscale.
Is that worth investing $60 a month?
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
A bit off topic, but may I ask what soft are you using to create Ai images? Thinking of adding some to my port too,
Midjourney. We have too many contributors uploading AI images now. So please don’t start doing it!!
Lol? With AI there are so many possibilities to create stuff, which is not yet there. One just need more imagination than copy pastas of bestsellers.
So you wouldn't even compete in this case.
I would advise to start with Stable Diffusion XL models and the AI upscaler (ControlNet, Tile Preprocessor, UltraSharp Upscaler).
It's more flexible and if you search a little bit longer much cheaper than Midjourney.
I'm currently playing with some portraits at the ocean cliffs during sunset. The skin texture looks more realistic than the of Midjourney's waxed ones.
https://ibb.co/xSzxMjD
Thanks a lot. Is that a soft to install on my laptop to generate Ai images? Can these be uploaded on Stock sites afterwards ?
You can either install local web GUI like AUTOMATIC1111 for Stable Diffusion and run it on your own computer if you have a good graphic card or you can use online machines (runpod, mage.space, etc.). The same applies to AI upscaler.
@cobalt
Thank you!
In my opinion, all AI images need to be edited, at times quite heavy. I use Photoshop with healing brush then Lightroom. Most of the images are too small, so you’ll have to upscale them with Topaz or Photoshop. For me, it takes faster to edit my photos, but I don’t take enough of photos to make a difference in stock.
I pay $60 per month for MJ with stealth option, through still I cough some of my files out in search.
In my opinion, all AI images need to be edited, at times quite heavy. I use Photoshop with healing brush then Lightroom. Most of the images are too small, so you’ll have to upscale them with Topaz or Photoshop. For me, it takes faster to edit my photos, but I don’t take enough of photos to make a difference in stock.
I pay $60 per month for MJ with stealth option, through still I cough some of my files out in search.
I already have couple of Topaz Softwares, including Ai Videos, Photos. And Upscale.
Is that worth investing $60 a month?
60 Bucks a month is not worth it if you don't generate ten thousand of images every month. It will take months to probably a year until you will earn the same amount on Adobe Stock, so it's a non profit or even loss business case.
Topaz Upscale is o.k. I use it for 2 x upscale after AI 2 x upscale since using 4 x AI upscaler is very time consuming and therefore expensive.
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Sales was slow yesterday, but still holding good ranking somehow. I want to be above 1,000th when I finish creating/adding another 4,000 AI photos sometime this year, I hope. I'm running out of my ideas for AI photos now to be honest. It's not as fast pace as it was in my first few months of AI photo generation.
A bit off topic, but may I ask what soft are you using to create Ai images? Thinking of adding some to my port too,
Midjourney. We have too many contributors uploading AI images now. So please don’t start doing it!!
Lol? With AI there are so many possibilities to create stuff, which is not yet there. One just need more imagination than copy pastas of bestsellers.
So you wouldn't even compete in this case.
I would advise to start with Stable Diffusion XL models and the AI upscaler (ControlNet, Tile Preprocessor, UltraSharp Upscaler).
It's more flexible and if you search a little bit longer much cheaper than Midjourney.
I'm currently playing with some portraits at the ocean cliffs during sunset. The skin texture looks more realistic than the of Midjourney's waxed ones.
https://ibb.co/xSzxMjD
Thanks a lot. Is that a soft to install on my laptop to generate Ai images? Can these be uploaded on Stock sites afterwards ?
You can either install local web GUI like AUTOMATIC1111 for Stable Diffusion and run it on your own computer if you have a good graphic card or you can use online machines (runpod, mage.space, etc.). The same applies to AI upscaler.
@cobalt
Thank you!
In my opinion, all AI images need to be edited, at times quite heavy. I use Photoshop with healing brush then Lightroom. Most of the images are too small, so you’ll have to upscale them with Topaz or Photoshop. For me, it takes faster to edit my photos, but I don’t take enough of photos to make a difference in stock.
I pay $60 per month for MJ with stealth option, through still I cough some of my files out in search.
In my opinion, all AI images need to be edited, at times quite heavy. I use Photoshop with healing brush then Lightroom. Most of the images are too small, so you’ll have to upscale them with Topaz or Photoshop. For me, it takes faster to edit my photos, but I don’t take enough of photos to make a difference in stock.
I pay $60 per month for MJ with stealth option, through still I cough some of my files out in search.
I already have couple of Topaz Softwares, including Ai Videos, Photos. And Upscale.
Is that worth investing $60 a month?
60 Bucks a month is not worth it if you don't generate ten thousand of images every month. It will take months to probably a year until you will earn the same amount on Adobe Stock, so it's a non profit or even loss business case.
Topaz Upscale is o.k. I use it for 2 x upscale after AI 2 x upscale since using 4 x AI upscaler is very time consuming and therefore expensive.
Thanks for advice, I definetly not gonna do 10 000 images a months due of my full time job.
In terms of the software, I have a MacBook PRO M2 MAX 2023 1TB SSD and 32GB Ram, is that will be alright ? Mainy purchased for video editing.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY)
Would be o.k. but not optimal. RTX Nvidia GUPUs are currently the best solution but are quite expensive. I would try mage.space for 15 bucks / month.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY)
Would be o.k. but not optimal. RTX Nvidia GUPUs are currently the best solution but are quite expensive. I would try mage.space for 15 bucks / month.
Might give it a try first. Are there any other cheap options for generating Ai images?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY)
Would be o.k. but not optimal. RTX Nvidia GUPUs are currently the best solution but are quite expensive. I would try mage.space for 15 bucks / month.
Might give it a try first. Are there any other cheap options for generating Ai images?
Ok, for the first step in learning prompting and getting a better understanding / feel for how prompting parameters affect your images, I would try the following online generators (currently free):
https://clipdrop.co/stable-diffusion-turbo (https://clipdrop.co/stable-diffusion-turbo) (daily limited with watermark and 1:1 aspect ratio but very fast)
https://playground.com/ (https://playground.com/) (100 images free per day)
https://sdxlturbo.ai/ (https://sdxlturbo.ai/) (watermark)
https://civitai.com/ (https://civitai.com/) (probably also daily limited)
You can also use mage.space with limitation to the original SDXL model and max. 30 generation steps for free (what I would recommend to begin with).
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY)
Would be o.k. but not optimal. RTX Nvidia GUPUs are currently the best solution but are quite expensive. I would try mage.space for 15 bucks / month.
Might give it a try first. Are there any other cheap options for generating Ai images?
Ok, for the first step in learning prompting and getting a better understanding / feel for how prompting parameters affect your images, I would try the following online generators (currently free):
https://clipdrop.co/stable-diffusion-turbo (https://clipdrop.co/stable-diffusion-turbo) (daily limited with watermark and 1:1 aspect ratio but very fast)
https://playground.com/ (https://playground.com/) (100 images free per day)
https://sdxlturbo.ai/ (https://sdxlturbo.ai/) (watermark)
https://civitai.com/ (https://civitai.com/) (probably also daily limited)
You can also use mage.space with limitation to the original SDXL model and max. 30 generation steps for free (what I would recommend to begin with).
Thanks, and after I'm confident, which paid solution you'd recommend to generate Ai, for stock purposes.
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now 2890
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY)
Would be o.k. but not optimal. RTX Nvidia GUPUs are currently the best solution but are quite expensive. I would try mage.space for 15 bucks / month.
Might give it a try first. Are there any other cheap options for generating Ai images?
Ok, for the first step in learning prompting and getting a better understanding / feel for how prompting parameters affect your images, I would try the following online generators (currently free):
https://clipdrop.co/stable-diffusion-turbo (https://clipdrop.co/stable-diffusion-turbo) (daily limited with watermark and 1:1 aspect ratio but very fast)
https://playground.com/ (https://playground.com/) (100 images free per day)
https://sdxlturbo.ai/ (https://sdxlturbo.ai/) (watermark)
https://civitai.com/ (https://civitai.com/) (probably also daily limited)
You can also use mage.space with limitation to the original SDXL model and max. 30 generation steps for free (what I would recommend to begin with).
Thanks, and after I'm confident, which paid solution you'd recommend to generate Ai, for stock purposes.
I would then still recommend the basic or pro plan on mage.space when you are more familiar and skilled with promting.
https://www.mage.space/membership (https://www.mage.space/membership)
I mean 8 bucks / month without generation limits, private mode and over 160 Stable Diffusion calibrated models is extremely cheap.
I'm currently using the pro plan because I often need the 100 generation steps for very detailed images. Also I'm generating 4 images parallel or using the scale up fix while generating other content.
When I will hit the 30 USD / month mark on Adobe I will switch to Pro+ Plan, since you then can install all models from civitai.
There are some finetuned models there, which could be used for even a better generating quality. But currently it would be a loss business case for me, so that I'm waiting for growing earnings.
@cobalt
Nice! Keep it up!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB07h-odLTY)
Would be o.k. but not optimal. RTX Nvidia GUPUs are currently the best solution but are quite expensive. I would try mage.space for 15 bucks / month.
Might give it a try first. Are there any other cheap options for generating Ai images?
Ok, for the first step in learning prompting and getting a better understanding / feel for how prompting parameters affect your images, I would try the following online generators (currently free):
https://clipdrop.co/stable-diffusion-turbo (https://clipdrop.co/stable-diffusion-turbo) (daily limited with watermark and 1:1 aspect ratio but very fast)
https://playground.com/ (https://playground.com/) (100 images free per day)
https://sdxlturbo.ai/ (https://sdxlturbo.ai/) (watermark)
https://civitai.com/ (https://civitai.com/) (probably also daily limited)
You can also use mage.space with limitation to the original SDXL model and max. 30 generation steps for free (what I would recommend to begin with).
Thanks, and after I'm confident, which paid solution you'd recommend to generate Ai, for stock purposes.
I would then still recommend the basic or pro plan on mage.space when you are more familiar and skilled with promting.
https://www.mage.space/membership (https://www.mage.space/membership)
I mean 8 bucks / month without generation limits, private mode and over 160 Stable Diffusion calibrated models is extremely cheap.
I'm currently using the pro plan because I often need the 100 generation steps for very detailed images. Also I'm generating 4 images parallel or using the scale up fix while generating other content.
When I will hit the 30 USD / month mark on Adobe I will switch to Pro+ Plan, since you then can install all models from civitai.
There are some finetuned models there, which could be used for even a better generating quality. But currently it would be a loss business case for me, so that I'm waiting for growing earnings.
@cobalt
Nice! Keep it up!
Thanks a lot. for 8$ a month, is really cheap.
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now 2890
RPD $1 not bad!
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I had a video sale, usually the rpd is around 70-85 cents.
@Andrej
that looks like a great offer for stable diffusion. Will absolutely try that. Then I don‘t need to upgrade my computer. Thank you!
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Another slow day yesterday, but somehow my ranking is holding steady. Must be a slow week for everybody. I only had 1 good sales day this week. In general, day to day sales are not consistent. 10,000 photos, 0 video portfolio.
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At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
yes rank is number of downloads,the most important thing,not earnings.
in my opinion the most important thing is the number of sales,earnings can go up or down,but the number of downloads cannot go down,that is the most important number,then comes the money. :)
by the way,my best rank ever is 3210.
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At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
yes rank is number of downloads,the most important thing,not earnings.
in my opinion the most important thing is the number of sales,earnings can go up or down,but the number of downloads cannot go down,that is the most important number,then comes the money. :)
by the way,my best rank ever is 3210.
If you don't think sales can go down in this business, you are either really good, really fortunate, or haven't been at this long.
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At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
yes rank is number of downloads,the most important thing,not earnings.
in my opinion the most important thing is the number of sales,earnings can go up or down,but the number of downloads cannot go down,that is the most important number,then comes the money. :)
by the way,my best rank ever is 3210.
Doesn't make any sense. If Adobe will lower the commissions you will get less earnings even if you have the same ranking. So earnings are the most important figure.
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When I will hit the 30 USD / month mark on Adobe I will switch to Pro+ Plan, since you then can install all models from civitai.
There are some finetuned models there, which could be used for even a better generating quality. But currently it would be a loss business case for me, so that I'm waiting for growing earnings.
do you mean $30 usd payment to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or $30 usd per day from Adobe stock?
I’m not familiar with Stable Diffusionat all, what are “ finetuned models mean? Can it generate good quality AND big sizes without upscaling to delude the original quality?
Thanks in advance
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Doesn't make any sense. If Adobe will lower the commissions you will get less earnings even if you have the same ranking. So earnings are the most important figure.
It depends for whom: for us earnings are most important, but for Adobe it’s downloads- it shows that your content is popular with customers, so Adobe will push that content to customers even more.
I wonder if @Matt can clarify that for us please?
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Another slow day yesterday, but somehow my ranking is holding steady. Must be a slow week for everybody. I only had 1 good sales day this week. In general, day to day sales are not consistent. 10,000 photos, 0 video portfolio.
strange week, a bit slower than last week, but my weekly standing is ar 2020 now, way worse than last week. (Still under 3000 files, 28 pages )
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When I will hit the 30 USD / month mark on Adobe I will switch to Pro+ Plan, since you then can install all models from civitai.
There are some finetuned models there, which could be used for even a better generating quality. But currently it would be a loss business case for me, so that I'm waiting for growing earnings.
do you mean $30 usd payment to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or $30 usd per day from Adobe stock?
I’m not familiar with Stable Diffusionat all, what are “ finetuned models mean? Can it generate good quality AND big sizes without upscaling to delude the original quality?
Thanks in advance
Nah I mean, when I will earn more than 30 USD / month on Adobe Stock. Currently I'm pending around 20 to 30 but I'm not AI spamming anymore and focus more on quality.
Diffusion Stable has a huge fan community, which calibrate own base models and finetuned models (LoRas).
https://civitai.com/models?tag=base+model
LoRas focus on very specialized content like special kind of buildings, for example offices or shopping malls:
https://civitai.com/models/229533/jjs-architecture-office-building
https://civitai.com/models/262849/jjs-interior-space-shopping-mall
and many more.
It's kinda very cool because the community offers endless possibilities for free. Some offer really good quality with very few generation errors.
It will take just a matter of time when all agency's will integrate similar finetuned models in their own AI image generators.
I believe the generated resolution is limited in Stable Diffusion to max. 2mpx. The problem is the calibration of such models since you would need an extrem huge amount of Nivida GPUs for bigger resolutions, which is extremely expensive.
So you have to upscale on your own afterwards.
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At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
yes rank is number of downloads,the most important thing,not earnings.
in my opinion the most important thing is the number of sales,earnings can go up or down,but the number of downloads cannot go down,that is the most important number,then comes the money. :)
by the way,my best rank ever is 3210.
If you don't think sales can go down in this business, you are either really good, really fortunate, or haven't been at this long.
absolutely yes,sales can go down that's the problem,that's why I prefer Adobe,because with all the other agencies everything is too unstable.
I don't know what your experience is with Adobe,but mine has been a constant increase for 6 years now,very slow,in fact sometimes too slow perhaps,but at least it continues to increase.
this year for example I am in the order of 40-50% more every month compared to last year,which wouldn't be bad if I already earned 2000 usd a month,50% 1000usd would be excellent! :)
unfortunately this is not the case,so a 50% increase after a year of incessant uploads I define as OK,nothing exceptional,but at least OK.
one of the things I like about Adobe is precisely this:certainties,when the minimum monthly number of sales threshold is set you don't go lower than that.
example:once you reach the minimum of 100 sales per month you never go down from that,first maybe you start to get there every now and then and then at a certain point 100 sales becomes the minimum.
with Istock I made a year in which I earned thousands of dollars,a lot,and then the following year it was rubbish,really rubbish,you can't build a business this way,I prefer the progressive and stable climb :)
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At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
yes rank is number of downloads,the most important thing,not earnings.
in my opinion the most important thing is the number of sales,earnings can go up or down,but the number of downloads cannot go down,that is the most important number,then comes the money. :)
by the way,my best rank ever is 3210.
Doesn't make any sense. If Adobe will lower the commissions you will get less earnings even if you have the same ranking. So earnings are the most important figure.
Adobe does not lower royalty rates,and even if it were,we know that we can make better and lower sales,but the number of sales is always more important,when there are many sales the money comes.
in any case,if Adobe also starts making sales of 10 or 20c I will abandon microstock.
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@Andrei S you’ll get there with quality.
When I found this forum and read that majority of AI contributors upload hundreds or thousands of AI images per week, I panicked and started to upload more as well. It didn’t bring more $ at all. It was just busy work. Now I slowed back and refocused on quality again. The quality images might get selected to be featured. If you can produce something original and highly usable, that can’t be found on Adobe search, this is what brings sales for me usually. (Unfortunately then copycats get them and it does get diluted somewhat)
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you don‘t need thousands of images. You don‘t even need the absolute best quality.
the most important is to really dig into the collections of several agencies and look for something that is needed but does not exist. then you can have a bestseller or a reliable seller for a long time,
it is also possibel to do this with slight twist to a popular concept.
most people just sort various searches by downlods, pick the top ten files from most agencies and try to copy them exactly,
that is why you have so many duplicates in all collections.
pick a subject that you understand well, from your day job, a lifelong hobby or interest and then dig in and see what is missing,
obviously if you find what is missing and have top quality that would be best.
the other factor is time.
a lot of my content needs 18 months to really start selling. yes there are customers who buy instantly, but many just lightbox files for future projects.
become a resource
if you have at least 1000 files about a theme and collected them in a gallery, chances are customers start bookmarking this and keep checking back if you have something new. they might also add more of your content
you also start to see more downloads of several files or a complete series.
you will get there.
I am trying to upload more volume, but I find it very hard.
down to 3070
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1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea.
-
you don‘t need thousands of images. You don‘t even need the absolute best quality.
the most important is to really dig into the collections of several agencies and look for something that is needed but does not exist. then you can have a bestseller or a reliable seller for a long time,
it is also possibel to do this with slight twist to a popular concept.
most people just sort various searches by downlods, pick the top ten files from most agencies and try to copy them exactly,
that is why you have so many duplicates in all collections.
pick a subject that you understand well, from your day job, a lifelong hobby or interest and then dig in and see what is missing,
obviously if you find what is missing and have top quality that would be best.
the other factor is time.
a lot of my content needs 18 months to really start selling. yes there are customers who buy instantly, but many just lightbox files for future projects.
become a resource
if you have at least 1000 files about a theme and collected them in a gallery, chances are customers start bookmarking this and keep checking back if you have something new. they might also add more of your content
you also start to see more downloads of several files or a complete series.
you will get there.
I am trying to upload more volume, but I find it very hard.
down to 3070
Good advice!!
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@Andrei S you’ll get there with quality.
When I found this forum and read that majority of AI contributors upload hundreds or thousands of AI images per week, I panicked and started to upload more as well. It didn’t bring more $ at all. It was just busy work. Now I slowed back and refocused on quality again. The quality images might get selected to be featured. If you can produce something original and highly usable, that can’t be found on Adobe search, this is what brings sales for me usually. (Unfortunately then copycats get them and it does get diluted somewhat)
Yes, quality matters. Quality x quantity is great. Quantity x no quality is bad.
-
At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
yes rank is number of downloads,the most important thing,not earnings.
in my opinion the most important thing is the number of sales,earnings can go up or down,but the number of downloads cannot go down,that is the most important number,then comes the money. :)
by the way,my best rank ever is 3210.
Doesn't make any sense. If Adobe will lower the commissions you will get less earnings even if you have the same ranking. So earnings are the most important figure.
Adobe does not lower royalty rates,and even if it were,we know that we can make better and lower sales,but the number of sales is always more important,when there are many sales the money comes.
in any case,if Adobe also starts making sales of 10 or 20c I will abandon microstock.
Yup. If Adobe Stock becomes like Shutterstock 0.10, 0.10, 0.10, 0.10, 0.10, 0.10, it's game over.
-
At the moment I keep bouncing between 3100 and 5200. 4000 files.
Hope to move further up again soon, this is frustrating. But for a port this size it is probably ok.
I hate to ask, because someone will think the rank numbers actually matter.
But, why do you hope to move further up? Rank means nothing, except for your own personal information, how you are doing, compared to others. If you are making money, and happy with what you do and earn, it doesn't matter what some irrelevant number says.
My rank goes up during the holiday season, down in January, back up in April. My earnings, as in money that goes into the bank, is all that counts.
Rank is apparently, number of downloads, not earnings.
yes rank is number of downloads,the most important thing,not earnings.
in my opinion the most important thing is the number of sales,earnings can go up or down,but the number of downloads cannot go down,that is the most important number,then comes the money. :)
by the way,my best rank ever is 3210.
If you don't think sales can go down in this business, you are either really good, really fortunate, or haven't been at this long.
Yup. Shutterstock photo sales have gone 1/6-10 of pre-$0.10 days in 4 years. That was a genius move by whoever came up with that idea. It's nice to see the lowest commission per photo sale on Shutterstock was $0.38 before the destruction.
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1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
Dam*, sounds like you've sold your soul.
#MicrostockLife
#GetRichOrDieCryin'
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
Dam*, sounds like you've sold your soul.
#MicrostockLife
#GetRichOrDieCryin'
;D ;D
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
yes of course,that's why I asked! :D
Do you have an approval rate on reviewed content?mine is about 85%,of content accepted out of the total reviewed,but I dedicate time to every single piece of AI content.
ok when I have time I will try to read everything... I never have time for anything,I'm always making content,my girlfriend is pissed off like a beast! :D (I am joking she’s cute and nice :) ) (when she’s not pissed off :D )
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
I haven't seen. I know you were joking.
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
yes of course,that's why I asked! :D
Do you have an approval rate on reviewed content?mine is about 85%,of content accepted out of the total reviewed,but I dedicate time to every single piece of AI content.
ok when I have time I will try to read everything... I never have time for anything,I'm always making content,my girlfriend is pissed off like a beast! :D
Lol, I've got a 2 year old ill daughter, who is pissed of like a beast all the time and I find time to generate and other stuff. Just take your mobile phone, take some notes of content, which you want to generate and hit then every time when you got 2 minutes of free mode (making coffee, shi*ting in the bathroom, cooking, cleaning the house, etc.. ) just hit the generate button.
You commute 30 minutes or 1 hour to work?
Wonderful, just hit the button.
Also there is night time, which is for example part of my "me time".
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1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
yes of course,that's why I asked! :D
Do you have an approval rate on reviewed content?mine is about 85%,of content accepted out of the total reviewed,but I dedicate time to every single piece of AI content.
ok when I have time I will try to read everything... I never have time for anything,I'm always making content,my girlfriend is pissed off like a beast! :D
I don't think there's a limit for upload. I usually upload average of 50-200 AI images at a time per day when I upload. I don't upload everyday. Overall AI image approval rate for this year probably is 70% or so. I only use photo editing software for AI images if I need to remove brand logo. So, 99% of the time, I just upscale, convert to jpeg and upload.
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
yes of course,that's why I asked! :D
Do you have an approval rate on reviewed content?mine is about 85%,of content accepted out of the total reviewed,but I dedicate time to every single piece of AI content.
ok when I have time I will try to read everything... I never have time for anything,I'm always making content,my girlfriend is pissed off like a beast! :D
I don't think there's a limit for upload. I usually upload average of 50-200 AI images at a time per day when I upload. I don't upload everyday. Overall AI image approval rate for this year probably is 70% or so. I only use photo editing software for AI images if I need to remove brand logo. So, 99% of the time, I just upscale, convert to jpeg and upload.
in fact there is no limit,and this unfortunately slows down the review process a lot,as far as I know,it's not possible for reviewers to know who sent what,so it's not possible to quantify how much you're sending for reviewers.
so only upscale then convert to jpeg index and send?and don't you think that the content you send will be easily surpassed over time by content on which someone has spent more time?
in any case this is also a strategy,you go more on quantity for AI content,ok,I believe that it is not the best strategy over time,I believe that 100 contents in which you have lost at least a week are better than 1000 contents in a week.
if you want advice from someone who certainly knows less than you,because I'm sure you have more experience than me,I would advise you at this point to slow down,and focus more on quality,because you already have thousands of contents for sale,if you continue in the same way you just continue to do what you have already done! :)
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Everyone on Adobe has an upload limit (a limit on the numbers of items in review at any one time). Newcomers are limited to 50 and this increases as they get acceptances and downloads. The maximum I have heard of is 3000. Adobe does not disclose how the upload limit is calculated.
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Everyone on Adobe has an upload limit (a limit on the numbers of items in review at any one time). Newcomers are limited to 50 and this increases as they get acceptances and downloads. The maximum I have heard of is 3000. Adobe does not disclose how the upload limit is calculated.
we were referring to a specific limit for AI content.
I knew about the limit of 50 for new ones but I didn't know there was a limit of up to 3000.
I have never reached any limit :) at least not when it comes to uploads! :D
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1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
yes of course,that's why I asked! :D
Do you have an approval rate on reviewed content?mine is about 85%,of content accepted out of the total reviewed,but I dedicate time to every single piece of AI content.
ok when I have time I will try to read everything... I never have time for anything,I'm always making content,my girlfriend is pissed off like a beast! :D
I don't think there's a limit for upload. I usually upload average of 50-200 AI images at a time per day when I upload. I don't upload everyday. Overall AI image approval rate for this year probably is 70% or so. I only use photo editing software for AI images if I need to remove brand logo. So, 99% of the time, I just upscale, convert to jpeg and upload.
in fact there is no limit,and this unfortunately slows down the review process a lot,as far as I know,it's not possible for reviewers to know who sent what,so it's not possible to quantify how much you're sending for reviewers.
so only upscale then convert to jpeg index and send?and don't you think that the content you send will be easily surpassed over time by content on which someone has spent more time?
in any case this is also a strategy,you go more on quantity for AI content,ok,I believe that it is not the best strategy over time,I believe that 100 contents in which you have lost at least a week are better than 1000 contents in a week.
if you want advice from someone who certainly knows less than you,because I'm sure you have more experience than me,I would advise you at this point to slow down,and focus more on quality,because you already have thousands of contents for sale,if you continue in the same way you just continue to do what you have already done! :)
In general, I don't edit stock materials much. If exposure and color is good, just submit. We are providing base materials for users to edit on their own. So, for AI photos, mostly exposure and color is perfect already. I just check for extra/missing fingers, brand logos and submit. Reason for rejection probably are due to too many similar photo Adobe has already. So, I'd rather quickly increase my portfolio than slow down. My photo revenue is up 60-70% now compared to 6 months ago after adding 60-70% more photos mostly AI generated. So, my strategy is working. I pay $120/month for Midjourney. So, I better generate images fast and upload en masse while I pay that much to Midjourney.
Btw, how many images do you have in your portfolio?
-
1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
yes of course,that's why I asked! :D
Do you have an approval rate on reviewed content?mine is about 85%,of content accepted out of the total reviewed,but I dedicate time to every single piece of AI content.
ok when I have time I will try to read everything... I never have time for anything,I'm always making content,my girlfriend is pissed off like a beast! :D
I don't think there's a limit for upload. I usually upload average of 50-200 AI images at a time per day when I upload. I don't upload everyday. Overall AI image approval rate for this year probably is 70% or so. I only use photo editing software for AI images if I need to remove brand logo. So, 99% of the time, I just upscale, convert to jpeg and upload.
in fact there is no limit,and this unfortunately slows down the review process a lot,as far as I know,it's not possible for reviewers to know who sent what,so it's not possible to quantify how much you're sending for reviewers.
so only upscale then convert to jpeg index and send?and don't you think that the content you send will be easily surpassed over time by content on which someone has spent more time?
in any case this is also a strategy,you go more on quantity for AI content,ok,I believe that it is not the best strategy over time,I believe that 100 contents in which you have lost at least a week are better than 1000 contents in a week.
if you want advice from someone who certainly knows less than you,because I'm sure you have more experience than me,I would advise you at this point to slow down,and focus more on quality,because you already have thousands of contents for sale,if you continue in the same way you just continue to do what you have already done! :)
In general, I don't edit stock materials much. If exposure and color is good, just submit. We are providing base materials for users to edit on their own. So, for AI photos, mostly exposure and color is perfect already. I just check for extra/missing fingers, brand logos and submit. Reason for rejection probably are due to too many similar photo Adobe has already. So, I'd rather quickly increase my portfolio than slow down. My photo revenue is up 60-70% now compared to 6 months ago after adding 60-70% more photos mostly AI generated. So, my strategy is working. I pay $120/month for Midjourney. So, I better generate images fast and upload en masse while I pay that much to Midjourney.
Btw, how many images do you have in your portfolio?
Actually, what's interesting about your stats is that you increased your port by X% and your revenue went up roughly an equivalent X%. It seems that you weren't particularly impacted in a negative way by all the AI competition. This is more or less consistent with what I have seen. I have added very little AI content so far, but haven't seen much of a negative impact revenue-wise by the onslaught of all the AI submissions. Maybe the answer is that the percentage of AI content in Adobe is still a small number.
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1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea. Don't listen to those who never post their ranking here but keep talking crap here. They may be doing only 1/10 as good as you are. There's no point in taking any advice from them.
Wow very impressed. How many files you have?
About 2 million photos.
I produce about 1,000 AI photos everyday.
I automate the production with prompt producing AI. So, I just upload and tag. I sleep like 2hrs/day.
How many AI images can you send to Adobe per day for review?And what is your acceptance rate?
You know I was just kidding with those numbers, right? I've already gave my port size number a few times on previous posts.
yes of course,that's why I asked! :D
Do you have an approval rate on reviewed content?mine is about 85%,of content accepted out of the total reviewed,but I dedicate time to every single piece of AI content.
ok when I have time I will try to read everything... I never have time for anything,I'm always making content,my girlfriend is pissed off like a beast! :D
I don't think there's a limit for upload. I usually upload average of 50-200 AI images at a time per day when I upload. I don't upload everyday. Overall AI image approval rate for this year probably is 70% or so. I only use photo editing software for AI images if I need to remove brand logo. So, 99% of the time, I just upscale, convert to jpeg and upload.
in fact there is no limit,and this unfortunately slows down the review process a lot,as far as I know,it's not possible for reviewers to know who sent what,so it's not possible to quantify how much you're sending for reviewers.
so only upscale then convert to jpeg index and send?and don't you think that the content you send will be easily surpassed over time by content on which someone has spent more time?
in any case this is also a strategy,you go more on quantity for AI content,ok,I believe that it is not the best strategy over time,I believe that 100 contents in which you have lost at least a week are better than 1000 contents in a week.
if you want advice from someone who certainly knows less than you,because I'm sure you have more experience than me,I would advise you at this point to slow down,and focus more on quality,because you already have thousands of contents for sale,if you continue in the same way you just continue to do what you have already done! :)
In general, I don't edit stock materials much. If exposure and color is good, just submit. We are providing base materials for users to edit on their own. So, for AI photos, mostly exposure and color is perfect already. I just check for extra/missing fingers, brand logos and submit. Reason for rejection probably are due to too many similar photo Adobe has already. So, I'd rather quickly increase my portfolio than slow down. My photo revenue is up 60-70% now compared to 6 months ago after adding 60-70% more photos mostly AI generated. So, my strategy is working. I pay $120/month for Midjourney. So, I better generate images fast and upload en masse while I pay that much to Midjourney.
Btw, how many images do you have in your portfolio?
Actually, what's interesting about your stats is that you increased your port by X% and your revenue went up roughly an equivalent X%. It seems that you weren't particularly impacted in a negative way by all the AI competition. This is more or less consistent with what I have seen. I have added very little AI content so far, but haven't seen much of a negative impact revenue-wise by the onslaught of all the AI submissions. Maybe the answer is that the percentage of AI content in Adobe is still a small number.
Good point. Possibly the reason may be buyers abandoned Shutterstock subscription and bought Adobe Stock subscription. Shutterstock's subscription has been going down according to their financial report.
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@blvdone
I prefer not to say the precise number but more than 7000
I'm sure your strategy pays off in the short term,we need to see if it pays off in the long term.
for the moment we are still at the beginning,then we will have to see when the competition increases.
However,you may be right,maybe I waste too much time,but I like to put content on sale that I would buy myself.
I also tried a month as a pro plan with Midjourney,because given the speed with which many of you upload,I thought that the outputs of Midjourney were more correct but this is not the case,90% of the contents have generative errors,until now all AI image generators have errors,and many things to improve.
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@blvdone
I prefer not to say the precise number but more than 7000
I'm sure your strategy pays off in the short term,we need to see if it pays off in the long term.
for the moment we are still at the beginning,then we will have to see when the competition increases.
However,you may be right,maybe I waste too much time,but I like to put content on sale that I would buy myself.
I also tried a month as a pro plan with Midjourney,because given the speed with which many of you upload,I thought that the outputs of Midjourney were more correct but this is not the case,90% of the contents have generative errors,until now all AI image generators have errors,and many things to improve.
Honestly, there isn't much more to edit AI generated photos other than erasing brand logos in very rare occasions. I don't waste time tweaking extra/missing fingers or disfigured faces. I just don't submit those bad ones and generate till I get good ones. Time is money. I just try to maximize my output per hour/day. And based on the number you gave me, my portfolio is making 2x more $$ per photo. So, no offense, but I know what I'm doing and it's working. If your photo isn't selling short term, why can you expect them to do well in long term? It just doesn't make sense unless you are producing seasonal materials way in advance.
And you're right about generating AI images on Midjourney. Many of the generated images aren't usable. It takes time to generate images that you want. You need to work on the prompts and hope AI will give you usable images without extra/missing fingers and limbs. That's where my time is spent regarding AI image creation.
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@blvdone
I prefer not to say the precise number but more than 7000
I'm sure your strategy pays off in the short term,we need to see if it pays off in the long term.
for the moment we are still at the beginning,then we will have to see when the competition increases.
However,you may be right,maybe I waste too much time,but I like to put content on sale that I would buy myself.
I also tried a month as a pro plan with Midjourney,because given the speed with which many of you upload,I thought that the outputs of Midjourney were more correct but this is not the case,90% of the contents have generative errors,until now all AI image generators have errors,and many things to improve.
Honestly, there isn't much more to edit AI generated photos other than erasing brand logos in very rare occasions. I don't waste time tweaking extra/missing fingers or disfigured faces. Time is money. I just try to maximize my output per hour/day. And based on the number you gave me, my portfolio is making 2x more $$ per photo. So, no offense, but I know what I'm doing and it's working. If your photo isn't selling short term, why can you expect them to do well in long term? It just doesn't make sense unless you are producing seasonal materials way in advance.
And you're right about generating AI images on Midjourney. Many of the generated images aren't usable. It takes time to generate images that you want. You need to work on the prompts and hope AI will give you usable images without extra/missing fingers and limbs. That's where my time is spent regarding AI image creation.
Since you once wrote that your real photos sell better, how high is approx. the share of your weekly sold AI images?
>30%?
I currently enhance my port, it's really pain in the ass, even if one have already generated images. Hope it pays off, even if I don't believe it.
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1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea.
Well, that actually bothers me and that’s the reason why I don’t want to be featured again on a bestseller list. First time was ok, but after second, third time, I got 50+ ports copying my images!!! It really sucks, since coming up with original ideas is not that simple and then hundreds of similar images with exactly same description etc… now my profitable niche that I found is over saturated with copycats. I understand ports from 3rd world countries copying, they are desperate and don’t give a flying #$& about copyrights , but in well educated countries you do know about copyrights and yet still openly advertise to copy bestsellers? Why???
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@blvdone
I prefer not to say the precise number but more than 7000
I'm sure your strategy pays off in the short term,we need to see if it pays off in the long term.
for the moment we are still at the beginning,then we will have to see when the competition increases.
However,you may be right,maybe I waste too much time,but I like to put content on sale that I would buy myself.
I also tried a month as a pro plan with Midjourney,because given the speed with which many of you upload,I thought that the outputs of Midjourney were more correct but this is not the case,90% of the contents have generative errors,until now all AI image generators have errors,and many things to improve.
Honestly, there isn't much more to edit AI generated photos other than erasing brand logos in very rare occasions. I don't waste time tweaking extra/missing fingers or disfigured faces. Time is money. I just try to maximize my output per hour/day. And based on the number you gave me, my portfolio is making 2x more $$ per photo. So, no offense, but I know what I'm doing and it's working. If your photo isn't selling short term, why can you expect them to do well in long term? It just doesn't make sense unless you are producing seasonal materials way in advance.
And you're right about generating AI images on Midjourney. Many of the generated images aren't usable. It takes time to generate images that you want. You need to work on the prompts and hope AI will give you usable images without extra/missing fingers and limbs. That's where my time is spent regarding AI image creation.
Since you once wrote that your real photos sell better, how high is approx. the share of your weekly sold AI images?
>30%?
I currently enhance my port, it's really pain in the ass, even if one have already generated images. Hope it pays off, even if I don't believe it.
I don't know. Probably 30-35%. 40% of my port is AI. So, less than the percentage of portfolio.
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1 good day and 4 slow days somehow kept me at good ranking this week.
My advice to newbies is to listen to people who are doing well and at least much better than you.
Also look at contributors on Top Seller list and figure out why they are doing well.
https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors
Just copying their bestsellers may not bring you $$ because everybody may be doing the same and the market is saturated with similar images already. It can be hit or miss and big disappointment in my own experience. So, find your niche also and come up with your original idea.
Well, that actually bothers me and that’s the reason why I don’t want to be featured again on a bestseller list. First time was ok, but after second, third time, I got 50+ ports copying my images!!! It really sucks, since coming up with original ideas is not that simple and then hundreds of similar images with exactly same description etc… now my profitable niche that I found is over saturated with copycats. I understand ports from 3rd world countries copying, they are desperate and don’t give a flying #$& about copyrights , but in well educated countries you do know about copyrights and yet still openly advertise to copy bestsellers? Why???
It's just a common sense to try to create what's selling. But I was trying to explain a pitfall of creating very similar images. You got to differentiate from what's already out there in the same concept/genre. That's my approach. There's no copyright in concept for photo/video/images. So, you can't own that. Nobody owns "business theme", "Christmas theme" etc.
Also, many images on my portfolio top page are images with only 1 recent sale. And if these don't get additional sales, they'll get pushed back to further down pages. So, it's not that simple to guess what's really selling on somebody's portfolio.
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Adobe is really protecting our bestsellers by mostly showing either new content or stuff with its first sale on the first page.
Very helpful.
Many of my well selling files are very mundane and unassuming. And now adding a lot of illustrations and soon video again, the mix will make it harder to copy specific files.
And for seasonal content I am anyway competing with millions of files using similar decoration objects, so can‘t do much about that.
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@blvdone
I prefer not to say the precise number but more than 7000
I'm sure your strategy pays off in the short term,we need to see if it pays off in the long term.
for the moment we are still at the beginning,then we will have to see when the competition increases.
However,you may be right,maybe I waste too much time,but I like to put content on sale that I would buy myself.
I also tried a month as a pro plan with Midjourney,because given the speed with which many of you upload,I thought that the outputs of Midjourney were more correct but this is not the case,90% of the contents have generative errors,until now all AI image generators have errors,and many things to improve.
Honestly, there isn't much more to edit AI generated photos other than erasing brand logos in very rare occasions. I don't waste time tweaking extra/missing fingers or disfigured faces. Time is money. I just try to maximize my output per hour/day. And based on the number you gave me, my portfolio is making 2x more $$ per photo. So, no offense, but I know what I'm doing and it's working. If your photo isn't selling short term, why can you expect them to do well in long term? It just doesn't make sense unless you are producing seasonal materials way in advance.
And you're right about generating AI images on Midjourney. Many of the generated images aren't usable. It takes time to generate images that you want. You need to work on the prompts and hope AI will give you usable images without extra/missing fingers and limbs. That's where my time is spent regarding AI image creation.
but absolutely,like I said maybe you're right and I'm wrong! :)
but you see,the point is that AI content that is not unique is easy to copy with a prompt,anyone can do it,but if instead you waste time and try to create something unique,adding or removing elements and improving the content,a that point is not easy to replicate,and takes time.
but maybe my approach is wrong and in the end you are right,for the moment you are certainly earning more than me so you are better off doing as you do.
I can't do it,I can't put content on sale with all these errors,yesterday for example I was working on an AI content and I said to myself,ok I can do this quickly,then instead 2 hours later I was still there working on the content,then when in the end I saw the result I was satisfied,and I'm sure if someone wants to try to copy it with just a prompt it's impossible.
but as I said,perhaps all this is of no use and perhaps you are right to do as you do,we'll see with time,in the meantime I will continue to work on AI content as I always do,I will try to speed up a bit if I can. :)
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... So, it's not that simple to guess what's really selling on somebody's portfolio.
You can filter portfolios if you know the way to edit the URL - in other words Adobe doesn't provide the UI but the features are there. So your portfolio in download order:
https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/203855208/blvdone?&order=nb_downloads
The genAI images in your portfolio in download order:
https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/203855208/blvdone?&order=nb_downloads&filters%5Bgentech%5D=only
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... So, it's not that simple to guess what's really selling on somebody's portfolio.
You can filter portfolios if you know the way to edit the URL - in other words Adobe doesn't provide the UI but the features are there. So your portfolio in download order:
https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/203855208/blvdone?&order=nb_downloads
The genAI images in your portfolio in download order:
https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/203855208/blvdone?&order=nb_downloads&filters%5Bgentech%5D=only
Oh nice. Thank you!!
I checked out your portfolio too!
https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/4221/jo-ann-snover?&order=nb_downloads
https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/4221/jo-ann-snover?&order=nb_downloads&filters%5Bgentech%5D=only
You don't do AI yet? I'm surprised.
My approach is to create AI versions of my own bestsellers first.
I think I'll start shooting/generating house renovation images too. That's where the money is!!
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OK start this week. March has been consistent. But I like the progress I've made so far by adding AI generated images.
When I release my "How to get rich quick by selling AI images on Adobe Stock" tutorial video for $100, all newbies out there should buy. :D :D It took 10 years to get to the level I was at with regular photos. It took only 6 months to nearly double that level by adding AI generated images. I thought AI images would destroy us, but so far not a bad deal. I started way too late in AI images, but somehow made it work. It must have been a bonanza for those who started at the beginning of last year.
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It seems that AI sales haven't overly hurt sales of non-AI images which is a nice thing!
That also implies a big win for Adobestock in additional revenue. I also wonder how
contributors (especially exclusive) at other agencies that don't allow AI uploads feel about it?
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It seems that AI sales haven't overly hurt sales of non-AI images which is a nice thing!
Yes, that hasn't happened yet so far. Good!!
I think I'm getting more non-AI photo sales because I get more traffic to my portfolio from AI photos. So, adding more materials to your portfolio is good in general.
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OK start this week. March has been consistent. But I like the progress I've made so far by adding AI generated images.
When I release my "How to get rich quick by selling AI images on Adobe Stock" tutorial video for $100, all newbies out there should buy. :D :D It took 10 years to get to the level I was at with regular photos. It took only 6 months to nearly double that level by adding AI generated images. I thought AI images would destroy us, but so far not a bad deal. I started way too late in AI images, but somehow made it work. It must have been a bonanza for those who started at the beginning of last year.
exactly it took you 10 years to get to level 1,on Adobe from what I've seen time from how much you are a contributor is a key point for how much you sell,as it should be,I think it is right that contributors who start earlier earn more I have been a contributor on Adobe for only 6 years,and I currently have less than 1000 AI contents for sale.
in my opinion you sell more AI content because in general you sell more of everything because you have been a contributor for longer,my 6 years are still few.
congratulations,and i hope one day i can arrive where you are now! :)
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OK start this week. March has been consistent. But I like the progress I've made so far by adding AI generated images.
When I release my "How to get rich quick by selling AI images on Adobe Stock" tutorial video for $100, all newbies out there should buy. :D :D It took 10 years to get to the level I was at with regular photos. It took only 6 months to nearly double that level by adding AI generated images. I thought AI images would destroy us, but so far not a bad deal. I started way too late in AI images, but somehow made it work. It must have been a bonanza for those who started at the beginning of last year.
exactly it took you 10 years to get to level 1,on Adobe from what I've seen time from how much you are a contributor is a key point for how much you sell,as it should be,I think it is right that contributors who start earlier earn more I have been a contributor on Adobe for only 6 years,and I currently have less than 1000 AI contents for sale.
in my opinion you sell more AI content because in general you sell more of everything because you have been a contributor for longer,my 6 years are still few.
congratulations,and i hope one day i can arrive where you are now! :)
Thank you!!
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It seems that AI sales haven't overly hurt sales of non-AI images which is a nice thing!
That also implies a big win for Adobestock in additional revenue. I also wonder how
contributors (especially exclusive) at other agencies that don't allow AI uploads feel about it?
I have always thought that AI content cannot reduce the sales of real content,AI content is a separate thing that goes on its own,however,I remain convinced that it needs to be regulated in a better way.
I hope that SS also decides to accept AI content,but I doubt it,perhaps there could also be a reason related to how their sales system works,or they are simply no longer interested in continuing this business with contributors.
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I think if an agency that is selling AI images is seeing a sales boom, then agencies that are not selling AI content soon will be selling AI content.
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Down to pos 3210, Adobe me and easter don‘t get along :(
need to add more variety and non seasonal content
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Down to pos 3210, Adobe me and easter don‘t get along :(
need to add more variety and non seasonal content
:D my Easter isn't going great either!
3210 is exactly my best position ever,welcome back to my area! :D
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I think if an agency that is selling AI images is seeing a sales boom, then agencies that are not selling AI content soon will be selling AI content.
and I can't help but hope you're right! :)
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I think if an agency that is selling AI images is seeing a sales boom, then agencies that are not selling AI content soon will be selling AI content.
I don't think it's that easy. For example, Shutterstock isn't taking AI works for 2 reasons I think. 1 is they want their own AI generator to generate AI images so that they'll keep 100% of revenue. 2 is the potential legal issue in future. You never know if there may be massive lawsuit against AI generated images. They don't want to risk that.
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@blvdone
I prefer not to say the precise number but more than 7000
I'm sure your strategy pays off in the short term,we need to see if it pays off in the long term.
for the moment we are still at the beginning,then we will have to see when the competition increases.
However,you may be right,maybe I waste too much time,but I like to put content on sale that I would buy myself.
I also tried a month as a pro plan with Midjourney,because given the speed with which many of you upload,I thought that the outputs of Midjourney were more correct but this is not the case,90% of the contents have generative errors,until now all AI image generators have errors,and many things to improve.
Honestly, there isn't much more to edit AI generated photos other than erasing brand logos in very rare occasions. I don't waste time tweaking extra/missing fingers or disfigured faces. I just don't submit those bad ones and generate till I get good ones. Time is money. I just try to maximize my output per hour/day. And based on the number you gave me, my portfolio is making 2x more $$ per photo. So, no offense, but I know what I'm doing and it's working. If your photo isn't selling short term, why can you expect them to do well in long term? It just doesn't make sense unless you are producing seasonal materials way in advance.
And you're right about generating AI images on Midjourney. Many of the generated images aren't usable. It takes time to generate images that you want. You need to work on the prompts and hope AI will give you usable images without extra/missing fingers and limbs. That's where my time is spent regarding AI image creation.
Yeah, same here. In the beginning I was fixing quite long generative errors until I realized I loose to much time by doing this.
So instead I now first try to formulate a better prompt or search for a better Stable Diffusion model, which generates less errors.
I currently spend max. 2 minutes for retouche after upscaling.
With AI upscaler I even can automatically retouche minor errors or I'm fixing them very rough and quickly and the AI makes the rest.
So it's as you said time is money and you have to maximize it.
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@blvdone
I prefer not to say the precise number but more than 7000
I'm sure your strategy pays off in the short term,we need to see if it pays off in the long term.
for the moment we are still at the beginning,then we will have to see when the competition increases.
However,you may be right,maybe I waste too much time,but I like to put content on sale that I would buy myself.
I also tried a month as a pro plan with Midjourney,because given the speed with which many of you upload,I thought that the outputs of Midjourney were more correct but this is not the case,90% of the contents have generative errors,until now all AI image generators have errors,and many things to improve.
Honestly, there isn't much more to edit AI generated photos other than erasing brand logos in very rare occasions. I don't waste time tweaking extra/missing fingers or disfigured faces. I just don't submit those bad ones and generate till I get good ones. Time is money. I just try to maximize my output per hour/day. And based on the number you gave me, my portfolio is making 2x more $$ per photo. So, no offense, but I know what I'm doing and it's working. If your photo isn't selling short term, why can you expect them to do well in long term? It just doesn't make sense unless you are producing seasonal materials way in advance.
And you're right about generating AI images on Midjourney. Many of the generated images aren't usable. It takes time to generate images that you want. You need to work on the prompts and hope AI will give you usable images without extra/missing fingers and limbs. That's where my time is spent regarding AI image creation.
Yeah, same here. In the beginning I was fixing quite long generative errors until I realized I loose to much time by doing this.
So instead I now first try to formulate a better prompt or search for a better Stable Diffusion model, which generates less errors.
I currently spend max. 2 minutes for retouche after upscaling.
With AI upscaler I even can automatically retouche minor errors or I'm fixing them very rough and quickly and the AI makes the rest.
So it's as you said time is money and you have to maximize it.
yes that's probably the case,I spend more time in post-production and less time on prompts,also because until I see the images in detail in Photoshop or Lightroom I can't be sure of anything.
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I think if an agency that is selling AI images is seeing a sales boom, then agencies that are not selling AI content soon will be selling AI content.
I don't think it's that easy. For example, Shutterstock isn't taking AI works for 2 reasons I think. 1 is they want their own AI generator to generate AI images so that they'll keep 100% of revenue. 2 is the potential legal issue in future. You never know if there may be massive lawsuit against AI generated images. They don't want to risk that.
I see 1 as much more likely,I don't think SS is concerned about legal issues.
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BTW, I love generating AI images. It's so much fun!!! Especially when I try my own concept. I do keyword search to see if anybody already uploaded similar theme/concept. When I find not many are out there yet, I feel really motivated.
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BTW, I love generating AI images. It's so much fun!!! Especially when I try my own concept. I do keyword search to see if anybody already uploaded similar theme/concept. When I find not many are out there yet, I feel really motivated.
yes AI are addictive! :D
I agree,doing a search for missing content is always a good idea.
I still have to evaluate how this AI content goes if it can really make a difference,I still have too little to be able to make a judgement,in a couple of months,I will be able to understand much more about it,for the moment I am selling more real content,more vector lately.
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It's just a common sense to try to create what's selling. But I was trying to explain a pitfall of creating very similar images. You got to differentiate from what's already out there in the same concept/genre. That's my approach. There's no copyright in concept for photo/video/images. So, you can't own that. Nobody owns "business theme", "Christmas theme" etc.
Also, many images on my portfolio top page are images with only 1 recent sale. And if these don't get additional sales, they'll get pushed back to further down pages. So, it's not that simple to guess what's really selling on somebody's portfolio.
A lot of people copy images almost one to one along with titles, etc. that’s what is bothering me. Not a just a knowledge that concept of technology or Christmas theme is selling well, so they should do technology and Christmas images. (Yes, those themes sell the best, but there are millions of images of tech and Xmas that don’t sell at all)
I do own a copyright to my hand drawn illustrations and I don’t want them to be copied. It takes a lot of time to report it.
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It's just a common sense to try to create what's selling. But I was trying to explain a pitfall of creating very similar images. You got to differentiate from what's already out there in the same concept/genre. That's my approach. There's no copyright in concept for photo/video/images. So, you can't own that. Nobody owns "business theme", "Christmas theme" etc.
Also, many images on my portfolio top page are images with only 1 recent sale. And if these don't get additional sales, they'll get pushed back to further down pages. So, it's not that simple to guess what's really selling on somebody's portfolio.
A lot of people copy images almost one to one along with titles, etc. that’s what is bothering me. Not a just a knowledge that concept of technology or Christmas theme is selling well, so they should do technology and Christmas images. (Yes, those themes sell the best, but there are millions of images of tech and Xmas that don’t sell at all)
I do own a copyright to my hand drawn illustrations and I don’t want them to be copied. It takes a lot of time to report it.
Yeah, I hear you. But it has nothing to do with me. So, good luck.
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This week, numbers are good near BWE, but ranking is just usual. Everybody else must be doing well this week.
-
I dropped in rank, but my sales volume is going up.
So sales are probably increasing, spring break is over.
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Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
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Nice jump in earnings and downloads.
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Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
Page 1, first post - you can read it there.
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Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
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Nice jump in earnings and downloads.
Thanks!!
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
If you only have 1 sale per week for 2,600 images, you aren't producing the right kind of images. Beautiful image that nobody need won't sell. You got to focus on market research. Otherwise you'll be wasting time and will be massively disappointed and exhausted.
These videos may help you get a better idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs)
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
Not gonna lie, that's pretty bad. I have currently a port of approx 700 AI images and weekly up to 10 sales, which is also pretty bad.
I have added in the beginning much crappy stuff, which I now sort out and upload new better content.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
If you only have 1 sale per week for 2,600 images, you aren't producing the right kind of images. Beautiful image that nobody need won't sell. You got to focus on market research. Otherwise you'll be wasting time and will be massively disappointed and exhausted.
These videos may help you get a better idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs)
Thanks for the links. I usually produce landscapes or aerial photos and videos.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
If you only have 1 sale per week for 2,600 images, you aren't producing the right kind of images. Beautiful image that nobody need won't sell. You got to focus on market research. Otherwise you'll be wasting time and will be massively disappointed and exhausted.
These videos may help you get a better idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs)
Thanks for the links. I usually produce landscapes or aerial photos and videos.
Landscapes can be very saturated already especially famous places. I haven't had good results either. Those can be the beautiful images that don't sell because of supply/demand balance.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
Not gonna lie, that's pretty bad. I have currently a port of approx 700 AI images and weekly up to 10 sales, which is also pretty bad.
I have added in the beginning much crappy stuff, which I now sort out and upload new better content.
I was thinking, that's because maybe I have started last year, and don't have enough views. Or something like this.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
Not gonna lie, that's pretty bad. I have currently a port of approx 700 AI images and weekly up to 10 sales, which is also pretty bad.
I have added in the beginning much crappy stuff, which I now sort out and upload new better content.
I was thinking, that's because maybe I have started last year, and don't have enough views. Or something like this.
What I would do is to keyword search for similar images you have uploaded and sort by "Download" to see what's the difference between your image and the ones selling the most. I don't think it has anything to do with you started last year. That's too optimistic.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
If you only have 1 sale per week for 2,600 images, you aren't producing the right kind of images. Beautiful image that nobody need won't sell. You got to focus on market research. Otherwise you'll be wasting time and will be massively disappointed and exhausted.
These videos may help you get a better idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs)
Thanks for the links. I usually produce landscapes or aerial photos and videos.
Landscapes can be very saturated already especially famous places. I haven't had good results either. Those can be the beautiful images that don't sell because of supply/demand balance.
Some drone landscape images do sell good. Sold some couple of times. Everything with the camera, is not really good with sales for some reason.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
Not gonna lie, that's pretty bad. I have currently a port of approx 700 AI images and weekly up to 10 sales, which is also pretty bad.
I have added in the beginning much crappy stuff, which I now sort out and upload new better content.
I was thinking, that's because maybe I have started last year, and don't have enough views. Or something like this.
What I would do is to keyword search for similar images you have uploaded and sort by "Download" to see what's the difference between your image and the ones selling the most. I don't think it has anything to do with you started last year. That's too optimistic.
So you saying that's because of my keywords might be wrong or not enough?
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
If you only have 1 sale per week for 2,600 images, you aren't producing the right kind of images. Beautiful image that nobody need won't sell. You got to focus on market research. Otherwise you'll be wasting time and will be massively disappointed and exhausted.
These videos may help you get a better idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs)
Thanks for the links. I usually produce landscapes or aerial photos and videos.
Landscapes can be very saturated already especially famous places. I haven't had good results either. Those can be the beautiful images that don't sell because of supply/demand balance.
Some drone landscape images do sell good. Sold some couple of times. Everything with the camera, is not really good with sales for some reason.
Drone videos sell well too. If I'm allowed to fly drones anywhere, I'll be focusing on that too.
-
Just had a huge day today. On it's way to BWE for photos on Adobe Stock. Thank you for your support!!
Was wondering how many photos you have on your port. For me if I sell a file a week, I'm lucky.
I have about 10,400 photos right now. About 4,200 are AI generated. How many do you have? Less than 10?
No man, around 2600 images and 500 videos. Probably because I have started recently.
If you only have 1 sale per week for 2,600 images, you aren't producing the right kind of images. Beautiful image that nobody need won't sell. You got to focus on market research. Otherwise you'll be wasting time and will be massively disappointed and exhausted.
These videos may help you get a better idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14GQG6frrU)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHefBPjE8yE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpsGOGyGzNM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RwKAa1XIs)
Thanks for the links. I usually produce landscapes or aerial photos and videos.
Landscapes can be very saturated already especially famous places. I haven't had good results either. Those can be the beautiful images that don't sell because of supply/demand balance.
Some drone landscape images do sell good. Sold some couple of times. Everything with the camera, is not really good with sales for some reason.
Drone videos sell well too. If I'm allowed to fly drones anywhere, I'll be focusing on that too.
To honest o have sold only 1 video with my gopro and 1 with the drone. Not many have sold. Most of my videos are taken with my drones.
Own 3 of them so I can fly them everywhere.
I'm doing some Ai images, not sure how these will sell.
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Finally I cracked above 1,000th because of yesterday's hot sales. Also it's already the BWE for photo downloads this week. Nice!!
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Finally I cracked above 1,000th because of yesterday's hot sales. Also it's already the BWE for photo downloads this week. Nice!!
Good job! How many times has your best AI photo sold? And are you seeing the majority of new sales from AI, or your previous/real life photography photos?
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Finally I cracked above 1,000th because of yesterday's hot sales. Also it's already the BWE for photo downloads this week. Nice!!
Good job! How many times has your best AI photo sold? And are you seeing the majority of new sales from AI, or your previous/real life photography photos?
Thanks!! I think my conventional photos still sell more than AI photos per photos, but it took 10 years to get 6,000 photos in my port and took 6 months to get 4,000 AI photos in my port. So, AI photos are way more efficient as business.
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Finally I cracked above 1,000th because of yesterday's hot sales. Also it's already the BWE for photo downloads this week. Nice!!
Very good! Congrats!
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Finally I cracked above 1,000th because of yesterday's hot sales. Also it's already the BWE for photo downloads this week. Nice!!
Very good! Congrats!
Thanks!!
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pos 2940
probably not bad for a 4200 file port, but I was hoping for much better spring sales.
need many more files. now upped my midjourney contract to 60 dollars to enable stealth mode. and hopefully that will push me to do more with midjourney to get better at using it. i still don't feel really comfortable but it does make much better people than stable.
also trying to do more with firefly.
now have prompting costs around 100 dollars a month. but longterm it should be worth it.
-
pos 2940
probably not bad for a 4200 file port, but I was hoping for much better spring sales.
need many more files. now upped my midjourney contract to 60 dollars to enable stealth mode. and hopefully that will push me to do more with midjourney to get better at using it. i still don't feel really comfortable but it does make much better people than stable.
also trying to do more with firefly.
now have prompting costs around 100 dollars a month. but longterm it should be worth it.
Just triple your content and you'll get near 1,000th. Not bad for 4,000 images.
-
I am trying!! But I rarely upload more than 20 files a day. Maybe it will get better with midjourney, we will see.
Also started again with regular photos/videos.
I must diversify and also send content to other agencies. You never know what happens, perhaps ai will die next year if so many people are pushing content in.
Especially editorial should keep its value or might even go up in value.
-
pos 2940
probably not bad for a 4200 file port, but I was hoping for much better spring sales.
need many more files. now upped my midjourney contract to 60 dollars to enable stealth mode. and hopefully that will push me to do more with midjourney to get better at using it. i still don't feel really comfortable but it does make much better people than stable.
also trying to do more with firefly.
now have prompting costs around 100 dollars a month. but longterm it should be worth it.
Just triple your content and you'll get near 1,000th. Not bad for 4,000 images.
Not really. Tripled/quadrupled/etc content does not necessarily correlate with increased sales. I.e., if you had 5,000 pictures of bananas, and went to 15,000 pictures of bananas, you probably wouldn't see an increase in sales, of course, unless, people went bananas for bananas...
-
Finally I cracked above 1,000th because of yesterday's hot sales. Also it's already the BWE for photo downloads this week. Nice!!
wow fantastic!a well deserved result! :)
-
pos 2940
probably not bad for a 4200 file port, but I was hoping for much better spring sales.
need many more files. now upped my midjourney contract to 60 dollars to enable stealth mode. and hopefully that will push me to do more with midjourney to get better at using it. i still don't feel really comfortable but it does make much better people than stable.
also trying to do more with firefly.
now have prompting costs around 100 dollars a month. but longterm it should be worth it.
Just triple your content and you'll get near 1,000th. Not bad for 4,000 images.
Not really. Tripled/quadrupled/etc content does not necessarily correlate with increased sales. I.e., if you had 5,000 pictures of bananas, and went to 15,000 pictures of bananas, you probably wouldn't see an increase in sales, of course, unless, people went bananas for bananas...
Don't you ever dare to discuss my bananas! :D
anyway no,it's not like that,it depends on what photos of bananas they are,if they are all similar it's as you say,but if they are different 10,000 more photos of anything,even bananas always make a difference.
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I am trying!! But I rarely upload more than 20 files a day. Maybe it will get better with midjourney, we will see.
Also started again with regular photos/videos.
I must diversify and also send content to other agencies. You never know what happens, perhaps ai will die next year if so many people are pushing content in.
Especially editorial should keep its value or might even go up in value.
Firefly is better in my opinion,Midjourney is better for some things,but the way it works with Discord is too annoying,not only do you have to use stealth mode,but then you would have to operate in a private server,with which you only have the Midjourney BOT,and you have to adjust the settings so that no one can access your server,and then all this is not enough,you also have to unpublish the images in the Midjourney feed,not just in Discord.
so while you do all this your images will still be seen by other users in the Midjourney feed not in the Discord feed.
before I started operating in this way,I discovered that someone was copying all my prompts,in Discord there are people who do just this,they follow the feeds and copy and paste the prompts...very annoying!
-
I am trying!! But I rarely upload more than 20 files a day. Maybe it will get better with midjourney, we will see.
Also started again with regular photos/videos.
I must diversify and also send content to other agencies. You never know what happens, perhaps ai will die next year if so many people are pushing content in.
Especially editorial should keep its value or might even go up in value.
Firefly is better in my opinion,Midjourney is better for some things,but the way it works with Discord is too annoying,not only do you have to use stealth mode,but then you would have to operate in a private server,with which you only have the Midjourney BOT,and you have to adjust the settings so that no one can access your server,and then all this is not enough,you also have to unpublish the images in the Midjourney feed,not just in Discord.
so while you do all this your images will still be seen by other users in the Midjourney feed not in the Discord feed.
before I started operating in this way,I discovered that someone was copying all my prompts,in Discord there are people who do just this,they follow the feeds and copy and paste the prompts...very annoying!
Could you please clarify? As far as I know - all images are stealth... what "midjourney" feed are you referring to?
Thanks!
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All images you prompt are visible to anyone else, to download, to use the prompt etc....it is one of the reasons why so much midjourney content is near identical. people do a search, find the image presented on adobe with high downloads and just reuse the prompt.
from 60 dollars a month onwards, you can enable a "stealth" mode, then your images and your prompting remains private.
however, it probably means you have to keep paying that forever, because as soon as you downgrade your content is visible again.
so i am not sure this is a good longterm solution.
firefly and stable are private.
-
pos 2940
probably not bad for a 4200 file port, but I was hoping for much better spring sales.
need many more files. now upped my midjourney contract to 60 dollars to enable stealth mode. and hopefully that will push me to do more with midjourney to get better at using it. i still don't feel really comfortable but it does make much better people than stable.
also trying to do more with firefly.
now have prompting costs around 100 dollars a month. but longterm it should be worth it.
Just triple your content and you'll get near 1,000th. Not bad for 4,000 images.
Not really. Tripled/quadrupled/etc content does not necessarily correlate with increased sales. I.e., if you had 5,000 pictures of bananas, and went to 15,000 pictures of bananas, you probably wouldn't see an increase in sales, of course, unless, people went bananas for bananas...
How many photos do you have in your portfolio?
I increased my portfolio by 70% in 6 months. And my downloads/revenue is up exactly by 70% now. So, if you know what you're doing and don't produce craps that don't sell, it can go up by what you add. Cobalt is a veteran and knows what she's doing. So, I expect her to produce contents that are equally productive in the future. Of course it always doesn't happen, but can happen. Growth can slow or accelerate as you add more contents in your portfolio.
-
Finally I cracked above 1,000th because of yesterday's hot sales. Also it's already the BWE for photo downloads this week. Nice!!
wow fantastic!a well deserved result! :)
Thank you!!
-
because as soon as you downgrade your content is visible again.
Where did you get that info?
-
I am trying!! But I rarely upload more than 20 files a day. Maybe it will get better with midjourney, we will see.
Also started again with regular photos/videos.
I must diversify and also send content to other agencies. You never know what happens, perhaps ai will die next year if so many people are pushing content in.
Especially editorial should keep its value or might even go up in value.
Firefly is better in my opinion,Midjourney is better for some things,but the way it works with Discord is too annoying,not only do you have to use stealth mode,but then you would have to operate in a private server,with which you only have the Midjourney BOT,and you have to adjust the settings so that no one can access your server,and then all this is not enough,you also have to unpublish the images in the Midjourney feed,not just in Discord.
so while you do all this your images will still be seen by other users in the Midjourney feed not in the Discord feed.
before I started operating in this way,I discovered that someone was copying all my prompts,in Discord there are people who do just this,they follow the feeds and copy and paste the prompts...very annoying!
Could you please clarify? As far as I know - all images are stealth... what "midjourney" feed are you referring to?
Thanks!
stealth mode is not enough,is enough just for Discord feed,go to the Midjourney site,where you manage your subscription,there you have all your images that you can download in compressed folders,then select all the images and then select "unpublish"
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because as soon as you downgrade your content is visible again.
Where did you get that info?
read it somewhere in one of the ai groups.
if you are unsure, ask them directly.
the stealth option is missing from the cheaper plans. this should mean it all goes public again.
but it would make sense, to keep us in the higher plan.
eta: perhaps we can delete content?
If we really want to downgrade, make sure every file with prompt is secured, then delete it completely??
-
I am trying!! But I rarely upload more than 20 files a day. Maybe it will get better with midjourney, we will see.
Also started again with regular photos/videos.
I must diversify and also send content to other agencies. You never know what happens, perhaps ai will die next year if so many people are pushing content in.
Especially editorial should keep its value or might even go up in value.
Firefly is better in my opinion,Midjourney is better for some things,but the way it works with Discord is too annoying,not only do you have to use stealth mode,but then you would have to operate in a private server,with which you only have the Midjourney BOT,and you have to adjust the settings so that no one can access your server,and then all this is not enough,you also have to unpublish the images in the Midjourney feed,not just in Discord.
so while you do all this your images will still be seen by other users in the Midjourney feed not in the Discord feed.
before I started operating in this way,I discovered that someone was copying all my prompts,in Discord there are people who do just this,they follow the feeds and copy and paste the prompts...very annoying!
Could you please clarify? As far as I know - all images are stealth... what "midjourney" feed are you referring to?
Thanks!
stealth mode is not enough,is enough just for Discord feed,go to the Midjourney site,where you manage your subscription,there you have all your images that you can download in compressed folders,then select all the images and then select "unpublish"
thank you, will try to figure it out.
I think I might just totally delete files, once I have them all secured.
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because as soon as you downgrade your content is visible again.
Where did you get that info?
From what I read before starting to use Midjourney,the stealth mode and the private server may be enough to hide your actions with Midjourney,but then some online research,I read that you also need to unpublish on the MIdjourney site,and maybe that's another reason too,that when you downgrade your content is visible again.
in any case I unpublish manually on the Midjourney site after each hour-long session.
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that is quite sneaky, thank you for pointing this out.
you think you are safe in stealth mode, then you still need to unpublish manually every single file.
I think I might start deleting completely
Can we delete completely??
eta: cannot find a delete button...
next question: do the files stay unpublished if I downgrade?
that would open the option of doing one month hardcore midjourney in stealth mode, next month downgrade to 10 dollars, then again one month in stealth mode etc...
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that is quite sneaky, thank you for pointing this out.
you think you are safe in stealth mode, then you still need to unpublish manually every single file.
I think I might start deleting completely
Can we delete completely??
eta: cannot find a delete button...
next question: do the files stay unpublished if I downgrade?
that would open the option of doing one month hardcore midjourney in stealth mode, next month downgrade to 10 dollars, then again one month in stealth mode etc...
as far as I know the only way to delete images from Midjourney is by reacting to the message in Discord with X symbol and images are deleted not even immediately but in 20 min :-\
Midjourney is designed to be public so I don't like it very much,you still have to bother a little if you want to make sure your content isn't visible somewhere.
yes Cobalt,once manually unpublished they remain so.
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because as soon as you downgrade your content is visible again.
Where did you get that info?
From what I read before starting to use Midjourney,the stealth mode and the private server may be enough to hide your actions with Midjourney,but then some online research,I read that you also need to unpublish on the MIdjourney site,and maybe that's another reason too,that when you downgrade your content is visible again.
in any case I unpublish manually on the Midjourney site after each hour-long session.
I found the publish/unpublish on Midjourney.com archive page a few months ago and have been unpublishing everything. Midjourney.com archive page is much easier to navigate and download photos you generated/upscaled unlike doing that on Discord.
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thank you both, really very useful info!!!
will certainly always unpublish and drop my costs by doing a monthly switch in plans.
I am now mostly using the archive page instead of discord.
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now with the new Midjourney Alpha interface is possible to easily reuse prompts of other users too,so better unpublish manually everything!
yes the archive page simplifies life.
I think Midjourney is too expensive,I had the pro plan for a while.
in my opinion Firefly is better,for many reasons,more practical,faster,private,and offers you more interesting variations,and it has other advantages too.
Midjourney has more attractive graphics,for some types of content,but it's quite cumbersome and public.
but this just my personal opinion!
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I agree. I just think for people content midjourney has the best.
But doing it for one month, unpublish everything after prompting, should e enough. then a one or two month break.
will try to get better with firefly. at least then we are supporting our own files.
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Currently pos 2780
Thank you for explaining how unpublishing works. Now I do it every day.
Will probably also downgrade midjourney to the 30 dollar plan next month and then toggle between intensive use months and relaxed use months.
I still find it very difficult to get what I want from any of the ais I am using. Which perhaps is a good thing, if I struggle so will many customers.
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Currently pos 2780
Thank you for explaining how unpublishing works. Now I do it every day.
Will probably also downgrade midjourney to the 30 dollar plan next month and then toggle between intensive use months and relaxed use months.
I still find it very difficult to get what I want from any of the ais I am using. Which perhaps is a good thing, if I struggle so will many customers.
I see you're having a good week too,if you had continued these years you could have lived on microstocks by now! :)
Today,I reached the second best month in terms of sales numbers,my approval rate for AI content also rises to 90%
look like the average earnings for contributors on Adobe Stock is rising too,given that we continue to slowly earn more but more or less remain in the same positions,it means that the general average is rising.
AI outputs are incomplete images,if you look at them in general they may look ok,but if you look at them in detail they won't.
all AI outputs have chromatic aberrations to begin with,then if you see them up to 100% they may not be noticeable,but they are there,and which are obviously just defects in the rendering.
but then it's not just this,they lack details,and often if we waste a little time we can create better images with more details.
in general I believe that trying to create something which if seen at 100% is appreciable is the general rule,there are very few AI outputs that are fine as they are,abstract ones of course can also be fine as they are.
I try to see the AI outputs as a basis for the final image,a starting point,the combination of Photoshop generative fill and expand,plus photo editing and more can certainly lead to results in which the purchase of the image becomes extremely convenient for the customer who will never be able to generate anything similar just with a prompt.
Firefly is better at interpreting prompts,even with simple prompts you can often create what you want.
yes,maybe I will use Midjourney again in the future,but not for now,I already have thousands of contents to work on in post production,for the moment I think it's enough! :D
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my last rise before the steep fall, next week I will be back down to 4200
pos 2340, 4280 files
but I like that the adobe system is so dynamic. if you have what clients want there is no barrier to moving up.
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My AS port is less than 2000 landscape/travel stills & can't compete with some of people here, but today was a nice surprise. This is most likely same customer, interesting 2 downloads of same image within few seconds, first normal sub then probably something enhanced.
Anyone interested, this is quite famous Mt. Robson and Berg Lake, one of most iconic back-country areas in Canadian Rockies
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Those are both lovely images and very good sales. Congratulations!
Not everyone wants to rebuild a full time stock income. In a different life I would probably enjoy the journey a lot more if I was doing stock more as a hobby.
I am sharing my results because I know many people are considering doing stock again more seriously and wondering if it is still possible to rise in ranks with the current flood of incoming content.
So I think it is encouraging that the Adobe system is very dynamic. Frustrating when it all drops back down of course, but once I have a port with 12k files it will be more stable.
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Just fell off the cliff. Fall from grace. I was at 1,030-1,080th till yesterday, but 50% down in a day. My haters must be celebrating. They are definitely entitled to it.
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That is just the holiday/spring break
You will move back up when they are back at work, I will fall down because the holiday is over.
But again, it shows how dynamic the system is.
There are people with 60 000 fies who have never seen anything near your current rank. You are doing exceptionally well.
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That is just the holiday/spring break
You will move back up when they are back at work, I will fall down because the holiday is over.
But again, it shows how dynamic the system is.
There are people with 60 000 fies who have never seen anything near your current rank. You are doing exceptionally well.
Thank you!!
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after a strong Monday the rest of the week was pretty bad,not even an Easter sale :(
I don't know if you noticed but there are 1,076,612 results for "Easter" AI only,already a million AI contents for Easter.
this is why I am not particularly convinced that investing a lot of time in AI content is a good idea in the long term,for now yes,but I think in a year at most I don't think I will produce any more AI content,then clearly I will see,it depends on the results,but with this mass production so fast,I believe that the real difference can only be made with real contents at the end of the day.
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the numbers don't tell you anything about how much money you can make with a theme.
there are millions of files of everything - people, flowers, food, business, landscapes, tech, with or without ai.
and yet there are people who make reliable money every year.
the majority of content is just duplicates of duplicates, the number of people who actually make the effort to drill down into themes is tiny. they just sort any search by downloads and copy the first 3 pages.
i have seen people make reliable money just taking images of their garden and gardening work. but they do it reliably, add latin names to everything, their videos are very nicely done, the postprocessing is professional.
and while it is not a full time living, it is enough to pay the running costs of gardening equipment, seeds, earth...
others do that with their pet. first they create enough content so the pet literally feeds itself, then they expand what they do, also add family interacting, get pets from friends and suddenly they make a reliable add on income for the household.
etc...
the goal is to learn what customers like to buy from you, what you can reliably produce and then to just keep doing it until you have a few thousand good, very diverse files.
then your port will get bookmarked as a resource.
if you don't understand fashion, there is no real point to create fashion content just because a youtuber recommends it. or business people and high end teams if you don't understand the latest trends.
what sells best and very reliably, is authentic content.
either because it was taken with a camera on a specific location by someone who actually works in that field or it is ai but done by someone who understands the subject well.
for instance i spent many years working in traffic technology, so one of my ai projects will be to create useful content for that highly specialized market.
i also love good warm soups, so there is a recipe book ready and i am looking to team up with friends for small cooking shootings
etc...
the flood of ai is just like the flood of normal photos that comes in anyway.
it doesn't worry me.
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after a strong Monday the rest of the week was pretty bad,not even an Easter sale :(
I don't know if you noticed but there are 1,076,612 results for "Easter" AI only,already a million AI contents for Easter.
this is why I am not particularly convinced that investing a lot of time in AI content is a good idea in the long term,for now yes,but I think in a year at most I don't think I will produce any more AI content,then clearly I will see,it depends on the results,but with this mass production so fast,I believe that the real difference can only be made with real contents at the end of the day.
Well, it's not as if the competition is getting smaller.
Yes, the majority of AI images are currently still garbage because it takes a lot of time to find good generators and diffusion models.
But the bar is definitely getting higher. Many former classic photo bestsellers from 5 to 10 years ago have been overtaken by exceptionally good AI images.
My strategy is looking for niches right from the start. Popular subjects are pure luck or one have to create extremely creative concepts, which would have little competition.
Easter, for example, is brutal.
You won't stand a chance with standard motifs. You have to combine Easter with other themes. Vacations, online shopping, promotional offers for workshops, fashion, lifestyle, etc.
In other words, what a creative director would have photoshopped manually from standard stock material in the past.
And you have to build up a very balanced portfolio with many themes.
Otherwise one have no chance nowdays.
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"In other words, what a creative director would have photoshopped manually from standard stock material in the past"
Exactly this.
eta
just a brief moment in time, hopefully one day a normal value, maybe when I have 12 000 files on Adobe
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the numbers don't tell you anything about how much money you can make with a theme.
there are millions of files of everything - people, flowers, food, business, landscapes, tech, with or without ai.
and yet there are people who make reliable money every year.
the majority of content is just duplicates of duplicates, the number of people who actually make the effort to drill down into themes is tiny. they just sort any search by downloads and copy the first 3 pages.
i have seen people make reliable money just taking images of their garden and gardening work. but they do it reliably, add latin names to everything, their videos are very nicely done, the postprocessing is professional.
and while it is not a full time living, it is enough to pay the running costs of gardening equipment, seeds, earth...
others do that with their pet. first they create enough content so the pet literally feeds itself, then they expand what they do, also add family interacting, get pets from friends and suddenly they make a reliable add on income for the household.
etc...
the goal is to learn what customers like to buy from you, what you can reliably produce and then to just keep doing it until you have a few thousand good, very diverse files.
then your port will get bookmarked as a resource.
if you don't understand fashion, there is no real point to create fashion content just because a youtuber recommends it. or business people and high end teams if you don't understand the latest trends.
what sells best and very reliably, is authentic content.
either because it was taken with a camera on a specific location by someone who actually works in that field or it is ai but done by someone who understands the subject well.
for instance i spent many years working in traffic technology, so one of my ai projects will be to create useful content for that highly specialized market.
i also love good warm soups, so there is a recipe book ready and i am looking to team up with friends for small cooking shootings
etc...
the flood of ai is just like the flood of normal photos that comes in anyway.
it doesn't worry me.
yes and no :)
I agree with almost everything but not quite everything,AI content is different,technology advances,today's content will probably be obsolete in a couple of years,for example.
going back to Easter as an example,there are 3,188,923 traditional contentsand already one million AI,how long did it take to reach 3 million Easter contents?decades,how much for a million AI?a year?that's a big difference!
I agree that specializing in a type of content,for example food,or gardens is certainly a winning strategy,I have a type of content in which I started specializing in February 2023,given that there aren't many on Adobe,and I will always continue to make this content the basis of my portfolio, while trying to do everything else as well.
AI content can certainly be sold but in my opinion it cannot represent the basis of a portfolio,only real content can make the difference.
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after a strong Monday the rest of the week was pretty bad,not even an Easter sale :(
I don't know if you noticed but there are 1,076,612 results for "Easter" AI only,already a million AI contents for Easter.
this is why I am not particularly convinced that investing a lot of time in AI content is a good idea in the long term,for now yes,but I think in a year at most I don't think I will produce any more AI content,then clearly I will see,it depends on the results,but with this mass production so fast,I believe that the real difference can only be made with real contents at the end of the day.
Well, it's not as if the competition is getting smaller.
Yes, the majority of AI images are currently still garbage because it takes a lot of time to find good generators and diffusion models.
But the bar is definitely getting higher. Many former classic photo bestsellers from 5 to 10 years ago have been overtaken by exceptionally good AI images.
My strategy is looking for niches right from the start. Popular subjects are pure luck or one have to create extremely creative concepts, which would have little competition.
Easter, for example, is brutal.
You won't stand a chance with standard motifs. You have to combine Easter with other themes. Vacations, online shopping, promotional offers for workshops, fashion, lifestyle, etc.
In other words, what a creative director would have photoshopped manually from standard stock material in the past.
And you have to build up a very balanced portfolio with many themes.
Otherwise one have no chance nowdays.
yes and no the same :)
certainly,Easter is like photographing tomatoes,a very busy topic(there are 900,178 AI tomatoes and 4,627,028 real tomatoes)
a balanced portfolio is certainly fine,but it is better to specialize in one thing as a basis,while you can also do something else,if you succeed it is always better.
looking for niches is a winning strategy,we agree on this.
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"AI content can certainly be sold but in my opinion it cannot represent the basis of a portfolio,only real content can make the difference."
What about ai that looks completely real?
:)
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That is just the holiday/spring break
You will move back up when they are back at work, I will fall down because the holiday is over.
But again, it shows how dynamic the system is.
There are people with 60 000 fies who have never seen anything near your current rank. You are doing exceptionally well.
I also wanted to answer this,if there really is a portfolio with 60,000 contents that can't earn 200 usd a week,the explanation is very simple,either it doesn't have enough different content,it's full of similar and few subjects,that someone else with a 10 times smaller portfolio has 10 times more different subjects and therefore sells more.
or just hasn't had 60,000 pieces of content in a long time,because,from what I've seen,a portfolio with 5,000 contents that has been active for 15 years sells more than a portfolio with 60,000 contents that has been active for 5 years.
From what I understand,on Adobe time is one of the most important factors,a portfolio of 5000 contents that started in 2010 enjoys greater exposure than a portfolio with 60,000 contents active since 2020.
all of this is clearly just my conclusions from what I have seen,because obviously no one knows exactly how the sales system works,but if this is the case,i.e. that senior contributors earn more,I think it is right.
to be more clear,in my opinion it is right that a portfolio with 5000 contents active since 2010 earns more than a portfolio with 50,000 contents active since 2020,it is better that over time you earn more,and it doesn't depend only on how much content you have.
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"AI content can certainly be sold but in my opinion it cannot represent the basis of a portfolio,only real content can make the difference."
What about ai that looks completely real?
:)
it is always content labeled with AI,it can seem as real as you want but it is always AI :)
but for now it's fine,we are still in a phase where AI content is new and there are still many empty spaces,but I believe that in a year it will already be different.
in any case it can always be an addition to the real contents,but certainly not the basis.
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sales slowing down drastically, still moving up a bit
pos 1930
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First time that I see a rank (I upload only videos) 8)
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the rank is based on volume, not money, so you are probably earning a lot more than many others with your 5 sales
still, it is fun to see how it develops.
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5 video sales for less than $20 is sad. It used to be nearly $150 for 5 video sales.
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I had a horrible week - like an xmas-new years week. 11 dl position 25900 (I'm usually around 15000) just under 3300 mostly LCV images.
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very low sales but still a great rank, i guess when it is this slow I jump up again.
pos 1750
don't worry, next week I will go back down
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sales slowing down drastically, still moving up a bit
pos 1930
congratulations,an excellent result with only 4000 contents :)
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Broke top 500 lifetime rank 491 and holding steady around 200 weekly (189 at the moment).
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Whow, very impressive!!!
Single artist, or team production/family if I may ask?
Congratulations on all the hard work.
I find it encouraging that many people have good rankings as a single artist.
Gives me hope I can still rebuild a full time income from stock.
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My weekly rank this morning: 32,600th ;D
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Whow, very impressive!!!
Single artist, or team production/family if I may ask?
Congratulations on all the hard work.
I find it encouraging that many people have good rankings as a single artist.
Gives me hope I can still rebuild a full time income from stock.
Thanks… Just me, no one else or any help or use of AI.
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That is really amazing.
I hope you make it into the top 100!
eta
my jouney will use ai. I am beginning to understand the appeal of midjourney, especially for people, not yet for illustrations
now i need to learn how to generate fresh faces, getting the same models as everyone else
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Whow, very impressive!!!
Single artist, or team production/family if I may ask?
Congratulations on all the hard work.
I find it encouraging that many people have good rankings as a single artist.
Gives me hope I can still rebuild a full time income from stock.
Thanks… Just me, no one else or any help or use of AI.
yes really impressive! :)
and how long have you been a contributor in Adobe Stock? and how much content do you have in your portfolio if I may ask?
if you make AI content you would sell a lot of it because you have excellent exposure,so it is much more likely that you will sell everything and therefore also AI.
However,I understand you,this AI content is a double-edged sword,on the one hand it is better to make it but on the other it can result in a waste of time,it is certainly better to make real content.
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Broke top 500 lifetime rank 491 and holding steady around 200 weekly (189 at the moment).
Nice, what's your weekly earning with this position?
1k USD or more?
Would be interesting to know how the earnings are distributed among the top sellers.
How big is your portfolio? Would expect min. 30k images and videos.
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Not a million miles away. 20k images and sales are distributed across my port… not just a handful of top sellers. I’ve been doing this type of work since 2010 probably 2013/14 with Adobe / Fotolia. No AI in port.
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Not a million miles away. 20k images and sales are distributed across my port… not just a handful of top sellers. I’ve been doing this type of work since 2010 probably 2013/14 with Adobe / Fotolia. No AI in port.
Pretty good! :) Tips/strategies/recommendations on how to create a better selling/balanced portfolio?
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Not a million miles away. 20k images and sales are distributed across my port… not just a handful of top sellers. I’ve been doing this type of work since 2010 probably 2013/14 with Adobe / Fotolia. No AI in port.
Thanks for the reply,it's interesting to know. :)
I think that from now on I will focus more on real content and much less on AI,I don't have much AI content for sale,but I can already see that it doesn't sell much,even because I don't have a good exposure yet,since my best weekly rank ever was 3210,which only happened once.
with AI there is too much competition and contents are easily replicable by others,and then the technology will improve and it will be even simpler.
I think that AI content was easier to sell until December,now it's already becoming different,so in a year it will probably be much worse.
The problem is not so much the money spent on Midjourney and other things for AI,because the money can be made again,but time,that is the most important resource that no one can ever give back!
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On my way back down
pos 2240
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Not a million miles away. 20k images and sales are distributed across my port… not just a handful of top sellers. I’ve been doing this type of work since 2010 probably 2013/14 with Adobe / Fotolia. No AI in port.
Pretty good! :) Tips/strategies/recommendations on how to create a better selling/balanced portfolio?
I learned early on that if anyone is serious about making a career from this business, they should follow one simple rule. Do not divulge or give away details of what works for you including images that sell well. You have to treat it as a business and businesses do not provide, "Secrets of their success" to help their competitors take money from them. It sounds harsh but ultimately it will serve you well. Sorry if this sounds nasty but it's hard enough in this line of work without shooting yourself in the foot.
That said, I do enjoy teaching so when I retire, I would like to teach one or two people about how I did things. Not so much for money etc, just because I like the idea of passing something on.
Not a million miles away. 20k images and sales are distributed across my port… not just a handful of top sellers. I’ve been doing this type of work since 2010 probably 2013/14 with Adobe / Fotolia. No AI in port.
Thanks for the reply,it's interesting to know. :)
I think that from now on I will focus more on real content and much less on AI,I don't have much AI content for sale,but I can already see that it doesn't sell much,even because I don't have a good exposure yet,since my best weekly rank ever was 3210,which only happened once.
with AI there is too much competition and contents are easily replicable by others,and then the technology will improve and it will be even simpler.
I think that AI content was easier to sell until December,now it's already becoming different,so in a year it will probably be much worse.
The problem is not so much the money spent on Midjourney and other things for AI,because the money can be made again,but time,that is the most important resource that no one can ever give back!
AI or not AI, well... for me it wasn't so much a question of right or wrong, just what's right for me.
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I learned early on that if anyone is serious about making a career from this business, they should follow one simple rule. Do not divulge or give away details of what works for you including images that sell well. You have to treat it as a business and businesses do not provide, "Secrets of their success" to help their competitors take money from them. It sounds harsh but ultimately it will serve you well. Sorry if this sounds nasty but it's hard enough in this line of work without shooting yourself in the foot.
That said, I do enjoy teaching so when I retire, I would like to teach one or two people about how I did things. Not so much for money etc, just because I like the idea of passing something on.
Well... you could be the first! You mean, you aren't one of those guys selling a "How I make five BILLION dollars a day on autopilot in my underwear, while only working 30 seconds sipping a cappucino - and 29 of those seconds are getting caffeinated - and these secrets can be YOURS - for only $29.95!!!" type of people???
Mmm. I do agree - so was in generic terms if you had certain tips, but if not - that is okay too.
So... next question. When do you retire? :D
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
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@HalfFull
It doesn't seem nasty,it's fully understandable.
I agree,in fact I learned everything I know here on microstockgroup and on the former SS forum,and online from other sources.
I'm not an expert,I've only been in microstock for 6 years,I like to help as little as I can,but I always try to stay generic.
The fact is that for many microstock is not the main source of income so they have no problem sharing.
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
Less than 10k/day? Hmm wow! :)
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
wow this is great! :) How long have you been an Adobe Stock contributor,if I may ask?
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On my way back down
pos 2240
you go down and I go up :D but I'm always far from you rank,even though I have more content than you,I've been on Adobe Stock for much less time than you.
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
Wow!
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Not a million miles away. 20k images and sales are distributed across my port… not just a handful of top sellers. I’ve been doing this type of work since 2010 probably 2013/14 with Adobe / Fotolia. No AI in port.
Pretty good! :) Tips/strategies/recommendations on how to create a better selling/balanced portfolio?
I learned early on that if anyone is serious about making a career from this business, they should follow one simple rule. Do not divulge or give away details of what works for you including images that sell well. You have to treat it as a business and businesses do not provide, "Secrets of their success" to help their competitors take money from them. It sounds harsh but ultimately it will serve you well. Sorry if this sounds nasty but it's hard enough in this line of work without shooting yourself in the foot.
That said, I do enjoy teaching so when I retire, I would like to teach one or two people about how I did things. Not so much for money etc, just because I like the idea of passing something on.
That's the best advice!!!
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This is the first time that I don’t have a bestseller (all suddenly died out) and sales are cut in more than half!!! I didn’t realize how much I rely on my bestsellers.
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That said, I do enjoy teaching so when I retire, I would like to teach one or two people about how I did things. Not so much for money etc, just because I like the idea of passing something on.
It’s difficult to retire if you enjoy to create. Especially if you are good at it and success comes fairly easy. Part time is a wonderful option to still use your talent. It’s so enjoyable to see your work sell.
That’s why I don’t upload hundreds of images. I’m done with being efficient and streamlined, now I enjoy creative process and little rewards
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
Congratulations on your hard work!!!
No need to share details, I think it is already very helpful to know that such a position can indeed be reached by a single artist.
I always thought the top 100 was for large studio/team producers only. The only person I know in that level started out as a single artist but had progressed to working more as an art director and has people working for him, some full time, some on work for hire basis.
I do believe in sharing helpful information with peers and it can be done without reveailing best selling content.
Plus the algos make copying sometimes harder than people think. I know many producers who did a ton of seasonal content with ai, but get few sales, while my christmas season was quite good. But I have really, really old files that have probably accumulated in many galeries over the 10 years I didn‘t upload and these are the ones that started bringing in the money again. The ai stuff also sold, but less than old files revived.
For me I see it with my ai people, while they are slowly starting to sell, if I just do carrots on white background I will have better sales with that.
And if I do that with my camera, the carrots can go everywhere.
However, if I am consistent with my ai people uploads, then I am sure in 3-4 years they will also get good sales, like anything isolated or my greeting cards.
Same for illustrations. It is a new medium for me, there is ZERO algo track record. I have uploaded a lot of seasonal illustrations but sales are very, very slow. And sometimes very unexpected, I am actually having „artsy“ files sell. Done in watercolor or oil painting style.
So my first 3000 illustrations will be test subjects, trying many different niches and many, many different art styles.
Then gradually the customers will tell me what they like and I will make more of that.
But if I ever wanted to got for the top 100, I would certainly need 30k plus files.
I do a lot of research, but wouldn‘t know how to do that with less than 10k even if I could identify 10k top selling concepts. Gallery uptake by clients is a very slow process. Having instant best sellers is very rare for me.
There is also the time factor, I want to grow my income over the next 2-3 years, not over 20.
Roughly 60% of what i upload is still experimental, with ai even higher, because I am testing a lot of new things.
Thank you to anyone in top levels sharing ranks and port sizes.
For newbies it should help them understand that stock needs a ton of research and is not a slot machine where you throw random files in and money comes out.
The money is related to usefulness for clients not overall random content port size.
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Portfolio size does not necessarily seem to matter... 30k/40k files does not necessarily 'guarantee' one a top spot, especially if say it is 30k pictures of bananas :P
One thing I've noticed is it seems some very (relatively speaking) "small" portfolios for whatever reason - have a few 'best sellers' that take off like wildfire... Lol obviously if I knew what the 'magic formula' was- I just focus on producing those bestsellers :)
And then I suppose there are some that are difficult to recreate... yes, "ai" (its not real "ai", its basically copying and blending) - is getting better at stealing content & rehashing/blending it... but - definitely not "perfect"... There was one video (I think someone posted here, or maybe I saw it while looking at other things) - where I guess a woman was saying she made $8k from a single image... She shared it - and it was a very good picture of a baby under a white blanket... just happened to have the right expression, right lighting, etc and resonated with a lot of people... Now the "ai" could try and steal that - but it wouldn't be the same...
And then also - I think in some ways images sell in "different" ways... I.e., if people see that baby image, they want "that" image for their campaigns, etc... so that probably also helps propel some sales too...
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On my way back down
pos 2240
you go down and I go up :D but I'm always far from you rank,even though I have more content than you,I've been on Adobe Stock for much less time than you.
I don't believe it is the time factor, which is relevant to be pushed up by Adobe.
I think it is rather a well balanced mix of real photos and AI images that is promoted by Adobe.
A good example is the following portfolio (although he steals a lot of ideas from other contributors)
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/201195540/igor-link
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I have seen a lot of these images on midjourney, but not sure if they were all from the same creator.
That is the thing with ai, if it is easy to find on midjourney, there might be thousands of people doing the exact same thing.
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
Congratulations on your hard work!!!
No need to share details, I think it is already very helpful to know that such a position can indeed be reached by a single artist.
I always thought the top 100 was for large studio/team producers only. The only person I know in that level started out as a single artist but had progressed to working more as an art director and has people working for him, some full time, some on work for hire basis.
I do believe in sharing helpful information with peers and it can be done without reveailing best selling content.
Plus the algos make copying sometimes harder than people think. I know many producers who did a ton of seasonal content with ai, but get few sales, while my christmas season was quite good. But I have really, really old files that have probably accumulated in many galeries over the 10 years I didn‘t upload and these are the ones that started bringing in the money again. The ai stuff also sold, but less than old files revived.
For me I see it with my ai people, while they are slowly starting to sell, if I just do carrots on white background I will have better sales with that.
And if I do that with my camera, the carrots can go everywhere.
However, if I am consistent with my ai people uploads, then I am sure in 3-4 years they will also get good sales, like anything isolated or my greeting cards.
Same for illustrations. It is a new medium for me, there is ZERO algo track record. I have uploaded a lot of seasonal illustrations but sales are very, very slow. And sometimes very unexpected, I am actually having „artsy“ files sell. Done in watercolor or oil painting style.
So my first 3000 illustrations will be test subjects, trying many different niches and many, many different art styles.
Then gradually the customers will tell me what they like and I will make more of that.
But if I ever wanted to got for the top 100, I would certainly need 30k plus files.
I do a lot of research, but wouldn‘t know how to do that with less than 10k even if I could identify 10k top selling concepts. Gallery uptake by clients is a very slow process. Having instant best sellers is very rare for me.
There is also the time factor, I want to grow my income over the next 2-3 years, not over 20.
Roughly 60% of what i upload is still experimental, with ai even higher, because I am testing a lot of new things.
Thank you to anyone in top levels sharing ranks and port sizes.
For newbies it should help them understand that stock needs a ton of research and is not a slot machine where you throw random files in and money comes out.
The money is related to usefulness for clients not overall random content port size.
I don't think it would be a good idea with your current portfolio.
I rather have the feeling that Adobe penalizes spammer portfolios heavily and lowers the ranking.
I would always test experiments with a new account (multiple are allowed) to avoid your main portfolio crashing.
I would even go so far as to create a separate account for each type of image (interior, fashion,
seasonal content, etc.).
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Never heard of people having multiple accounts for different content types, not sure if that is even allowed on Adobe. I am only aware to open a new account when you are over 1 million files or an account for a special media group - only video, only ai
It would be crazy difficult to reach a good ranking with several portfolios, each has to work itself up by itself?!
I would never be able to create enough content.
I have no intention of spamming Adobe, I usually upload around 50 files a week, trying very hard to increase that.
There is no chance of me having 30k files on Adobe in 2 years.
But for a full time living from ONLY Adobe I would probably need 30k files.
But there are other agencies and other media types.
So to reach a full time income over 3-4 years is certainly possible with the right content.
But not only ai and certainly not only Adobe.
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Never heard of people having multiple accounts for different content types, not sure if that is even allowed on Adobe. I am only aware to open a new account when you are over 1 million files or an account for a special media group - only video, only ai
It would be crazy difficult to reach a good ranking with several portfolios, each has to work itself up by itself?!
I would never be able to create enough content.
I have no intention of spamming Adobe, I usually upload around 50 files a week, trying very hard to increase that.
There is no chance of me having 30k files on Adobe in 2 years.
But for a full time living from ONLY Adobe I would probably need 30k files.
But there are other agencies and other media types.
So to reach a full time income over 3-4 years is certainly possible with the right content.
But not only ai and certainly not only Adobe.
Don't think it's worth having multiple accounts.
Personally now I am on 3k files on Adobe. But planning to have 10k images and 1 k in videos by end of this year.
Will focus more on macro and aerial shots, maybe add some FPV and time-lapses.
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Multiple accounts used to be freely allowed, but when people started using them to bypass upload limits new rules were introduced. You can have multiple accounts if you want to independently track different asset types, for example vectors versus photos, or Gen. AI versus non-Gen. AI, but you cannot have multiple accounts for the purpose of bypassing upload limits. If you have Gen. AI in more than one account that will be considered as trying to bypass upload limits and you risk having your accounts suspended or terminated.
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On my way back down
pos 2240
you go down and I go up :D but I'm always far from you rank,even though I have more content than you,I've been on Adobe Stock for much less time than you.
I don't believe it is the time factor, which is relevant to be pushed up by Adobe.
I think it is rather a well balanced mix of real photos and AI images that is promoted by Adobe.
A good example is the following portfolio (although he steals a lot of ideas from other contributors)
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/201195540/igor-link
but regardless of whether your portfolio is promoted or not,over time sales increase,so time remains the most important factor,as it should be.
a portfolio of 5000 contents active since 2010 earns more than a portfolio of 20,000 contents active since 2020,assuming that neither portfolio is promoted by Adobe.
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Being "active" is an important factor in visibility on most sites.
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Multiple accounts used to be freely allowed, but when people started using them to bypass upload limits new rules were introduced. You can have multiple accounts if you want to independently track different asset types, for example vectors versus photos, or Gen. AI versus non-Gen. AI, but you cannot have multiple accounts for the purpose of bypassing upload limits. If you have Gen. AI in more than one account that will be considered as trying to bypass upload limits and you risk having your accounts suspended or terminated.
Is that still allowed nowadays? Interesting how practical it is.
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On my way back down
pos 2240
you go down and I go up :D but I'm always far from you rank,even though I have more content than you,I've been on Adobe Stock for much less time than you.
I don't believe it is the time factor, which is relevant to be pushed up by Adobe.
I think it is rather a well balanced mix of real photos and AI images that is promoted by Adobe.
A good example is the following portfolio (although he steals a lot of ideas from other contributors)
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/201195540/igor-link
but regardless of whether your portfolio is promoted or not,over time sales increase,so time remains the most important factor,as it should be.
a portfolio of 5000 contents active since 2010 earns more than a portfolio of 20,000 contents active since 2020,assuming that neither portfolio is promoted by Adobe.
I would say this is more an image ranking subject.
There are long-established contributors who are still living off their old bestsellers, which have climbed a good ranking over the years because there was less competition back then.
If one had crap back then 15 years ago it won't help you with new AI stuff.
Several accounts are allowed and I'm currently testing with a new one for other various content.
But there is a review limit of 50 images at the beginning.
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Well, it will be interesting to hear how you fare with several ports.
You have to overcome the upload limits, then gradually rise in rank to over 10 000 again.
I cannot produce enough content for that, but luck with. your project.
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That said, I do enjoy teaching so when I retire, I would like to teach one or two people about how I did things. Not so much for money etc, just because I like the idea of passing something on.
It’s difficult to retire if you enjoy to create. Especially if you are good at it and success comes fairly easy. Part time is a wonderful option to still use your talent. It’s so enjoyable to see your work sell.
That’s why I don’t upload hundreds of images. I’m done with being efficient and streamlined, now I enjoy creative process and little rewards
Very true. I do the same now. For me, retiring wouldn’t be a complete stop, just focus on areas I enjoy the most when I have time. Another 10years of gradual wind down!
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I had several digitaly-drawn bestsellers that sold like wildfire , but each of them died just as suddenly. Plus, I only had 2 bestsellers at a time that sell great
I’m starting to doubt that one can rely on bestsellers long term post 2021?
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I have read several times here about "bestsellers". Now I'm curious as to what a "bestseller" at AS actually is.
500 downloads? 1,000 downloads? 2,500 downloads? 5,000 downloads? Or even more?
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I always thought the top 100 was for large studio/team producers only. The only person I know in that level started out as a single artist but had progressed to working more as an art director and has people working for him, some full time, some on work for hire basis.
No, I was among the top 100 in around 2017/2018. But then I kinda moved on from stock and uploaded very rarely. Now I'm around 600 (both weekly and lifetime) and I have a feeling I could crack the top 500 if I made a bit more images. But I don't.
Anyway, it's doable. Good luck to you all!
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
wow this is great! :) How long have you been an Adobe Stock contributor,if I may ask?
I started submitting in 2016.
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I have read several times here about "bestsellers". Now I'm curious as to what a "bestseller" at AS actually is.
500 downloads? 1,000 downloads? 2,500 downloads? 5,000 downloads? Or even more?
I have one file with over 10k lifetime sales.
But I would consider a file that sells at least 2-3 times a week to be a reliable bestseller, or around 100 sales a year.
The ideal bestsellers is something that gets sales nearly every day.
I do have seasonal bestsellers that can sell 5-10 a day in the season, but then die off quickly when the event is over. And that is usually just for 1-2 weeks very close to the holiday event.
But the most important - can the bestseller lead to more sales of the series? Then the file becomes really valuable.
It is the download of a complete series or at least 3 files at the same time that makes a real bestseller for me.
A lead file that can entice customers to look what else I have on the subject.
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I have read several times here about "bestsellers". Now I'm curious as to what a "bestseller" at AS actually is.
500 downloads? 1,000 downloads? 2,500 downloads? 5,000 downloads? Or even more?
I have one file with over 10k lifetime sales.
But I would consider a file that sells at least 2-3 times a week to be a reliable bestseller, or around 100 sales a year.
The ideal bestsellers is something that gets sales nearly every day.
I do have seasonal bestsellers that can sell 5-10 a day in the season, but then die off quickly when the event is over. And that is usually just for 1-2 weeks very close to the holiday event.
But the most important - can the bestseller lead to more sales of the series? Then the file becomes really valuable.
It is the download of a complete series or at least 3 files at the same time that makes a real bestseller for me.
A lead file that can entice customers to look what else I have on the subject.
10k sales with one image is dam* good.
But on the other hand one is quite fragile if the bestseller drys out.
Ideally the portfolio should be (like a financial portfolio) as well balanced as possible.
And as you said even more ideally the buyers would buy more images from a series when they see the leading bestseller.
Currently you can't produce accurate image series with AI.
But probably with Midjourney v7/v8 or Stable Diffusion XL 4 it will be possible.
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I am still in the early stages of learning about midjourney. While you cannot get a series with a specific model you can get a theme of files with similar vibe, colors, lighting.
Midjourney people files still need a lot processing, I get a lot of great looking files, then on close up discover all kinds of issues with broken teeth, weird fingers growing out of a neck, strange details on clothes. The experssions are better than on stable, but far from perfect.
But the biggest challenge is to get faces that not everybody has. It feels like Mj just has 10 faces to choose from for a given age and ethnic type.
I am also trying to do more with Adobe and next week I have my first real shooting with a camera again.
But like I said before, the main focus for this year will be ai illustrations and to learn what I can offer that people will then like to buy. Every illustration sale, is a sale I would not have had otherwise.
They are selling very, very slowly, even the holiday files sell slow. But I believe it will pay off eventually, once the initial files have laid their roots across the algos, which will probably take 3 years.
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I have read several times here about "bestsellers". Now I'm curious as to what a "bestseller" at AS actually is.
500 downloads? 1,000 downloads? 2,500 downloads? 5,000 downloads? Or even more?
I have one file with over 10k lifetime sales.
But I would consider a file that sells at least 2-3 times a week to be a reliable bestseller, or around 100 sales a year.
The ideal bestsellers is something that gets sales nearly every day.
I do have seasonal bestsellers that can sell 5-10 a day in the season, but then die off quickly when the event is over. And that is usually just for 1-2 weeks very close to the holiday event.
But the most important - can the bestseller lead to more sales of the series? Then the file becomes really valuable.
It is the download of a complete series or at least 3 files at the same time that makes a real bestseller for me.
A lead file that can entice customers to look what else I have on the subject.
More than 10 k downloads for a single image on AS alone is a highlight. The image must be one of the best files on AS. The top sellers used to be displayed on fotolia. I remember, for example, the images by ioannis kounadeas, some of which had 6 or 7 k downloads over 10 years ago. But then they were copied without end.
Congratulations anyway - that's really great!
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10k over all agencies, sorry. Most of the sales were on istock. It is an old files with now endless copies.
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
wow this is great! :) How long have you been an Adobe Stock contributor,if I may ask?
I started submitting in 2016.
Thank you,therefore for less than 10 years and already among the top 100 with less than 10k contents,it's incredible! :)
It's also very hard to believe,but ok anything can be! :)
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So, back down in the real world.
pos 3450, 4300 files
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
wow this is great! :) How long have you been an Adobe Stock contributor,if I may ask?
I started submitting in 2016.
Thank you,therefore for less than 10 years and already among the top 100 with less than 10k contents,it's incredible! :)
It's also very hard to believe,but ok anything can be! :)
I believe that. I have seen some small on banner graphics specialized portfolios, which seem to consist of almost all bestsellers.
Back in 2014/2015 before Adobe Stock for example Anja Kaiser was extemely pushed with her vector graphics by Fotolia.
She has a sell ratio of almost 99% of her portfolio I believe. And some illustrations were featured for almost years.
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/200564940/anja-kaiser
But today she seems not to be pushed anymore by Adobe Stock. So that I don't believe only keywords and image rankings matter.
Another portfolios, who probably still are doing very well:
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/200905841/floydine
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/202483008/romolo-tavani
Actually one should stop spamming by generating thousands of AI images but start to create some good basis material with AI and then use Photoshop further to add more details, lighting, effects, etc. This is probably a better time investment.
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I am still in the early stages of learning about midjourney. While you cannot get a series with a specific model you can get a theme of files with similar vibe, colors, lighting.
Midjourney people files still need a lot processing, I get a lot of great looking files, then on close up discover all kinds of issues with broken teeth, weird fingers growing out of a neck, strange details on clothes. The experssions are better than on stable, but far from perfect.
But the biggest challenge is to get faces that not everybody has. It feels like Mj just has 10 faces to choose from for a given age and ethnic type.
I am also trying to do more with Adobe and next week I have my first real shooting with a camera again.
But like I said before, the main focus for this year will be ai illustrations and to learn what I can offer that people will then like to buy. Every illustration sale, is a sale I would not have had otherwise.
They are selling very, very slowly, even the holiday files sell slow. But I believe it will pay off eventually, once the initial files have laid their roots across the algos, which will probably take 3 years.
Regarding "number of faces", this is one thing I don't get. I have also seen on Firefly where faces get almost repeated. With all the vast quantity of images these tools are trained on, how is it that they get stuck with a limited number of "faces"? Is it some kind of "flaw in the logic" of how they work? Is it a bug? If you take human artist, say painter, they don't repeat faces in their work, yet AI seems to do that. Maybe it's some kind of short cut in the algorithms which leeds to this? Just curious.
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I am still in the early stages of learning about midjourney. While you cannot get a series with a specific model you can get a theme of files with similar vibe, colors, lighting.
Midjourney people files still need a lot processing, I get a lot of great looking files, then on close up discover all kinds of issues with broken teeth, weird fingers growing out of a neck, strange details on clothes. The experssions are better than on stable, but far from perfect.
But the biggest challenge is to get faces that not everybody has. It feels like Mj just has 10 faces to choose from for a given age and ethnic type.
I am also trying to do more with Adobe and next week I have my first real shooting with a camera again.
But like I said before, the main focus for this year will be ai illustrations and to learn what I can offer that people will then like to buy. Every illustration sale, is a sale I would not have had otherwise.
They are selling very, very slowly, even the holiday files sell slow. But I believe it will pay off eventually, once the initial files have laid their roots across the algos, which will probably take 3 years.
Regarding "number of faces", this is one thing I don't get. I have also seen on Firefly where faces get almost repeated. With all the vast quantity of images these tools are trained on, how is it that they get stuck with a limited number of "faces"? Is it some kind of "flaw in the logic" of how they work? Is it a bug? If you take human artist, say painter, they don't repeat faces in their work, yet AI seems to do that. Maybe it's some kind of short cut in the algorithms which leeds to this? Just curious.
No it is not really a bug. Or somehow you could tell it but it is technical stuff. Because of the diffusion process you get a smoothing as mean result
out from million of images.
You should try to use very detailed prompts with character describing (e.g. age, ethnicity, hair color, eyes color, etc.) instead of a generic prompt like "a portrait of a beautiful woman". But it won't fix all problems.
But Midjourney has some problems with narrow lips for example. You will get always full collagen filled lips on females.
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I think the ai companies created a batch of high quality people as basic avatars and if you want something different you have to be very specific.
It is the only explanation that makes sense to me why thousands of people keep generating the exact same faces.
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So, back down in the real world.
pos 3450, 4300 files
hi! If these are your numbers then how did you manage to make into Recent top sellers for this week in the Illustrations section? :o I don't get it
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So, back down in the real world.
pos 3450, 4300 files
hi! If these are your numbers then how did you manage to make into Recent top sellers for this week in the Illustrations section? :o I don't get it
On Adobe always the last week is shown and not the current one. Cobalt's last week was pretty good.
But yeah I wonder still also a little bit. Her position ranking was under 1000 if I'm not wrong.
So either almost everyone with a better ranking was a photo seller or Adobe does not show the real cash cows with rankings < 100.
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So, back down in the real world.
pos 3450, 4300 files
hi! If these are your numbers then how did you manage to make into Recent top sellers for this week in the Illustrations section? :o I don't get it
On Adobe always the last week is shown and not the current one. Cobalt's last week was pretty good.
But yeah I wonder still also a little bit. Her position ranking was under 1000 if I'm not wrong.
So either almost everyone with a better ranking was a photo seller or Adobe does not show the real cash cows with rankings < 100.
Well going with Adobe's rules...
For each asset type we generate a list of 200 contributors who made the most sales in the previous week, only considering their uploads from the past six months. Then, we order the list based on each contributor’s uploads/sales ratio, and the top 10 contributors on this list are featured as “Recent top sellers”.
... I don't think it's possible to get into weekly top sellers being anywhere between position 1k-2k. something very strange here
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So, back down in the real world.
pos 3450, 4300 files
hi! If these are your numbers then how did you manage to make into Recent top sellers for this week in the Illustrations section? :o I don't get it
On Adobe always the last week is shown and not the current one. Cobalt's last week was pretty good.
But yeah I wonder still also a little bit. Her position ranking was under 1000 if I'm not wrong.
So either almost everyone with a better ranking was a photo seller or Adobe does not show the real cash cows with rankings < 100.
Well going with Adobe's rules...
For each asset type we generate a list of 200 contributors who made the most sales in the previous week, only considering their uploads from the past six months. Then, we order the list based on each contributor’s uploads/sales ratio, and the top 10 contributors on this list are featured as “Recent top sellers”.
... I don't think it's possible to get into weekly top sellers being anywhere between position 1k-2k. something very strange here
Yeah, it is a mystery which criterion Adobe uses for featuring of best selling contributors.
Probably they consider the portfolio size in relation to the sales. Would somehow make sense.
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
wow this is great! :) How long have you been an Adobe Stock contributor,if I may ask?
I started submitting in 2016.
Thank you,therefore for less than 10 years and already among the top 100 with less than 10k contents,it's incredible! :)
It's also very hard to believe,but ok anything can be! :)
One way I can describe my portfolio is that is very practical and useful.
I've seen my work all over, including in websites & YouTube. I've even seen my work in food packaging and local farm ads.
I can never reveal my portfolio for obvious reason, but I can assure you that it's very real.
I started creating microstock in 2015 and I joined this forum in 2016. I just had a lot of skills and a lot knowledge from many different industries, including marketing, design, finance, publishing and technology. A lot of my skills were transferable into Microstock because I knew what all these industries were looking for.
You can say that I found a secret formula and I figured out what different industries need. My bestsellers are not artistic or fancy. They are just incredibly practical.
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Top 100 weekly, top 100 lifetime, less than 10k.
Congratulations on your hard work!!!
No need to share details, I think it is already very helpful to know that such a position can indeed be reached by a single artist.
I always thought the top 100 was for large studio/team producers only. The only person I know in that level started out as a single artist but had progressed to working more as an art director and has people working for him, some full time, some on work for hire basis.
I do believe in sharing helpful information with peers and it can be done without reveailing best selling content.
Plus the algos make copying sometimes harder than people think. I know many producers who did a ton of seasonal content with ai, but get few sales, while my christmas season was quite good. But I have really, really old files that have probably accumulated in many galeries over the 10 years I didn‘t upload and these are the ones that started bringing in the money again. The ai stuff also sold, but less than old files revived.
For me I see it with my ai people, while they are slowly starting to sell, if I just do carrots on white background I will have better sales with that.
And if I do that with my camera, the carrots can go everywhere.
However, if I am consistent with my ai people uploads, then I am sure in 3-4 years they will also get good sales, like anything isolated or my greeting cards.
Same for illustrations. It is a new medium for me, there is ZERO algo track record. I have uploaded a lot of seasonal illustrations but sales are very, very slow. And sometimes very unexpected, I am actually having „artsy“ files sell. Done in watercolor or oil painting style.
So my first 3000 illustrations will be test subjects, trying many different niches and many, many different art styles.
Then gradually the customers will tell me what they like and I will make more of that.
But if I ever wanted to got for the top 100, I would certainly need 30k plus files.
I do a lot of research, but wouldn‘t know how to do that with less than 10k even if I could identify 10k top selling concepts. Gallery uptake by clients is a very slow process. Having instant best sellers is very rare for me.
There is also the time factor, I want to grow my income over the next 2-3 years, not over 20.
Roughly 60% of what i upload is still experimental, with ai even higher, because I am testing a lot of new things.
Thank you to anyone in top levels sharing ranks and port sizes.
For newbies it should help them understand that stock needs a ton of research and is not a slot machine where you throw random files in and money comes out.
The money is related to usefulness for clients not overall random content port size.
Thanks for your understanding. I've been on this forum for 8 years. I dropped a lot of helpful advice early on. I used to post a lot more, but I've been just lurking in the last few years. If people want to know what I shared, they're free to go check out my old postings.
One thing I can reveal is that I don't use any keyword tools. I keyword every submission manually and I put effort into ordering all my keywords. I put work into early and now many of my images are at the top of search results.
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So, back down in the real world.
pos 3450, 4300 files
hi! If these are your numbers then how did you manage to make into Recent top sellers for this week in the Illustrations section? :o I don't get it
Thank you for pointing that out, I had no idea!
i briefly made it to around 1740, and I had uploaded a lot of easter spring illustrations in the weeks before. They got some good uptake on the easter week-end itself, but it has all dropped drastically now.
There will be many people with more sales than me, but probably the ratio for the content uploaded in the last few weeks to sales was probably better in my case.
The bestseller list is not a list of people with a total number of bestselling content, then we would see the same portfolios every week.
This is a great surprise, hopefully I will pick up some longterm customers. Although now sales of illustrations have crashed.
@minsc
I agree on careful manual keywording. I do it myself and try very hard to order them correctly. But you are obviously also uploading great content.
It does take time for files to move up into good positions, sometimes years to finally have a file on the first 3 pages of a keyword search.
But the slow uptake is a good thing, it makes it more difficult for the copycats.
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There are some really interesting ports on that illustration list.
Absolutely love this one
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/207065927/Oleksii
I have been experimenting with oil painting style, but mine never get a good uptake. But i haven‘t ujploaded a lot of flowers, perhaps I should just go for it.
The list also always has new ports with just over 1000 downloads, sometimes the ports are quite small.
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I was on top seller list several time with very few png files and position about 800 - because it’s calculated how efficient, how much sales you have compared to how many files you have. (Not how much $ you earn) I had several best sellers that took off (and then died) so my earnings were very efficient compared to how many images I had. (How many copies of hand drawn png can one do? Might as well draw a different image in that time)
Now, I have 28 pages and make more $, but diluted my portfolio on purpose, since I don’t want to be featured on a top sellers list - as Matt said: “you earned bragging rights” but Customers don’t see it, reviewers don’t see it, search engine doesn’t see it, but copycats do!!! Sorry, I see no upside to it.
However, I know that if someone uploads many variations of the same image or does mainly copycats - their portfolio gets marked down in searches. You have to create something new for Adobe to push your images in search.
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There are some really interesting ports on that illustration list.
Absolutely love this one
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/207065927/Oleksii
I have been experimenting with oil painting style, but mine never get a good uptake. But i haven‘t ujploaded a lot of flowers, perhaps I should just go for it.
The list also always has new ports with just over 1000 downloads, sometimes the ports are quite small.
Congratulations on making a top sellers list!
I tried flowers early on, very few got sales, I think there is already too many of them out there. Unless you can come up with something new. Only 2 files got 40 and then 20 downloads, nothing special, don’t understand how they got sales while others didn’t at all. I spent a week on them, earned $50 🤣
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I disagree on being featured as useless. When I was featured during the christmas season, the week I was on that list I had a push of nearly 40% more sales compared to the week before.
So please Adobe, keep featuring me.
However this week I dropped down drastically inspite of being featured, I attribute this to not having enough interesting content for the next 3 months. But without being featured, perhaps it would have been a lot worse?
I am new to illustrations, so this means I am doing something right.
As my portfolio grows, the chances of getting featured drops.
Seems like a good system overall.
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Regarding "number of faces", this is one thing I don't get. I have also seen on Firefly where faces get almost repeated. With all the vast quantity of images these tools are trained on, how is it that they get stuck with a limited number of "faces"? Is it some kind of "flaw in the logic" of how they work? Is it a bug? If you take human artist, say painter, they don't repeat faces in their work, yet AI seems to do that. Maybe it's some kind of short cut in the algorithms which leeds to this? Just curious.
It's because... and many people still don't seem to get this - the "ai" isn't actually "ai" - it's essentially just stealing billions of images, and "blending" them together. It doesn't "understand" what you are asking - it just looks for certain tags (i.e., "black person", "white person") associated with the images it's stolen, "blends" them together, to make a black/white/etc person... that's greatly simplified (because it first creates "models" of the stolen material), but that's basically it.
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It creates models from the stolen material.
That is what I mean. They have created some people avatars that will give good quality and which is why so many of us get the exact same faces.
Getting a new face is not so easy.
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10k over all agencies, sorry.
Ah, okay, in that case I can join the 10k club! :)
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10k over all agencies, sorry.
Ah, okay, in that case I can join the 10k with one image club! :)
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Double post, don’t know how to delete
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I disagree on being featured as useless. When I was featured during the christmas season, the week I was on that list I had a push of nearly 40% more sales compared to the week before.
3 times when I was featured, my sales dropped those weeks, that’s the reason why I asked Matt how featured affects you. The only difference I personally felt was that my images got accepted much faster after being featured.
I saw some contributors with a million downloads on top sellers list, so it’s possible to be featured even with a big portfolio.
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Well, now I am down to 4020. But...it might be much worse without being featured. So I am still honored to be on the list.
Also not really worried about copycats, because i still have no clue what really sells in illustrations.
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Also not really worried about copycats, because i still have no clue what really sells in illustrations.
It’s always a surprise for me what exactly will sell: it’s not difficult to guess the subject, but what will take off is, at times my favorite designs don’t sell or the worst one on the same subject will. I’ve read that there is some kind of rating that reviewers can assign. Don’t worry about this week, it’s tax season, you’ll probably come up again soon. (Matt wrote before that if you got featured on top sellers, you have a good idea of what customers want. I believe it’s a feeling that is difficult to put to words, but if you have it, you’ll produce best designs again and again)
One of my bestsellers became a regular seller and that’s a big hit for me, I’m also down a lot.
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I think it was the really slow week of both easter and spring break that got me on the list. Yes i had sales for Easter, but not as much as I had hoped. If that was enough to put me on the list, then it must have been really slow.
I am experimenting a lot with illustrations. Seeing a port with mostly flower oil pointings get on the list, means I should also upload all the things I just did for myself, but didn't bother uploading. Who would buy flower paintings? But apparently many people do.
It will take at least 3 years and 3k illustrations to get a better understanding for that market.
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I'm currently browsing on Midjourney's Discrod Channel to find some interesting prompts, which I would use as basis and modify on my own.
Found several persons using the describe function with some Adobe Stock thumbnails to generate prompts.
Lol, people are just copycats.
Is someone here using this function too?
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Tried it with my own files to check how my images are described and what those prompts then create. Thankfully the resulting files were very different. Same genre but not copies.
I also test my image descriptions and titles to see if they create duplicates then modify my titles to be more generic if the results are too close.
I keep browsing their public explore gallery for interesting prompts, then modify them for my own purposes. I never go for copies, I always want the style and vibe for something very different, often a different genre altogether.
But there is a lot to learn about lighting, mood, composition directions. The more specific, the better the results. My descriptions are becoming longer and longer.
eta
now dropped to 5180
that is a low I have not seen in a very long time
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Tried it with my own files to check how my images are described and what those prompts then create. Thankfully the resulting files were very different. Same genre but not copies.
I also test my image descriptions and titles to see if they create duplicates then modify my titles to be more generic if the results are too close.
I keep browsing their public explore gallery for interesting prompts, then modify them for my own purposes. I never go for copies, I always want the style and vibe for something very different, often a different genre altogether.
But there is a lot to learn about lighting, mood, composition directions. The more specific, the better the results. My descriptions are becoming longer and longer.
eta
now dropped to 5180
that is a low I have not seen in a very long time
Yeah, it's really interesting to browse on the Discord Channel. I love it. Really great to learn and get inspiration.
What kinda brutal is, how many user are now generating banners for youtube, linkedin, social media, etc.
And the most brutal is, how often Midjourney is generating really good stuff, which looks like it is photoshopped.
What I didn't know about Midjourney is, that you can "transfer" image effects of generated images to another.
Some users are creating complex effects, which normally are created with Photoshop's layer blending options.
I believe normal, boring stock photos / images will drop a lot in sales in the future. One have to create unique creative stuff.
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I'm currently browsing on Midjourney's Discrod Channel to find some interesting prompts, which I would use as basis and modify on my own.
Found several persons using the describe function with some Adobe Stock thumbnails to generate prompts.
Lol, people are just copycats.
Is someone here using this function too?
... as he says that in the same breath and sentence while saying "I'm currently browsing on Midjourney's Discrod Channel to find some interesting prompts"... :)
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Tried it with my own files to check how my images are described and what those prompts then create. Thankfully the resulting files were very different. Same genre but not copies.
I also test my image descriptions and titles to see if they create duplicates then modify my titles to be more generic if the results are too close.
I keep browsing their public explore gallery for interesting prompts, then modify them for my own purposes. I never go for copies, I always want the style and vibe for something very different, often a different genre altogether.
But there is a lot to learn about lighting, mood, composition directions. The more specific, the better the results. My descriptions are becoming longer and longer.
eta
now dropped to 5180
that is a low I have not seen in a very long time
Yeah, it's really interesting to browse on the Discord Channel. I love it. Really great to learn and get inspiration.
What kinda brutal is, how many user are now generating banners for youtube, linkedin, social media, etc.
And the most brutal is, how often Midjourney is generating really good stuff, which looks like it is photoshopped.
What I didn't know about Midjourney is, that you can "transfer" image effects of generated images to another.
Some users are creating complex effects, which normally are created with Photoshop's layer blending options.
I believe normal, boring stock photos / images will drop a lot in sales in the future. One have to create unique creative stuff.
And that's why companies like Midjourney, ChatGPT, etc - should be accountable/comepensate the users they stole their materials from, on a perpetual, recurring basis - the same income they expect to get from having stolen it from other people... the "man in the middle" thing (i.e., they got the images from a "research" company, aka "stealing") is total b.s. designed to try and it make it appear they didn't steal stuff, when in fact, they did, and they do. Their business is based off of theft.
-
I'm currently browsing on Midjourney's Discrod Channel to find some interesting prompts, which I would use as basis and modify on my own.
Found several persons using the describe function with some Adobe Stock thumbnails to generate prompts.
Lol, people are just copycats.
Is someone here using this function too?
... as he says that in the same breath and sentence while saying "I'm currently browsing on Midjourney's Discrod Channel to find some interesting prompts"... :)
Nah, I'm using this more for inspiration since I'm anyway generating with Stable Diffusion so that I can't recreate a very similar content.
But it's exciting and depressing at the same time what users can create.
I'm happy I'm not working in the design industry, would be extremely upset seeing what nowday's people can create without any digital image processing skills.
If development continues at this rate hardly anyone will use Photoshop in 10 years.
Tried it with my own files to check how my images are described and what those prompts then create. Thankfully the resulting files were very different. Same genre but not copies.
I also test my image descriptions and titles to see if they create duplicates then modify my titles to be more generic if the results are too close.
I keep browsing their public explore gallery for interesting prompts, then modify them for my own purposes. I never go for copies, I always want the style and vibe for something very different, often a different genre altogether.
But there is a lot to learn about lighting, mood, composition directions. The more specific, the better the results. My descriptions are becoming longer and longer.
eta
now dropped to 5180
that is a low I have not seen in a very long time
Yeah, it's really interesting to browse on the Discord Channel. I love it. Really great to learn and get inspiration.
What kinda brutal is, how many user are now generating banners for youtube, linkedin, social media, etc.
And the most brutal is, how often Midjourney is generating really good stuff, which looks like it is photoshopped.
What I didn't know about Midjourney is, that you can "transfer" image effects of generated images to another.
Some users are creating complex effects, which normally are created with Photoshop's layer blending options.
I believe normal, boring stock photos / images will drop a lot in sales in the future. One have to create unique creative stuff.
And that's why companies like Midjourney, ChatGPT, etc - should be accountable/comepensate the users they stole their materials from, on a perpetual, recurring basis - the same income they expect to get from having stolen it from other people... the "man in the middle" thing (i.e., they got the images from a "research" company, aka "stealing") is total b.s. designed to try and it make it appear they didn't steal stuff, when in fact, they did, and they do. Their business is based off of theft.
Absolutely true. It's depressing how the photo / design industry is going to be ruined for many. Because we live in a fast paced modern world the quality don't matter much anymore. Many users will just generate with stolen material for their purposes like LinkedIn Profiles, YouTube Channels, Amazon shops, etc. They don't care that the models work with stolen material. They just wan't it fast and cheap.
Just wait, soon it will be the music industry's turn.
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But it's exciting and depressing at the same time what users can create.
I'm happy I'm not working in the design industry, would be extremely upset seeing what nowday's people can create without any digital image processing skills.
If development continues at this rate hardly anyone will use Photoshop in 10 years.
I know someone who is a former, successful, graphic artist and she says, the business was ruined when they came out with Adobe Illustrator and people don't have to be artists anymore, they can do everything on a computer. ;D I wanted to say, join in and learn Adobe Illustrator? She's still got the skills, talent, experience and brain.
If I see her this Summer I'll ask what she thinks of AI? Now people don't need to be much of any kind of artist, they just type in a prompt and have an illustration. Or don't like that? Alter the prompt, styles, lab settings, and make four more new "original" images.
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My weekly rank this morning: 32,600th ;D
Wow I must be good, I just jumped up to 27,100th, which is 5,500 places improved in rank.
Sorry for being sarcastic, but if buyers can't see this and no one else can, including weekly top sellers, which is limited to once a month, if I remember right, how does any of that matter? Buyers don't buy my images because of my rank or the ego boost page for top sellers. I wouldn't even know if I was ever featured on that. Probably not, but still? What's the purpose in wasting time, with "how's my rank?".
Watching the clock, doesn't change the time.
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by sharing rank changes we get an even better feeling for - is it me - or is it everyone?
and in my case i think it is motivating that it is possible to move up very swiftly if you have in demand content.
there is always the rumor that agencies somehow "lock you" into a rank and that you can never earn more than some imaginary limit.
my very wild swings show this is not true at all.
i must do even better research, find some more niches and targeted content and then i am sure i can reach my financial goals even faster.
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"Absolutely true. It's depressing how the photo / design industry is going to be ruined for many. Because we live in a fast paced modern world the quality don't matter much anymore. Many users will just generate with stolen material for their purposes like LinkedIn Profiles, YouTube Channels, Amazon shops, etc. They don't care that the models work with stolen material. They just wan't it fast and cheap.
"
please keep in mind that the number of people using stolen or just free content from unsplash, pixabay, free cc license has ALWAYS been at least 10000 more than regular stock buyers.
the majority of content used on the planet never involved a stock agency or a graphic designer.
we cater to the very, very small market of people who need a legally solid license and in countries where paying a designer or photographer is so expensive that buying from stock agencies is cheaper than hiring people.
we sell TIME in addition to images.
and that has not changed. it is still faster to quickly browse thousands of files from an agency instead of creating content with ai.
if adobe starts losing customers because nobody uses their software anymore and ai can create complete, perfectly formatted documents, books flyers, with text and images and great formating...then we have a problem.
but we are not there yet.
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But it's exciting and depressing at the same time what users can create.
I'm happy I'm not working in the design industry, would be extremely upset seeing what nowday's people can create without any digital image processing skills.
If development continues at this rate hardly anyone will use Photoshop in 10 years.
I know someone who is a former, successful, graphic artist and she says, the business was ruined when they came out with Adobe Illustrator and people don't have to be artists anymore, they can do everything on a computer. ;D I wanted to say, join in and learn Adobe Illustrator? She's still got the skills, talent, experience and brain.
If I see her this Summer I'll ask what she thinks of AI? Now people don't need to be much of any kind of artist, they just type in a prompt and have an illustration. Or don't like that? Alter the prompt, styles, lab settings, and make four more new "original" images.
Well, yeah if you go further back than the real artists, wo had real skills with pencil sketching, oil paintings, aquarell papers and colors, etc. had been really screwed up hard when Photoshop and Illustrator were published.
It was the digital nomad time when digital artists created stuff like logos and webdesigns in Illustrator.
You could get nice earnings with logo designing back then, e.g. about 200 to 300 bucks for one single corporate logo in ai / eps format.
Nowdays it is the time of digital theft. By looking at the discord channel I even believe that Midjourney generates masses of movie and series stills. If you use promptings like "cinematic still, cinematic vibe", etc. the images look really like from a movie or tv series.
I don't believe that the AI is in the current state so "clever" to apply image effects. There must be tons of material of movies that Midjourney uses for image generation.
@Back to topic:
My worst week since months sofar. No single sale.
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But it's exciting and depressing at the same time what users can create.
I'm happy I'm not working in the design industry, would be extremely upset seeing what nowday's people can create without any digital image processing skills.
If development continues at this rate hardly anyone will use Photoshop in 10 years.
I know someone who is a former, successful, graphic artist and she says, the business was ruined when they came out with Adobe Illustrator and people don't have to be artists anymore, they can do everything on a computer. ;D I wanted to say, join in and learn Adobe Illustrator? She's still got the skills, talent, experience and brain.
If I see her this Summer I'll ask what she thinks of AI? Now people don't need to be much of any kind of artist, they just type in a prompt and have an illustration. Or don't like that? Alter the prompt, styles, lab settings, and make four more new "original" images.
Well, yeah if you go further back than the real artists, wo had real skills with pencil sketching, oil paintings, aquarell papers and colors, etc. had been really screwed up hard when Photoshop and Illustrator were published.
It was the digital nomad time when digital artists created stuff like logos and webdesigns in Illustrator.
You could get nice earnings with logo designing back then, e.g. about 200 to 300 bucks for one single corporate logo in ai / eps format.
Nowdays it is the time of digital theft. By looking at the discord channel I even believe that Midjourney generates masses of movie and series stills. If you use promptings like "cinematic still, cinematic vibe", etc. the images look really like from a movie or tv series.
I don't believe that the AI is in the current state so "clever" to apply image effects. There must be tons of material of movies that Midjourney uses for image generation.
@Back to topic:
My worst week since months sofar. No single sale.
May I ask where you come from or where you live?
Nobody here in Germany can live on 200 to 300 dollars for a corporate logo, let alone feed a family. The cost of living is simply too high for that.
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But it's exciting and depressing at the same time what users can create.
I'm happy I'm not working in the design industry, would be extremely upset seeing what nowday's people can create without any digital image processing skills.
If development continues at this rate hardly anyone will use Photoshop in 10 years.
I know someone who is a former, successful, graphic artist and she says, the business was ruined when they came out with Adobe Illustrator and people don't have to be artists anymore, they can do everything on a computer. ;D I wanted to say, join in and learn Adobe Illustrator? She's still got the skills, talent, experience and brain.
If I see her this Summer I'll ask what she thinks of AI? Now people don't need to be much of any kind of artist, they just type in a prompt and have an illustration. Or don't like that? Alter the prompt, styles, lab settings, and make four more new "original" images.
Well, yeah if you go further back than the real artists, wo had real skills with pencil sketching, oil paintings, aquarell papers and colors, etc. had been really screwed up hard when Photoshop and Illustrator were published.
It was the digital nomad time when digital artists created stuff like logos and webdesigns in Illustrator.
You could get nice earnings with logo designing back then, e.g. about 200 to 300 bucks for one single corporate logo in ai / eps format.
Nowdays it is the time of digital theft. By looking at the discord channel I even believe that Midjourney generates masses of movie and series stills. If you use promptings like "cinematic still, cinematic vibe", etc. the images look really like from a movie or tv series.
I don't believe that the AI is in the current state so "clever" to apply image effects. There must be tons of material of movies that Midjourney uses for image generation.
@Back to topic:
My worst week since months sofar. No single sale.
May I ask where you come from or where you live?
Nobody here in Germany can live on 200 to 300 dollars for a corporate logo, let alone feed a family. The cost of living is simply too high for that.
I'm living in Germany. Years ago you could live even as a design freelancer quite well in Germany. You would not sell just a single logo a month, Rather at least 10 and design websites in parallel.
If you're skilled this was easily possible.
I sold back then some but not as a pro. But there were some really experienced pros 10 years ago, who could live of it.
For example 99designs was a famous design plattform for freelancers.
Today I can't imagine there are many buyers. Instead the majority will use Midjourney.
There are tons of users generating logos, icons and web layouts.
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Not only rank but also sales have dropped sharply in recent weeks. Maybe just in my case... I don't know...
:(
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by sharing rank changes we get an even better feeling for - is it me - or is it everyone?
and in my case i think it is motivating that it is possible to move up very swiftly if you have in demand content.
there is always the rumor that agencies somehow "lock you" into a rank and that you can never earn more than some imaginary limit.
my very wild swings show this is not true at all.
i must do even better research, find some more niches and targeted content and then i am sure i can reach my financial goals even faster.
Yes, it's entertaining, and the last part BOLD is what's more important.
The imaginary limits and locks are just people who are unhappy or losing sales and make up reasons to justify or rationalize. No proof needed to post on a forum how the agency is favoring someone else. It's always, someone else gets better placement, some favorite person has unfair higher rank and makes more, because of something the agency does. It's not because those people have better images, newer images, more images, the trending images, or like you do, the successful people search for needs of customers.
"by sharing rank changes we get an even better feeling for - is it me - or is it everyone?"
The number of people who participate is so small, the sample is not enough for any valid conclusions. If it's "me or everyone" then your rank will be the same if you sell 100 images and everyone sells 100 images, as if you sell 50 images and everyone sells 50 images. Your rank, can stay the same number, if you and everyone else, sell more or sell less, because it's just a rank, by position.
One week, you're on top, because you have a great week, the next, you feel like you're down, because either you went flat, or someone else had a good high sales week. The rank can be like the tide.
I admit my rank is a joke and irrelevant. If I go up or down 5,500 places that's nowhere near if you go up or down 100 places. I'm at 28,000 right now. Everyone in the world, with the same number of sales, is at 28,000. If you have 100 sales so far this week, everyone with 100 sales, is identical to you, and everyone with 99 sales, which could be any number of people, will be the next rank down. If you are 4,000 and 100 people have 100 sales, the person with 99 and everyone else with 99 will be 3,900 rank.
I think you can see how a small number of sales, even one, can make a big change in the individual rank we can see. But really, it's a cluster. Every single image you sell, makes a move in your rank. Potentially a large move for two or three sales. So what does that really mean? It's almost like, how did the wind blow and hour ago?
I still say, watching a clock doesn't change the time. Watching your rank, while in general is interesting, it won't change your rank? :) There's much more value in what you say: find some more niches and targeted content and I'll add, watch trends, the news and the time of year.
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Not only rank but also sales have dropped sharply in recent weeks. Maybe just in my case... I don't know...
:(
Having a really, really slow week. I think it is spring break in many places and orthodox easter time and the end of ramadan...so holiday breaks in many places.
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by sharing rank changes we get an even better feeling for - is it me - or is it everyone?
and in my case i think it is motivating that it is possible to move up very swiftly if you have in demand content.
there is always the rumor that agencies somehow "lock you" into a rank and that you can never earn more than some imaginary limit.
my very wild swings show this is not true at all.
i must do even better research, find some more niches and targeted content and then i am sure i can reach my financial goals even faster.
Yes, it's entertaining, and the last part BOLD is what's more important.
The imaginary limits and locks are just people who are unhappy or losing sales and make up reasons to justify or rationalize. No proof needed to post on a forum how the agency is favoring someone else. It's always, someone else gets better placement, some favorite person has unfair higher rank and makes more, because of something the agency does. It's not because those people have better images, newer images, more images, the trending images, or like you do, the successful people search for needs of customers.
"by sharing rank changes we get an even better feeling for - is it me - or is it everyone?"
The number of people who participate is so small, the sample is not enough for any valid conclusions. If it's "me or everyone" then your rank will be the same if you sell 100 images and everyone sells 100 images, as if you sell 50 images and everyone sells 50 images. Your rank, can stay the same number, if you and everyone else, sell more or sell less, because it's just a rank, by position.
One week, you're on top, because you have a great week, the next, you feel like you're down, because either you went flat, or someone else had a good high sales week. The rank can be like the tide.
I admit my rank is a joke and irrelevant. If I go up or down 5,500 places that's nowhere near if you go up or down 100 places. I'm at 28,000 right now. Everyone in the world, with the same number of sales, is at 28,000. If you have 100 sales so far this week, everyone with 100 sales, is identical to you, and everyone with 99 sales, which could be any number of people, will be the next rank down. If you are 4,000 and 100 people have 100 sales, the person with 99 and everyone else with 99 will be 3,900 rank.
I think you can see how a small number of sales, even one, can make a big change in the individual rank we can see. But really, it's a cluster. Every single image you sell, makes a move in your rank. Potentially a large move for two or three sales. So what does that really mean? It's almost like, how did the wind blow and hour ago?
I still say, watching a clock doesn't change the time. Watching your rank, while in general is interesting, it won't change your rank? :) There's much more value in what you say: find some more niches and targeted content and I'll add, watch trends, the news and the time of year.
Yes, I understand what you mean.
Some people try to use the ranking more as an indication of the overall current situation, to say which way the wind is blowing.
So when I see a low ranking, all I see is that the wind is not blowing in my direction.
But I still don't know which way the wind is blowing, i.e. which content is currently in demand.
It would actually be better if Adobe displayed the number of sales per image category.
Or at least not in absolute figures, but relative to the previous week/month, etc.
So we are still rowing in the fog ...
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We also learned that there are several single artists in the top 100. That is very valuable information.
I genuinely thought this was impossible, that you needed a huge production team and maybe at least 100k files to get there.
But some people are doing it with less than 10k files.
I don't need them to tell me what sells. I just need to know it is possible.
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Hey Cobalt :)
Yes, the information that you can make it into the top 100 on your own is really good information.
Even if I will never make it there :-)
For me it bounces around between 2,700 and 3,500 and the display in the ranking seems to be delayed between 3 and 5 days.
So if we are comparing numbers it would be best to all post our data on Sunday evening for example, so we have a fixed point of comparison with which we could then calculate positions, fluctuations, variances and all that stuff.
That would probably bring us a little bit closer to the truth of the positioning :)
Have a sunny day@all,
Michael
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Not only rank but also sales have dropped sharply in recent weeks. Maybe just in my case... I don't know...
:(
Having a really, really slow week. I think it is spring break in many places and orthodox easter time and the end of ramadan...so holiday breaks in many places.
The last two weeks have been very slow for me too. I’m also attributing that to current holiday breaks across the world. It seems that many contributors are experiencing the same slow down in sales. What should we do? Keep creating !
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Had a good sales day today after a very slow day yesterday.
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yep!A really poor Monday,better Tuesday,last week pretty good,not great but good.
I'm also getting more rejections than usual lately,on all types of content,maybe just bad luck.
I have also seen that some contributors use famous brands in the description of AI content,for example,you can't generate with AI a pair of shoes and write "Nike" in the description,I don't want to point the finger at anyone,I don't think anyone who acts in this way will have a long life on Adobe Stock,sooner or later Adobe will find out and block them.
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We also learned that there are several single artists in the top 100. That is very valuable information.
I genuinely thought this was impossible, that you needed a huge production team and maybe at least 100k files to get there.
But some people are doing it with less than 10k files.
I don't need them to tell me what sells. I just need to know it is possible.
Yes the information is interesting but not very informative. We still don't know if it's a mix of niches, content quality or just beeing pushed by Adobe because of other aspects.
I haven't seen very successfull ports with less than 10k images in the featured best selling contributors, who are selling just usefull content. Most featured ports look very similar and most of the current AI ports are just a series of stolen prompt lists.
Jacob Lund and Gorodenkoff are featured almost every week with over 1 million downloads and approx. 40k ports.
But they offer as production teams more high end quality than just useful things.
So we still don't know what is selling really good, so that we can invest more time on creating this content.
I still believe that very efficient and profitable ports consist most of high quality banner graphics. Graphics are almost always outselling people images.
I will test it by buying the basic Midjourney Plan and then creating with Photoshop complex banners with the generated basis images.
I'm tired of wasting time with regular images. The competition is too high. If you have not an unique port so that Adobe will push you it's really waste of time.
PS: My week is extremly low with 3 downloads.
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Let us know how you do.
I have also started to do graphic design banners with midjourney. No sales yet :)
But overall my strategy is very simple, do test searches on subjects that I understand, upload what is missing. I also experiment a lot and keep testing new things.
So far it is working. My biggest problem is that I find it very difficult to raise my production. I wish I could reliable create 100 files a week. But sadly I can't.
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We also learned that there are several single artists in the top 100. That is very valuable information.
I genuinely thought this was impossible, that you needed a huge production team and maybe at least 100k files to get there.
But some people are doing it with less than 10k files.
I don't need them to tell me what sells. I just need to know it is possible.
How do you know that there are several single artists in the top 100? How do we see the ranks of other artists? (I think I forgot, if I knew that) Yes, true, it would take a large number of files and good ones.
Here's an idea or suggestion, if you want to track rank. Everyone who wants to post their rank, needs to look at the same time on the same day. Otherwise it's just numbers without meaning or context. If I look on Monday the rank is going to be different from Sunday. If I watched every day, all week, my rank will go up and down, based on whether I get DLs or someone else gets a streak. It can change by location and time of day.
Get a group and maybe anonymous would be good, to look at 2PM UTC on Sunday afternoon. Then post their rank and number of downloads for the database. Soon you will have a good idea of how many DLs make a general rank position. If the reasoning isn't clear, Sunday is the end of the week. The time is generally convenient for people in Europe and the America's. 2PM Greenwich is 8AM Central time USA.
Now that would be fun reading!
Example:
Predicted Lifetime Downloads / Position (using Old data 2019)
8,000/4,700
5,000/8,500
1,400/28,000
1,200/32,000
450 /67,000
200 /120,000
If someone had 8,000 downloads by the date these numbers were viewed, they would have ranked 4,700 on the lifetime downloads list at Adobe. Also there is a cut off for lifetime, maybe 200 or less DLs, as an example, where someone will not see a number, but instead ---
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I am in several private groups where people share weekly ranks. So we have a good baseline. But I only know one person in the top 100 and he is no longer a single artists, but has a team.
But here we had several people sharing very high ranks. Of course you have to believe them, but they are all old timers.
Like I said, I don't need totally exact data. Just to know that it is possible.
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I am in several private groups where people share weekly ranks. So we have a good baseline. But I only know one person in the top 100 and he is no longer a single artists, but has a team.
But here we had several people sharing very high ranks. Of course you have to believe them, but they are all old timers.
Like I said, I don't need totally exact data. Just to know that it is possible.
entering the top 100 as a single artist is possible,take a lot of time,around 10 years minimum,and also luck in various aspects in addition to hard and constant work and skill,but it is also possible as a single artist,although we can safely say that for most contributors it is impossible.
I have updates from contributors with huge portfolios who have been in the microstock for more than 10 years,from what I see in the March results the trend is this:
all agencies are down,from 30% to 50% less,all except Adobe which ranges from stable for some up to 50% more
for me March 2024 was only 10% more than March 2023 on Adobe,while instead January 40% more and February 50% more.
for this month I expect 40-50% more from how it is going so far :)
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I am in several private groups where people share weekly ranks. So we have a good baseline. But I only know one person in the top 100 and he is no longer a single artists, but has a team.
But here we had several people sharing very high ranks. Of course you have to believe them, but they are all old timers.
Like I said, I don't need totally exact data. Just to know that it is possible.
Nice! Just remember to take your notes on the same day, around the same time, or the numbers become less reliable.
I have no doubts about your numbers or what others share. There's no reason for a private group to have people making things up.
I remain irrelevant and so do my numbers. 👍 23,200 right at this moment. Which is a sad not, not for myself, but the many others, who are doing worse than I do.
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"I remain irrelevant and so do my numbers. 👍 23,200 right at this moment. Which is a sad not, not for myself, but the many others, who are doing worse than I do."
You've been doing stock for quite a while now. If it was important to you, you could create more focused content and have better sales :)
Moving up in rank is not exactly magic, just a lot of very, very hard work.
Having a few friends to work and share results with is very motivating. But you can also do it on your own.
Adobe gives a lot of very helpful suggestions in their discord what customers are looking for and what to record in the current month to have it ready for next year.
They also have monthly challenges based on currently needed content. There is a lot of support in researching trends from all agencies.
And if there is a subject in their newsletters that everyone s asking for, then it must be in high demand...
eta
pos 5580...but I will claw myself back up in a few weeks.
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Let's say we sold 5 images in the first minute of the weekly ranking. For example, the position was 1750. But we didn't make any other sales that week. The position will continue to appear as 1750 until the last minute of the weekly rankings.
That's why I think the results can be very misleading, except for the first positions.
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no it doesn‘t.
the weekly rank is adjusted once a day. if you have no other sales that week, your rank will be crashing down.
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"I remain irrelevant and so do my numbers. 👍 23,200 right at this moment. Which is a sad not, not for myself, but the many others, who are doing worse than I do."
You've been doing stock for quite a while now. If it was important to you, you could create more focused content and have better sales :)
Agreed, anyone can move up with planning, attention to what sells, and a bit of work. Like you say, knowing it's possible is a good thing.
In my case, Adobe doesn't take editorial. Last I checked I was over 80% Editorial images.
I'll also add, I'm not complaining about my rank or what they do give me. I'm just reporting the numbers. I continue to feel sorrow for people who are doing worse than I do, with my limited, only 1,019 files. I finally put my foot down and passed 1,000 this year. ;) As someone irrelevant I was just adding the number, which is the same today, 23,200th to show the brackets and levels of bottom feeders.
I joined Adobe December 2015. Lifetime is 25,300th. I don't expect that to change much, either way. Maybe down as people are active and work harder. Maybe the same relative rank, as people, stop actively working? Anything I suspect is only a guess. But if 25,300 people are ahead of me, how many are behind? In theory, everyone else. How many contributors are there for Adobe?
If I'm 23,200th, and this week has been pretty low, once again, everyone else is worse off than I am. 100,000 contributors? I'm ahead of 76,800. No brag in that, but wow, I'm terrible, what are they? ;D
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Do you do editorial video as well? I get some really interesting sales on pond5 and have to keep reminding myself to do more editorial.
Some people post editorial sales nearly every day.
https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=8135844 (https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=8135844)
You probably know that Adobe takes illustrative editorial. I have started a tiny collection of German food stuff and get regular sales. Must do more of that, once I get back to real photos again.
I don't think you need to be sad for anyone with smaller ports or lower ranks. For many stock is just a fun hobby, if they make enough to buy a new lens once a year, they consider it a great success.
In one of my groups somebody said that less than 2000 people make more than 1000 dollars a month on Adobe.
I couldn't quite believe it, but by sharing our ranks, I now think there are less people making more than 1k than I thought.
But in all the cases I have seen, it is because producers are simply not listening to what the agencies are asking for. They spend hardly any time on research, if you ask them which customer group they are specifically targeting you get a blank stare...
Too many people think stock is some kind of slot machine, just throw many files in and then the money comes out.
I think editorial is one of the best things you can do in the time of ai.
Just do more of it. And while you are at, think about a few normal stock images you can shoot at the same time.
Or just little videos of "hands doing something", doing dishes, cooking, planting flowers, writing, typing...so many little every day things that are very easy to document.
You can do better than just a 1k port :)
You already know everything that is needed to have great sales.
:)
pos 5480
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"I remain irrelevant and so do my numbers. 👍 23,200 right at this moment. Which is a sad not, not for myself, but the many others, who are doing worse than I do."
You've been doing stock for quite a while now. If it was important to you, you could create more focused content and have better sales :)
Agreed, anyone can move up with planning, attention to what sells, and a bit of work. Like you say, knowing it's possible is a good thing.
In my case, Adobe doesn't take editorial. Last I checked I was over 80% Editorial images.
I'll also add, I'm not complaining about my rank or what they do give me. I'm just reporting the numbers. I continue to feel sorrow for people who are doing worse than I do, with my limited, only 1,019 files. I finally put my foot down and passed 1,000 this year. ;) As someone irrelevant I was just adding the number, which is the same today, 23,200th to show the brackets and levels of bottom feeders.
I joined Adobe December 2015. Lifetime is 25,300th. I don't expect that to change much, either way. Maybe down as people are active and work harder. Maybe the same relative rank, as people, stop actively working? Anything I suspect is only a guess. But if 25,300 people are ahead of me, how many are behind? In theory, everyone else. How many contributors are there for Adobe?
If I'm 23,200th, and this week has been pretty low, once again, everyone else is worse off than I am. 100,000 contributors? I'm ahead of 76,800. No brag in that, but wow, I'm terrible, what are they? ;D
Pete,you may think you're terrible and you're probably less terrible than you think,but aside from your portfolio you have time on your side :)
you started in December 2015 so before many other contributors,even before me,and due to the way Adobe's sales system works you have an advantage.
the system show your content longer than others who started in 2020 for example.
the number of sales you make depends mainly on how long you have been a contributor,your level and what you have in your portfolio.
the point is that you could use this advantage.
if we upload the same file at the same time to Adobe Stock you are more likely than me to sell it,because you have the advantage of time,because you started before me.
so in short,my advice is upload more,take advantage of this advantage :)
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Just to answer, without continuing variations. I shoot News Editorial, which Adobe doesn't take.
Yes I have some IEd, they do fine, when they are useful for buyers or the current events.
When I feel sad, it's not all broken up pity, and that. I just mean, if someone is trying, and working at this and they are doing worse than me, they might look for something else. I like the money, I use it, I appreciate what I get. Yes, I work for the money or why bother uploading? But it's not important for my life, I don't depend on the Microstock income, which is different than the serious people.
I'm not that serious, what I upload is not that well researched, or targeted, I'm just having fun. Of course, the money makes it more fun. :)
This has been a terrible week, even by my usual numbers: 25,300th I've had more sales in a day, than I had all this week. I watched for a while last year and was up to 7,740 in November. Considering I was in the 7-8,000 a bunch of weeks, and currently I'm 25,000, I don't see much useful information from watching my rank. I can see the sales, downloads and money, without wondering "how am I doing" compared to someone else.
How many active artists are there? And I know active is a vague term. AS says 20 uploads and 100 DLS a year. That's a pretty low requirement, but with that in mind, how many artists are there?
One more small thing about numbers and ranks. When people here were more active and volunteered data for the MSG poll, and when IS had artists data that we could see, I figured people from this group were the top 5% of Microstock artists, in the world. That's pretty good!
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this was my best rank ever,when my portfolio is highlighted I sell quite well,my goal is to have at least more than 1000 usd per month from Adobe Stock.
I think it will still take 2-3 years at least to reach this goal,regardless of what I upload,because it is mainly a question of time.
if I stop uploading today and come back in 5 years and start uploading again,in my opinion,I will soon start traveling between 2000 and 3000 ranks every week,because in the meantime 5 years have passed anyway even if I haven't uploaded anything else.
However,this is not convenient to do,because if instead I take advantage of the next 5 years and continue to upload,I will most likely be among the first 1000 at least.
TIME This is one of the most important factor on Adobe Stock,it takes a lot of patience,my portfolio is still young,6 years is not enough!
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I would say time is the biggest factor against making a lot of money at microstock. I have no idea of the actual half life of images, but in general with the same port you will make less money every year from a combination of more competition (both from other artists and thieves and now AI) plus the sites taking a bigger cut either by changing the terms, selling their own material, or through backdoor accounting shenanigans or just lower costs - although inflation seems to make everything more expensive, it doesn't seem to be the case for microstock which keeps getting cheaper either in terms of actual cost or better license deals or more subs for the same amount or all you can eat buffets.
So, if you want to make $ at this you are more likely to do that by working now rather than waiting a while when looking back these will be the good old days. It is sort of like planting a tree, the best time to do it is 10 years ago (or for microstock 15 years ago), but the next best time is now.
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I would say time is the biggest factor against making a lot of money at microstock. I have no idea of the actual half life of images, but in general with the same port you will make less money every year from a combination of more competition (both from other artists and thieves and now AI) plus the sites taking a bigger cut either by changing the terms, selling their own material, or through backdoor accounting shenanigans or just lower costs - although inflation seems to make everything more expensive, it doesn't seem to be the case for microstock which keeps getting cheaper either in terms of actual cost or better license deals or more subs for the same amount or all you can eat buffets.
So, if you want to make $ at this you are more likely to do that by working now rather than waiting a while when looking back these will be the good old days. It is sort of like planting a tree, the best time to do it is 10 years ago (or for microstock 15 years ago), but the next best time is now.
I am aware of that.
But: in general, there is hardly a development anywhere else where someone says they want to work more and more and more to get the same money as they did 10 years ago.
Everyone has to decide for themselves whether they are prepared to figuratively compensate for a lower hourly wage by working twice as much.
Personally, I don't want to do that because I would rather invest the time in work that pays better. I don't want to sound arrogant, but I simply don't want to feed a beast that is getting greedier and greedier at my expense.
When the time comes in this industry when you have to work 100 hours a week and continue to be active in the hamster wheel in order to earn what you got 10 years earlier with 10 hours of work, that is simply the wrong way for me personally.
However, I'm happy to admit that this is easy to say, because microstock has always been just a hobby for me and I've never been forced to make a living from it. And I would like to add: It really was a nice hobby that somehow made the work worthwhile. I wouldn't want to miss that time. I had a lot of fun!
And it is precisely this fun and the resulting motivation that I personally have unfortunately lost. I think that's a great pity, but I accept it.
I also have the problem that I'm running out of ideas. My creativity is waning - possibly also due to my age. And when images are copied almost unchanged and the agencies don't give a crap, that's another motivation killer!
Nevertheless, money still comes in - albeit much less than before - without me having to do anything for it. That's the beauty of it!
And: I hope every contributor who is hard-working and can therefore show a positive development, unlike me right now, is rewarded for their hard work! And I hope that every one of them will be able to say in a few years' time that their work has been worthwhile.
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I would say time is the biggest factor against making a lot of money at microstock. I have no idea of the actual half life of images, but in general with the same port you will make less money every year from a combination of more competition (both from other artists and thieves and now AI) plus the sites taking a bigger cut either by changing the terms, selling their own material, or through backdoor accounting shenanigans or just lower costs - although inflation seems to make everything more expensive, it doesn't seem to be the case for microstock which keeps getting cheaper either in terms of actual cost or better license deals or more subs for the same amount or all you can eat buffets.
So, if you want to make $ at this you are more likely to do that by working now rather than waiting a while when looking back these will be the good old days. It is sort of like planting a tree, the best time to do it is 10 years ago (or for microstock 15 years ago), but the next best time is now.
in my opinion this is true for all agencies except Adobe Stock.
I advise everyone to forget about agencies like Istock or SS.
first of all why would I ever sell content for 10c? or video at 0.25c? Why?
just because I can sometimes sell an image on SS for $50 doesn't mean I have to give away my content like that.
on Istock our entire portfolios are given away for nothing...low resolution,refund... but what . is that supposed to mean?but our contents are downloaded anyway and little or nothing ends up in our pockets,not even vectors are paid all 20% as promised,many are at 15%
enough is enough,we simply need to stop giving our content to these agencies if we want to hope that things will start to change.
the only agency accessible to all that has always shown us that it can improve the current condition of microstock is Adobe Stock.
we must try to support this agency,all the others were fine before in the past,today not anymore,now they are just using us.
I wouldn't worry about AI especially if you're a photographer,if you're an illustrator it's a little different,but equally you don't need to worry about AI.
I was talking to photographer friends who have been running photographic contests since 20 years and are earning more since AI has become accessible,the demand for real content is increasing from what I know.
the problem here is us,who see 300usd on Istock and we say"I have wow good month on Istock!" then let's go and see and we have sold 700 licenses very probably for this amount,but we still think it was a good month because we only see the $300
prices continue to fall because we continue to settle for the crumbs they throw at us.
I still have my active port on SS but by the end of the year I will probably deactivate it,so then if someone wants to download my content they have to do it on Adobe Stock because they won't find it anywhere else.
I firmly believe that if we all do this,things will start to change,but obviously I am also aware that it is a rather unlikely scenario,especially in the immediate future,because those who still earn enough on SS or Istock will continue to want to do it and will continue to look at the $300 instead of the 700 licenses sold to make those $300
the discussion of time on Adobe is important,then however I omitted a detail which is a professional secret,obviously I cannot tell the whole world everything in detail about my work or how I intend to manage my work in the future,
but yes,we definitely agree the best time is now,It's always better to keep working than to stop and start again in the future.
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I still have my active port on SS but by the end of the year I will probably deactivate it,so then if someone wants to download my content they have to do it on Adobe Stock because they won't find it anywhere else.
I firmly believe that if we all do this,things will start to change...
When a mouse runs across my kitchen, at night, and eats a grain of rice, my cabinets and cupboards don't change. If I throw a rock into the ocean, the water level doesn't change.
If you or I, and most of the rest of us, remove all of our images from everywhere except Adobe, I don't see one buyer anywhere in the world, who will notice, or care. We have seen that hundreds or possibly thousands have removed their images from SS and IS, and nothing has changed.
Sorry to disagree, but, nothing will change, and things will not recover and SS won't suddenly relent their stupid resets and lower commissions, because of anything we do.
I would say time is the biggest factor against making a lot of money at microstock. I have no idea of the actual half life of images, but in general with the same port you will make less money every year from a combination of more competition (both from other artists and thieves and now AI) plus the sites taking a bigger cut either by changing the terms, selling their own material, or through backdoor accounting shenanigans or just lower costs - although inflation seems to make everything more expensive, it doesn't seem to be the case for microstock which keeps getting cheaper either in terms of actual cost or better license deals or more subs for the same amount or all you can eat buffets.
So, if you want to make $ at this you are more likely to do that by working now rather than waiting a while when looking back these will be the good old days. It is sort of like planting a tree, the best time to do it is 10 years ago (or for microstock 15 years ago), but the next best time is now.
Do images actually have a half-life or has the decline always been caused by competition? ??? If someone knows, that would be interesting data, vs theories and stock mythology based on what people hypothesize. Not a disagreement, just looking at the same truth, images don't keep earning as well, once they get older.
That covers it, the bold you wrote.
Yes, who knew that 2012 would be the "good old days" that we would never see again?
If things keep going downhill at the same rate as they are now, Microstock will be a historical note in 2032, instead of a way to make some side income. Someone remind me that I said that, if I'm still alive. We'll have an old-timers forum for, remember when we made money from Microstock. It will be named MSG = Microstock Geezers. ;D
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1. re: cobalt stating "2,000 ppl making $1k or less from adobe" - how did the ppl in the forum arrive @ that number? seems like pulling #'s out of their butt unless they have some direct inside knowledge. of course - I am not sure what the # would be - just curious how they arrived @ those conclusions?
2. re: rankings - looking, I think my "best" rank was around 200th or so - but just looking @ my numbers, in some ways that is rather irrelevant, because
a) "income" is not really related to rank... looking @ some of my stats, my (weekly) income was actually higher one week @ rank 1000 than when I was @ rank ~200...
b) "income" also depends on a whole bunch of factors... do you luck out and get people purchasing full one-time non sub licenses (i.e., so you get a $30 sale), or is it a whole bunch of $0.33 subs... (i.e., you could get "500" downloads, but @ $0.33/a pop = $165 usd. conversely, if they were all $30 net sales to you, that is 500 @ $30 each = $1500 usd).
c) in some cases it is very seasonal, i.e., say Easter, when "everyone" is downloading Easter bunnies & Jesus pictures, versus say mother's day where it is all about flowers, etc... so you get "lucky" because YOUR picture of Jesus with an Easter bunny is more popular than the other 5,000,000 people with pictures of Jesus & an Easter bunny...
d) There is some degree of "luck" involved. While there are certain principles that are important (good subject, good lighting, trending, good keywords, etc) - sometimes you just have a picture that due to the mysterious nature of adobe's algorithms takes off, while others don't... if I knew the "magic formula" - obviously lol I'd only produce consistent "best sellers"...
There are certain topics which I know are being pushed by the blackrock/vanguard/WEF/UN/etc (the 'pyschotic' board of people) agenda, which "could" make extra $$$, but just choose not to participate in (i.e., the gay/trans/miscegnation crap designed to try & break up families/etc to make ppl easier to control)... others though - don't care - and they just want $$$ and keep pumping out some weird gay/trans/miscegnation crap... simply because some of the weirder, more perverted crap is really being pushed hard... some profiles seem to be pure perverted trans/gay crap... but - I guess they have to live with that - "that" is their "legacy"...
Anyhoo...
Only thing I would take from "rankings" is:
a) if you are ranked "higher" - meaning your downloads are higher relative to everyone else - means specifically with the "adobe" crowd of customers - you are providing the content they want. (Just because it sells @ adobe doesn't mean it would necessarily sell as well elsewhere - the adobe crowd tends to have specific tastes/styles/etc).
b) if you are consistently ranked "high" - it probably means you are consistently doing something correctly that is in demand.
c) bragging rights to make yourself "feel" better if you see you are "doing better" than someone else...
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@Pete if you throw a stone into the ocean you add volume to the water so the level rises,in an imperceptible way but it rises,if you do it in a bucket of water you can notice the difference.
even your cabinets and cupboards change,everything changes with time everything is constantly changing,the universe is also continually expanding.
but apart from these physics-related discussions,in my opinion however,if millions of images are removed it changes,and everyone notices it.
but anyway Pete,it's a purely theoretical discussion,because it isn't applied in reality anyway.
as far as I'm concerned I prefer to sell only on Adobe,I think it's the best thing to do.
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@super
like I said, the number of less than 2000 producers making over 1k a month on Adobe was a „trust me bro“ thing, not a published reference or adobe quote.
I didn‘t believe it at the time, because there are so many people doing well on Adobe just in Germany alone with large ports from the Fotolia days.
Then people started sharing weekly positions in several places and I was suprised that not more people with larger ports had a high volume of sales.
Obviously the ranking thing is biased as well. Especially in groups where people have your adobe alias and can look up your port, if you are really doing well, do people share their ranks?
I am only doing it because I am „restarting“ my stock journey and many people keep asking me if it is worth it.
So I am sharing information freely, in the hope of learning something interesting myself.
And I think we have learned a lot by sharing data.
Obviously, don‘t find the idea useful, just don‘t do it :)
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
I recently saw videos for 10 USD and images for 1.65 USD,my RPD on Adobe goes up,if you don't upload Wilm this is the result.
if I were you I would take advantage of your advantageous position,go back to uploading at least 30 contents a month,any type of content and you will see how everything goes back uphill,if you no longer upload anything the system starts to put you aside.
I am in a more disadvantaged position than you,I produce much more than you but I collect less than you,because you started before me,but I know that in a couple of years I will start to harvest the fruits of my work,just as I am now reaping the fruits of what I produced a year ago and more.
this in my opinion is one of the things that has changed a lot in recent years,as time passes we need more and more time to see the results of our work.
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@Pete if you throw a stone into the ocean you add volume to the water so the level rises,in an imperceptible way but it rises,if you do it in a bucket of water you can notice the difference.
even your cabinets and cupboards change,everything changes with time everything is constantly changing,the universe is also continually expanding.
but apart from these physics-related discussions,in my opinion however,if millions of images are removed it changes,and everyone notices it.
but anyway Pete,it's a purely theoretical discussion,because it isn't applied in reality anyway.
as far as I'm concerned I prefer to sell only on Adobe,I think it's the best thing to do.
See above, that's your choice. 8) 👍 We are independent and we make our own choices.
My point was, and you agree with the math and physics, no one will notice, because hundreds of millions of images will not be removed. You may get 100 or 1,000 contributor accounts to agree, but not enough to make SS or IS to take notice or care. So any hypothetical about change or the future, is also what you say, not reality in any way.
SS "462,572,973 stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free for download." If 5,000 people remove 5,000 images, that's a pebble in the ocean. 25 million images gone, and 437,000,000 images still there.
Meanwhile, trying to go back on topic to AS Rank... ;)
Anyhoo...
Only thing I would take from "rankings" is:
a) if you are ranked "higher" - meaning your downloads are higher relative to everyone else - means specifically with the "adobe" crowd of customers - you are providing the content they want. (Just because it sells @ adobe doesn't mean it would necessarily sell as well elsewhere - the adobe crowd tends to have specific tastes/styles/etc).
b) if you are consistently ranked "high" - it probably means you are consistently doing something correctly that is in demand.
c) bragging rights to make yourself "feel" better if you see you are "doing better" than someone else...
Y E S
Is the rank supposed to show how many people are making $1,000 a month or more. I didn't quote the part that said less. But still, that's my question? More people used to make that $1,000 a month on some stock sites.
Rank is relative, and seems to be pretty stable. Yes, it's downloads not income. But for someone to watch their weekly rank, go up and down, they are just seeing the normal fluctuations based on demand and seasonal. The better people, lets just say Cobalt for example, will always be higher and stay in a general range of high and low, because they produce good work and have a large collection and have a diverse portfolio.
I have 1,000 more downloads now than I did months back, and my lifetime rank has made an insignificant change. Less that 200 on the Adobe scale. I'll assume that everyone else, around my range, has also increased 1,000 downloads in the same time and their rank had barely changed. What's to see? :)
(https://i.postimg.cc/y6y3Hhb1/as-this-week.jpg)
It's Monday, I have no video, I upload when I'm in the mood, which might be one a week, or more when I have a better idea.
I care more about search position and page, than "Hey how am I doing, compared to the next person." My Rank is like views or exposure. There's no pay or benefit.
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
I recently saw videos for 10 USD and images for 1.65 USD,my RPD on Adobe goes up,if you don't upload Wilm this is the result.
if I were you I would take advantage of your advantageous position,go back to uploading at least 30 contents a month,any type of content and you will see how everything goes back uphill,if you no longer upload anything the system starts to put you aside.
I am in a more disadvantaged position than you,I produce much more than you but I collect less than you,because you started before me,but I know that in a couple of years I will start to harvest the fruits of my work,just as I am now reaping the fruits of what I produced a year ago and more.
this in my opinion is one of the things that has changed a lot in recent years,as time passes we need more and more time to see the results of our work.
Why should the RPD go down, if I don't upload? If the number of downloads would go down, I would agree. But the RPD has nothing to do with it.
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
I recently saw videos for 10 USD and images for 1.65 USD,my RPD on Adobe goes up,if you don't upload Wilm this is the result.
if I were you I would take advantage of your advantageous position,go back to uploading at least 30 contents a month,any type of content and you will see how everything goes back uphill,if you no longer upload anything the system starts to put you aside.
I am in a more disadvantaged position than you,I produce much more than you but I collect less than you,because you started before me,but I know that in a couple of years I will start to harvest the fruits of my work,just as I am now reaping the fruits of what I produced a year ago and more.
this in my opinion is one of the things that has changed a lot in recent years,as time passes we need more and more time to see the results of our work.
Why should the RPD go down, if I don't upload? If the number of downloads would go down, I would agree. But the RPD has nothing to do with it.
because maybe you make more sales and most likely you also make higher sales?
but please satisfy my curiosity,are you telling me that even if you don't upload your download numbers remains unchanged?If so,how long has it been since you uploaded?
if I may ask of course.
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
I recently saw videos for 10 USD and images for 1.65 USD,my RPD on Adobe goes up,if you don't upload Wilm this is the result.
if I were you I would take advantage of your advantageous position,go back to uploading at least 30 contents a month,any type of content and you will see how everything goes back uphill,if you no longer upload anything the system starts to put you aside.
I am in a more disadvantaged position than you,I produce much more than you but I collect less than you,because you started before me,but I know that in a couple of years I will start to harvest the fruits of my work,just as I am now reaping the fruits of what I produced a year ago and more.
this in my opinion is one of the things that has changed a lot in recent years,as time passes we need more and more time to see the results of our work.
Why should the RPD go down, if I don't upload? If the number of downloads would go down, I would agree. But the RPD has nothing to do with it.
because maybe you make more sales and most likely you also make higher sales?
but please satisfy my curiosity,are you telling me that even if you don't upload your download numbers remains unchanged?If so,how long has it been since you uploaded?
if I may ask of course.
Of course you may ask. :)
I've uploaded 13 images in the last six months - so 2 images a month on average. I now have a total of 1567 on Adobe Stock. If you like, I have increased my portfolio by 0.8% in this six-month period. These images have generated a total of 11 downloads - an extremely unsatisfactory result. My hit rate used to be much better.
Nevertheless, as I have already written, the download figures are fairly constant.
And because the download figures are constant, but less money is coming in, there is a problem with the RPD.
Of course, I could upload significantly more, perhaps sell a little more and earn the same money at the end of the day. But that doesn't change the deteriorating RPD. If 1,000 sales used to bring in $ 1,200 and now only bring in $ 750, it's clear that the RPD is clearly trending downwards.
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
I recently saw videos for 10 USD and images for 1.65 USD,my RPD on Adobe goes up,if you don't upload Wilm this is the result.
if I were you I would take advantage of your advantageous position,go back to uploading at least 30 contents a month,any type of content and you will see how everything goes back uphill,if you no longer upload anything the system starts to put you aside.
I am in a more disadvantaged position than you,I produce much more than you but I collect less than you,because you started before me,but I know that in a couple of years I will start to harvest the fruits of my work,just as I am now reaping the fruits of what I produced a year ago and more.
this in my opinion is one of the things that has changed a lot in recent years,as time passes we need more and more time to see the results of our work.
Why should the RPD go down, if I don't upload? If the number of downloads would go down, I would agree. But the RPD has nothing to do with it.
because maybe you make more sales and most likely you also make higher sales?
but please satisfy my curiosity,are you telling me that even if you don't upload your download numbers remains unchanged?If so,how long has it been since you uploaded?
if I may ask of course.
Of course you may ask. :)
I've uploaded 13 images in the last six months - so 2 images a month on average. I now have a total of 1567 on Adobe Stock. If you like, I have increased my portfolio by 0.8% in this six-month period. These images have generated a total of 11 downloads - an extremely unsatisfactory result. My hit rate used to be much better.
Nevertheless, as I have already written, the download figures are fairly constant.
And because the download figures are constant, but less money is coming in, there is a problem with the RPD.
Of course, I could upload significantly more, perhaps sell a little more and earn the same money at the end of the day. But that doesn't change the deteriorating RPD. If 1,000 sales used to bring in $ 1,200 and now only bring in $ 750, it's clear that the RPD is clearly trending downwards.
Based on today's RPD 1,000 downloads = $560.
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@Wilm
of course if the number of downloads remains more or less constant at this point an RPD is an excellent reference,from here I now understand your concern.
I could write you my RPD on Adobe but my situation is completely different,because my RPD is going up but more importantly I more than doubled the number of sales between 2022 and 2023 and tripled my earnings,so I don't have a constant number of downloads like you and therefore my RPD doesn't matter as much.
I had read that you are losing inspiration somehow,that's maybe even why you're not uploading,music helps me a lot in this,and I always try to look up because if I start looking down I get dizzy :D
or more simply,it's better not to think about the years that are passing and that we are getting older and all the rest,so much is of little use.
but anyway for you this is just a hobby,I aim for something more,I know I still have a lot of work to do and it will take a few more years but I will make it.
thank you for your reply! :)
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@Wilm
of course if the number of downloads remains more or less constant at this point an RPD is an excellent reference,from here I now understand your concern.
I could write you my RPD on Adobe but my situation is completely different,because my RPD is going up but more importantly I more than doubled the number of sales between 2022 and 2023 and tripled my earnings,so I don't have a constant number of downloads like you and therefore my RPD doesn't matter as much.
I had read that you are losing inspiration somehow,that's maybe even why you're not uploading,music helps me a lot in this,and I always try to look up because if I start looking down I get dizzy :D
or more simply,it's better not to think about the years that are passing and that we are getting older and all the rest,so much is of little use.
but anyway for you this is just a hobby,I aim for something more,I know I still have a lot of work to do and it will take a few more years but I will make it.
thank you for your reply! :)
I am pleased for you that your efforts are being rewarded.
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I would guess contributors who are in 500 weekly range make 1k + per month
April been brutal for me with no bestsellers for .35, but files that sell are selling for 1.05, $3.30 etc. it’s strange to see higher $ numbers, must be from natural search - without being featured.
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
I recently saw videos for 10 USD and images for 1.65 USD,my RPD on Adobe goes up,if you don't upload Wilm this is the result.
if I were you I would take advantage of your advantageous position,go back to uploading at least 30 contents a month,any type of content and you will see how everything goes back uphill,if you no longer upload anything the system starts to put you aside.
I am in a more disadvantaged position than you,I produce much more than you but I collect less than you,because you started before me,but I know that in a couple of years I will start to harvest the fruits of my work,just as I am now reaping the fruits of what I produced a year ago and more.
this in my opinion is one of the things that has changed a lot in recent years,as time passes we need more and more time to see the results of our work.
Why should the RPD go down, if I don't upload? If the number of downloads would go down, I would agree. But the RPD has nothing to do with it.
because maybe you make more sales and most likely you also make higher sales?
but please satisfy my curiosity,are you telling me that even if you don't upload your download numbers remains unchanged?If so,how long has it been since you uploaded?
if I may ask of course.
Of course you may ask. :)
I've uploaded 13 images in the last six months - so 2 images a month on average. I now have a total of 1567 on Adobe Stock. If you like, I have increased my portfolio by 0.8% in this six-month period. These images have generated a total of 11 downloads - an extremely unsatisfactory result. My hit rate used to be much better.
Nevertheless, as I have already written, the download figures are fairly constant.
And because the download figures are constant, but less money is coming in, there is a problem with the RPD.
Of course, I could upload significantly more, perhaps sell a little more and earn the same money at the end of the day. But that doesn't change the deteriorating RPD. If 1,000 sales used to bring in $ 1,200 and now only bring in $ 750, it's clear that the RPD is clearly trending downwards.
After all, I have just noticed that one of those 13 pictures - uploaded at the beginning of February - has now achieved 8 sales and has made it to page 1 of 8750 pages on the subject. Maybe there will be more sales to come...
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
I recently saw videos for 10 USD and images for 1.65 USD,my RPD on Adobe goes up,if you don't upload Wilm this is the result.
if I were you I would take advantage of your advantageous position,go back to uploading at least 30 contents a month,any type of content and you will see how everything goes back uphill,if you no longer upload anything the system starts to put you aside.
I am in a more disadvantaged position than you,I produce much more than you but I collect less than you,because you started before me,but I know that in a couple of years I will start to harvest the fruits of my work,just as I am now reaping the fruits of what I produced a year ago and more.
this in my opinion is one of the things that has changed a lot in recent years,as time passes we need more and more time to see the results of our work.
Why should the RPD go down, if I don't upload? If the number of downloads would go down, I would agree. But the RPD has nothing to do with it.
because maybe you make more sales and most likely you also make higher sales?
but please satisfy my curiosity,are you telling me that even if you don't upload your download numbers remains unchanged?If so,how long has it been since you uploaded?
if I may ask of course.
Of course you may ask. :)
I've uploaded 13 images in the last six months - so 2 images a month on average. I now have a total of 1567 on Adobe Stock. If you like, I have increased my portfolio by 0.8% in this six-month period. These images have generated a total of 11 downloads - an extremely unsatisfactory result. My hit rate used to be much better.
Nevertheless, as I have already written, the download figures are fairly constant.
And because the download figures are constant, but less money is coming in, there is a problem with the RPD.
Of course, I could upload significantly more, perhaps sell a little more and earn the same money at the end of the day. But that doesn't change the deteriorating RPD. If 1,000 sales used to bring in $ 1,200 and now only bring in $ 750, it's clear that the RPD is clearly trending downwards.
After all, I have just noticed that one of those 13 pictures - uploaded at the beginning of February - has now achieved 8 sales and has made it to page 1 of 8750 pages on the subject. Maybe there will be more sales to come...
this is because you are a long-standing first level contributor,so the sales system favors you.
I'm not an expert on how Adobe's sales system works but I've been following it carefully for several years.
If we take a photo of the same tomato,same exactly picture in all details,and we both send it at the same time for review,you are 90% more likely than me to sell it first,as for now.
if we repeat the experiment in a few years we will instead have 50%
as regards more specific contents,the situation is different.
how can I say it more clearly?your shop is open 24h a day or maybe 15h a day on average mine is open at the moment 3h a day on average(I don't know,it's just an example)
of course it is important what content you have for sale,but it is also important whether you have the favor of the sales system,something that is earned over time.
From what I have seen,Adobe's sales system is the best of all agencies because it is the only one that guarantees growth over time.
other agencies such as SS or Istock are more immediate but do not guarantee a stable income over time,especially in the near future given the current condition of the microstock.
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For countless years downloads weren't below 0,38. This is what came in this afternoon - those 0,34 are becoming more and more...
I recently saw videos for 10 USD and images for 1.65 USD,my RPD on Adobe goes up,if you don't upload Wilm this is the result.
if I were you I would take advantage of your advantageous position,go back to uploading at least 30 contents a month,any type of content and you will see how everything goes back uphill,if you no longer upload anything the system starts to put you aside.
I am in a more disadvantaged position than you,I produce much more than you but I collect less than you,because you started before me,but I know that in a couple of years I will start to harvest the fruits of my work,just as I am now reaping the fruits of what I produced a year ago and more.
this in my opinion is one of the things that has changed a lot in recent years,as time passes we need more and more time to see the results of our work.
Why should the RPD go down, if I don't upload? If the number of downloads would go down, I would agree. But the RPD has nothing to do with it.
because maybe you make more sales and most likely you also make higher sales?
but please satisfy my curiosity,are you telling me that even if you don't upload your download numbers remains unchanged?If so,how long has it been since you uploaded?
if I may ask of course.
Of course you may ask. :)
I've uploaded 13 images in the last six months - so 2 images a month on average. I now have a total of 1567 on Adobe Stock. If you like, I have increased my portfolio by 0.8% in this six-month period. These images have generated a total of 11 downloads - an extremely unsatisfactory result. My hit rate used to be much better.
Nevertheless, as I have already written, the download figures are fairly constant.
And because the download figures are constant, but less money is coming in, there is a problem with the RPD.
Of course, I could upload significantly more, perhaps sell a little more and earn the same money at the end of the day. But that doesn't change the deteriorating RPD. If 1,000 sales used to bring in $ 1,200 and now only bring in $ 750, it's clear that the RPD is clearly trending downwards.
After all, I have just noticed that one of those 13 pictures - uploaded at the beginning of February - has now achieved 8 sales and has made it to page 1 of 8750 pages on the subject. Maybe there will be more sales to come...
this is because you are a long-standing first level contributor,so the sales system favors you.
I'm not an expert on how Adobe's sales system works but I've been following it carefully for several years.
If we take a photo of the same tomato,same exactly picture in all details,and we both send it at the same time for review,you are 90% more likely than me to sell it first,as for now.
if we repeat the experiment in a few years we will instead have 50%
as regards more specific contents,the situation is different.
how can I say it more clearly?your shop is open 24h a day or maybe 15h a day on average mine is open at the moment 3h a day on average(I don't know,it's just an example)
of course it is important what content you have for sale,but it is also important whether you have the favor of the sales system,something that is earned over time.
From what I have seen,Adobe's sales system is the best of all agencies because it is the only one that guarantees growth over time.
other agencies such as SS or Istock are more immediate but do not guarantee a stable income over time,especially in the near future given the current condition of the microstock.
I don't know how the algorithm works either. Nobody knows that.
But I agree with you because I still suspect that the portfolio ranking might have an influence on the starting ranking of new images. And a portfolio that has been on the market for much longer naturally has an easier time of it than a contributor who has just started out.
With $36 today at AS has made up for yesterday and so the RPD has also improved a little this month.
However, AS is developing a bit like shutterstock: you are dependent on the large downloads to compensate for the increasing mass of small downloads. And I don't like this development! For me, the number of licenses sold for $3.30 at AS has dropped noticeably in recent months.
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yes Wilm,this is probably what ranking is for,then I'm pretty sure that some contents are highlighted if they are well done and original,interesting and all the rest.
I have a lot of content on the first search pages,but they are mostly very specific content,which have a lower demand than a cat,but when they sell they are always good USD,that's why maybe my RPD is going up,and also because I have some videos, and now that the beautiful season has begun I will add more.
in any case,congratulations! :) because you have a content page 1 of 8750 pages and it's a great satisfaction!
I had a content 1 of 20,000 pages for an entire year on Istock a content on which I worked for 3 whole days,after a year it remained on the first page for another year but not as first place...it was a great satisfaction! :)
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For the first time ever I had a download for $0,33 this morning. The race to the bottom has started…
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fwiw i am down to pos 6580
Clearly I don‘t have enough of the right content for this time of year
:(
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only 4 sales and I already reach the April 2023 sales number,and just a couple of dollars and I already reach the April 2023 earnings.
so this month will be better than April 2023 I think 40-50% more as expected.
Adobe's sales system is like clockwork ;)
the minimum sale has been 0.34 so far this month but only one,many sales above 1 usd.
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I have already passed my total income from april 2023, so perhaps i should not complain.
But the extreme drop after good high is always depressing.
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.
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I have already passed my total income from april 2023, so perhaps i should not complain.
But the extreme drop after good high is always depressing.
How many years you’ve been contributing to Adobe and how many pages you have?
PS: yes, the swings are quite wild lately. I’m more than 60% down in April
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I started contributing in 2013 when I left my istock exclusivity. Uploaded my best files and had some good sales, but then basically stopped doing stock for 10 years, at least I hardly uploaded to Adobe.
I had around 1400 files in 2022. Started to upload again seriously in September 22 and then when ai was accepted made a big push with that last year.
Now I have around 4400 files.
When I started uploading again, it was all my old photo bestsellers that started being active again, the ai files took many months to get taken up by clients.
This year my main focus is adding ai illustrations. Because I have no algo track record, the uptake is very, very slow, but I think longterm it will be worth having one more medium.
Next month I will start doing normal photo/video shootings again, also because I need content for other agencies.
I will probably need 12k files to have much better balance.
But overall I guess I should not complain.
If the content is needed, then my sales rise very, very fast. But when the event is over, the drop is just as quick and very brutal.
Now down to 6700 weekly rank. Highest I ever reached, but only for one day, was 250.
The "average" seems to be around 3200. But with very, very wild swings.
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He-he Cobalt, We always think the grass is greener on the other side: you are doing AI illustrations and I’m doing AI photos 🤣 I always thought photos are the money makers: look at all office and tech people that are so wildly popular! (and my illustrations of flowers are not selling well) I’m so tempted to go and take photos of office people, but one probably needs actors for releases? And real offices are so messy!
So question for earlier contributors, what’s the slowest month? It should be April, correct?
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for me the slowest months are july august, especially in Europe many companies close down for 4 weeks.
business teams is probably the best money maker, but you no longer need people in suits. you can do messy tech start ups. which is probably even more difficult to get it right than the classic penthouse glass office.
anything with real people needs great models, many hire professional actors.
or you need a photographer who is really, really good at getting natural expressions out of normal people.
you can try doing people teams with ai. it is also something i want to learn this year.
but the more people in the image, the more mistakes.
i had such high hopes for my ai flower illustrations…well, maybe better to do abstract people instead
:)
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Don’t give up hopes for your flowers, just because my flowers don’t sell the best. May be your flowers will become bestsellers! Obviously there are flowers that sell great!
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Is weekly rank only Downloads?
That's what we've been told and what people have said, for many years.
Because of this thread a small group of people, outside of MSG have been comparing Weekly Rank. Good fun. I was trying to see what the limits are on how low, not just the good news side.
One person has a lower rank than I do, with same same number of downloads. Of course there could be lag in reporting, so I have more invisible DLs or something. But a day later, she has more downloads and he rank is still lower than mine, with the same # of downloads.
Does anyone know for sure, for a fact, what the truth is, and how Weekly Rank - which is actually Position, is calculated? I rely on what we've been told in the past and I trusted that. Now for some reason, the numbers and position, don't match. There could be some other explanation, and the number is intended to be Downloads Only. But I'm just asking, in case there has been a change or the well known fact, isn't a fact?
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Don’t give up hopes for your flowers, just because my flowers don’t sell the best. May be your flowers will become bestsellers! Obviously there are flowers that sell great!
flowers?why not?they are beautiful and everyone likes them,I have always liked giving flowers to my girls! :D
flowers and plants,if indexed well,can sell as well as anything else.
I don't know how the weekly ranking works,I think it's more about the number of sales.
I'm having a lot of fun with the hybrid content,I'm pretty sure they'll sell well! :)
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He-he Cobalt, We always think the grass is greener on the other side: you are doing AI illustrations and I’m doing AI photos 🤣 I always thought photos are the money makers: look at all office and tech people that are so wildly popular! (and my illustrations of flowers are not selling well) I’m so tempted to go and take photos of office people, but one probably needs actors for releases? And real offices are so messy!
So question for earlier contributors, what’s the slowest month? It should be April, correct?
my slowest months are December and January,from February to November are the best months for me even August,and it is also my favorite time of year,because I really don't like winter.
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My download numbers are going down and down every week...
Until 5 weeks ago I had an average of about 160 downloads, then it dropped significantly from one week to the next by about 15% and this week it dropped again by about 10%.
My previous top sellers suddenly 5 weeks ago disappeared from the sales (they are all still available in the search as far as I can see).
So in total within 5 weeks from 160 downloads to now about 120.
I don't know what's going on - at least for me it's going down rapidly without any recognizable reason that I can see.
If anyone has a good idea of what I'm missing - keep them coming :-)
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Sry, double post
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this is a holiday period, easter, orthodox easter, eid, spring breaks in various parts of the world
my weekly rank has dropped to 5400 and I will be lucky if I get 90 downloads this week…
may is also a time with lots of holidays and then you move towards the summer season.
trying to upload a lot of content for summer/autumn, hope it helps.
also trying to upload and do more normal videos and photos for other places.
so, you are not alone and actually doing much better than me at the moment.
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My download numbers are going down and down every week...
Until 5 weeks ago I had an average of about 160 downloads, then it dropped significantly from one week to the next by about 15% and this week it dropped again by about 10%.
My previous top sellers suddenly 5 weeks ago disappeared from the sales (they are all still available in the search as far as I can see).
So in total within 5 weeks from 160 downloads to now about 120.
I don't know what's going on - at least for me it's going down rapidly without any recognizable reason that I can see.
If anyone has a good idea of what I'm missing - keep them coming :-)
I'm sorry to hear this,but most likely soon you will be back to selling even more than before in my opinion,and in my opinion it applies to all those who are currently seeing a decline in sales,are periods and that's it.
for me this month is so far about 45% more in terms of sales and about 35% more earnings compared to April 2023.
I never compare how it went 5 weeks ago or two months ago or 6 months ago,for me the only really important thing is the total annual profit,and therefore for me it is only important to be able to do better month by month compared to the previous year,and this year so far I have managed to do better every month than in the same month in 2023.
for the moment I continue to rise,slowly,but I rise,but my weekly ranking does not rise much,in fact it has even fallen a bit,and this means that in general many are doing much better than me,so don't worry,everything will go up again soon! :)
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compared to april 23 i am up by 51%, so I should probably not complain. but compared to march 24 I am down by 57%...
and...it is far from enough money, so...I will complain ;)
summer is always very slow for me.
what is good is that many of the illustrations that I uploaded last year, that never got a single sale, are slowly beginning to sell. I simply have no "footsteps" in the algos for illustration.
for now illustrations are perhaps 5% of my sales, although it is over 20% of my port. longterm I hope it will increase and I will learn what I can produce that customers like to buy.
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compared to april 23 i am up by 51%, so I should probably not complain. but compared to march 24 I am down by 57%...
and...it is far from enough money, so...I will complain ;)
summer is always very slow for me.
what is good is that many of the illustrations that I uploaded last year, that never got a single sale, are slowly beginning to sell. I simply have no "footsteps" in the algos for illustration.
for now illustrations are perhaps 5% of my sales, although it is over 20% of my port. longterm I hope it will increase and I will learn what I can produce that customers like to buy.
and what about March 2023?70% more? ;)
Cobalt,If I was already earning as much as you,I would probably have a party every day! :D
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Thanks @Cobalt & @InjusticeForAll
It's good to know that you're not alone in the downward trend - of course it would be nicer if things were looking up for everyone :)
I had already flirted a little with the 2,000 position, but now it's heading strongly towards 4,000 ^^
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misery loves company and all that ;)
on the german istock board we used to have a dedicated thread where we could go and complain about low sales. it was great fun.
but there are people moving up now, and it is important to learn what kind of content is in demand now.
lots of sport themes around the olympics, lots of family and people doing summer things, lots of ai related themes etc...
next year I will be better prepared.
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misery loves company and all that ;)
...
lots of sport themes around the olympics, lots of family and people doing summer things, lots of ai related themes etc...
I have to admit that after my account block in October '23 I didn't dare to upload pictures on the subject of the Olympics - the Olympics is a subject with many legal problems and I can't afford another account block :-)
This week I have 109 downloads on Friday evening, position 3,450.
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you don't do olympics with olympic rings or anything copyright related
you do people celebrating with gold medals, people doing sports, large stadions around the major olympic summer sports
general sports competition stuff and obviously never any copyright danger keywords
winner loser scenarios, goals, achievement, hard work success can also be used in many other themes outside of sparts as well
same like for content that supports the superbowl time, world football competitions, the oscars etc...there is also something you can do that is free of copyright but works for these events
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Yes,exactly,a good idea is to try to represent something protected by IP in a generic way,so that it doesn't violate copyright.
apart from someone who genuinely makes a mistake,without meaning to,many believe they are smart,they first go through the review and then change the title and maybe keywords,adding brand names,and various IP,trying to increase sales this way.
I often find generic photos on Adobe Stock with brand names and events protected by copyright,these images would never have passed review with that type of indexing,and it is clear that they modify them after the review.
this is a very dangerous game,because sooner or later Adobe obviously finds these contents indexed irregularly and then blocks begin.
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you don't do olympics with olympic rings or anything copyright related
The subject of the Olympics has a special aftertaste for me... A long time ago, when I was still working as a game developer, I once received a letter from the Olympic Association with a large number in it and a “cease and desist order” - since then the subject has been taboo for me :-)
And yes, of course I also have sports pictures without naming brands and without logos.
It always surprises me when you enter “Olympic” in the search, how many images are listed there - a real powder keg.
You also see a lot of images with three stripes sportswear and Nike logos.
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Is weekly rank only Downloads?
Does anyone know for sure, for a fact, what the truth is, and how Weekly Rank - which is actually Position, is calculated?
Was that a really tough question and no one really knows?
I was working on, maybe it changes at Midnight, but the DLs number changes as they occur? So considering that and some from the past, maybe the variable is WHEN is it calculated as well?
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the downloads change regularly with growing sales, the weekly rank resets once a day.
wednesday is also a public holiday in many countries, so many people are having a long weekend or holiday.
hope people get bck to work soon.
pos 5620, i am officially depressed lol!
eta
I am trying to upload a lot more people content. but because i have no "footsteps in the algos" of the people market, it will probably take a year before they really start to sell and customers start bookmarking me as a resource.
also adding more food, that usually does better with me than people.
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@Pete,the key factor is most likely "when" it is calculated,and in my opinion the number of sales is the rank,but the weekly ranking changes a lot,obviously I think that what really matters is the complete ranking,that for me continues to go better,let's say I recover 100 positions every week in the complete ranking.
@Cobalt I see that you are going down quite a bit :( , but i think because for the sales system,you have already reached your goal this month,as you have already earned 50% more than April 2023,and is giving more space to others,because in my opinion,Adobe's sales system must give space to everyone,and over time it allows you to increase sales,at least this is my experience.
next month you will go back up again! :)
I don't know about uploading to other agencies,yesterday I was comparing my sales on SS in April with the April sales of another contributor who has a much more varied portfolio than mine,as he is lucky enough to travel a lot and have more money to invest than me in general,but despite this I earned more than him on SS,even though I don't have big sales this month on SS.
in my opinion,as I have already said,uploading to other agencies is no longer of much use,it only serves to increase the race to the bottom.
as far as I'm concerned,working only on Adobe brings me many advantages,I have the opportunity to take care of my portfolio in a better way in many aspects.
I believe that someone want to base the portfolio with AI,need to produce in very large quantities,which is why I prefer to focus on real and hybrid content,because producing large quantities isn't really my style.
However,if anyone is interested in my opinion,I don't think that AI content can have a long life,of course it can be sold,but it is too easy to replicate and in general there is too much competition,working only with AI can result in a huge waste of time in the long term.
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I dom‘t think it makes a big difference because ai can also copy normal photos easily.
Only editorial would be safe from ai.
But the majority of new producvers just make copies of copies of existing content, just like they do with normal photos.
However with ai, the content is now at least well lit and has a professional look.
You still need to build a port and find your niche.
After the gold rush many ai producers will move on to the next thing.
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I dom‘t think it makes a big difference because ai can also copy normal photos easily.
Only editorial would be safe from ai.
But the majority of new producvers just make copies of copies of existing content, just like they do with normal photos.
However with ai, the content is now at least well lit and has a professional look.
You still need to build a port and find your niche.
After the gold rush many ai producers will move on to the next thing.
I don't agree with this :)
there is a lot of content that AI simply can't do,not just editorial,just as there is content that only AI can do,that's why it's important to try to do everything,if possible.
I definitely still have a lot of work to do,but more than anything it's also a question of time.
I am quite certain that even if I continue to upload only 20 contents per month I will continue to earn more,because I already have thousands of contents and above all it is a question of time.
but obviously I don't want to do this experiment because the quantity certainly has its weight.
better to always continue to give the best.
to change the world you have to be a dreamer! :)
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I’m also sliding downwards 4270
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Exactly same trend for me I was around position 3000 and in a couple of week I'm down to 4690
About how position is calculated, my opinion is that it counts last seven days and is updated continuously day by day, so if you have a great day you go up even if the day after should be very poor. It's not calculated on fixed week monday/sunday (for example) but it's from today plus six days back downloads
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Well, we might be going down, but Adobe itself is still selling well. Otherwise our ranking would go up even if our sales are slowing down.
So we simply don't have the right content for what buyers are looking for right now.
I did upload quite a bit of summer content, but I think it arrived too late and just like with people I have no footsteps in the summer algos.
Next year will be better.
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It’s strange that from this thread our sales are trending downwards
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As for Olympics, Im friends with a multiple times Olympian and medalist 🙂 Very humble, nice and now on anxiety meds man. It’s mind blowing how nervous he was before his starts. He holds one of the World’s Records.
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There is someone here who,despite being an active contributor,that upload at least 30-40 content per month on average,did earn less than April 2023?
I earned already 50% more than in April 2023,so the ranking doesn't matter,for the moment everything is fine! :)
we are all in the hands of the sales system.
fortunately Adobe's sales system is the best among all agencies,because it allows everyone to grow and earn more over time,unless you are a terrible contributor who only has photos of stones indexed in a generic way,well,in this case I don't think the sales system can help you much! :D
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you don't do olympics with olympic rings or anything copyright related
...
same like for content that supports the superbowl time, world football competitions, the oscars etc...there is also something you can do that is free of copyright but works for these events
at one point the Olympic committee sued the Olympic national Park here in Washington (capital Olympia) for trademark violation. my company name CAScadeOLYmpics (2 mtn rages seen from seattle)has been safe so far
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Well, we might be going down, but Adobe itself is still selling well. Otherwise our ranking would go up even if our sales are slowing down.
So we simply don't have the right content for what buyers are looking for right now.
I did upload quite a bit of summer content, but I think it arrived too late and just like with people I have no footsteps in the summer algos.
Next year will be better.
I do have spring and summer seasonal content, so I can’t use that excuse. This Monday is even worse, I think if portal is on the downward, then it’s shown less. What’s interesting is that my images that are selling usually well, stopped selling but images that never sold are now selling, but are one hit wonders.
I wonder if algorithms changed?
PS: for example I have older traditional photograph that I’ve made to png that use to sell every day, it’s timeless, not seasonal - now it stopped. My seasonal best seller also stopped
It’s strange that from this thread we are all going downwards. Did I miss anyone? Anyone is selling well?
There seems to be a shake up in the algos, all my test searches look different. But I still have content in roughly the same positions, but it is different content, often newer.
It does not seem to affect sales, but perhaps some files will get some fresh love.
This is the May first week with public holidays in many countries. Many people taking the whole week off.
Next week will be interesting.
Actually a good time for Adobe to reset algos, it will creep in gradually.
eta
over all agencies compared to April 23 I am up by 60%, but down 54% compared to March 24.
But the overall trend is encouraging, so we will see.
Illustrations are still 5-10% of my total sales, even though now nearly half my uploads are illustrations. I hope it will pay off next year.
Must do more video and normal photos...
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Exactly same trend for me I was around position 3000 and in a couple of week I'm down to 4690
About how position is calculated, my opinion is that it counts last seven days and is updated continuously day by day, so if you have a great day you go up even if the day after should be very poor. It's not calculated on fixed week monday/sunday (for example) but it's from today plus six days back downloads
Odd, my weekly position, resets on Sunday every week.
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Weekly and Lifetime positions are simply cached and are updated every hour
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In my case, even though I kept uploading new images (mostly AI) the rank went down dramatically. What's more interesting is that new images (uploaded more than two months ago) are not selling at all.
I see this as Adobe going on a downward trend.
:-\
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my rank improved a little bit to 5380
also selling some files that never had a sales
my test searches find my images in decent positions, but it is often different content from the same genre. looks like they are mixing things up a bit, which is probably a good thing.
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I just checked my position stats for the last 4 weeks:
- lost 1.160 places in the last 22 days since 10. April (down to 4.100 from 2.940)
- lost 870 places in the last 8 days since 23. April (down to 4.100 from 3.230)
And the account is anything but inactive - since January 01, 2024 I have 4,130 accepted files, of which about 15% are photos, 5% videos, 80% AI images (acceptance rate in April was 92.7%)
But at the moment it's only going in one direction and it's pointing massively downwards - no idea what's going on at AdobeStock, it's pretty bad for me anyway.
Actually it feels a little like this ;-)
-> https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/down-the-drain-created-with-generative-ai-technology/620715012
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I don‘t think the new content can raise sales immediately. 6 months from now or next year you will see results.
My sales are always down drastically after easter until september because I don’t have enough good content for the season.
Should have uploaded more suitable content 6 months ago.
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good sales even today,I have nothing to complain about! :)
as far as rankings are concerned,it is plausible to think that the new generation of AI producers is taking off,there are more and more new contributors who produce hundreds or thousands of AI content per month,and are therefore climbing the ranks.
but all this doesn't matter to me,because even if my ranking remains the same or drops,the important thing is that my sales increase.
then as I already said,in my opinion basing a portfolio only on AI is a mistake in the long term,just as not making AI content is a mistake too!
we have to try to do everything,and be active every month,otherwise earnings may start to decline in a few months,or perhaps longer,it depends on how solid your portfolio is.
I also sell some new content in a week or two,but most of it takes time,It depends on what it is,and also luck obviously,that always helps! :)
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Agree with Cobalt that new content takes time to sell, for me it’s usually 2-4 months. I rarely sell freshly uploaded images, and if it sells once, it usually never sells again (?) so I upload and forget about them.
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Weekly and Lifetime positions are simply cached and are updated every hour
Fine theory, hourly updates on position. I'll have to watch some day and check hourly. I'll need to be terribly bored or doing some other tedious project. :)
I thought it was only once a day. Hourly or more often, makes more sense.
Problem is... what I quoted and wrote about.
Exactly same trend for me I was around position 3000 and in a couple of week I'm down to 4690
About how position is calculated, my opinion is that it counts last seven days and is updated continuously day by day, so if you have a great day you go up even if the day after should be very poor. It's not calculated on fixed week monday/sunday (for example) but it's from today plus six days back downloads
Because on Sunday it resets to zero, so it's not a running 7 day total. Unless the Derby post was about lifetime, but then why mention weeks?
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Slow week so far, but weekly ranking is above average. Must be a slow week for everybody. It's possible more buyers started generating their own AI images via Midjourney etc instead of buying our images. That's my concern about near future.
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Slow week so far, but weekly ranking is above average. Must be a slow week for everybody. It's possible more buyers started generating their own AI images via Midjourney etc instead of buying our images. That's my concern about near future.
A valid concern, but I don't think you would see a sudden drop at this point because of AI competition. I would guess it would be more gradual.
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Exactly same trend for me I was around position 3000 and in a couple of week I'm down to 4690
About how position is calculated, my opinion is that it counts last seven days and is updated continuously day by day, so if you have a great day you go up even if the day after should be very poor. It's not calculated on fixed week monday/sunday (for example) but it's from today plus six days back downloads
Because on Sunday it resets to zero, so it's not a running 7 day total. Unless the Derby post was about lifetime, but then why mention weeks?
I don't see any reset on sunday... Total weekly download reset to zero, that's true; but the position ranking doesn't reset at all, it remains quite near the previous days :-)
Well, this is what I see... I think...
I can't be sure of course :-)
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Slow week so far, but weekly ranking is above average. Must be a slow week for everybody. It's possible more buyers started generating their own AI images via Midjourney etc instead of buying our images. That's my concern about near future.
I don't believe that is necessarily an issue. It is still "work" (at the moment) to set up a midjourney account. Get a discord account. Figure out how to use discord. Subscribe to their service. Figure out how to do a 'proper' prompt, etc. Even if it was an "easy" web-based interface (and remember - midjourney uses STOLEN content) - it would still be 'work'. Not to mention the 'pesky' little 'problem' of 'removing watermarks' (i.e., because the images were based off of STOLEN content, so needing to remove the watermark).
There is a difference between getting 10-15 nice 'fresh' ideas, and 'having to figure out' yourself do you want someone standing, sitting, reading, etc. Much easier to just 'browse' for something.
So there is still a market for produced images.
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slow week, but rank moving up
it is still a holiday season in many places, people taking time off.
tomorrow is a public holiday in Germany, next week are celebrations elsewhere...etc...may is a spring holiday time.
should pick up around the 20th, if you have good summer content.
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Can confirm a very slow week down in the southern hemisphere too.
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I dropped down to a weekly rank of 6340, it was many, many months ago that my rank was this low.
A lot of the content I was hoping would sell now is still in the queue, over 30 days now
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slow month for me too so far,on average with last year for the moment,but I think should start recovering next week.
strange is that my rank is going up even though sales have been going down lately,so it really seems like a general slowdown.
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Initially my rank was also rising with slowing sales, now it dropped over 1000 poits from 5180 to 6340. And I consider both values very low :(
Anyway...upload, upload, upload..
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My rank is also pretty good right now at 3600, while the sales are slow. Used to be over 4000 just weeks ago. So it must be a generally slow time at Adobe
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Initially my rank was also rising with slowing sales, now it dropped over 1000 poits from 5180 to 6340. And I consider both values very low :(
Anyway...upload, upload, upload..
yes,I've been uploading a lot lately too,I've made a lot of videos lately,tomorrow I'll make more,in the meantime I'll finish the day with some photos. :)
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I confirm, something strange is happening with Adobe this week. Sales are even worse than Easter week. Normally I have well over 200 downloads a day, today barely 100
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I confirm, something strange is happening with Adobe this week. Sales are even worse than Easter week. Normally I have well over 200 downloads a day, today barely 100
Did you notice a sales drop from last year? I see a huge difference, and the last few weeks there is another ~20% drop in revenue...
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I confirm, something strange is happening with Adobe this week. Sales are even worse than Easter week. Normally I have well over 200 downloads a day, today barely 100
Did you notice a sales drop from last year? I see a huge difference, and the last few weeks there is another ~20% drop in revenue...
Yes, very similar observations. And I used to be around 100th in weekly rank, now closer to 200th ...
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I don't think there is anything to worry about,as far as I'm concerned the trend is similar to last year,I just checked,next weekthere will be an improvement,with a few scattered clouds,and local showers,but after May 20th the sun it will shine again over much of the region and the temperature will rise again! :D
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I confirm, something strange is happening with Adobe this week. Sales are even worse than Easter week. Normally I have well over 200 downloads a day, today barely 100
Absolutely impressing. May I ask how many images you have online at AS?
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Around 20k including a few thousand AI generated added last year. A one-man business.
I am seeing a lot of people copying my image titles and generating AI images that are very similar to mine. They don't even bother to change even one characted in the title.
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Around 20k including a few thousand AI generated added last year. A one-man business.
I am seeing a lot of people copying my image titles and generating AI images that are very similar to mine. They don't even bother to change even one characted in the title.
Impressive, how long are you doing this? are you still uploading new content?
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Around 20k including a few thousand AI generated added last year. A one-man business.
I am seeing a lot of people copying my image titles and generating AI images that are very similar to mine. They don't even bother to change even one characted in the title.
Impressive, how long are you doing this? are you still uploading new content?
15 years or so. I keep uploading on regular basis but feeling more and more discouraged. The worst thing that may happen to you is when you are in weekly top sellers. Next week all you portfolio is copied x-times by AI prompters.
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Around 20k including a few thousand AI generated added last year. A one-man business.
I am seeing a lot of people copying my image titles and generating AI images that are very similar to mine. They don't even bother to change even one characted in the title.
Impressive, how long are you doing this? are you still uploading new content?
I keep uploading on regular basis but feeling more and more discouraged. The worst thing that may happen to you is when you are in weekly top sellers. Next week all you portfolio is copied x-times by AI prompters.
Ditto to that, I thought I was the only one who didn’t like to be in weekly top sellers for that exact reason. Especially after the reply NeoLeo got from Adobe after his whole portfolio was clearly copied - it is very discouraging.
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Sales recovered more at the end of the week. Had a couple of $26+ sales which helped to recover RPD, with one even being a photo sale of $26.40! Don't know if I've ever had a photo sale that high on Adobe before.
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... one even being a photo sale of $26.40! Don't know if I've ever had a photo sale that high on Adobe before.
That's an extended license royalty - congrats. They don't happen often any more and are often discounted - your customer paid at full price :) $79.99 * 0.33 = $26.3967
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... one even being a photo sale of $26.40! Don't know if I've ever had a photo sale that high on Adobe before.
That's an extended license royalty - congrats. They don't happen often any more and are often discounted - your customer paid at full price :) $79.99 * 0.33 = $26.3967
Very interesting. Thanks for that info.
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Sales recovered more at the end of the week. Had a couple of $26+ sales which helped to recover RPD, with one even being a photo sale of $26.40! Don't know if I've ever had a photo sale that high on Adobe before.
I think that's for an extended license. They are usually discounted though, just got two 21.12$ ones last week. So congrats on getting an non-discounted one :)
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Couple of really good video sales earlier tonight...
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My best week after 2 months of tanked sales. Fingers crossed that it will continue to improve!
Mother’s Day images for me didn’t do well.
(One day last year I woke up to a client buying several $26 licenses! That was fantastic, but happened only once.)
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Very ordinary sales numbers this week yet seeing my best weekly ranking. Must be a slow week for everyone.
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so far this May has the exact same number of sales as last year,also the exact same earnings.
according to my data,sales should increase from May 20th and I will probably end the month 10-20% better than May 2023.
most likely,in June I will have an increase of 40-50% and I foresee the same for July and August :)
September I really don't know,will be an unpredictable month! :)
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I have moved up a bit, now at pos 4890 weekly ranking.
Hope it picks up after the 20th. FWIW I am seeing an interesting mix of sales. A lot of files that I uploaded last year that didn't take for the summer season are beginning to get sales now.
The queue is still very slow, but sometimes I have files accepted within a day, while the rest of the batch needs 30 days (photo ai). Illustrations move quickly, video takes 2-3 days which is perfect.
I am trying to balance the long queue by mixing content and already uploading some winter themes.
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Since april 15, there has been a drastic decline in my sales. My weekly ranking used to be around 12000 and today it is 26000. Total images are around 4300.
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Since april 15, there has been a drastic decline in my sales. My weekly ranking used to be around 12000 and today it is 26000. Total images are around 4300.
and what about uploads?if I may ask?
I upload new files almost every day.
As far as I'm concerned,a month in which I earn 10 or 20% more than the same month of the previous year is not a good month.
40-50% compared to the same month of the previous year,is an "OK" result,nothing exceptional but it's acceptable,because exactly i upload new contents almost every day,and earning only 40-50% more after a whole year of incessant uploads isn't much but "OK"
in any case,as far as I'm concerned,as long as I continue to earn more every month compared to the same month of the previous year,I will continue to work,if I ever earn less for 3 consecutive months always compared to the same month of the previous year,I will definitely stop,because if i earn less while continuing to upload it means that it's over.
for me what matters most is the number of sales,this number really cannot go down but must always increase over time.
earnings may also vary a little,that is normal,but not the number of sales.
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I too have a very sharp drop in rank. I don't know what's going on...
::)
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I am uploading everyday, the new images are getting some sales but the sales of older ones have declined since last month. March was BME for me, even last year I got more sales with less images.
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I am uploading everyday, the new images are getting some sales but the sales of older ones have declined since last month. March was BME for me, even last year I got more sales with less images.
if March was your BME then is normal that for the moment you have dropped a little.
i sold 50% more in April (always compared to April 2023)but this May is a bit slow,i expect a recovery in the last 2 weeks of the month.
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As mentioned by Cobalt here or in another thread, many countries had public holidays during the first two weeks of May. People in those countries took time off work, leading to lower sales. To illustrate this, I've attached a graph showing the number of clip downloads from my portfolio on Artlist. There was a clear drop in downloads during the first two weeks of May, but they have picked back up this week.
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I'm already starting to notice the first signs of recovery from yesterday :)
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Good week so far after a bad week.
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Good week so far after a bad week.
Impressive ! And your graph is so steady! (Mine is totally up and down)
With those downloads, it’s not a surprise that you are in 1000 weekly. Congratulations!
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Good week so far after a bad week.
Impressive ! And your graph is so steady! (Mine is totally up and down)
With those downloads, it’s not a surprise that you are in 1000 weekly. Congratulations!
Thank you!! My production of AI images have slowed down for the last 2 months. So, I got stuck at the same level. I got to diversify my AI portfolio to go above 1,000th. That's my goal this year.
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Good week so far after a bad week.
Impressive ! And your graph is so steady! (Mine is totally up and down)
With those downloads, it’s not a surprise that you are in 1000 weekly. Congratulations!
Thank you!! My production of AI images have slowed down for the last 2 months. So, I got stuck at the same level. I got to diversify my AI portfolio to go above 1,000th. That's my goal this year.
How do you come up with saleable concepts?
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Good week so far after a bad week.
Impressive ! And your graph is so steady! (Mine is totally up and down)
With those downloads, it’s not a surprise that you are in 1000 weekly. Congratulations!
Thank you!! My production of AI images have slowed down for the last 2 months. So, I got stuck at the same level. I got to diversify my AI portfolio to go above 1,000th. That's my goal this year.
How do you come up with saleable concepts?
Meditate.
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Good week so far after a bad week.
exactly,that's where I need to get to,250 usd a week from Adobe Stock and everything will be better :)
unfortunately I started already late in 2018,if only I had started a couple of years earlier I had much more economic possibilities,let's say I started microstock in the worst possible conditions,and now in these times every investment takes a long time,even traveling 100 km by car has become a problem these days.
I just hope I don't get too old before I get to $250 a week,I'd like to be able to enjoy it for a few more years while I'm still young enough,I hope it will be possible!
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Good week so far after a bad week.
exactly,that's where I need to get to,250 usd a week from Adobe Stock and everything will be better :)
unfortunately I started already late in 2018,if only I had started a couple of years earlier I had much more economic possibilities,let's say I started microstock in the worst possible conditions,and now in these times every investment takes a long time,even traveling 100 km by car has become a problem these days.
I just hope I don't get too old before I get to $250 a week,I'd like to be able to enjoy it for a few more years while I'm still young enough,I hope it will be possible!
About 40% of my Adobe Stock revenue is generated from AI photos I started uploading in last September less than 1 year ago. So, you can do it too if you meditate and levitate sometimes. If you think about "Why I can't", that's where you'll get stuck. Start thinking about "Why I can too".
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Had a good day yesterday and my ranking went up further. I think I have to make over $300/week to go above 1,000th in weekly ranking.
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Good week so far after a bad week.
Impressive ! And your graph is so steady! (Mine is totally up and down)
With those downloads, it’s not a surprise that you are in 1000 weekly. Congratulations!
Thank you!! My production of AI images have slowed down for the last 2 months. So, I got stuck at the same level. I got to diversify my AI portfolio to go above 1,000th. That's my goal this year.
How do you come up with saleable concepts?
My advice based on my experience is, if you just try to imitate what's selling on Adobe Stock, you probably end up not selling and waste your time because hundreds of other contributors are doing the same making similar images flooding the market. Your images won't show up on keyword search on first or second page. You have to make different variation of bestsellers or come up with totally original concept without much competition to monopolize that specific genre/concept of images. With AI generation, you can create images that never existed before. I see some on the top sellers list are doing just that. I think that's what Adobe wants us to do by allowing us to submit AI generated images. They want to expand boundary of conventional stock images to gain advantage over Shutterstock, iStock and other competitors. That'll give AdobeStock more subscribers and give us more revenues. It's a win-win at least for now.
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Good week so far after a bad week.
exactly,that's where I need to get to,250 usd a week from Adobe Stock and everything will be better :)
unfortunately I started already late in 2018,if only I had started a couple of years earlier I had much more economic possibilities,let's say I started microstock in the worst possible conditions,and now in these times every investment takes a long time,even traveling 100 km by car has become a problem these days.
I just hope I don't get too old before I get to $250 a week,I'd like to be able to enjoy it for a few more years while I'm still young enough,I hope it will be possible!
About 40% of my Adobe Stock revenue is generated from AI photos I started uploading in last September less than 1 year ago. So, you can do it too if you meditate and levitate sometimes. If you think about "Why I can't", that's where you'll get stuck. Start thinking about "Why I can too".
blvdone,thanks for the reply,of course you're right,we always have to try to think that we can,and that's what I do every day! :)
but the fact is that I don't sell what I can sell on Adobe,but what I have to sell,my sales as well as everyone's sales on Adobe are predetermined,that's why I already know how much I will sell each month.
except for some unique content that only I have,then in that case the sales system goes to fish for my content because there are no others,and I make the sale.
regarding all the other contents,all the concepts and the best-selling things,I can only sell a certain predetermined number,which increases over time.
I'm sure I'll make it to 250 USD a week,the question is how long it will take.
in fact I saw the difference when my portfolio was highlighted I earned 200 usd in two days.
but unfortunately,since there are many of us contributors,I have to wait before I can regularly make 250 usd a week or more,for the moment it is only rarely allowed to me.
but still better this way,than SS or Istock for example,where you don't understand anything about how much you can sell and it's all unpredictable.
at least with Adobe you can make long-term projects,and there are certainties that over time if you work you can earn more and more!
I will reap the fruits of the work I'm doing today,in a couple of years from now,when my portfolio will enjoy greater exposure.
the exposure of your portfolio on Adobe is earned first of all over time,and then obviously other factors too.
It's all mainly a question of time!I just hope not too much time! :)
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Obviously I don't know how the Adobe algorithm works, but I sincerely doubt there is a particularly large effect (or any) on how long you have been a contributor. I also don't think that there is some sort of set limit to how much you will sell - although that has been alleged for various agencies by a number of people over the years.
Produce content that is needed without a lot of competition and you will do well. Until it is copied or they switch the algorithm to push other content (newer, bigger images, AI, local, whatever) and then you won't do as well. Also as the price per image drops - either through price cuts or various custom deals or subs plans you will make less per sale. That is the true effect of time on microstock, not some magical constant certainty over time.
Yes, you can still make decent money with good smart work, but you could probably make more with that same good smart work in some other fashion.
This week my sales, $, and position are all below what they have been recently although I did have a few sales of recently uploaded images, which is nice.
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Obviously I don't know how the Adobe algorithm works, but I sincerely doubt there is a particularly large effect (or any) on how long you have been a contributor. I also don't think that there is some sort of set limit to how much you will sell - although that has been alleged for various agencies by a number of people over the years.
Produce content that is needed without a lot of competition and you will do well. Until it is copied or they switch the algorithm to push other content (newer, bigger images, AI, local, whatever) and then you won't do as well. Also as the price per image drops - either through price cuts or various custom deals or subs plans you will make less per sale. That is the true effect of time on microstock, not some magical constant certainty over time.
Yes, you can still make decent money with good smart work, but you could probably make more with that same good smart work in some other fashion.
This week my sales, $, and position are all below what they have been recently although I did have a few sales of recently uploaded images, which is nice.
Of course we're here to chat and try to understand something more together,I'm not an expert on how Adobe's sales system works.
But,how do you explain that I just need to look at how many sales I made last year and I already know how many sales I'll make?
on April 1st I already knew exactly the number of sales I would have on April 30th,how do you explain it?Am I a magician? :)
no,it's more likely that I simply sold the number I had to sell.
therefore there is an established limit within which I can stay within this period of time,and at a certain point,in a month,perhaps two,I will be able to take that extra step and my "range of action" begins to oscillate between values taller.
another example?
you could sell much more if tomorrow Adobe's contributors suddenly become only 1000,do you agree with me?
If Yes,you agree with me,it means that is because Adobe's sales system will be able to give you a wider "range of action" because there are few contributors to manage,and your content is shown with virtually every request,if you have in your portfolio.
If No,you don’t agree then it means that our opinions differ on this point.
What matters in my opinion is what you have to sell,how much you have to sell,and how LONG you have had it for sale.
now,why is the time you have been a contributor important?because you have more content on sale for longer,and it gives you more visibility in general.
you gain visibility over time,over time ours contents are shown more,and therefore time is a fundamental factor in microstock.
then aside from these obvious reasons,I believe there is also a "step" in the Adobe sales system algorithm,specific to the time an account was opened and/or the number of sales made,but this last part is just my personal opinion.
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Sunday at 5 pm I checked my weekly position and it was blank - previous week is closed and I didn’t sell anything for the next week yet. Curious that’s the first time that I saw my position as blank.
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Sunday at 5 pm I checked my weekly position and it was blank - previous week is closed and I didn’t sell anything for the next week yet. Curious that’s the first time that I saw my position as blank.
Must mean you are invisible! OH NOES!
Lol. In seriousness, no - it seems there are 1-2 hrs on a sunday from when it closes out the week and makes a new ranking. If you don't sell anything in that 1-2 hrs, then its 'blank'.
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Obviously I don't know how the Adobe algorithm works, but I sincerely doubt there is a particularly large effect (or any) on how long you have been a contributor. I also don't think that there is some sort of set limit to how much you will sell - although that has been alleged for various agencies by a number of people over the years.
Produce content that is needed without a lot of competition and you will do well. Until it is copied or they switch the algorithm to push other content (newer, bigger images, AI, local, whatever) and then you won't do as well. Also as the price per image drops - either through price cuts or various custom deals or subs plans you will make less per sale. That is the true effect of time on microstock, not some magical constant certainty over time.
Yes, you can still make decent money with good smart work, but you could probably make more with that same good smart work in some other fashion.
This week my sales, $, and position are all below what they have been recently although I did have a few sales of recently uploaded images, which is nice.
Of course we're here to chat and try to understand something more together,I'm not an expert on how Adobe's sales system works.
But,how do you explain that I just need to look at how many sales I made last year and I already know how many sales I'll make?
on April 1st I already knew exactly the number of sales I would have on April 30th,how do you explain it?Am I a magician? :)
no,it's more likely that I simply sold the number I had to sell.
therefore there is an established limit within which I can stay within this period of time,and at a certain point,in a month,perhaps two,I will be able to take that extra step and my "range of action" begins to oscillate between values taller.
another example?
you could sell much more if tomorrow Adobe's contributors suddenly become only 1000,do you agree with me?
If Yes,you agree with me,it means that is because Adobe's sales system will be able to give you a wider "range of action" because there are few contributors to manage,and your content is shown with virtually every request,if you have in your portfolio.
If No,you don’t agree then it means that our opinions differ on this point.
What matters in my opinion is what you have to sell,how much you have to sell,and how LONG you have had it for sale.
now,why is the time you have been a contributor important?because you have more content on sale for longer,and it gives you more visibility in general.
you gain visibility over time,over time ours contents are shown more,and therefore time is a fundamental factor in microstock.
then aside from these obvious reasons,I believe there is also a "step" in the Adobe sales system algorithm,specific to the time an account was opened and/or the number of sales made,but this last part is just my personal opinion.
I think you're just wasting your time believing in some unsubstantiated conspiracy theory. Instead, I would just keep making images/videos.
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@blvdone I wouldn't say it's really unfounded,given that it is! :)
I already know how many sales I will make this month and how many sales I will make every month,as I said,I just need to look at how many sales I made in the same month of the previous year.
we all have a "range of action" that increases as our portfolio increases and over time,It's a fact,not a theory.
and this is one of the best aspects of Adobe,because it guarantees certainty that you can earn more over time.
I don't see any conspiracy theories here,and don't worry about my job,think about yours! :D
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Looking at my sales and earnings I can in no way predict exactly what I will make any given day, week, or month. I could guess the average of the previous year, or what I made last year that month or what the magic 8 ball told me, but I would have no confidence in it being very accurate. I haven't run the statistics, but over the last few years per monthly income has varied by a factor of 6 or so and it isn't always up and the good months and bad months are not always the same (although the free image election bump is noticeable in the graph the years I had a bunch of images selected).
Do you have a formula you follow - eg last years sales this month times number of new images times x = exact sales this month? Also how exact is your prediction - to the download and cent, or within 5 % or 10% or 50% - I think I could predict the latter most months just by picking the average.
Previously people have alleged $ amounts set by SS and if they had a good week at the start of the month they would have lousy sales the rest of the month to hit their quota and if they had poor sales all month they would have some good days at the end of the month to bring things up.
I agree that if Adobe removed 3/4 of their collection but not my stuff I would do better, especially if they removed the content that was competing with my content.
What really matters is the complex algorithms around the search plus what content you have and how good the metadata is and what content buyers are looking for. We can only control our content and the metadata. For common content the search placement is nearly everything.
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Looking at my sales and earnings I can in no way predict exactly what I will make any given day, week, or month. I could guess the average of the previous year, or what I made last year that month or what the magic 8 ball told me, but I would have no confidence in it being very accurate. I haven't run the statistics, but over the last few years per monthly income has varied by a factor of 6 or so and it isn't always up and the good months and bad months are not always the same (although the free image election bump is noticeable in the graph the years I had a bunch of images selected).
Do you have a formula you follow - eg last years sales this month times number of new images times x = exact sales this month? Also how exact is your prediction - to the download and cent, or within 5 % or 10% or 50% - I think I could predict the latter most months just by picking the average.
Previously people have alleged $ amounts set by SS and if they had a good week at the start of the month they would have lousy sales the rest of the month to hit their quota and if they had poor sales all month they would have some good days at the end of the month to bring things up.
I agree that if Adobe removed 3/4 of their collection but not my stuff I would do better, especially if they removed the content that was competing with my content.
What really matters is the complex algorithms around the search plus what content you have and how good the metadata is and what content buyers are looking for. We can only control our content and the metadata. For common content the search placement is nearly everything.
I can only understand the number of sales,there is no way to understand the earnings.
the calculation is simple,the factors at play are:
-the number of sales I made in the same month last year
-the minimum value
-the growth percentage.
At least 90% if not more of the time my prediction is correct,with a max margin of error of perhaps 10 sales at most.
"the minimum value" is the minimum number of sales I can make per month.
just for example,I have 190 sales as a monthly minimum value,then maybe in a couple of months or more this minimum becomes 200,once I have made at least 200 sales in a month for 2 months in a row,I never go below this value and 200 becomes the minimum.
the percentage of growth is the percentage of increase that I bring in the current year,which this year for me is 40/50%
so in conclusion,I see how many sales I made in the same month last year and knowing my minimum value and my percentage increase,I can determine with a very low margin of error how many sales I will make in the current month.
but only the number of sales,it is impossible to determine how much I earn.
one thing I would like to underline is that up to now I have never broken the minimum value,once I reached it I never went back.
and I hope this continues,because this is the most important thing for me.
and all this only concerns Adobe,in other agencies I can't establish a trend,in other agencies it's all too random.
if I continue to work and upload regularly and it happens that I sell a smaller amount of content than in the same month of the previous year,then it's over,this makes no sense,because if after a year of incessant uploads you end up selling less than the previous year then there is no hope left!
This has never happened to me on Adobe Stock until now,I hope it will continue like this! :)
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don't worry about my job,think about yours! :D
Yes, I'll do so. Thank you!!
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don't worry about my job,think about yours! :D
Yes, I'll do so. Thank you!!
:D I'm sorry if I seemed a little aggressive to you,but you too were not very nice!
You see I don't waste time with conspiracy theories,I know what it is for me and how things work for me.
for others like you it is different,and this depends on many factors,and so you can't understand my point of view for some things,it's normal.
However,nothing serious happened! :)
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don't worry about my job,think about yours! :D
Yes, I'll do so. Thank you!!
:D I'm sorry if I seemed a little aggressive to you,but you too were not very nice!
You see I don't waste time with conspiracy theories,I know what it is for me and how things work for me.
for others like you it is different,and this depends on many factors,and so you can't understand my point of view for some things,it's normal.
However,nothing serious happened! :)
Sorry, but I was trying to steer you toward more winning formula/attitude/approach. Didn't mean to offend you. But your sales are consistent. So, that's great for you!!
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Woke up and found myself right at 1,000th this morning. Nice!! Didn't have a good sales day yesterday, but maybe everybody had a slow day yesterday thus higher ranking than usual.
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Woke up and found myself right at 1,000th this morning. Nice!! Didn't have a good sales day yesterday, but maybe everybody had a slow day yesterday thus higher ranking than usual.
nice! :)
Yesterday was a particularly slow day,today a little less slow but still quite slow,I expected more from the beginning of this week.
I've been selling less than usual lately but my rank has improved,it's clear that for many it's going worse,so I'm not complaining! :)
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I'll add it is interesting to have friendly discussion and learn from other people experiences. In my case following holds true:
1) Approved Images are followed by Increased # of downloads
2) Being stagnant (not uploading new content) gradually leads to decreased # of downloads
3) Rejected content is followed by sharp decline in # of downloads, but only over short period of time
There might be "Adobe Rank" token attached to each port, that goes up and down based on scenarios above. Further, Each individual asset has it's own token that goes up based on download history. It also appears new content is not promoted at all.
This is all guesswork of course for which I have no proof except experience with my own port.
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I'll add it is interesting to have friendly discussion and learn from other people experiences. In my case following holds true:
1) Approved Images are followed by Increased # of downloads
2) Being stagnant (not uploading new content) gradually leads to decreased # of downloads
3) Rejected content is followed by sharp decline in # of downloads, but only over short period of time
There might be "Adobe Rank" token attached to each port, that goes up and down based on scenarios above. Further, Each individual asset has it's own token that goes up based on download history. It also appears new content is not promoted at all.
This is all guesswork of course for which I have no proof except experience with my own port.
From my experience rejections do not affect sales.
This month has already been one of the months in which i have uploaded the most,i have worked tirelessly doubling mi video library and also uploading many photos,all real content,with an approval rate of 99%
Despite this,my sales are slow this month,so i don't think that approved or rejected content in themselves can increase or decrease sales.
what can happen is that with a lot of approved content,you can gain visibility,selling both new and old content,perhaps this one.
for the moment this month of May 2024 for me is the worst month of 2024 so far.
However, I'm not very worried about it because I already know that Adobe's sales system will make me reach my current minimum value anyway.
for the moment I am still quite far from my minimum value,so for me this month will be the definitive proof of whether or not a minimum value exists.
fingers crossed! :)
I had already predicted an increase of only 10/20% for this month,since the May 2023 sales number was equal to my current minimum value.
while in June,July and August I should return to an increase of 40/50% because for all three of these months of 2023 the number of sales was lower than my current "minimum value"
Soon we'll see if this is the case or not,I'll let you know,if anyone is ever interested in this! :D
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I’m yet to see minimum or maximum value in my port. My sales are not consistent, my month to month graph looks like a rollercoaster, so I can’t really predict my next month sales. (800-4,000 weekly rank)
Bestsellers are usually about 50% of my sales. When they suddenly die, my sales go down drastically. Doing better new variations of my bestsellers doesn’t bring me sales for some reason?
Yes, new content is not promoted and takes up to 6 months to take off. Some images get a random sale after sitting on the shelf for more than a year.
Images being featured might or might not lead to good sales.
My customers don’t go for very unique images that I love. At times it’s my ugliest images that sell instead of my proudest ones that I spent days working on (I quit doing that)
Blvdone posted some good on point advice. Thank you to everyone for sharing their experience. It motivates me to keep going, through I’m not uploading as much as I use to. Now, one image per day is my goal.
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Is anyone else noticing a difference in sales data reporting? For the last two weeks it's like the data is being reported in the morning and then the afternoon. A batch of sales, then silence until afternoon, another batch of sales, then again nothing until late evening or even next morning. Some weekdays with weekend level of sales, then a normal/great day. I used to have a pretty steady number of sales and now it's all over the place. Definitely not used to so much fluctuations and the summer slump is still yet to come
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Just cracked the 1,000th!! Crack isn''t Wack!!
I used to be at around 1,600th before I started adding AI images last September. So, since then, my ranking is up about 400-600 and my revenue is up about 80%.
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Nothing great to report on my weekly ranking but I'm already well into my BME on Adobe Stock and there's still another week remaining of the month.
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Congrats to all that are doing well!
I am currently in the dog house with a ranking around 5800. :( It is offset a bit by 26 dollar special licenses and some video sales. So May 24 is already 70% more than May 23 and we still have a week. I suppose I should not complain, but I preferred the times with higher ranks.
Summer is always bad for me and while I did upload summer themed subjects I think I did it much too late. And I did not research teh summer market well enough. I have too much of what everybody else has.
However, nearly every day I sell a christmas themed image and I am slowly beginning to sell winter and even easter images...
Now trying very hard to create people images with a personal style. But it is very difficult. I keep getting the same people/faces everybody else has. Also not yet able to create groups or several people in the style that I want.
My illustrations are very slowly picking up, it took them over a year to get their first sales. It will probably be several years before I get my money invested in illu ai art back.
i will continue doing illustrations, but I don't recommend it for money. Still have to test transforming my own sketches into ai. That is my ultimate goal, avoud learning illustrator properly, just do my own drawings then let ai do the rest.
For absolute money it seems to be the best to do is people stock.
But this is has always been true.
eta
I have around 700 people files on adobe...so a long, long way to go. Plus it will take them a while to start selling.
Currently have a round 4600 files on Adobe, more than half are winter/spring themes. Only 600 dedicated summer files.
And over 1000 illustrations, which are slow sellers.
The non seasonal images are a small group in my port.
I am sharing this, because we all benefit from honest information.
But I love my job, just need to focus more and:...finally start uploading all my normal videos!! I have such a huge backlog and videos get much better prices.
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we are losing rank positions,the fact is that we are much slower than many who produce thousands of AI contents in a couple of months at most.
they are also fluctuations in Adobe's sales system,which sometimes favors you and other times has to push you aside.
but there are also thousands of new contributors emerging thanks to AI,and they are gaining positions fast.
I lost 8,000 positions this week,I had a bad week and a strange month.
Despite this there is still hope that I can reach my minimum value,that is,the minimum number of sales I should make,a number that has been consolidated for several months.
next week either there will be a strong recovery or this month I won't be able to reach my minimum value for the first time.
for me it is important to be sure that Adobe's sales system,in the worst case scenario,still allows me to reach at least my minimum.
One week left,we'll see what happens! :)
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fwiw i made it to 4890. i think june will be better and in the end may24 will be double of may23.
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in the end last week I lost "only" 3000 positions,for a moment I ended up at -8000 then in the end of Sunday
there was a tailspin! :)
today normal day,nothing special,at least something.
I just saw that of the last 400 contents uploaded,a mix of every type of content,I only sold 12,of which one 3 times and 2 twice,3 sales from AI content(127/400)
16 sales in total in the last 400 contents uploaded,most have been on sale for a very short time anyway.
This month I risk making fewer sales than May 2023,and of course I'm not very happy about it and I'm quite worried,because a year has passed and if instead of selling more I end up selling less,
that's not really something I would define as encouraging! :D
However,there are still 4 days to go,everything is still possible,I just hope to speed up a little with these sales because everything is going too slowly,a little too much.
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How's everyone else's week going?
My weekly ranking is not too bad but my sales numbers are way down this week.
Also just had an entire day (>24 hr) without one sale on Adobe Stock. I can't remember how long it's been when I last had a day without a sale on a week day.
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How's everyone else's week going?
My weekly ranking is not too bad but my sales numbers are way down this week.
Also just had an entire day (>24 hr) without one sale on Adobe Stock. I can't remember how long it's been when I last had a day without a sale on a week day.
In my case sales are also very poor, no matter how many pictures I upload or not. My rank has dropped a lot in the last weeks.
:-[
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Adobe is alive and kicking! :D
very strong recovery in the last 2 days,already 30% more compared to May 2023 regarding earnings,thanks to some good sales.
as regards my minimum value,which is linked to the number of sales,I haven't reached it yet,but it's still possible.
for me this is definitely a better week than the last 2 weeks.
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Adobe is alive and kicking! :D
very strong recovery in the last 2 days,already 30% more compared to May 2023 regarding earnings,thanks to some good sales.
as regards my minimum value,which is linked to the number of sales,I haven't reached it yet,but it's still possible.
for me this is definitely a better week than the last 2 weeks.
Your recovery coincides with my sudden huge drop in sales the past 2 days. Hopefully this is just a temporary drop as without a good performing Adobe Stock I'd no longer have reason to continue actively contributing - to any stock agencies for that matter.
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This is the worst ranking in over 6 months. From a brief day at 250, all the way down to 7020.
It was a public holiday in Germany on Thursday and many people took Friday off, so two days missing. Also shows how dependent I am on the German market.
But I am working hard and things will get better. Winter is coming.
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This is the worst ranking in over 6 months. From a brief day at 250, all the way down to 7020.
It was a public holiday in Germany on Thursday and many people took Friday off, so two days missing. Also shows how dependent I am on the German market.
But I am working hard and things will get better. Winter is coming.
Just checked my weekly ranking and like yours, has dropped to the lowest I've seen it in months. Earnings are at the lowest in 5 weeks and (despite this) still not too bad for the week as I sell mainly video with higher RPD. But quite surprised to see the weekly rank drop down so much.
Suggests to me that from here, the only way is up. 8)
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Yes, this week was the worst downloads and earning of 2024 for me as well.
PS: someone rescued this week’s earnings by buying two images for $20.78 each! Downloads are still the worst of 2024
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my weekly ranking is higher than average,this week is going well,let's hope it continues like this,at least for a while! :)
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I am glad to hear things are going well for you.
So you have the right content for this time.
I hope next year I will not have this crash between may-sept
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This week and month started off a little slow,I expect higher sales numbers this month,and an average increase in the number of sales in the near future.
With my current portfolio,and the rate at which it's growing now,especially real content but also AI,it's time I started having more sales in numbers.
it will be very important to see how it goes over the next 6 months.
What pleased me is that in the last week I have sold more than one real content that has been approved for a max one week,so it means that what I'm doing is good,and it sells.
which I can't say for AI content,because in the last 200 that I produced I didn't sell any,however,the bulk of AI content still needs to be submitted or approved.
I'll probably have to start sleepless nights in an attempt to increase production even more! :D
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This is the worst ranking in over 6 months. From a brief day at 250, all the way down to 7020.
It was a public holiday in Germany on Thursday and many people took Friday off, so two days missing. Also shows how dependent I am on the German market.
But I am working hard and things will get better. Winter is coming.
Just checked my weekly ranking and like yours, has dropped to the lowest I've seen it in months. Earnings are at the lowest in 5 weeks and (despite this) still not too bad for the week as I sell mainly video with higher RPD. But quite surprised to see the weekly rank drop down so much.
Suggests to me that from here, the only way is up. 8)
I've also noticed a sudden drop in sales over the past 4 days, with 0 sales per day, which hardly ever happens. I had the same problem with 123RF when they set up an AI search, which resulted in my best-selling images disappearing overnight.
I remember a few days ago when I logged into my account I was told to accept some kind of automation but I can't remember the exact terms. Has anyone noticed? And would this have anything to do with the drop in sales that some contributors have been noting in recent days?
Thanks for your help :D
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This is the worst ranking in over 6 months. From a brief day at 250, all the way down to 7020.
It was a public holiday in Germany on Thursday and many people took Friday off, so two days missing. Also shows how dependent I am on the German market.
But I am working hard and things will get better. Winter is coming.
Just checked my weekly ranking and like yours, has dropped to the lowest I've seen it in months. Earnings are at the lowest in 5 weeks and (despite this) still not too bad for the week as I sell mainly video with higher RPD. But quite surprised to see the weekly rank drop down so much.
Suggests to me that from here, the only way is up. 8)
I've also noticed a sudden drop in sales over the past 4 days, with 0 sales per day, which hardly ever happens. I had the same problem with 123RF when they set up an AI search, which resulted in my best-selling images disappearing overnight.
I remember a few days ago when I logged into my account I was told to accept some kind of automation but I can't remember the exact terms. Has anyone noticed? And would this have anything to do with the drop in sales that some contributors have been noting in recent days?
Thanks for your help :D
Normal Week here... 22 downloads, 15,05usd and 8280 ranking
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Doing better than last week which was pretty horrible, I have the same number of DL as all of last week already. If they changed something I hope they keep it.
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Had just on 75 dollars of sales overnight which helped with the weekly RPD which was struggling 'til then.
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my pos is back down to 6840. Even had a 7340 last week.
My bestsellers still sell, but at a much slower rate. However I keep getting first sales on newly uploaded stuff, even near instant downloads, so that is at least something.
trying very hard to upload more and more diversified stuff.
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Yes, the new stuff sells much better than before. Even old stuff that never sold has random sales.
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I can't say what has changed, but if you look at the figures you can assume that something has changed.
In my case, my weekly downloads have dropped from an average of about 155 to about 120 - a drop of 22%.
My average rank has fallen from approx. 2,900 to approx. 3,800 - so I sell less in relation to others who sell more.
You can clearly see this trend in the graph below, which shows the downloads per week since the beginning of February - it's been going down steadily, although I still submit between 30 and 45 images every day without exception.
(about 20% photos, 5% videos, 75% AI images)
Many of my bestsellers have hardly been selling since the 12th week of the calendar (from March 18th) - this strongly suggests that something was changed during this time.
I'll probably never find out what it is.
Have a sunny day@All
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This week, dear friends, the struggle is real...
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The struggle is real indeed. Only 8 sales today so far. pos 5140.
But I am already selling easter eggs...
I am trying to add more people, but it is a slow process.
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The struggle is real indeed. Only 8 sales today so far. pos 5140.
But I am already selling easter eggs...
I am trying to add more people, but it is a slow process.
Only 8! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I did much more, and of course not a single AI image in my port, only the true world represented.
Where is your miracle of generating AI photograshits? ;D ;D ;D
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for now:
62 Downloads | $43,88 | pos 6220
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Only 8! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I did much more, and of course not a single AI image in my port, only the true world represented.
Where is your miracle of generating AI photograshits? ;D ;D ;D
It's always a pleasure to read this small-minded ill-will from people in forums.
But somehow nobody needs it except the person themselves.
It's great that you had more sales, but why can't you write that normally? Why do you have to pick on people?
I can't get my head round it, it's very unnecessary and nobody gives a f..k
PS: Please don't answer, nobody is interested in that either ^^
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Just ignore the silly little troll.
60% of my port is seasonal winter holiday stuff. I will enjoy my 100-150 file days in peace and quiet. At the time I had around 3200 files. Let the trolls try to beat that.
I added around 600 summer themed files but obviously that is not enough.
In total I have 5000 files now on Adobe, but only around 1800 are currently relevant.
I wish I could add 1000 files a week. That seems to be the real power of ai, to upload a lot of content in a short time period.
But I rarely manage to upload more than 20 files a day. Today it was 12 files.
These days now mostly processing video. They sell really well and are faster to produce than normal photos with the right set up.
So in a few weeks, incoem from BB should be going up.
BB is mostly non seasonal content, that should bring better balance.
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"Don't wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it." — George Bernard Shaw
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Just ignore the silly little troll.
I teach a class on stock photography and how to work with international agencies for media producers
So... you pretend to be a teacher for stock photography in real life, don't you? ;)
Are you teaching your incompetence and lack of success?
If the price of your class is that of a ticket to a comedy show, I'm willing to participate!
Are you that desperate for truth, real life, organic humanity and authentic nature?
Your are as synthetic as the AI images the machine produces for you.
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"Don't wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it." — George Bernard Shaw
Pigs are very kind animals. Do you have problems with pigs?
Try to express yourself with your own swords words now...
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Don't worry, I have the little troll on ignore, I only see the posts if someone quotes them.
I am really impressed with people images. They take quite a while to start selling, but then sell very consistently.
Really wish I had done that sooner. Only have around 700 now and trying to add at least 3-5 every day. I probably need at least 3000 to see a real impact.
Looks like most of the top producers have people ports, whether normal photo or ai.
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Don't worry, I have the little troll on ignore, I only see the posts if someone quotes them.
I didn’t know about that awesome feature! Thanks for pointing that out. I can now ignore idiots and focus on reading posts from intelligent and well-mannered individuals. This will make my time spent on this forum a lot more enjoyable.
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Don't worry, I have the little troll on ignore, I only see the posts if someone quotes them.
I am really impressed with people images. They take quite a while to start selling, but then sell very consistently.
Really wish I had done that sooner. Only have around 700 now and trying to add at least 3-5 every day. I probably need at least 3000 to see a real impact.
Looks like most of the top producers have people ports, whether normal photo or ai.
When using Firefly, people images can be tough. The results can require a lot of post work, and even then many times get rejected (after sitting in queue for many weeks) for technical reasons which can be not at all clear.
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Don't worry, I have the little troll on ignore, I only see the posts if someone quotes them.
No problem, I don't mind those kind of guys - but I think you have to stand up to it from time to time ^^ Even if the energy is thrown out the window, but I have enough energy :-)
Things are continuing to go downhill for me this week - the 14th week in a row for no apparent reason.
Meanwhile Pos 4.250 of formerly 2.900 with exactly 100 downloads this week... I have no idea what AS has done, but I'm now down 30% in 14 weeks.
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The struggle is real indeed. Only 8 sales today so far. pos 5140.
But I am already selling easter eggs...
I am trying to add more people, but it is a slow process.
Only 8! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I did much more, and of course not a single AI image in my port, only the true world represented.
Where is your miracle of generating AI photograshits? ;D ;D ;D
I don't know how long you've been in the microstock business. But even if it hasn't been that long, you should still be aware that you could experience a total crash tomorrow if an agency were to change the algorithm. So if I were you, I would be very careful about gloating - at least that's how I perceive your words.
The statement "I did much more" says absolutely nothing. If you have a portfolio twice or five times as large, you should of course do "much more". Since you don't show any figures, your statement is pretty worthless in terms of content.
I don't have a single AI image in my portfolio myself. I also don't like the current development in the industry for various reasons.
But you can save yourself this spitefulness or keep it to yourself. We're not in kindergarten here.
If you don't like AI and the resulting consequences, discuss it. That's what the forum is for. But not for spiteful comments.
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It appears that people who are constantly bitter and enjoy conflict may be dealing with unresolved personal issues or insecurities. Their negative behavior could be a way to exert control or feel superior, hiding their own struggles or dissatisfaction with life.
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Majority of the whiny people don‘t show their ports for a reason.
They triumphantly exclaim they had more than 10 sales a day…probably on a port with 50 000 sliced cucumbers, sunsets and flowers…but is done „without ai“ which they try to present as a miracle achievement and amazing „art“
So for the newbies reading, I sometimes try to add some perspective. My port is currently „living“ of around 1800 files, the rest are seasonal and will wake up in time. And I am already uploading at least 50% winter seasonal stuff because it is my main source of income.
So, for a let‘s say 2000 active file port, it is actually quite reasonable. Also more than double than last year this time.
But for me it is still frustrating, because I know the difference, how powerful a port can be and that it is indeed possible to have more than 100 sales a day and to be in the top 500 of sellers.
Adobe is a very, very good agency.
However I must upload also to other places for balance. Especially video.
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Don't worry, I have the little troll on ignore, I only see the posts if someone quotes them.
I am really impressed with people images. They take quite a while to start selling, but then sell very consistently.
Really wish I had done that sooner. Only have around 700 now and trying to add at least 3-5 every day. I probably need at least 3000 to see a real impact.
Looks like most of the top producers have people ports, whether normal photo or ai.
When using Firefly, people images can be tough. The results can require a lot of post work, and even then many times get rejected (after sitting in queue for many weeks) for technical reasons which can be not at all clear.
I now do people nearly exclusively with midjourney. Still need several iterations, especially mouth and hands but much better than anything else I tried.
I really wish I had done that sooner.
But people stock needs a lot more time in prompting and processing compared to pretty easter eggs.
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not related to the (shall we say spirited) discussion at hand... what portion of your portfolio has never sold? i'm curious about some of the permanently sleeping files and if they ever wake up after years of slumber. i notice a higher % of my photos have sold than video but video takes longer to pick up (and obviously fetches more $).
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not related to the (shall we say spirited) discussion at hand... what portion of your portfolio has never sold? i'm curious about some of the permanently sleeping files and if they ever wake up after years of slumber. i notice a higher % of my photos have sold than video but video takes longer to pick up (and obviously fetches more $).
Does Adobe give us that percentage? Adobe doesn't even give us lifetime stats on images, DLs or earnings. If there's a spot that shows, how many images have sold at least one time, I'd be interested in seeing that, but it won't change anything. And for your question: good images tend to keep selling, some drop down and sell fewer after time. Images that are duds and those that have never sold, in all my years, have never suddenly woken up and started selling.
The weekly rank (which is actually "Position", not rank) is supposedly based on DLs only and nothing else. We did some tracking and people with identical DL counts had different positions. Then the next day, one person had more DLs and their rank didn't change, BUT... the person who had no DLs had their position change.
I just want to point out that we have been told, more than once, that position, means nothing. It doesn't change reviews, the search rank or anything else. Bragging rights only. Beyond that, just sharing numbers with friends, it appears that it is either not DLs only or is an unreliable number to base any conclusions about rank. It's a position, where 1, 10, 100 or 1,000 other people, could be the same position. It's a group bracket.
Now someone who knows might tell us some day, why, if it's only DLs, would people with the same number have different positions? Or why someone who had a DL would have their position unchanged. OR why someone with no activity would have their position changed? I can give a theory/guess on the last two.
If I have ten DLs and next day, have none, but someone else had one new, their position would go up or stay the same, but mine would drop. Same for why getting a DL doesn't change position, if everyone else also had the same, and I'm in the same bracket, people with ten DLs.
But nothing explains identical numbers of DLs and different positions. Unless it's not, only DLs? ??? It's a mystery.
I don't have a weekly rank, there is no such thing.
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not related to the (shall we say spirited) discussion at hand... what portion of your portfolio has never sold? i'm curious about some of the permanently sleeping files and if they ever wake up after years of slumber. i notice a higher % of my photos have sold than video but video takes longer to pick up (and obviously fetches more $).
Does Adobe give us that percentage? Adobe doesn't even give us lifetime stats on images, DLs or earnings. If there's a spot that shows, how many images have sold at least one time, I'd be interested in seeing that, but it won't change anything. And for your question: good images tend to keep selling, some drop down and sell fewer after time. Images that are duds and those that have never sold, in all my years, have never suddenly woken up and started selling.
Hi Pete,
You are right that there are no statistics for live time revenue for an image at Adobe.
But there are for the downloads - see screenshots.
100 files are displayed per page. So in my case there are 16 pages.
I currently have 20.7% without a single download.
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For me it starts on page 13 with the pictures without downloads.
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not related to the (shall we say spirited) discussion at hand... what portion of your portfolio has never sold? i'm curious about some of the permanently sleeping files and if they ever wake up after years of slumber. i notice a higher % of my photos have sold than video but video takes longer to pick up (and obviously fetches more $).
2/3 of my port doesn’t have any sales.
My newest uploads are shown right after the last image with sales.
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Wow! I’m impressed. My portfolio is about 50/50 sales/no.
For me it starts on page 13 with the pictures without downloads.
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Wow! I’m impressed. My portfolio is about 50/50 sales/no.
For me it starts on page 13 with the pictures without downloads.
Thank you, but there is no reason to be impressed.
- I've been with AS (former fotolia) for 15 years. So many of my images have had a lot of time to be downloaded.
- With a small portfolio, it's easier for the proportion of images without downloads to be smaller than with very large portfolios.
We've discussed this before.
There was a large contributor with around 1.3 million images in his portfolio at that time. Of these, around 1 million images did not have a single download. However, this was also due to the fact that he always uploaded series on one topic. Out of 30 images in such a series, only 3 or maybe 5 images usually sell. The rest are commercially useless.
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Turned out to be a solid week.
Nobody really believe you till you post the screenshot of your stats. ;D ;D
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Wasn't so much the volume of sales but the RPD and therefore the weekly revenue that took the hit this week and the lowest in 3 months.
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Keep it up! :D
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Must be a slow week for everybody. Average downloads, lower revenue, but higher ranking. I'm happy about the ranking at least.
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For me it starts on page 13 with the pictures without downloads.
Thanks, makes sense, if I look at Dashboard, and sort by "Downloads" and see what page the -0- start, then count and subtract from the total. Find the percentage...
not related to the (shall we say spirited) discussion at hand... what portion of your portfolio has never sold? i'm curious about some of the permanently sleeping files and if they ever wake up after years of slumber. i notice a higher % of my photos have sold than video but video takes longer to pick up (and obviously fetches more $).
No brags, I have some terrible Crapstock from years ago and some, see if it sticks, uploads, with no real potential for sales. 45% have one sale or more. 27% more than one DL.
Meanwhile, no I've never had an image, wake up from slumber. The way the search and rank work, this is even less likely as image rank is set in the first 30 days. I won't say impossible. Something topical that is suddenly in the news and short in supply on stock.
Here's one FREE image, that I waited for, for probably two years, as I drove past on Sunday mornings. The farmer doesn't always have the cattle up in that field, but the old school behind, has the flag up high, every day. Good fun, waiting, waiting, then stop and shoot. Yeah Baby, 5 DLs lifetime, and now free.
(https://as1.ftcdn.net/jpg/03/01/72/00/220_F_301720033_64QR4LoYkcNJiomIHaEnXFVuxYkrMGAJ.jpg)
The school house over the hill? Zero downloads.
(https://as2.ftcdn.net/jpg/03/45/13/37/220_F_345133721_ZWBdyTeVWJ28xlxck1yr88MaBzVAHqdg.jpg)
55% Unsold, to answer the question.
Waiting for fame and fortune, this one is unsold. ;D
(https://as2.ftcdn.net/jpg/03/21/73/21/220_F_321732153_HByKikVIvzzIs1rvT0mkzD4vU0eHf1An.jpg)
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Can’t seem to get above $100 per week in the last several months even with more new images selling. Starting to upload less, will focus my time somewhere else
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Must be a slow week for everybody. Average downloads, lower revenue, but higher ranking. I'm happy about the ranking at least.
Congrats on your very steady port.
In my case the current rank is actually an improvement to last week and at least I will make 100 dollars thanks to a video sale.
I am also seeing a little uptick in the people I upload. They need time to get noticed but then they are quite consistent. Still only 700 people stock, a long way to go.
Now I have 5200 files. Mostly seasonal images for winter/spring.
At least it is better than last year June, probably will be 30% more than June 23.
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Must be a slow week for everybody. Average downloads, lower revenue, but higher ranking. I'm happy about the ranking at least.
Congrats on your very steady port.
In my case the current rank is actually an improvement to last week and at least I will make 100 dollars thanks to a video sale.
I am also seeing a little uptick in the people I upload. They need time to get noticed but then they are quite consistent. Still only 700 people stock, a long way to go.
Now I have 5200 files. Mostly seasonal images for winter/spring.
At least it is better than last year June, probably will be 30% more than June 23.
Thank you!!
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Must be a slow week for everybody. Average downloads, lower revenue, but higher ranking. I'm happy about the ranking at least.
Congrats on your very steady port.
In my case the current rank is actually an improvement to last week and at least I will make 100 dollars thanks to a video sale.
I am also seeing a little uptick in the people I upload. They need time to get noticed but then they are quite consistent. Still only 700 people stock, a long way to go.
Now I have 5200 files. Mostly seasonal images for winter/spring.
At least it is better than last year June, probably will be 30% more than June 23.
Cobalt, you are on the best sellers list again, even with your 5200 weekly ranking. Congratulations. (100,000 downloads and 100 pages?, unless it’s a different Cobalt)
What’s your lifetime rank? May be that’s what we should look at as well?
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Must be a slow week for everybody. Average downloads, lower revenue, but higher ranking. I'm happy about the ranking at least.
Congrats on your very steady port.
In my case the current rank is actually an improvement to last week and at least I will make 100 dollars thanks to a video sale.
I am also seeing a little uptick in the people I upload. They need time to get noticed but then they are quite consistent. Still only 700 people stock, a long way to go.
Now I have 5200 files. Mostly seasonal images for winter/spring.
At least it is better than last year June, probably will be 30% more than June 23.
Cobalt, you are on the best sellers list again, even with your 5200 weekly ranking. Congratulations. (100,000 downloads and 100 pages?, unless it’s a different Cobalt)
What’s your lifetime rank? May be that’s what we should look at as well?
I stand to be corrected, but I would argue that this is a different cobalt!
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Must be a slow week for everybody. Average downloads, lower revenue, but higher ranking. I'm happy about the ranking at least.
Congrats on your very steady port.
In my case the current rank is actually an improvement to last week and at least I will make 100 dollars thanks to a video sale.
I am also seeing a little uptick in the people I upload. They need time to get noticed but then they are quite consistent. Still only 700 people stock, a long way to go.
Now I have 5200 files. Mostly seasonal images for winter/spring.
At least it is better than last year June, probably will be 30% more than June 23.
Cobalt, you are on the best sellers list again, even with your 5200 weekly ranking. Congratulations. (100,000 downloads and 100 pages?, unless it’s a different Cobalt)
What’s your lifetime rank? May be that’s what we should look at as well?
I stand to be corrected, but I would argue that this is a different cobalt!
It looks like a Cobalt, walks like a Cobalt, quacks like a Cobalt but..... probably not this Cobalt. :)
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That is a different Cobalt….not me.
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/201373819/cobalt?load_type=author&prev_url=detail
but maybe I should do more background and design elements
why am I making the effort to do people, if clean backgrounds is all you need?
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Progress in tiny steps. I actually sold some easter themed images this week. People very slowly beginning to pick up, mostly people uploaded last year.
now 5200 files, still over 50% winter seasonal stuff
also decided to start adding more timeless/non seasonal food
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A "normal" week of a "normal" month just ended up on Adobe Stock.
Number of sales this month so far is very similar to the number of sales in June 2023,this last week will be decisive to see if there will be an improvement compared to June 2023.
The results for the free collection should also be available this week.
Lately I've been uploading a lot of various types of content,the real problem and the real challenge is finding the time to do everything.
Regarding AI,up to now I have sold more no people content.
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such a straight line this month
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About this time last year (May 2023) there were about 5 million "gen ai" images.
As of today (June 2024), there are about 88 MILLION "gen ai" images.
About 17x as much competition, educated guess primarily from east indian "artists" (content mills/spammers with multiple accounts to circumvent things/etc), as well as malaysian/phillipines/etc.
Could be part of the reason...
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Didn’t know that there can be the same name on different accounts
judging from most weekly bestsellers, it’s people images that sell the best.
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my alias on adobe is cobaltstock, on istock it is cobalt, in some other places jcobalt etc...
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my alias on adobe is cobaltstock, on istock it is cobalt, in some other places jcobalt etc...
so many Cobalts in the world! :)
on Adobe Stock your alias should be: "Cobaltstock the original" :D
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LOL!
When I signed up with istock I just used my old university (chemistry) alias. I had no idea it would be a career...
I guess I am lucky I didn't sign up as pinkyteddy99... or thevomitingunicorn or jumpingblackspider
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20 days for png file??? What is going on?
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LOL!
When I signed up with istock I just used my old university (chemistry) alias. I had no idea it would be a career...
I guess I am lucky I didn't sign up as pinkyteddy99... or thevomitingunicorn or jumpingblackspider
:D
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This week things are picking up. I think I sold one people image every day for the first time. Several older files had their first ever sale and even two easter sales.
pos 3970 5280 files
must do more people and more food
looks like the dog days are over
eta:
yesterday I sold 10 images on dreamstime, my first ever daily record, usually I sell 2-5 files a month. Now I need another 12 dollars for a payout, so chances are good I will make it this year...
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Usually I'm anywhere between 4000 and 7000. This week is bad in number of downloads, but luckily some good video sales...
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This week things are picking up. I think I sold one people image every day for the first time. Several older files had their first ever sale and even two easter sales.
pos 3970 5280 files
must do more people and more food
looks like the dog days are over
Congrats.
I also do some food images, but non AI.
There is such a huge amount of AI food images at AS. I think my income on food images will go down in future.
May i ask how much production costs are for one AI food image and how much time consumption.
I fear its much below my costs.
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Actually most of my food is still done with camera. I don't do elaborate studio food shots, just daily life outdoors mobile phone food. And always video, the videos sell even better than the images. It might take some time, but it usually pays for the meal.
I have started to do ai food, but like with every new subject it is a learning process.
I don't have an individual image breakdown for costs but I usually pay 100 - 200 dollars a month on ai costs. Trying to bring it below 100, probably by end of the year.
Also I am not a food photographer, so I don't know the current trends.
But my test searches show a lot of foods that I like are still missing on many agencies, so I am trying to gradually add that.
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Usually I'm anywhere between 4000 and 7000. This week is bad in number of downloads, but luckily some good video sales...
Those are great results and a reminder that for absolute money video is probably superior to images.
May I ask how large your port is?
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Usually I'm anywhere between 4000 and 7000. This week is bad in number of downloads, but luckily some good video sales...
Those are great results and a reminder that for absolute money video is probably superior to images.
May I ask how large your port is?
1500 videos, 6500 images (mostly Ai, created as a hobby by my son). Ai downloads reached 440 on October 2023 and it's decreasing slowly despite the increase in portfolio, this month it's 245 Ai downloads only.
Edit: I barely create content for microstock, I sell some archival material that we shoot for our documentaries, and some motion graphics clips that I created for my commercial projects. Among my 1500 video clips, there is 250 motion graphics clips which most of my video sales are coming from. I've created a nice motion graphics clip in After effects for a client, it was looking good. I gave the Ae project to my son and he created 250 clips as variations of that project, I've uploaded those and that collection's income is between 200-300$ per month for the last 18 months.
I guess I'm really lucky, I barely do anything for microstock but despite that I got around 1000$ extra income each month. I have some ideas to create additional motion graphics clips, but currently I'm super busy.
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1000 extra for doing hardly anything and adding little is fantastic.
But because you are a working pro you probably have a very good eye for what makes a clip useful.
Your son probably needs another 18 months to really understand what customers need. Having the most beautiful or cool looking images is not a guarantee of great sales. On the contrary, it can be really mundane looking stuff that becomes regular bestsellers.
I spend a lot of time on research what is missing in collections, does he do that in a systematic way? Perhaps that would help his sales, if he spent 6 months more on browsing the various collections and prompting less.
Also check the competition. Especially with midjourney I often get absolutely fantastic content with a specific prompt string - but sadly 5000 other people already had the same idea and prompt and got basically the same picture. So I will then discard it or keep prompting until I get a variant that is not available yet.
Just an idea.
But if he keeps at it, he will get there.
All the best, with your skills you could probably turn stock into a 4k a month business if you really wanted to.
Or you do that when you retire from your day job.
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1500 videos, 6500 images (mostly Ai, created as a hobby by my son).
I've created a nice motion graphics clip in After effects for a client, it was looking good. I gave the Ae project to my son and he created 250 clips as variations of that project, I've uploaded those and that collection's income is between 200-300$ per month for the last 18 months.
You may not be aware of Adobe's contributor guidelines about not submitting work that you didn't create yourself, so I'll add the link here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/submission-guidelines.html
"You must own or control all the rights to the files you submit to Adobe Stock. Don’t submit files that don’t belong to you, such as photos taken by your spouse. Don’t incorporate anything into your content that was created by someone else — not even images you got from a website that allows free downloads — unless you have a complete property release from the owner of the other content."
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1500 videos, 6500 images (mostly Ai, created as a hobby by my son).
I've created a nice motion graphics clip in After effects for a client, it was looking good. I gave the Ae project to my son and he created 250 clips as variations of that project, I've uploaded those and that collection's income is between 200-300$ per month for the last 18 months.
You may not be aware of Adobe's contributor guidelines about not submitting work that you didn't create yourself, so I'll add the link here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/submission-guidelines.html
"You must own or control all the rights to the files you submit to Adobe Stock. Don’t submit files that don’t belong to you, such as photos taken by your spouse. Don’t incorporate anything into your content that was created by someone else — not even images you got from a website that allows free downloads — unless you have a complete property release from the owner of the other content."
Yes, that's a clear violation. lol
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unless he is registered as a business, then his team, even if they are family, can upload content together
at least that is the way I was always told is it works. many couples also have a photography business together.
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Slow week or me 4,200, but finally I have another bestseller! I uploaded it in February, it’s not seasonal, so maybe that’s why it took so long for it to get noticed.
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Congrats on the new non seasonal bestseller!
Trying very hard to diversify into non seasonal myself, not easy finding good content ideas. Also takes much longer for them to sell, whereas adding seasonal content to the themes I do makes selling additional files quite easy. Might still take a few months but usually I can predict which ones will be popular.
Cruising around pos 3700, now over 5300 files.
Winter is coming.
I am slowly beginning to sell my new ai people, but they will probably take off next year. Trying to add at least 3 a day from many different genres.
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In my case, AdobeStock has been on a steady decline since the last week of March... and I can't say why that is.
I'm currently down to position 5,040 (from around 2,900) - downloads have now almost halved and I've been uploading more material than ever for months - an average of 38 files every day, mixed of photos 25%, videos 10%, AI images 65%.
And the quality of the material has gotten better rather than worse...
I can't explain it except that some switch has been flipped at Adobe and since that day (in the last week of March) my account suddenly seems to be dropping steadily and rapidly.
The graph below shows this more than clearly.
My portfolio is very diversified so trends shouldn't be hitting at this strength - so the question remains: what is happening here?
If this continues, my account will be at virtually zero by October'24... Let's see how this continues... official information on this would be great, but I'm not counting on it.
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In my case, AdobeStock has been on a steady decline since the last week of March... and I can't say why that is.
I'm currently down to position 5,040 (from around 2,900) - downloads have now almost halved and I've been uploading more material than ever for months - an average of 38 files every day, mixed of photos 25%, videos 10%, AI images 65%.
And the quality of the material has gotten better rather than worse...
I can't explain it except that some switch has been flipped at Adobe and since that day (in the last week of March) my account suddenly seems to be dropping steadily and rapidly.
The graph below shows this more than clearly.
My portfolio is very diversified so trends shouldn't be hitting at this strength - so the question remains: what is happening here?
If this continues, my account will be at virtually zero by October'24... Let's see how this continues... official information on this would be great, but I'm not counting on it.
There may be a conspiracy out there. My chart is below.
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@blvdone
Thanks for your chart - as you can see this crash is not present for everyone.
I've seen a few charts from different people over the last few months and about 35% have the same trend as me.
A few are clearly going up and about 50% have a "normal" straight trend.
This has nothing to do with a conspiracy, but the effect is measurable and occurs in a good third of the measurement results so far :)
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@blvdone
Thanks for your chart - as you can see this crash is not present for everyone.
I've seen a few charts from different people over the last few months and about 35% have the same trend as me.
A few are clearly going up and about 50% have a "normal" straight trend.
This has nothing to do with a conspiracy, but the effect is measurable and occurs in a good third of the measurement results so far :)
That may just explain it's totally random and normal. I bet $1 your sales wont be zero after October for good.
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Don't worry, I have the little troll on ignore, I only see the posts if someone quotes them.
I didn’t know about that awesome feature! Thanks for pointing that out. I can now ignore idiots and focus on reading posts from intelligent and well-mannered individuals. This will make my time spent on this forum a lot more enjoyable.
back in the BBS modem days (1980s), we added a twit filter to our Stonehenge program - it let the twit continue to post, but it wouldn't actually display anything except to them, leaving them wonder why no one was responding to their comments
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@justanimage
How much content do you have for the summer season? I usually have quite a slowdown for July/August.
Creating and uploading nearly 40 files a day is an incredible achievement!! I am trying very hard to reach a reliable 20 a day, but don't always manage to do that.
I am sure your port will pick up again in autumn.
Just keep producing, your content needs time to be discovered. The real uptick will be next year.
This year I added more summer autumn july 4th content and it has certainy helped.
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That may just explain it's totally random and normal. I bet $1 your sales wont be zero after October for good.
I wouldn't bet against it :-)
The 0 sales in October are based on the assumption of a linear trend, which is probably not the case for stocks with many seasonal components.
With a time series analysis taking into account seasonal and annual trends, the forecast for October is around 24 weekly downloads - sorry if that was a bit too much maths ;-)
@justanimage
How much content do you have for the summer season? I usually have quite a slowdown for July/August.
Creating and uploading nearly 40 files a day is an incredible achievement!! I am trying very hard to reach a reliable 20 a day, but don't always manage to do that.
I've already asked myself the question about the seasonal component and searched my portfolio for "Summer Season":
(Sorry for the long link)
https://stock.adobe.com/de/search?creator_id=208268331&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aphoto%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aillustration%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Azip_vector%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Avideo%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Atemplate%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3A3d%5D=1&filters%5Bfetch_excluded_assets%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aimage%5D=1&order=relevance&safe_search=1&k=summer+season&limit=100&search_page=3&search_type=pagination&acp=&aco=summer+season&get_facets=0
There would actually be enough available - but I'll stay on the ball :-)
Since the collapse at the end of March, I've had around 3,700 new files accepted - the latest 700 of those have so far totalled generated exactly 1 sale.
It really seems to be the case now that new material takes forever (even after the successful review) to reach the customer.
I don't want to spread any wild theories here either, but as a mathematician I can clearly say that there are factors here that are clearly measurable and are far beyond our sphere of influence - no matter how much you upload and produce.
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Are the 700 files added from a theme that you are known for, or is it a new theme?
I am asking because I saw an artist that usually has great people image in the port adding 400 easter files and being disappointed in getting just one sale. The files were fine, but they were brandnew and he has no track record in the algos for easter.
The preruntime for seasonal content, at least for me, is 9-12 months.
They should have been uploaded last September, at least the best files that you are hoping to become bestsellers.
I am sure your files will sell, but I think you are underestimating how long it takes for customers to pick them up and use them.
Unless you are doing something totally unique, with all the competition flooding in, timing becomes much more crucial.
Which specific customer group are you targeting for summer? Because I couldn't really identify the target. It is a big mix.
Personally I like to build around distinct buyer groups. Maybe something to pay more attention to. "families at the beach from around the world", "all the summer food of mexico", "1000 images of people camping", maybe even targeting specific holiday regions. camp sites in france look different to brasil, look different to montana...
Content grouped so they can tell a story together. You don't have to upload them at the same time, customers recognize the story pretty quickly when they do a search.
But your files will probably do well next year.
My summer was better this year, at least so far. Let's see what August looks like.
For me the most important new content is people, but it is very hard work.
And as I don't have a track record in the algos, I know it will take much longer to get good sales than uploading another easter egg..
But you are working very hard, I think you just might need to take a little break, analyse the results more carefully and check out the competition.
But you will do well, I am not worried :)
eta
love your people content!
hope to reach that quality soon.
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Thank you for all the suggestions and encouragement :-)
Let's see what I can integrate into my workflow, which is currently designed for speed.
Perhaps working on a theme-specific basis would be a really good option - at the moment, for example, I simply go through the list of the world's public holidays for the year and work down the list - this is then uploaded as appropriate as possible (the review times are no longer predictable at all), i.e. Easter images are currently uploaded before Christmas ;-)
In fact, the "people" pictures don't sell as well as I'd hoped (I just do whatever comes into my head) - the concept pictures on other themes do better on average.
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Going down a list of world holidays is a very good way to get into seasonal themes.
But you need at least 12 months to see which holiday is the one customers like to buy content from you. Then once you have these results, you can then create more specific content.
You also have to keep watching the competition and do something that is DIFFERENT or not yet done by them. Don‘t copy the bestsellers, try something new.
Customers are so tired of the endless duplicates.
So it is a good strategy, but it is 3 year plan at minimum ;)
Your people are great, perhaps also here it might be worth looking at developing a specific theme and adding 3000 files.
If young women at the beach are your bestsellers, then do 3000 of them from around the world, different ethnicities, different locations, doing very different things - surfing, enjoying a cocktail, playing volleyball, sunbathing and applying lotion, reading, making influencer videos…also travel, holiday vacation, packing the bag, taking the plane, taxi, bus, tuktuk…etc…
It is is happy kids, explore the back to school theme, even if it is already late, but with a wild mix diverse groups depending on the country your customers are from…
You have the quality, I think you just need to spend a little more time on strategy.
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pos 3690, now 5380 files
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@Cobalt
Thank you for all the tips - let's see how I can get this into my workflow and into my "stubborn head" :-)
Fortunately, I don't copy the bestsellers - that never helps because they are already at the top of the search results. The most you would do is collect a few "crumbs" left and right.
I just hope that the trend will reverse at some point, because before that it was going very well for months and since the end of March it has been falling rapidly - the effect is definitely real.
We will know whether this is a seasonal effect (for me and many others at the moment) by next season at the latest.
Feel free to turn the dials again AS, then maybe things will get better for some ;-)
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My weekly ranking went up a bit after the $5 Free images accepted.
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Congrats! You must be the head of this leaderboard!
Stocky royalty!
@justanimage
You could also benefit from taking a break with Adobe and focussing on other agencies for a while, or especially on video.
It lessens the dependency and can give you a better perspective and fresh ideas.
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Congrats Stocky! how many years you’ve been doing stock and re you a singe contributor or a business?
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Thank you for feedback Cobalt, it’s fun to see that variety of different scenarios are possible
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@blvdone
Thanks for your chart - as you can see this crash is not present for everyone.
I've seen a few charts from different people over the last few months and about 35% have the same trend as me.
A few are clearly going up and about 50% have a "normal" straight trend.
This has nothing to do with a conspiracy, but the effect is measurable and occurs in a good third of the measurement results so far :)
I'm probably in that 50% you say.
my trend is slightly upwards,but really slightly,in fact the 25% higher number of sales in June 2024 compared to June 2023 proves it,it's not much if you consider that an extra year has passed,but I guess it could be worse!
lately,Mondays are dead and strangely I sell more on weekends even more than Wednesday and Thursday,most weeks it's like this for me now.
I hope for a clearer improvement,I will evaluate in September,October and November.
for the moment I'm where I need to be,I'm halfway to last year's number of sales,considering a slight percentage increase over each month,I should end the year with more sales than last year.
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What is really damaging to my port performance is the RPD decline. I'm not a high-volume seller but been making comfortably over $100 each week - that is until the past week and half. You can also see some downward trend on the attached trend line from 1 Jan to 9 July 2024. Too early to tell if this is perennial or temporal.
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Congrats Stocky! how many years you’ve been doing stock and re you a singe contributor or a business?
Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
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Congrats Stocky! how many years you’ve been doing stock and re you a singe contributor or a business?
Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
That is so impressive! What an achievement to do it all by yourself!
How much time per week do you spend on stock?
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Congrats Stocky! how many years you’ve been doing stock and re you a singe contributor or a business?
Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
What is revenue like @ 161st position? Are you doing $10k+/month?
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Congrats Stocky! how many years you’ve been doing stock and re you a singe contributor or a business?
Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
What is revenue like @ 161st position? Are you doing $10k+/month?
I can't comment for Stocky but when I'm at the 100 - 200 weekly rank it's no where near $10k per month but I only do images with a small amount of footage. I probably hit a max of $3500 - $4500 a month at that point. If you mainly supply footage with a 100-200 rank then I could imagine 10k+ per month.
For me, I have a quiet spell at this time of year and drop to about 850 weekly rank. Thankfully it only lasts a short spell before improving.
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That is very valuable information, thank you
It gives those of us planning a full time stock income a good guidance
Of course Adobe is not the only agency, but it is the most important and gives very reliable income
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What is really damaging to my port performance is the RPD decline. I'm not a high-volume seller but been making comfortably over $100 each week - that is until the past week and half. You can also see some downward trend on the attached trend line from 1 Jan to 9 July 2024. Too early to tell if this is perennial or temporal.
my RPD is good.
1.13 for June,it's not stellar,but it's okay.
what's not so good is the number of sales,it's barely acceptable,it's too static,it should be at least 50% more given my current portfolio,but above all it's been too long now that I always go around the same sales numbers.
for the moment I will continue to work with my head down,but I need to see an improvement in this sales number at least from September.
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My weekly ranking went up a bit after the $5 Free images accepted.
you are not human! :D
It must be a great satisfaction,congratulations! :)
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@blvdone
Thanks for your chart - as you can see this crash is not present for everyone.
I've seen a few charts from different people over the last few months and about 35% have the same trend as me.
A few are clearly going up and about 50% have a "normal" straight trend.
This has nothing to do with a conspiracy, but the effect is measurable and occurs in a good third of the measurement results so far :)
I'm probably in that 50% you say.
my trend is slightly upwards,but really slightly,in fact the 25% higher number of sales in June 2024 compared to June 2023 proves it,it's not much if you consider that an extra year has passed,but I guess it could be worse!
lately,Mondays are dead and strangely I sell more on weekends even more than Wednesday and Thursday,most weeks it's like this for me now.
I hope for a clearer improvement,I will evaluate in September,October and November.
for the moment I'm where I need to be,I'm halfway to last year's number of sales,considering a slight percentage increase over each month,I should end the year with more sales than last year.
I too have noticed some weird no or very low sales days mid week - that used to be very rare, now often one of the weekend days is better than one or 2 of the weekdays.
Dreamstime used to have some sort of system where they rotated the visibility of portfolios somehow - so a few days of sales followed by a few days of no sales. It almost seems like Adobe is doing something like that.
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What I have noticed is that when I do my test searches, I often still get for instance 3 images on page 1 of that search, but they change more often.
So a proven bestseller might be replaced by more recent image. But perhaps it is not as good and doesn't get as many sales.
Then on a different day the proven bestsellers are back in that search.
Perhaps this is what is happening, they want to give customers a fresher experience and keep rotating files.
Longtime that is probably not bad, it leads to a wider exposure of the enture portfolio.
It might even lessen the dependance on indivdual bestsellers.
I certainly wouldn't mind having a wider sell through rate.
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Congrats Stocky! how many years you’ve been doing stock and re you a singe contributor or a business?
Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
That is so impressive! What an achievement to do it all by yourself!
How much time per week do you spend on stock?
Thanks. At one point I was working til midnight then getting back up at 3. Crazy! Now I work smart, not hard ;)
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Congrats Stocky! how many years you’ve been doing stock and re you a singe contributor or a business?
Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
What is revenue like @ 161st position? Are you doing $10k+/month?
Nowhere near $10k a month, I wish! ;D
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Congrats Stocky! how many years you’ve been doing stock and re you a singe contributor or a business?
Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
What is revenue like @ 161st position? Are you doing $10k+/month?
I can't comment for Stocky but when I'm at the 100 - 200 weekly rank it's no where near $10k per month but I only do images with a small amount of footage. I probably hit a max of $3500 - $4500 a month at that point. If you mainly supply footage with a 100-200 rank then I could imagine 10k+ per month.
For me, I have a quiet spell at this time of year and drop to about 850 weekly rank. Thankfully it only lasts a short spell before improving.
Agreed, I'm the same.
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My weekly ranking went up a bit after the $5 Free images accepted.
you are not human! :D
It must be a great satisfaction,congratulations! :)
LOL thanks! ;D
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Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
Rank 161 is really impressive - and even more so as an individual!
It's definitely great to see that this is possible :-)
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Thanks! Decades :) sole operator.
Rank 161 is really impressive - and even more so as an individual!
It's definitely great to see that this is possible :-)
Thanks. Years of hard work and long hours paid off! Definitely possible with persistence and common sense ;D
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@blvdone
Thanks for your chart - as you can see this crash is not present for everyone.
I've seen a few charts from different people over the last few months and about 35% have the same trend as me.
A few are clearly going up and about 50% have a "normal" straight trend.
This has nothing to do with a conspiracy, but the effect is measurable and occurs in a good third of the measurement results so far :)
I'm probably in that 50% you say.
my trend is slightly upwards,but really slightly,in fact the 25% higher number of sales in June 2024 compared to June 2023 proves it,it's not much if you consider that an extra year has passed,but I guess it could be worse!
lately,Mondays are dead and strangely I sell more on weekends even more than Wednesday and Thursday,most weeks it's like this for me now.
I hope for a clearer improvement,I will evaluate in September,October and November.
for the moment I'm where I need to be,I'm halfway to last year's number of sales,considering a slight percentage increase over each month,I should end the year with more sales than last year.
Yeh I've noticed similar sales activities.
As for the current month, my RPD continues to drop with the current week RPD at $1.06. I need higher video sales to break this declining trend (22 April to 10 July trend line attached).
Curiously I'm at my best weekly rank but my earnings are suffering. Even Shutterstock July earnings have overtaken Adobe Stock following a disastrous start to the month.
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...
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Still holding my usual spot. Not easy going above 1,000th. Probably I'll have to add 30% more contents at least to break above 1,000th.
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I admire how steady your port is. Well done!
You will certainly move up into the top 300 at some point.
I am at 3940 with 5400 files
Winter is coming...
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I hope the numbers will pick up again soon... actually at 104dl (about 50-60 less then average) pos 4.280.
Maybe next week will be better ;-)
Edit: The big blue bar three weeks ago was the free-collection payment
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I admire how steady your port is. Well done!
You will certainly move up into the top 300 at some point.
I am at 3940 with 5400 files
Winter is coming...
Thank you!!! But I don't think I'll reach top 300. Top 800 is doable for me.
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I hope the numbers will pick up again soon... actually at 104dl (about 50-60 less then average) pos 4.280.
Maybe next week will be better ;-)
Edit: The big blue bar three weeks ago was the free-collection payment
But your sales will hit 0 in October?
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But your sales will hit 0 in October?
Let me think for a moment... I said the following:
If this continues, my account will be at virtually zero by October'24... Let's see how this continues...
So if the trend (linear regression) at the time of the original post were to develop in this way, then my sales would make the intersection with the axis in October and reach 0.
It follows directly from this that if the behaviour of the downloads changes, the trend line will also change automatically.
That's how it is with forecasts and variable behaviour ;-)
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Justanimage
Your sales trend looks like it is stabilizing albeit probably at a level lower than your historical trend.
I'm noticing there's a lot more volatility chasing RPD. My weekly position has been under 8500 this week which is my best position but the attached trend line shows where weekly earnings are at, less than half of most weeks...
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Your sales trend looks like it is stabilizing albeit probably at a level lower than your historical trend.
I'm noticing there's a lot more volatility chasing RPD. My weekly position has been under 8500 this week which is my best position but the attached trend line shows where weekly earnings are at, less than half of most weeks...
Yes, I completely agree with you - on the one hand, downloads seem to be stabilising (even if one week is probably not enough data for this) and with RpD it seems to be a pure game of chance.
If I remember correctly you're in videos (sorry if I'm wrong) - if you have a lot of the $2.80 sales that's a big impact.
Video RpD for me (with extreme jumps in the weeks/months) - just for comparision
2022: $17,18
2023: $9,62
2024: $8,30
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Your sales trend looks like it is stabilizing albeit probably at a level lower than your historical trend.
I'm noticing there's a lot more volatility chasing RPD. My weekly position has been under 8500 this week which is my best position but the attached trend line shows where weekly earnings are at, less than half of most weeks...
Yes, I completely agree with you - on the one hand, downloads seem to be stabilising (even if one week is probably not enough data for this) and with RpD it seems to be a pure game of chance.
If I remember correctly you're in videos (sorry if I'm wrong) - if you have a lot of the $2.80 sales that's a big impact.
Video RpD for me (with extreme jumps in the weeks/months) - just for comparision
2022: $17,18
2023: $9,62
2024: $8,30
That's interesting, RPD on videos is a bit under half from 2022.
Yes I've a lot more video than photos / illustrations which looks like this on Adobe:
2201 videos
860 photos
212 illustrations.
Just hoping the RPD picks up again with those higher paying videos. I can't (ie: don't have the energy to) get there by high volume sales with loading tons of photos, AI etc. In fact I don't any AI at all.
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i'm starting to think the only way to increase your portfolio size is to build a time machine and travel back to the brief period between february and april when images were actually being reviewed. i'm waiting for the 'good news' that human generated content is no longer needed at adobe.
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Just hoping the RPD picks up again with those higher paying videos.
Oh yes, that would be very good - video RpD is clearly on the decline overall, not just at AS.
Shutter: 2022 - $12.84 / 2024 - $7.87
Pond5: 2022 - $14.08 / 2024 - $9.70
IStock: 2022 - $4.02 / 2024 - $2.84
AS: 2022 - $17.18 / 2024 - $8.30
And I fear that the AI video platforms such as OpenAI Sora, Google Lumiere and Odyssey, which will emerge at some point, will shake up the video stock sector enormously - presumably in a similar way to AI images... total flooding.
Sorry for getting a little "off topic" :)
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With good ai video you will get a flood, but will it be what is needed?
I tried ai video for a month and I wasn‘t impressed. 90% of what I got was totally unusable.
ai still has problems getting hands feet and mouth right, eyes have improved a lot but there are still a ton of mistakes.
It you cannot get it right on single images, what will they do with 25/sec?
Then there is the timing and pacing of the story as it unfolds over 4 seconds, then there are all the continuity problems.
Iz is much faster to take a normal video- With video literally all content is still open as the agencies still have less than 80 million clips? Including editorial?
I do see potential for fantasy content - spaceships, aliens, fantasy worlds.
And that would be a good addition to the reality based normal video.
All kinds of concepts that would need 3d render visualization. If you can master that with ai, there are a lot of opportunities.
But hands doing something, groups of people, even just a simple underwater clip - will the fish be real or fantasy hybrids?
eta
just saw that ss only has 34 million videos
everything in video is open
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@Cobalt:
At the moment, you're absolutely right - but I see the development here progressing rapidly (I myself come from the software development sector for image/video editing).
At the moment, topics such as fantasy, background animations with movements of water/metals/fluids, science fiction spaceships, etc. are certainly all right for video AIs.
The best available version is probably currently Runway Gen-3, but at $95 for an 'unlimited' plan it's also really expensive - and all the post-processing, scaling, etc. also takes a lot of time.
In any case, I'm curious to see what will come from the 'big' AI companies and, above all, when it will arrive.
The editorial area will remain unaffected anyway and the people, hands, anatomical accidents, etc. will certainly need a few more years before it's stable :)
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Here are my stats this week: position 5060 with almost 700 files.
Pretty slow week, I've seen my position already dipping below 4000 in the past.
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Here are my stats this week: position 5060 with almost 700 files.
Pretty slow week, I've seen my position already dipping below 4000 in the past.
Definitely not bad, considering that you only have 700 files online. They must be good images.
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Here are my stats this week: position 5060 with almost 700 files.
Pretty slow week, I've seen my position already dipping below 4000 in the past.
Definitely not bad, considering that you only have 700 files online. They must be good images.
Thank you! Also considering I barely uploaded any good content to microstock since 2020 (when SS cut their royalties), Adobe is still doing pretty good. I's almost fully passive income by now.
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That is a great result with just 700 files.
In proportion you are greatly outselling lots of people, including me.
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That is a great result with just 700 files.
In proportion you are greatly outselling lots of people, including me.
Thank you! I have a few files which sell very well. But I think what really should be compared, is invested effort vs income. In the past I used to invest many hours in perfecting a single image with the goal of reaching high positions in the search results - which lead to high amount of sales. But if someone creates 10 times as much content in the same time and only sells 50% of my content, they are actually outperforming me :D.
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My weekly ranking went up a bit after the $5 Free images accepted.
Do you only create photographs or also illustrations and vectors?
Either way, it's quite an achievement these days.
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Here are my stats this week: position 5060 with almost 700 files.
Pretty slow week, I've seen my position already dipping below 4000 in the past.
this is strange,this position with these earnings with only 700 files,contents can be as good and powerful as you want but they are only 700.
How long have you been a contributor?Is this your first year or have you opened your account 10 years or more ago?
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How long have you been a contributor?Is this your first year or have you opened your account 10 years or more ago?
Since 2012 :D
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ok,this explains everything! :)
those files have now sold so many times in the golden years of 2012 that they will always be ahead.
the time since you are a contributor also counts on Adobe,in fact I believe that even if I stop uploading now and then come back in 5 years and start uploading again,I will earn much more than now,simply because in the meantime 5 years have passed.
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ok,this explains everything! :)
those files have now sold so many times in the golden years of 2012 that they will always be ahead.
the time since you are a contributor also counts on Adobe,in fact I believe that even if I stop uploading now and then come back in 5 years and start uploading again,I will earn much more than now,simply because in the meantime 5 years have passed.
thanks for the reply!
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ok,this explains everything! :)
those files have now sold so many times in the golden years of 2012 that they will always be ahead.
the time since you are a contributor also counts on Adobe,in fact I believe that even if I stop uploading now and then come back in 5 years and start uploading again,I will earn much more than now,simply because in the meantime 5 years have passed.
Or one tweak of the algorithm and sales will practically stop. I uploaded consistently but slowly for 5 years at a number of agencies. Sales mostly went down during that time and $ went down faster.
Mike, those are awesome numbers for 700 files, even more impressive if you haven't uploaded much in years. Your hard work is still paying off, too bad SS poisoned the well.
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ok,this explains everything! :)
those files have now sold so many times in the golden years of 2012 that they will always be ahead.
the time since you are a contributor also counts on Adobe,in fact I believe that even if I stop uploading now and then come back in 5 years and start uploading again,I will earn much more than now,simply because in the meantime 5 years have passed.
I have to disagree.
I've been doing this since 2009 and have many images with more than 100 downloads. Most of them disappeared from one day to the next due to an algorithm change - this also applies to images with more than 250, 500 or 1000 downloads.
There are images where I can understand why, because the style, visual language or zeitgeist has changed. For the majority of images, however, it has nothing to do with this - they were simply sorted to the back.
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I like this strategy of uploading only the very, very best files. I am sure if somebody starts out today and uploads only killer quality they will also achieve excellent results.
But the uptake and distribution takes a few years.
I have some genres where I try to do exactly that. Really only upload the very, very best.
However I still add lots of general backgrounds and lots of test files so my port doesn't look very streamlined.
Spendings several hours on a good quality file is a good investment. The images can easily live and sell over decades if they have a timeless appeal.
Then they might become vintage and be even more interesting.
I hink that makes more sense than uploading 20 similar files.
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@pancaketom and @Wilm,a change in the algorithm you say?Maybe.
certainly Mike's case is certainly a case apart,having started in 2012 has its importance in my opinion,but certainly perhaps it doesn't completely explain everything,you're probably right,maybe we can sit here and think all we want but maybe luck also plays a key role in the microstock game.
It's probably important to try to do everything today,I pretty much do every type of content on rotation,Lately I've been neglecting vectors,but I need to get back on track there too soon.
I'm not particularly happy with Adobe's sales numbers,but I am also aware of the conditions in which I started,although now, given the quantity and quality of the content I produce today,I expect rapid growth in the near future,although my earnings are starting to look better,thanks to the diversity of content I upload.
@Cobalt,I don't produce huge quantities either,even though I'm in boost mode since May,I'm uploading much more than usual lately,but still less than many others,I can perhaps even reach 400 contents in a month,but it will certainly be very difficult for me to overcome these levels.
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Thanks for so much positive feedback! From my experience high quality sells well even in today's market. But I don't think it's worth investing time into creating high quality content for microstock any more - every agency except Adobe slashed their royalties and I expect Adobe to do the same soon and then it's game over for any content that takes longer than a few minutes to create.
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Thanks for so much positive feedback! From my experience high quality sells well even in today's market. But I don't think it's worth investing time into creating high quality content for microstock any more - every agency except Adobe slashed their royalties and I expect Adobe to do the same soon and then it's game over for any content that takes longer than a few minutes to create.
I agree about quality, although in my opinion the right balance is more important, I also used to waste hours creating content,but it's better to look for a middle ground,in my opinion you have to work well but also quickly,quantity is also important,but with Adobe it's a slightly different matter because it also depends on the way the sales system manages you.
I disagree,and obviously hope you are wrong,about Adobe cutting royalties,I think they also know that another blow like this would be the end of the microstock,and almost no one will upload anything anymore.
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I always look at the bestselling ports of the week.
But this one is really weird.
How did it get into the bestsellerlist?
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/211258406/ahmed?load_type=author&prev_url=detail
Unless maybe it is the fishtanks.
If that is a big industry and this time of the year is important for them, perhaps he gets a lot of sales for that.
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strange port indeed! :D
it goes from fish to vectors and then to fashion and then food and then animals...to me it just seems like a jumble of things that don't belong to the same copyright holder.
I dare say that probably only the photos of the fishes are from the account owner.
but I clearly don't know! :)
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How did it get into the bestsellerlist?
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/211258406/ahmed?load_type=author&prev_url=detail
Something very fishy going on there!
They have 621 images but if you do a blank search on their portfolio and add "&filters%5Bundiscovered%5D=only" into the URL you can see that there are only 5 images that have not been sold. That is far from normal and should be a red flag that Adobe needs to investigate the portfolio for possible sales fraud.
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How did it get into the bestsellerlist?
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/211258406/ahmed?load_type=author&prev_url=detail
Something very fishy going on there!
They have 621 images but if you do a blank search on their portfolio and add "&filters%5Bundiscovered%5D=only" into the URL you can see that there are only 5 images that have not been sold. That is far from normal and should be a red flag that Adobe needs to investigate the portfolio for possible sales fraud.
Farmed fish images are selling like crazy right now. I see those photos everywhere and in every ads these days.
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Search algorithms have changed and will probably continue to do so.
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My weekly ranking went up a bit after the $5 Free images accepted.
Do you only create photographs or also illustrations and vectors?
Either way, it's quite an achievement these days.
Photos only. Thanks :D
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My weekly ranking went up a bit after the $5 Free images accepted.
Do you only create photographs or also illustrations and vectors?
Either way, it's quite an achievement these days.
Photos only. Thanks :D
How many photos you sell daily in average for that rank?
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My weekly ranking went up a bit after the $5 Free images accepted.
Do you only create photographs or also illustrations and vectors?
Either way, it's quite an achievement these days.
Photos only. Thanks :D
How many photos you sell daily in average for that rank?
200
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but these are results that can only be achieved with time,a lot of time,decades.
This worries me a bit because I'm more than sure that my earnings on Adobe will continue to increase,but too slowly and I'm no longer 30 years old.
also this month I am sure that I will end the month with an increase in earnings and in the number of sales,compared to July 2023.
the point is that this increase after one year is too little,the difference between one year and another it's not much.
so the thing is,if I were at least 10 years younger,I would have time to wait these 10 years before achieving results like "stocky" or at least getting close to that.
but time is not on my side,I can't afford to still wait many years to reach at least 50 sales a day,or close to this.
my hope,the reason why I'm continuing in the microstock,is that at some point there will be a clear improvement.
so I really think that I will evaluate in the next few months whether there will be interesting developments or not,because I can no longer afford to wait all this time.
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You need the last quarter to really see if it is improving.
And as you know many files also need at least a year to start selling.
I had several first time sales this week from what I uploaded last year. I always wondered why they didn't get any takers.
I don't think you need to wait 10 years.
With ai you can now provide a much greater range of subjects than just with regular photography.
There are so many unserved niches.
For example:
Today I looked at food on Adobe.
With the keyword food, you get 57 million files
But if I add simple second keywords - food germany it drops down to 145 000 files.
Then food people germany - only 17 000 files.
Germany/Austria/Switzerland and many eastern European countries, have similar traditions in food and similar people.
That is a huge region that is completely empty.
I was really surprised, didn't expect that.
But with ai you can also do this for
food brasil
food japan
food people canada...etc...
You can try this for many subjects.
Find a niche you understand that has a large customer group and shoot the h*** out of it.
Work smarter, not harder.
You don't have to do 35 files a day if you can identify the right niches. 20 a day is fine if they are really needed or simply new.
currently
pos 4030, 5500 files
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but these are results that can only be achieved with time,a lot of time,decades.
This worries me a bit because I'm more than sure that my earnings on Adobe will continue to increase,but too slowly and I'm no longer 30 years old.
also this month I am sure that I will end the month with an increase in earnings and in the number of sales,compared to July 2023.
the point is that this increase after one year is too little,the difference between one year and another it's not much.
so the thing is,if I were at least 10 years younger,I would have time to wait these 10 years before achieving results like "stocky" or at least getting close to that.
but time is not on my side,I can't afford to still wait many years to reach at least 50 sales a day,or close to this.
my hope,the reason why I'm continuing in the microstock,is that at some point there will be a clear improvement.
so I really think that I will evaluate in the next few months whether there will be interesting developments or not,because I can no longer afford to wait all this time.
What about trying for more video? You'll be building on your current slow-but-sure increase with higher RPD content which together will see good clear improvements.
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Yes, please do video.
It is a completely open field with very little competition.
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yes,what I want to wait for is the last quarter of the year.
and yes,I have tripled my video library in the last 2 months.
but it certainly takes time,it takes years.
it's the sales system that regulates everything,of course it also depends on what you do,but in my opinion it's more a question of time.
what matters in my opinion is the number of sales,the earnings can clearly vary,but what is important is to make the numbers,then the money arrives.
These are the percentage increases in the number of sales this year so far compared to 2023:
Jan:+73%
Feb:+50%
Mar:+8%
Apr:+50%
May:-10%
June:+25%
I repeat,these are percentages of the number of sales,not earnings.
in May 2024 I had a lower number of sales than in May 2023,and this is strange,how is it possible to sell less if you have more files because a year has passed?
in any case,in my opinion it is a simple fluctuation in the sales system which will probably make me recover later,so that there is an increase more or less established,based on the parameters of the sales system.
I don't know if is clear,but in any case the increase in the number of sales is there,but it is too low,and it will most likely take many years to reach decent levels.
in my opinion,as i have already said in the past,Cobalt,you have that level because you started many years ago,and even if you only uploaded a few files,and then disconnected for 10 years,those files still continued for many years,leading you today to have good visibility that is given by the sales system.
of course,what you produce also counts,but today more than ever the most important factor in my opinion is time,it takes many years before reaching acceptable earnings.
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I'll put it simpler and ask you a question,a question aimed at those who have had an Adobe account open for at least since 10 years:
"In your opinion,if you had opened your account in 2018,despite having the same portfolio you have today,perfectly identical,would you earn the same as what you earn today?"
I don't think anyone can answer yes,but let me know what you think if you want.
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Those numbers are very, very good, congrats!
I agree that I have an advantage because of my old bestsellers. But that only works in established genres, like greeting cards.
I don't have that advantage for people for instance or mock up rooms or food in general etc...
So for new themes I need to work my way through the grind.
I still believe you can increase your income faster than you expect, especially with a good push in video.
The main thing is to be determined and to keep uploading good content.
If what you say is true, then in 12 years, when I might slowly start to retire, my income from Adobe should be much higher than today.
Of course it is difficult to predict for such long timeframes, but there is a lot of life in the stock market and I believe the industry will still see a lot of growth.
eta:
I believe if I had uploaded the same old istock files in 2018 instead of 2013, I would still be where I am today.
Seasonal images need around 3-4 years to really get picked up.
So if I had uploaded in 2013, left it all to be then came back dec 2023 to start uploading again...I think the results would be the same.
Cannot test it of course.
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thank you,and yes I am certainly sure that in 12 years your earnings will be more than today.
you can earn more as the years go by,although many believe that the microstock is over,I don't think so,you just need to continue working and diversifying a lot,not always doing the same thing,same genre.
my growth percentages are not bad,but unfortunately I think it will take me another 4 years before I can have an acceptable income from Adobe,so when I have reached my 10 years as a contributor.
unfortunately,as I was saying,4 years now weigh like a huge stone,if instead I was 30 years old,It would be a walk in the park to wait 4 years!
anyway no,I don't think you would be at the same point if you had started in 2018 like me,but thanks for the answer and for your point of view,I'm very pleased to read it.
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yes,what I want to wait for is the last quarter of the year...
no need to wait (and last qtr may have always been significantly different from other) --> keep a running average of the last 3 completed months - then you'll aways be able to compare a current quarter vs 1 yr, etc ago
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I'll put it simpler and ask you a question,a question aimed at those who have had an Adobe account open for at least since 10 years:
"In your opinion,if you had opened your account in 2018,despite having the same portfolio you have today,perfectly identical,would you earn the same as what you earn today?"
I don't think anyone can answer yes,but let me know what you think if you want.
I think yes. Most of my sales come from a handful of bestsellers, and some of them I uploaded in 2018-2020 (stopped uploading quality content in 2020 - so no newer data). Which for me proves the point that you can still have relatively recent bestsellers.
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yes,what I want to wait for is the last quarter of the year...
no need to wait (and last qtr may have always been significantly different from other) --> keep a running average of the last 3 completed months - then you'll aways be able to compare a current quarter vs 1 yr, etc ago
thanks for the advice,for a comparison with last year it is actually better,because a single month can actually be deceiving,an average of 3 months is better.
however the point here is simple,I need to see an improvement and I need to see it within this year at the latest.
the work I am doing and have done this year is certainly many steps ahead of the work I was doing before 2021,so it is time that I started to see a certain difference,if I don't see it it means that it will take longer than expected.
like I said,I can't afford to waste too much time,simply because I still don't have much ahead of me,not like if i was 30 years old.
I'm certainly not old,but I'm no longer young enough to afford to wait another 4/5 years or more before seeing a more substantial profit,and the situation in general doesn't allow me to.
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I'll put it simpler and ask you a question,a question aimed at those who have had an Adobe account open for at least since 10 years:
"In your opinion,if you had opened your account in 2018,despite having the same portfolio you have today,perfectly identical,would you earn the same as what you earn today?"
I don't think anyone can answer yes,but let me know what you think if you want.
I think yes. Most of my sales come from a handful of bestsellers, and some of them I uploaded in 2018-2020 (stopped uploading quality content in 2020 - so no newer data). Which for me proves the point that you can still have relatively recent bestsellers.
Thanks for your point of view.
of course you can have best-sellers,and I must also say that I also sell quite a bit of new content,but unfortunately the sales system keeps me stuck on a certain level of growth.
that is,in my opinion,I can only increase earnings up to a certain point,which is decided by various factors,by the sales system.
this is my impression,and it is also logical to think so,because otherwise how can we all sell?it is obvious that there is a mechanism that regulates sales,once I have sold my "share" I go offline,unless perhaps a customer is looking for something particular that only me or a few have in the portfolio.
so I don't believe that the exact same portfolio can earn the same thing if it started 5 years later,obviously the same exact portfolio if started in 2013 earns more than an identical portfolio started in 2018.
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I really don‘t see evidence for any system that is holding a port down.
You can easily see it with the people who are celebrating great sales from their ai images, who sell much better than their original port.
But the reason is simply that the ai content is visually so much better than what they were producing themselves.
Better lighting, better models, better composition.
If you have what customers need, you get the sales.
It is up to you, but I find this belief that Adobe will not allow you to grow your income to be a very negative attitude.
And that is inspite of already significantly increasing your income.
My own port moves up and down very, very drastically depending on wether I have good content for the month or not.
From as low as 8000 I went up to 250, for just one day, last year.
This year I am moving between 7200 to 1600 and now around 3500-4200, which is much better than last year this time.
If you offer content that is missing and needed, why should any Adobe „system“ hold you down?
That is not in the interest of Adobe.
They serve the customers, not the producers.
It is up to you, but perhaps consider a more positive outlook.
I do understand the concern - will it all work out financially.
In that we are in the same boat.
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Cobalt,I think you don't understand anything of what I mean.
and I never said "Adobe will not allow you to grow your income"
I think exactly the opposite.
Adobe is the only agency that allows you to grow over time,but this growth is clearly regulated in a certain way.
I think you have a slightly oversimplified view of how sales work.
you think that what you produce is unique and inimitable,but that's not the case.
we all produce content that can be sold,what you do is no different from other hundreds of thousands of contributors,and therefore sales are managed by a system,it must be this way and it is right that it is this way.
regarding the missing contents you clearly didn't read what I wrote properly or perhaps I explained myself poorly.
then I don't understand why you think I'm negative?I'm extremely positive,it's clear that you don't know what the real problems are,but it's obvious,since you can afford to spend thousands of euros on Midjourney,what on earth do you want to know about real problems?
anyway no,you misunderstood,I have nothing against Adobe,and I perfectly understand why some things have to work in a certain way,and in reality you should already know this,but apparently you are not able to understand this either! :D
while I really can't understand why you have to attack me and accuse me of a negative attitude,and you put things in my mouth that I didn't say,just because you didn't understand them,when I have always been polite,respectful and kind to you,I really don't understand this.
However,don't think you know things others don't know,we all know that missing content sells.
consider yourself lucky that you started more than 10 years ago and that you can afford to invest money in the microstock.
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Looks like everything I wrote came out wrong. I have zero intention of attacking you.
I admire greatly what you do and I apologize for any offense caused.
But yes, I have no idea of what kind of management system of sales you speak of.
I really don‘t get it.
I did start uploading in 2013, but…those were 1300 files.
What is 1300 old files in a sea of millions?
I believe the new content sells because I spend a lot of time on research and never upload everything.
But perhaps that strategy is wrong.
I have cut down a lot on paying for ai.
It is still pay more than 100 dollars a month, but a lot less than last year. My prompts have improved.
It is cheaper than my studio. Thinking of giving that up, but we will see.
For the rest of the year the focus is on processing old video, in addition to some daily ai.
I believe that video has the best future.
Good luck and again my apologies.
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thanks and excuses accepted! :)
it's probably not even our fault,because it's simply easy to misunderstand with written language.
what is 1,300 old files in millions of files?
and what are 700 files in millions of files?as you know there is who earn more than you with just 700 files,try asking yourself why.
time is a crucial factor in microstock,it has much more weight than you might think.
of course if someone put hands in the pocket,with 2-3000 files in the portfolio,and then suddenly the sales disappear and someone wonders how it is possible,well this is certainly no longer possible today,because the competition has become really tough.
Before AI,it was still possible to sleep on work already done,today it is no longer possible.
for the rest,maybe sometimes I can try to explain my point of view to you in PM,maybe it's better! :D
nevermind Cobalt,I know you didn't say anything maliciously. :)
good luck to you too!
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However,I think it is appropriate to make some clarifications.
my sales percentages for example can perhaps be deceiving.
Jan:+73%
Feb:+50%
Mar:+8%
Apr:+50%
May:-10%
June:+25%
these percentages,which are the number of sales,seem high but they are not.
50% more than a small number of sales is still a small number of sales,maybe someone sees 50% more and thinks it's a lot but it's not.
I don't make 500 sales a month,of which 50% more would be more than good,but that's not the case.
regarding the sales system,thinking that if you have the content that the customer is looking for,you make the sale,is an overly simplified vision,it's not that simple.
sell the content that the customer is looking for is only true if only you have this content,or very few contributors.
for most content however,it is all clearly managed by the sales system,if I have a Valentine's card and hundreds of thousands others have a Valentine's card,who decides which content is shown to customers?The sales system.
Yes,the best-selling contents are shown,but also the contents of contributors who need to make sales for the sales system.
What surprises me is that many of you who have much more experience than me still haven't understood such a simple thing?I find it really strange! :D
as regards "changes in the algorithm", people who say that suddenly their contents that were at the top of the searches have disappeared,unfortunately this happens if you sleep on the contents already created,in reality you need to diversify a lot,as much as possible,only in this way you can ensure an increase or stability of income.
and Cobalt,I tell you honestly,I really don't know what you admire greatly in what i do,there's not much to admire! :D
I hope to see better results in the near future,I would hate to abandon the microstock!
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My weekly ranking went up a bit after the $5 Free images accepted.
Do you only create photographs or also illustrations and vectors?
Either way, it's quite an achievement these days.
Photos only. Thanks :D
Thanks for your answer.
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...It is up to you, but I find this belief that Adobe will not allow you to grow your income to be a very negative attitude...
Since you mentioned that we can ignore forum users, I have deliberately chosen to ignore users whose posts are negative or pessimistic.
I believe it's essential to maintain a positive outlook in any endeavor. Therefore, anyone with a negative outlook is not worth listening to or interacting with.
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...It is up to you, but I find this belief that Adobe will not allow you to grow your income to be a very negative attitude...
Since you mentioned that we can ignore forum users, I have deliberately chosen to ignore users whose posts are negative or pessimistic.
I believe it's essential to maintain a positive outlook in any endeavor. Therefore, anyone with a negative outlook is not worth listening to or interacting with.
there are no negatives here,Cobalt simply misunderstood,I wasn't talking about negativity,I was simply sharing the thought that I have to see an increase in sale because otherwise I don't know whether to continue in the long term.
There is nothing strange about this and I honestly don't understand why all the fuss over something so simple.
Now Captain America has arrived and I honestly don't know what to tell you anymore! :D
but it's okay,I'm used to it,even when a year ago I talked about limits on AI I was thought to be crazy,and then after 6 months people started petitioning to put limits on AI and from what I saw many signed,so my idea wasn't that crazy!
Not that it matters,but I want to try to make people understand that things are often not as they seem.
there is an old Italian song that goes like this:
"You are good and they throw stones at you.You're bad and they throw stones at you.Whatever you do,wherever you go, you will always get stones in your face. You are rich and they throw stones at you. You are not rich and they throw stones at you. There is never anything in the world that suits you and you will take stones without mercy! It will be like this as long as you live It will be like this If you work, they throw stones at you. You do nothing and they throw stones at you. Whatever you do, you cannot understand whether what you do is good or bad. You are beautiful and they throw stones at you. You are ugly and they throw stones at you. And the day you want to defend yourself you will see that you will get many stones in your face! It will be so as long as you live. It will be so."
so true! :D
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Current pos 4480, now 5600 files. So I am dropping, but summer is usually slow for me
Nevertheless I am already up 70% over July 23 overall and for Adobe it is over 100%.
Also getting better at producing and uploading. I hope I can get it to a reliable 80-120 files a week. That would allow me to at least have a chance of significantly raising my income in the next 12 months.
I am getting a nice mix of first time sales from files uploaded last year, which again I find encouraging. Also more diversity, less reliance on individual bestsellers.
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for me at the moment on Adobe I have 10% more sales number and 20% more earnings,compared to July 2023,but in any case I have to start calculating the quarters,as someone suggested,because comparing just one month to another doesn't give a very broad perspective.
I'm currently producing around 100 content per week,a mix of "hybrids" and "real" content,of course all hybrids are labeled as AI.
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Winter is coming...although the uptick is actually because now my summer files have really started to sell, especially those from last year
Unfortunately I didn't upload much for autumn, will try to do better next year.
I am trying to add more people and while they still sell very, very, very slowly in my port, on the days many people images are accepted I am seeing an uptick in sales.
Perhaps people stock is dual use? Can be sold but also brings eyeballs to the port?
Only have 900 people files and still have great trouble getting the images I want.
Overall July 24 revenue is up by 200% over July 23 thanks to a few smaller video sales and one extended photo license.
I am very optimistic. I just need to upload so much more...
pos 3100, 5640 files, the winter files mostly sleeping
my biggest focus for the next 18 months will be people, including real photo people and video
also still busy pushing my illustrations live, but compared to anything photo sales are extremly slow. I learned a lot, it was an interesting and fun experiment
eta
some real numbers for those interested
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pos 2730, lots of smaller sales
It is amazing how my mood changes with my downloads.
I hope the worst of the year is over
eta
today is really slow, must have jinxed myself
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just sharing my mid-week results
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That looks promising!
May I ask the size of your port?
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That looks promising!
May I ask the size of your port?
13k assets, from Photos, videos, Illustrations, vectors and some AI ;D
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It is good to have a wide mix, it keeps the port more steady. Good luck with your journey.
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Looks like at the moment I am catching an upwind.
But it can also crash down just as fast anytime.
I am seeing a lot of small sales and first ever sales, also for older content.
Maybe I am wrong, but I feel this is the effect of having more people. although the people are (not yet) selling, it attracts more eyeballs to the port.
Winter is coming...
now pos 2540
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pos 2730, lots of smaller sales
It is amazing how my mood changes with my downloads.
I hope the worst of the year is over
eta
today is really slow, must have jinxed myself
this is normal, since it is our main job,if it goes well we feel better,if it goes badly we feel dejected.
you're on the right path,keep going! :)
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That looks promising!
May I ask the size of your port?
13k assets, from Photos, videos, Illustrations, vectors and some AI ;D
thanks for sharing.
I'm more interested in knowing how long you've been an Adobe Stock contributor,if possible,thanks.
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Last week was really slow, this week already looks better
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Congrats, your port is a good example that the position does not represent money earned. Hope it continues for you.
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Congrats, your port is a good example that the position does not represent money earned. Hope it continues for you.
Thank you! I hope so too, but I don't count on it :). The higher revenue was due to a single extended sale and sadly they don't happen often.
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That looks promising!
May I ask the size of your port?
13k assets, from Photos, videos, Illustrations, vectors and some AI ;D
thanks for sharing.
I'm more interested in knowing how long you've been an Adobe Stock contributor,if possible,thanks.
2018! i had a 'friend' that worked as a reviewer on SS at that time, and he made me want to start with stock photography. also he taught me all he knows (since he was also one of the top 3 contributors from brazil, where i live. also brazil had only 2 reviewers that time). the reason i have many files and 'low' sales is because when i started i had the genius idea of shooting every flower/dog/tree i see. Lol.
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This week keeps improving. Seems some folks came back to office after a vacation :)
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Yes, same here. People are working again!
Had a nice 21 dollar license today.
pos 2340, 5670 files
eta
by comparison: exactly 8 weeks ago I was at pos 7340 and utterly depressed...
The Adobe system is very, very, very dynamic.
For better balance I need a lot more files, at least 12-15 000
Winter/seasonal content not yet really selling, it is a mix of everything, lots of older files getting a first sale. Most sales are small sales.
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That looks promising!
May I ask the size of your port?
13k assets, from Photos, videos, Illustrations, vectors and some AI ;D
thanks for sharing.
I'm more interested in knowing how long you've been an Adobe Stock contributor,if possible,thanks.
2018! i had a 'friend' that worked as a reviewer on SS at that time, and he made me want to start with stock photography. also he taught me all he knows (since he was also one of the top 3 contributors from brazil, where i live. also brazil had only 2 reviewers that time). the reason i have many files and 'low' sales is because when i started i had the genius idea of shooting every flower/dog/tree i see. Lol.
you started the same year I started!
I started badly,because I had terrible hardware and I took photos with an old iPhone 6! :D
today I have a better situation,I improved hardware and equipment both indoors and outdoors,but there is still a lot to invest.
you have a larger portfolio than mine,in the first 3 years of production I was very slow because my hardware didn't allow me to produce quickly.
thanks for sharing! :)
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Is today some kind of public holiday in the US?
Or maybe on Monday?
The week was really good, Europe today was normal, but the US has gone missing?
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Not a holiday, but FWIW, I am seeing very low sales today....wondering if it's an Adobe glitch?
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Perhaps some people are taking a long weekend?
It is still a summer holiday season.
Glad to hear it is not just me.
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Sales almost vanished on Friday for me too here in Sydney Australia after a strong week up to Thursday evening.
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normal day for me.
but now I'm going on holiday too here in Italy it's too hot,you're in Australia for you it's the opposite! :)
I was in Melbourne in 2017-18,beautiful city,beautiful Australia in general,but the weather in Melborne is really unstable,it changes very often,I think Sydney is better for the weather because it is further north,Melbourne is really very far south.
anyway aside from this chatter,I think I'll slow down production,it's too hot,this month I'll probably upload less.
I need a vacation,my brain is on fire,and you know that's not good because my head already doesn't work as it should! :D
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Have a nice holiday :-)
Today (Friday) was the slowest day at AS for me this week, about half the sales as Monday to Thursday.
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normal day for me.
but now I'm going on holiday too here in Italy it's too hot,you're in Australia for you it's the opposite! :)
I was in Melbourne in 2017-18,beautiful city,beautiful Australia in general,but the weather in Melborne is really unstable,it changes very often,I think Sydney is better for the weather because it is further north,Melbourne is really very far south.
Yes the weather right along the east coast of Australia (including Sydney) has been very unstable in recent years. I moved back from Canberra in November 2021 to Sydney after near 14 years and I've never in my 53 years seen so much cloud and wet weather generally. It's almost like we swapped weather systems with the UK! ;D
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This is the best my weekly position has ever been (first attachment) as I aim for earnings, but earnings have been under pressure in recent weeks (second attachment). I've noticed Adobe's algorithm has adapted to earnings pressure with higher sales volume which is really good to see. One not-so-good result is that I've not had one higher video commission for at least several weeks (ie: Over $20). Don't know why but figure if this might be due to Adobe moving 4k over to regular pricing but otherwise it's just been slow for higher video sales generally.
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I think those are very good results. And a good reminder that you can have a lot more money than the position suggest because it just counts downloads.
I hope you get more higher video sales soon.
In September everything will be back to normal.
eta
inspite of slow Friday still a small improvement
Excited for next week
Will try to add a lot more people
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Have a nice holiday :-)
Today (Friday) was the slowest day at AS for me this week, about half the sales as Monday to Thursday.
Thank you! :)
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Now my sales are going down aigain, especially in German day timezone.
Everybody is on vacation.
currently pos 2730
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Now my sales are going down aigain, especially in German day timezone.
Everybody is on vacation.
currently pos 2730
Interesting....my sales yesterday and so far today are on the significantly low side as well...in sync with the last time...what was that a week ago?
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Could be that last week was good because customers were spending last credits before going on vacation.
Now down to pos 2930 :(
It is similar to Christmas/New Year, Dec 15 - Jan20, but July 20-August 20 is nearly as bad for me.
Actually it is worse, at least in winter there still is Orthodox christmas.
However, I am still seeing several first time sales and today I even sold 3 people images, which unusual for me.
Also sold an easter egg. Some people start very early.
eta
So far today 22 sales and 15 usd on a port with now 5700 files in the summer slump. I guess it is ok.
I just really don't like going down.
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After 9.00am, Thursday morning in Sydney and here's how my trend line is looking since May 6....
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.... July 20-August 20 is nearly as bad for me.
That's always a very quiet time for me. I can't wait for August 20th!
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Yes, me too, can't wait for summer to end and people get back to work.
Down, down, down, I hate it so much.
Next year I must have much, much better content for the summe season.
pos 3450, 5700 files
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Yes, me too, can't wait for summer to end and people get back to work.
Down, down, down, I hate it so much.
Next year I must have much, much better content for the summe season.
pos 3450, 5700 files
interesting to compare our results/position
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Yes, me too, can't wait for summer to end and people get back to work.
...
yes, too many people traveling when they could stay home & work & just buy my travel pix instead
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yes, too many people traveling when they could stay home & work & just buy my travel pix instead
Exactly ;-)
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This year I have 3k of images and last August I had only 300. My sales are worse this summer and going down. My new files are not picking up for some reason.
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If you share your port, maybe we can offer some suggestions?
My port is ging up. I had up to 3200 last year, now reaching 5800 and the increase is over 80%.
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This year I have 3k of images and last August I had only 300. My sales are worse this year and going down. My new files are not picking up for some reason. This is my year in sales:
I have a very similar effect in my port - since the end of March, sales have dropped abruptly (I have already described this elsewhere here) and have now leveled off at a level around 40% lower.
New files (newer than 2 months) sell next to nothing and I regularly upload 30-40 images/videos to the submission every day.
I don't have an explanation, just assumptions that I can't back up :)
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This year I have 3k of images and last August I had only 300. My sales are worse this year and going down. My new files are not picking up for some reason. This is my year in sales:
I have a very similar effect in my port - since the end of March, sales have dropped abruptly (I have already described this elsewhere here) and have now leveled off at a level around 40% lower.
New files (newer than 2 months) sell next to nothing and I regularly upload 30-40 images/videos to the submission every day.
I don't have an explanation, just assumptions that I can't back up :)
Last year I had thought with "ai" images, I could increase my image sales to $1000's of dollars per month.
Apparently, it seems a lot of other people had that exact same idea (especially in spam-steal-all-you-can countries like India).
Could be part of the reason.
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This year I have 3k of images and last August I had only 300. My sales are worse this year and going down. My new files are not picking up for some reason. This is my year in sales:
I have a very similar effect in my port - since the end of March, sales have dropped abruptly (I have already described this elsewhere here) and have now leveled off at a level around 40% lower.
New files (newer than 2 months) sell next to nothing and I regularly upload 30-40 images/videos to the submission every day.
I don't have an explanation, just assumptions that I can't back up :)
I am really suprised. You upload so much more than me. I have some days with 30 files, but most days are just 15-20.
I was seeing a consistent rise until last week. But this is the hardcore summer drop.
It should pick up again in September, also my winter files will hopefully start selling.
Very curious how this year will work out. While it is true that there is an endless flood of seasonal content coming in, ai and regular images, I don't see people making any effort at doing research.
Most are just uploading what everybody does, it is like they are all taking part in a huge midjourney port. Very few ports have something interesting or different.
Even if you do copies with a camera it doesn't turn out this identical like with ai.
I hope it all picks up for everyone in autumn.
While sales have slowed, I am getting lots of small first time sales, mostly for content uploaded last year. Even a few people are beginning to sell. And that is the slowest moving content I have (apart from illustrations).
eta
Have you guys tried adding more videos? I am seeing more smaller video sales. Really need to work on that myself.
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@SuperPhoto:
Yes, the fact that the market is very saturated when it comes to AI images certainly plays a role.
What surprises me is that both AI images and photos and videos have gone down since the end of March.
Maybe it's a mixture of different effects and maybe it will recover :-)
@Cobalt:
I'll just "get through" August too and hope it recovers soon. After all, it's leveled off at about 100 downloads a week (down from about 165), which may just be due to the abundant uploads.
I'm currently uploading around 30 photos, 10 videos, 200 AI images and 40 AI videos per week - that's a good 40 files per day (7 days a week) - you should notice that at some point.
However, it currently takes me a good 3 months for accepted files to generate downloads - the first files submitted in May have now had their first downloads.
Today there was another setback from AS... yesterday (Monday) it went well with 27 downloads, today there are currently 3 in the afternoon - even on December 24th I had significantly more ;-)
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I am also having very, very erratic days. Sometimes the euro time zone has hardly any downloads, then I hope the US will pick up or the other way round.
It is just the summer season.
I really, really admire your production success. 40 files a day!!!!
That will pay off eventually.
I am hoping to establish at least 300-400 files a month as a baseline. But I don‘t always make it.
I spend a lot of time on research and probably also waste too much time on post processing. Do people really notice all the little details I edit?
But in the end the file has to fit my standards. And files have a really long life.
Trying very hard to establish a more efficient production process, but the day only has 24 hours. Also trying to move post processing to the morning to make it easier on the eyes.
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I think your quality standards will pay off - unfortunately I'm not the type for that, a picture should take a maximum of 2-3 minutes (editing and tagging). I have automated most of the steps here, the results are only checked by hand, i.e. post-processing and keywording.
And then all the stuff has to be uploaded to 19 agencies with all their individual exceptions ^^
In any case, high-quality images should sell for longer, as they should last longer - good quality simply can't be copied so quickly and easily.
And now it's time for an ice cream... does anyone else want one? ;-)
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280 files a week and supplying 19 agencies!!!!
You will get your full time living much faster than me, that is for sure.
You deserve your ice cream!
Back to work, hoping to reach 20 uploads to only Adobe today….
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I think your quality standards will pay off - unfortunately I'm not the type for that, a picture should take a maximum of 2-3 minutes (editing and tagging). I have automated most of the steps here, the results are only checked by hand, i.e. post-processing and keywording.
And then all the stuff has to be uploaded to 19 agencies with all their individual exceptions ^^
In any case, high-quality images should sell for longer, as they should last longer - good quality simply can't be copied so quickly and easily.
And now it's time for an ice cream... does anyone else want one? ;-)
What is the list of agencies you submit to? At least for me - it seems only 5-6 produce any real revenue - do you find the same, or are you finding success with other agencies as well?
Thanks!
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What is the list of agencies you submit to? At least for me - it seems only 5-6 produce any real revenue - do you find the same, or are you finding success with other agencies as well?
Thanks!
You are right, there are not many agencies that produce real revenue (in my order of revenue)
---------------------- 89% of revenue
- AdobeStock
- Shutterstock
- VectEezy (no free submissions)
- IStock/Getty
- MotionElements
---------------------- 11% of revenue
- Pond5
- DepositPhotos
- 123rf
- DesignBundles
- Dreamstime
- Ingram
- WireStock (only some images)
- Photo4me
- Canva (no reviews for more than 4 month now)
- Scop.io
- CavanImages
- KeyCut
- YayImages (no revenue reports since Sept'23)
- FreePik (only what doesnt make it to WireStock)
----------------------
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What is the list of agencies you submit to? At least for me - it seems only 5-6 produce any real revenue - do you find the same, or are you finding success with other agencies as well?
Thanks!
You are right, there are not many agencies that produce real revenue (in my order of revenue)
---------------------- 89% of revenue
- AdobeStock
- IStock/Getty
- Shutterstock
- VectEezy (no free submissions)
- MotionElements
---------------------- 11% of revenue
- Pond5
- DepositPhotos
- 123rf
- DesignBundles
- Dreamstime
- Ingram
- WireStock (only some images)
- Photo4me
- Canva (no reviews for more than 4 month now)
- Scop.io
- CavanImages
- KeyCut
- YayImages (no revenue reports since Sept'23)
- FreePik (only what doesnt make it to WireStock)
----------------------
Thanks. & strange re: motionelements - I've had a few thousand assets there for 4-5 years, and not one sale yet... I find that rather odd!
What kind of revenue do you there, and is it mainly images, or videos you find sell well there?
Never signed up for iStock/getty... I've heard now it's a bit challenging to do well there? Do you still find that's the case?
Shutterstock... also - after j. originer pump/dumped his stock, didn't really do much sales there (maybe only $50-$100/month).
123rf... first year I signed up - I think I made $100... since then, revenue flat there.
Anyways, thanks for sharing!
Thanks!
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Thanks. & strange re: motionelements - I've had a few thousand assets there for 4-5 years, and not one sale yet... I find that rather odd!
What kind of revenue do you there, and is it mainly images, or videos you find sell well there?
Never signed up for iStock/getty... I've heard now it's a bit challenging to do well there? Do you still find that's the case?
Shutterstock... also - after j. originer pump/dumped his stock, didn't really do much sales there (maybe only $50-$100/month).
123rf... first year I signed up - I think I made $100... since then, revenue flat there.
MotionElements (2.56% of my photo revenue)
- Fotos, AI Images and Videos uploaded - you don't get a detailed sales report, just an amount in $ per month
IStock (3.83% of my photo revenue, 26% of my video revenue) - had this on the wrong 2nd position, its 4th, sorry for that
- the upload process is very time consuming using their DeepMeta tool
123rf (2.49% of my photo revenue)
- they dropped in sales for me in january 2024 from $80 a month to now $8-10 per month, no image reviews for more than half a year - not worth any time
ShutterStock (12.17% of my photo revenue, 25.1% of my video revenue)
- yes, that 10cent and "fight again each year" is definatly a crap-show, but they are still in 2nd position for me in revenue
- I do not upload my better quality images and videos there since "10ct"
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really slow week here. dropped from 3900 to 4700 pos
hope you guys doing better than i xD
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really slow week here. dropped from 3900 to 4700 pos
hope you guys doing better than i xD
Yes, not sure what happened, but last couple days seemed to drop like a rock which was weird. Also a few days ago before that. Hopefully it will pick up again! :)
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today i have 9 downloads so far, north america is missing.
summer slump.
however every day i have at least 1 first time ever sale, so that gives me hope.
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today i have 9 downloads so far, north america is missing.
It's the same for me - 6 downloads so far today, which is about 30% of what I usually have on weekdays at this time.
In total I have 85 downloads so far this week, which is at a low 60% of my usual average.
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Considering most people are on holidays at this time of the year, having little to no sales is normal.
The summer slump is soon over. Like Cobalt, my sales usually pick up quickly after August 20. I can’t wait!
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Considering most people are on holidays at this time of the year, having little to no sales is normal.
The summer slump is soon over. Like Cobalt, my sales usually pick up quickly after August 20. I can’t wait!
Holidays.. Holidays?? What are those?? ZOMFG! Why would people want to be on holidays when they could be purchasing licenses to my image assets? :)
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In the end it was 15 downloads. But the day had 3 first time ever sales, two from older files I was beginning to give up on.
Also summer going drastically down, autumn moving up. Just realized I have very little content fur just autumn.
I hate holidays, I hate week-ends, I even hate the German lunch break from 12-14:30...
People should just work 24/7 and keep buying my files.
eta:
Currently have the issue that my header image and my two galleries are "stuck", I cannot change them.
Asked in various groups and discord, not many people have that issue.
Hope it gets resolved.
I also discovered "stuck" searches. If I do a general search on Adobe for "Halloween" it updates regularly with a fresh mix. If I do a search for "Halloween copy space" I get the exact same selection for over 3 days now.
In my own port if I do a search for "tea", "easter", or "christmas" it updates and changes regularly.
If i do a search for "food" or "people" or "winter" I get the exact same selection for again more than 3 days.
It is a weird bug.
Tried different browsers and also being logged out. Still there.
Anyone else seeing this?
Stuck searches or inability to change galeries and image of the landing page?
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I also discovered "stuck" searches. If I do a general search on Adobe for "Halloween" it updates regularly with a fresh mix. If I do a search for "Halloween copy space" I get the exact same selection for over 3 days now.
In my own port if I do a search for "tea", "easter", or "christmas" it updates and changes regularly.
If i do a search for "food" or "people" or "winter" I get the exact same selection for again more than 3 days.
It is a weird bug.
Tried different browsers and also being logged out. Still there.
Anyone else seeing this?
Stuck searches or inability to change galeries and image of the landing page?
Sounds weird, please report it to Support.
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I have started to take screenshots. Will do that for 3 days, then I will write to support.
It is summertime, they are certainly changing something.
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today i have 9 downloads so far, north america is missing.
summer slump.
however every day i have at least 1 first time ever sale, so that gives me hope.
How are you figuring out from what part of the world sales are coming from?
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I just look at the time and the type of content.
If the sales are from 8 am - 4pm Europe time, I assume it is from Europe. The USA starts to get active around 3:30pm my time and usually has regular sales until around 10 pm, after that there is a break and then it starts again around 3 am.
Also the type of content chosen fits the time zones. More caucasian people or more german food bought in my time zone, more hispanic/african american in US time zone, asian people and asian food mostly when I am asleep.
etc...
It is not an exact science, but with experience you can get a feeling for where the buyers are from.
I even have galleries for 3 different time zones and regions which I turn on in the morning, afternoon or night.
Which is why I miss my galleries so much.
Really should write to support. I was hoping the problem would resolve itself, apparently it doesn't.
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really slow week here. dropped from 3900 to 4700 pos
hope you guys doing better than i xD
And next week, you go up, someone else goes down.
(https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/2448250/screenshots/14678890/balance.gif)
A waste of time to watch or care about position. Bragging rights? That and the numbers are unreliable. People with the same downloads, have different position. People with the same position have different numbers of downloads.
What determines position, if it's not just downloads as we've been told is how the position is created?
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I like sharing stats. helps to deal with frustrations if I am not the only one going down. And it is valuable for people who are new or for people like me who are coming back to stock to get an idea if it is even possible to get back into a near full time income position.
Not interested in stats, just ignore the thread.
All is good.
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I like sharing stats. helps to deal with frustrations if I am not the only one going down. And it is valuable for people who are new or for people like me who are coming back to stock to get an idea if it is even possible to get back into a near full time income position.
Not interested in stats, just ignore the thread.
All is good.
Sharing unreliable, personal stats, with others, does nothing. Correct, you aren't the only one going down or up, but weekly position, that isn't based on Downloads, while we all have different collections of images, different types, styles and formats, what value is there in that.
The stats that Adobe provides as Position are inconsistent. If you are basing your sharing of success or failure on that, the whole basis for determining any of that, is flawed to start with. So my point is, no, the stats and the value are worthless and a waste of time. Especially when it's the weekly numbers.
If you asked once a year in January for annual? Maybe? :)
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It is fun. :)
pos 3770, files 5870
today my landing page issues and stuck searches resolved themselves.
today was the day I was going to write to support, been taking screenshots all week.
now I don't have to.
eta2
looks like we have an optimized landing page
slimmer header image, larger galleries. looks great!
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I like sharing stats. helps to deal with frustrations if I am not the only one going down. And it is valuable for people who are new or for people like me who are coming back to stock to get an idea if it is even possible to get back into a near full time income position.
Not interested in stats, just ignore the thread.
All is good.
share share I'm interested in reading..I don't feel like working today! :D
recently I created a content that sold 4 times in 48 hours immediately after approval and then finished,it didn't sell anymore,are more than 2 weeks now,it is content that is always current,all year round and always will be,it should sell much more than this.
further proof that my port is already ready to make me earn at least 3 times more than I earn,it's mostly just a question of time.
my results this month are already good,I'm at about 20% more sales numbers and 50% more earnings compared to August 2023 and the month isn't over yet.
I expect a good increase in sales any time now in order to reach my goal of at least 80% more earnings or sales numbers compared to 2023.
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My week started out pretty well but slowed right down from Wednesday through Friday. See what the weekend brings (as it's Saturday morning here) hopefully like last weekend where there were a couple of good sales.
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$49.81 sales come in now just hours after posting the above to result in a pretty good week after all. Earnings are more than double that of Shutterstock this month, so far.
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My week started out pretty well but slowed right down from Wednesday through Friday. See what the weekend brings (as it's Saturday morning here) hopefully like last weekend where there were a couple of good sales.
Do you have any weekend sales? I don't mean like this weekend but generally? For me it is Monday till Saturday morning and then nothing. If I sell anything between Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening then it is kind of not usual.
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really slow week here. dropped from 3900 to 4700 pos
hope you guys doing better than i xD
And next week, you go up, someone else goes down.
A waste of time to watch or care about position. Bragging rights? That and the numbers are unreliable. People with the same downloads, have different position. People with the same position have different numbers of downloads.
What determines position, if it's not just downloads as we've been told is how the position is created?
Only if you don't want to improve.
I have a chart in my office that records best / worst weekly position for each month of current and prev year along with best ever for that month. This allows me to monitor performance swing when I submit new imagery.
Bragging rights don't come into it as this data can only really be used when comparing your own performance from year to year. Tag it alongside monthly earnings and it becomes a powerful tool for your business.
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Good week this week. # of downloads have been increasing in August.
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very good results blv and very consistent.
trying to upload more people but usually it is just 2-4 a day.
pos 3600
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very good results blv and very consistent.
trying to upload more people but usually it is just 2-4 a day.
Thank you!!
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...
my results this month are already good,I'm at about 20% more sales numbers and 50% more earnings compared to August 2023 and the month isn't over yet.
I expect a good increase in sales any time now in order to reach my goal of at least 80% more earnings or sales numbers compared to 2023.
basics statistics - your Aug. numbers are not encouraging to reach your goal - what have been your jan-jul results to date? if you only achieved 50% in august you're falling behind.
of course, that's just wrt your 'goal' - a 50% increase over last year is otherwise a great result
-
...
my results this month are already good,I'm at about 20% more sales numbers and 50% more earnings compared to August 2023 and the month isn't over yet.
I expect a good increase in sales any time now in order to reach my goal of at least 80% more earnings or sales numbers compared to 2023.
basics statistics - your Aug. numbers are not encouraging to reach your goal - what have been your jan-jul results to date? if you only achieved 50% in august you're falling behind.
of course, that's just wrt your 'goal' - a 50% increase over last year is otherwise a great result
true,but August isn't over yet,in any case yes,I'm behind in reaching my goal of at least 80% more between one year and another.
at the end of August I will publish results of the four-months compared to 2023 and maybe even 8 months results.
yes,50% is a good result but it is not enough because in this way it takes too long before reaching at least a decent income,like I said if I was 30,a 50% more would have been great.
an extra 80% between one year and another is really the acceptable minimum,less than this,it really takes too long.
However,it is not certain,it all depends on whether what happened last year happens again,that is,in September last year I sold 400% more than my previous best month.
if the taps open at least once a year I can do it,but if the taps remain closed this year,it will be very difficult for me to do it.
We'll see,the only certain thing is that I'm quite tired of seeing these low sales numbers,and honestly this year I expected something more,not much more but definitely more than this.
however the year isn't over yet,we'll see! :)
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...
basics statistics - your Aug. numbers are not encouraging to reach your goal - what have been your jan-jul results to date? if you only achieved 50% in august you're falling behind.
of course, that's just wrt your 'goal' - a 50% increase over last year is otherwise a great result
true,but August isn't over yet,in any case yes,I'm behind in reaching my goal of at least 80% more between one year and another.
yes,50% is a good result but it is not enough because in this way it takes too long before reaching at least a decent income,like I said if I was 30,a 50% more would have been great.
an extra 80% between one year and another is really the acceptable minimum,less than this,it really takes too long.
unfortunately what you want or need has no effect on reality of likely sales
However,it is not certain,it all depends on whether what happened last year happens again,that is,in September last year I sold 400% more than my previous best month.
if the taps open at least once a year I can do it,but if the taps remain closed this year,it will be very difficult for me to do it.
We'll see, the only certain thing is that I'm quite tired of seeing these low sales numbers, and honestly this year I expected something more, not much more but definitely more than this.
..
expecting & wishing rarely affect results - what is your % increase for Jan-Jul? if less than 80%, you can calculate how much greater your sales must be for the final months
again, basic statistics - called regression to the mean - a 400% increase for one month is highly unlikely to repeat. and you have to consider the base - as your sales increase it becomes harder to maintain the same increase
i havent seen any longtime contributor here reporting even a 20% increase for each of the last 5 years. i count myself lucky to have even flat sales for last 5 years (a net downward trend when cumulative US inflation is about 20% over that period)
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When I do my searches the content I see missing most is a systematic approach to people content.
There are endless duplicates smiling thumbs up people, but how many producers seriously dig into individual professions?
For instance for the huge and growing market of elder care - how many professions are involved, what kind of services do they provide, how many daily routine situations are there - from helping with food and drink, taking medication, changing dirty sheets and helping with hygiene, preparation of specialised food, removing the hard parts of bread so it is easier to chew, helping with night respirators, all kinds of exercises that can be done sitting down or in bed, going to the doctor together, food delivery services, family visits and families caring for older people at home, events at the elder care home, music, children performing and singing, relaxing pet visits...there are thousands of little stories that can be told. and then it all depends on the country, there are many local specialities.
you can take a list from health care providers what kind of individual services do they pay for in daily care for elderly people. then work your way through this list....
Or just do a systematic approach to food, instead of single images, tell an entire story of how that vegetable soup was made, including shopping the groceries, cooking together as a family, serving and eating...then do it again for a high end restaurant...then for a food blogger...then for street food festival...then for a large group of weightloss people...the same story of making vegetable soup can be told in so many different situtations...
Telling stories in a usable series is what the high end boutique agencies specialise in.
ai at the oment has the disadvantage that you cannot work with avatars for a consistent set of people, but you can still create a coherent series with styling and light design.
take your grandmothers cookbook and ideally grandma and just work systematically.
with real people you can do a full story, including videos.
etc...
your success in stock has nothing to do with reaching magic sales numbers, adobe is not interested in pushing individual artists, they only push content that customers like to buy.
and your increase in sales can be fully planned by producing content that people are looking for.
i still know quite a few older producers with rising sales. but all of them do very high quality people production and spend a large amount of time on research before they start producing.
they also mostly still do real people, because that is easiest way to get a consistent series.
doing proper research is probably the most underused quality needed for pro stock production.
shoot upload repeat and think...setting aside time for research is just as important as creating content
-
...
basics statistics - your Aug. numbers are not encouraging to reach your goal - what have been your jan-jul results to date? if you only achieved 50% in august you're falling behind.
of course, that's just wrt your 'goal' - a 50% increase over last year is otherwise a great result
true,but August isn't over yet,in any case yes,I'm behind in reaching my goal of at least 80% more between one year and another.
yes,50% is a good result but it is not enough because in this way it takes too long before reaching at least a decent income,like I said if I was 30,a 50% more would have been great.
an extra 80% between one year and another is really the acceptable minimum,less than this,it really takes too long.
unfortunately what you want or need has no effect on reality of likely sales
However,it is not certain,it all depends on whether what happened last year happens again,that is,in September last year I sold 400% more than my previous best month.
if the taps open at least once a year I can do it,but if the taps remain closed this year,it will be very difficult for me to do it.
We'll see, the only certain thing is that I'm quite tired of seeing these low sales numbers, and honestly this year I expected something more, not much more but definitely more than this.
..
expecting & wishing rarely affect results - what is your % increase for Jan-Jul? if less than 80%, you can calculate how much greater your sales must be for the final months
again, basic statistics - called regression to the mean - a 400% increase for one month is highly unlikely to repeat. and you have to consider the base - as your sales increase it becomes harder to maintain the same increase
i havent seen any longtime contributor here reporting even a 20% increase for each of the last 5 years. i count myself lucky to have even flat sales for last 5 years (a net downward trend when cumulative US inflation is about 20% over that period)
but of course,who could ever say otherwise.
as I have already said other times:"with a low income it is easier to obtain higher percentages"
in fact,once you reach a decent income,20% more between one year and another is an excellent result,even a minus 10% is a good result if you already earn well.
then at the beginning of September I will calculate the first 8 months to see what percentage I will have to reach,since there is only a week to go.
and yes,I am perfectly aware that having another month with 400% more by the end of this year will be very difficult,if not almost impossible.
according to my approximate calculation,it will still take 4 years before reaching a decent income,that is when I reach my 10 years as a contributor,but this is all just saying,because in reality it could take less or more.
anyway,anything is possible,I will continue to do my best with the conditions I am in now,and I will continue to hope for the best,because even if hope doesn't increase sales,hope is the fuel of life. :)
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When I do my searches the content I see missing most is a systematic approach to people content.
There are endless duplicates smiling thumbs up people, but how many producers seriously dig into individual professions?
For instance for the huge and growing market of elder care - how many professions are involved, what kind of services do they provide, how many daily routine situations are there - from helping with food and drink, taking medication, changing dirty sheets and helping with hygiene, preparation of specialised food, removing the hard parts of bread so it is easier to chew, helping with night respirators, all kinds of exercises that can be done sitting down or in bed, going to the doctor together, food delivery services, family visits and families caring for older people at home, events at the elder care home, music, children performing and singing, relaxing pet visits...there are thousands of little stories that can be told. and then it all depends on the country, there are many local specialities.
you can take a list from health care providers what kind of individual services do they pay for in daily care for elderly people. then work your way through this list....
Or just do a systematic approach to food, instead of single images, tell an entire story of how that vegetable soup was made, including shopping the groceries, cooking together as a family, serving and eating...then do it again for a high end restaurant...then for a food blogger...then for street food festival...then for a large group of weightloss people...the same story of making vegetable soup can be told in so many different situtations...
Telling stories in a usable series is what the high end boutique agencies specialise in.
ai at the oment has the disadvantage that you cannot work with avatars for a consistent set of people, but you can still create a coherent series with styling and light design.
take your grandmothers cookbook and ideally grandma and just work systematically.
with real people you can do a full story, including videos.
etc...
your success in stock has nothing to do with reaching magic sales numbers, adobe is not interested in pushing individual artists, they only push content that customers like to buy.
and your increase in sales can be fully planned by producing content that people are looking for.
i still know quite a few older producers with rising sales. but all of them do very high quality people production and spend a large amount of time on research before they start producing.
they also mostly still do real people, because that is easiest way to get a consistent series.
doing proper research is probably the most underused quality needed for pro stock production.
shoot upload repeat and think...setting aside time for research is just as important as creating content
but I agree with what you say,of course it's important to do research,see what content is missing etc.
what you fail to see,in my opinion,is that there is more than all this,there is also a system that regulates sales,no magic or magic numbers but just math.
I'll ask you a question:
I have more content than you,so how is it possible that yesterday I didn't even make a sale in your opinion?A whole day without making a single sale why?How is it possible that until last week my portfolio met the needs of customers and yesterday not anymore?
until Sunday my portfolio was good and on Monday it became crap? :D
simply because I am close to my monthly target,dictated by the sales system,there is no other explanation.
over time,the sales system gives you more sales,and only over time is it possible to earn more.
how much more depends on the type of content you have in your portfolio,and keywording.
I remind you that my portfolio is full of content that has sold several times in a few hours after approval.
So tell me please,how is it possible in your opinion that a portfolio larger than yours in number doesn't make even one sale in a whole day?
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The answer is very simple, my content is much more generic than yours. And I spend 30% of my time on research. Sometimes even more. This means I can never upload as many files like you.
I have lots of objects on white, lots of very simple backgrounds and greeting cards, especially the stuff on white usually has something selling every single day.
Your content is very creative and well done, but this makes it a lot more specialised. You need a much larger portfolio or need to add more ultra generic content to balance that for higher sales volume. It also takes much longer to find buyers, because clients need the right project for it.
Your adavantage is that you have less competetion because ultra generic content gets copied first. So if you have a large port with 30k specialised files you will have much more steady results and sales.
There are people with over 20k files, slowly uploaded since the days of fotolia, that still have days without sales. And much less sales than me. In all cases it is people who literally never do research and just upload what they enjoy doing for themselves. That is a fine thing to do, but then not a way to make reliable money.
I also have days without sales, but usually on the week-end.
I sincerly doubt that uploading 1300 files over 10 years ago would have such a drastic effect.
There would be a lot more producers showing such a stark difference and I am not finding any.
Adobe has a huge legacy of older ports and many are starting to upload again with ai. If these old ports had some kind of magic boost, it would be easy to see in the various stock groups.
By comparisin our colleguea blv has a port that is similar to yours in size.
He is outselling both of us and is in the range of 800-1200 dollars a month that you are aiming for.
And it is easy to see why, he has really very very useful and diverse people port. With my buyer hat I would definetly bookmark him as a useful resource.
The man did his research well, he is supplying needed content that is also generic and can be used by many clients.
my sales are changing, summer is moving out, winter is moving in, volume is similar. Unfortunately I have very little for autumn.
pos 3500, 5900 files
eta
your files are specilized and very new. I wouldn't be surprised if 18 months from now your sales have doubled.
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This is the port of mirko who a few years ago was advertising his workshops by proving he made over 3k a month with less than 2k files only on shutterstock.
Today his income has certainly shifted, probably makes more on Adobe now, don't know if he has added ai files.
https://www.shutterstock.com/de/g/ViewApart?consentChanged=true (https://www.shutterstock.com/de/g/ViewApart?consentChanged=true)
But he was consistently outselling many people who had 10 times more files than him.
It is easy to see why, the stuff is great, literally every file can be a bestseller. And while he did a lot of people shootings he always just uploaded very few files from a shoot.
He also researches his subjects well.
Stock is all about the right content. You need some base volume put 2000 files can be enough if the yrae really useful files.
All the full time producers I know do people, with the exception of a few food photographers.
But I have never met a full time stocker who didn't spend an incredible amount of time on research.
Everybody has their own strategy, but for me research is key to everything.
Example:
At the moment I am researching Halloween. Last year I made around 50 dollars, this year is already a little better.
So I ask my self questions like this
- do I always have to have a carved pumpkin in the image?
- do zombie always have to be green? can't they be yellow, blue, red or multicolor?
- what kind of food do families prepare for a halloween party?
- what about restaurants? typical halloween dinner menu?
- what are country specific differences for bonfire nights, German Walpurgis night, other European countries versus the USA?
- do vampires outsell zombies?
- what sells better - horror zombie with blood and gore for adults or more children halloween with kids in costume? again country specific differences
- country specific decorations, different party traditions
- does it always have to be orange purple, what about red yellow black?
- does the wicked witch always have to be old, what about young and sexy? what about kids?
- do large groups of people really outsell infidivdual images?
- localized in a haunted house or on generic white background?
- objects and people isolated on white or png?
- modern halloween, vintage halloween, fantasy fairytale halloween, horror halloween, abstract halloween, romantic dating halloween, halloween for different ethnic groups, lgbt halloween
...and so on...
Halloween/Walpurgisnacht is a huge theme, even with 10k files you will not cover it all.
This year I am trying as many different types as possible and after November we will see what actually sold.
Biggest problem: I am already much too late, the content should have gone live in March.
...
I do this for every genre, every holiday, every subject, even objects on white
Nobody is forced to do this.
You can just ask midjourney to give you scary zombies and upload them. The problem: you will be getting the same zombies as 20k other portfolios.
To stand out you need to do something a little different. And then see if it sells
I usually need 3-4 seasons to really understand a customer group for a specific holiday. So in 2028 I will have really useful content.
Until then I will keep trying.
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Here is the interview with Mirko from 2019
While his income streams will have changed I am sure he is still making crazy money with much smaller ports than most people
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2019/03/19/interview-with-mirko-founder-of-microstock-academy/
eta
found his adobe port
no ai so far
It is a myth that you need 50k files for a full time income
You can do it with 5000 if the content is very high quality, well researched and truly needed.
But it is a lot of work. Maybe more work than uploading a high volume 50k port.
There are lost unhappy ai people with gigantic ports and few sales.
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/203843400/mirko-vitali?load_type=author&prev_url=detail
absolutely fantastic work
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I have both generic and unique content in my portfolio.
I also have one content that on other agencies sold 5-30 times a day while on Adobe it only sold 13 times in more than 5 years.
I recently created a content that as soon as it was approved it sold 4 times in 48 hours on Adobe and then nothing more in 20 days now,content that is always useful all year round.
I repeat that in my opinion Adobe's sales system is the best because it allows you to grow over time,other agencies are more immediate in helping you achieve higher sales numbers in the short term,but do not guarantee stability over time,this is why I prefer Adobe's sales system.
Cobalt,what you say is right in my opinion,but that's not enough,it also takes time,and perhaps today it takes a little too much time,many years,I think at least 7-8 years,perhaps someone will be able to succeed in less time,but less than this I think it's difficult today.
thanks for the replies :)
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you will make it. The quality is very good.
At some point you will find a genre that just excels at Adobe and your port will be the best known in that genre.
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For me Shutterstock is steadily catching up with Adobe sales, I reckon Shutterstock sales will overtake Adobe by end of the year.
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Mirko has an awesome port.
I remember in my early days with microstock around early 2020, mirko posted earnings for one month - $2500!
I asked him if this was for all his ports combined and he told me just Shutterstock and that he actually earned around $4500 in total that month.
I hope he's still doing well as he's clearly put in a lot of work and investment with his shoots, models, props and concepts.
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Mirko has an awesome port.
I remember in my early days with microstock around early 2020, mirko posted earnings for one month - $2500!
I asked him if this was for all his ports combined and he told me just Shutterstock and that he actually earned around $4500 in total that month.
I hope he's still doing well as he's clearly put in a lot of work and investment with his shoots, models, props and concepts.
I dont earn anywhere near that usually (only once when shutterstock purchased images from me - opps not meant to mention that) but i dont put any work in, photos of road signs gets me over $100 a month from shutterstock, keywording takes 5 mins max a week using microstockplus....if I want to do actual photography i'll get my film camera out - which earns me zero! :-)
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For me Shutterstock is steadily catching up with Adobe sales, I reckon Shutterstock sales will overtake Adobe by end of the year.
not for me.
As far as I'm concerned,Adobe is up 106.2% in terms of money this year and 25,9% more in terms of sales numbers,even despite the heavy rains of 10c of SS the number of sales on Adobe is higher for me.
Adobe is like a diesel engine,it takes time to warm up but when it starts running it reaches high performance,the other agencies are petrol engines,they have good acceleration when cold,but in the end they do less km! :D
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It’s really weird keep reading about increased yearly income. That’s not the reality for me, last year I was in 800-1200 position consistently and this year I’m at 4000-6000, so my sales are significantly down, yet my portfolio is 25 times bigger. Last year my portfolio was featured in recent top sellers 4 times, this year only once. Last year I had a couple of images that sold 1000 plus, this year I’m lucky to get 50 downloads for my “bestsellers“ Some of my best images sit completely unnoticed.
I’m scratching my head here, but happy to see that it’s working for somebody.
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Last year my portfolio was featured in recent top sellers 4 times, this year only once. Last year I had a couple of images that sold 1000 plus, this year I’m lucky to get 50 downloads for my “bestsellers“
Have you experienced a lot of copying of your bestsellers?
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It’s really weird keep reading about increased yearly income. That’s not the reality for me, last year I was in 800-1200 position consistently and this year I’m at 4000-6000, so my sales are significantly down, yet my portfolio is 25 times bigger. Last year my portfolio was featured in recent top sellers 4 times, this year only once. Last year I had a couple of images that sold 1000 plus, this year I’m lucky to get 50 downloads for my “bestsellers“ Some of my best images sit completely unnoticed.
I’m scratching my head here, but happy to see that it’s working for somebody.
Thank you for sharing this is really interesting. So interesting that someone at Adobe should perhaps look into this.
Like synthetick said, did you see a large number of copies after being featured? That could really crash your bestsellers and perhaps then Adobe should come up with a different system of featured artist. If the recent Bestsellers list is doing active damage to loyal producers it is not helpful at all.
When you say your port is 25 times bigger...did you really grow from 1000 files to 25000? Perhaps with the help of ai?
Or did you miscalculate, seems a little extreme? Or maybe from 100 files to 2500?
I hope you can figure out what the problem is.
I always keep checking my main competitors to make sure I don't upload something too similar to them but also to check if I am being copied. So far I haven't found a port with real copies of what I do. Lots of similar content, especially with ai, but no real intentional copies.
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It’s really weird keep reading about increased yearly income. That’s not the reality for me, last year I was in 800-1200 position consistently and this year I’m at 4000-6000, so my sales are significantly down, yet my portfolio is 25 times bigger. Last year my portfolio was featured in recent top sellers 4 times, this year only once. Last year I had a couple of images that sold 1000 plus, this year I’m lucky to get 50 downloads for my “bestsellers“ Some of my best images sit completely unnoticed.
I’m scratching my head here, but happy to see that it’s working for somebody.
those were the results compared to Shutterstock,but anyway yes,my sales on Adobe increase every year,but you have to consider that I still have a low income,so it's easier for me to grow.
however your case is strange,there is something that escapes me,I don't think it is possible to earn less with a portfolio 25 times larger.
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things are slow and steady, august lower than july
hope it picks up next month
pos 3410, files 5980
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Yes, you're right - at the moment it's quite constant at a low level.
Hopefully things will pick up again soon, it's about time...
Pos 4.280
Today's Friday is also quite interesting - I usually have around 12-14 DL in the early afternoon, today exactly 1 DL.
Maybe I've already filled my weekly quota of downloads ;-)
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Quite good this week and overall pretty good month on Adobe with some recovery in earnings in recent weeks as the trend line shows...
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average week around 90-100 usd on AS
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Starting to move back up from a low of 750... seems like the summer slow down is coming to an end!!
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Yes, moving up a little as well. Winter is coming...
A low of 750 is brilliant for a single artist! Thank you for sharing, I am grateful to see what is possible with hard work.
pos 2990, 6k files
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Cheers...I've been at it for quite some time now. Anything is possible but it is harder now than it has ever been due to the volume of new files being added. Makes it difficult for new work to be seen and to become established in terms of sales.
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This week / Downloads 14 / Earnings $12.34 / Position 7,840th
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Starting to move back up from a low of 750... seems like the summer slow down is coming to an end!!
Is that the "beginning" of this week? (I.e., Monday/one days sales?) Just noticed when you posted it... If so, wow, good job!
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Quite good this week and overall pretty good month on Adobe with some recovery in earnings in recent weeks as the trend line shows...
Haha, the way you worded that sounds almost like a weather forecast... i.e.,
"There were some bumps, some highs and low, but looks like the forecast for next week is going to be nice sunny, with high double digits every day!"... :)
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Starting to move back up from a low of 750... seems like the summer slow down is coming to an end!!
Is that the "beginning" of this week? (I.e., Monday/one days sales?) Just noticed when you posted it... If so, wow, good job!
I wish :) It was for six days. I grabbed it last week but didn't get time to post. Rank 548 as of today. Looking at previous years stats it takes until mid September to regain normal momentum again.
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Have you experienced a lot of copying of your bestsellers?
Yes, all of my of bestsellers got copied by several different ports. One image got copied so many times, that now there are pages and pages of just copies.
#cobalt yes, I did miscalculate, it’s 10 times not 25 times. yes, I’m making much less this summer than last. So it’s totally possible to make less with a much larger port.
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Mifornia,
it makes me so sad to read this.
Please consider sending a link to your port to Mat. what worries me most is that you had files with an excellent season, over 1000 downloads and now that income is abruptly destroyed.
Since you were four times on the bestseller list, this indeed indicates that getting onto that list is damaging for the artist.
I think adobe should carefully investigate this and then offer those of us who want it, an opt out.
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Mat told me that there is no way to opt out of bestseller list, it’s an automated process.
Did you read Neo-Leo case? https://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/the-end-for-original-content-creators-it's-official (https://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/the-end-for-original-content-creators-it's-official)!/
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But how many contributors are there? We can only see who is better than us not who is worse than us :-)
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Starting to move back up from a low of 750... seems like the summer slow down is coming to an end!!
I thought that was a number from yesterday for 2 days of the week and I thought that equals to $5,000/month, but I think it's for the entire last week. It's nice to know how many sales you need to get to 500 level. Thanks!!
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When I was in that position...very briefly...that would have been a result for the week.
Hope to get back up there again.
@mifornia
"automated system"...this is software, not a law of nature like gravity. Of course they can change it. Adobe is one of the largest software companies in the world, so...
At the very least they could consider that you can only be on the list once per year per media type.
It will give exposure to more artist and should lessen the copycat risk.
if you were featured four times you might as well have a flashing sign on your port that says "steal ideas here".
For the image to image theft...the basic problem is that the base compositions as is are very simple and not new. The copy abuse however is very clear if you see how many times he was "inspired"
If I was an agency I would look closely - was the abusive inspiration only in the beginning? A newbie trying things out with copies? Did he then move on to do something different and creative?
Or does it remain a copycat port? 10 k duplicates of duplicates...
How does Adobe or any agency benefit from someone who only copies? Would I need more near identical duplicates?
I think that is where I would personally draw the line.
The collection already has too many duplicates.
But it is not an easy to decision, especially when it is mostly design elements.
Obviously if it happens to me I will be furious and bring out my pitchfork...
But I think for the agency things are often not that simple.
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3826 images :-[ :-[
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:-[
How many images do you have?
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:-[
How many images do you have?
3826 images.
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How long have you been uploading?
Is this a very new port? It takes time for buyers to find your content.
Or did you perhaps not upload for a long time? Not uploading regularly makes your port invisible to customers.
If you would like more detailed suggestions, just give us a link to your port and we can all pitch in.
Also how much do you upload every week, what is your genre etc…
Your sales can be improved.
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:-[
How many images do you have?
3826 images.
That's pretty bad honestly. Maybe you are creating images you like and not necessarily the images people would want to buy and use. Often the most boring images sell more than the beautiful images because of market saturation and lack of demand.
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Dropping a bit on similar volume. However what I really enjoy is that every day I sell something for the first time. Sometimes very, very old images from 2013 come to life, sometimes it is something that was accepted 2 days ago.
Total volume of sales hasn't really changed, summer moving out, autumn and winter moving in, not enough content that is independent of seasons.
I am working on it.
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:-[
How many images do you have?
3826 images.
That's pretty bad honestly. Maybe you are creating images you like and not necessarily the images people would want to buy and use. Often the most boring images sell more than the beautiful images because of market saturation and lack of demand.
Maybe!
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:-[
How many images do you have?
3826 images.
That's pretty bad honestly. Maybe you are creating images you like and not necessarily the images people would want to buy and use. Often the most boring images sell more than the beautiful images because of market saturation and lack of demand.
Maybe!
I think this video and his channel may help you to create images that sell more.
https://youtu.be/1_WCP9RxpkU?si=7xIkZAcTOtluCVEq
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:-[
How many images do you have?
3826 images.
That's pretty bad honestly. Maybe you are creating images you like and not necessarily the images people would want to buy and use. Often the most boring images sell more than the beautiful images because of market saturation and lack of demand.
Maybe!
I think this video and his channel may help you to create images that sell more.
https://youtu.be/1_WCP9RxpkU?si=7xIkZAcTOtluCVEq
Thanks! I will watch the video!
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How long have you been uploading?
Is this a very new port? It takes time for buyers to find your content.
Or did you perhaps not upload for a long time? Not uploading regularly makes your port invisible to customers.
If you would like more detailed suggestions, just give us a link to your port and we can all pitch in.
Also how much do you upload every week, what is your genre etc…
Your sales can be improved.
Hello,thanks for your suggestions! I haven't uploaded images since February 2024. I started with Fotolia. I don't have AI content. I only have photos, 3D renders, vectors and 3 videos. I didn't make more images because I watch too much AI content and don't use it. My images do not have recognizable people, only the hands of one of them.
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Hands doing something is usually a theme that sells well. If you document daily life processes, cooking cleaning, repairing the bicycle, building furniture, working in the garden, hands of a nurse helping people...it usually sells.
If you want regular sales, you must upload regularly, ideally every week, minimum every month.
If you give us a link we can give more useful suggestions.
There are a lot of people here with experience.
You don't need to do any ai, lots of people making money with no ai in port.
Maybe think of a good video theme to keep working on. There is a lot less content with video, lots of areas wide open.
Recognizable people with a model release still is the best moneymaker.
Have you considered doing editorial video with people? There is a thread on pond5 where people share sales and there is a lot of editorial people in there.
The main issue is: how much time are you ready to invest.
In terms of absolute money you will make money much faster if you do other things.
Stock sales grow very slowly.
So for some people doing it as a hobby and just uploading their hobby images is the best solution.
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Hands doing something is usually a theme that sells well. If you document daily life processes, cooking cleaning, repairing the bicycle, building furniture, working in the garden, hands of a nurse helping people...it usually sells.
If you want regular sales, you must upload regularly, ideally every week, minimum every month.
If you give us a link we can give more useful suggestions.
There are a lot of people here with experience.
You don't need to do any ai, lots of people making money with no ai in port.
Maybe think of a good video theme to keep working on. There is a lot less content with video, lots of areas wide open.
Recognizable people with a model release still is the best moneymaker.
Have you considered doing editorial video with people? There is a thread on pond5 where people share sales and there is a lot of editorial people in there.
The main issue is: how much time are you ready to invest.
In terms of absolute money you will make money much faster if you do other things.
Stock sales grow very slowly.
So for some people doing it as a hobby and just uploading their hobby images is the best solution.
Thank you very much! :)
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Bad week.
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3826 images :-[ :-[
my week is not very far from yours,but I have much more content,so worse for me! :D
I believe you live in Venezuela,I have family in Maracaibo,I lived in Venezuela in 1993 when life was good there,then I returned to Italy when I was called up to the army.
come on,hold on,Maduro's government is coming to an end!
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Or did you perhaps not upload for a long time? Not uploading regularly makes your port invisible to customers.
If you want regular sales, you must upload regularly, ideally every week, minimum every month.
Really? It's that easy and all I have to do is upload more often and I'll get better placement. If I don't, I'll be "invisible"? How does that work, when the images get their rank in the first 30 days and don't change much after that. Is there some secret system that you know about that's different than what Adobe tells us.
Does being a featured artist help or hurt? That seems to be a controversy now.
Maybe having free images, gives me an unfair advantage over people who don't allow free images? 8) Or maybe that's just my imagination and I'm making things up.
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It is very simple: customers who buy regularly always search "newest" content. I was a buyer, that is what I would do.
If you have no content in the newest image stream, you are invisible.
Just talk to people who buy regularly how they do their searches.
Repeat customers know their genre very well and they always need fresh content. They avoid the "popular" search because those files have often been downloaded thousands of times.
Last year when I was on the popular list I certainly had a strong increase in sales. But perhaps if you get featured four times like mifornia, that will attract extreme copy cats.
I think it would be fine if we could only be featured once per year per category. Gives more artists a chance to be featured.
Free images certainly help for portfolio visibility, I hope they take many of mine.
Getting sales is no secret magic. Just upload what CUSTOMERS like to buy and you have sales.
It is only about them.
eta
pos 3610, dropping but on similar volume to last week, so I guess overall sales are picking up. 6k files
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3826 images :-[ :-[
my week is not very far from yours,but I have much more content,so worse for me! :D
I believe you live in Venezuela,I have family in Maracaibo,I lived in Venezuela in 1993 when life was good there,then I returned to Italy when I was called up to the army.
come on,hold on,Maduro's government is coming to an end!
Yes , i live in Venezuela, nowadays life is not so good here!
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Just to hopefully debunk some of the theories I see here :D: I never offered free images and since 2020 I upload around 20 files per year and I'm still regularly below rank 4000 with less than 1k files.
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You are boosting the theory that anyone who started uploading 20 years ago has a forever advantage in the algos. ;)
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3826 images :-[ :-[
This is actually a very useful info. This ranking of 37,400th puts 1,100th at least in top 3%. Probably it's more like 1,000th is top 2%. I think there are 50,000 contributors out there at least.
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You are boosting the theory that anyone who started uploading 20 years ago has a forever advantage in the algos. ;)
Lol :D
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3826 images :-[ :-[
This is actually a very useful info. This ranking of 37,400th puts 1,100th at least in top 3%. Probably it's more like 1,000th is top 2%. I think there are 50,000 contributors out there at least.
Back when Shutterstock published more stats they would boast they had over 200 000 producers.
Eyeem boasts they have millions because anyone registered can offer files for sale. Same for Adobe, anyone with an Adobe account can very easily offer files for Adobestock.
The other way to look at it is to collect numbers of people registered in stock social media groups or forums like here.
msg has over 50k, but there are many boards or groups with over 100k members, many also specific to other languages.
I am sure that worldwide there are far more than 2 million people registered.
But are they all active? Probably not.
When I do my searches I keep finding the most interesting content from well known names.
Personally I think there are around 30k regular uploaders with relevant content and maybe 10000 that can make a full time living, depending on where in the world they live.
People who make a full time living only from Adobe, that is probably a small group, maybe 1000. If you have European or large city living costs, then probably less than 500.
For most producers stock is a side income to their dayjob. Which is probably the best way to do it.
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Just to hopefully debunk some of the theories I see here :D: I never offered free images and since 2000 I upload around 20 files per year and I'm still regularly below rank 4000 with less than 1k files.
if true,it is very useful information and shows that if you have a solid portfolio it is not worn down by time.
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You are boosting the theory that anyone who started uploading 20 years ago has a forever advantage in the algos. ;)
why do you still have doubts about it? :D
Of course,those who started first have an advantage,as they should,simply because the files have been online longer and have had time to accumulate more sales.
In 4 years I will earn much more per month than I do now,why?What did I mainly need in the end? Time.
why did I achieve 50% more sales in August 2024 compared to August 2023?and 45% more in July,or if you want January 73% more sales compared to January 2023,what has changed according to you so much that I made 73% more sales?
my portfolio didn't change much between January 2023 and January 2024,how do you think I managed to obtain a 73% increase in the number of sales?
time in microstock is a main element,together with what is produced,the quantity and indexing of the content,plus a pinch of luck,you need a bit of that too! :)
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Just to hopefully debunk some of the theories I see here :D: I never offered free images and since 2000 I upload around 20 files per year and I'm still regularly below rank 4000 with less than 1k files.
Fotolia wasn't even founded in 2000...
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Just to hopefully debunk some of the theories I see here :D: I never offered free images and since 2000 I upload around 20 files per year and I'm still regularly below rank 4000 with less than 1k files.
Fotolia wasn't even founded in 2000...
Just seen my typo, sorry :).
I meant to say 2020. Basically since SS cut royalties in 2020, I stopped producing quality content for microstock.
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@injustice
I have no doubts that in time sales grow because customers need time to finalize their projects. Many of my series only really start to sell regularly after 18 months, see example below.
But I doubt that the 1300 files I uploaded 11 years ago, followed by a gigantic break, gives me such an extreme advantage.
Especially if I compare my sales with people who have been uploading consistently, now have 20k files, but less sales than me.
They should all be outselling me, but they are not.
However in all the cases I have come across it is ports that are produce centric i.e. the producer is uploading their personal favorite files and not buyer centric, i.e. they have a targeted a buyer group, spend a lot of time on research try to to plug the niches or at lest have a systematic approach in growing their ports.
So...time spent on research beats time in having "anything" online.
And newbies can outsell a 20 year old port if they find the right customer group.
Here is a very simple photo, not ai, that only started to sell regularly now. Uploaded in Sept 22, it only had one sale in all of 23, now it has 18 downloads. Nothing special about it, also not seasonal. It just took time from being collected and lightboxed to being used.
I sincerely hope 2025 is much better than 24, although i doubt i will have over 100% month on month again.
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@injustice
I have no doubts that in time sales grow because customers need time to finalize their projects. Many of my series only really start to sell regularly after 18 months, see example below.
But I doubt that the 1300 files I uploaded 11 years ago, followed by a gigantic break, gives me such an extreme advantage.
Especially if I compare my sales with people who have been uploading consistently, now have 20k files, but less sales than me.
They should all be outselling me, but they are not.
However in all the cases I have come across it is ports that are produce centric i.e. the producer is uploading their personal favorite files and not buyer centric, i.e. they have a targeted a buyer group, spend a lot of time on research try to to plug the niches or at lest have a systematic approach in growing their ports.
So...time spent on research beats time in having "anything" online.
And newbies can outsell a 20 year old port if they find the right customer group.
Here is a very simple photo, not ai, that only started to sell regularly now. Uploaded in Sept 22, it only had one sale in all of 23, now it has 18 downloads. Nothing special about it, also not seasonal. It just took time from being collected and lightboxed to being used.
I sincerely hope 2025 is much better than 24, although i doubt i will have over 100% month on month again.
Is this should be help?
https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/12/07/adobe-stock-2024-creative-trends-forecast-innovation-inspiration
https://helpx.adobe.com/es/stock/contributor/help/artist-hub-migration/creat-what-s-in-demand.html
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Just to hopefully debunk some of the theories I see here :D: I never offered free images and since 2020 I upload around 20 files per year and I'm still regularly below rank 4000 with less than 1k files.
Proof of the theory that if someone produces good content that buyers need, (and I mean you) they will get more sales, than people who just upload, because they think new is giving them some extra advantage, beyond the buyers who search for fresh content. The number of images may offer some advantage, but that's not an answer, it's just a minor plus.
I do agree that fresh content might get more views, just because it's new, but after that, the images must also be useful and what the buyer needs.
My position (because there is NO RANK), is fairly steady. I do offer free images, I do upload new, but I'd say, I don't add anything outstanding or in demand for current demands. No AI either. I do upload unusual subjects and I consider Plop and Shoot the best way to grab new material. Many of my better earning new photos, are just being in the right place and seeing something, and having a good camera.
Now someone needs to add that if you have 49 keywords, you'll get more sales, than people with only 24 keywords? Why? Oh yes, maybe, just maybe, someone might use one of those distant, or archaic terms, to find an image. But that's unlikely, because of logic. What words best describe an image or what someone is looking for? The best and most related words, not obscure words. Yet people keep believing some old theory or better named mythology, that more words = more sales.
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agree,more words are not more sales.
I hardly reach 49 words,but rather I do in-depth research on the topicI'm dealing with and try to find the most suitable words,usually it takes me about 2-3 hours to index 20 contents,I don't like automating these processes,
sometimes maybe I can even index 20 contents in 1 hour,of course it depends on what I'm doing.
this is certainly in my opinion one of the advantages of working with a single agency,have more time to do this and many other things.
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@injustice
I have no doubts that in time sales grow because customers need time to finalize their projects. Many of my series only really start to sell regularly after 18 months, see example below.
But I doubt that the 1300 files I uploaded 11 years ago, followed by a gigantic break, gives me such an extreme advantage.
Especially if I compare my sales with people who have been uploading consistently, now have 20k files, but less sales than me.
They should all be outselling me, but they are not.
However in all the cases I have come across it is ports that are produce centric i.e. the producer is uploading their personal favorite files and not buyer centric, i.e. they have a targeted a buyer group, spend a lot of time on research try to to plug the niches or at lest have a systematic approach in growing their ports.
So...time spent on research beats time in having "anything" online.
And newbies can outsell a 20 year old port if they find the right customer group.
Here is a very simple photo, not ai, that only started to sell regularly now. Uploaded in Sept 22, it only had one sale in all of 23, now it has 18 downloads. Nothing special about it, also not seasonal. It just took time from being collected and lightboxed to being used.
I sincerely hope 2025 is much better than 24, although i doubt i will have over 100% month on month again.
in the end,from what I see,we don't have that much difference in point of view,about the time.
time helps you,but if you don't have the raw material no one can help you! :D
I don't know if I made myself clear:what matters most is what you can produce and the way it is indexed,we agree on this,but clearly you can't earn good money immediately,it takes time.
the type of content that can be produced and well done indexing,in my opinion beats the quantity.
but then there are different strategies,there is not just one way to cook an egg! :)
in the end what matters is working,in the best way possible,and in the end the results arrive in more or less time,it depends on many things,but everything can only begin in this way:believing in it.
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agree,more words are not more sales.
I hardly reach 49 words,but rather I do in-depth research on the topicI'm dealing with and try to find the most suitable words,usually it takes me about 2-3 hours to index 20 contents,I don't like automating these processes,
sometimes maybe I can even index 20 contents in 1 hour,of course it depends on what I'm doing.
this is certainly in my opinion one of the advantages of working with a single agency,have more time to do this and many other things.
Another good point you are making. I'm guilty and lazy, so I go to SS, upload the file, copy the keywords I added first and the suggestions. Which means, I'm just a parrot using the same keywords and the words I typed into the search and the same words as everyone else, who probably copied from the same SS search. If I'm being realistic, how would I expect to stand out, when all I have is more of the same?
Then those words are in the metadata and the same words go to anyplace else.
But I still won't say that more words that people are unlikely to use, add anything. The Adobe version of that is the best answer. What words would you use to describe this image? and then, if you were searching for this image, what words would you use to find it? That simple.
We're also in agreement, that more isn't better, just because there are more. Quality keywords that are related and suitable, is the best way.
One more time, to explain myself, Cobalt is correct, new images do get a boost, pretty much everywhere. And there are buyers who search for recent. I also agree that most popular is not a good search choice, for a buyer who thinks, or wants the best image for their needs. Popular isn't relevant.
I can't describe images that aren't new as being invisible, or that if you don't upload new, week after week, that you are invisible. Just possible, a little less likely for your older images to be seen, by someone searching for newest. If someone uses a good search to search for the best matching images, that's the most important connection for a buyer or seller. The image rank is established in the first 30 days.
The new boost, making for page one or two, only lasts until a newer number of images, have been uploaded, to move ours to page three or lower. For a popular subject, that's days, for a niche, that could be months.
Position or "rank" as some call it, is meaningless, as only we can see that and Adobe ranks images, not artists, from what we have been told. Recent Best Sellers, shouldn't help or harm anyone. Both of these are meaningless, except for bragging rights.
"Recent top sellers are determined each week using the following process:
For each asset type we generate a list of 200 contributors who made the most sales in the previous week, only considering their uploads from the past six months. Then, we order the list based on each contributor’s uploads/sales ratio, and the top 10 contributors on this list are featured as “Recent top sellers”.
Contributors are eligible to be featured at most once every five weeks. This selection process is subject to change in the future."
Most sales in the last week, of the images from the past 182 days, upload to sale ratio. You won't see me there, and I won't either, because I don't look.
My sales are up on Adobe, because of the kind of images and what I add. I don't know if time matters or adding new images, or what I add. I only see that income is up, for mostly the same images with under 100 new each year.
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You are boosting the theory that anyone who started uploading 20 years ago has a forever advantage in the algos. ;)
I have a doubt in this theory as well. Since I was in 800 position after only 4 months of uploading very few files. However, I do have a question, what does the lifetime position mean? I’m 12,000 something now. What’s yours? May be it does point to the length of being a contributor and adds to the formula somehow?
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My current lifetime rank is 9020, it jumped, just like my weekly rank, once I started uploading again after a 10 year break.
If you reached a weekly pos of 800 after 4 MONTHS!! of uploading, you are living proof that all it takes is uploading the right content for customers to determine success.
Current weekly rank 3570.
Hope I start to move up soon.
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Lifetime achievement award.
Lifetime ranking position.
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Well done blv, you certainly know what you are doing.
I am currently slipping down. Looks like autumn will not be good for me. But entirely my fault, didn't do enough for the season and not enough independent content. My people images are slow sellers, inspite of research. They probably need more time, most have just been online for less than 4 months.
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You are boosting the theory that anyone who started uploading 20 years ago has a forever advantage in the algos. ;)
I have a doubt in this theory as well. Since I was in 800 position after only 4 months of uploading very few files. However, I do have a question, what does the lifetime position mean? I’m 12,000 something now. What’s yours? May be it does point to the length of being a contributor and adds to the formula somehow?
Your lifetime position indicates that a good 12,000 contributors have achieved more downloads and/or revenue* in total than you since they started selling images on Adobe Stock / fotolia.
*In my opinion, it could be a mixture of both, as otherwise contributors with a pure video portfolio could not be compared with contributors with a pure image portfolio if this rank is based on downloads only.
But it could also be that one video download is equated e.g. with 10 image downloads so that the statistics are comparable.
My best lifetime position I ever had was 1,120 years ago and since then I've dropped to 2,880, losing 10 places every two or three weeks.
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My current lifetime rank is 9020, it jumped, just like my weekly rank, once I started uploading again after a 10 year break.
If you reached a weekly pos of 800 after 4 MONTHS!! of uploading, you are living proof that all it takes is uploading the right content for customers to determine success.
Current weekly rank 3570.
Hope I start to move up soon.
I think I know why was in position 800 after only 4 months,but I prefer not to share this info.
what is important is that it is now in position 12,000.
as you can see,although is clearly a contributor who has the ability/possibility to produce content with high sales potential,is now still in position 12,000 and only with time perhaps will he be able to rise towards position 1,000 again.
so no,sorry,my theory still stands! :D
uploading the right content for customers to determine success,it's absolutely true,I agree 100% but it also takes time,and there's no doubt about that.
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Well done blv, you certainly know what you are doing.
I am currently slipping down. Looks like autumn will not be good for me. But entirely my fault, didn't do enough for the season and not enough independent content. My people images are slow sellers, inspite of research. They probably need more time, most have just been online for less than 4 months.
Thank you!!
Before I started uploading AI images, my position was 1,670 or so. I moved up thanks to AI images I uploaded a year ago.
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
Yes. Most do.
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
Yes. Most do.
;D ;D
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
Yes. Most do.
Have you ever posted a screenshot of your stats here? If not, why do you expect anybody else to just give you all their numbers just because you asked? It doesn't make sense. ;) ;)
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
Yes. Most do.
Come on, post your number like many of us do here. This is my week so far.
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
Yes. Most do.
Come on, post your number like many of us do here. This is my week so far.
Wow , congratulations on the numbers. Any tips for newbie ? I do only real photos at the moment.
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
Yes. Most do.
Come on, post your number like many of us do here. This is my week so far.
Wow , congratulations on the numbers. Any tips for newbie ? I do only real photos at the moment.
AI photos are more effcient to mass produce in short amount of time. But it's already super-saturated. So, try to find theme with not many available images. If you go with saturated themes, your images probably won't be seen getting pushed back many pages down. So, find your own niche and don't try to imitate "bestsellers" too much. It can be a complete waste of time and disappointment.
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Yes, I wonder about the "sameness" of AI images...especially if using the same AI tool. I guess it's kind of like if everyone hired the same photographer to create stock images of typical subjects.... a lot of "similars" may result.
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
Yes. Most do.
Come on, post your number like many of us do here. This is my week so far.
Wow , congratulations on the numbers. Any tips for newbie ? I do only real photos at the moment.
AI photos are more effcient to mass produce in short amount of time. But it's already super-saturated. So, try to find theme with not many available images. If you go with saturated themes, your images probably won't be seen getting pushed back many pages down. So, find your own niche and don't try to imitate "bestsellers" too much. It can be a complete waste of time and disappointment.
Thanks, would you say focusing on real photos is a waste of time ? Or doing Ai at the moment is the best option?
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I believe/am pretty sure your 'lifetime' rank is simply the # of downloads you've had. If you go 'down' - it means other people start selling more than you and change your rank. If you go up, then it means you've sold more (# downloads) relative to other people.
If blv has a "lifetime" ranking of 1540, I'd guess the #'s in front of that were either $100k or $200k, correct? :P
$5 million.
Are you serious? Or... just joking? (I 'spose it could be POSSIBLE to be $5 million, but don't know)... what is the 'real' #?
Do you really expect people will tell you how much money they make when asked? ;D ;D
Yes. Most do.
Come on, post your number like many of us do here. This is my week so far.
Wow , congratulations on the numbers. Any tips for newbie ? I do only real photos at the moment.
AI photos are more effcient to mass produce in short amount of time. But it's already super-saturated. So, try to find theme with not many available images. If you go with saturated themes, your images probably won't be seen getting pushed back many pages down. So, find your own niche and don't try to imitate "bestsellers" too much. It can be a complete waste of time and disappointment.
Thanks, would you say focusing on real photos is a waste of time ? Or doing Ai at the moment is the best option?
Do both.
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Dipped a little today from 395 to 419. Lifetime at 481.
Stats are for 3.5 days.
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Come on, post your number like many of us do here. This is my week so far.
Don't you remember? You thought I was 'Yuri Acurs'... :P
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Dipped a little today from 395 to 419. Lifetime at 481.
Stats are for 3.5 days.
Nice!! I need to double my sales to get from 1,100 to 400. I wonder how many sales 100th rank has per week.
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Come on, post your number like many of us do here. This is my week so far.
Don't you remember? You thought I was 'Yuri Acurs'... :P
Yes, maybe you are. ;) ;)
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... what is the 'real' #?
You must be more specifc. There is an infinite number of real numbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_number
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Dipped a little today from 395 to 419. Lifetime at 481.
Stats are for 3.5 days.
Nice!! I need to double my sales to get from 1,100 to 400. I wonder how many sales 100th rank has per week.
Cheers...
Looking back at the stats, a rank of 75 = 1640 in a week and a rank of 150 or so is in the region of 1250
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Come on Adobe,just one more small step and I've had my best week since November 2023.
"one small step for a man but one giant leap for humanity"...ok? :D
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Come on, post your number like many of us do here. This is my week so far.
Don't you remember? You thought I was 'Yuri Acurs'... :P
Yes, maybe you are. ;) ;)
Hehe. Well, I never said I was... BUT... it's true - that I never said I wasn't... :P
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@halfull
thank you so much for sharing this valuable information. For those of us who want to make a full time income, this is good guidance, especially if you do mostly photos.
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Thanks, would you say focusing on real photos is a waste of time ? Or doing Ai at the moment is the best option?
This is like asking which camera should I use to get more sales.
You should focus on content and genre, you can have great sales with real photos and ai. Most agencies don‘t even take ai and still people have sales.
The majority of sales in the industry are real images, not ai. ai is a niche.
Why don‘t you follow the various newslettersd and blogposts of agencies what they recommend to shoot?
They put a lot of effort and research into these newsletters.
Sadly, most producers never read them. They just sort by downloads where that is possible then try to copy the exact image.
Then complain they are not getting sales.
Look at subjects you understand really well, try to find what is missing. Then shoot that.
And get inspiration from the newsletters. The agencies want to make money, they recommend what people like to buy. They give great tips for styling and current trends too.
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Thanks, would you say focusing on real photos is a waste of time ? Or doing Ai at the moment is the best option?
This is like asking which camera should I use to get more sales.
You should focus on content and genre, you can have great sales with real photos and ai. Most agencies don‘t even take ai and still people have sales.
The majority of sales in the industry are real images, not ai. ai is a niche.
Why don‘t you follow the various newslettersd and blogposts of agencies what they recommend to shoot?
They put a lot of effort and research into these newsletters.
Sadly, most producers never read them. They just sort by downloads where that is possible then try to copy the exact image.
Then complain they are not getting sales.
Look at subjects you understand really well, try to find what is missing. Then shoot that.
And get inspiration from the newsletters. The agencies want to make money, they recommend what people like to buy. They give great tips for styling and current trends too.
While I agree that smaller agencies may be putting research into what sells & sharing that info - the larger agencies (tend to be) pushing the "d.i.e." crap ("diversity, inclusion, equity") - which actually really has absolutely nothing to do with "equity", etc - but rather the people behind blackrock/vanguard attacking the christian/caucasian family unit (trying to 'encourage' boys/girls to cut off their body parts to become 'trans', or samesex, i.e., depopulation)... you don't really see them pushing "gay east indians" or "trans arabic women with hijab" people, it is primarily targeted at white people. So when an agency starts promoting that - that is something I say no to, because it is very evil/very wrong. The ppl behind blackrock/vanguard/etc are just trying to bring their slave classes into western countries & control them with "money", and sadly they've subjugated most of the other races via brutal attacks. "AI" (not just related to images) is part of what they are also trying to use as a control mechanism - absolutely zero to do with "safety & security". After all - how does massive survelliance 'protect' you? It doesn't - just makes it easier (if required) to see what happened 'after' the fact... anyways - getting a bit off topic... just saying - I disagree with the agencies that promoted the "d.i.e." content. It's not what is in "demand" - it is what they are promoting because they are being paid via $$$ to promote the attack on families units.
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Thanks, would you say focusing on real photos is a waste of time ? Or doing Ai at the moment is the best option?
This is like asking which camera should I use to get more sales.
You should focus on content and genre, you can have great sales with real photos and ai. Most agencies don‘t even take ai and still people have sales.
The majority of sales in the industry are real images, not ai. ai is a niche.
Why don‘t you follow the various newslettersd and blogposts of agencies what they recommend to shoot?
They put a lot of effort and research into these newsletters.
Sadly, most producers never read them. They just sort by downloads where that is possible then try to copy the exact image.
Then complain they are not getting sales.
Look at subjects you understand really well, try to find what is missing. Then shoot that.
And get inspiration from the newsletters. The agencies want to make money, they recommend what people like to buy. They give great tips for styling and current trends too.
Thanks Cobalt, can I send my port link to you for feedback ? I try to diversify, I do have lots of travels and landscape. Some of these images sell, but not making as much as other people do. I guess maybe because I am new.
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Or maybe because you didn't analyse the demand for your niche well? How many other artists are covering the same locations? Is their content better? Who is your main competition?
Who is the main buyer group you are targeting with these images? What are current trends and styles this buyer group is currently looking for? Do the buyers have regular trade shows or events where they meet and discuss new trends? Do you know buyers of that genre personally?
Go ahead, send me a link.
It also takes time for a file to sell.
Here is the sales pattern of a simple photo. It had few sales at first, then nothing, now it sells every week.
I see this 18 month pattern with many of my files, sometimes it takes two years.
If I upload regularly then the traffic on my port increases. More traffic, more chances of files being discovered. A few weeks ago I sold a video I uploaded in 2013, I had given up hope. Also other older files being discovered, now that I am a regular producer again.
But many new files need 18-24 months to get going.
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sent you some comments and suggestions. hope it is useful.
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Thanks, would you say focusing on real photos is a waste of time ? Or doing Ai at the moment is the best option?
This is like asking which camera should I use to get more sales.
You should focus on content and genre, you can have great sales with real photos and ai. Most agencies don‘t even take ai and still people have sales.
The majority of sales in the industry are real images, not ai. ai is a niche.
Why don‘t you follow the various newslettersd and blogposts of agencies what they recommend to shoot?
They put a lot of effort and research into these newsletters.
Sadly, most producers never read them. They just sort by downloads where that is possible then try to copy the exact image.
Then complain they are not getting sales.
Look at subjects you understand really well, try to find what is missing. Then shoot that.
And get inspiration from the newsletters. The agencies want to make money, they recommend what people like to buy. They give great tips for styling and current trends too.
Thanks Cobalt, can I send my port link to you for feedback ? I try to diversify, I do have lots of travels and landscape. Some of these images sell, but not making as much as other people do. I guess maybe because I am new.
yes,it's because you're new.
I'll give you an advice if I may:
track the number of sales per week and write them down on one page,do this for at least a year,and you will begin to understand better how it works.
when you have the number of weekly sales for at least an entire year before your eyes,you will understand it yourself.
in the meantime,don't think about it too much,keep working,try to create original content that can be useful,then in a few years you will start to reap the rewards.
Unfortunately today this is the case and it takes a lot of patience and determination,unfortunately it takes time,I can't tell you how long,but I think at least 7-8 years before you have a fairly solid income.
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friday morning stats
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the people behind blackrock/vanguard attacking the christian/caucasian family unit (trying to 'encourage' boys/girls to cut off their body parts to become 'trans', or samesex, i.e., depopulation)...
Don't you have some pets to guard or something?
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[...]i.e., depopulation[...]
No! Since artificial wombs are on the way!... :o
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the people behind blackrock/vanguard attacking the christian/caucasian family unit (trying to 'encourage' boys/girls to cut off their body parts to become 'trans', or samesex, i.e., depopulation)...
Don't you have some pets to guard or something?
lol, what's the inane comments? mind you I forgot some people are just lost, seems you are, so sad... what are you... triple or quadruple boosted? why not get a free coffee card, and if you get 9 shots, you get a free coffee... you really should turn off the t.v. sometime, put down the pizza and bagel, and get some fresh air...
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[...]i.e., depopulation[...]
No! Since artificial wombs are on the way!... :o
mm, I think "they" already have those... it's pretty insane...
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Or maybe because you didn't analyse the demand for your niche well? How many other artists are covering the same locations? Is their content better? Who is your main competition?
Who is the main buyer group you are targeting with these images? What are current trends and styles this buyer group is currently looking for? Do the buyers have regular trade shows or events where they meet and discuss new trends? Do you know buyers of that genre personally?
Go ahead, send me a link.
It also takes time for a file to sell.
Here is the sales pattern of a simple photo. It had few sales at first, then nothing, now it sells every week.
I see this 18 month pattern with many of my files, sometimes it takes two years.
If I upload regularly then the traffic on my port increases. More traffic, more chances of files being discovered. A few weeks ago I sold a video I uploaded in 2013, I had given up hope. Also other older files being discovered, now that I am a regular producer again.
But many new files need 18-24 months to get going.
Cobalt, where can we see the information you shared in the screenshot? (Not the earnings ranking, but the visual statistics)
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It is a screenshot from stockperformer.
You get great statistics across all agencies that are connected to their system and can see nice stats for individual files.
www.stockperformer.com (http://www.stockperformer.com)
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It is a screenshot from stockperformer.
You get great statistics across all agencies that are connected to their system and can see nice stats for individual files.
[url=http://www.stockperformer.com]www.stockperformer.com[/url] ([url]http://www.stockperformer.com[/url])
I'll look into it. Thank you.
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Thanks, would you say focusing on real photos is a waste of time ? Or doing Ai at the moment is the best option?
This is like asking which camera should I use to get more sales.
You should focus on content and genre, you can have great sales with real photos and ai. Most agencies don‘t even take ai and still people have sales.
The majority of sales in the industry are real images, not ai. ai is a niche.
Why don‘t you follow the various newslettersd and blogposts of agencies what they recommend to shoot?
They put a lot of effort and research into these newsletters.
Sadly, most producers never read them. They just sort by downloads where that is possible then try to copy the exact image.
Then complain they are not getting sales.
Look at subjects you understand really well, try to find what is missing. Then shoot that.
And get inspiration from the newsletters. The agencies want to make money, they recommend what people like to buy. They give great tips for styling and current trends too.
... the larger agencies (tend to be) pushing the "d.i.e." crap ("diversity, inclusion, equity") - which actually really has absolutely nothing to do with "equity", etc - but rather the people behind blackrock/vanguard attacking the christian/caucasian family unit (trying to 'encourage' boys/girls to cut off their body parts to become 'trans', or samesex, i.e., depopulation)... you don't really see them pushing "gay east indians" or "trans arabic women with hijab" people, it is primarily targeted at white people.
???
Are you serious?
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best week of the year! :)
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best week of the year! :)
Congrats!! I got the best week of the year too!!
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best week of the year! :)
Congrats!! I got the best week of the year too!!
Thank you!
Well,this is what I can call a solid income!Congratulations to you! :)
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So, you guys are the reason I fell behind position 4000, even though the downloads amount this week is the same as last week when I was at 3700 something ;D
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solid week
pos 3380, 6100 files
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best week of the year! :)
Congrats!! I got the best week of the year too!!
Thank you!
Well,this is what I can call a solid income!Congratulations to you! :)
Thank you!!
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You are right, there are not many agencies that produce real revenue (in my order of revenue)
---------------------- 89% of revenue
- AdobeStock
- Shutterstock
- VectEezy (no free submissions)
- IStock/Getty
- MotionElements
What does "no free submissions" mean?
In the threads about the VectEezy agency they write that this stock is very bad. What do you sell on it? Do you get your main income from subscription sales?
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What does "no free submissions" mean?
It means I did not submit any of my images for free - you can choose if you upload as commercial or as free images (which earn very little).
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slightly off topic but just curious... how many downloads do you need to get a lifetime rank?
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slightly off topic but just curious... how many downloads do you need to get a lifetime rank?
Unfortunately, I can only help with 2 numbers here (my account and my wife's account), but maybe we can narrow it down:
-> 811 downloads do not give a lifetime rank, shows "---"
-> 10.776 downloads shows the lifetime rank "10.950"
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Average week so far.
Weekly position at 10,500, pretty ordinary, average...
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pos 3200, 6100 files
it looks nice because of the bonus
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I think the weekly ranking is calculated by previous 7 days total number of downloads. I don't think it's based on the each new calendar week.
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slightly off topic but just curious... how many downloads do you need to get a lifetime rank?
Unfortunately, I can only help with 2 numbers here (my account and my wife's account), but maybe we can narrow it down:
-> 811 downloads do not give a lifetime rank, shows "---"
-> 10.776 downloads shows the lifetime rank "10.950"
As you know I had my 44.444 th download in September - lifetime rank 2.880
And you've read about another contributor: 65.200 downloads - lifetime rank 1.820
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I think the weekly ranking is calculated by previous 7 days total number of downloads. I don't think it's based on the each new calendar week.
I noticed that my weekly ranking is updated once a day,when I go down in the ranking,I start selling more and it starts to go up,once I reach a certain point I rebound and start selling little again.
in short,I continue to bounce between 2 values that slowly rise over time.
I think it's like this for everyone.
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I think the weekly ranking is calculated by previous 7 days total number of downloads. I don't think it's based on the each new calendar week.
I noticed that my weekly ranking is updated once a day,when I go down in the ranking,I start selling more and it starts to go up,once I reach a certain point I rebound and start selling little again.
in short,I continue to bounce between 2 values that slowly rise over time.
I think it's like this for everyone.
I had a huge sales day about 9 days ago. After that day, I was above 1,000, but suddenly yesterday I fell down to 1,200 probably because that huge sales day was out of 7 days week range. So, definitely the weekly ranking is not about "This week", but 7 days total imo.
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I think the weekly ranking is calculated by previous 7 days total number of downloads. I don't think it's based on the each new calendar week.
I noticed that my weekly ranking is updated once a day,when I go down in the ranking,I start selling more and it starts to go up,once I reach a certain point I rebound and start selling little again.
in short,I continue to bounce between 2 values that slowly rise over time.
I think it's like this for everyone.
I had a huge sales day about 9 days ago. After that day, I was above 1,000, but suddenly yesterday I fell down to 1,200 probably because that huge sales day was out of 7 days week range. So, definitely the weekly ranking is not about "This week", but 7 days total imo.
yes it is possible,even if it updates daily for me it doesn't mean that it doesn't follow the 7 day pattern.
I think that for me,there are more variations than for you.
it's as if I'm still in the middle of the ocean of contributors and I'm more at the mercy of the waves,but you're now sailing in calmer waters,in fact you're probably already at the port bar drinking a beer if you like! :D
I think that the higher we are in the ranking the fewer changes there are.
I believe that those who upload regularly have this pattern,bounce between 2 values that increase over time,those who upload less are certainly more stationary or may even drop in the rankings because clearly the portfolio has not improved in this case.
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I'm surprised this seems rather confusing for a lot of people? I believe I even read where it stated what the weekly sales rank is?
It's simply your rank, in terms of downloads - relatively to ALL the other contributors - for that week. Lifetime rank is simply for all contributors over the LIFETIME.
So, if you get more downloads than more people - your rank goes up. If other people get more downloads than you, your rank goes down.
So you 'could' be ranked #1, if for example you had '3' downloads, and 'everyone else' had 1. Or, you could be ranked #10000 if you had say 1000 downloads, but 'everyone else' had 1001+...
Really quite simple. Your weekly ranking is just simply how many downloads you've had relative to everyone else in the system.
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I'm surprised this seems rather confusing for a lot of people? I believe I even read where it stated what the weekly sales rank is?
It's simply your rank, in terms of downloads - relatively to ALL the other contributors - for that week. Lifetime rank is simply for all contributors over the LIFETIME.
So, if you get more downloads than more people - your rank goes up. If other people get more downloads than you, your rank goes down.
So you 'could' be ranked #1, if for example you had '3' downloads, and 'everyone else' had 1. Or, you could be ranked #10000 if you had say 1000 downloads, but 'everyone else' had 1001+...
Really quite simple. Your weekly ranking is just simply how many downloads you've had relative to everyone else in the system.
Correct!
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I'm surprised this seems rather confusing for a lot of people? I believe I even read where it stated what the weekly sales rank is?
It's simply your rank, in terms of downloads - relatively to ALL the other contributors - for that week. Lifetime rank is simply for all contributors over the LIFETIME.
So, if you get more downloads than more people - your rank goes up. If other people get more downloads than you, your rank goes down.
So you 'could' be ranked #1, if for example you had '3' downloads, and 'everyone else' had 1. Or, you could be ranked #10000 if you had say 1000 downloads, but 'everyone else' had 1001+...
Really quite simple. Your weekly ranking is just simply how many downloads you've had relative to everyone else in the system.
of course,but why is there anyone who thinks the opposite? :D
I think we all bounce between 2 values in the rankings.
if your ranking value is an average of 30,000 you can probably bounce between 40,000 and 20,000
if your average value is 20,000 you probably bounce between 15,000 and 25,000
if your average value is 1000 you probably bounce between 800 and 1200
the higher you go,the less variation you have in the rankings,simply because there are fewer contributors at the top.
I don't know whether the ranking follows sales or money,I have some doubts about it,it probably follows both the number of sales and money.
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anyway apart from all this chatter,my week has been a normal week to be optimistic,last week was better,my average is still increasing,but at the speed of a snail! :D
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I'm surprised this seems rather confusing for a lot of people? I believe I even read where it stated what the weekly sales rank is?
It's simply your rank, in terms of downloads - relatively to ALL the other contributors - for that week. Lifetime rank is simply for all contributors over the LIFETIME.
So, if you get more downloads than more people - your rank goes up. If other people get more downloads than you, your rank goes down.
So you 'could' be ranked #1, if for example you had '3' downloads, and 'everyone else' had 1. Or, you could be ranked #10000 if you had say 1000 downloads, but 'everyone else' had 1001+...
Really quite simple. Your weekly ranking is just simply how many downloads you've had relative to everyone else in the system.
of course,but why is there anyone who thinks the opposite? :D
I think we all bounce between 2 values in the rankings.
if your ranking value is an average of 30,000 you can probably bounce between 40,000 and 20,000
if your average value is 20,000 you probably bounce between 15,000 and 25,000
if your average value is 1000 you probably bounce between 800 and 1200
the higher you go,the less variation you have in the rankings,simply because there are fewer contributors at the top.
I don't know whether the ranking follows sales or money,I have some doubts about it,it probably follows both the number of sales and money.
I don't think that there is such a small range.
For a rank below 10.000 there is no large portfolio needed. It is no rocket science to reach a rank around 5000. But it will take some time to built a good performing portfolio for a rank below 3000.
There are three things. Portfolio size, quality and upload volume compared to your competition.
There is no such thing like an Adobe sale system.
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those are just examples and should not be taken literally,I think everyone can agree on the fact that the higher you are in the ranking,the less changes you undergo in the weekly ranking.
do you want to talk about Adobe's sales system? :D
I respect your opinion and I also partly agree,in particular I agree that quality and quantity are fundamental to having a greater number of sales.
but I also think that logically there is and must be a system that regulates the distribution of sales,it seems simply logical to me.
Have you ever tried to track the number of weekly sales?
me yes,I've been doing it for years,I write in a book,practically everything,80s style! :D
in my case,throughout this year,the number of weekly sales has fluctuated between 2 very specific numbers and not very far from each other.
In your opinion,how is it possible that throughout this year I have made the same number of sales for 9 months every week, and how is it possible that hundreds of thousands of contributors sell something every day or almost every day?
do you realize that there are over half a billion content in the Adobe library and that we contributors are hundreds of thousands?
How . do you think we can sell everyone,some more or less certain,but everyone!
even just looking at it from this perspective makes it logical to think that sales are administered by a system.
I recommend you keep track of your weekly sales and write them down on a page,then after at least a year,look at these numbers on this page,and I think you'll be able to notice patterns too.
then for goodness' sake,maybe you're right and I'm wrong,but the evidence of a sales system seems everywhere to me.
and luckily there is,because it seems to me that Adobe's sales system works very well! :)
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those are just examples and should not be taken literally,I think everyone can agree on the fact that the higher you are in the ranking,the less changes you undergo in the weekly ranking.
do you want to talk about Adobe's sales system? :D
I respect your opinion and I also partly agree,in particular I agree that quality and quantity are fundamental to having a greater number of sales.
but I also think that logically there is and must be a system that regulates the distribution of sales,it seems simply logical to me.
Have you ever tried to track the number of weekly sales?
me yes,I've been doing it for years,I write in a book,practically everything,80s style! :D
in my case,throughout this year,the number of weekly sales has fluctuated between 2 very specific numbers and not very far from each other.
In your opinion,how is it possible that throughout this year I have made the same number of sales for 9 months every week, and how is it possible that hundreds of thousands of contributors sell something every day or almost every day?
do you realize that there are over half a billion content in the Adobe library and that we contributors are hundreds of thousands?
How . do you think we can sell everyone,some more or less certain,but everyone!
even just looking at it from this perspective makes it logical to think that sales are administered by a system.
I recommend you keep track of your weekly sales and write them down on a page,then after at least a year,look at these numbers on this page,and I think you'll be able to notice patterns too.
then for goodness' sake,maybe you're right and I'm wrong,but the evidence of a sales system seems everywhere to me.
and luckily there is,because it seems to me that Adobe's sales system works very well! :)
No need to write them down, you can just get adobe to plot them out. Mine certainly are not very close to 2 different values.
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I'm surprised this seems rather confusing for a lot of people? I believe I even read where it stated what the weekly sales rank is?
It's simply your rank, in terms of downloads - relatively to ALL the other contributors - for that week. Lifetime rank is simply for all contributors over the LIFETIME.
So, if you get more downloads than more people - your rank goes up. If other people get more downloads than you, your rank goes down.
So you 'could' be ranked #1, if for example you had '3' downloads, and 'everyone else' had 1. Or, you could be ranked #10000 if you had say 1000 downloads, but 'everyone else' had 1001+...
Really quite simple. Your weekly ranking is just simply how many downloads you've had relative to everyone else in the system.
of course,but why is there anyone who thinks the opposite? :D
I think we all bounce between 2 values in the rankings.
if your ranking value is an average of 30,000 you can probably bounce between 40,000 and 20,000
if your average value is 20,000 you probably bounce between 15,000 and 25,000
if your average value is 1000 you probably bounce between 800 and 1200
the higher you go,the less variation you have in the rankings,simply because there are fewer contributors at the top.
I don't know whether the ranking follows sales or money,I have some doubts about it,it probably follows both the number of sales and money.
Weekly rankings will vary based on what seasonal content you have. Like the movement of the tide and over time, you see the patterns in the data.
Lifetime rank for a change.
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I'm surprised this seems rather confusing for a lot of people? I believe I even read where it stated what the weekly sales rank is?
It's simply your rank, in terms of downloads - relatively to ALL the other contributors - for that week. Lifetime rank is simply for all contributors over the LIFETIME.
So, if you get more downloads than more people - your rank goes up. If other people get more downloads than you, your rank goes down.
So you 'could' be ranked #1, if for example you had '3' downloads, and 'everyone else' had 1. Or, you could be ranked #10000 if you had say 1000 downloads, but 'everyone else' had 1001+...
Really quite simple. Your weekly ranking is just simply how many downloads you've had relative to everyone else in the system.
of course,but why is there anyone who thinks the opposite? :D
I think we all bounce between 2 values in the rankings.
if your ranking value is an average of 30,000 you can probably bounce between 40,000 and 20,000
if your average value is 20,000 you probably bounce between 15,000 and 25,000
if your average value is 1000 you probably bounce between 800 and 1200
the higher you go,the less variation you have in the rankings,simply because there are fewer contributors at the top.
I don't know whether the ranking follows sales or money,I have some doubts about it,it probably follows both the number of sales and money.
Weekly rankings will vary based on what seasonal content you have. Like the movement of the tide and over time, you see the patterns in the data.
Lifetime rank for a change.
Great numbers!Congrats!
When did you start? And how many files do you have?
Sorry, maybe you've already written that and I've forgotten.
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@HalfFull
For having these results I'm sure you've done an exceptional job!
But I'm also pretty sure you've been contributing for at least 10 years,but probably more time.
Well done! :)
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Cheers :)
I mainly sell stills <18k images. I've been submitting to Adobe for about 10 years and elsewhere for 14yrs. Around 108k dls from 2020
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Thank you so much for sharing your stats. It is really inspiring to see that this is possible for a single artist.
My rank also moves a lot with the seasons. I hope I start to see a real upswing soon, but I remember that last year I was also desperate in September and thought all my content is wrong.
pos 3140, files 6150
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Interesting that this is the thread that simply will not die despite the stats being pretty meaningless because they are only based on downloads not earnings. I have started out the week with 4 video DL’s earning $33.29 and 1 image DL for $0.34 and my weekly rank is 13,750th.
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a good or rising volume of sales indicates that you are doing well at understanding customers.
for a better comparison it would be useful to separate video and image stats, I agree.
but there are also plenty of people with very large video ports and very few downloads. it is just like with images, some people do market research and try to understand the customer and others just upload their personal hobby projects without paying attention to commercial usability.
so for me someone with a great rank from mostly images is an inspiration, because I always thought this was only possible for teams.
or people with 100k plus ports.
I am sure if his focus was mainly video, he would be equally successful, even if the total rank would not show it, because it does not filter videos out.
eta
There are plenty of people who think I am totally crazy for wanting to revive my stock business. So i am grateful for any real information what is possible.
If the rest of the year goes well, I will probably reach 10-13k this year.
Next year will be really interesting, I doubt I can double my income again.
But will it grow by 20%...or 80%...or will it already stagnate?
My current projection is that by mid/end 2027 I will have a stable business again, especially if I can also increase sales on other agencies and especially video.
We will see.
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hope a good sales week for we all ;D
for me this week i will focus working on 2025 new years concepts, hope i'm not late for this.
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The question is when will it be accepted?
I have some new year concepts in the queue, but this morning I uploaded my first summer content for 2025 and otherwise my focus now is mostly spring.
Still also uploading winter and holiday season, but I think most of it will arrive too late. Not creating any new winter content either, but I have such a huge backlog of files, I can probably cover 3 holiday seasons...
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The question is when will it be accepted?
I have some new year concepts in the queue, but this morning I uploaded my first summer content for 2025 and otherwise my focus now is mostly spring.
Still also uploading winter and holiday season, but I think most of it will arrive too late. Not creating any new winter content either, but I have such a huge backlog of files, I can probably cover 3 holiday seasons...
you're right! with the current review time, i think i should upload 2026 concepts ;D ;D ;D ;D
lets goooooo
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I uploaded one 2026 file, just in case...:)
I have never had new year files with actual year date, curious to see if it is actually worth it.
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Found a copy cat who tried to recreate my image with a German word. Except the word came out wrong
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/empty-beach-with-the-word-urlaub-written-in-the-sand-under-blue-sky/960915438?prev_url=detail
here is my original
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/beautiful-beach-with-the-german-word-for-vacation-urlaub/842886276?prev_url=detail
there is quite a lot in that port that was "inspired" by my files.
It is that first time I see that so clearly.
The other images are probably inspired from other producers.
Obviously I have no rights to a German word in the sand, but it is an interesting duplicate case.
I will be watching this port.
eta
here is a file where they used the copyrighted term "montessori" in a description
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/bright-and-cozy-scandinavian-kindergarten-room-with-montessori-wooden-toys-and-educational-materials/938571353?prev_url=detail
they probably stole the title from a different image
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Found a copy cat who tried to recreate my image with a German word. Except the word came out wrong
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/empty-beach-with-the-word-urlaub-written-in-the-sand-under-blue-sky/960915438?prev_url=detail
here is my original
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/beautiful-beach-with-the-german-word-for-vacation-urlaub/842886276?prev_url=detail
there is quite a lot in that port that was "inspired" by my files.
It is that first time I see that so clearly.
The other images are probably inspired from other producers.
Obviously I have no rights to a German word in the sand, but it is an interesting duplicate case.
I will be watching this port.
In the AI copy I read "Urlslaub" or "Urislaub". I don't see much danger of anyone buying the copy. ;D
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Found a copy cat who tried to recreate my image with a German word. Except the word came out wrong
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/empty-beach-with-the-word-urlaub-written-in-the-sand-under-blue-sky/960915438?prev_url=detail
here is my original
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/beautiful-beach-with-the-german-word-for-vacation-urlaub/842886276?prev_url=detail
there is quite a lot in that port that was "inspired" by my files.
It is that first time I see that so clearly.
The other images are probably inspired from other producers.
Obviously I have no rights to a German word in the sand, but it is an interesting duplicate case.
I will be watching this port.
Is it selling well?
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the original file had 2 sales and the copy won‘t make me lose anything.
but they copied quite a lot of individual files, people, xmas, halloween, easter. I think they asked for an image description because sometimes my titles were too short. but it is uncanny to see so many files affected.
thankfully my port has so much experimental stuff, that it is not easy to see what will actually sell.
but it is a weird feeling.
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the original file had 2 sales and the copy won‘t make me lose anything.
but they copied quite a lot of individual files, people, xmas, halloween, easter. I think they asked for an image description because sometimes my titles were too short. but it is uncanny to see so many files affected.
thankfully my port has so much experimental stuff, that it is not easy to see what will actually sell.
but it is a weird feeling.
There are thousands of photos with word(s) on beach. So, I wouldn't think of it as somebody stealing an idea. There are thousands of images/videos with the same concepts out there. So, it's up to which image/video buyers like. Market saturation just is a part of this business unfortunately as more and more people create and upload stock images and videos.
https://stock.adobe.com/search/images?filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aphoto%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aimage%5D=1&k=beach+word+sand&order=relevance&price%5B%24%5D=1&safe_search=1&limit=100&search_type=usertyped&search_page=1&acp=&aco=beach+word+sand&get_facets=1
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why would anyone upload an image with a word in german if you have no germany centric port?
the thing with ai is they do manage to copy quite specifically the vibe of many of my images. it is just because they cannot see what actually sells that the damage is not greater.
i have some other bestsellers with copies and i think it is already affecting their sales.
it might be that seasonal images now only have one really successful season.
that would do great damage longterm.
we will see.
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the original file had 2 sales and the copy won‘t make me lose anything.
but they copied quite a lot of individual files, people, xmas, halloween, easter. I think they asked for an image description because sometimes my titles were too short. but it is uncanny to see so many files affected.
thankfully my port has so much experimental stuff, that it is not easy to see what will actually sell.
but it is a weird feeling.
There are thousands of photos with word(s) on beach. So, I wouldn't think of it as somebody stealing an idea. There are thousands of images/videos with the same concepts out there. So, it's up to which image/video buyers like. Market saturation just is a part of this business unfortunately as more and more people create and upload stock images and videos.
https://stock.adobe.com/search/images?filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aphoto%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aimage%5D=1&k=beach+word+sand&order=relevance&price%5B%24%5D=1&safe_search=1&limit=100&search_type=usertyped&search_page=1&acp=&aco=beach+word+sand&get_facets=1
there are a lot more specific examples in that port that were clearly directly inspired by my files.
it is the largest copy cat volume of my port so far.
But because Adobe promotes fresh content or files with the first sale on the front pages it is thankfully not so easy to see what sells.
the german word thing is just so obvious because the copied word is wrong, so obviously it was not a language native that created the file.
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people want to make money in a creative market, but they are no creative enough to create their own ideas/design so they copy. for these people is just a matter of time to quit/get banned. (also funny to see in the facebook groups, tons of people daily crying bcuz they got banned).
we have control over 90% of the things we do daily
and 10% are not on our control.
lets focus on working on great stuff and growing our ports
remember that if someone if copying you, he is always one or two steps behind
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"to be copied is the sincerest form of flattery"...
Unfortunately there are many very successful copy cat portfolios. This also happens with photos, entire high quality photo teams that "save time" of doing their own research and identifying customer groups, by just scraping bestsellers. And often their production quality is even better than the original file.
I know several cases where absolutely top selling files got killed after it was copied. Sadly in many cases the producer had made the mistake of showing his favorite file in a stock group - look my parrot eating carrots sells every week - and gone where the sales.
I agree that this port is going nowhere, because it is obvious that the real media talent is missing.
The dangerous pros are the ones that are made by pro media people.
I hope all agencies start using ai to identify copycat ports and observing them.
It is very frustrating and financially abusive for the real creators with ideas.
We will see.
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Lately I've been creating hybrids that are having some success,and I immediately noticed that the copycats have arrived, they're trying but they can't because they can't reproduce the same content with just a prompt.
hahaha! :D
it's really funny how they try to copy me but they can't.
to create the AI content I'm making requires experience and you have to dedicate time to it,you can't do it just with a prompt...forget it! 8)
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yes, its like a pro photographer using a 100$ camera and a newbie using 5000$ gear. you who is going to make the best result, the newbie cant recreate the same result the pro guys had.
give AI in the hands of someone doing stock for 10 years, and the same tool to these guys that started now.
lets use the best thing we have.
time and experience.
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I'm not concerned about so called copycats. It's a free competition out there. If somebody is just busy copying somebody else's stuff, they probably aren't doing good and eventually be exhausted, disappointed and go away. It's a waste of time "copying" stuff that are already saturated.
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like I said the "normal" copying doesn't worry me. I also copy when I build up a new field and add my own first red heart on white, green grass background etc...
It is the pro producers that copy that are truly dangerous.
you still have the advantage of timing, how to combine different series and make them work off each other, but bestsellers have a drastic impact on sales.
if they get killed by copy cats, like what mifornia experienced, that is a real drop in income.
a file that makes over 1000 sales in one season, should have a long shelf life, unless it is related to a timed event like the pandemic.
I am hoping that keeping my titles extremly short and generic "pretty easter egg with copy space" will at least make those looking for prompt titles look elsewhere.
but copycats can just take a screenshot of the image and have ai generate something near identical.
the best protection is a very large portfolio.
then it becomes really difficult to see which files is worth copying.
so..back to uploading.
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in general it is as you say,with img to img it is possible to replicate the content,but depends what kind of content.
but I agree,today the quantity is starting to weigh heavily on the final income,much more today than in the past,and it will certainly be even more so in the future.
I just read that we have already exceeded one million contributors,from a source that I don't consider 100% reliable,but it's possible,with AI the contributors are increasing a lot.
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agencies like eyeem boast they have 30 million contributors if I remember.
but that doesn't mean they are all active producers.
somewhere on the discord i read that adobe now accepts 500k to 1 million files a day.
agencies used to get around 2 million week.
so it is possible that adobe is getting 3 times more files which matches that they said they are tripling their inspection team.
I keep checking for my personal niches and some have very little new content added every week.
others are swamped with even more duplicates.
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I also read,from a more reliable source,that 80% of sales come from 20% of contributors.
Anyway,I've had the exact same number of sales for 4 months in a row,and this will probably be the fifth,and very similar to every month since the beginning of this year.
in fact this week I'm already slowing down because I've been going better than usual this whole month,If I keep going strong this week too,then it's too much! :D
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Anyway,I've had the exact same number of sales for 4 months in a row,and this will probably be the fifth,and very similar to every month since the beginning of this year.
this year i see a little increase every month, but i'm working like 12 hours/day on my port since february(when i used to make just around 100 bucks in a month). the last 'bar' is due the contributor payout.
if the competition is working hard, i like to worker smarter xD.i'm using tools like 'metaphoto AI' to auto generate keywords to my photos to speed up the process, so i focus more time on the fun part.. shooting, editing, etc. so i more than doubled my port this year!
if everything works like i planned, next year i'm quitting boring office job (well, maybe i will have to start working 16 hours/day lol)
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Anyway,I've had the exact same number of sales for 4 months in a row,and this will probably be the fifth,and very similar to every month since the beginning of this year.
this year i see a little increase every month, but i'm working like 12 hours/day on my port since february(when i used to make just around 100 bucks in a month). the last 'bar' is due the contributor payout.
if the competition is working hard, i like to worker smarter xD.i'm using tools like 'metaphoto AI' to auto generate keywords to my photos to speed up the process, so i focus more time on the fun part.. shooting, editing, etc. so i more than doubled my port this year!
if everything works like i planned, next year i'm quitting boring office job (well, maybe i will have to start working 16 hours/day lol)
Wow, that's impressive!! Congrats!! You definitely are working hard and smart.
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Anyway,I've had the exact same number of sales for 4 months in a row,and this will probably be the fifth,and very similar to every month since the beginning of this year.
this year i see a little increase every month, but i'm working like 12 hours/day on my port since february(when i used to make just around 100 bucks in a month). the last 'bar' is due the contributor payout.
if the competition is working hard, i like to worker smarter xD.i'm using tools like 'metaphoto AI' to auto generate keywords to my photos to speed up the process, so i focus more time on the fun part.. shooting, editing, etc. so i more than doubled my port this year!
if everything works like i planned, next year i'm quitting boring office job (well, maybe i will have to start working 16 hours/day lol)
you're definitely producing more than me.
This year was the year I produced the most in my 6 years,and the year isn't over yet.
I work several hours a day,it can happen that I work 12 hours a day,but generally I work 6-8 hours a day,every day even Saturday and Sunday,I rarely take a day off.
the number of sales this year per month has increased compared to last year,but it is not a significant increase.
earnings have increased quite a bit thanks to the fact that I tripled my video library this year.
for me it will be very important to see what the increase will be for next year.
the second week of September was the best week of the year,the week in which I finally broke the repetitive cycle that I have had since the beginning of this year.
Last year I produced a type of content that I sold often,but this year I sell other things and I no longer sell much of what I produced last year,not with the same frequency.
my clear impression is that it seems to me that I can produce anything I want,but my increase over time is more or less set.
however in general I think I should sell at least double what I sell,at this point in the journey.
in conclusion,my sales and earnings are increasing,there is no doubt about it,but this increase is a bit too slow in my opinion.
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Impressive steady increase pires, congratulations.
This month is much slower than i expected. if it wasn't for the bonus I would probably end up below August.
But I remember how desperate I was last September, so I hope things pick up in October.
I definitely spent too much time on illustrations, should have done video instead.
Next year will be better.
I really hope I make those 10-13k this year.
Trying to process some videos today, I also need to diversify some income and get more streams from other agencies as well.
Work smarter and harder is the motto for the next 18 months.
December will be interesting and then I am curious to see if there is any increase in spring compared to last year.
Today I sold a file that just went live now, so there is a little hope.
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Started the week at around the 12,000+ ranking and got to high 6000s before falling back to what it is now. RPD is good for this week (images and videos combined) so earnings are doing quite well given the number of downloads.
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for me, i dropped this week from around 3100 to this. but earnings still the same last as last week
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My earnings look good because of the free images bonus but the downloads have also improved a little.
Good luck for the next week everyone!
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but all of you bounce little! :D
I was up of 20,000 positions for the whole month,in this last week I lost 20,000 positions,and now I will make a big bounce because the month is over,and in a week or so I recover my 20,000 positions again,and then bounce again!
from next year I will bounce less and so every year until the bounces are reduced to a minimum,this is the pattern,as long as we continue to upload new and useful content throughout the year,until we build a truly solid giant portfolio that resists the erosion of time,then maybe we could also relax a bit! :)
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In general, I think the less regular sellers in your portfolio, the more your numbers are going to bounce around. If you sell 10 one week and 20 the next week that is only a difference of 10 sales, but it is also double (or half) and will make for huge swings in your placement. If you make 100 sales one week, you probably aren't making 200 sales the next week. Going from 100 to 110 is the same 10 sale difference, but will make a lot less difference in your placement.
Also there are probably a whole lot more contributors at the long tail low sales end of the spectrum, so a difference of a few sales will bump you ahead of or behind thousands of contributors. At the upper end of the sales spectrum, you probably need a lot more sales to move up a few spots.
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yes i agree,the higher we are in the ranking,the fewer fluctuations we have.
Meanwhile,I've already started to rebound as soon as Monday started,my week offline is over,and a good day starts in the morning! :D
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How does AS calculate the weekly rank? Does anyone know?
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It is based on downloads, not money. So somebody with a great video port might be earning a lot more money, but be lower than someone with lots of photo files.
The weekly rank is updated every day and we are assuming that it shows your rank based on total volume of the last 7 days.
Once you get above 1000 it seems to be individual ranks, below 1k you get it in larger increments.
You might also not be the only one with the same volume of sales.
current pos 2860, 6300 files
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I have already recovered 10,000 positions this week,by the end of the week I will have already recovered another 10,000 positions.
in just one day this week,I sold last week's total.
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Yes, yesterday was a good day.
Unfortunately tomorrow is a public holiday in Germany and many people are doing an extended week-end.
So I jumped up, but will drop again for the rest of the week.
pos 2560, 6300 files
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A good week (relative to my own) for both downloads and earnings with strong results earlier in the week. Next week will be quieter with a public holiday on Monday.
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I have already recovered 10,000 positions this week,by the end of the week I will have already recovered another 10,000 positions.
in just one day this week,I sold last week's total.
Can you please clarify?
Are you bouncing let’s say from position 60,000 to 50,000 and next week to 40,000 and then to 30,000 and so on?
Majority of poster’s positions are below 10,000, correct?
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Dropped down to pos 3100, 6300 files
Thursday was a public holiday in Germany and many people took Friday off as well.
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Pos 3450 - probably my best rank ever :D.
(Screenshot from Monday morning - thus so few downloads)
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Is today a holiday in the US, it is exceptionally slow?
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Is today a holiday in the US, it is exceptionally slow?
Not that I know of, Mon the 14th is.
Last Monday and this Monday so far have been 0 sales on Adobe for me for some reason. 0 sales happen, especially on weekend days, but 0 sale weekdays are not that common for me. Oddly weekend sales seem to be increasing lately, but random work week days have very low to 0 sales now.
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Thank you. I guess posting here broke the spell, I suddenly got 3 small sales.
Europe/Germany was fine, but then nothing from the US time zone which is unusual.
Fridays are usually just half a day, weekends are dead, but Monday is usually fine.
We will see. This should be the time of year when things really pick up, half my income comes from the last 3 months. So slow days make me really nervous.
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Is today a holiday in the US, it is exceptionally slow?
Not that I know of, Mon the 14th is.
Last Monday and this Monday so far have been 0 sales on Adobe for me for some reason. 0 sales happen, especially on weekend days, but 0 sale weekdays are not that common for me. Oddly weekend sales seem to be increasing lately, but random work week days have very low to 0 sales now.
same.... like last week. good to know, I thought its just me.
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This should be the time of year when things really pick up, half my income comes from the last 3 months. So slow days make me really nervous.
Amazing!
I’m the opposite, I have no Christmas images. August , September and October were my best months last year and position of 800! This year, it sucks, 1/3 of what I did on August , September and October of last year position around 6,000
I started to notice on Weekly Best Sellers accounts with 100 pages of AI and 20,000+ sales! That’s quite impressive
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It's an absurd situation. Fake photos have priority. Real ones, much closer to reality, remain in limbo.
Adobe wants to give us a virtual future, made of beautiful glossy images far from reality.
But today the market takes priority over ethics.
How sad this thing is ... :'(
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You considered highly staged over processed commercial stock photos reality??? interesting...
@mifornia
Your experience is what has me terrified. If good files now only have one good season and cannot become reliable longterm sellers, then my job is toast.
Building reliable income needs longterm income.
So, we will see what happens.
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You considered highly staged over processed commercial stock photos reality??? interesting...
I said: "Much closer to reality"
Reality in photography does not exist, but it's only a 2D representation of a 3D reality.
But this can be more or less close to reality. In AI images you are looking at an illustration, but with this I am trying to communicate something about reality, and this can be dangerous in some areas.
I mostly take landscape and travel photos and I'm seeing in the AI images places that don't exist, but in the description I read: Santorini, Tuscany, Paris, Dolomites, Normandy ...
Would you buy a travel guide with these photos of fake places?
As far as I'm concerned, I may have removed an electrical cable or a branch, I may have saturated the colors a bit, but the place is that.
Just as it can be dangerous to show perfect models that do not exist in reality.
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The files are clearly labelled as ai, why would a travel guide fill it with fake pictures?
Their rating would be abysmal, people would easily notice.
There is plenty of creative commercial content created in photoshop with a mix of images from different locations.
Ai didn't start "faking", it is just an extension of what can be done in photoshop or illustrator anyway.
Loads of "vacation" images that are completely fake and don't depict a real place.
Labelling these fake creations as a specific place is wrong, wether you do it in photoshop or ai.
Ai actually has the advantage of being clearly labelled.
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Ai actually has the advantage of being clearly labelled.
It is clearly labelled from the agencies that sell it, but not from those who use it.
And the problem was: why is AI reviewed and photos and videos not?
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There is plenty of creative commercial content created in photoshop with a mix of images from different locations.
And I don't agree with accepting these images if the description doesn't say: "collage/mix of photos".
If you don't write it you are deceiving the agency and the buyer.
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@mifornia
Your experience is what has me terrified. If good files now only have one good season and cannot become reliable longterm sellers, then my job is toast.
Building reliable income needs longterm income.
So, we will see what happens.
I truly hope that my experience is not a reflection of things to come. I’ll be curious to see if your last year Christmas bestsellers will sell well this year.
May be Adobe’s search engine changed to focus on newer images and fade out the older ones.
I attached my year’s screenshot before, but here is another one. You can see that my sales are 1/3 of last season. Last summer I was on Weekly Best Sellers several times. This summer, crickets
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The buyers are designers, they know that.
How long habe you been doing stock? Commercial images are heavily manipulated for maximum effect, always have been.
If you want „real“, you buy editorial.
Same for designers using images in their output, if it is not editorial, it is always assumed it is manipulated. The designers themselves often create composite images by combining many files.
That is what advertising and marketing is, make believe and utterly fake and people love to buy products and services advertised that way.
If customers reacted well to editorial images, then designers would use only that.
Ai is nothing new, it just gives „photoshop skills“ to people who have no professional training in photoshop or illustrator.
Everything you do with ai you can also do manually with photoshop.
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@mifornia
that looks truly terrible, I am so sorry.
so far this year has been consistent that every month is roughly double of the same month last year at Adobe.
But we will if this is also true for the last 3 months.
I am beginning to see a lot of my files having close copies. I don‘t know how much that is affecting my sales.
Perhaps that is something Adobe can influence by giving a slight nudge to the original files, not the copies.
I have added a lot of content also non seasonal content, longterm I want to break this dependence on holiday or winter images.
I am especially trying to do more with people.
Also starting to do more normal photos and videos with camera, also for other agencies.
I will update you how it goes.
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Pos 3450 - probably my best rank ever :D.
(Screenshot from Monday morning - thus so few downloads)
Broke my own record from yesterday - position 3330 today :).
Nice amount of downloads, but the earnings are pathetic.
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.
I mostly take landscape and travel photos and I'm seeing in the AI images places that don't exist, but in the description I read: Santorini, Tuscany, Paris, Dolomites, Normandy ...
Would you buy a travel guide with these photos of fake places?
As far as I'm concerned, I may have removed an electrical cable or a branch, I may have saturated the colors a bit, but the place is that.
Just as it can be dangerous to show perfect models that do not exist in reality.
I have also seen AI generated landscapes on AS. I don’t get the allure unless the sellers are trying to fool people. I’ve been to that place, I know it doesn’t look like that, although it’s somewhat closeish.
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Not imagening it, I am going down in the main buying season.
pos 3810, files 6400
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Not imagening it, I am going down in the main buying season.
pos 3810, files 6400
East indian spammers madly clicking buttons to submit AI stuff...
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I don't think so, this is too abrupt.
I also find my files in good search positions.
No, I wonder if this is an algo shake up, or maybe euro files get less visibility in us time zone.
The good thing is, they will change it around again.
The variety of content selling is good, also nearly every day a file gets the first sale.
Just the volume is much lower than I would expect it for this time of year.
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Having my worst week in a long time on Adobe Stock following two strong weeks of earnings as t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶g̶o̶r̶i̶t̶h̶m̶ d̶o̶es ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶k̶e̶e̶p̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶s̶a̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶d̶e̶t̶e̶r̶m̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶r̶a̶n̶g̶e̶ ̶ customers collectively just stop buying.
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My rank went down to 3900, yesterday it picked up a bit, now at 3400.
The variety of files sold is very good, also had 4 first time sales yesterday.
Just the volume is much lower than I would expect for this time of year. I was hoping to have a rank around 2800 or higher by now.
My test searches find my files in good positions, but they are often different files. Also the files surrounding mine look different.
Looks like a larger algo mix up.
---
The adobe discord group also has several people noticing unusually low sales day
so we are not alone or imagining it
today asia and europe already gave me 23 downloads including 3 first downloads.
I hope next week will see the rise I am expecting.
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I've got a bit more downloads than usual this week. I don't sell AI, only photos. So, maybe only AI images were affected this week
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maybe that is what the algos did, a remix in favor of more normal photos
i am also taking fresh photos and videos again, so that should help with balance longterm
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Ok, yesterday I had 40 downloads and my rank recovered to 3100. I hope that next week I will start to see the start of the winter season.
For production I am focussing on spring and also started with summer. Also trying to do a lot more people from different genres. Experimenting with many different smaller niches to see what is interesting.
Inspections are quite a reasonable mix, some files get accepted really fast, then the rest might take weeks in the queue. But I think this is a good system, if at least a few files from a series make it in quickly they can start to leave footprints in the algos.
Uploading every day, trying to increase volume, but usually end up with around 80 files a week. Hope I can raise it to a reliable 100 week including video. But it is not easy, I also need a lot of time for research. Acceptance is close to 100%, downsizing ai files to around 6-8 MP has worked like a magic trick.
files 6450
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Ok, yesterday I had 40 downloads and my rank recovered to 3100. I hope that next week I will start to see the start of the winter season.
For production I am focussing on spring and also started with summer. Also trying to do a lot more people from different genres. Experimenting with many different smaller niches to see what is interesting.
Inspections are quite a reasonable mix, some files get accepted really fast, then the rest might take weeks in the queue. But I think this is a good system, if at least a few files from a series make it in quickly they can start to leave footprints in the algos.
Uploading every day, trying to increase volume, but usually end up with around 80 files a week. Hope I can raise it to a reliable 100 week including video. But it is not easy, I also need a lot of time for research. Acceptance is close to 100%, downsizing ai files to around 6-8 MP has worked like a magic trick.
files 6450
Cool. Was that 40 downloads of a single image that just caught on? Or - all together?
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all together, it is really spread out over many different genres
I have less individual bestsellers than last year, which I think is a good thing.
But some bestsellers from last year are also beginning to sell, I am curious to see how they do
I hope they stay relevant, a good bestseller can give income over more than 10 years. Actually have files from 2005 that still sell, especially on istock. Which is amazing actually.
eta
looks like this might be my best week this year
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Very disappointed...
13.10.2023 - 9.697 files (this week position) 2.890 / (life time position) 11.500
13.10.2024 - 11.817 files (this week position) 16.350 / (life time position) 10.200
And sales have also fallen continuously.
:-\
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That is indeed a very drastic drop. And you were uploading.
Has your niche been flooded with copycat files?
Or have your bestseller files many direct copies?
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That is indeed a very drastic drop. And you were uploading.
Has your niche been flooded with copycat files?
Or have your bestseller files many direct copies?
Hi Cobalt
Good question.
I'll do a little research and see what I find.
What I can say is that a few months ago I found many stolen pictures of mine. I reported those accounts and they were shut down.
I don't understand why Adobe doesn't check to see if the same image has been uploaded by someone else.
Anyway, the point is that we have to be very vigilant.
:o
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I hope your research gives you good insights.
What I have found is that sometimes my new files for a genre just replace the sales of the older files, they do not always increase sales overall.
So in my case I have for instance a lot of easter eggs with flowers. But to increase sales I might need to add easter chocolate or families and easter. Something I was not offering before.
Or maybe purple easter eggs with green dots or yellow stripes, something a little different, that will not compete with my existing content.
And then of course I expand into new genres. This year mostly into illustrations, now I am trying to do timeless people or non seasonal content.
Perhaps check if your new uploads are different enough from what you have and you are not cannibalising your own sales.
But copycats is the biggest risk.
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Very disappointed...
13.10.2023 - 9.697 files (this week position) 2.890 / (life time position) 11.500
13.10.2024 - 11.817 files (this week position) 16.350 / (life time position) 10.200
And sales have also fallen continuously.
:-\
Don't be disappointed, the number means nothing and if the story and what we believe is true, it's only counting downloads. Of course the part that makes that confusing is, two people with identical numbers have different position. It Is Not Rank. Also two people with different DL numbers have the identical position.
In other words, you already know your sales have dropped and that's why your position has dropped. Nothing else matters. More sales, you get a "better" position number. Nothing but bragging rights.
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took 3 days off to travel from friday to sunday. this monday morning when i came back and checked last week results, i saw my portfolio on my best weekly rank ever! super happy.
(screenshot from monday 9am)
edit:
last week data
$ 138,71 | DL 219
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Fantastic result, congrats!
My goal was to reach around 200 files a week by mid October. Didn't quite make it, last week was 167 downloads.
Sunday was unusual with 12 downloads.
Moved up a bit again.
pos 2920, 6470 files
By end of October I hope to reach 230-250 downloads a week. Let's see if that works. Overall I hope to again double of what I earned last year this month. However at the moment I am on track to earn around 50% more. So there needs to be quite an uptake in the next 2 weeks.
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Fantastic result, congrats!
My goal was to reach around 200 files a week by mid October. Didn't quite make it, last week was 167 downloads.
Sunday was unusual with 12 downloads.
Moved up a bit again.
pos 2920, 6470 files
By end of October I hope to reach 230-250 downloads a week. Let's see if that works. Overall I hope to again double of what I earned last year this month. However at the moment I am on track to earn around 50% more. So there needs to be quite an uptake in the next 2 weeks.
nice, cobalt!
more files, more profit!
some ppl say it is not true, but it think "hey, if i never uploaded it, i'd never sold it"
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took 3 days off to travel from friday to sunday. this monday morning when i came back and checked last week results, i saw my portfolio on my best weekly rank ever! super happy.
(screenshot from monday 9am)
edit:
last week data
$ 138,71 | DL 219
Congrats!! I'm happy when my fellow contributors are happy!!
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I don't understand what is going on...
18.850...
:-\
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I don't understand what is going on...
18.850...
:-\
The number is relative to how many downloads anyone else gets. It means that 18,849 people had more DLs than you did. Just for the absurd, if you had 100 and 18,849 have 101, that's where you are. Of course it's not that close, but still, it's downloads, not income. At least that's what we have been told. No one seems to say anything except, "my rank is..." no one says where that position number actually comes from or how?
I just dropped 2,000 places since yesterday. If I cared and watched closer, I could get 3 DLs at the start of the week, and jump up, 10,000 places.
Best to you and I hope your earnings make a comeback.
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I am getting there, already 70 downloads for the week. much better.
pos 2710, files 6500
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I seriously think something weird is going on..
:-[ :-[ :-[
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That is a normal fluctuation. To get a really stable rank you need a much larger port with very varied content and a much higher base download level.
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That is a normal fluctuation. To get a really stable rank you need a much larger port with very varied content and a much higher base download level.
Hi Cobalt,
I have never had such fluctuations.
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Really???
Did you change something in your uploads? more, less? different content? Is there suddenly new and maybe better competition?
I have always had strong fluctuations.
But I also have very seasonal content, so it can rise very, very abruptly and then crashes right back down after the holiday.
Having low fluctuations is a personal dream.
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Yesterday I had an unusually good day with 61 dl on Adobe. That is more than double my usual sales on a workday. Today I am back down to 25.
Maybe it was a "use your credits or lose them day" or something like that. Thankfully a wide variety of buyers, not one large download, so I am not scared.
It was a lot of fun.
It also pushed my rank up a lot, but it will drop again tomorrow.
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Very disappointed...
13.10.2023 - 9.697 files (this week position) 2.890 / (life time position) 11.500
13.10.2024 - 11.817 files (this week position) 16.350 / (life time position) 10.200
And sales have also fallen continuously.
:-\
Is it possible that you had several bestsellers that were featured somewhere and then taken down, to be replaced with newer content?
That’s what happened to me (I think) when I went from 800 to 7,000
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Very disappointed...
13.10.2023 - 9.697 files (this week position) 2.890 / (life time position) 11.500
13.10.2024 - 11.817 files (this week position) 16.350 / (life time position) 10.200
And sales have also fallen continuously.
:-\
sorry to see that it’s happening to you.
Is it possible that you had several bestsellers that were featured somewhere and then taken down, to be replaced with newer content?
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Yes, his case is really weird. He continued uploading so that his bestsellers got killed off seems like the only explanation.
Or maybe a lot of duplicates of his best files have been upoaded?
There must be a reason, it is not normal to see something like this.
I am perhaps lucky that I don't have that many individual bestsellers, my port seems to be diversifiying. Lots of files that sell maybe 20 times a year instead of a few files that sell 200 times.
I hope that trend continues. It would ring so much more stability to my port.
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Winter is coming, no complaints
What is very good is that I am seeing a huge variety of images selling a few times, instead of 99% nothing and a few bestsellers that carry all the weight.
I hope it stays like this. My ideal port would be maybe 20k files, with 2000 files getting 10-20 downloads a year and the rest is the add on or maybe seasonal stuff. Or they become active during a file rotation when the algos change.
My bestsellers from last winter season are starting to sell, but it is too early to see if it is less than last year.
pos 1960, files 6530
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week ended for me like this
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Very impressive, well done!
eta
looks like there has been a great algo shake up, all my test searches look very different.
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I’m sliding deeper in to nowhere.
You are right, bestsellers don’t sell as well as before, and various images get just a dribble of sales.
That scenario is not for me, since I put too much work in each image and have a small port. What I sell is ideas that do take time to develop. It’s unfortunate, I can’t do speed and numbers.
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Very sorry to read that.
I dropped a little but have a similar rank.
There seems to a big push for unsold files, yesterday 12 files had their first ever sale. And a wild mix of genres, lots of non seasonal people, food, isolated objects or people and even illustration. A few seasonal files as well.
If my portfolio becomes less reliant on bestsellers but has a much wider mix of sales, for me this would be very good.
But it must be very hard if you spend several days on just one file and that file dies abruptly during an algo rotation.
Have you considered adding some other content alongside the very high quality one?
For me objects or people on white or as a png always seem to sell. Doesn't seem to matter what it is, flowers, leaves, food, nails, people, post it notes, although a lot of material already exists, there is always a chance somebody likes your particular file.
Or maybe add more video?
There is very little competition in video, only 60 million files.
If what you are doing now is not really working, please consider a new or more diverse approach.
Adobe is a growing business, they keep adding new clients every year. So this means we have a good chance of selling for many years to come.
Can your conceptual vision be translated into videos or photos that might be quicker to produce? Or ai?
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Very disappointed...
13.10.2023 - 9.697 files (this week position) 2.890 / (life time position) 11.500
13.10.2024 - 11.817 files (this week position) 16.350 / (life time position) 10.200
And sales have also fallen continuously.
:-\
sorry to see that it’s happening to you.
Is it possible that you had several bestsellers that were featured somewhere and then taken down, to be replaced with newer content?
I have no idea what is happening ???
But I can definitely say that sales have dropped drastically. :-\
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There must be a reason. You have a very large port and you where uploading.
I wonder is your port only real photography, no ai?
Could it be that real images are being punished while ai is preferred?
Maybe even by customers who prefer to search within ai only?
Or have you considered adding a few thousands isolated objects/people?
For me these files give good stabilty because something always sells.
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Assessing the visual appeal of real/AI-generated food images.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095032932400051X (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095032932400051X)
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The article seems to compare food snapshots with ai, not high quality food photography from a specialist.
Most commercial marketing images are highly processed with photoshop, nothing is "real".
Same for people, landscape nature, real estate etc...anything commercial for advertising is basically often just as fake as ai.
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Moving up again, slight improvement to pos 1820, 6600 files
Yesterday again I had several first time sales. I hope these files now become regular sellers or t least 5 times a year.
Again a very wide style of genres selling including summer files. I have to do more for the early buyers and really upload more around 9 months before the event.
Bestsellers from last year this time also selling but in lower volume. But if the algos can distribute my sales more widely I will be grateful.
It will lower the copy cat risk drastically if I mostly have files that sell a few times a year and also maybe need 18 months to start selling. It will not be so easy to steal concepts and ideas if it is all spread out.
I hope this week is better for those that were dropping. October November are usually good months.
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Moving up again, slight improvement to pos 1820, 6600 files
nice to see you moving up, cobalt!
meanwhile i'm 'moving down', just a bit (was 1270 last week)
fun fact is: i'm in a higher rank than you, but i have less downloads than you, lol.
this only makes me thing that is true that the weekly rank in based in the last 7 days (when i was having an average 60-70 daily downloads last week, and now i'm back to 'normal' download average of 40-50 in this week)
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Moving up again, slight improvement to pos 1820, 6600 files
nice to see you moving up, cobalt!
meanwhile i'm 'moving down', just a bit (was 1270 last week)
fun fact is: i'm in a higher rank than you, but i have less downloads than you, lol.
this only makes me thing that is true that the weekly rank in based in the last 7 days (when i was having an average 60-70 daily downloads last week, and now i'm back to 'normal' download average of 40-50 in this week)
forgot to attach the screenshot in last post..
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You have a very nice rank...well done!
Let us see if I can catch up with you at some point...;)
I think you are right, we can now confirm that the weekly rank is updated once a day and is indeed calculated based on total sales volume of the last 7 days.
My week end was very low, a lot less than the week ends before. Glad to see that the workdays are fine, 40-50 downloads at the moment.
But what I enjoy most is the wide spread of sales.
My dream port would have maybe 5000 files that each sell 10 times a year, maybe 20 bestsellers that sell more and another 10k files that sell a few times a year, or pick up during an algo rotation.
Of course this means I have to keep uploading content of good quality and relevance to a large buyer group. Not easy to do.
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today was a slow day, especially in the us. about 40% less than yesterday or monday.
yes, it could be a normal fluctuation, but I guess i need to upload much more for the us market.
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today was a slow day, especially in the us. about 40% less than yesterday or monday.
yes, it could be a normal fluctuation, but I guess i need to upload much more for the us market.
things also slowed down here.. but ranking not changing much. maybe everybody is going slower?
this week download (until friday morning): 194
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similar sales here, 200 by friday afternoon
pos 2080
It has been a strange week. I have quite a few first time sales, even files that sell 3 or 5 times on their first sales day ever and then they go quiet again.
I think Adobe is doing a lot more algo rotations.
But longterm I think this is very good if more of y port gets a chance to see direct sunlight, it will bring more stability.
And again the effect on the day many people images go live I have more sales, even if the people images themselves are not yelling (yet).
People seem to be an eyeball magnet.
Hope you have a great week-end.
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are you people also filling in your earnings in the forum poll? is there any way to see how many people actually answer it? judging by the wild swings i don't think its very many people and not every month but i've been trying to remember to do it when the istock figures arrive every month.
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are you people also filling in your earnings in the forum poll? is there any way to see how many people actually answer it? judging by the wild swings i don't think its very many people and not every month but i've been trying to remember to do it when the istock figures arrive every month.
If you hover your cursor over entry (e.g. "Adobestock") it shows how many people responded and the rating number.
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I should start adding my numbers to the poll again. You are right, haven't done that in a long time.
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I just wanted to confirm a sudden drop in sales for long term high ranked contributors. In last two weeks I fell from about 150th place weekly to around 250th. Sales down from 200 a day to 140 a day.
Constant uploads, mix of real and AI. I have been at Adobe (Fotolia) since about 2008.
Very discouraging, must have been some change in algorithm.
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I just wanted to confirm a sudden drop in sales for long term high ranked contributors ...mix of real and AI
Very discouraging, must have been some change in algorithm.
Oooooooh, it's sooooo sad for AI indigestible mixture !!!!!! :'( :'( :'(
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I just wanted to confirm a sudden drop in sales for long term high ranked contributors ...mix of real and AI
Very discouraging, must have been some change in algorithm.
Oooooooh, it's sooooo sad for AI indigestible mixture !!!!!! :'( :'( :'(
AI is still only 20% of my port and these are not main sellers.
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are you people also filling in your earnings in the forum poll? is there any way to see how many people actually answer it? judging by the wild swings i don't think its very many people and not every month but i've been trying to remember to do it when the istock figures arrive every month.
If you hover your cursor over entry (e.g. "Adobestock") it shows how many people responded and the rating number.
this is all i see when i hover, not the number of votes but just the position in the graph
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are you people also filling in your earnings in the forum poll? is there any way to see how many people actually answer it? judging by the wild swings i don't think its very many people and not every month but i've been trying to remember to do it when the istock figures arrive every month.
If you hover your cursor over entry (e.g. "Adobestock") it shows how many people responded and the rating number.
this is all i see when i hover, not the number of votes but just the position in the graph
I meant hovering over the column at the right of this webpage
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are you people also filling in your earnings in the forum poll? is there any way to see how many people actually answer it? judging by the wild swings i don't think its very many people and not every month but i've been trying to remember to do it when the istock figures arrive every month.
If you hover your cursor over entry (e.g. "Adobestock") it shows how many people responded and the rating number.
ahh, sweet, thanks, i didn't notice that. i'm assuming the rating and votes represent just the current month?
this is all i see when i hover, not the number of votes but just the position in the graph
I meant hovering over the column at the right of this webpage
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I just wanted to confirm a sudden drop in sales for long term high ranked contributors. In last two weeks I fell from about 150th place weekly to around 250th. Sales down from 200 a day to 140 a day.
Constant uploads, mix of real and AI. I have been at Adobe (Fotolia) since about 2008.
Very discouraging, must have been some change in algorithm.
I hope you climb back up.
There was defintely a larger algo change, around 70% of the images I usually see in my standard searches have changed.
Also I do not always have 5 images on the front page, but sometimes just 2 or 3 and they are different file, often newer files, than those usually visible that are reliable sellers.
In some searches I am now back to 5 again but still with mostly newer images.
I don't mind algo rotations, but I prefer if they are done gently and more often to slowly move things around.
At the moment my rank is stable around 2040. I was hoping to be higher at this time of year but for 6700 files it is probably ok.
October is the first month that is 30% below my expectations for Adobe, even if it is still around 50% more than last year October.
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No words...
:-\ :-[ :( :-\
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No words...
:-\ :-[ :( :-\
funny, 6 downloads this week, 3,34 USD and position 18.400....
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No words...
:-\ :-[ :( :-\
I don't understand enough about the food market to give any suggestions.
But how are your sales on other agencies, Shutterstock, istock, pond5 for video?
Are your sales there steady or climbing this year?
Is this drop only on Adobe?
Or are you experiencing a similar drop everywhere?
If it is everywhere in a similar manner, then the clue would probably be more in the content you upload. Maybe it is not attracting enough new buyers. maybe you are missing an important trend.
But if your sales are doing well elsewhere, then I would think the issue is more related to something with Adobe algo changes.
Are ai and normal photos dropping at the same rate? Or is there a difference?
Do you have a lot of basics like objects/ meals isolated as a png or at least on white to get a good base level income?
In my port these are always very reliable sellers, often over years and at all agencies.
There must be a solution.
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No words...
:-\ :-[ :( :-\
Hmmm,
two things could be the problem, Sebastian.
Firstly, the proportion of AI images on the subject of food is increasing dramatically. For the search term ‘pizza’ alone, one third is now AI-generated. At least, because I can imagine that some providers are uploading AI images but not labelling them as such. And some of the results are really not bad.
Secondly - I hope I'm allowed to write this - from my subjective point of view, you could optimize the copy space for your images.
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Thank you so much Cobalt and Wilm.
I think I will try in the first phase to make a new base of white isolated objects.
When I started last year with AI, everything was going well. But now sales have dropped drastically.
Anyway, my sales are down on pretty much all my sites. Lately I've been concentrating more on AI.
Thanks again for your suggestions!!!
:) :) :)
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Good luck to you.
If your sales are dropping on all sites, then you know it has nothing to do with ai or ai competition. So that is a valuable information.
It is probably also nothing related to the Adobe algos, so again valuable information.
May I suggest to also add a steady stream of videos, especially video basics in food and cooking that food bloggers can easily cut into their own production?
Perhaps have a look at some very popular food bloggers and the style of clips they produce or video elements they use.
Then analyze how much of that is available on agencies and what is missing.
Like I said I don‘t specialize in food, but a large volume of basic files with dishes and ingredients and cooking stages on white should be a useful resource.
Maybe one subject sells better than others - vietnamese food or better italian or better chinese?
If the problem is not rooted in ai or adobe but in your port then it should be much easier to improve sales.
Happy shooting!
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Thank you so much Cobalt and Wilm.
I think I will try in the first phase to make a new base of white isolated objects.
When I started last year with AI, everything was going well. But now sales have dropped drastically.
Anyway, my sales are down on pretty much all my sites. Lately I've been concentrating more on AI.
Thanks again for your suggestions!!!
:) :) :)
You‘re welcome! I wish you much success and better business.
By the way, things are looking bad everywhere for me too.
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I just wanted to confirm a sudden drop in sales for long term high ranked contributors. In last two weeks I fell from about 150th place weekly to around 250th. Sales down from 200 a day to 140 a day.
Constant uploads, mix of real and AI. I have been at Adobe (Fotolia) since about 2008.
Very discouraging, must have been some change in algorithm.
Is it already confirmed that Adobe has changed the algorithm? There was perhaps some larger discussion about this on the Adobe Stock discord? Since the end of August I've been seeing declines in my weekly earnings and weekly position, and the last 2 weeks have been downright dramatic! Since September 2023, my weekly position has regularly fluctuated between 200 and 400 and my earnings have oscillated between $500 and $700, averaging $560 per week during that period.
The last 2 weeks have seen a drop to almost 800 position and earnings of only 350 and 325. I can already see this week ain't gonna be any better. I completely don't understand this, because until now I have never had such large swings, and Adobe Stock is a full-time job for me. I will mention that the daily amount of stock I upload has been constant for a long time :(
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What are the positions of your files in your test searches? And what do the surrounding files look like?
I do these searches every day, it helps to understand and actually see files moving up and down.
Many of my files have changed, but at least now I am back to having 3-5 files in a good position in a given search word combo.
But a lot of the other files have changed as well, so I think this is a larger algo change.
Maybe they are testing something.
We know they will keep changing the algos again, so you just have to wait.
But if you do daily or weekly test searches you can always see which of your files are moving up and down.
eta
I have moved up a bit. This is the position I had hoped to have two weeks ago. My winter holiday images are beginning to wake up.
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I doubt that they have made specific changes to the algo. My observations have been that their algo includes a degree of randomisation.
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The decline in sales is likely a result of a substantial increase in competition.
If the number of buyers remains relatively stable while the number of sellers increases significantly, the available market share must be distributed among more producers. This leads to lower income for each seller.
In the short term, one way to maintain the same income is to increase production compared to previous levels.
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I doubt that they have made specific changes to the algo. My observations have been that their algo includes a degree of randomisation.
Well the results for my test searches changed very abruptly, roughly 70% of the images had been replaced with others. This will affect producers if they have bestselling files that suddenly get knocked back.
Usually these changes are more subtle and ongoing.
If people are dropping abruptly how could that be the result of competition?
That does not affect sales abruptly, but it is a slow gradual progress.
Algo changes are normal. The only protection is to have a huge port with very diversified content and good quality.
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The decline in sales is likely a result of a substantial increase in competition.
If the number of buyers remains relatively stable while the number of sellers increases significantly, the available market share must be distributed among more producers. This leads to lower income for each seller.
In the short term, one way to maintain the same income is to increase production compared to previous levels.
I agree.
And AI has made the situation much worse because the AI image production capacity is superior to that of a photographer or an illustrator.
I have always tried to make high quality photography with a lot of retouching.
Today, thanks to AI tools (not generative ones, but post-production ones) I make 100 photographs per month, a few years ago 50 per month.
But an AI contributor makes 500/1000 images per month.
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The decline in sales is likely a result of a substantial increase in competition.
If the number of buyers remains relatively stable while the number of sellers increases significantly, the available market share must be distributed among more producers. This leads to lower income for each seller.
In the short term, one way to maintain the same income is to increase production compared to previous levels.
I agree.
And AI has made the situation much worse because the AI image production capacity is superior to that of a photographer or an illustrator.
I have always tried to make high quality photography with a lot of retouching.
Today, thanks to AI tools (not generative ones, but post-production ones) I make 100 photographs per month, a few years ago 50 per month.
But an AI contributor makes 500/1000 images per month.
The "ai" is not 'superior'. You still have a lot of artifacts, as well as a lot of watermarks from the stolen images it was based on...
It does however make it easier to get a massive, massive number of (primarily) east indian/southeast asian spammers...
Like... the attitude for many of them is "no work", "just click a button 1,000 times per day like a monkey", and then make $$$?
There's lot of east indian videos on "how to get rich/live the easy life/spam the crap out of sites" type of "make money online courses"...
Of course - "everyone" wants to "make $$$" - but the difference is - they (in general) don't care about ripping ppl off (even completely stealing complete portfolios on 'unlimited download sites' and simply re-uploading and trying to pass off as their own - because that is the ULTIMATE in laziness and "get-rich-quick" schemes, spamming 50,000 "apples" and different positions of "chairs", etc)...
So you are 'competing' with a lot of that...
Aside from that though, without having seen your portfolio:
a) There are market trends. Some is seasonal, some is 1-time stuff.
b) There are buyer patterns.
c) And a lot of other stuff...
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The "ai" is not 'superior'. You still have a lot of artifacts, as well as a lot of watermarks from the stolen images it was based on...
It does however make it easier to get a massive, massive number of (primarily) east indian/southeast asian spammers...
Like... the attitude for many of them is "no work", "just click a button 1,000 times per day like a monkey", and then make $$$?
There's lot of east indian videos on "how to get rich/live the easy life/spam the crap out of sites" type of "make money online courses"...
Of course - "everyone" wants to "make $$$" - but the difference is - they (in general) don't care about ripping ppl off (even completely stealing complete portfolios on 'unlimited download sites' and simply re-uploading and trying to pass off as their own - because that is the ULTIMATE in laziness and "get-rich-quick" schemes, spamming 50,000 "apples" and different positions of "chairs", etc)...
So you are 'competing' with a lot of that...
Aside from that though, without having seen your portfolio:
a) There are market trends. Some is seasonal, some is 1-time stuff.
b) There are buyer patterns.
c) And a lot of other stuff...
I agree with you, maybe I didn't explain myself well..
AI is superior in its ability to create a greater number of images, not in quality. The trees in landscape photographs are ridiculous ...
I have NEVER created an image with generative AI and I don't think that sending AI images will be my job of the future.
I am a classic photographer who works with travel, landscape, and architecture photographs. I only use AI tools to remove dust spots, signs, and people.
However, I see that these (bad) low-quality AI images are competing with mine, and many buyers (unfortunately) buy them and prefer them to mine that I made with difficulty by getting up early, traveling many miles, and challenging the climate.
Unfortunately, agencies (and Adobe in particular) don't care about all this.
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just click a button 1,000 times per day like a monkey
No, you are wrong! You should call them AI artists! ;D ;D ;D
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The ai images do have one advantage they have much better lighting, colors and image composition than the amateur mobile phone snapshots that were being mass uploaded before.
While there are artifacts, too many fingers etc.. an amateur who is willing to learn and clear that up will be able to create a much better looking port than if they were doing it with „traditional“ photography.
If you sort any search by newest the images look a lot better than if you do the same search in shutterstock and search by newest because they are bei g mass filled with the usual crappy snapshots.
However, what is missing in the ai creator world is research. All they do is copy each others prompts and each others styles.
So you keep getting even more duplicates of duplicates. But nicer looking than the amateur duplicates on Shutterstock lr istock.
If your port is dropping on Adobe, please don‘t automatically blame everything on ai competition.
Especially if your sales are also dropping on istock and Shutterstock where there are no ai uploads, then the fault is probably in your port.
Unless your bestsellers have been directly cloned, which you can easily see by looking at the similar images.
ai is a threat, yes. But it is not everything.
And plenty of people still have growth with normal phtos and videos.
But they will usually not be public about it, because with ai there is jndeed a risk if your bestsellers are copied and they make you most of the money, then yes, you have a problem.
Personally I have also decided to do a lot more ditorial, especially editorial video, because that genre cannot be touched by ai.
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If your port is dropping on Adobe, please don‘t automatically blame everything on ai competition.
Especially if your sales are also dropping on istock and Shutterstock where there are no ai uploads, then the fault is probably in your port.
I am not an amateur, but I am a professional.
So I have never had any problem with being copied, because my images have always been among the best (in my niches) and I have easily always put them at the top of searches.
Amateur images have not given me problems.
My earnings on Shutterstock are good (with SS I earn about x3 what I earn on Adobe Stock) and my images at the top of searches.
The same with Istock.
The problem is that SS and IS have lost many buyers and so instead of increasing my earnings, these remain the same.
And the buyers have all gone to Adobe Stock, where however I find competition from AI. My travel and landscape images have to fight against similar, but non-existent landscapes.
Low quality images (if viewed at full resolution), but which have extraordinary and unlikely colors and lights, which capture the eye of the buyers.
And so on AS I can't recover the earnings that SS and IS lose, but not because of my portfolio, but because companies are losing customers (see Shutterstock Q3 report with paid downloads sharply decreasing in the last year).
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And plenty of people still have growth with normal photos and videos.
In this October, with the images uploaded in 2024 on SS I had 425 downloads, on Adobe Stock 38 downloads. (from Stock Performer)
The images are almost the same (about 800 images), I have almost 100% acceptance rate.
On Adobe 160 images are missing because they are still to be reviewed.
Why this difference? My only explanation is the competition from AI images on AS.
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And plenty of people still have growth with normal photos and videos.
In this October, with the images uploaded in 2024 on SS I had 425 downloads, on Adobe Stock 38 downloads. (from Stock Performer)
The images are almost the same (about 800 images), I have almost 100% acceptance rate.
On Adobe 160 images are missing because they are still to be reviewed.
Why this difference? My only explanation is the competition from AI images on AS.
Not an argument so much, but how much did the 425 DLs on SS earn vs the 38 on Adobe. You don't have to divulge $ numbers, Just round percentages, or average RPD.
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Not an argument so much, but how much did the 425 DLs on SS earn vs the 38 on Adobe. You don't have to divulge $ numbers, Just round percentages, or average RPD.
I checked on Stock Performer, this month the sales of SS - 2024 files - had a 15% better RPD than Adobe.
On Adobe Stock I sell almost exclusively old bestsellers and very rarely earn above $1.
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Personally I have also decided to do a lot more ditorial, especially editorial video, because that genre cannot be touched by ai.
Who needs this editorial? Even if someone buys something from you today, tomorrow no one will need your editorial.
And getting permission to upload editorials to stock sites is not so easy, few event organizers give it. You also need to have accreditation.
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There is plenty of stuff like the public carnival parades, political protest for general causes that are repeated every year like peace marches, women's rights, gay pride, public wine festival, general daily life crowd scenes, flower and spring markets, winter markets, illustrative editorial of well known brands etc...
I am no editorial expert but the stuff keeps selling and I always regret that I don't do a lot more.
Also general tourist attraction like churches, popular promenades, shopping streets.
Just look at the pond5 sales thread how much editorial people keep posting.
For my city alone there are so many popular tourist attractions where there is zero content on stock sites. Even if there are probably millions of images and videos on instagram.
For one location, there are only 25 clips on SS. Half of them are not even from my city, they are just keyworded with my location which is wrong. Their building are in different countries. Of the 13 remaining clips, 9 are mine, done with an iphone, just some walk around shots on a nice day.
They don't sell daily, but a few times a year and nobody keeps adding more. Although thousands of people walk by those buildings every single day. And it is a well known landmark.
And once you dig in systematically there are huge gaping holes everywhere. There are less than 60 million clips over all agencies combined, including commercial.
So it is basically open season.
Not just for editorial, for anything actually. There is no real saturation in video, the way there is with photos.
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cobalt, I think that loading editorial is cluttering up the portfolio. Of course, someone may need it sometimes, but it is unlikely to make good money on it. Editorial is not a commercial license.
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cobalt, I think that loading editorial is cluttering up the portfolio. Of course, someone may need it sometimes, but it is unlikely to make good money on it. Editorial is not a commercial license.
Well, my limited experience is very, very positive. So I want to do more. As for cluttering up the port and the visual effect I agree.
But most of my editorial goes to blackboxglobal. I am very pleased with their results, so they will probably get 80% of my editorial.
eta
pos 1780
I have around 2600 winter season files that wake up around this time of the year, keep selling until around Jan 10, then go dormant again very abruptly. It is always a bittersweet experience.
I am trying very hard to upload content for other seasons or content independent of seasons, but it will take. few years to have a truly balanced portfolio.
I admire the people who are capable of uploading 100 a day. My average is 20, often less. If I do have a day with 35 uploads, then the next day I will upload 5 because I have no energy left.
Also trying to shift towards normal videos and normal photos to have more content from all agencies.
Winter shows me what is possible, not just on Adobe. I hope in 3-4 seasons I will understand halloween a lot better and maybe that can be a good genre for autumn. Also looking for other large seasonal festivals, maybe in asia, even if I am not yet familiar with the traditions. But I can learn that.
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If your port is dropping on Adobe, please don‘t automatically blame everything on ai competition.
I am not an amateur, but I am a professional.
So I have never had any problem with being copied, because my images have always been among the best (in my niches) and I have easily always put them at the top of searches.
Amateur images have not given me problems.
My earnings on Shutterstock are good (with SS I earn about x3 what I earn on Adobe Stock) and my images at the top of searches.
The same with Istock.
The problem is that SS and IS have lost many buyers and so instead of increasing my earnings, these remain the same.
And the buyers have all gone to Adobe Stock, where however I find competition from AI. My travel and landscape images have to fight against similar, but non-existent landscapes.
Low quality images (if viewed at full resolution), but which have extraordinary and unlikely colors and lights, which capture the eye of the buyers.
And so on AS I can't recover the earnings that SS and IS lose, but not because of my portfolio, but because companies are losing customers (see Shutterstock Q3 report with paid downloads sharply decreasing in the last year).
Hello Bauman, thank you for your interesting posts. You bring opinions with which I agree. Most people here are Pro-AI.
To the person you quoted (whose posts I ignore on this forum and I feel happy to be usually unable to read): AI images already represent one tier of total images at Adobe. OF COURSE it's unfair competition for non amateur contributors.
But amateur/snapshot contributors already had negative impact by diluting quality photos in the collection by submitting en masse.
I think Adobe's algorithm is may be reviewing the priority display of best sellers.
The problem at Adobe is that the new photos, even if they are exceptional, are not very visible and do rarely sell. This is not the case at SS and IS.
Yes, the artificial rendering of AI has the effect of attracting the eye with a programmed visual impact, without having the primary intention of reporting a true reality in a true moment. The photographer wants to extract stunning from the ordinary by his skill, AI transforms the stunning into ordinary, automatically. Maybe the eyes connected to an organic brain will get tired of it.
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just click a button 1,000 times per day like a monkey
No, you are wrong! You should call them AI artists! ;D ;D ;D
The dunces must be considered as much as the competent ones, this is our new era. ::)
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New members, make sure to click "ignore" on Discreet*uck's posts. His comments are unhelpful and do not contribute to discussions.
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My portfolio seems to be doing ok :)
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Excellent! Congrats!
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Excellent! Congrats!
Thank you!
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moving up again. this time of year is the fun part.
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Not an argument so much, but how much did the 425 DLs on SS earn vs the 38 on Adobe. You don't have to divulge $ numbers, Just round percentages, or average RPD.
I checked on Stock Performer, this month the sales of SS - 2024 files - had a 15% better RPD than Adobe.
On Adobe Stock I sell almost exclusively old bestsellers and very rarely earn above $1.
Nice! Yes, I rarely get more than a dollar on AS. And like I posted, AS is almost double SS for me. I guess we have different experiences. Someone said don't write off SS. I haven't. I still upload to them and take what I can get. I don't make video, if that matters?
Looking at the poll results, AS is double SS and SS is double IS. IS is ten times DT! I'm not going past that. :) I will say, Pond5 seems to be going up, whether that's all video or what's going on.
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Getting close to 1000 :)
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Getting close to 1000 :)
Very nice to see that things are looking up for you - I'm sure you'll reach the 1,000 mark in the coming week :-) Fingers crossed!
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thank you! at the moment it is dropping again. I have swings of 30 files + or - every day. had a day with 70 downloads, now back to around 40-50. Today is extremely slow, only 8 downloads so far.
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I just wanted to confirm a sudden drop in sales for long term high ranked contributors. In last two weeks I fell from about 150th place weekly to around 250th. Sales down from 200 a day to 140 a day.
Constant uploads, mix of real and AI. I have been at Adobe (Fotolia) since about 2008.
Very discouraging, must have been some change in algorithm.
Is it already confirmed that Adobe has changed the algorithm? There was perhaps some larger discussion about this on the Adobe Stock discord? Since the end of August I've been seeing declines in my weekly earnings and weekly position, and the last 2 weeks have been downright dramatic! Since September 2023, my weekly position has regularly fluctuated between 200 and 400 and my earnings have oscillated between $500 and $700, averaging $560 per week during that period.
The last 2 weeks have seen a drop to almost 800 position and earnings of only 350 and 325. I can already see this week ain't gonna be any better. I completely don't understand this, because until now I have never had such large swings, and Adobe Stock is a full-time job for me. I will mention that the daily amount of stock I upload has been constant for a long time :(
Ditto. It must be ann algorithm change?
If it was competition from AI, then the decline in sales was gradual, not a sudden change for several contributors in the last few months - AI is not new, it’s been around for the last 2 years with lots of contributors. (This spring I was on the best sellers list and never was beyond 4,000 now I’m drastically sliding down as well to 16,000. Last autumn was the best season for me. This time barely anything got sold)
One thing that I can guess is the algorithm favors contributors who submit a lot of content and it doesn’t have to be a quality or even a selling content. That’s why I think AI contributors get more spotlight than traditional photography or illustration.
I would be very curious to see how Adobe will deal with thousands of AI ports that upload a lot compare to contributors who upload seldom in small amounts. Maybe spamming is the future?
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Don't think that spamming is the future.
On average lightning, composition and colors of AI images is better than classic microstock images.
Before AI most of the images have been just good enough for sale. With AI lots of the images are at the level of best sellers.
There is no change in algos, it has been always like this. Images are replaced in search results with better performing images.
Spamming is just more low quality of the same.
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Don't think that spamming is the future.
On average lightning, composition and colors of AI images is better than classic microstock images.
Before AI most of the images have been just good enough for sale. With AI lots of the images are at the level of best sellers.
There is no change in algos, it has been always like this. Images are replaced in search results with better performing images.
Spamming is just more low quality of the same.
There must have been an algo change. It's not possible that for over a year I've been in the 200-400 range EVERY SINGLE week, and now just in 2 week times I got kicked into positions 700-800. Last year September and October were my all-time best months. This year October earnings were 40% lower than October year before.
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Don't think that spamming is the future.
On average lightning, composition and colors of AI images is better than classic microstock images.
Before AI most of the images have been just good enough for sale. With AI lots of the images are at the level of best sellers.
There is no change in algos, it has been always like this. Images are replaced in search results with better performing images.
Spamming is just more low quality of the same.
There must have been an algo change. It's not possible that for over a year I've been in the 200-400 range EVERY SINGLE week, and now just in 2 week times I got kicked into positions 700-800. Last year September and October were my all-time best months. This year October earnings were 40% lower than October year before.
ditto!
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Its the season for Xmas and New Years images.
These images are quite easy to copy with AI. So i think that there is much more competition because of AI nowadays.
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Don't think that spamming is the future.
On average lightning, composition and colors of AI images is better than classic microstock images.
Before AI most of the images have been just good enough for sale. With AI lots of the images are at the level of best sellers.
There is no change in algos, it has been always like this. Images are replaced in search results with better performing images.
Spamming is just more low quality of the same.
There must have been an algo change. It's not possible that for over a year I've been in the 200-400 range EVERY SINGLE week, and now just in 2 week times I got kicked into positions 700-800. Last year September and October were my all-time best months. This year October earnings were 40% lower than October year before.
Possibly some east indian or south asian spammers found your port, and just went 'click! copy. click! copy. click! copy' (because that is their "business" motto/"business" strategy, their idea of "hard work", just rip off other ppl as fast as possible and try and pass it off as their own on their quest for 'get rick quick riches'...). So you might actually now be competing with yourself... Not necessarily an 'algo' change - just a 'more of the same kind of images you made to choose from' change...
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If the change is abrupt and at the same time for several contributors with very different content then it is probably an algo change.
ai competition comes slowly and gradually.
and spammers can never effect the current season because whatever they copy for christmas now will go live in the next year.
I am steady, slightly down.
However it is a lot less than I expected.
Currently forecast to get 6% more than November last year.
But I was hoping it would double like all the other months.
However October also started depressing but ended at 97% more yoy.
What I like is that I have less bestsellers than last year, sales are spread very widely across the port.
So even if somebody copies my files, they will only get a small volume of sales and then hopefully move elsewhere.
I had one day with 70 sales. That was also the day many people images went live. But it wasn‘t people that was selling.
So, I am steady, but this is bad for me because 60% of my sales are from the winter season.
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If the decline in sales has started since August / September, it is obviously due to the AI competition with the release of the Flux model.
The quality of AI has now reached studio photo quality with very few generation errors (approx 7/8 of 10 generations have correct fingers/hands, perfect composition and lighting).
I was able to generate about 6000 high quality images within about 4 weeks, of which I upscale and upload about approx 100 a day.
The competition is only going to get tougher.
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It takes 2-3 months for content to be approved. So if it gets created in September it might be going live in these weeks. I don't think it would be fast enough to affect sales so drastically.
And the biggest problem is that the new ai people are not fully aware of what sells, they just sort by downloads then duplicate. And duplicate.
Then files need to be picked up, lightboxed, projects realised, most of my files start selling after 12-18 months. So the effect of competition is very delayed.
Is Flux better than midjourney?
I tried it on nightcafe but especially for hands I found it just as bad as midjourney and for faces I find midjourney more authentic.
Perhaps I am using it wrong, though.
eta
I do my standard test searches every day, including browsing the new content coming in. The advantage of ai is that it has better lighting, colors and composition than the amateur snapshots that we were getting before.
But it is obvious that over 90% will never sell, because no research was done for the genre and they are just duplicates of duplicates.
And I don't think this will change so quickly. Research takes a lot of time and ai cannot do it for you.
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some of my AI “photos” get approved in one day, others are sitting there for 3+ months. Probably depends on the unique of the image and demand. However, agree that it takes time for images to be picked up in search.
I wonder if Adobe introduced AI search?
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customers can search only ai or no ai or everything together.
it is one of many parameters they can choose, just like with or without people, transparency etc…
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I've also noticed a sharp change in position since october. Was usualy placed at around 1800-2300 position and now im constaantly at 3000-3300 which has been resultin in a decline of around 25-30% sales. I've been in microstock since 2017 and I've always been very interested in sales metrics, trends etc and I always try to analyze whats making my sales change. Sometimes its one image that was popular that suddenly stops selling other times is the seasonality (for example its normal that in the last few weeks of december alot of non seasonal stuff stops selling). And im pretty sure that this is an algorytmn change because the only thing im noticing is an overall reduction of 25-30% in sales with no explanation.
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If you do daily test searches, you notice algo changes immediatly, not just for your own files but also for the other files that usually surround them.
Sometimes it is just an exchange, you still have files in good positions, but they are different files. But at other times your files suddenly disappear from pages 1-3 entirely and that is when the drastic drops happen.
Only a very diversified port can give you some protection.
If you rely on individual bestsellers that is very risky.
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Just wanted to add that customer interactions of course also strongly change algos. At certain dates or seasons customer interests change, that also changes results.
At the moment I am stuck around pos 1420.
I have the exact same sales volume as last year November.
But this means that unless so,ething changes in the last two weeks, November will be the first month with no growth yoy. Every other month was 100% more.
Not good, half my sales are from the winter season.
I have a good and very diverse mix of sales, everyday files get their first sales, people images are beginning to pick up as well.
But the volume is half of what I am expecting.
In my test searches, I have good positions but with other files.
Maybe they are not as attractive in leading eyes to my port, I don‘t know.
With uploads I am focussing on spring summer. Especially with the long queue I think it is important to start much earlier.
I do get some files accepted very quickly, which helps a lot with visibility.
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Just wanted to add that customer interactions of course also strongly change algos. At certain dates or seasons customer interests change, that also changes results.
At the moment I am stuck around pos 1420.
I have the exact same sales volume as last year November.
But this means that unless so,ething changes in the last two weeks, November will be the first month with no growth yoy. Every other month was 100% more.
Not good, half my sales are from the winter season.
I have a good and very diverse mix of sales, everyday files get their first sales, people images are beginning to pick up as well.
But the volume is half of what I am expecting.
In my test searches, I have good positions but with other files.
Maybe they are not as attractive in leading eyes to my port, I don‘t know.
With uploads I am focussing on spring summer. Especially with the long queue I think it is important to start much earlier.
I do get some files accepted very quickly, which helps a lot with visibility.
It's rather strange... I believe I have more images than you (from what you've said in the past), but seem to have a lot less daily image sales at the moment... I do have the seasonal items, unique content, useful content, etc... so - not sure... But I did notice for some items that I had that did well in the past - it seems like now there are "literally" 1000+ copies/variations, etc... a bit annoying I do admit. However, hopefully my daily image sales pick up too.
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60% of my yearly sales come from files for the winter season. These files only wake up now, then go dormant in January.
A lot of my old istock bestsellers have probably left solid traces in the algos, so I might also benefit from a historic advantage that I don't have in the people or food genre.
Total port is now around 6900 files.
At the moment dropping again to pos 1580.
Bestsellers from last year are selling but less. But at least they are still selling inspite of thousands of similar files.
Overall it is a much better mix than last year, because a much bigger variety of files are getting sales.
What is missing is the volume.
At this rate it will be zero growth compared to Nov 23 or even less sales.
Which I find very scary, my increase rate would have reached a very, very abrupt hard stopp compared to all the other months this year.
Another two weeks for November, lets see what happens.
I do wonder if perhaps the fact that I am uploading more spring/summer files has a dampening effect. Perhaps I should upload only holiday files now for greater port visibility in the newest searches.
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The first two weeks of November have been quite slow for me with all my agencies. In 2023, the same period was also sluggish, but things picked up in mid-November, and I reached my best monthly earnings.
I've also noticed a significant drop in downloads on Artlist over the past two weeks. This is probably due to the U.S. elections and November 11 being a public holiday in many countries, leading to decreased buyer activity.
Today, however, I had eight good sales on Shutterstock. I'm hopeful that the next two weeks will make a significant difference!
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Ah yes, the US election...didn't think of that, good point. That might have slowed down a lot of decisions in what kind of designs to pick going forward.
Veterans day is always slow, but it usually picks up afterwards.
So here is hoping for the rest of November.
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There must have been an algo change. It's not possible that for over a year I've been in the 200-400 range EVERY SINGLE week, and now just in 2 week times I got kicked into positions 700-800. Last year September and October were my all-time best months. This year October earnings were 40% lower than October year before.
nice to know someone knows what MUST be happening ! might there possibly be other explanations?
if it's an algo change where are the folk who benefit? why do we only hear from those who think the marketplace is designed to thwart them! a drop in earnings could mean there's more competition
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actually i really encourage folk to do daily searches to see their place in a basically meaningless 'statistic' - the more time they spend there means less time creating images to compete with mine
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Well, maybe checking file positions on keyword searches is more useful to commenting in threads you don't like.
But to each his own.
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Scratching at the 3000 mark :D
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Maybe next week? Congrats!
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Maybe next week? Congrats!
Thank you! Not counting on it, but who knows :). It's already a miracle I'm able to keep last year's sale amount with almost no new uploads. Probably former SS customers switching to Adobe..
Good luck to you too next week! :)
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There must have been an algo change. It's not possible that for over a year I've been in the 200-400 range EVERY SINGLE week, and now just in 2 week times I got kicked into positions 700-800. Last year September and October were my all-time best months. This year October earnings were 40% lower than October year before.
nice to know someone knows what MUST be happening ! might there possibly be other explanations?
if it's an algo change where are the folk who benefit? why do we only hear from those who think the marketplace is designed to thwart them! a drop in earnings could mean there's more competition
I always benefit, because they like me best and favor anything I do.
actually i really encourage folk to do daily searches to see their place in a basically meaningless 'statistic' - the more time they spend there means less time creating images to compete with mine
Actually it's just for ego or watching, like watching a car wreck, won't change anything, it's still going to happen just the same..
Here's a top for the "watchers", make a database and sort it. soon you will know how many DLs = what position, within a few numbers. Let me put that another way... DL = position. The only way you will go up or down is when someone else has more or less downloads in the same time period, than they did, in the previous period.
It's all relative, and changes like the waves on an ocean, but sea level remains the same.
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the point is to see the sales before they actually happen, because you follow how certain files from a series get picked up and move up because they are being lightboxed.
also watching the surrounding files of the genre move.
this then makes production more tailored and efficient.
waiting for the sales to actually happen means you are always working with the past.
the idea of test searches is to monitor buyer behaviour and watch how trends develop long before the sales come in.
having live information of seeing your individual files being lightboxed would be better, but adobe does not give us this statistic.
it is also helpful to monitor the trends to discover what content is maybe missing and would be beneficial for this trend.
i then often get sales of both the first explorative series series and the second trend series at the same time because buyers can recognize i am offering more of the solution.
i like to work with an eye on what is coming looking forward not looking back.
by the time the sales actually happen the accumulation period of a trend is often over.
also now you have very long queues, so if i saw a trend in my christmas sales based on the sales this week i could not add more to the trend, it would arrive too late.
and the trends next year will be very different, so for optimal sales of seasonal content you have to diligently watch how trends develop and are lightboxed by customers over the year.
looking backwars is one of the reasons many people don‘t make a lot of money with seasonal images.
they are basing their production on last years sales. but seasonal content has a lot of yearly trends, if you don‘t recognize them early you can’t make money.
customers also recognize if somebody is just offering what was popular last year.
it can still sell but you will never get the same volume if the trend is over.
same for people working with food trends, fashion etc…you can have thousands of downloads if you know what is the theme of the coming season.
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if you see people complaining „i uploaded 2000 halloween files but only had 10 sales - there is no money in seasonal content it has all been done“ it is because they are looking backwards and uploading last years trend.
same for food, the people who make a full time income from food content don‘t work with last years trends or base their production off the current sales. because the current sales are the end of the accumulation period of a trend.
you need to base the production on what is coming. and researching coming trends is hard work, test searches are just a small part of daily research time. i also have a huge weekly reading list and websites and communities i keep checking.
doing research also helps against ai competition. because most of those ports are just duplicates of old trends. it is extremely rare to see an ai port with currently important content.
if you do real research you cannot upload 1000 files a day.
eta
pos 1360 files 6900
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Compared to last year I have now improved a little bit selling around 5 images more than last year per day. But still on track to around 1200 dollars which would be zero growth yoy.
The rank looks nice, but I have a lot more and much better files now.
pos 1100, 7000 files.
I do have very widely distributed sales which is good. Just the volume I expected for the season is missing. But to not be dependent on individual bestsellers is an improvement, also better protection from copy cats. Even if they copy my files they will get just 0-5 sales a year and quickly move on to a place with more regular bestsellers. But for me a long tail port is now a more healthy strategy.
I will probably also not land on the bestseller lists this way.
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Downloads up, $ up and running steady... ebb and flow as expected. Just less than 20k images... no AI. Total covering a 6 day period. Mon - Sat
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Compared to last year I have now improved a little bit selling around 5 images more than last year per day. But still on track to around 1200 dollars which would be zero growth yoy.
The rank looks nice, but I have a lot more and much better files now.
pos 1100, 7000 files.
I do have very widely distributed sales which is good. Just the volume I expected for the season is missing. But to not be dependent on individual bestsellers is an improvement, also better protection from copy cats. Even if they copy my files they will get just 0-5 sales a year and quickly move on to a place with more regular bestsellers. But for me a long tail port is now a more healthy strategy.
I will probably also not land on the bestseller lists this way.
Good work and smart thinking. I'd say one thing that you are looking at that you should be happy, not unhappy about. You don't want or need to be on the best sellers list and for the copy cats, that's where they will look for ideas.
There seems to be nothing about making that list that means anything for personally improved sales. People on Adobe and other sites have said the boost in being popular, doesn't seem to make any difference. Just like being a featured artist on some other sites. Sure, you can feel good and have some bragging rights, but it won't buy lunch.
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I like to check the top sellers list... not to see if I'm on it but to make sure I'm not. Thankfully, I manage to avoid that algorithm.
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Downloads up, $ up and running steady... ebb and flow as expected. Just less than 20k images... no AI. Total covering a 6 day period. Mon - Sat
Great! Good job!
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Fantastic work half full. Very amazing achievement as a single artist and with a smaller port than most people at that rank.
This year I uploaded my holiday images much earlier and I think this way there is little risk to get on the list. And at the moment I am doing lots of spring summer or non seasonal content.
Winter is over production wise, summer is coming fast, can you smell the flowers in the breeze…?
will post my stats later
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Downloads up, $ up and running steady... ebb and flow as expected. Just less than 20k images... no AI. Total covering a 6 day period. Mon - Sat
Nice stats!
What's your return per download in $? <1 or >1?
I would guess ~ 0.75.
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Stats from Tuesday morning
pos 1020, files 7000
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Downloads up, $ up and running steady... ebb and flow as expected. Just less than 20k images... no AI. Total covering a 6 day period. Mon - Sat
Nice stats!
What's your return per download in $? <1 or >1?
I would guess ~ 0.75.
Thanks. I average between 0.87 - 0.94. As with most things, this will swing one way or the other but annually, that's what it is.
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Downloads up, $ up and running steady... ebb and flow as expected. Just less than 20k images... no AI. Total covering a 6 day period. Mon - Sat
Nice stats!
What's your return per download in $? <1 or >1?
I would guess ~ 0.75.
Thanks. I average between 0.87 - 0.94. As with most things, this will swing one way or the other but annually, that's what it is.
Really good!
Respect!
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Made it into the inner 1k. Happy day :)
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Made it into the inner 1k. Happy day :)
Congrats!!! I was wondering if you focus mostly on Adobe Stock, is Adobe your main source of income regarding microstock?
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At the moment my attention is like 95% Adobe because I have been learning about ai for the last 18 months.
But I am slowly starting to process my normal photos and videos and also have smaller shootings planned.
I need content that can go everywhere, plus I really miss using a camera.
It might sound strange, but I think if I had spent the last 18 months doing normal photo video work I would be making more money overall. Not sure about the weekly rank, but I see a lot of opportunities in video.
eta
my rank will drop back down brutally in January...but for one month I know what it feels like in the higher levels...
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Made it into the inner 1k. Happy day :)
Wow congrats!
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Made it into the inner 1k. Happy day :)
I am really happy to see this!!
Congrats and Herzlichen Glückwunsch :-)
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Made it into the inner 1k. Happy day :)
Nice Numbers! 8)
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Cobalt,
You did a great job, congratulations! :)
Can I ask you with what platforms you generate those AI videos?
Thanks!
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In January I experimented with pika and runway, but quickly gave up on ai video.
It takes a lot of testing to get a good clip, best results come from using a starter image. Then you need to extend it to get 5 sec. Now with gen3 runway you can get 10 sec but you still need several tries.
Also my computer is simply too old. Upsizing a tiny clip with topaz video blocks my computer for over 2hours.
So for now I have given up on ai video, even though I have another 50 clips for processing.
I am back to doing normal videos with a camera.
Perhaps in two years when I update my computer I will start again with ai video.
eta
Obviously anyone doing ai video now has the first mover advantage. To focus on normal video is my personal preference.
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Slow week.
Sofar 37 Downloads (Rank 9.280). Last week I had already more than 45 Downloads with Rank over 12.000.
Last week < 3000 files, currently 3.118 files and 700 pending in review.
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I just love this time of the year
pos 856, files 7050
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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?
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This week is basically a total failure for me at AS...
It started well with 41DL on Monday, 25DL on Tuesday were still ok and from Wednesday it went downhill steeply with Wed 17 and Thu 12 DL - today on Friday I have exactly 1 DL at lunchtime - normally it's between 12 and 18 at this time of day.
Whatever AS has changed again (probably on Tuesday afternoon), for me this means that it's going down even further than it has been since March 24 - and that with constant uploads every day.
I just love this time of the year
pos 856, files 7050
I'm very pleased to read that :-) Congratulations!
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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?
the weekly rank is only based on downloads, not money.
especially the large video ports will be having a lot more money at lower ranks. or someone might get a lot of extended licenses then they would have more money than you would expect.
Next year I want to do a lot more video.
The rank is also very dynamic, in January I will be crashing down drastically.
Last December I had a similar rank and the. by May I fell down to around weekly rank 8000.
So it can swing up very fast and also drop down very fast.
@justanimage
It is thanksgiving week, basically just half a week in the US because many people take Thursday Friday off.
And we just have until 15th of December until the general vacation season starts and many smaller business close until Jan 6 or even Jan 15th.
I am enjoying every moment for as long as the fun lasts.
I really wish I could get this income all year round.
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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.
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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 :-)
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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?
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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$.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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". :)
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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.
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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.
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While there may be vastly more images made available for sale via AI, where will the demand for all those extra images come from?.....
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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.
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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.
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This will probably be the best week of the year.
And lower than last year.
pos 721, files 7100
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I'd be interested to know how many of those sales are videos Cobalt?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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pos 665, files 7100
but sadly it will probably be less this December than last
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pos 665, files 7100
but sadly it will probably be less this December than last
Nice stats! I would suppose your christmas and winter content is currently selling like hotdogs?
I'm currently at pos 6.460 with 90 sales / 80,41 $. Selling approx 95%+ only christmas content.
3.400 images.
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for 3400 files that is a very good rank
i owe my good holiday rank to my old istock bestsellers. they paved the way.
at least one advantage from the good old days.
and a visible reminder of what is possible if customers like your files. now I just need useful content for the rest of the year.
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Pos 3680 here. Only about 20% sales from Christmas related content right now (I don't have much Christmas content).
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for 3400 files that is a very good rank
i owe my good holiday rank to my old istock bestsellers. they paved the way.
at least one advantage from the good old days.
and a visible reminder of what is possible if customers like your files. now I just need useful content for the rest of the year.
Yeah, for AI content, one has to focus on quality (it should be impossible to distinguish from a real photo) and niches.
The great thing about AI is that you can really quickly generate images and fill the niches you find.
It's like you've often said in the past: people don't just look for nice images, but also usable ones.
For example, when thinking about Christmas and Santa, it should either be very modern inspired motifs or combine the theme with products and services.
Especially when you start combining themes with products or services, you can find niches.
Maybe it even makes sense to have AI create mind maps for topics, so you can identify niches more quickly. For Christmas, my approach seems to be successful.
So far this week:
Downloads: 113 Earnings: 97,65 $ Position: 4.780.
3.485 images.
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That is really an excellent result, probably much higher than what I will have when I drop back down in January.
Now, where will you be when you have 12k files?
I like the idea of combining a genre with different professions. That will give you a lot of niches.
I was looking at country specific "flavors or vibes". For instance in the US christmas is often a very colorful, loud happy party family and friends gathering.
In Germany it is a lot more subdued often very, very private close family only celebration. Even non religious people might go to church on christmas eve, the evening is more quiet with classical music, colors are matte, lots of handmade wood things, matte candles and lights. Nothing flashy, pink or plastic.
A lot of traditions, decoration elements made by grandparents hanging in your tree...etc...
Now if you want to do christmas Italian style that will look very different again, Swedish style, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Poland...Europe has a lot of regionally different christmas traditions.
And the buyer will recognize if you thought of them when you created the content.
Many yearly events, when you look at the details, are celebrated quite differently with the specific local customs.
Same for weddings, birthdays, funerals, memorials, end of school celebrations etc...there are a lot of local variations.
Of course it is best to be from the region to do it well, but with good research I might also be able to generate content for a christmas celebration for the Philippines.
When looking for niches I usually just do soup...x million files, german soup or soup germany...much less...often less than 10 000.
And then you start to see gaps everywhere and realize our job is endless and all the duplicates of duplicates don't matter.
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That is really an excellent result, probably much higher than what I will have when I drop back down in January.
Now, where will you be when you have 12k files?
I like the idea of combining a genre with different professions. That will give you a lot of niches.
I was looking at country specific "flavors or vibes". For instance in the US christmas is often a very colorful, loud happy party family and friends gathering.
In Germany it is a lot more subdued often very, very private close family only celebration. Even non religious people might go to church on christmas eve, the evening is more quiet with classical music, colors are matte, lots of handmade wood things, matte candles and lights. Nothing flashy, pink or plastic.
A lot of traditions, decoration elements made by grandparents hanging in your tree...etc...
Now if you want to do christmas Italian style that will look very different again, Swedish style, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Poland...Europe has a lot of regionally different christmas traditions.
And the buyer will recognize if you thought of them when you created the content.
Many yearly events, when you look at the details, are celebrated quite differently with the specific local customs.
Same for weddings, birthdays, funerals, memorials, end of school celebrations etc...there are a lot of local variations.
Of course it is best to be from the region to do it well, but with good research I might also be able to generate content for a christmas celebration for the Philippines.
When looking for niches I usually just do soup...x million files, german soup or soup germany...much less...often less than 10 000.
And then you start to see gaps everywhere and realize our job is endless and all the duplicates of duplicates don't matter.
Yeah, absolutely, and combining these topics with current trends like sustainability, diversity, and mental health...
The possibilities for niches are almost endless. There are more than one would suppose at first glance.
Personally, I'd rather focus on building a well-diversified portfolio with a balanced sales ratio across various topics, rather than relying on just a few strong bestsellers.
That's because if you're heavily dependent on just a few top-performing images / videos and the algorithms or rankings of these change, your entire portfolio's ranking can shift dramatically.
I believe you can reach 500 USD / week with 12k portfolio. I mean if some one here achieved over 1k / week with a 20k portfolio, it should be possible.
Now imagine what's possible if you go further and combine illustrations, vector graphics, templates, movies.
You can still make a good fulltime living with Microsrock over the next years if you work smarter and not harder.
I've started uploading images on other topics now, with the goal of diversifying my portfolio over the next year.
Sofar 124 Downloads and 107,89 $.
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You are one of the few people that are getting it.
People just look at these numbers. - 6 million new files accepted in a week...but they never actually look at what is coming in. The vast majority are just duplicates. It is the same for photos not just ai, most people just try to do a "sort by downloads" search on agencies where that is possible and then just copy the top three pages as identical as possible.
Once you really start to look for niches and gaps you realize how empty the agencies really are.
Also agree with preferring content that is mid level, not ultimate bestsellers. While it is nice to have a file that sells every day, or even 10 times a day in a specific season, I very much prefer files that sell reliable every month or every week.
If you have 12 000 files where 4000 sell 10 times a year, you will get around 30k.
Of course it is not easy to create files that will sell reliably 10 times every year, but with experience you will get there.
And like you say, very broad subject matters and files types. Especially for video I see a big future.
The future for stock is endless, you just have to open your eyes and see.
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Once you really start to look for niches and gaps you realize how empty the agencies really are.
I think there are some of us who have been saying that for about ten years. Find subjects, shots that are missing or have low counts, maybe older or not so great images, and make the best one possible, new, fresh, modern, or at least better than anything else that's on the sites.
You're right, there's room for niche subjects, and a need. The other thing that's easy is, find location specific images, locally. There never seems to be an end to the need for those, and everyone can't go there to compete. Along the same lines, if anyone can get access to something that most others cannot, that's also a good possibility.
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Nice stats! I would suppose your christmas and winter content is currently selling like hotdogs?
Is that similar to selling like hotcakes, or best thing since sliced bread? (what was the best thing, before sliced bread?) ;D Flying off the shelf, and the next big thing. LOL But here's hot dogs, and I think that's better than what I do. "50 customers per day * $8 per dog = $400 per day" 33% cost, would be 66% profit. $264 a day. I'd like to make that with Microstock? I doubt that any hot dog cart actually makes 50% but OK $200 a day? Not Bad?
Oh yes, When I say Holiday images, mine are Thanksgiving which is localized, but then Christmas and some small New Years downloads. Next is Easter and Mardi Gras. Neither of the last two are worth mention, but they are Holiday images. I've tried Valentines, St. Patrick's Day and the 4th of July. Still nothing beats Christmas.
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Already moving back down. Still it was fun.
pos 692, files 7200
eta
christmas has a high sales potential but you can still make money with other festivals. you just need a lot more and very diverse files. if you have 1000 christmas images, then you will probably need 5000 easter images to get a similar result.
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Already moving back down. Still it was fun.
pos 692, files 7200
eta
christmas has a high sales potential but you can still make money with other festivals. you just need a lot more and very diverse files. if you have 1000 christmas images, then you will probably need 5000 easter images to get a similar result.
Nice! :)
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..... I strongly bet that the Flux Model will improve further enormously, because it's licensed now by Elon Musk / X.
sure - just look how he's improved twitter!
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Already moving back down. Still it was fun.
pos 692, files 7200
eta
christmas has a high sales potential but you can still make money with other festivals. you just need a lot more and very diverse files. if you have 1000 christmas images, then you will probably need 5000 easter images to get a similar result.
That's pretty awesome. Congrats!!
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Already moving back down. Still it was fun.
pos 692, files 7200
eta
christmas has a high sales potential but you can still make money with other festivals. you just need a lot more and very diverse files. if you have 1000 christmas images, then you will probably need 5000 easter images to get a similar result.
Awesome stats!
Last week was really quite fun. Had 144 Downloads and was position 3820.
Hope this week will be the same level or higher.
..... I strongly bet that the Flux Model will improve further enormously, because it's licensed now by Elon Musk / X.
sure - just look how he's improved twitter!
Yeah, he messed up with Twitter really hard but his xAI start up is promising as their Grok-2 LLM is almost on the same level like ChatGPT4.
Today, I read in the German business magazine 'Wirtschafts Woche' about the German start-up Q.ANT, which has developed a new technology for AI processors that is 30 to 50 times more powerful and energy-efficient than NVIDIA's current flagship.
So I stick to my earlier prediction that we will be able to generate AI images and videos in real-time within 3 to max. 5 years.
That will be really fun!
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Good points, but there's a big problem with the data feeding AI—it's drying up, and worse, it's getting polluted with AI-generated content. Real, high-quality data takes decades to build, and we’re running out of fresh, untouched sources.
Sure, AI is useful, but the idea of generating real-time AI images or videos in 3-5 years feels like an overestimation. There isn’t even an AI yet that can produce high-quality 3D models with proper topology, let alone handle physics-based simulations like volcano eruptions accurately. Those still rely on real CPU-heavy mathematics, not AI magic.
The tech is moving fast, but it’s not that fast.
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Good points, but there's a big problem with the data feeding AI—it's drying up, and worse, it's getting polluted with AI-generated content. Real, high-quality data takes decades to build, and we’re running out of fresh, untouched sources.
Sure, AI is useful, but the idea of generating real-time AI images or videos in 3-5 years feels like an overestimation. There isn’t even an AI yet that can produce high-quality 3D models with proper topology, let alone handle physics-based simulations like volcano eruptions accurately. Those still rely on real CPU-heavy mathematics, not AI magic.
The tech is moving fast, but it’s not that fast.
Yes, it's true that AI image models have likely exhausted the market-leading stock agencies for model training.
However, there are still terabytes of unused image material available. Just think of photo communities like Flickr. Then there are social networks like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
There are libraries with historical photos.
You can also extract images from videos.
And there are very powerful LLMs (Large Language Models) for generating image descriptions, which are necessary for training image models.
Regarding performance, I can only refer to the Flux Fast model.
Even now, the model can generate images almost in real-time, I think 0.1 to 0.2 seconds with 4 steps.
Yes, Flux Developer or Flux Ultra takes a bit longer (on high-performance servers, around 6 to 10 seconds with 28 steps and 2K resolution).
But you can see where the development is headed. With new chip technology for AI models, you could also generate Flux Ultra with 4K resolution in under 1 second. And that's almost realtime.
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Good points, but there's a big problem with the data feeding AI—it's drying up, and worse, it's getting polluted with AI-generated content. Real, high-quality data takes decades to build, and we’re running out of fresh, untouched sources.
Sure, AI is useful, but the idea of generating real-time AI images or videos in 3-5 years feels like an overestimation. There isn’t even an AI yet that can produce high-quality 3D models with proper topology, let alone handle physics-based simulations like volcano eruptions accurately. Those still rely on real CPU-heavy mathematics, not AI magic.
The tech is moving fast, but it’s not that fast.
Yes, it's true that AI image models have likely exhausted the market-leading stock agencies for model training.
However, there are still terabytes of unused image material available. Just think of photo communities like Flickr. Then there are social networks like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
There are libraries with historical photos.
You can also extract images from videos.
And there are very powerful LLMs (Large Language Models) for generating image descriptions, which are necessary for training image models.
Regarding performance, I can only refer to the Flux Fast model.
Even now, the model can generate images almost in real-time, I think 0.1 to 0.2 seconds with 4 steps.
Yes, Flux Developer or Flux Ultra takes a bit longer (on high-performance servers, around 6 to 10 seconds with 28 steps and 2K resolution).
But you can see where the development is headed. With new chip technology for AI models, you could also generate Flux Ultra with 4K resolution in under 1 second. And that's almost realtime.
This still feels like a bubble or a vicious circle to me because:
a) While it’s true that there are still some untapped data sources, most of the high-quality, profitable data has already been mined. What remains is often lower quality, AI-contaminated, or lacks the depth needed for true advancements.
b) Even with more capable models now than a year ago, we still see fundamental issues like six-fingered hands or, in videos, unnatural zoom effects and uncontrollable movement. These flaws highlight that AI, while useful, has serious limitations.
I believe the AI craze will start to fade as people realize it can’t fully replace real mathematics or deterministic systems. GPUs, by design, are non-deterministic, which is why AI will probably never truly understand physics or consistently generate anatomically accurate results like proper hands. It’s incredibly useful in many areas, but we’re far from it living up to the current hype.
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Good points, but there's a big problem with the data feeding AI—it's drying up, and worse, it's getting polluted with AI-generated content. Real, high-quality data takes decades to build, and we’re running out of fresh, untouched sources.
Sure, AI is useful, but the idea of generating real-time AI images or videos in 3-5 years feels like an overestimation. There isn’t even an AI yet that can produce high-quality 3D models with proper topology, let alone handle physics-based simulations like volcano eruptions accurately. Those still rely on real CPU-heavy mathematics, not AI magic.
The tech is moving fast, but it’s not that fast.
Yes, it's true that AI image models have likely exhausted the market-leading stock agencies for model training.
However, there are still terabytes of unused image material available. Just think of photo communities like Flickr. Then there are social networks like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
There are libraries with historical photos.
You can also extract images from videos.
And there are very powerful LLMs (Large Language Models) for generating image descriptions, which are necessary for training image models.
Regarding performance, I can only refer to the Flux Fast model.
Even now, the model can generate images almost in real-time, I think 0.1 to 0.2 seconds with 4 steps.
Yes, Flux Developer or Flux Ultra takes a bit longer (on high-performance servers, around 6 to 10 seconds with 28 steps and 2K resolution).
But you can see where the development is headed. With new chip technology for AI models, you could also generate Flux Ultra with 4K resolution in under 1 second. And that's almost realtime.
This still feels like a bubble or a vicious circle to me because:
a) While it’s true that there are still some untapped data sources, most of the high-quality, profitable data has already been mined. What remains is often lower quality, AI-contaminated, or lacks the depth needed for true advancements.
b) Even with more capable models now than a year ago, we still see fundamental issues like six-fingered hands or, in videos, unnatural zoom effects and uncontrollable movement. These flaws highlight that AI, while useful, has serious limitations.
I believe the AI craze will start to fade as people realize it can’t fully replace real mathematics or deterministic systems. GPUs, by design, are non-deterministic, which is why AI will probably never truly understand physics or consistently generate anatomically accurate results like proper hands. It’s incredibly useful in many areas, but we’re far from it living up to the current hype.
I'm now using LLMs in my professional context to increase productivity.
It's not just about solving complex physical and mathematical problems, but also about efficiently completing everyday tasks, such as using AI as a copilot for code debugging and documentation, automating data quality checks, answering customer inquiries, and so on.
The hype is far from over.
The problem is rather that most people are not prepared for this and private individuals do not recognize the many areas of application and potential.
With the new coming chip technology, it is possible to evaluate almost any complex financial instrument in real-time on financial markets. For example, complex Fourier series can be analytically approximated in less than a second.
Autonomous driving will be a major topic in the future.
Regarding the generated errors, such as 6 fingers, I can refer to the Flux Model again.
At least 8 out of 10 generated images with complex prompts have the correct number of fingers and hand position.
Black Forest Labs will soon release a video model as well.
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"Regarding the generated errors, such as 6 fingers, I can refer to the Flux Model again.
At least 8 out of 10 generated images with complex prompts have the correct number of fingers and hand position."
I don't know where these stats come from, whether it is midjourney or flux I always have a huge amount of horrible hands.
It is not just number of fingers but very often the size of the hand is wrong, usually much too large for the person in the image. Also skintone is often wrong, there are half rings buried into flesh, hands that melt into each other or morph into clothing. Also eyes and teeth if you look closely keep having horrible problems.
I have so many people series that look nice in a small size but once you upsize and look closely they are all horror monsters.
So I have found the improvements over the last 2 years to be mostly incremental.
For stock I see a very large market for high quality content from cameras. I think our income from licensing real world images will keep going up.
The other major problem is that ai is a creative fantasy tool. It is not an accurate depiction of the real world.
Just try creating underwater coral reefs and fish...you will probably discover 20 new species...same for food, it is often wrong, but with food it is very easy to spot. With underwater fish it might not be so easy.
Forget about an accurate depiction of technology, science, medical...as soon as you need things to be correct with details, ai is basically useless.
Ai is very interesting but I think people greatly overestimate the technology. Maybe 30 years from now.
We are all still typing on keyboards instead of using holographic magic interfaces where we just use our hands.
Even speech to text never really took off.
Where is my home robot who cleans and cooks for me???
People talk about ai like it is some magic tool, but I still need to find any intelligence.
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The hype around AI tools far outstrips useful, reliable business cases at this point. C-suite is talking stuff up for investors to keep their stock price up, and even "experts" get caught out when relying on ChatGPT & similar (not forgetting the lawyer who got fined for misleading the court with invented case citations)
https://stanforddaily.com/2024/12/04/hancock-admitted-to-ai-use/ (https://stanforddaily.com/2024/12/04/hancock-admitted-to-ai-use/)
I review the recent genAI acceptances into Adobe Stock's collection and there is so much mangled, unreal junk. Beyond a personal aesthetic loathing for the plastic-fantastic people - even if they have all their fingers and in the right place - the attempts to represent objects, places, animals, people, tools, equipment, etc. are still deeply substandard. Posting examples seems a waste of time as Adobe clearly doesn't care.
I think we should have a similar terminology for the image creations gone awry:
https://undark.org/2023/04/06/chatgpt-isnt-hallucinating-its-bullshitting/ (https://undark.org/2023/04/06/chatgpt-isnt-hallucinating-its-bullshitting/)
If you can't rely on AI tools, they don't save time when you have to edit/proofread everything to be sure you don't trash your career. Unclear yet if Small Language Models will improve things?
https://www.itpro.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/small-language-models-set-for-take-off-next-year (https://www.itpro.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/small-language-models-set-for-take-off-next-year)
No clue where this will all end up, but looking with a clear eye at the current realities versus getting rapturous over potential seems the only safe/sane approach.
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Again moving down, although this week should be the best of the year.
I am trying to analyse what happened and I think a major factor is that I do not have great holiday/winter content going live every day. I have been doing a lot of spring and summer content to somehow manouver the very long inspection times.
So now I a trying to a lot of short term illustrations, because they can go live in a week, but I am not sure it wil help.
For next year I will try to keep a lot of content ready so that I hopefully have a steady stream of good files going live every day.
I still have holiday cards in the queue but they will arrive next year :(
It also means you cannot create content shortterm for the new pantone color of 2025 etc...
There is a larger license and a little video in there, so the total value is ok.
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What the heck are you talking about guys?
I see you didn't even try to use AI for daily business tasks like coding review / coding description, writing concepts, summerize und structurize pdf documents, translating texts, review of contracts, evaluation of customer feedback, etc.
When you have problems and chat with the Amazon support, do you really think there are real people even typing, when you want get a refund?
Just use google for AI use cases or better ask an AI chatbot.
The hallucinations problem will be solved with agents (ChatGPT 5) and a multiple plausibilty check of the generated answers.
By the way this week looks ok sofar:
38 Downloads, 26,39 $.
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Look at these beautiful hand gems from today, midjourney and flux. 90% are unusable and I only have to crop or cut away anything where there is a hand.
Maybe ai works great in other areas, but for generating stock images it is really far from perfect.
Thankfully, so people will keep buying stock images.
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Original Flux generation:
https://i.ibb.co/yWZ3w1r/129af1b37acd4242add16c925bc66126.jpg
AI 2x Upscale:
https://i.ibb.co/r7YFVPH/Universal-Upscaler-dc3663a9-364e-434a-978f-356af59f4967.jpg
But she has only 4 fingers and is missing a thumb ... If you look at original stock photos, you'll see that the human fingers are often even more disgusting in reality.
If I add grain in Photoshop 80% of you would assume it's a real photo.
https://i.ibb.co/mBmJr5p/Universal-Upscaler-dc3663a9-364e-434a-978f-356af59f4967-grain.jpg
So do you really think that just a normal buyer does even care if it's AI or a real photo if he's gonna use it just for a blog or Website?
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Just for you guys:
Original Flux generation:
https://i.ibb.co/D49QnW8/ff78f3532b0424a7bbea784cfd6d5938.jpg
AI 2x Upscale:
https://i.ibb.co/x85kq0x/Universal-Upscaler-cccdf741-a116-4241-9adc-6ad9b7081899.jpg
10 fingers at first generated image.
If I add grain in Photoshop 95% of you would assume it's a real photo.
https://i.ibb.co/ZGnB68v/Universal-Upscaler-cccdf741-a116-4241-9adc-6ad9b7081899-grain.jpg
\\ 43 downloads \\ 28,84 $ \\ position 3.840 sofar today.
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...If I add grain in Photoshop 80% of you would assume it's a real photo.
https://i.ibb.co/mBmJr5p/Universal-Upscaler-dc3663a9-364e-434a-978f-356af59f4967-grain.jpg
This just screams fake.
Arguably not too different from the over-airbrushed, liquify-filter, skin smoothed fashion covers that have been around for years, but now those are churned out in industrial quantities, not handsful.
The masses of getAI people images on Adobe Stock look like a clone army of slick and polished humanoids.
The main issue is the size of the market for stock images. It's not growing anything like as fast (at an educated guess) as the supply of content. And there's only a portion of the buyer population who want the shiny-happy-fakey humanoids. If what was being produced with genAI substantially increased the size of the customer group or the volume of content they're licensing this might be a game changer.
As it is, the more of the look-alike content being generated just increases competition for the buyers who do want that look.
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"So do you really think that just a normal buyer does even care if it's AI or a real photo if he's gonna use it just for a blog or Website?"
I was a buyer and I would be absolutely pissed if I zoom into my image full size and I see monster hands. Would never buy from that artist again.
I used to have "don't buy here" list for disappointing ports.
Of course I had a much larger list for good ports that had a nice quality for the content that I was looking for.
It is your business. I try to offer the quality that I want to receive myself.
eta
I disagree on the growth of the buyer market. I think especially now with ai a lot of people will realize that buying directly from Adobe and then perhaps modifying the image with photoshop, is a lot cheaper and much faster than prompting yourself.
Also more and more countries are moving up and once people use more photoshop, chances are they will also buy stock images via the adobe plan.
If Adobe keeps adding more photoshop subscribers, we will get more customers.
And I think the Ai collection is bringing in a lot of new buyers. Many obviously giving up their plans at the other places to now subscribe from Adobe.
Which probably means the other places will start taking ai at some point.
Because giving customers an ai tool, is like giving customers a camera. Yes they can prompt/take it themselves...but they don't have the time.
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...If I add grain in Photoshop 80% of you would assume it's a real photo.
https://i.ibb.co/mBmJr5p/Universal-Upscaler-dc3663a9-364e-434a-978f-356af59f4967-grain.jpg
This just screams fake.
Arguably not too different from the over-airbrushed, liquify-filter, skin smoothed fashion covers that have been around for years, but now those are churned out in industrial quantities, not handsful.
The masses of getAI people images on Adobe Stock look like a clone army of slick and polished humanoids.
The main issue is the size of the market for stock images. It's not growing anything like as fast (at an educated guess) as the supply of content. And there's only a portion of the buyer population who want the shiny-happy-fakey humanoids. If what was being produced with genAI substantially increased the size of the customer group or the volume of content they're licensing this might be a game changer.
As it is, the more of the look-alike content being generated just increases competition for the buyers who do want that look.
Sorry but you're just someone who constantly moans and never takes action to change things.
One more natural image for you without liquid makeup:
https://i.ibb.co/LSqYrhw/Universal-Upscaler-ed5ba351-712d-44d1-8e0f-e795a0726b2b-grain.jpg
"So do you really think that just a normal buyer does even care if it's AI or a real photo if he's gonna use it just for a blog or Website?"
I was a buyer and I would be absolutely pissed if I zoom into my image full size and I see monster hands. Would never buy from that artist again.
I used to have "don't buy here" list for disappointing ports.
Of course I had a much larger list for good ports that had a nice quality for the content that I was looking for.
It is your business. I try to offer the quality that I want to receive myself.
eta
I disagree on the growth of the buyer market. I think especially now with ai a lot of people will realize that buying directly from Adobe and then perhaps modifying the image with photoshop, is a lot cheaper and much faster than prompting yourself.
Also more and more countries are moving up and once people use more photoshop, chances are they will also buy stock images via the adobe plan.
If Adobe keeps adding more photoshop subscribers, we will get more customers.
And I think the Ai collection is bringing in a lot of new buyers. Many obviously giving up their plans at the other places to now subscribe from Adobe.
Which probably means the other places will start taking ai at some point.
Because giving customers an ai tool, is like giving customers a camera. Yes they can prompt/take it themselves...but they don't have the time.
Exactly my words. The market will grow because the quality will rise in the next years and most of the buyers are just lazy to prompt or have no clue what they really want until they see what they like.
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Customers are not „lazy“. They have urgent design projects and are often stressed and overworked..
Besides if you want to take money from other people, it is helpful to have a respectful attitude to customers. You might never meet them, but there is a real human on the other side of this trade.
And Jo Ann is one of the most respected voices in our community, we are grateful to have her.
The industry is in a very critical stage and it is much harder to earn money than a few years ago.
Many people think I am crazy that I want to get back to a full time stock income.
Which is why I keep sharing results.
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Well, the problem is that in the near future you dont need to create your powerpoint presenation anymore or your Blog posting. It will be done by an Agent. The Agent will create the graphics, style... There wont be that big need for being able to prompt a nice picture. Give it 1-2 more years and dont look just for ChatGPT, there are much better tools for this, like Writesonic. And do companies really need so many presenations anymore in the future? My guess is that many meetings will be replaced by data driven AI decisions. But lets get back to the topic :)
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What the heck are you talking about guys?
I see you didn't even try to use AI for daily business tasks like coding review / coding description, writing concepts, summerize und structurize pdf documents, translating texts, review of contracts, evaluation of customer feedback, etc.
When you have problems and chat with the Amazon support, do you really think there are real people even typing, when you want get a refund?
Just use google for AI use cases or better ask an AI chatbot.
The hallucinations problem will be solved with agents (ChatGPT 5) and a multiple plausibilty check of the generated answers.
By the way this week looks ok sofar:
38 Downloads, 26,39 $.
yes, same here - i use ChatGPT for 1st drafts for my blog for travel & historical posts, for code segments, suggesting blog titles, write image collection descriptions and item descriptions for etsy, ebay& amazon. i use visual mind to produce 100s of excellent titles, captions & tags for images in minutes it otherwise takes me about an hour to do 50-100
all these examples need minimal no editing
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Original Flux generation:
https://i.ibb.co/yWZ3w1r/129af1b37acd4242add16c925bc66126.jpg
AI 2x Upscale:
https://i.ibb.co/r7YFVPH/Universal-Upscaler-dc3663a9-364e-434a-978f-356af59f4967.jpg
But she has only 4 fingers and is missing a thumb ... If you look at original stock photos, you'll see that the human fingers are often even more disgusting in reality.
If I add grain in Photoshop 80% of you would assume it's a real photo.
https://i.ibb.co/mBmJr5p/Universal-Upscaler-dc3663a9-364e-434a-978f-356af59f4967-grain.jpg
So do you really think that just a normal buyer does even care if it's AI or a real photo if he's gonna use it just for a blog or Website?
What is the 'flux' model? Is that an online service, or something you download & generate from your computer?
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flux is an ai from blackforestlabs
https://blackforestlabs.ai/ultra-home/#get-flux
it is supposed to give results similar to midjourney, but i tried it a lot and especially for people or anything photorealistic, I personally disagree.
But it allows private prompting and can be used on many different platforms.
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Crashed hard today with just 5 Downloads.
Monday and yesterday I had together 88 Downloads and was position 2.820.
Hope this will turn around in the evening and the remaining week.
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Original Flux generation:
https://i.ibb.co/yWZ3w1r/129af1b37acd4242add16c925bc66126.jpg
AI 2x Upscale:
https://i.ibb.co/r7YFVPH/Universal-Upscaler-dc3663a9-364e-434a-978f-356af59f4967.jpg
But she has only 4 fingers and is missing a thumb ... If you look at original stock photos, you'll see that the human fingers are often even more disgusting in reality.
If I add grain in Photoshop 80% of you would assume it's a real photo.
https://i.ibb.co/mBmJr5p/Universal-Upscaler-dc3663a9-364e-434a-978f-356af59f4967-grain.jpg
So do you really think that just a normal buyer does even care if it's AI or a real photo if he's gonna use it just for a blog or Website?
What is the 'flux' model? Is that an online service, or something you download & generate from your computer?
It's an open source AI generation model like Stable Diffusion.
You can run it local on your computer but you need very powerful hardware.
But you can also run it on a server, which you can rent for about 1 USD / hour. But it takes time to set it up.
You can also use an already final API, which costs about 1 to 2 cent per image generarion (approx 10 seconds generarion time).
Just use google for further information.
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the problem with Midjourney is that it costs too much at 67.91 euros including VAT for a pro plan.
30hr/month fast GPU but due to the excessive quantity of errors that the AI generates,these hours of fast GPU end immediately,and this also seems to me like an attempt to consume fast GPU time,since occasionally symbols are also generated on main subjects in order to make you use the editor and consume more GPU time and therefore buy more time at 4usd/hr.
I think that due to the numerous generation errors,it would be more fair to give at least 100 hours of fast GPU for pro plan and 250 hours for the mega plan.
I haven't tried flux yet but it's on the list.
bad week so far,but I should still close December with more sales than last year,it will probably only be a few more.
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the problem with Midjourney is that it costs too much at 67.91 euros including VAT for a pro plan.
30hr/month fast GPU but due to the excessive quantity of errors that the AI generates,these hours of fast GPU end immediately,and this also seems to me like an attempt to consume fast GPU time,since occasionally symbols are also generated on main subjects in order to make you use the editor and consume more GPU time and therefore buy more time at 4usd/hr.
I think that due to the numerous generation errors,it would be more fair to give at least 100 hours of fast GPU for pro plan and 250 hours for the mega plan.
I haven't tried flux yet but it's on the list.
bad week so far,but I should still close December with more sales than last year,it will probably only be a few more.
Yeah midjourney is way too expensive.
I mean 8 to 10 USD / month with unlimited slow generation time would be o.k.
With Flux I can generate for 10 USD about 1000 images of which about 80% are usable without errors or very minor things that can be fixed in 10 to 20 seconds.
There are also some providers with unlimited flux generations for about 10 USD / month but the generation time is higher with up to 40 seconds / image.
Hope this week will pick up again.
/////////
Downloads are very slowly picking up.
Currently 8 downloads today.
Probably I *removed coarse language* up my portfolio ranking because of submitting too many christmas images with too little variarions and now beeing marked as spammer.
So I will try to diversify quickly my portfolio and submit less similar topics.
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I think the prices for ai production will go down a lot in the next few years. There will be more and more people signing up, so the companies will literally make it up in volume.
I also think cloud upsizing will come at an affordable rate, especially for ai video.
Had a little surprise, moved up a little bit :)
But December 24 will probably be 25-30% less than December 23 :(
Unless I get lucky and my spring files start to sell end of the month to balance it.
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I think the prices for ai production will go down a lot in the next few years. There will be more and more people signing up, so the companies will literally make it up in volume.
I also think cloud upsizing will come at an affordable rate, especially for ai video.
Had a little surprise, moved up a little bit :)
But December 24 will probably be 25-30% less than December 23 :(
Unless I get lucky and my spring files start to sell end of the month to balance it.
Brutal, if you consider that you probably added some thousands new images.
So, you have to very wisely look up for into niches and fill them quickly so that you diversify your portfolio. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense.
Today was a weak day with 27 downloads. This week, I have sofar a total of 114 downloads. I will for sure drop down tomorrow from position 2,820 to 3xxx or even 4xxx.
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last year i was on the bestseller list end of november, that gave me a strong push and increased sales, at least 30% more.
and this year i had 60% spring summer going live instead of winter because of the long queue.
I think if I am more careful next year, I will be fine.
This year I also have less individual bestsellers, insted a much wider variety of sales. Mostly just 1-5 times, but this gives me better copycat protection.
So, yes I am disappointed, but I think it is mostly my own fault.
My bestsellers from last year are still selling, but now more like several times a week instead of several times a day.
But they still sell, which is good. Often bestsellers die after one season.
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last year i was on the bestseller list end of november, that gave me a strong push and increased sales, at least 30% more.
and this year i had 60% spring summer going live instead of winter because of the long queue.
I think if I am more careful next year, I will be fine.
This year I also have less individual bestsellers, insted a much wider variety of sales. Mostly just 1-5 times, but this gives me better copycat protection.
So, yes I am disappointed, but I think it is mostly my own fault.
My bestsellers from last year are still selling, but now more like several times a week instead of several times a day.
But they still sell, which is good. Often bestsellers die after one season.
The question I'm asking myself now is:
How exactly do new images affect the portfolio ranking and image ranking in the search algorithm?
Specifically, I want to know if it's possible that my own new images on the same topic are competing with my own bestsellers, and if I'm harming myself.
It's probably better to only upload 1 or 2 variants of an image, rather than 4 or 5.
I have the impression that my 500 newly reviewed images are suddenly slowing down sales. Previously, I had bestsellers that sold 10 times a day, but now they're not selling at all. Instead, the new images are selling less often 1-2 times.
It seems that there's an algorithm shift in the search results. And I'm wondering if I'm to blame for it myself.
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Algos shift all the time. The only way to deal with that is to diversify.
And you always have other people uploading similar files. Now with ai they might be near identical.
Files uploaded or being approved at the same time as yours are your main competition. That includes your own files.
You want the customers to ideally pick and push their favorite file up in the algos by buying it or at least viewing and lightboxing.
But if you upload 30 similar files from a series, this becomes very difficult.
So one easy thing you can do is to spread the uploads a lot more. Weekly batches of that theme or maybe even monthly.
The other thing I personally do is I do test searches every day on my favorite genres. Not just to see what is coming in but also when do people upload this type of content? And can I avoid clashing with them by uploading at a different time??
It all takes a lot of practise and is hard work, just like general research.
But it is the only way to rise up in the algos with a small portfolio.
Most important: don't just do ai. And don't just upload to Adobe.
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Algos shift all the time. The only way to deal with that is to diversify.
And you always have other people uploading similar files. Now with ai they might be near identical.
Files uploaded or being approved at the same time as yours are your main competition. That includes your own files.
You want the customers to ideally pick and push their favorite file up in the algos by buying it or at least viewing and lightboxing.
But if you upload 30 similar files from a series, this becomes very difficult.
So one easy thing you can do is to spread the uploads a lot more. Weekly batches of that theme or maybe even monthly.
The other thing I personally do is I do test searches every day on my favorite genres. Not just to see what is coming in but also when do people upload this type of content? And can I avoid clashing with them by uploading at a different time??
It all takes a lot of practise and is hard work, just like general research.
But it is the only way to rise up in the algos with a small portfolio.
Most important: don't just do ai. And don't just upload to Adobe.
Yes, that makes absolute sense.
The algorithm probably also considers the date and favors current images when quality and theme are equal. Timing is everything. If you miss the window of buyer interest, your images risk getting lost in infinity.
I'll do a test later to see what happens when I delete some of my images that are ranked lower in the search results, whether my better-positioned images will get a boost.
One should take a portfolio like this as an example:
https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/202483008/Romolo%20Tavani
Only 3,000 images and over 1 million downloads within 10 years (?).
However, copying his images wouldn't work, as he's built his rankings over a decade. If he would expand his portfolio now, it might probably harm his rankings in the algorithms.
This would also explain how some small contributors can get better results than big huge teams with many hundred thousands of images.
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Romolo is a legend in the holiday images. He might have the most successful portfolio ever for this type of content.
Nothing is ai, everything real images and photoshop. (I think)
But I don't believe anyone can ever catch up to him, because his algo ranking is impossible to match these days.
However it is a great example of how only choosing the superbest content works.
eta
I would be very careful about deleting files. Agencies don't like that and customers who have lightboxed these files for a future project like it it even less.
It takes time for files to sell, I have many files that only started selling a few years after uploading.
Better to just improve your uploads.
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Romolo is a legend in the holiday images. He might have the most successful portfolio ever for this type of content.
Nothing is ai, everything real images and photoshop. (I think)
But I don't believe anyone can ever catch up to him, because his algo ranking is impossible to match these days.
However it is a great example of how only choosing the superbest content works.
eta
I would be very careful about deleting files. Agencies don't like that and customers who have lightboxed these files for a future project like it it even less.
It takes time for files to sell, I have many files that only started selling a few years after uploading.
Better to just improve your uploads.
Jeah, he is really a beast. He literally sold every image at least once in his portfolio.
Also very broad diversified. The algo ranking must be crazy.
With AI choosing the superbest one is quite difficult because you can generate an infinite amount and you will always get a slighty better one.
And then the difference is so small that you can't choose and start spamming.
I bet that Adobe punishes the rankings of spammers.
So the interesting part is how Adobe decides which one is better, because when the images are reviewed you see them on various ranking positions in the search results even they have the same upload date and keywords.
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algo rankings come from customer interactions
there is no way for a reviewer to evaluate that
the algo software might apply a base rank based on past experiences but is the customers that will make the big push.
it is all about them.
eta
just wanted to add that i also have a lot of new holiday content that did not sell at all. And it is content that did not exist like this before.
But the customers didn‘t take to it, they preferred files from a similar theme that is completely overrun with endless duplicates.
I thought they would appreciate the difference, but it didn‘t work.
Perhaps it will be popular in some other season.
eta2
little happy dance
a little bump up :)
7200 files
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yes Cobalt,in fact,I have content that came out of last year's free collection,and I have sold it many times lately,much more than other content that in my opinion deserves much more,why?
Because the content that came out of the free collection obtained many more interactions than other contents which,despite deserving more,had no interactions.
I'm glad it's going well for you,you've worked hard and you deserve it,but for me it's a terrible week,perhaps the most terrible of the year....terrible..terrible..is just terrible! :D
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We can only learn from what we do. 2 years from now we will have a much better understanding of what is happening.
It is very interesting that files coming out of the free collection get good sales. They have probably been lightboxed like crazy.
Inspite of going up the month is still on track to be a loss compared to last year.
But I am uploading as much as I can, maybe I get lucky.
Overall the year is better than last year, but I also have a lot more files.
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I would be very careful about deleting files. Agencies don't like that and customers who have lightboxed these files for a future project like it it even less.
What do people do after they reach 100 pages? Do they delete old images to upload new ones ?
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art and photography is not AI’s future, AI is already devalued visuals. It’s done. Just 2 years ago this forum was filled with people who believed that customers will boycott AI yet best sellers are filled with AI now. Using professional cameras and paints will be as foreign to next generation as riding horse carriages. There will be no point, only few wealthy will spend their money on that.
( what % of traditional artists can draw/paint correct fingers? Probably same amount as AI prompters who can generate correct hands and natural people. Yet, it can be done now )
AI future is warfare , transportation, and healthcare
Particularly macro bots that will be available in next 5 years to be injected in to your bloodstream to monitor personalized for your needs health issues to prevent problems. Life saving and even delayed aging will be possible with AI macro bots. (For those who don’t want to use AI in your healthcare, don’t do Invisiline or crowns, since scan is done with AI for several years already, etc.)
Smart AI macro bots will be able to boost your IQ up to 100 times and you can finish 12 grades or PHD in a year or less, learn a new language in a day, etc.. Unfortunately, macro bots will further increase the difference of income, since not everyone will be able to afford them. So it’ll be wealthy people who will make a lot of money with their careers when macro bots will come out.
People use to cling to old technology like rotary phones, and said they didn’t need a mobile or smartphone, yet who is using pagers now?
PS: I can draw perfect classical hands and teach you to do that, in case AI will fail 😉 if China and Russsia will stop exporting the rare minerals that needed for AI chip production or US will not reopen nuclear power plants that are needed for massive AI computing.
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People will always want capture real events and people with cameras.
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People will always want capture real events and people with cameras.
That quote has different meaning depending what year it’s applied to: 1920, 1970, 2000, 2024, or 2030? Photography, is much younger than traditional art, yet evolved quite a bit, especially with better smartphones. AI will evolve it even more and we will have phones that will achieve the same quality as professional photographers currently do with very expensive cameras. We just need a fast affordable phone chip and AI technology for upscaling that photo right on the phone. Plus all in one editing phone apps that will allow professional quality photo edits. I bet Adobe is working on one now.
Anyone will be able to take, edit and post professional quality photos in a few years. The question will be only composition and new ideas.
Video Killed the Radio Star
AI killed photography and art
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I think you have been watching too many science fiction movies. And are probably also not working with ai to create anything.
I use image ai every single day and 90 % is still not usable, unless you rework in photoshop and edit many details.
Most importantly there is absolutely no intelligence in ai.
It is fantasy pixel mixing machine and needs human input every step of the way.
It cannot draw hands correctly because it has absolute zero understanding what a hand is or how it works.
It keeps creating weird hybrid animals, plants, strange furniture with too many legs because even the slightest understanding for the real world is completely missing. It does not know what a chair is, what a flower is, what an animal is, what a piece of cheese is.
Technology evolves much more slowly than people keep assuming.
It is 2024 and we are still typing on keyboards, using a mouse or trackpen.
We are not magically moving 3d holograms or using our minds directly to beam texts into our computers.
I grew up in a small town that had the first ever museum for holographic art in the 1980s.
We all thought that this would be the future of photography and obviously by now all photo art would be holographic.
Really, the best way to stop being terrified of ai is to simply use it.
It is not a magic machine stealing your soul.
It is a very imperfect and time intensive tool that has improved very little in the last two years.
It is also not „self learning“, it constantly needs „dataset training“ and human software changes to improve.
Self learning and recognizing mistakes is the basis of actual intelligence.
The pixel mixer does not have that.
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@Mifornia I believe the 100 page limit you say is simply the maximum limit that can be displayed when viewing your port,not the maximum limit of files you can have on an account.
If I remember correctly,the maximum content limit for an account is one million,but only the first 100 pages are always displayed,the top 100 pages of best-selling content and new content.
creating AI content that sells is at least as difficult as creating real content that sells.
in my opinion AI is just starting both in the creative sector and in any other use.
In reality we are still at the beginning of everything regarding technology in general,and also regarding everything else including common sense! :D
think that the first real application of an incandescent light bulb dates back to about 150 years ago,that is,just yesterday!
in my opinion,we are still prehistoric beings who do not know they are,and we actually think we are evolved.
we just need to look at everything that is happening in the world to make us realize how much we still haven't understood anything and we still have to learn how to behave.
AI image/video generators are nothing more than tools,there will always be space and need for real content,they are different subjects that can serve in different ways.
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People will always want capture real events and people with cameras.
I wouldn't sign this statement because it doesn't match my own empirical observations.
Currently, over 90% of my AI generated that sell are motifs that clearly don't show to a real setting, but are obviously fictional. However, they are creative and have a clear visual message.
I can imagine the context for which customers need these images. For these purposes, real photo shoots would be simply too expensive and therefore not profitable.
By the way, I'm experiencing the same problem today as middle of the week, when after reviewing 100 new images, my sales have dropped significantly. And it were different motifs, so It could not be seen as spamming.
I believe that the ranking of single images is also related to the size of the portfolio and its profitability.
I'll see if my sales increase again when I delete old, unsold images and reduce the size of my portfolio, so that the algos would see my portfolio more profitable again.
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Interesting, found this question Adobe's community:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/stock-contributors-discussions/adobe-stock-algorithms/m-p/14485107
Seems that some have the same idea like about the ranking system.
This is how I would do it:
Everybody gets a rank. The rank is your multiplier. The rank is based on your recent number of sales and the recent number of accepted assets.
Every asset gets a rank based on your rank and the number of (recent) sales and the age of the asset, and perhaps the favourite saves.
Exactly how I would implement the algorithm. I would always want to show the most profitable contributors first because they are the making $$$ horses and want to be motivated.
But the profitability of a portfolio can only be calculated based on sales and number of current accepted images.
So if your portfolio increases in size but not in sales your rank will drop and aswell the sales.
That would explain why small contributors can be so successfull and why most of us see a drop in sales although our portfolio is increasing in size.
So you can only beat the system if your portfolio is extremly good diversified in sales across the content.
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I wasn't speaking directly about stock. I meant photography in general.
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@Mifornia I believe the 100 page limit you say is simply the maximum limit that can be displayed when viewing your port,not the maximum limit of files you can have on an account.
If I remember correctly,the maximum content limit for an account is one million,but only the first 100 pages are always displayed,the top 100 pages of best-selling content and new content.
creating AI content that sells is at least as difficult as creating real content that sells.
in my opinion AI is just starting both in the creative sector and in any other use.
In reality we are still at the beginning of everything regarding technology in general,and also regarding everything else including common sense! :D
think that the first real application of an incandescent light bulb dates back to about 150 years ago,that is,just yesterday!
in my opinion,we are still prehistoric beings who do not know they are,and we actually think we are evolved.
we just need to look at everything that is happening in the world to make us realize how much we still haven't understood anything and we still have to learn how to behave.
AI image/video generators are nothing more than tools,there will always be space and need for real content,they are different subjects that can serve in different ways.
Thank you for your explanation
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I think you have been watching too many science fiction movies. And are probably also not working with ai to create anything.
I use image ai every single day and 90 % is still not usable, unless you rework in photoshop and edit many details.
Most importantly there is absolutely no intelligence in ai.
It is fantasy pixel mixing machine and needs human input every step of the way.
It cannot draw hands correctly because it has absolute zero understanding what a hand is or how it works.
It keeps creating weird hybrid animals, plants, strange furniture with too many legs because even the slightest understanding for the real world is completely missing. It does not know what a chair is, what a flower is, what an animal is, what a piece of cheese is.
Technology evolves much more slowly than people keep assuming.
It is 2024 and we are still typing on keyboards, using a mouse or trackpen.
We are not magically moving 3d holograms or using our minds directly to beam texts into our computers.
I grew up in a small town that had the first ever museum for holographic art in the 1980s.
We all thought that this would be the future of photography and obviously by now all photo art would be holographic.
Really, the best way to stop being terrified of ai is to simply use it.
It is not a magic machine stealing your soul.
It is a very imperfect and time intensive tool that has improved very little in the last two years.
It is also not „self learning“, it constantly needs „dataset training“ and human software changes to improve.
Self learning and recognizing mistakes is the basis of actual intelligence.
The pixel mixer does not have that.
I’ve just finished listening to a couple of presentations by leading AI visionaries and AI engineers in Silicon Valley. We live in very interesting time and disruption that AI will bring in the next 5 years will be mind blowing, so it’s understandable that you are skeptical. Let’s follow the money, since people don’t invest because of science fiction, but for return on their investment.
Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities said “Now we are seeing a $1 trillion of AI Capex over the next three years as OpenAI has been the linchpin to AI success and adoption we are seeing at Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and across the tech world,”
$6.6 billion was raised in the first funding round of a privately held AI startup called Open AI (ChatGpt) It’s the largest venture capital deal of all time, which values the company at $157 billion. It makes OpenAI among the highest-valued private companies in the world. OpenAI now is worth more than 87% of the S&P 500 companies. (Let it sync in) Company is operating in 2024 on losses of $5 billion, but it targets $11.6 billion in annual revenue in 2025.
You are referring to one of the AI models that generates photos and art for you. I hope you don’t think that companies are investing billions of dollars in AI because it can generate photos, Art, or write a book? Customer support, efficiency, transportation, finance, Healthcare and military technology are the focus. The primarily plan to monetize AI technology through a subscription model, however Open AI company already shifted away from the not for profit approach and signed a military contract with the government. The company says it will partner with the defense-tech company Anduril, a maker of AI-powered drones, radar systems, and missiles, to help US and allied forces defend against drone attacks. Venture capital firms more than doubled their investment in defense tech in 2021, to $40 billion, after firms like Anduril and Palantir proved that with some persuasion (and litigation), the Pentagon would pay handsomely for new technologies after White House issued its National Security Memorandum on AI, which ordered the Pentagon and other agencies to ramp up their use of AI, in part to the competition from China.
In healthcare it already been proven that convolution neural network (CNN) DL algorithms can extract features, followed by the training and testing of an ML-based classifier to produce a superior classification [39,40]. Recently, CVD risk and coronary artery calcium scores have been predicted using retinal images [41,42]. Predictions of diabetic retinopathy (DR) have been made using ML and DL-based systems [43,44,45,46]. Therefore, AI-based systems make it possible to examine the risk of stroke and CVD diseases and the need for human intervention [47]. The use of AI-based algorithms in specific carotid ultrasonography applications has shown promise [48,49]. Therefore, these AI-based models may be used in patient risk evaluation to jointly treat diabetic retinopathy (DR) and CVD illnesses [50].
It’s important to understand that currently there is no central AI that fiction writers predicted. Instead there are many AI models that are focused on different tasks. (The image generating AI model that you use is not the same model that US government will use for drones or Stanford healthcare is using for diagnostics)
In 2025 companies will develop even smaller more task targeted AI models (SLMs) to make AI cheaper to run and seemingly reduce dependencies on OpenAI. In 2025 development will be SLMs bots talking to SLMs bots about AI tools and how they can help improve operational efficiency. Think of them like different apps on your phone for different tasks with different customer ratings and satisfaction. General public wouldn’t even notice that they are AI bots.
The information is out there, it’s groundbreaking and mind blowing and some may not be ready to believe it, but it’s still happening . (Blockbuster also didn’t believe that they would be out of business and just didn’t adjust fast enough to keep up with new technology )
PS: A friendly joke: I think you are —c 1 —s 1 —iw 3 —sref current and I’m—c 100 —s 1000 —iw 0 —sref future ;)
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Business and tech investment go through cycles. I am an old person, over 50..I remember so many "groundbreaking" tech promised that never came to to pass the way they were announced.
Billions are indeed invested purely on hype. Whether it actually works in the end...does not matter, by then wall street will have a new magic carpet subject they announce and promote to take your money.
Remember how blockchain technology would change the world? Superconductiviy was all the rage when I was at university doing chemistry. Or fusion energy, which will indeed change everything one day but how many centuries until it is ready...etc...
Ai is a tool, the way computers are tools.
It is not magic and the development of serious technology takes decades.
The thing missing is "intelligence" in so called artificial intelligence. It is the reason why you cannot trust ai to write or develop scienctifically accurate articles.
It does not understand what it is writing about. It is a fantasy text mixing machine, the same way it is a fantasy pixel mixing machine.
The most essential issue - intelligence, is simply not there.
Visual ai is a great way to test how the overall developmental stage of ai is.
And absolutely nothing about ai is impressive if you use the tool every day.
If ai cannot understand that a hand has 5 fingers, not 6, 3 or 8 after several years of development, it is certainly is not capable to be relied on for critical military tasks or healthcare.
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There is no one central AI machine that you are referring to that is “fantasy text mixing machine or fantasy pixel mixing machine”
There are many AI models that are developed by different companies, that are focused on different tasks, have different performance capabilities and intelligence. You are judging a whole AI from experience from only one platform (visuals)
The image generating AI model that you use is not the same model that US government will use for drones or Stanford healthcare is using for diagnostics. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9777836/
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The base mathematics/software models for the concept of ai is the same.
Different industries then adapt the underlying idea.
And visual ai improvement is a very good benchmark to use. Same as chat/text models that are supposed to create summaries or even do an analysis while drawing on all scientific articles available from the internet or scientific databases.
Both visuals and text can be easily checked by any normal human. Because we actually have an intelligent, self learning smart brain.
If after several years of development something simple like a hand with 5 fingers does not work reliably inspite of some of the largest software companies in the world throwing billions of dollars at it…the development time for real industry changing results is many, many years out.
There is currently just one really interesting hype technology going mainstream and it is not ai.
It is the technology used by Biontec to help develop personalized cancer medicine. This technology has advanced a lot and was base field tested by covid.
We might actually see a huge improvement in cancer treatment, perhaps already in 5 years.
Same for many other difficult illnesses.
But the technology behind it has been in development for over 30 years. I remember learning about it in the 1980/s early nineties.
Billions of dollars invested, probably several hundred thousands scientists working globally on the treatments.
There are so many details to explore and evaluate and then to retry with new experiments.
Nothing about this is automatic.
And for the stock industry I see none of the horror scenarious happening, because using ai is a tool like using a camera.
Our customers could also take their own pictures, actually many do, but usually they buy from agencies because they have no time.
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AI future is warfare , transportation, and healthcare
Particularly macro bots that will be available in next 5 years to be injected in to your bloodstream to monitor personalized for your needs health issues to prevent problems. Life saving and even delayed aging will be possible with AI macro bots. (For those who don’t want to use AI in your healthcare, don’t do Invisiline or crowns, since scan is done with AI for several years already, etc.)
What do you think the convid shots were for? People (in general) needed to manipulated somehow to being injected with a poison for a non-existant 'virus' (ppl got 'sick' from the masks/PPE/ramming a stick up their nose to touch their brain, not an imaginary 'virus' that could count the # of ppl at a table and knew if you were sitting or standing up in a restaurant)... the funny thing is - it wasn't really designed to "prevent" health issues, but rather to "control" them, track them, manipulate them... the "anti-aging" stuff is "not" for your benefit (unless you are a good 'worker' slave, and "they" want you to "live longer" so you can be a slave longer/working longer - people aren't supposed to have to "work". it is a construct.). (read up on things like microsoft patent 2020-060606, more recently, or look into companies like profusa with their 'bionsensors", etc). If you got a shot, you already HAVE had stuff injected into your bloodstream. "Side effects" (which are actually deliberate "effects" of the shots) appear simply be because some bodies of people can't, or won't, adapt/accept the tech/biological wires/etc that were injected into them. It was, still is, poison.
Smart AI macro bots will be able to boost your IQ up to 100 times and you can finish 12 grades or PHD in a year or less, learn a new language in a day, etc.. Unfortunately, macro bots will further increase the difference of income, since not everyone will be able to afford them. So it’ll be wealthy people who will make a lot of money with their careers when macro bots will come out.
Actually, from all appearances - what happened (esp. last 4 years) - is it actually seems designed to LIMIT people's intelligence... the small group of people who manipulated most of the world don't really want "smart" people - they want obedient monkeys that can push buttons... if they can "think" - then the small group feels threatened - because they manipulate people in general through fear, money printing, etc (they don't actually "do" anything, just tell other ppl what to do).
You actually can become conversant in a language within a month (I've done it) - just the "standard" education that is taught in schools is not designed to "make" you intelligent, but rather give you the "feeling" of being "intelligent". In general you are rewarded for how well you MEMORIZE things ("historical facts", "equations", "formulas", etc) - NOT how well you can think/reason/etc. That's part of how "well how many DEGREES do you have" was used to try and "shut down" arguments - as if someone "with" a degree was bestowed with "divine intelligence" (by mere fact of "having" a degree, which they weren't). On top of that, many people in universities don't actually even "earn" their degrees either - but copy from others, fudge #'s, passed via "bell curves" to keep the "status quo", etc, etc. (And lol - I am actually speaking as someone who 'earned' degrees - I saw a lot of people who were dumb as f___).
People use to cling to old technology like rotary phones, and said they didn’t need a mobile or smartphone, yet who is using pagers now?
Actually... 30 years ago - you were considered wealthy if you "had" a cellphone. Now, you are considered wealthy if you "don't" have a cellphone.
PS: I can draw perfect classical hands and teach you to do that, in case AI will fail 😉 if China and Russsia will stop exporting the rare minerals that needed for AI chip production or US will not reopen nuclear power plants that are needed for massive AI computing.
A lot of the "supply chain" stuff is utter nonsense... it was more a "shock test" (by the people controlling the banks) to see how people would react/what they would do. There is ample supply, there is no "supply chain shortage", never was, still isn't. There is, however - manipulation/redirection/etc designed to try and frighten/scare people, and manipulate stock prices/manipulate companies, make them cheap to buy for cents on the dollar then 'miraculously' they are revived.
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I think we are now getting to the phase where my rank improves even if my sales are steady or even slower, because overall things are now starting to slow down. By Dec 20th we enter the death zone, that lasts until January 15th. At least that is the way it has been for me in the past.
pos 634, files 7200
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I think we are now getting to the phase where my rank improves even if my sales are steady or even slower, because overall things are now starting to slow down. By Dec 20th we enter the death zone, that lasts until January 15th. At least that is the way it has been for me in the past.
pos 634, files 7200
Very good! Though I take your word for your sales activity being ordinary because it looks great to me. I'm right in the middle of the summer slump here in Australia, probably not helped by really good summer weather. Double whammy here, we have the summer slump and Christmas holiday converging. But looking at your results is encouraging to see there is still a lot of gold in them thar hills.
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Like I explained before, christmas and winter is probably the genre where I have an old advantage from my old photo bestsellers. While I didn't upload much for 9 years, I was always getting gold sales for christmas with my old files.
Getting into other seasonal genres, for instance easter or halloween, or simply any other genre like people or food is much harder for me.
So the holiday season is always bittersweet, I really enjoy being in the top 1000 but I dread the frustration of falling down again in January.
On the other hand...all other times of the year I had a great increase in sales yoy, but the holiday season had the exact same results for November and December looks like it might be 30% less...unless maybe a little spring picks up in the last week.
But in 2023 I had a very strong push from being on the bestseller list which is missing this year.
Biggest advantage, I am no longer dependent on individual bestsellers like last year. This year it is all spread very nicely over all files.
Well, some series I had high hopes for didn't work at all. But some other series stepped in.
But it is possible to move up in sales, sometimes crazy fast, if you have something the customers like.
I wish I was in Australia now! Our rainy, dark, grey weather is no fun. And the real cold is still coming.
Are there no summer season/beach/vacation themes you could explore more?
Or will they all sell in the Northern hemisphere time?
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For me this has been a bad week,but at least not the worst of the year!
I just took a look at last year's sales,I actually think sales should continue at a normal level until December 23,then pick up again on the 27th,then perhaps another small break between January 31st and 2nd.
From what I see from last year's sales,sales should continue pretty normally even during the holiday period,except perhaps for those days.
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I hope you are right!!
But for me that is usually not the case.
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I hope you are right!!
But for me that is usually not the case.
I hope too! :D
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My ranking as of now is 1,220th with 9,808 photos in my Adobe Stock portfolio. Last week was at about the same ranking too. My lifetime ranking is around 1,600th. So, I made a progress after adding 3,000 AI generated photos since last September or so. I think many with higher ranking have a lot less photos/images on their portfolio than I do.
🥹 Oh god, The sad part is only 1220 people have over 27 downloads for the whole week 😢 , My opinion is big numbers win this game. Need to upload more & more
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But there might be a lot of people making more money inspite of a lower weekly rank. Especially video producers will have lower ranks, but can have much higher sales.
As predicted, moving up a bit inspite of sales slowing down
pos 628, 7250 files
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But there might be a lot of people making more money inspite of a lower weekly rank. Especially video producers will have lower ranks, but can have much higher sales.
As predicted, moving up a bit inspite of sales slowing down
pos 628, 7250 files
Yep, I can confirm the slowing down. 17 Downloads today with position 2.870 and 3.800 files.. I will also crash very hard in the january since I'm currently selling 90% only christmas content. I have 1.000 pending images, of which are about 200 further christmas stuff, that is still in review since almost 6 weeks ...
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I don't confirm the slowdown,in fact this week is already better than last week,and I have already reached last December's sales number.
From January my sales should increase further,I don't have much Christmas content and I definitely need to do more people,I already have ready and selected more generated people content,but I have to start working on it as soon as I finish the current project.
Lots to do,better get to work! :)
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I don't confirm the slowdown,in fact this week is already better than last week,and I have already reached last December's sales number.
From January my sales should increase further,I don't have much Christmas content and I definitely need to do more people,I already have ready and selected more generated people content,but I have to start working on it as soon as I finish the current project.
Lots to do,better get to work! :)
I'd agree that there's no telling. I just had a burst of sales today. I never know why or when someone is going to want something. Cobalt is right about the Holiday sales, I always get a boost from that. But, I just had an Easter image download. Something I uploaded two years ago. My St. Patrick's Day project was a dud. Maybe they will pick up after two years of laying dormant? No I don't mean rank, just sales would be good.
I'm done uploading new, for this year. I'm saving anything else for 2025, to kick off the New Year with some uploads.
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I don't confirm the slowdown,in fact this week is already better than last week,and I have already reached last December's sales number.
From January my sales should increase further,I don't have much Christmas content and I definitely need to do more people,I already have ready and selected more generated people content,but I have to start working on it as soon as I finish the current project.
Lots to do,better get to work! :)
I'd agree that there's no telling. I just had a burst of sales today. I never know why or when someone is going to want something. Cobalt is right about the Holiday sales, I always get a boost from that. But, I just had an Easter image download. Something I uploaded two years ago. My St. Patrick's Day project was a dud. Maybe they will pick up after two years of laying dormant? No I don't mean rank, just sales would be good.
I'm done uploading new, for this year. I'm saving anything else for 2025, to kick off the New Year with some uploads.
Pete,here every day is a kick off! :D
I have sold enough of the few Christmas images I have,especially in November,but even these days continue to generate some sales.
I have many projects in the pipeline,I generated a lot from mid-October to mid-November.
I'm now going with the max speed possible,I've never uploaded so much in a so short time,as I have these days,this is because for me 2025 will be somewhat of a year of truth.
now,and in the next 2-3 months at least I have to go to the maximum,because in 2025 I need to see better result,concrete results.
i have to see a more consistence stream of sales,but this clearly depends above all on me and what I will be able to do,at least I think in part.
for the moment I am certainly pleased to see that this month has also been better than all the previous years,but there is still a long distance from here to saying that it is enough,this is why 2025 will be an important year for me,also for all the reasons I have written about here in the past.
In any case,for now I don't want to think about it and I just want to go to the max and then see what happens.
I hope I can make it,I'm also very tired! :D
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another little move up, although sales volume is less.
pos 595
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@Cobalt: You are very far ahead - very nice! :)
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another little move up, although sales volume is less.
pos 595
nice! :)
the number of sales is already above last December but 0 video sales this month so far.
and I'm also stuck with real videos and photos at the moment,my Nikon DSLR's charger is broken! :(
it doesn't cost much but I just changed the battery of the car,which I managed to find for €74,that is more or less a month's subscription to MIdjourney,not that I'm that interested,I don't think I'll make any more subscriptions to MJ in the near future,or if ever again.
for the moment I'll just continue with the AI,next year I'll buy the charger,also because it's cold in my studio and then I have to turn on the heating there too and then it's too much! :D
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dropping again to 618.
I love your ai people shots. I hope you do more of them for 2025.
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another little move up, although sales volume is less.
pos 595
This is very impressive bro ! Keep it up 8)
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Slow week.
129 Downloads / 3.580 position. Dropped from 2.820 position.
I hope the new reviewed content will bring some new sales.
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from 618 to 569, up and down
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Congratulations to all of you who are doing well! :)
for me better week than last week,the 5th best ever in terms of number of sales so far,there's still tomorrow.
I'm also pleased that a particular Christmas content sold good,I worked a lot on it,and at least I can be satisfied with this.
generally my difference between one week and another is very minimal,in terms of number of sales with a very slight constant growth over time.
I also rarely have strong surges,which can triple and more my usual earnings,but these are rather rare events.
I've also noticed how a new indexing technique is starting to get noticed,but clearly I've been indexing content for almost 7 years now,I must have learned something! ;)
It's really important to index content properly!
someone said there can't be two heavens,I don't know if that's true! :)
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Slow week is ending.
(https://i.ibb.co/rMmrCmt/Bild-2024-12-22-200922599.png)
Hope next week will catch up some sales.
Preparing already for eastern and genereting some new content.
Currently approx. 4.300 images + approx. 850 in review.
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I think for 4300 files that is an excellent result.
Also it takes files time to get discovered, picked up, lightboxed and then downloaded for a project.
I am also working on spring/summer themes, but today I started analysing the available video content on Adobe. After the holidays I will do the same at all the other large video agencies and then move to look at smaller, more specialized agencies.
Video, with a normal camera, not ai, will be a major theme for me.
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Ok, final little christmas surprise
pos 478, 7300 files
just for one day you can be a hero
eta
volume of sales is going down of course, less than half of last week and maybe just 20% by end of the week.
But it was fun
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Ok, final little christmas surprise
pos 478, 7300 files
just for one day you can be a hero
eta
volume of sales is going down of course, less than half of last week and maybe just 20% by end of the week.
But it was fun
Congrats, impressive results, did you reached same level of income compared with last year?
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Yoy I increased my income on Adobe by around 80%. I added roughly 3700 files, mostly ai.
Every month was an increase until November. November was zero growth and December will probably be 20% less than last year.
So I am lower than what I was hoping for, but the overall trend is good.
Like I said before, focus next year will be back to the camera, real photos, real video and a lot less ai.
But I have another usable 20k ai images for processing, mostly illustrations, which I will try to add.
Also will try to get better with ai people but it is very hard work. Better to do real people shootings.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the other agencies and especially video if I start "activating" by uploads.
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Unfortunately, sales have now dropped even further. Only a little more than half of the downloads from last week.
70 downloads / rank 2,410. The start of the year is going to be a brutal crash landing. The new images have an extremely slow start.
I need to look for new niches and hope for Easter.
But next year I will create more niche content for X-Mas and will be even better prepared since it's really the cash $$$ time.
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Unfortunately, sales have now dropped even further. Only a little more than half of the downloads from last week. ..
no surprise - it's xmas / new year's
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Yesterday i had 4 sales and earned four dollars...January is coming fast...
rank went up to 463...but...
Starting to work on those videos. uploaded 10 to adobe had 5 accepted the same day. probably the queue is empty.
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same here,less sales this week but the rank has increased quite a bit,precisely because this is the slowest week of the year due to the Christmas holidays,so in general we are all selling less than usual,and even a few sales increase the rank.
This year I even managed to sell on Christmas Day,something that had never happened before.
recovery begins on January 2nd,and clearly from January 6th we begin to return to normality.
I'm currently at about 70% more sales this month and about 50% more earnings compared to December 2023.
This December was by far the month in which I uploaded the most in almost 7 years,much more than usual.
I'm trying to finish my current project so I can move on to the next one,I also have several things in mind for Easter and I have to hurry because it's starting to get late.
too many things to do and too little time! :D
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Glad to hear your December is going well. My December will probably be 15-20% less than Dec 23. The only month in this year which will be lower than last year.
eta now dropping to pos 505
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My position has plummeted to 21400 which is the lowest I've seen it this year and was more often below 10000 for most of 2024. My earnings for the week are > $57 which given the position is really not too bad. I just noticed too that my earnings on Adobe are actually 10.7% higher in Dec 2024 compared to Dec 2023 so wasn't a bad month after all. Also my overall combined earnings for the month is 10.8% higher in Dec 2024 compared to Dec 2023.
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So the difference between pos 21k and pos 521 is 110 dollars?
Not that much actually. Of course this is an ultraslow time of the year.
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So the difference between pos 21k and pos 521 is 110 dollars?
Not that much actually. Of course this is an ultraslow time of the year.
My ranking actually improved some without a further sale so ranking might not of updated at the time I posted above. But in terms of sales volume, 8 vs 257 is quite a huge difference but the dollars maybe not so much. I think if someone with a lot of video made 257 sales they'd probably be having more to celebrate. I'm right in the middle of an unprecedented, historic, apocalyptic, earth-shaking, momentous (I looked up a thesaurus) summer, holiday, Christmas, new year's slump here. ;D
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I'd love to have more video sales...guess I need to upload more videos.
2025 here we come...:)
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Glad to hear your December is going well. My December will probably be 15-20% less than Dec 23. The only month in this year which will be lower than last year.
eta now dropping to pos 505
thank you :) ,but in reality I am not very satisfied with the results,because 50% more than a small sum is still a small sum!
to be at least acceptable it should be at least 150% more in earnings each month compared to the same month of the previous year,that is,in January 2025 I should make at least 150% more than in January 2024 and so for all the months!
and I repeat,150% more in earnings would be barely acceptable,given that a year has passed.
throughout this year I have more or less gone with 40-70% more in sales number every month compared to the same month last year.
anyway ok,for the moment I'll keep this 50% more,I will try to create more people content,the problem is that being able to do everything takes a long time.
What should I do?Should I start being an AI spammer too? :D
I'll see how it goes,if I can grow quickly by continuing doing things well,even in indexing ok,if not I'll start being a spammer too,generate,upscale,AI indexing,without even looking at the contents and go!
I'll evaluate how next year starts,but I'm already framing a pattern I don't like.
we'll see next year I hope I'm wrong.
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It is your call, but I really like your people content. With good research...
I have managed to upload 50 videos in 5 days, mostly editorial.
Really enjoy using my camera again.
My weekly rank now down to 613.
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Here's my weekly rank as it stands this morning...
ETA I'll trade your sales volume and position with my RPD. Let's go!
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Your rpd is fantastic!
I need more videos.
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@injustice
Have you also considered creating content with a camera again?
Because as more and more ai content comes in, non ai will be more rare and in my opinion more valuable.
There are a lot of daily life situations missing in collections that are quite easy to shoot. And then there is editorial and video.
Then you also have content for other agenvies. You keep saying you want a fulltime income. I don‘t know anyone with a fulltime income just from Adobe.
It is up to you, but personally I wouldn’t make myself totally dependent on ai.
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Cobalt,last year you were making AI people and I was making videos,now you want to make videos and I want to make AI people! :D
I haven't sold a single video this month,I have less than a thousand,in November I sold several,and generally I always manage to sell videos every month too.
I haven't done the precise calculation,maybe I will,but in the last 500 sales I believe that 50% are AI and 30% illustrative editorials,10% illustrations and vectors,and the rest 10% real photos and videos.
However,as I said,I will continue to work as I always have for the moment,dedicating time to the work I do,but then certainly if this slow growth continues,unfortunately I cannot afford it,and I will have to start uploading thousands of contents per month with the AI,otherwise it will take too long here!
assuming it is possible to grow quickly!
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You are right, we are switching themes :)
I also have to have a significant increase in stock income this year, otherwise I will need a 3 day part time job which means my uploads will drop drastically because I still need to care for mom.
If I can make stock work, it would be the perfect job I can do mostly from home.
I know it is doable, there is just this annoying time lag between customers discovering files and actually downloading them.
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Here it is ladies and gentlemans...
My first sale for 2025 and my only sale.
May this be the start of a hopefully better year with the microstocks. ;D
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I have 3, but all after midnight, nothing for the day itself.
Also dropped again to 681.
Working on my videos for a good start to the year.
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Now down to pos 1110...:(
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I'm still waiting for the first sale of 2025,at 11.57 am Italian time I still don't see any sales! :D
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the first sale on AS of 2025,today January 2nd at around 3 pm Italian time. :)
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Congrats! Nice to see the higher royalty.
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While Shutterstock cuts royalties every January, at Adobe we do get to enjoy some higher royalties in the beginning of January :D. From what I understand this is due to decreased amount of subscription downloads - thus a larger amount is paid out to contributors per download. I got two $1.21 sales today and two $1.17 yesterday, instead of the usual $0.91 or so sales during the year. Looking at my history, the royalties started to rise already around Christmas, hitting the highest amount today.
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My guess is that a lot costumers won't renew their AS subscription for 2025 because of AI pollution.
If you do a search for classic stock photos at latest uploads. AS ist far behind istock or Shutterstock. At AdobeStock someone mostly find AI images at latest upload search. So lot of the latest trendy (non AI) images are not available at AdobeStock.
I guess subscription and EL sales will increase at istock and Shutterstock this year.
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Customers can remove all ai images with one click.
That is a major advantage to Shutterstock that has quite strong ai pollution in what is supposed to be a photo only collection.
The istock collection is pretty clean, they do a good job of removing ai.
Customers LOVE ai content, it makes a lot of money which is why so many newbies are doing only ai. It is probably easier for them to make money with ai, than to learn how to properly use a camera.
And Adobe is the only large agency with a great looking ai collection, so customers get a juicy add on with Adobe with content the other large agencies don't have.
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As a customer I really don't care if the image has been created by AI or if it's a real photo - as long as it looks good and illustrates the object or the concept well. Except for some topics, where I'd prefer authentic content, such as editorial, wildlife, travel destinations. Which is where Adobe with their clear separation between AI and non-AI collections fares better than SS with AI images being offered as real content.
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For me it would be food, I would prefer to buy images with real food in authentic locations.
But if you just want to illustrate a generic menu an ai hamburger, coffee or pizza will do the job just as well.
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My guess is that a lot costumers won't renew their AS subscription for 2025 because of AI pollution.
If you do a search for classic stock photos at latest uploads. AS ist far behind istock or Shutterstock. At AdobeStock someone mostly find AI images at latest upload search. So lot of the latest trendy (non AI) images are not available at AdobeStock.
I guess subscription and EL sales will increase at istock and Shutterstock this year.
Also it seems that AS has changed the review policy and is rejecting more real photo images than they did in the past. At least that's true for mine, and since I don't do AI, less of my new images are getting accepted. (or maybe I just forgot how to make a good and acceptable image after 59 years of photo work? ::) )
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My guess is that a lot costumers won't renew their AS subscription for 2025 because of AI pollution.
If you do a search for classic stock photos at latest uploads. AS ist far behind istock or Shutterstock. At AdobeStock someone mostly find AI images at latest upload search. So lot of the latest trendy (non AI) images are not available at AdobeStock.
I guess subscription and EL sales will increase at istock and Shutterstock this year.
Can't you just filter out AI imagery when you do a search?
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Now down to pos 1340 :(. 7400 files
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very slow start to the year for me too! :(
strength and courage!
Christmas holidays are finally over! :D
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My start of the year is reeeaaaaaallllly slow too. Haven't even bothered to open my spreadsheet to update the sales. I just looked at the January 2024 calendar (which started a lot better than this year) and I see there were 4 working week-days following the Christmas shutdown period before the weekend whereas this year 2025 there were only 2 working week-days following shutdown period before the weekend. Well that's the way I'm looking at it :) because the alternative is that the market is sinking deeper and it heralds a crap year forward. Still very early days in the new year.
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you started with the low algorithm too! :D
I lost a lot of positions this week,which is a good sign! ;)
Why is it a good sign?Because it means that I'm the one who isn't selling at the moment,but in reality many other contributors are selling.
It would be much worse if I moved up the rankings despite selling little,because it would mean that in general less is being sold.
anyway yes Peacesetter,I think you saw correctly,in fact I too had sold more at this point last year.
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pos 1380
I want to go back up!!
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This time last year on Adobe Stock I had earned $43.15. This year for the same period $3.79. Not a good start at all. Yeh it's early days but with hundreds more contents and steep fall is not a good sign.
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tomorrow is still christmas in many places and others have taken time off.
lets see what happens.
also...trump is chaos, people are holding back on spending.
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tomorrow is still christmas in many places and others have taken time off.
lets see what happens.
also...trump is chaos, people are holding back on spending.
Have you too seen a similar slower start this year?
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it is very very slow, like last year. But I have double the amount of files, so the same level is a step back.
But I do have the improvement of a wider mix of files, last year had a few persistent sellers, but the rest was asleep.
Now…if I have sales…they are a wider mix and older files get their first sales.
But sales are mostly in us or asia time, europe is pretty dead.
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today is a holiday in Italy,Spain,France,Germany,Russia,Iceland,Hungary and Romania.
Epiphany or "Befana" in Italian language.
I see a lot of juicy royalties,but the number of sales is very low.
interesting to note that from the beginning of the year until now I have only sold real photos.
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pos 1990, 7500 files
down, down, down
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bad start to the year for me too,but not much different from last year.
up to now I have sold less than last year,but it doesn't make any difference,because at the end of the month I will most likely have a 20-50% more number of sales.
I don't know the earnings,because the earnings may vary more and mostly depend on how many videos I sell.
I started working on the new AI people content,I've already been working on it for a few days,on average 2-3 per day,but it's particular content that takes time,then we already know that the more you look at AI content the more you find things to correct.
that's enough for today,tomorrow I will review the first batch,I will make the last corrections and then indexing,I couldn't even continue tonight,I'm too tired and I wouldn't be able to notice everything I could notice tomorrow morning,when my brain is fresher! :D
I'm putting in the effort,but it's also time I started seeing better results,or as a last resort,I will change strategy,focusing more on quantity than quality.
honestly I am quite convinced that it doesn't make much difference,and that I will always continue to make 20-70% more in terms of sales number compared to the previous year,with one negative month and perhaps one extremely positive one per year.
which is better than hell,but if it continues like this,the journey to get to an income,at least a decent one,will take too long.
these first 3 months of the year will be very,very important,to understand how,if and when! :)
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first time inside the top 10k. little over 4k files.
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Congrats on getting inside 10k.
I hope when things pick up next week your journey up continues.
@Injustice I look forward to your new people content. It is much better than mine.
I am also working on new people content every day. I am also slowly selling more people. Early days, i have around 1300 people. I guess the fun will start with 10 000.
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@yuriy thanks for posting this,you can clearly see that no one is selling yet,it's not good,because under 10,000 with 14 sales is really little.
but congratulations on your first time under 10,000! :)
@Cobalt thanks,but you also did an extraordinary job last year,and I know that you also always try to create the highest quality and marketability possible,and continuing to do it for a long time as you are doing is not easy.
yes,I think we need at least 5000+ AI people contents with high quality and marketability,contents that stand out,useful,different,interesting....it's not easy.
and then it also takes a long time before they start selling regularly,then it depends,this also takes a bit of luck I think,but also the ability to create them at the right time.
I still believe that dedicating time to creating better and sellable content is always the best choice.
last month I uploaded 617 contents,but I don't know how many of these 617 I will sell.
what I'm doing now is different,I'm pretty sure that this are contents that will sell,but at most I will be able to produce 120 of these contents in a month,because clearly require much more time.
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With 50k you already have a very large port. So making 2025 the year of more specialised but very high quality content sounds like the right way forward.
Currently, I am mostly processing real videos and planning my first little home video shoot for next week. Something simple with food.
I am trying to find a good place at home to work with natural light. I have a tiny little triangle french balcony, less than 1 sqm. But protected from the rain and with white brick walls. Maybe I can turn that into a little outdoor studio space.
Once it is set up it will be much faster to do little shootings. There is so much you can do with food preparation that is missing.
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now pos 2840
but somebody is still in the top 500...
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Fell below 7000 this week :(. But at least the RPD is currently pretty nice :D
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now pos 2840
but somebody is still in the top 500...
yes but right now,in general we are all selling less than usual,here's another example,your position 2,840 with only 61 sales.
probably at this moment if you only make 50 sales in less than 24 you will already reach below position 1000,probably even less than position 500!
From what I see,it seems clear to me that we are all selling less than usual,except perhaps those who have recently started and are in favor of the algorithm at the moment.
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a really terrible start to the year for me on AS,at the moment my weekly rank is worse than my full rank.
This January so far is much worse than January 2024 and I risk ending the month at a loss compared to last year,but anything can still happen,the month is still long.
the only thing I know is that yesterday I didn't work,the desire to create is currently reduced to a minimum,given the poor results so far since the beginning of the year,I've actually earned more on SS up until now,I hope that the situation on Adobe will improve as soon as possible,and I can find my creative spirit again! :)
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I hope things improve for you soon!
I always look at how much I earned on the same weekday, not date, last year. If I can at least make the same, it is ok. So far I am on track to make the same amount.
Of course if it does not pick up next week, I will be depressed as well. I need an increase not a standstill.
What is improving is the file mix. This was probably the first week where I sold at least one people image every day.
People are still slow sellers for me, but longterm I think they have the best value.
Trying to process my backlog of videos mostly.
my rank has stabilized a bit
pos 2700, files 7500
eta
today I sold 6 people images, must be a record. the people files are coming into their second year, I suppose now is the time when they start to be used for projects.
I wish I had 30k people images. That would give an excellent and steady baseline for sales.
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Feel like it is picking up this week following the holiday period slowdown with this being the best week of earnings in 4 weeks on the trend line.
Position is still low but RPD is good.
Position is 15,850, total number of files is 3510.
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With video pos is less important. sold a small video today. I wonder how many videos I need for daily video sales.
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rank is stable at pos 2710, files 7500
if there was a non ai glitch my sales were unaffected on Friday. It was actually a good day and most of the sales from the us time zone
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rank is stable at pos 2710, files 7500
if there was a non ai glitch my sales were unaffected on Friday. It was actually a good day and most of the sales from the us time zone
Well, we'll see.
I hope it picks up for me.
Granted - end of Dec/beginning Jan tends (at least from experience) seems to be a bit slower, so I hope next week improves significantly.
At the moment, my weekly income from Adobe was about 1/2 of what I was expecting it to be.
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My rank has improved a fair bit since my post above with just 3 additional sales. It must be slow for everyone generally. I hope it picks up next week too but as it is Adobe seems to be the agency that is shining a bit brighter than the others for me so far this year.
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slight move down, but in the same range.
this sunday last year I had 7 sales, today I had 6 so far, 3 ai, 3 camera images.
too early to tell if there is any influence by hiding ai.
Monday 15th Jan 2024 I had 15 sales on Adobe, 8 were camera images, 7 were ai.
We will see what happens tomorrow but it is still a very slow time of the year.
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My week ended up pretty well with another 5 video sales. Position still the same so maybe it hasn't updated yet or everyone else is beginning to see an increase in sales as we move more into the new year....
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That is a great result, especially for a slow sales time.
Congrats!
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rank is stable, slightly up
pos 2770
today so far 22 sales, 12 camera/video, 10 ai,
eta
so Monday was 26 sales on adobe, 14 camera, 12 AI.
which is a normal sales mix for me this time of year.
I also have days with more ai sales than camera, but I now also have a lot more ai, 5400 ai versus 2100 camera/video content.
But my images sell better overall, because with ai I experiment a lot and most of the test files are very slow sellers.
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the situation has stabilized here too,at the moment I have the exact same number of sales as I had last year on January 14th.
which is clearly not the best,but there will probably be an increase in the second half of the month,I hope to be able to exceed at least 50% more,but 100% would be better! :D
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pos 2870, 7600 files
fwiw yesterday I had 29 sales on Adobe
13 ai, 16 camera photo/video
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I'm more in "stand by" mode! :D
it just hasn't taken off yet,for now I'm stuck at the same number of sales as last year.
I'm continuing to produce,but I've only created 22 new content in the last 9-10 days.
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Well, if these are all high quality people shots, why not?
I am trying to upload more people but I can rarely do more than 2-4 a day.
Next week sales should start to pick up.
eta
maybe picking up today?
so far 25 sales
7 camera, 15 ai
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the contents that I am creating these days are nothing more than the AI evolution of a vector that I created at the end of 2019.
so it is an already tested idea/concept that has sold a lot,but more in other agencies while on Adobe only 5 times so far.
I hope these AI evolutions of the same concept sell better on Adobe compared to the old vector.
for the rest,I can only hope that you are right,and that from next week sales will start to take off,I am very curious to see what the results of these important first quarter of the year will be.
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So, yesterday I had 34 sales, this time 21 were ai, 13 were camera
Also some ai files getting their first download.
pos 2850, 7600 files.
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This year so far 80% of sales are real content,and 20% AI.
my port is about 75% real and 25% AI.
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pos 3050 down again ..:(
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:(
Don't tell me,it's likely that I'll end the month with an increase compared to last year,but it will probably be an insignificant increase.
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Time to rise up!
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again...today January 20,2025 I have the same exact number of sales as I had on January 20,2024.
it's completely demotivating,I uploaded 1935 new contents last year,if I also add to this the fact that old contents should sell more even without new uploads,all this is completely demotivating.
in all honesty it's just not possible to sell so little with the portfolio I have today,I'm certainly not saying that I should sell 10 times more,but at least 2-3 times more than I sell.
It's possible that this is my bad month,but February and March will tell the truth.
Adobe...waaakee uuupppp! :D
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By end of this week I could have what I earned last January including istock and there is nearly another week to top it up.
So I hope it will be more, probably 15-20%.
Far from ideal but it will be an upswing.
I hope by end of this week we finally get a little push higher from buyers going back to work.
I am trying to add content with themes I never offered before, but they might then also need longer to sell.
My best bet for this year will be other agencies.
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today is a slow day in the us and I just realized it is mlk day, plus inauguration
so only 22 dl so far, 11 ai, 11 camera
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but for you it's different,even on a bad day like this you ended up making at least 30 sales,if not more,in short you always sell anyway.
for me it's a different story,to still have a minimum of hope,I would have to sell at least every month like November,at this point in the journey,with my current port.
unfortunately,as I have already said,if I was still at least 40 years old,I still had time,but now at almost 50 years old I no longer have time.
this is a subjective thing,it depends on one's condition,if I had a different situation,I could certainly still afford to wait a few years,but unfortunately it is not my situation.
as I already told you,in the first 20 days of January 2024 I made the exact same number of sales that I have now made in the first 20 days of January 2025,the exact same number of sales,It's definitely not a coincidence,it just can't be statistically.
so it seems clear to me that I will still have to wait a few years before seeing concrete/acceptable results,if ever.
so I'll stop here for now.
I will continue to monitor the situation,if/when I start to see at least a similar number of sales to November,I will resume uploading.
the other agencies?which agencies?SS is finished,IS you have to sell your soul to make 100 usd more a month,which other agencies?
if I can't even earn something decent on Adobe,it's not worth trying anything else in my opinion,and then you know that I'm done with IS.
it's very likely that I'm screwed! :D
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...if I was still at least 40 years old....
I just turned 40 ! I have a lifetime of uploads ahead of me :)
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@injustice,
my suggestion for your case would be to add a lot more camera video and upload via blackboxglobal.
bb removes any direct problems with agencies. as you know I no longer have a port on ss because they deleted me. and with adobe i am always scared that the hunter killer algo hits my port.
they are also on platforms like storyblocks, the elements video marketplace on envato, they are on vimeo and will probably keep adding new partners that as an individual producer i cannot reach.
if you look in their facebookgroup, people are now beginning to make very nice reliable income after adding thousands of clips over the last 4 years.
For sales on Adobe…I think it is obvious that something about what you upload is not the right content for regular sales.
Taking a break for maybe 3 months and trying to refocus is usually a good idea.
perhaps also go back to doing more camerawork instead of ai, because it will now have less competition and the content can earn dataset licenses.
there is a lot of useful content that is missing over all agencies, but it takes time to find little niches.
I sincerly wish you all the best and I do believe you will find a way to turn things around.
Every crisis is an opportunity and the buyers will be back end of January.
eta
yesterday i had 25 dl on adobe, 11 ai, 13 camera, pos 3080, 7630 files
I hope today will be better.
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@injustice,
they are also on platforms like storyblocks, the elements video marketplace on envato, they are on vimeo and will probably keep adding new partners that as an individual producer i cannot reach.
Are you sure that they are available on Storyblocks? If so, that might be a good reason to consider contributing to BB.
Since I also contribute to Artlist, I'm curious if I can submit footage to both BB and Artlist, given that BB doesn't submit footage to Artlist.
Does anyone knows if BB uses Payoneer for payments?
Also, I noticed that BB’s portfolio on SS is around 2 million videos, while on Istock it’s only about half a million videos. Why would they have four times less videos on istock that on SS?
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you are right, my mistake, I thought I saw my files on storyblocks via bb, but they are not. somebody else uploaded some messy food shots that looks nearly exactly like mine. :)
but i wouldn't be surprised if they get added at some point.
as for istock, bb has lots of editorial content and i think istock does not accept most editorial from external producers, they only take that from their own people.
also istock was added later so some content might have been uploaded by producers directly and i am sure they have filters to sort out duplicates.
the bb collection is also not the same size everywhere, some agencies only take a selection.
but I think bb is a very good offer and I find that my files get ranked higher than if I upload myself. they simply have a much bigger volume.
I send all editorial to them and I am still trying to find a sensible distinction by genre what i should add myself.
It is very seductive to just give them all videos, but I still want to have some content directly.
sales are very stable, last year i only added 20 clips and I had the same income as the year before when i added more.
my port is still small with 550 clips. Hoping to add at least 1000 this year. Ideally 2k, but we will see.
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...if I was still at least 40 years old....
I just turned 40 ! I have a lifetime of uploads ahead of me :)
that's right,you're lucky! :)
I started in microstock at 43 years old,almost seven years ago.
I've been taking photos since I was 13,I bought my first reflex,Yashica fx-3 s2000,it was the end of the 80s. :)
ironic how at the time I could afford to buy all the equipment I wanted,and it was just a hobby,but today it has become very,very difficult to do anything.
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@Cobalt
thanks for the advice,I have a portfolio similar in number to yours,active on Adobe for almost 7 years,and yesterday I made 0 sales,last week even a couple of days 0 sales,today still 0 sales so far...it doesn't make any sense!
on Istock I was making 40-50 sales a day after only 6 months of starting,among my most successful contents was a mock-up of a device that I sold around 3500 times in a couple of years.
the same mock-up that I have sold on Istock thousands of times,has only been sold 13 times on Adobe in almost 7 years!
I really don't think that the reason why I sell little on Adobe is my content,also because it doesn't explain how it is possible that I then have short periods in which I sell much more.
last year on Adobe I sold different content from what I sell now,that is,what I sell changes,but the result in numbers does not change.
all this doesn't make any sense,I should sell much more than I sell,it really seems that my portfolio is traveling with the handbrake on.
anyway I'm tired,I don't see concrete results,I don't care what the reason is anymore,I'm just tired.
perhaps soon this portfolio will be unlocked,I can only hope so.
in the meantime,as I said,I think the time has come to take a long break,until I see more concrete results,if ever.
I wish you all the best,I hope we will have the opportunity to talk again.
ciao! :)
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You really need a break. :)
I have files that sold over 10 000 times on istock that sold less than 30 times on Adobe.
Sometimes it is just poor luck, your file went live at the right time of day, at a moment when this kind of content was going viral on social media or something.
I can understand it feels like somebody is personally out to get you or holding your port back, but realistically it makes absolutely no sense.
Customers are the driving force of all algos.
But there are differencies between agencies.
On istock I sell a lot of "natural" looking content, matte or subdued colors, often also messy real life.
On Adobe it must be vivid, contrasty, very clean composition and very extreme amount of copy space.
Similar for SS when I still had a port there, lots of files that were bestsellers on istock, never even got accepted on Shutterstock.
For Adobe I cahnged my processing to finally get a good acceptance rate. I also started downsizing my files to around 6mp, because otherwise I would get rejections for focus...
Take your break, but I am sure you will be back.
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as for istock, bb has lots of editorial content and i think istock does not accept most editorial from external producers, they only take that from their own people.
also istock was added later so some content might have been uploaded by producers directly and i am sure they have filters to sort out duplicates.
but I think bb is a very good offer and I find that my files get ranked higher than if I upload myself. they simply have a much bigger volume.
I send all editorial to them and I am still trying to find a sensible distinction by genre what i should add myself.
It is very seductive to just give them all videos, but I still want to have some content directly.
sales are very stable, last year i only added 20 clips and I had the same income as the year before when i added more.
my port is still small with 550 clips. Hoping to add at least 1000 this year. Ideally 2k, but we will see.
Istock doesn't accept editorials from external producers? Well, then It makes sense now why the BB portfolio on iStock is much smaller than on Shutterstock. Also, like you said, I found some footage from BB's portfolio uploaded by the actual author on iStock.
I also find BB quite appealing, especially with its better rankings and increased earnings. On one hand, I appreciate the freedom of having my own portfolios, but on the other hand, I feel like I'm missing out on potential earnings. I'll think about it.
However, I am uneasy about having my content on Freepik; that may be a dealbreaker for me.
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I trust the BB team. If they feel freepik is a good add on, they will have their reasons.
I do hope they make it into storyblocks, even if it is just selected content and not everything.
eta
pos 3110 :(
At 5pm europe today 24 dl, 18 ai, 6 camera so far.
eta 2
9:30 pm, 36 dl, 22 ai, 14 camera
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...
unfortunately,as I have already said,if I was still at least 40 years old,I still had time,but now at almost 50 years old I no longer have time.
this is a subjective thing,it depends on one's condition,if I had a different situation,I could certainly still afford to wait a few years,but unfortunately it is not my situation.
as I already told you,in the first 20 days of January 2024 I made the exact same number of sales that I have now made in the first 20 days of January 2025,the exact same number of sales,It's definitely not a coincidence,it just can't be statistically.
so it seems clear to me that I will still have to wait a few years before seeing concrete/acceptable results,if ever.
....
I will continue to monitor the situation,if/when I start to see at least a similar number of sales to November,I will resume uploading....
it's very likely that I'm screwed! :D
at 50 you don't have the time, young'un? wait till you're 25 yrs older, like me
statistically there's no reason identical results shouldn't happen. low probability, but not impossible.
and if you wait to see improvement before uploading more, you're ensuring you won't get the results you want. what % of your previous portfolio did you upload last year?
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as I already told you,in the first 20 days of January 2024 I made the exact same number of sales that I have now made in the first 20 days of January 2025,the exact same number of sales,It's definitely not a coincidence,it just can't be statistically.
Why not? Same sales, or same income? How about after 22 days? ;D
Hopefully more money in any case.
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Today I reached the sales of January 2024 on Adobe. So now I have 8 days left to add to it.
My weekly rank has improved a bit to pos 2800.
today so far 35 dl, 20 ai, 15 camera
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@cobalt:
That looks very good after all - 8 days “in the plus” is good!
Unfortunately, it looks the other way around for me...
- in January 25 I had 322 DL so far
- in January 24 (on the same day) I had 480 DL
The curve shows a steady downward trend (with some ups and downs), although I have uploaded like never before.
In 2024 I started with 35,675 files and on 12/31/2024 there were 49,052 - of which about 3,000 photos, 2,500 videos (AI and real mixed), 9,000 AI images. I know my photos aren't that good, I'm just not a photographer, but at least with AI images I know what I'm doing to some extent, but somehow it's not going up.
The only area where I see a slight increase is videos.
Overall, there have been three major changes in the last 12 months, which are probably due to changes in the search:
-> there was a change on March 30, from then on a whole lot of my bestsellers disappeared into nothingness from one day to the next
-> on October 8, some of these images suddenly reappeared in the sales
-> at the beginning of January 25, the AI images were switched off from the customer search for 3 1/2 days (as a default state), which had a lasting effect on the ranking of some images
For example, if you search for this “exclude AI” on the German AS site for dog or cat, only 8-10 of the first 100 images are AI (previously these were 30-40 of the first 100) - this is not intended as a rating, just an observation.
So it's quite clear to see that AI is no longer so prominent and if you were to ask me off the record, that was exactly the plan of the 3 1/2 day exclusion of AI images - because if we are honest with ourselves, we all know that the interest of the platform operator is solely the customers and not the providers :)
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If the new mix works better for the customers, then this is the way it should be. Producers are free to balance by adding more camera content.
I also have no official degree in art or photography. But I did take a lot of classes and learnt from the pros at various stock events.
My main expertise is understanding what is useful for the customers, which comes from practical marketing/trade shows experience.
You can improve your photos quite quickly if you take a few classes. It is not magic, just a learned skill.
You can use your ai series as a mood board and lead for composition, colors and overall design.
Follow the composition and lighting of your best sold ai to create great camera shots.
Otherwise, perhaps sticking to video for a while and especially camera video content that can be sent to all agencies, is a good idea.
How are your ai people images doing? I really like them very much because they look so authentic. They don't have the depressing dark midjourney vibe they are very warm and alive.
I would buy them. :)
eta
my adobe downloads are still 8% below January 24. But in money I surpassed last years value today.
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I agree with you - there should be a balance, currently it is not in balance after the Exlude AI, but it will regulate itself.
The problem with my photos is probably that most of them are rather boring and past the customer, I know that too - and I don't photograph people as a matter of principle (because I don't like people) ;-)
To your question about my People AI images - they are currently running let's say mediocrely, 6 of my top 20 AI images have something to do with people, the rest are more topic-related concept images (like green footprint and such topics).
Which is a sobering realization for me:
-> 13,500 new files accepted in one year wasn't enough to boost my downloads
-> according to my calculations, I would have needed about 16,000 new files in 2024 just to keep my downloads, in 2025 it will probably have to be between 20,000 and 25,000 new files - that's really hard to do, you can't beat the flood of AI image farms
But luckily my Canon R8 + 24-105 F4.0 has just arrived - I can now take decent photos again :)
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...
- in January 25 I had 322 DL so far
- in January 24 (on the same day) I had 480 DL
............In 2024 I started with 35,675 files and on 12/31/2024 there were 49,052...
I don't typically post in "how many were sold" threads, but thought I'd make an exception.
I'm a small producer although I've been licensing stock images since 2004. Right now my Adobe Stock portfolio is 2,503 images. It was 2383 at the beginning of 2024.
I've had 308 downloads so far this month and was thinking it was slow, but you had only a fraction more with nearly 20 times as many items. I'm gobsmacked.
I don't honestly know what that says about business at Adobe Stock or its customers' needs & preferences, but possibly it says that the market for non-genAI content hasn't evaporated yet (I don't have any genAI work).
It might just be a function of oversupply - you have good stuff but there's just too much genAI work for the demand?
In terms of your photos being boring, I would say that useful trumps pretty in stock any time - I think I upload lots of material in the "boring infrastructure" segment.
I hope you manage to work out something positive for perking up sales (and many apologies if this comes across as rude; I don't mean it that way at all!)
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@Jo Ann:
First of all, that doesn't come across as rude at all, you don't have to worry about that :-)
I also believe that the AI image market is completely oversaturated and there is definitely more than customers can buy. I expect AI image sales to decline a little further, but AI images will not disappear completely - they are now an integral part of the big picture. At least until agencies can generate AI images ‘on the fly’ in response to a customer request.
You can see that real photos generate much more stable sales, even over a longer period of time, and those who have good photos don't really need to worry so much - sure, AI images have taken a share of the market, but the share is already falling and real photos of real places and events will always be needed.
If only to feed the AIs with current trends, because you can't successfully feed an AI with images that it has generated itself, if you do something like that, it leads to the AI washing out and the results getting worse.
I've currently ramped up the ‘production’ a little (through more automation) and currently have around 1,600 accepted images per month - if that's not enough, I'll look for a new corner.
And as stock is only a part-time job for me, I can consider myself lucky - the last 6 years of stock have enabled me to do some travelling - I was able to go on a safari, see Iceland and was in the Seychelles from the income, surprisingly the pictures from there hardly sell at all.
If I find out anything, I'll let you all know :)
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Jo Ann and my own experience is making me more dedicated to upload camera content again.
Before the January algo adjustments I paid little attention to the ratio of ai/camera sold.
But now I am realizing that on many days half my sales are still older camera files or videos.
So I will make that a clear focus, plus it gives me content for all agencies.
For ai I am processing my backlog every day something, but I only prompt very little. Mostly testing new prompt strings in subjects I did not offer before.
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And as stock is only a part-time job for me, I can consider myself lucky - the last 6 years of stock have enabled me to do some travelling - I was able to go on a safari, see Iceland and was in the Seychelles from the income, surprisingly the pictures from there hardly sell at all.
I had a look at your pictures. I also had a look at the other pictures in the collection.
Lack of sales is not surprising, your files are not competitive. In addition maybe seychelles/Iceland are very specialised and niche markets.
Many of your camera images are underexposed and have no clear composition. A simple 3 day camera workshop could easily fix that.
Maybe something to consider. Or perhaps a nice photo safari somewhere with a good coach teaching image tricks and giving good examples.
Everybody can learn and improve their photography. I used to take classes every year or at least a one day workshop about something I usually don't do regularly.
I will start doing that again when I have less personal responsibility and can travel again.
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I am getting very weird declines for people images.
Will try to upload them in smaller batches.
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I had a look at your pictures. I also had a look at the other pictures in the collection.
Lack of sales is not surprising, your files are not competitive. In addition maybe seychelles/Iceland are very specialised and niche markets.
Many of your camera images are underexposed and have no clear composition. A simple 3 day camera workshop could easily fix that.
Maybe something to consider. Or perhaps a nice photo safari somewhere with a good coach teaching image tricks and giving good examples.
I'm right there with you - my photography skills are definitely not well developed and I also lack an eye for detail when I have the camera in my hand. I am and will probably remain a technician ;-)
A 3-day workshop would be like a holiday - maybe I should just do it. The idea is definitely not a bad one ^^
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Workshops are a lot of fun!!!
Please do them. Because you look at good stock content every day I don't think it will take long to improve.
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It is probably even more important to understand what the customer is looking for and why (as you have already indicated a few times).
Before I can get to work on my photography skills, I still have 2-3 intensive AI months ahead of me - I have around 4,000 AI people images planned for February and another 2,000 AI videos in March.
That would give me enough material to upload for the whole of 2025 and I could get on with other things :)
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Fully agree with customer needs.
In the discord channel there is someone with a mixed camera ai port of 12500 files who says he is in the top 200 weekly rank.
And then there are newbies with 2500 ai files, uploading 11 months who get 15-20 sales a day. These people also keep posting in ai groups, I called them the advanced newbies because they keep telling everyone how important it is to have commercially relevant content and not 100 000 fantasy images or backgrounds.
But please keep thos workshops in mind, summer is coming, it is fun and if you do travel again to expensive locations, please up your skills before you go.
I am sure your ai people will do very well. Trying to increase mine as well, a little frustrated with the declines because it takes me 3 times longer to process people images than easter eggs.
:)
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And as stock is only a part-time job for me, I can consider myself lucky - the last 6 years of stock have enabled me to do some travelling - I was able to go on a safari, see Iceland and was in the Seychelles from the income, surprisingly the pictures from there hardly sell at all.
You also need to improve your metadata. Poorly written titles and keywords won't make your content visible to the right buyers.
For instance, take a look at this picture:
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/close-up-of-different-fruits-hanging-on-trees-taken-on-the-seychelles-islands/253979877
Your title, "Close up of different fruits hanging on trees taken on the Seychelles islands," is not specific enough. The fruit is called "breadfruit." Including that information in your title, along with other relevant details about the fruit, would be much more effective.
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@cobalt:
I'll keep the workshops in mind, so I could take a break from my actual work :-)
I'm also excited about the People AI images - I'm currently finalising my 6-week ‘Concept and symbol images’, then I'll continue with ‘People’.
@danielvisuals:
The point definitely goes to you - the image is one of my very early uploads and the title is too ‘simple’ and I would also do the image itself completely differently today, much brighter and friendlier.
Unfortunately, all the ‘old photo sins’ are also in the account - I started with textures and surfaces, as I actually come from the field of 3D programming and was (and still am) always looking for textures myself.
Unfortunately, there are too few customers of that kind ;-)
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ok,I wanted to take a break from all the microstock,but I see that it is better to make some clarifications.
@Cobalt
Somebody?somebody who? :D
I have never written:"somebody is personally out to get you or holding your port back"
I've never said it,I don't think so,and it's certainly not like that.
I gave you the example of Istock to make you understand that the problem is not my contents.
I am aware that I cannot earn 10x more than I earn,but I should still earn at least 2-3x more than I earn at this point in the journey with my current portfolio.
@Cascoly
the problem is not so much the age but more money condition,but certainly if I was 10 years younger I had more time to put the situation right,starting a business before the age of 40 is certainly better,I think you agree with me.
the chances of an identical result to the previous year in the first 20 days of January are not impossible,but it is as if they were,if you take into account the quantity of files in the Adobe library and the high number of contributors,so we can consider the probabilities impossible.
yes,I very much agree with the fact that it is very difficult to improve if you don't continue to upload,especially today.
I uploaded about 40% more from January 2024 to January 20,2025,so a rather high percentage.
@Uncle Pete
I'm talking about number of sales,and thank you! :D
At the moment,more than a break,I'm carrying out a kind of strike.
I haven't checked my Adobe Stock dashboard since January 21st,and I will check it again on January 31st.
both because I don't want to get depressed,and also because I want to take a break for a moment.
I can consider the November results acceptable,for the quantity and type of portfolio I have at the moment,but this is really the minimum I can accept,at this point in the journey,after almost 7 years of collaboration.
I will continue the strike until I see numbers similar to November again,then I will resume uploading.
I don't blame Adobe for this,but I think some things can be done better,I've noticed excessive discrepancies and I think it's time to review how content and sales are managed.
I am also more than sure that Adobe has already identified this problem,it can also be seen from the minimum requirements for the bonus contributor,from this choice I see that they have already identified this problem.
the point is to see if it is possible to do something or not,I don't know this,only the Adobe Stock team can know!
I can only hope to soon see results similar to November again and start working again. :)
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Welcome back!
To me it often sounds like you believe your account is being "held back intentionally" by Adobe.
But i am probably misunderstanding.
I hope you really enjoy your break and really let go and do something very different for a while.
I often take breaks from agencies and then focus all my energy elsewhere if one place is pissing me off.
That is why I could never be exclusive again.
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Got a $33 royalty for a photo sale today.
Can't remember ever getting more than $26.50 for a single photo sale on Adobe in the past. Anyone else got these?
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Which is a sobering realization for me:
-> 13,500 new files accepted in one year wasn't enough to boost my downloads
-> according to my calculations, I would have needed about 16,000 new files in 2024 just to keep my downloads, in 2025 it will probably have to be between 20,000 and 25,000 new files - that's really hard to do, you can't beat the flood of AI image farms
But luckily my Canon R8 + 24-105 F4.0 has just arrived - I can now take decent photos again :)
Holy Cow, 13,500 new images! You're a workaholic. ;D "you can't beat the flood of AI image farms" that is a sad realization, especially coming from someone who works so diligently at trying to keep up.
Maybe once the tsunami of AI has passed, people who are working the AI farms, will find the profit for new images, isn't as strong as right now, and they will try to find something else. That could help the files and demands reach an equilibrium.
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Got a $33 royalty for a photo sale today.
Can't remember ever getting more than $26.50 for a single photo sale on Adobe in the past. Anyone else got these?
I also got $33 from a sale today. ;)
Very good, my highest sale ever on Adobe Stock ... I hope more will follow with even higher amounts like Shutterstock.
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pos 2550, files 7650
things are improving a bit. I hope next week the buyers are back and ready.
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To me it often sounds like you believe your account is being "held back intentionally" by Adobe.
But i am probably misunderstanding.
No, you are not misunderstanding.
This guy either praises Adobe all the way or accusing them to put a limit to his downloads. He is quite tiring if you ask me. One day Adobe is the best agency ever and he has all these plans how to grow his sales and the next day when things don't succeed it's because Adobe has this evil plan putting a ceiling on his sales. I would diagnose him as manic depressive but I am not a psychiatrist.
The term cry-baby comes into mind as well.
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I think he is totally stressed out trying to do stock as a full time income.
But this is not the right business for everyone. For many it is best to keep stock as a part time side hustle while the main business is something else.
Then grow stock slowly over 10 years.
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I think he is totally stressed out trying to do stock as a full time income.
But this is not the right business for everyone. For many it is best to keep stock as a part time side hustle while the main business is something else.
Then grow stock slowly over 10 years.
One small tip about making it in this dying business. AI is not the way as a Western person. AI can be made by anyone wherever they're from. It's just prompting and curating. The people that can do that are in the millions and they have the resources and the time. Worse is that any income that is generated by it will exceed much more then we in the western world will value it. Your dollar is way less then a dollar for someone like say in India.
What they can't do however (generally speaking) is travel and make actual photos of those places they make with AI. Even though that actual photography is overly satuarated as well, it's still less competitive then the AI market.
The AI market is just a no go if you want to get ahead. You can't seriously think you will do a better job then the other millions of people that have time and resources on their hands. And when some in these countries have a little success with AI, it will ignite a whole bunch of newbies trying as well. Lost cause, stick with real photography.
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One small tip about making it in this dying business. AI is not the way as a Western person. AI can be made by anyone wherever they're from. It's just prompting and curating. The people that can do that are in the millions and they have the resources and the time. Worse is that any income that is generated by it will exceed much more then we in the western world will value it. Your dollar is way less then a dollar for someone like say in India.
What they can't do however (generally speaking) is travel and make actual photos of those places they make with AI. Even though that actual photography is overly satuarated as well, it's still less competitive then the AI market.
The AI market is just a no go if you want to get ahead. You can't seriously think you will do a better job then the other millions of people that have time and resources on their hands. And when some in these countries have a little success with AI, it will ignite a whole bunch of newbies trying as well. Lost cause, stick with real photography.
Fully agree. Agencies are "outsourcing" building their AI libraries to countries with cheap labor. Which is why at some point the price of AI content will fall.
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Fully agree, which is why I am making camera video my main focus this year.
I disagree about prices falling for ai, agencies want a one price for everything model, and the majority still don't even take ai.
My sales are actually nicely split 50/50 between camera and ai, so however the algos swing I will always sell something.
There is no "outsourcing" because from the beginning a very large part of high quality stock has come from countries with much lower living costs.
We have been living with this competition forever and we are still here.
eta
the current influx of people doing ai with no background in stock...i think that will die down, because they are not making the money the youtubers promised.
it is the regular camera stock producers from asia or eastern europe that are making the best ai content.
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Fully agree, which is why I am making camera video my main focus this year.
I disagree about prices falling for ai, agencies want a one price for everything model, and the majority still don't even take ai.
My sales are actually nicely split 50/50 between camera and ai, so however the algos swing I will always sell something.
There is no "outsourcing" because from the beginning a very large part of high quality stock has come from countries with much lower living costs.
We have been living with this competition forever and we are still here.
eta
the current influx of people doing ai with no background in stock...i think that will die down, because they are not making the money the youtubers promised.
it is the regular camera stock producers from asia or eastern europe that are making the best ai content.
I have to agree with Mike here. Although your sales might be 50/50 split for now between AI and real photography, it cannot stay that way. As you have seen AI photos have grown exponentially. From nothing to now 37% of Adobes stock and that in just a matter of a few years. In the end Adobe will have to make a choice how to evaluate AI sales versus real photo sales. Now it is the same but if AI make up 95% of their catalogue, then what? Needless to say with all the AI offerings, real images will come more desirable. AI prices will have to drop versus real photography. It would be strange if they would not make this exciting news flash later on :)
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Why does it matter if they sell illustrations, camera photo, ai photo, video, vectors...it is all media files. There is no reason for them to offer anything cheaper, because they will make less money.
SS was the one sprinting forward with low prices, not adobe.
And they have just "merged" with getty, so why should they lower prices now? Plus, they don't even take ai from producers, they have no ai collection. Maybe they will never offer an ai collection. Who knows? Perhaps keeping their collection ai free will be their main selling point?
It is possible the adobe collection will be 95% ai. So what?
The only thing that matters is how many of these files are competing with mine. There are so many niches with very little content.
Plus there is a gigantic hole in all things editorial, not just with video.
The main thing is to look at customers and what they need. Keep customers happy and you have sales.
Adobe offers the ability to exclude ai for those who want it, for instance for real locations or real food.
But that is all that is needed.
The customers are the main factor in the algos. There might be millions of files coming but the majority will just sink to the bottom forever.
Anyone who believes stock is over, the best decision is to look for alternatives.
I see loads of opportunities, so I keep uploading.
eta
If you think your travel niches are safe from competition...the pandemic is over...my city is already being overrun by massive amounts of travelers from asia, especially china.
They all have cameras and access to the internet.
The influx of editorial and travel content from anywhere on the globe will increase dramatically if more people from asia travel everyhwere by the millions.
So...nothing is safe...
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Welcome back!
To me it often sounds like you believe your account is being "held back intentionally" by Adobe.
But i am probably misunderstanding.
I hope you really enjoy your break and really let go and do something very different for a while.
I often take breaks from agencies and then focus all my energy elsewhere if one place is pissing me off.
That is why I could never be exclusive again.
thank you! hahaha! :D
yes,it's better to disconnect sometimes.
as Adobe also says,when you end your software subscription: "sometimes you just need to leave".
no,I absolutely never believed that my account was held back intentionally,I simply believe that nothing happens by chance,and there is a logical explanation for everything.
I believe that it is also in Adobe's interest that we succeed in our business/hobby/work,and I am sure that everything possible is done to make this happen,but it is certainly not easy to make this happen!
I will continue to follow microstockgroup in the meantime,but I will check my Adobe Stock dashboard again on January 31st,and then I will decide what to do,whether to extend the strike further or not,I hope I don't have any nasty surprises! :D
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To me it often sounds like you believe your account is being "held back intentionally" by Adobe.
But i am probably misunderstanding.
No, you are not misunderstanding.
This guy either praises Adobe all the way or accusing them to put a limit to his downloads. He is quite tiring if you ask me. One day Adobe is the best agency ever and he has all these plans how to grow his sales and the next day when things don't succeed it's because Adobe has this evil plan putting a ceiling on his sales. I would diagnose him as manic depressive but I am not a psychiatrist.
The term cry-baby comes into mind as well.
you're just a hopeless inflated balloon, shame on you! :D
and don't put words in people's mouths that they haven't said.
you're just a poor scoundrel who judges a priori without understanding anything,without respect.
anyway ok,you've already won the superhero of the year 2025 award,now you can relax,there are no other prizes to win! :D
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The first 3 weeks of January were really slow, but now Adobe is slowly coming back to life for me: right now pos 3470 with 116 downloads (all photos, no AI).
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Yes, things are picking up, I hope next week will be a really good.
Still at pos 2550, now 164 downloads
Today so far 18 dl, 8 ai, 10 camera
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Yes, things are picking up, I hope next week will be a really good.
Still at pos 2550, now 164 downloads
Today so far 18 dl, 8 ai, 10 camera
Good to see things are picking up somewhere... unfortunately not for me :-)
I'm currently at 9DL today and 90 this week (last year same week - 136 on Friday).
So far January 25 is at 65% of January 24's level for me - no idea what AS turned here, it was bad for me anyway...
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I think he is totally stressed out trying to do stock as a full time income.
But this is not the right business for everyone. For many it is best to keep stock as a part time side hustle while the main business is something else.
Then grow stock slowly over 10 years.
One small tip about making it in this dying business. AI is not the way as a Western person. AI can be made by anyone wherever they're from. It's just prompting and curating. The people that can do that are in the millions and they have the resources and the time. Worse is that any income that is generated by it will exceed much more then we in the western world will value it. Your dollar is way less then a dollar for someone like say in India.
What they can't do however (generally speaking) is travel and make actual photos of those places they make with AI. Even though that actual photography is overly satuarated as well, it's still less competitive then the AI market.
The AI market is just a no go if you want to get ahead. You can't seriously think you will do a better job then the other millions of people that have time and resources on their hands. And when some in these countries have a little success with AI, it will ignite a whole bunch of newbies trying as well. Lost cause, stick with real photography.
not necessarily,this is a common mistake,thinking that everyone makes AI and therefore it is better to dedicate ourselves to real content.
depends on what.
I have AI content that has sold more in a month than old best-seller content in years,and AI content that I have never sold and will probably never sell.
those with production skills developed over time can seize the opportunity to create AI content that the mass of AI producers cannot do.
It depends on what kind of AI content you produce and what kind of real content you produce.
Producing quality,original,sellable AI content is more difficult than it might seem.
my best-selling AI content is content that required a week of work and a lot of patience.
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And as stock is only a part-time job for me, I can consider myself lucky - the last 6 years of stock have enabled me to do some travelling - I was able to go on a safari, see Iceland and was in the Seychelles from the income, surprisingly the pictures from there hardly sell at all.
You also need to improve your metadata. Poorly written titles and keywords won't make your content visible to the right buyers.
For instance, take a look at this picture:
https://stock.adobe.com/de/images/close-up-of-different-fruits-hanging-on-trees-taken-on-the-seychelles-islands/253979877
Your title, "Close up of different fruits hanging on trees taken on the Seychelles islands," is not specific enough. The fruit is called "breadfruit." Including that information in your title, along with other relevant details about the fruit, would be much more effective.
i've been using visualmind.ai both to get more expansive captions/tags and an enormous savings in time - i spend a few minutes to process hundreds of images, then another few minutes fact-checking.
just for fun - i saved a copy naming the file xxx.jpg & ran thru VM & got:
Caption
Large, round breadfruit hanging from a branch, surrounded by lush green leaves, highlights the stunning beauty of tropical flora and the richness of natural vegetation
tags
breadfruit, fruit, tree, green, leaves, nature, tropical, plant, growing, branch, food, exotic, botany, agriculture, flora, leaf, garden, organic, natural, ripe, unripe, close up, detail, texture, freshness, healthy, vegetation, rainforest, jungle, polynesia, caribbean
obviously ' polynesia, caribbean' need to be deleted & Seychelles could have been appended before the run
VM can often identify place, and even specific building
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just for fun - i saved a copy naming the file xxx.jpg & ran thru VM & got:
Caption
Large, round breadfruit hanging from a branch, surrounded by lush green leaves, highlights the stunning beauty of tropical flora and the richness of natural vegetation
tags
breadfruit, fruit, tree, green, leaves, nature, tropical, plant, growing, branch, food, exotic, botany, agriculture, flora, leaf, garden, organic, natural, ripe, unripe, close up, detail, texture, freshness, healthy, vegetation, rainforest, jungle, polynesia, caribbean
obviously ' polynesia, caribbean' need to be deleted & Seychelles could have been appended before the run
VM can often identify place, and even specific building
Many thanks for the valuable tip - I have already flirted with VM.ai 1 or 2 times and will now give it a try.
I think the result is convincing :-)
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little improvement, pos 2430, files 7660
yesterday 33 dl, 15 ai, 18 camera
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Why does it matter if they sell illustrations, camera photo, ai photo, video, vectors...it is all media files. There is no reason for them to offer anything cheaper, because they will make less money.
SS was the one sprinting forward with low prices, not adobe.
And they have just "merged" with getty, so why should they lower prices now? Plus, they don't even take ai from producers, they have no ai collection. Maybe they will never offer an ai collection. Who knows? Perhaps keeping their collection ai free will be their main selling point?
It is possible the adobe collection will be 95% ai. So what?
The only thing that matters is how many of these files are competing with mine. There are so many niches with very little content.
Plus there is a gigantic hole in all things editorial, not just with video.
The main thing is to look at customers and what they need. Keep customers happy and you have sales.
Adobe offers the ability to exclude ai for those who want it, for instance for real locations or real food.
But that is all that is needed.
The customers are the main factor in the algos. There might be millions of files coming but the majority will just sink to the bottom forever.
Anyone who believes stock is over, the best decision is to look for alternatives.
I see loads of opportunities, so I keep uploading.
eta
If you think your travel niches are safe from competition...the pandemic is over...my city is already being overrun by massive amounts of travelers from asia, especially china.
They all have cameras and access to the internet.
The influx of editorial and travel content from anywhere on the globe will increase dramatically if more people from asia travel everyhwere by the millions.
So...nothing is safe...
All valid points.
Well the future is very near. We will see what happens to the AI part of Adobe's collection and if it indeed will still be priced the same relatively in the coming two years or so.
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9:30 pm europe, today 8 dl, 3 ai, 5 camera
weekly pos 2250
I really hope buyers are back next week
camera content has remarkable resilience, I haven't uploaded much camera photo/video stock in the last two years. the sales are from sometimes really old files, some are from 2005-2008 and only reached adobe in 2013/14.
Will be interesting to see how sales improve if I add more camera stuff again.
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Not a bad week. Sales numbers up a bit from 2 weeks ago though earnings a down a little. Both sales volume and earnings up from last week which was a slower week. The trend line is showing a good start on Adobe Stock in 2025...
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my position on January 26th is....I don't know!I'll check again on January 31st! :D
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again tiny improvement pos 2180
now 7700 files
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Just me again with another little improvement
now pos 2060
yesterday I had 38 dl on adobe with 17 ai, 21 camera.
my camera content is older and very resilient.
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Judging by how it's going for you,I'd say things are picking up a little.
I still don't know how the month ended,on January 21st the last time I checked it was terrible.
I think that in any case I will end the month with a similar result to last year in January,perhaps if all goes well a 10-30% increase in the number of sales,I don't know but this is what I expect.
for sure,if the result is negative compared to last January,I will be out of action for another week.
I'll know in 2 days! :)
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I wish you good luck!
I am down again a bit by rank, but got a nice 21 dollar extended license today.
Overall january will probably be 30% more than last year.
pos 2130
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thanks,good luck to you too! :)
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my position on January 26th is....I don't know!I'll check again on January 31st! :D
You need to check every day and post your current weekly rank here, every day. If nothing changes just post the same meaningless nonsense over again with the time and day.
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looks like people enjoy reading and commenting and following us injustice.
at least we have sales...and want to improve our income.
others are just here to enjoy playing in politics threads.
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my position on January 26th is....I don't know!I'll check again on January 31st! :D
You need to check every day and post your current weekly rank here, every day. If nothing changes just post the same meaningless nonsense over again with the time and day.
I do as I want,and I act accordingly if I deem it appropriate in complete freedom,I can do whatever I want as long as I act in my free space,without insulting anyone.
then it remains to be seen which of us says more nonsense!
and that's enough,kindly don't bother me anymore with this nonsense or I'll report you,if you don't like what I write don't read it!
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You need to check every day and post your current weekly rank here, every day. If nothing changes just post the same meaningless nonsense over again with the time and day.
or I'll report you,if you don't like what I write don't read it!
Really? You would report someone who makes only a cynical remark on this 'look how my position is' topic?
You probably ran crying to the teacher when you were young and tell on children who were not overly nice to you.
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You need to check every day and post your current weekly rank here, every day. If nothing changes just post the same meaningless nonsense over again with the time and day.
or I'll report you,if you don't like what I write don't read it!
Really? You would report someone who makes only a cynical remark on this 'look how my position is' topic?
You probably ran crying to the teacher when you were young and tell on children who were not overly nice to you.
I never reported anyone,even though I probably should have,because some people like you are really ignorant.
You are the last person who should talk,after what you told me,after I had done absolutely nothing,and despite what you told me,I didn't report you.
Unfortunately in this forum there are ignorant and presumptuous people like you,fortunately not all,there are also many intelligent and educated people,who write interesting things.
and this is the reason why I have stayed until now,because here there are also people with whom I can joke and have a civil conversation,about microstock or otherwise.
and now we're done?
what else do you want?a lollipop? :D
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pos 2030, yesterday 46 dl, 29 camera, 17 ai. And thanks to a higher license i got 53 dollars for the day. best day of 2025 so far. Thank you adobe.
january 25 will be 40% higher than jan 24
so to any of the oldtimers who have convinced themselves stock is dead...it is not. but of course getting back in and the income up is hard work.
eta
i started sharing rations of ai/camera after the question of adobe algo swings. it has had a strange side effect - in some places people are nicer to me. they thought i was a purely "evil ai witch"...but now that i still sell one button camera content and on many days more camera than ai...i am back to being a "real artist" again.
people are weird
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You need to check every day and post your current weekly rank here, every day. If nothing changes just post the same meaningless nonsense over again with the time and day.
or I'll report you,if you don't like what I write don't read it!
Really? You would report someone who makes only a cynical remark on this 'look how my position is' topic?
You probably ran crying to the teacher when you were young and tell on children who were not overly nice to you.
I never reported anyone,even though I probably should have,because some people like you are really ignorant.
You are the last person who should talk,after what you told me,after I had done absolutely nothing,and despite what you told me,I didn't report you.
Unfortunately in this forum there are ignorant and presumptuous people like you,fortunately not all,there are also many intelligent and educated people,who write interesting things.
and this is the reason why I have stayed until now,because here there are also people with whom I can joke and have a civil conversation,about microstock or otherwise.
and now we're done?
what else do you want?a lollipop? :D
Then don't threaten with it if you don't follow through.
And because you asked, just one more thing. Can you swear on your parents grave you did not have a peek at your sales on Adobe? You are so obsessed with your sales that I can hardly believe you have not looked all this time :)
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I'm having a really good week on Adobe and... this is my 3rd best ever month overall on Adobe and... it's January - typically my slowest month of the year!
I'm also over $1000 for the month overall combined which is my best ever January. Adobe Stock earnings for January 2025 represent almost 59% of overall earnings for the month. This means that combined earnings from Shutterstock, iStock and Pond5 couldn't even make up half of the overall income for January 2025.
See how the remaining hours play out and report back, but overall this has been an encouraging result that I needed for microstocks.
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That is a fantastic result, congratulations!
You are always inspiring me to upload more videos.
Over all agencies combined I just might reach 800, just got a 16 dollar eyeem market sale for one image. Hope they start selling regularly again.
The majority of sales is Adobe, but since still 80% of my uploads are adobe I don‘t feel it would be fair to currently make a comparison.
However, I am amazed I have sales with 1 million files coming in every day.
The adobe algos seem to be quite good at managing the flood.
And currently camera content is usually still outselling ai daily.
This will probably change in summer because I have little summer camera content.
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@SimonSays
:D no,I just checked my sales on Adobe after 10 days,I will publish the results shortly,I do it because I think it is interesting for Adobe to read how it is going for all of us,and obviously I think it is also interesting for all those who follow us.
I understand that what I was doing might seem like a complaint,but that's not the case,mine is simply a statement of the facts,which I think could be interesting for everyone to know.
my flaw,a flaw I've always had,and as a dear friend of mine once said,is that I tell always the truth,maybe too much!
according to my friend I should have lied to a girl I met who is much younger than me,I could have done it easily because I don't look my age,but I didn't do it,while my friend,smarter than me,lied all the time! hahaha! :D
anyway it ended well for me anyway,this girl much younger than me,appreciated my sincerity.
this has always been my problem,I have always told the truth too much.
and yes,I am obsessed with my sales on Adobe,because for me can make an important difference,for some/many this is just a hobby,for me it is not,the results on Adobe are of fundamental importance to me.
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:D no,I just checked my sales on Adobe after 10 days,I will publish the results shortly,I do it because I think it is interesting for Adobe to read how it is going for all of us,and obviously I think it is also interesting for all those who follow us.
and yes,I am obsessed with my sales on Adobe,because for me can make an important difference,for some/many this is just a hobby,for me it is not,the results on Adobe are of fundamental importance to me.
Don't know if Adobe cares about your numbers but let me wish you good luck with the numbers you found and that they are what you hoped for ;)
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:D no,I just checked my sales on Adobe after 10 days,I will publish the results shortly,I do it because I think it is interesting for Adobe to read how it is going for all of us,and obviously I think it is also interesting for all those who follow us.
and yes,I am obsessed with my sales on Adobe,because for me can make an important difference,for some/many this is just a hobby,for me it is not,the results on Adobe are of fundamental importance to me.
Don't know if Adobe cares about your numbers but let me wish you good luck with the numbers you found and that they are what you hoped for ;)
thank you! good luck to you too! :)
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looks like people enjoy reading and commenting and following us injustice.
at least we have sales...and want to improve our income.
others are just here to enjoy playing in politics threads.
How does putting your sales and rank on the forum every day improve sales and income?
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looks like people enjoy reading and commenting and following us injustice.
at least we have sales...and want to improve our income.
others are just here to enjoy playing in politics threads.
How does putting your sales and rank on the forum every day improve sales and income?
And what's the point of increasing your sales if you spend your time poking around the forum? *wink*
This question might well pop into someones head ;-)
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sharing sales day data, not just here but also in many groups, allows those interested to notice algo changes and flows.
i have been doing this for nearly 20 years, so why should i stop now?? (whenever i was actively doing stock)
the main reason to spend time in stock is to make money.
this is like various food sellers sharing a drink at the end of the day and gossiping about their sales of oranges and cucumbers.
not interested, don't do it...
why is that a problem??
i am very naturally interested and motivated by hearing how others are doing.
others come to this forum to argue about trump...makes no sense to me
eta
in my case it also saves me time. i keep getting questions from people who used to do stock and are considering getting back in. i direct the questions here, so they can follow my progress or decline.
a lot of people think i am crazy to attempt getting back to a full time income. and maybe they are right, we will see?
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Jasmine, you are not crazy for pursuing a full-time income in microstock. You are a passionate, hardworking optimist, and that quality is essential for success in any endeavor.
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Thank you! You are so kind! :)
Xmas was a big disappointment, but at least January worked.
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pos 1930 - moving up, customers are back! or at least until springbreak
today 12 am already 21 dl, 8 ai, 13 camera
have a good week everyone!
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Terrible Monday... 3 Camera, 10 AI, 0 Video (about half of a 'normal' Monday)
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It is a start. Welcome back!
You sell ai much better than me, I still sell mostly camera files. If I didn‘t have them, my sales would be much lower.
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my position on January 26th is....I don't know!I'll check again on January 31st! :D
You need to check every day and post your current weekly rank here, every day. If nothing changes just post the same meaningless nonsense over again with the time and day.
At least In Justice only posts his weekly rank, once a week.
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the rank changes every day and i enjoy reading daily sales posts in many places.
I mean, I have daily sales so…
seriously, who are all these people who come to a stock forum and are not interested in stock sales?
the places where people share daily stats is where you see people steadily grow their income.
sadly this place has become a whine fest where the only allowed opinion is that stock is dead when it clearly isn‘t.
the day ended with 58 dl, 46 dollars, 20 ai, 38 camera. all just adobe
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thanks to a good day yesterday, my rank moved up to pos 1700
today is much slower so far, maybe 30% of what I had yesterday this time
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inspite of the slower day, i still moved up in rank
pos 1610
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Position 17,500th
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It‘s a start. Let us see where your journey takes you this year and how you rise up in rank.
Good luck for 2025.
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Another little improvement to pos 1540
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Position 17,500th
Position 17,500
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Another little improvement to pos 1540
of course you are happy to continue with these results.
I,on the other hand,think I'll stop here,because it's not possible to sell so little with my portfolio.
I understand that I can't sell 10 times more but I should sell at least 2-3 times more.
I firmly believe that if you and I create the exact same content and it gets approved at the exact same time,your content will sell much more than mine.
I really lack visibility,and I think that continuing to upload will only further dilute my portfolio.
I think it's better to let my portfolio settle down and sell what I already have,in order to gain visibility.
Of course the new uploads bring visibility,but I certainly can't continue with these results.
the number of sales is too low for my portfolio,and the sales generated by the new content do not add to the sales I already make with the old content,but rather replace it.
I sell old and new content,what I sell changes,but the total result does not change.
this was also seen in January,in which I had the same number of sales as in January 2024,when instead I certainly should have sold more,given that a year has passed and my portfolio has grown by 40%.
so in my opinion,continuing to upload in these conditions is unfavorable for me,even because I have low visibility.
if and when I sell at least double what I sell now,I might perhaps think about uploading again,but that's enough for the moment,I will still try to reach at least 300 approved contents this year,for the bonus contributor,if ever in the future I want to continue.
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pos 1320, 7750 files
"I firmly believe that if you and I create the exact same content and it gets approved at the exact same time,your content will sell much more than mine.
"
You know perfectly well that is nonsense, adobe takes 7 million files a week, how could anyone influence something like that??
The fact that we don't upload the same content at the same time is the reason we have different sales stats for our ports.
And don't worry, my rank will also drop again, it does not keep going up all the time.
But I will keep posting up or down for my own accountability.
I am also not just sharing stats here but in several places. And from experience, the people that share have better growing sales, because it helps to be more focused in your research.
But nobody is forcing you to share. If you think your sales improve better without sharing stats, just do that.
eta
like i explained before, i have changed my strategy towards finding smaller niches and producing content that might sell 1-5 a YEAR, not monthly or weekly or daily.
so my sales are getting better spread out over my portfolio, but they are unlikely to become individual bestsellers.
But noone has to do that.
on the adobe discord is a 20 year old young man who in jan made 1300 dollars. he has been uploading ai since 18 months. he has a steady weekly rank of 500-700 but wants to get into the top 100. i am sure he will.
then there is the ai star who has a weekly rank around 200.
so i am quite slow compared to them. also on most days i still sell more camera than ai content.
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I think you didn't understand what I said.
I never said that anyone can influence anything.
I say and confirm that you have greater visibility than mine,due maybe to the best-selling contents which have many more sales than mine.
How many times has your best seller sold?a thousand times?two thousand?more?
my best sellers have never sold so much on Adobe,in other agencies yes,I have contents that have sold thousands of times,but in the past not now,and so that's why maybe I have less visibility on Adobe.
so I repeat and confirm:"If you and I create the exact same content and upload it at the same time,and it gets approved at the same time, your content will outsell mine,even if our content is identical in every way".
this is due to your advantageous position,due to your greater visibility.
I'm not discussing the reasons for this,which can be many,but I'm saying what is obvious: "you have greater visibility"
and mine is a simple observation,which should sound more like a compliment,not a criticism! :)
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I have 3 files with more than 500 sales and one of them is over 1000.
The vast majority of my sales is 1-3 times, even files with more than 10 is a not a high number.
I don't have a "bestseller" port on adobe, unlike my port on istock.
But believe whatever you believe, I sincerly hope you get the sales volume you wish for.
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this was also seen in January,in which I had the same number of sales as in January 2024,when instead I certainly should have sold more,given that a year has passed and my portfolio has grown by 40%.
Why should sales increase, just because of more images?
Your answer is "visibility"?
I wonder if the other possibility is, what are the images and what is the demand for those images? That's not just aimed at you, but all of us.
How do you measure visibility? Mine vs yours or mine vs anyone else? Or is that just an opinion of why, adding more images, doesn't make for more sales.
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In theory you would increase your visibility and chance of selling content by increasing the portfolio size.
But in reality it doesn't work because there is obviously a portfolio ranking algorithm, which set's the visibility and chance of selling content.
Quality and demanded topics (niches) are obviously factors that influence the ranking system.
But my observation is also the selling volume of your portfolio increases your ranking system, ergo it is extremely important to have at lease some very strong best sellers.
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I am not sure if agencies would have a ranking for the entire port. How would that benefit the customer?
Every agency will have their own answer in the algos, but I would think the algos are supposed to identify useful content with probably also some individual customer personalization.
At least in theory the algos should learn what the individual customer likes and gradually serve them mpre content in the style they prefer.
We all know that there is a regional influence and customers can even opt to select to see mostly content from local producers.
The only port related factor I could imagine to influence visibility is total port size to sales volume.
I.e. a port that is efficient and not 2 sales a day with 300 000 files, might get a little preference.
But overall I cannot image that agencies care at all about „ranking“ producers.
All their focus will be on serving the customers who pay them money.
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...
I,on the other hand,think I'll stop here,because it's not possible to sell so little with my portfolio.
{ME: obviously it IS possible because that's whatv's happening}
I understand that I can't sell 10 times more but I should sell at least 2-3 times more.
..
I really lack visibility,and I think that continuing to upload will only further dilute my portfolio.
n order to gain visibility.
Of course the new uploads bring visibility,but I certainly can't continue with these results.
the number of sales is too low for my portfolio,and the sales generated by the new content do not add to the sales I already make with the old content,but rather replace it.
...
the last statement has no credibibilty
why do you keep saying your work should sell so much more? what sets your images apart from the rest of us? leaving your portfolio is unlikely to increase visibility - esp'ly since buyers are looking for specific images & don't care who created them.
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@Andrej.S. Exactly,I agree with you,there is a factor related to the number of sales and best-sellers.
@Uncle Pete and cascoly I should sell at least 2-3 times more than I sell,there is no doubt about this,because many new contents that I created in 2024 sell.
my seventh best-seller is a content made in December,and there are many of them among the top 300 best sellers,so it is "not possible" to make the same number of sales that I made at a time when I did not yet have this content,i.e. January 2024.
in all honesty it is "not possible" to have the same number of sales in January 2025,given that the contents I created in 2024 are selling well.
"leaving your portfolio is unlikely to increase visibility" yes sure maybe...or maybe not? :D
maybe if I stop uploading new content,maybe I'll increase the number of sales of the content I already have and increase visibility,or maybe not,maybe it's better to continue uploading and have more new content to have more visibility,did the chicken or the egg come first? :D
@Cobalt Thanks for the reply,this information is very useful to me.
already have one content that has more than 1000 sales and 3 with more than 500 brings with it a long tail of content that has already sold quite well,and this can perhaps be a reason why you have more visibility,perhaps.
@everyone :D at the end of the day,I'm not here to discuss what the reasons are because the truth is that we can only make assumptions that may seem right or wrong,but the truth is that we don't know anything for sure.
the only certain thing is that given the results,for the moment I prefer to stop,then I will evaluate in the future whether it will ever be appropriate to resume.
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it is one over 1000 and two more over 500 and then a very long tail. so just 3 over 500-
I still don‘t understand why it is supposedly „impossible“ to have similar dl as last year even though you added new content.
hitting the wall is a very common problem in stock.
many people keep adding thousands of files every year but their income does not change. or sometimes it even goes down.
it is a difficult problem to deal with.
taking a step back and spending some time away from stock is often a good idea. with anything in life if you are stuck.
personally i would keep adding daily files, maybe 2-5.
you can upload a larger batch and just committ them gradually to the queue. 2 minutes a day.
the other thing is if doing stock stresses you out so much, it probably should be relegated to a smaller side income project and not a full inmcome project.
once you have income from something else you will be grateful. stock is a very unstable source of income.
less than 1000 ports earn more than 1000 dollars a month on adobe, those who earn over 3k are in the top 300.
and many of them are teams and companies with multiple people working on the port.
it is not a huge marketplace where many make a full time income like amazon,ebay or youtube.
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It's true Cobalt,microstock is not easy,especially trying to grow quickly enough today,while for those who started in years when they sold more it is certainly easier.
10 years ago or more,with little content you already had best sellers with thousands of sales in a short time,which at least allow you to have a profit base and give time to new content.
today,to reach these levels,having at least some content above 500 sales takes much longer.
someone here had said that he is 40 years old and that he had more time to upload,but I say,not only being 40 years old gives you more time to upload but also more time to mature the contents.
I'm almost 50 now,how many more years should I wait before seeing at least a decent income?Probably too many,if I was 40 I probably thought differently.
of course,you're right,hitting a wall is normal,but what isn't normal is selling so little with my portfolio! :D
however,as I said,I will add 300 contents this year for the bonus contributor,in case I want to continue next year,if I start to see better results I will start again.
beyond January,even February up to now is the same as last year,on 8 February 2024 I had 2 more sales than today 8 February 2025,so what do I do here?I keep adding content and instead of selling more I also sell less?
then the strange thing is in recent years I have uploaded less but I had greater growth between one year and another,while last year I have uploaded more,but instead there has been no growth so far this year.
perhaps it is really better to stop for a moment and give some time to the contents in my port to gain some sales and perhaps visibility,and then in the future resume when I have more visibility.
Anyway,I'll stick around,I'll upload my "contributor bonus quota" I'll keep checking and let you know if it improves. :)
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Position 17,500th
Position 17,500
Position 17,500
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pos 1270
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You have really good figures - I'm delighted :-)
For me it's 118DL so far this week (still far away from the avg. 160 per week 1 year ago) - still not good, especially considering my upload volume at the moment.
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.....
however,as I said,I will add 300 contents this year for the bonus contributor,in case I want to continue next year,if I start to see better results I will start again.
beyond January,even February up to now is the same as last year,on 8 February 2024 I had 2 more sales than today 8 February 2025,so what do I do here?I keep adding content and instead of selling more I also sell less?
then the strange thing is in recent years I have uploaded less but I had greater growth between one year and another,while last year I have uploaded more,but instead there has been no growth so far this year....
:)
+300 isn't going to do much for the CB - even if all 300 are eligible (and actually accepted for bonus is even less)
your approach to microstock is unrealistic - why do you think your previous sales should predict future sales? it's not 'strange' - it's the market. just because you THINK you should do better doesnt make it so. everyone else seems to be reporting decreased slaes and/or income - why should your port be any different?
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...less than 1000 ports earn more than 1000 dollars a month on adobe, those who earn over 3k are in the top 300.
and many of them are teams and companies with multiple people working on the port.
This may significantly underestimate the earnings of ports that bring in at least $1,000, as video ports only require about 60 downloads per week to generate $1,000 monthly. Furthermore, with just 60 downloads per week, these ports would not even rank in the top 1,000 positions. Wouldn't you agree?
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I average somewhere between $800-$1k each month with a video heavy portfolio and usually hover between rank 10,000 and 12,000. Best rank I've ever had was like 7,800.
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Yes, thank you all for pointing out that for video the situation is different.
I was referring to mostly image ports.
Video…here we come!
Money, money, money!
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You have really good figures - I'm delighted :-)
For me it's 118DL so far this week (still far away from the avg. 160 per week 1 year ago) - still not good, especially considering my upload volume at the moment.
I am having a visible increase in older camera images. Which does not seem to affect my ai sales. Plus right now there is also a small uptick for valentine, which is not a strong holiday for me, but perhaps the next 5 days will be good.
I think I have useful content for spring, but summer is usually a dead zone for me. I hope I can improve on that this year.
And then there is video, still processing too slowly and haven't done a single organized shooting this year.
Really curious how your year develops with your gigantic upload volume!!
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.....
however,as I said,I will add 300 contents this year for the bonus contributor,in case I want to continue next year,if I start to see better results I will start again.
beyond January,even February up to now is the same as last year,on 8 February 2024 I had 2 more sales than today 8 February 2025,so what do I do here?I keep adding content and instead of selling more I also sell less?
then the strange thing is in recent years I have uploaded less but I had greater growth between one year and another,while last year I have uploaded more,but instead there has been no growth so far this year....
:)
+300 isn't going to do much for the CB - even if all 300 are eligible (and actually accepted for bonus is even less)
your approach to microstock is unrealistic - why do you think your previous sales should predict future sales? it's not 'strange' - it's the market. just because you THINK you should do better doesnt make it so. everyone else seems to be reporting decreased slaes and/or income - why should your port be any different?
but who ever said mine should be different?
where do you get these ideas? :D
I've never said anything like that.
I am more than sure that many should sell more than they sell.
but I'm not talking about others,everyone knows their own,I'm talking about my portfolio and I tell you that I should sell at least 2-3 times more than I sell.
and I'm talking about the bonus contributor,I don't know what you're talking about.
for the bonus contributor last year 150 approved contents were enough,so this year in my opinion it is better to have at least 300 approved content given that the minimum requirements for free software could increase next year.
however one thing I could try to do for improve sales is change the keywords especially in old content that is more than 3-4 years old,this has worked in the past for some older content that wasn't selling well,so I changed the keywords and now some of it is among best-seller.
Here's what I'll do next week,I'll sift through all the old content and change/improve the keywords.
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"but I'm not talking about others,everyone knows their own,I'm talking about my portfolio and I tell you that I should sell at least 2-3 times more than I sell."
It just does not make sense. The reality is what it is.
I would love to earn 3 times more, but I do not.
The only way to achieve 3 times more sales is by uploading much better content and also to attract new buyer groups in different genres.
And.. to also upload to more agencies, any sales on an agency other than adobe is a sale I would have otherwise never had.
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"but I'm not talking about others,everyone knows their own,I'm talking about my portfolio and I tell you that I should sell at least 2-3 times more than I sell."
It just does not make sense. The reality is what it is.
I would love to earn 3 times more, but I do not.
The only way to achieve 3 times more sales is by uploading much better content and also to attract new buyer groups in different genres.
And.. to also upload to more agencies, any sales on an agency other than adobe is a sale I would have otherwise never had.
but it doesn't make any sense to whom?to you?others?
and what on earth can you know about my contents?
Will anyone here ever know better than me how things are going for me?
"The reality is what it is" what does it mean? :D
"The only way to achieve 3 times more sales is by uploading much better content and also to attract new buyer groups in different genres"
sure,it's good advice,but more suited to your situation,because to sell 3 times more you have to work miracles,for me,however,selling 3 times more is much simpler,but of course,it's good advice.
the point Cobalt,is that my situation is completely different from yours or others,so no one here can judge.
I tell you and confirm that at the moment,with my portfolio I should sell at least 2-3 times more,and no one can know this better than me,because it concerns things that you don't know,since you don't know the number of my sales or my portfolio.
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what I will do in the next few weeks is improve indexing,especially for old content,I believe this can at least partially improve sales,at least I will try.
and I think that's enough for the moment...or not?Is there anything else anyone wants to judge or criticize? hahaha! :D
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what I will do in the next few weeks is improve indexing,especially for old content,I believe this can at least partially improve sales,at least I will try.
and I think that's enough for the moment...or not?Is there anything else anyone wants to judge or criticize? hahaha! :D
I'll try to help you here.
You mentioned really good growth in november last year right? Or another month, it doesn't really matter. You also mention you have uploaded a lot of items and you assume that would give you more sales.
Go back a little. Why did you have good sales in november last year (if that was the month with the growth)? Did you have one or more bestsellers making these numbers? If so, then maybe this was not normal growth you should be expecting and tone down a little your expecatations. If not, what was the content that sold in this good month? Remember those sales. Now, look what you have been uploading. Is it AI or the same of what was doing well. If it was AI then AI is being flooded into Adobes stock this year, so your competition is growing a lot harder then you can submit and you will lose ground.
If it was not AI then it might be your subject that just doesn't gain attraction. This can have mutliple reasons. But mostly it's luck.
Just an anecdote here. I shot Iceland, didn't sell a lot, market was oversaturated. So you might think, don't shoot oversatured subjects. Then I went to the North East coast of the USA and shot photos at New York, Washington etcetera. You would think that these places would be oversaturated as well. But I sell really well relatively.
So you never know what sells well or not or if there is already to much of the same subject. It's also having a bit of luck, I guess.
But my point is. Go look at your sales when things went your way. Try to understand why that was, which photos, which subjects, AI or not, and put that in perspective relative to what you have done the last year and then draw your conclusions.
Good luck but if you go weening once more that you should have more sales because you uploaded so much, I will ignore you like you never existed. Then you just don't get how this game is played.
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@SimonSays
Thank you for your interest and advice.
regarding the complaint,the point is precisely this,I have already tried to close this topic since some time,but there is no way,people continue to make insinuations,criticisms and judgements,and so I continued to repeat the same things.
but I don't blame anyone for it either,because I know that it's the forum,maybe someone writes something,and off they go all the interpretations about the thing someone wrote.
In my opinion,this is a fairly underestimated problem of the era in which we live.
in the past,to have a conversation with a group of people,you had to meet them and talk to them face to face and everything worked differently,but today misunderstandings,criticisms,prejudices,everything has become much easier.
so,once again,thanks for your interest,but I have already decided to leave the forum indefinitely,I don't know when and if I will return,it is possible in the future,everything is possible! :D
"You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You'll get the chance to put the knife in"
Dogs Pink Floyd
good luck everyone! :)
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.....
however,as I said,I will add 300 contents this year for the bonus contributor,in case I want to continue next year,if I start to see better results I will start again.
beyond January,even February up to now is the same as last year,on 8 February 2024 I had 2 more sales than today 8 February 2025,so what do I do here?I keep adding content and instead of selling more I also sell less?
then the strange thing is in recent years I have uploaded less but I had greater growth between one year and another,while last year I have uploaded more,but instead there has been no growth so far this year....
:)
+300 isn't going to do much for the CB - even if all 300 are eligible (and actually accepted for bonus is even less)
your approach to microstock is unrealistic - why do you think your previous sales should predict future sales? it's not 'strange' - it's the market. just because you THINK you should do better doesnt make it so. everyone else seems to be reporting decreased slaes and/or income - why should your port be any different?
but who ever said mine should be different? YOU did!!
...
I am more than sure that many should sell more than they sell.
but I'm not talking about others,everyone knows their own,I'm talking about my portfolio and I tell you that I should sell at least 2-3 times more than I sell.
...
WHY should they sell better??
you keep saying this but have given no reason WHY they should sell better other than your solipsistic opinion that your images are better than the competition?
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solipsistic...never thought msg would increase my word power...thank you...
week-end was slow but stable...pos 1240
Hope you all have a successful week!
processing video files...
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Position 17,500th
Position 17,500
Position 17,500
Position 17,500
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I am not sure if agencies would have a ranking for the entire port. How would that benefit the customer?
Every agency will have their own answer in the algos, but I would think the algos are supposed to identify useful content with probably also some individual customer personalization.
At least in theory the algos should learn what the individual customer likes and gradually serve them mpre content in the style they prefer.
We all know that there is a regional influence and customers can even opt to select to see mostly content from local producers.
The only port related factor I could imagine to influence visibility is total port size to sales volume.
I.e. a port that is efficient and not 2 sales a day with 300 000 files, might get a little preference.
But overall I cannot image that agencies care at all about „ranking“ producers.
All their focus will be on serving the customers who pay them money.
I didn't say this algorithm would benefit customers. In fact, it doesn't - it benefits Adobe in terms of sales volume.
If you want to maximize earnings as a corporation, you increase the visibility of top-selling contributors.
1. You motivate your top performers by allowing them to earn more.
2. You put best-selling content, which has higher demand, at the forefront to further increase the chances of selling.
To me, it's very obvious that such an algorithm exists.
After my new "young" bestsellers (50+ downloads) passed an unknown threshold, I started selling those images about 2 to 4 times a day. Additionally, other similar images in the series also had an increase in sales.
I've even noticed a small overall increase.
The interesting part is that the bestsellers need to be "active" and still selling. I also have one bestseller with over 500 downloads and several with over 250, but since they're over 10 years old and non-selling anymore, they no longer contribute to my portfolio ranking.
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This week I got probably the worst RPD of all times: $0.61
RPD is getting lower each year and it looks like 2025 it's going to hit a new low.
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Yes, the rpd going dow is a real problem, especially when combined with inflation.
Even if you have a good increase in sales, the combo can kill your success in volume.
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Downloads-
Earnings-
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(https://i.postimg.cc/90KPyBG4/zombie-walking.gif)
Dear friends, do you worry about your rank, every day, all day. Do you find yourself concerned that the "algo" has changed and your best sellers aren't best anymore. You go check, to see what page you are on, at a minimum of daily? Do you see new images getting no traction and old images declining in sales numbers. Do you go to the best sellers page, every day, at least once, so you can see what other people are doing? And you check your earnings, morning, noon and night, then last thing, before you go to sleep, just in case something changed in the last few hours.
Is that what's got you down Bunky? Well let me tell you, there's an asteroid coming, that's going to hit the Earth and blow us all into cosmic dust. Making pennies from Nanostock, isn't so important after all? We have global warning, climate change, people in power that half the population, generally doesn't like. Dictators and wars, someone could push the big "end of the world" doom button and nuke the planet.
While you're more concerned about how the algorithm runs and obsessed with your image rank?
(https://i.postimg.cc/x1JL1LMm/rofl.gif)
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Downloads-
Earnings-
Position-
(https://i.postimg.cc/90KPyBG4/zombie-walking.gif)
Dear friends, do you worry about your rank, every day, all day. Do you find yourself concerned that the "algo" has changed and your best sellers aren't best anymore. You go check, to see what page you are on, at a minimum of daily? Do you see new images getting no traction and old images declining in sales numbers. Do you go to the best sellers page, every day, at least once, so you can see what other people are doing? And you check your earnings, morning, noon and night, then last thing, before you go to sleep, just in case something changed in the last few hours.
Is that what's got you down Bunky? Well let me tell you, there's an asteroid coming, that's going to hit the Earth and blow us all into cosmic dust. Making pennies from Nanostock, isn't so important after all? We have global warning, climate change, people in power that half the population, generally doesn't like. Dictators and wars, someone could push the big "end of the world" doom button and nuke the planet.
While you're more concerned about how the algorithm runs and obsessed with your image rank?
(https://i.postimg.cc/x1JL1LMm/rofl.gif)
One can observe their rank without being obsessed. It's a useful piece of information. For example I also observe my Google rank (not for microstock obviously), which gives me a data point about what works and what to change.
And about the asteroid, you can relax. It's a small asteroid about Tunguska size (google Tunguska if you don't know what I mean). Also I think you're from the US and US is not even in the possible impact path. Also it's not so difficult to deflect with current technology.
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Some people are not here to make money.
I am.
And like I said it is easier for me to document my journey back to a full time income here, then to keep answering individual emails or questions.
This is a workplace forum, that is being derailed by people wanting to talk about daily politics and personal problems.
If making money with stock to pay your daily bills is not interesting, why are you even here?
Plenty of hobby photo forums where you can hang out.
pos 1390
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Dear friends, do you worry about your rank, every day, all day. Do you find yourself concerned that the "algo" has changed and your best sellers aren't best anymore. You go check, to see what page you are on, at a minimum of daily? Do you see new images getting no traction and old images declining in sales numbers. Do you go to the best sellers page, every day, at least once, so you can see what other people are doing? And you check your earnings, morning, noon and night, then last thing, before you go to sleep, just in case something changed in the last few hours.
While you're more concerned about how the algorithm runs and obsessed with your image rank?
This is not very respectful.
I am a professional photographer and I have been doing stock (and then microstock) for almost 20 years.
To pay my bills, along with microstock, I also sell art prints on POD and some in premium and limited edition versions (these images are not sold on microstock, but only through my website and some art galleries).
I made this choice because I want to have complete freedom to do photography (my job, but above all my passion) the way I want. I want to shoot my favorite subjects in the way I want.
I could do workshops, photo trips, sell tutorials, open a YouTube channel on photography, or work on commission, but that's not what I like to do.
And to stay competitive in microstock, one of the most important things is to understand the market and compare yourself with other photographers.
It's called "Market Analysis" and it's the most important thing to do before opening any business and to avoid failure.
That's why it's important to exchange opinions on sales, on RPD, and on how the agencies' algorithms work.
Things don't always work the same way for everyone, but information is often useful to direct our work in a difficult business that changes every day.
I'm here to not lose the freedom to do what I like. 8)
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Well said. I absolutely love this job and I can do it without ever needing to retire.
Rebuilding a full time income is a challenge. Would be nice if people either appreciate hard work or...just say nothing and ignore and go play in the politics thread....
For some people seeing somebody actually rise up and make money (again) with stock goes against what they have made themselves believe. That their loss in income is somebody else's fault.
But stock is not dead, I expect the media industry to keep growing at a rapid pace over the next 10 years.
It is hard work and of course not as easy as 10 years ago, but there are also new opportunities.
So good luck to all those who work hard and build their income.
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But stock is not dead, I expect the media industry to keep growing at a rapid pace over the next 10 years.
Yes, I agree with what you say.
The only big problem is that the stock industry is not respecting our work as contributors.
I don't think that if I sell 15,000$ of photographs per month it is fair to only receive 3,000$ (20% I think is the average between SS, IS, and AS)
I think it is very unfair.
From which I have to subtract the taxes of my country and the costs of production (I do travel and landscape, I need good equipment and I have about 4/5,000 euros per year of travel costs).
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I feel you, I'm in the similar position, I mostly shoot travel and landscape images but I have a full time job in the same time, I would love to do microstock as full job, actually I was dreaming at some point in life to quit my full job and rely only on microstock and be free, but the current market doesn't give me much hope.
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Well Adobe is 33/35%, so there we make a little more.
Selling images is very hard work, I don‘t think it is as easy as many here imagine. Agencies compete with each other and all the free content.
They run large reviewer teams, have a legal team to stay updated on the ever changing legal stuff. They have to deal with criminals fraud. Plus all the sales people, marketing costs, keeping the site running software hadrdware…
And all the regular complaints and clients.
Everybody is free to sell directly from their website, maybe in addition to doing stock.
Plus…photography is a popular hobby so there is no lack of people uploading.
We need the agencies more than they need us.
One of teh reasons why I am slowly shifting to more video. Less content, less competition and much easier to carve out a longterm niche.
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Sure, agencies have their costs, but we have ours too.
I think the 50-50 model is the right one.
But we are in a neo-capitalist society and the entrepreneur wants an ever-larger slice of the profit.
He is no longer satisfied with having a beautiful villa, a nice car, dining in the best restaurants, and traveling.
But today's entrepreneur wants exclusive experiences, watches, bags, and jewelry worth thousands of dollars, yachts, villas worth 40 million dollars, private jets, and so on ...
And to do this he leaves the workers with a miserable profit. Especially when there is an oligopoly situation in the market (which is what there is now in microstock, with very few agencies surviving).
I saw the data from the merger between SS and Getty ... they want an Adjusted EBITDA Post-Synergy of $724 million - $729 million ... it doesn't seem like a fair value to their contributors.
And your sentence: "We need the agencies more than they need us" is not true.
Without our content, these agencies are an empty box. And they couldn't do this job anymore. I can continue in other ways.
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What I mean is that business is always a supply demand balance.
And there is a total oversupply of images, camera or ai.
The lever that we do have is not the images but the fact that we recommend agencies to clients.
If an agency treats you badly, why should we recommend it to our clients?
We don't.
That is something agencies need to contemplate, because very people have a stock subscription.
getty and ss together just 1.4 million. That is a small base of customers.
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Yes, but if the general downward trend of the RPD continues, I don't know if it will be more convenient for us to work for all the agencies. For me we are on the edge.
And it will end up that the quality of the images of the microstock agencies will decrease and the difference between microstock and freebie sites will no longer be distinguishable.
I believe that those who turn to Adobe, Shutterstock, Alamy and Getty are looking for quality and guarantee. But if what they sell is close to that of Unsplash or Pixabay there will be even more cancellations.
I'll give you my example: 10 years ago I took a 1-month tour of Europe, I spent 5,000 euros and the photos I took after 10 years made me 30,000 euros.
Today, however, I'm not sure I'll get my travel money back. Traveling costs a lot more and the photos sell a lot less. And the microstock agencies lose the photos of the most professional contributors.
Now I look for niches that are no more than 500/600 km from where I live. So as not to risk throwing my money away. But in my opinion, the overall quality suffers.
Also, think about companies like NatGeo. Once upon a time, they paid photographers to take pictures on location. Today newspapers no longer sell and often use our photos for some cover and feature. But, honestly, the photos of the past were better.
The budget, in any artistic activity, affects the quality. But today is the era of "good enough". In photography, videos, films, music, books.
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I don‘t think it is about „lowering quality“
Customers simply need content that blends in with harmony into social media feeds and looks like the kind of content people create themselves.
A super high quality lifestyle photo will break the flow.
I often sell simply daily life mobile phone shots of food. A food photographer will cry over my pictures, but I understand the customer. It is content that they need and that was missing on more „traditional“ agencies.
Eyeem made a killing with that, then other places started creating social media friendly collections.
It is a huge market that needs this type of content.
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I think quality is important.
In my experience of almost 20 years I have done many A/B tests.
I have sent two versions of a similar photo, of the same landscape or city.
One with a quality retouch, where I had spent two hours retouching the contrast of every little detail, color harmony, vertical lines ... and one with a simple 5-minute retouch.
The higher quality photo has always sold more. By a lot! Sometimes, after 2 years, the worst photo has earned $5 and the best $500 ...
If my tests had confirmed that customers buy both versions, I would have flooded the market with thousands of photographs. Instead, after almost 20 years I only have 6000 ...
One thing is right: the image must have a market. If you have a beautiful photograph of a forest in a place that no one is looking for, it is difficult to sell it.
A Yellowstone or Yosemite forest is much easier to sell (although it will have more competition, so the highest quality is needed).
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Customers simply need content that blends in with harmony into social media feeds and looks like the kind of content people create themselves.
Maybe in food or lifestyle it works like this, I've never shot these genres.
In travel or landscape it never worked for me to send snapshots.
My photos sent from 2010 to 2015 have an average earnings of over $100 (400 images = earnings >40,000$). I sell 98% of my images at least once.
Do you know Romolo Tavani's work?
He produces images of different categories than mine (holidays, fantasy, concepts ...). He has very few images (I think about 3000), but of incredible quality. And his sales are stellar! Much more than mine.
And without a doubt I would choose one of his images for one of my projects.
Simple shots may also be needed (it's a niche), but for me the saleability remains lower.
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Downloads-
Earnings-
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(https://i.postimg.cc/90KPyBG4/zombie-walking.gif)
Dear friends, do you worry about your rank, every day, all day. Do you find yourself concerned that the "algo" has changed and your best sellers aren't best anymore. You go check, to see what page you are on, at a minimum of daily? Do you see new images getting no traction and old images declining in sales numbers. Do you go to the best sellers page, every day, at least once, so you can see what other people are doing? And you check your earnings, morning, noon and night, then last thing, before you go to sleep, just in case something changed in the last few hours.
Is that what's got you down Bunky? Well let me tell you, there's an asteroid coming, that's going to hit the Earth and blow us all into cosmic dust. Making pennies from Nanostock, isn't so important after all? We have global warning, climate change, people in power that half the population, generally doesn't like. Dictators and wars, someone could push the big "end of the world" doom button and nuke the planet.
While you're more concerned about how the algorithm runs and obsessed with your image rank?
(https://i.postimg.cc/x1JL1LMm/rofl.gif)
One can observe their rank without being obsessed. It's a useful piece of information. For example I also observe my Google rank (not for microstock obviously), which gives me a data point about what works and what to change.
And about the asteroid, you can relax. It's a small asteroid about Tunguska size (google Tunguska if you don't know what I mean). Also I think you're from the US and US is not even in the possible impact path. Also it's not so difficult to deflect with current technology.
The joke is, checking a few times a day, over and over, all day, not observing on an occasional basis.
Yeah to Tunguska interesting case, comet or air burst. It's still a mystery and a good one. OK small asteroid blown up story. What about the volcano in Yellowstone, how about the Earths core moving. What about the poles swapping? Oh of course climate change. Then there are the aliens, airplanes spraying chemicals... Much more important things to worry about besides, how's my rank and is the agency biased for "other people". Position is relative and if you go and look back at this thread, most people just go up and down, like a cork floating on the waves.
It's not as if Position actually goes up or down much or changes, for most of us.
Do my images have a Google Rank. Tell me how I can see that. I'd be interested in seeing what that says. I did Chatgpt and found my name. Not very exciting. ;)
There was a joke in that first post, my rank shows as "-" because it was so bad this week.
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Eyeem made a killing with that,
EyeEm never even made a profit! They went bankrupt, remember?
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Eyeem made a killing with that,
EyeEm never even made a profit! They went bankrupt, remember?
Let me rephrase it - me and many others made a killing with social media style content. Customers were paying Getty or eyeem directly several hundred dollars for simple mobile phone shots.
I have my own ideas why they went bankrupt, but they had great sales for several years.
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Do you know Romolo Tavani's work?
He produces images of different categories than mine (holidays, fantasy, concepts ...). He has very few images (I think about 3000), but of incredible quality. And his sales are stellar! Much more than mine.
He is amazing, so are probably your landscape shots.
Doesn't change the fact that there is a very big market for content that blends in seamlessly on social media.
And just because in your case it did not work for your content, does not mean other people are not making very good money.
It is simply not your genre.
Social media files might look deceptively simple but they have their own visual cues that make them useful.
I think for many classically trained artist it is too hard to let go of their beautification and perfectionism.
Not every mobile phone photo works. But if you get it right you can have amazing sales with very simple daily life stuff. No big investments needed, no long processing time.
Not suggesting you should try it, anyway you say you have tried and for you it didn't work.
For me it is a great genre. Which does not mean I don't like beautiful "perfect" files. However I found it liberating to add content that looks very authentic from real life. And without the "I will win any photo contest" prize look attached to them.
Nobody has to cover all genres available in stock.
I am just pointing out there is a very valid reason agencies, including macrostock agencies, take mobile phone "snapshots".
--
Had a little valentine push, yesterday 54 dl on adobe, 24 ai, 30 camera. pos 1340, 7800 files
eta2
romolo‘s port is being brutally copied by the ai crowd. He has always had copy cats , but now this is a completely different level of „followers“.
Will be interesting to see how he holds up.
He does have the superior algo advantage and a long successful history, but there is a flood coming for his style.
One of the reasons why in my second stock journey I am looking for lots of little niche things that might sell reliably 1-5 times a year instead of hundreds.
Not recommending anyone else to do that, but just a very personal strategy decision.
It will be a very long tail port this time but hopefully very reliable.
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But stock is not dead, I expect the media industry to keep growing at a rapid pace over the next 10 years.
Yes, I agree with what you say.
The only big problem is that the stock industry is not respecting our work as contributors.
I don't think that if I sell 15,000$ of photographs per month it is fair to only receive 3,000$ (20% I think is the average between SS, IS, and AS)
I think it is very unfair.
From which I have to subtract the taxes of my country and the costs of production (I do travel and landscape, I need good equipment and I have about 4/5,000 euros per year of travel costs).
I agree with you it is wrong. I'd suggest though one method is to figure out how to do marketing, and then create your own site to sell the photography/videography.
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Position 17,500th
Position 17,500
Position 17,500
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17,499
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@cobalt
I agree, maybe that kind of everyday life photography sells a lot on lifestyle shots. Home, people, family, cooking. Today authenticity sells a lot.
I think that in landscape photography, on the other hand, the snapshot with the harsh midday light and without retouching is not very sought after. It's simply a different market.
This doesn't mean you have to take a fake landscape photograph. Mine aren't. Many don't even seem retouched. In the past, I saturated more (the market demanded that), today instead, to differentiate myself from AI, I look for a more real retouching.
However, shooting with the right light and the right atmospheric conditions is essential in landscape photography. And to manage all this in retouching is not easy. There is no control of the light like in the studio. Natural light is always different. For that, retouching is almost always needed, even if in the end you don't see it. It's not enough to put the saturation slider to the maximum or replace a sky to take a beautiful photo.
Sometimes I see embarrassing things, like shadows that don't match the position of the sun ... :-X
In fact, for a portfolio like Romolo Tavani's it will be hard to resist copycats.
For my part, I hope that those who buy landscape images will always want to rely on those taken from the real world. Luckily for me, for now, the AI landscape images are fake in an embarrassing way ... :o
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I agree with you it is wrong. I'd suggest though one method is to figure out how to do marketing, and then create your own site to sell the photography/videography.
Thanks, I've been doing it for 4 years with my website.
The results are encouraging, but unfortunately, everything is increasingly difficult. :(
To have good visibility with your website you need to be in the top search positions on Google in an organic way. The only way is to write interesting blog articles for your customers. And it's not easy.
I think it's the only thing that works, but it's complicated for two reasons:
1) Google is increasingly pushing its searches towards paid content. Organic search is increasingly penalized. :-\
2) With blog articles you risk intercepting other photographers who are not interested in your prints or in purchasing a license of your image. If I sold a workshop it would be fine, but I don't do it.
I said organic Google search is the only thing that works because for me, the experience with social media, both organic and paid with ads, has been terrible. Never sold anything. I tried Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram (organic and ads), lots of likes, and lots of views, no clients, only copycats and spammers.
Maybe I got the strategy wrong, but for me, social media is a huge disappointment. (I've never tried YouTube, my English is bad and I don't feel comfortable in front of a camera 8))
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I think high quality real landscapes from authentic locations is a good thing to do in the time of ai. And you can add lots of editorial from locations as well, those will probably last quite a long time. Especially video.
My little daily mobile phone snapshots should also be safe from ai "admirers" because obviously doingd "snapshot" normal people style with ai doesn't make sense.
But beautiful generic landscapes, simple beaches mountains etc...those can be done well with ai and they do sell, especially if they are designed as background images.
I hope Romolo stays on top.
There is also the thing about portfolio efficiency, i.e. lots of sales over port size.
That should give him an advantage for quite a while.
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I hope Romolo stays on top.
I think agencies should protect the best authors. It's in their interest ... But I don't know if they will. The world is now in the hands of algorithms. The human touch is disappearing everywhere and it's a shame.
For landscapes, in fact, I stopped taking generic shots.
Now I only deal with specific locations.
For editorials and videos, you're right. I've always believed little in editorial sales. I have very few editorial images. Maybe I should try again.
As for video, I should learn to do conversion and other things (I should find an updated guide on how to prepare footage for stock) ... but, the thing that holds me back is the dust spots on the mirrorless ... a nightmare. :-X
Maybe I should have a specific camera with a single lens just for videos ... ::)
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I agree with you it is wrong. I'd suggest though one method is to figure out how to do marketing, and then create your own site to sell the photography/videography.
Thanks, I've been doing it for 4 years with my website.
The results are encouraging, but unfortunately, everything is increasingly difficult. :(
To have good visibility with your website you need to be in the top search positions on Google in an organic way. The only way is to write interesting blog articles for your customers. And it's not easy.
I think it's the only thing that works, but it's complicated for two reasons:
1) Google is increasingly pushing its searches towards paid content. Organic search is increasingly penalized. :-\
2) With blog articles you risk intercepting other photographers who are not interested in your prints or in purchasing a license of your image. If I sold a workshop it would be fine, but I don't do it.
I said organic Google search is the only thing that works because for me, the experience with social media, both organic and paid with ads, has been terrible. Never sold anything. I tried Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram (organic and ads), lots of likes, and lots of views, no clients, only copycats and spammers.
Maybe I got the strategy wrong, but for me, social media is a huge disappointment. (I've never tried YouTube, my English is bad and I don't feel comfortable in front of a camera 8))
Interesting. Yes - for paid ads on the "major" sites (i.e., google, amazon, facebook, etc) - haven't yet figured out how to see the 'major' results I'd like. Many times it is 'around' break-even (i.e., sometimes break even, sometimes make a 'slight' profit, then other times slightly 'losing' money - so overall seems a lot of time/money effort to basically just make the same amount).
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for video, just use the camera you have or even just your mobile phone.
keep it steady on a tripod until you learn to have VERY steady hands. If you do want to invest, try an electric slider, even one for mobile phone is useful.
you don't need fancy gear and lenses, also not really complex software.
Just take 30-60 seconds per scene, ater choose around 20-30 seconds, remember to leave 2-5 seconds for entry or exit, or in case the customers wants to blend several clips together and needs some starting seconds.
remove audio, export in your favorite codec, I use h264, works for me.
The main thing is not to become the total video pro, but to understand what customers buy, once you have that down, maybe invest in better gear.
watch youtube content that is made from stock footage to see how they blend stock clips with their own recordings.
Then gradually you will learn what works.
I also did too little editorial and overall too little video, but I am enjoying it a lot.
If you look at the p5 sales thread, lots of editorial there.
Of course it is biased, because if you have a well selling commercial clip, people will not show that.
https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=8135844&page=1421 (https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=8135844&page=1421)
The sales reports are depressing but I think this is mostly because of SS mismanaging p5 and perhaps not really marketing it anymore.
I still have to understand the adobe illustrative rules for photo and video but I do see a good longterm opportunity with editorial.
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For landscapes, in fact, I stopped taking generic shots.
Now I only deal with specific locations.
I think that's a very good way to find subjects that are best for both. Specific locations are the main attraction, but that doesn't stop anyone from seeing it as a good generic landscape as well. But either way, specific locations are a good way to attract specific uses. 8)
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you don't need fancy gear and lenses, also not really complex software.
Just take 30-60 seconds per scene, ater choose around 20-30 seconds, remember to leave 2-5 seconds for entry or exit, or in case the customers wants to blend several clips together and needs some starting seconds.
remove audio, export in your favorite codec, I use h264, works for me.
Many thanks Cobalt, if I learn how to clean the sensor from dust without destroying it I will try. :D
Or I will test with my iPhone 15 Plus or my old Sony A7RII ...
What software do you use to cut, remove audio, and export the file?
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I think that's a very good way to find subjects that are best for both. Specific locations are the main attraction, but that doesn't stop anyone from seeing it as a good generic landscape as well. But either way, specific locations are a good way to attract specific uses. 8)
Selling generic landscapes is really hard for search rankings.
Being at the top for the keywords: landscape, nature, and outdoor is like winning the lottery ... (although I don't know if there are customers who do such a simple search ;))
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I use final cut pro, sometimes also the simple photo app from apple.
it is really not difficult, choose a start and end with enough seconds so the customer can make their own crop decisions, turn off audio or export without audio.
I add metatags and description while exporting and many agencies read out metadata.
I record with 30 fps, but export with 25fps.
I have no idea if that is the best way to do it, but customers buy it.
If the light is not so good, maybe indoors, maybe late afternoon, I export as hd instead of 4k.
Most of my sales are still hd.
Just get the files out and then see what happens. I still use my iphone 13 pro, especially outdoors for editorial it is a good camera.
I now have the 16 pro, it has better stabilization, quite amazing actually, but just for simple stuff the old iphone is good enough.
eta
had a little valentine push today, 64dl, 17 ai, 47 camera
last year I sold less files but a lot more ai.
I guess there is too much competition, I also think more customers choosing to select camera only this year
I supply both, so that is fine with me. certaily motivates me to do more with my camera, even simple flower stuff.
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Thank you very much Cobalt, very comprehensive information (but I will have to choose another software because I have a Windows PC).
Very kind ;)
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You are very welcome.
Glad to meet someone here who is still interested in making money with stock!
Yesterday I sold a simple clip with flowers for 8 dollars that I uploaded to adobe in 2013 :)
I think as I add more videos, my sales will grow.
And you keep reading how people with around 8k clips make 800-1200 dollars a month just on adobe with video.
Now with istock and ss merging clips will probably also sell better with them, if they merge their customer groups.
So all the best with your video journey.
eta
Yesterday was the best day of the year for me on adobe
71 dl, 19 ai, 52 camera
Valentine is over, so it will drop. But it was a fun day.
pos 1260. 7830files
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This is probably my best rank as well. Mostly due to one(!) valentine's image. It sold 500+ times in its first year, 300+ in the second and now 200+ in the 3rd year. Despite there being already 7000 copies... Many even copying my exact title...
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Well done!
Yes, the copy cats are terrible.
I now do very simple generic titles that will not generate a copy of my file.
Of course this probably lowers the seo ranking of my file.
I just hope it puts of many copy cats and they move on to ports with finished propmting titles.
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Thank you very much Cobalt, very comprehensive information (but I will have to choose another software because I have a Windows PC).
Very kind ;)
DaVinci Resolve 19 is free https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve (https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve)
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DaVinci Resolve 19 is free https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve (https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve)
Thanks a lot, I knew the name.
I didn't think there was a free version too.
I hope it's not too complicated. I'll study it ;)
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I really had an unusually good valentines day with 103 dl. It pushed my weekly rank to pos 1000.
Now...the strange thing is....over 80% of sales were camera content, not ai. Last year the majority of my valentine sales were ai. And I was also selling fresh ai valentine cards up until a few days ago.
From reading around ai places I don't see other people reporting this.
But it has me worried for easter, because most of my easter cards are ai. I should do a few shootings with camera content just to be sure. Can anyway use that for other agencies.
You never know what happens in stock. I certainly enjoyed this.
It will be fun for 24h and then next week I will drop to 20-30 sales a day. well...I hope it is not less than that...
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I really had an unusually good valentines day with 103 dl. It pushed my weekly rank to pos 1000.
Now...the strange thing is....over 80% of sales were camera content, not ai. Last year the majority of my valentine sales were ai. And I was also selling fresh ai valentine cards up until a few days ago.
From reading around ai places I don't see other people reporting this.
But it has me worried for easter, because most of my easter cards are ai. I should do a few shootings with camera content just to be sure. Can anyway use that for other agencies.
You never know what happens in stock. I certainly enjoyed this.
It will be fun for 24h and then next week I will drop to 20-30 sales a day. well...I hope it is not less than that...
Strange. I did have a good amount of valentines content ("ai"), but I think only 1 think sold. Very odd. It's good quality, unique, etc.
Also odd a bit of a slower week, which is/was a little concerning to me.
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Without my camera content, this would have been a pretty dreadful and sad valentines.
That is why I am asking, how was it for others?
Maybe ai got dialed down a bit over this holiday?
Or more customers choosing to exclude ai?
But other ai producers seemed to have a great holiday.
It is a mystery, but a good reason to do more with camera, just in case.
eta
Only 19 ai sales...and only 1!!! was a heart. The rest was xmas, easter, people, backgrounds...but no valentine cards.
But the camera content was mostly Valentine, with a few exceptions.
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That is why I am asking, how was it for others?
In my case, the week with Valentine's Day wasn't unusual, but I don't have too much holiday material either - it doesn't work for me somehow.
This week is a bit better with 143DL (25 camera images, 7 videos, 111 ai images), but I'm also producing a lot of AI content at the moment (for the last 3 weeks) (an average of 350 images per day) - it's like ‘the last AI attempt’ to get a small piece of the cake.
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uploading 350 images a day? incredible!!
if that does not work - then how about 10 a day?? :)
but at least your ai are selling.
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Since I completely changed my workflow for AI images (exactly 3 weeks ago), I have created, edited, tagged and finally scaled 9,300 images - the only thing I still do manually is select which images to remove. Otherwise such a quantity would not be feasible.
This is the final attempt to get the account forward, if it doesn't work over mass, then AI is completely overcrowded - last year I lost about 30 weekly downloads, although I had about 13,000 accepted files in 2024.
Now it ‘has’ to go up, otherwise it's no use anymore :)
PS: and in the meantime I already have the first downloads from the uploads of the last 3 weeks - so it could be that it works.
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So you now have 60 000 files?
I am really impressed and very curious about your sales.
I am going the other way, trying to upload less files but hopefully more relevant.
Have you considered ai png? Seems to be very popular and successful.
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So you now have 60 000 files?
I am really impressed and very curious about your sales.
I am going the other way, trying to upload less files but hopefully more relevant.
Have you considered ai png? Seems to be very popular and successful.
From my experience (I was able to get a similar workflow, and did that a while back) - doesn't really seem to make much of a difference - in fact - the 'newer' files seem to affect the sales of the 'older' files. You are just 'working harder'. Not sure how the algorithm works, and it would just be speculative - but your much smaller portfolio seems to perform really well. It seems larger portfolios do not necessarily equate to more sales. I'm actually quite surprised - but your portfolio (in terms of downloads) does consistently outperform my downloads, even though I have a much larger portfolio than you.
Never considered the idea of 'lightboxing' - so - perhaps you just have clients that like your particular niche/whatever you are focusing on.
With respect to the PNG - also did that a while back - and - really don't know. Properly keyworded things, had desireable assets, etc, etc. "Some" did "relatively" well (double digits) - whereas the others no sales yet.
So... anyways - bigger portfolios (including significantly bigger ones) does not seem to necessarily equate to more sales/downloads/etc.
Whatever you are doing seems to be working, so I'd suggest just keeping it up.
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@Cobalt:
There are currently 54,500 (and about 8,000 left to upload - currently a few hundred a day).
The review queue is limited to 3001, as far as I remember.
AI png I also have around 1,000 images in my portfolio, but only silhouettes - ‘real’ png#s are very time-consuming and I'm not a graphic designer :)
@SuperpPhoto:
Yes, I was also under the impression that upload quantity doesn't have such a big impact, but the chance of a ‘good seller’ is just bigger with more bandwidth.
It's my last attempt in the field of AI images with large quantities by my standards and a wide range of topics to catch a few ‘top sellers’.
I'll be using my AI picture account for the last week and then I'll be on holiday - a few days after Iceland to get the camera glowing again :)
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@Cobalt:
There are currently 54,500 (and about 8,000 left to upload - currently a few hundred a day).
The review queue is limited to 3001, as far as I remember.
AI png I also have around 1,000 images in my portfolio, but only silhouettes - ‘real’ png#s are very time-consuming and I'm not a graphic designer :)
@SuperpPhoto:
Yes, I was also under the impression that upload quantity doesn't have such a big impact, but the chance of a ‘good seller’ is just bigger with more bandwidth.
It's my last attempt in the field of AI images with large quantities by my standards and a wide range of topics to catch a few ‘top sellers’.
I'll be using my AI picture account for the last week and then I'll be on holiday - a few days after Iceland to get the camera glowing again :)
I kind of thought the same thing - but - no, nothing seems to have 'caught on' as a 'best seller' (at least not yet). And I thought the increased diversity of assets would mean more sales in different markets - but - it just seems to 'replace' other stuff that was selling "relatively" well.
Plus - it is strange, it seems like there is almost a 'max # of weekly downloads' per account... like - even though I did a lot more work, the downloads kind of just fluctuate within a certain range, not really going up, and not really going down overall. It seems to have been like that for about the last 1.5 years within the same 'range'.
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Plus - it is strange, it seems like there is almost a 'max # of weekly downloads' per account... like - even though I did a lot more work, the downloads kind of just fluctuate within a certain range, not really going up, and not really going down overall. It seems to have been like that for about the last 1.5 years within the same 'range'.
That's really interesting that you mention that. I've also been watching the figures very closely for a good 2 years and have had exactly the same thought.
It's probably just a classic ‘conspiracy thought’, but whenever I exceeded 150dl per week after a while, there was always a dip to around 110dl per week. The last two spontaneous slumps were at the end of March‘24 and now in December’24.
But we will probably never understand the very complex relationships between world events, the Adobe search algorithm, internal changes and customer wishes :-)
That's why I'm now dumping images into the account with the ‘big bucket’ and trying to keep the quality as high as possible (the rejection rate suddenly went up from 10% to 30% a good week ago) and then I'll see what happens if I only upload camera images for a while (like 2-3 years ago).
In any case, the hourly wage remains low ;-)
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I think that's a very good way to find subjects that are best for both. Specific locations are the main attraction, but that doesn't stop anyone from seeing it as a good generic landscape as well. But either way, specific locations are a good way to attract specific uses. 8)
Selling generic landscapes is really hard for search rankings.
Being at the top for the keywords: landscape, nature, and outdoor is like winning the lottery ... (although I don't know if there are customers who do such a simple search ;))
Good point. I was trying to say, if someone has specific locations, there's always that outside chance that a generic landscape could sell. Lots of maybe, could and wishful thinking. Yes, specific locations, for anything, seems to be a good way to hit the marketplace. Especially since everyone else, can't go to the same places or doesn't live near them.
All that aside, you made me look: 32,780,180 landscape, nature, outdoor stock photos :) That's a wow number. And the winner is...
(https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asphalt-road-square-green-mountain-260nw-2468302145.jpg)
Really? "Asphalt road square and green mountain with sky clouds natural landscape at sunrise" Not what I would have expected.
2nd is nice, #3 is the lone tree in a field photo, my God cliche, and #4 is a cityscape. #5 is the Sun in the clouds.
Now something like "45 pikes peak iowa stock photos " I'm on the first page, because everyone is. I'm around 10% of the images.
I don't know about the download limits, if that's some kind of set number and there's a way they manipulate sales, I wish my fixed number was higher. ;D What I get, from week to week, day to day, has wild swings, on Adobe. Speaking of: 11 results for pikes peak iowa in images at Adobe and none are mine. I need to see what's going on with that?
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@superphoto
"So... anyways - bigger portfolios (including significantly bigger ones) does not seem to necessarily equate to more sales/downloads/etc.
Whatever you are doing seems to be working, so I'd suggest just keeping it up."
There is also the factor of portfolio effectiveness, i.e. a port with a good ratio of sales to size.
Although personally I am trying to follow a long tail strategy in my second stock journey, trying to identify niches and then creating content in the hope it sell 1-5 a year.
These images do not show up in a top level search with one keyword, but they will show easily on a very specific search.
Having a large port, but not of similars, but very, very diverse content would however increase the chances of having real bestsellers, files that sell every week or even several times a day.
It also should give more balance.
We will see. If we keep sharing stats we can keep learning from each other.
@justanimage
That's why I'm now dumping images into the account with the ‘big bucket’ and trying to keep the quality as high as possible (the rejection rate suddenly went up from 10% to 30% a good week ago) and then I'll see what happens if I only upload camera images for a while (like 2-3 years ago).
In any case, the hourly wage remains low ;-)
Really curios about when you start to add camera content.
Suggestion: recreate well selling ai designs as camera content.
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@superphoto
"So... anyways - bigger portfolios (including significantly bigger ones) does not seem to necessarily equate to more sales/downloads/etc.
Whatever you are doing seems to be working, so I'd suggest just keeping it up."
There is also the factor of portfolio effectiveness, i.e. a port with a good ratio of sales to size.
Although personally I am trying to follow a long tail strategy in my second stock journey, trying to identify niches and then creating content in the hope it sell 1-5 a year.
These images do not show up in a top level search with one keyword, but they will show easily on a very specific search.
Having a large port, but not of similars, but very, very diverse content would however increase the chances of having real bestsellers, files that sell every week or even several times a day.
It also should give more balance.
We will see. If we keep sharing stats we can keep learning from each other.
@justanimage
That's why I'm now dumping images into the account with the ‘big bucket’ and trying to keep the quality as high as possible (the rejection rate suddenly went up from 10% to 30% a good week ago) and then I'll see what happens if I only upload camera images for a while (like 2-3 years ago).
In any case, the hourly wage remains low ;-)
Really curios about when you start to add camera content.
Suggestion: recreate well selling ai designs as camera content.
Well... that's what I thought (bigger, more varied port = more sales), but it doesn't seem to be the case.
Also - it's strange - I put a lot of time/effort into certain concepts/themes that I thought would sell well (i.e., like sets of 50-100 related items)... (was unique, seemed interesting, seemed something the market would be interested in)... and... for a number of those sets, "maybe" 1 or 2 items sold... others nothing...
So lol - I guess I really don't know :P Worked really hard the last 3 months to add significant additions to my portfolio, and last weeks sales were down by about 50% from 2 months ago (in spite of all the additional content), and this week, exceptionally slow start (as of right now, only single digit sales). Not too fun.
Of course - there's all sorts of other things going on (trends, other competitors, spam-all-you-can people, other companies, etc, etc) which all could be factoring into it as well... So I'm not sure... We'll see.
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You are very welcome.
Glad to meet someone here who is still interested in making money with stock!
Yesterday I sold a simple clip with flowers for 8 dollars that I uploaded to adobe in 2013 :)
I think as I add more videos, my sales will grow.
And you keep reading how people with around 8k clips make 800-1200 dollars a month just on adobe with video.
Now with istock and ss merging clips will probably also sell better with them, if they merge their customer groups.
So all the best with your video journey.
eta
Yesterday was the best day of the year for me on adobe
71 dl, 19 ai, 52 camera
Valentine is over, so it will drop. But it was a fun day.
pos 1260. 7830files
As someone heard a long time ago, in this forum or another,"keep uploading!" I think that's the secret, that also works on social networks like TikTok, I know of people who have accounts on TikTok, their content is not good, but they have a lot of followers but it's because they continue uploading content every day.
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Today I had an ai png accepted...hope those will soon lift my sales.
Yesterday just 24 dl, today 29 dl. weekly ranl 1170.
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Nice! :)
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It‘s a start.
You will move up very quickly with more sales.
my weekly dropped to 1290
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It‘s a start.
You will move up very quickly with more sales.
my weekly dropped to 1290
Now that is peculiar. Is that picture actually from 'today'? Because right now I have a higher download count than you with a much lower 'ranking'.
Possibly maybe your console just hasn't been 'updated' yet (so your ranking is say as of Monday or something). Because otherwise I find that a bit peculiar...!
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Now that is peculiar. Is that picture actually from 'today'? Because right now I have a higher download count than you with a much lower 'ranking'.
Possibly maybe your console just hasn't been 'updated' yet (so your ranking is say as of Monday or something). Because otherwise I find that a bit peculiar...!
You might find it less peculiar, if you knew the rank is calculated based on the performance from the last 7 days, not based on the performance from the current week (which are the download count numbers you see on your dashboard). No conspiracy theory here ;)
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Exactly this. My current rank is too high for this weeks sales. But last week was good, so I am still higher up.
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You might find it less peculiar, if you knew the rank is calculated based on the performance from the last 7 days, not based on the performance from the current week (which are the download count numbers you see on your dashboard). No conspiracy theory here ;)
Good to know and that explains why the numbers, don't match, the DL numbers. ;D When I was tracking this with a group of people, we had the same anomalies. People with the same DLs and different ranks. People with the same rank and different DL numbers.
The seven days makes good sense and resolves that conflict. I guess what you are saying is, when the counter resets on Sunday night, the week, doesn't reset. Although when I have no new DLs on Monday morning, my rank is - - -. As if I have no rank and no downloads.
Thank You
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dropping, dropping, dropping
now pos 1820
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dropping, dropping, dropping
now pos 1820
Not a good week here too... especially the friday is very slow.
Some Video sales made my RpD look better...
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Congrats on the video sales! Makes a real difference.
Only 11 downloads at 5 pm. Sad.
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Good week for my standards anyway. Even my position is up relative to my own port performance. I've a total of 3555 files made up of 212 illustrations, 944 photos and 2399 videos.
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Rather weak week. But finally managed to climb above 700 assets with a few more in the waiting queue (one of them since 6 months) :D
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Congrats on the video sales! Makes a real difference.
I was very lucky this week with 2 video sales for $70 each - I usually only see a handful of those all year.
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That is great to hear. Not surre I ever had that on adobe.
my rank is now correct at 3390
:(
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That is great to hear. Not surre I ever had that on adobe.
my rank is now correct at 3390 :(
It seems something is changing in "the algo"... again... hopefully for the better
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It‘s a start.
You will move up very quickly with more sales.
my weekly dropped to 1290
If you are 1290, which is very good, what does that say about making money in Microstock? Only 1289 people in the world ahead of you. Very small number of people making a living at this while sales and income are dropping.
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It‘s a start.
You will move up very quickly with more sales.
my weekly dropped to 1290
If you are 1290, which is very good, what does that say about making money in Microstock? Only 1289 people in the world ahead of you. Very small number of people making a living at this while sales and income are dropping.
Good point. Especially when you know there a lot of companies/groups that we know that sell a lot. So there will only be a small number of individual producers that can reach $3000 or more each month. Pretty depressing if your goal is to make microstock your main income. Unless you live in a country where $100 a month is enough offcourse.
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It‘s a start.
You will move up very quickly with more sales.
my weekly dropped to 1290
If you are 1290, which is very good, what does that say about making money in Microstock? Only 1289 people in the world ahead of you. Very small number of people making a living at this while sales and income are dropping.
Good point. Especially when you know there a lot of companies/groups that we know that sell a lot. So there will only be a small number of individual producers that can reach $3000 or more each month. Pretty depressing if your goal is to make microstock your main income. Unless you live in a country where $100 a month is enough offcourse.
Well, i live in a third world country (Venezuela). However $100 is not enought for living, maybe $500 (for one person with owned house).
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The people with good video sales make more with lower rank.
But stock has always been selling into a tiny group of customers.
Not like having stores on amazon, etsy or ebay and ports don‘t go viral liike a youtube channel.
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Contrary to what some may believe, $100 is not sufficient to live comfortably anywhere.
As another member pointed out, $500 might enable some people to live "comfortably" in many developing countries. However, they could earn more by focusing on corporate shoots.
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Now down to 3620
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Only 1289 people in the world ahead of you. Very small number of people making a living at this while sales and income are dropping.
The estimated annual revenues from the merger between Getty and Shutterstock will be 2 billion dollars.
Given the earnings of us, contributors, we can estimate that Adobe Stock also has 1 billion in revenues.
Total 3 billion from the 3 main competitors in this market.
And from 3 billion only 1000/1500 contributors manage to make a full-time salary?
This is incredible in my eyes.
But I wonder: Do the agencies take a slice of the profit too big or is the cake divided into too small slices? ???
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Contrary to what some may believe, $100 is not sufficient to live comfortably anywhere.
As another member pointed out, $500 might enable some people to live "comfortably" in many developing countries. However, they could earn more by focusing on corporate shoots.
Indeed, $500 for just one person expeses (you have to own a home, because you would need instead $700 in order to pay a room $200). $500 would be the base for living (you have to hire a health insurance, because the public health system don't work well).This cost for living in Caracas city,Venezuela (third world country).
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Well, i live in a third world country (Venezuela).
Does Payoneer or PayPal work in Venezuela?
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It‘s a start.
You will move up very quickly with more sales.
my weekly dropped to 1290
If you are 1290, which is very good, what does that say about making money in Microstock? Only 1289 people in the world ahead of you. Very small number of people making a living at this while sales and income are dropping.
Good point. Especially when you know there a lot of companies/groups that we know that sell a lot. So there will only be a small number of individual producers that can reach $3000 or more each month. Pretty depressing if your goal is to make microstock your main income. Unless you live in a country where $100 a month is enough offcourse.
Well, i live in a third world country (Venezuela). However $100 is not enought for living, maybe $500 (for one person with owned house).
Huh. Wow. Where I live - "rent" (not owning) a 1 bedroom apartment is about $1500/month, and that is considered "cheap". And it's not even a big place like New York or Chicago, just a 'relatively small town'... And you are saying in Venezuela you could OWN a home for $500/month? What is life like there?
And... what would it be like (living standards) if you say made $3k USD/month?
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Well, i live in a third world country (Venezuela).
Does Payoneer or PayPal work in Venezuela?
They both work in Venezuela. (I hope they don't give up, many Venezuelan freelancers get paid using them).
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It‘s a start.
You will move up very quickly with more sales.
my weekly dropped to 1290
If you are 1290, which is very good, what does that say about making money in Microstock? Only 1289 people in the world ahead of you. Very small number of people making a living at this while sales and income are dropping.
Good point. Especially when you know there a lot of companies/groups that we know that sell a lot. So there will only be a small number of individual producers that can reach $3000 or more each month. Pretty depressing if your goal is to make microstock your main income. Unless you live in a country where $100 a month is enough offcourse.
Well, i live in a third world country (Venezuela). However $100 is not enought for living, maybe $500 (for one person with owned house).
Huh. Wow. Where I live - "rent" (not owning) a 1 bedroom apartment is about $1500/month, and that is considered "cheap". And it's not even a big place like New York or Chicago, just a 'relatively small town'... And you are saying in Venezuela you could OWN a home for $500/month? What is life like there?
And... what would it be like (living standards) if you say made $3k USD/month?
Well the cost for rent a room is $200 /month. If you have your own home, probably earning $500 /month would be good. I mean, owner a house, not with $500 you buy a house.Probably you could rent an aparment with $500 /month. $500 for living (one person) note, you have to live in your own home.
Here i let you a real state Venezuelan page in some fancy areas of Caracas.
You can rent or buy an aparment.
https://rentahouse.com.ve/apartamento_en_venta_en_caracas_en_altamira-1.html?priceMin=0&priceMax=0&m2Min=0&m2Max=0&bedroom=1&bathroom=1&orderBy=price%20asc&country=venezuela&operationFromSlug=Venta&propertyTypeFromSlug=Apartamento&state=distrito-metropolitano&countrySlug=venezuela (https://rentahouse.com.ve/apartamento_en_venta_en_caracas_en_altamira-1.html?priceMin=0&priceMax=0&m2Min=0&m2Max=0&bedroom=1&bathroom=1&orderBy=price%20asc&country=venezuela&operationFromSlug=Venta&propertyTypeFromSlug=Apartamento&state=distrito-metropolitano&countrySlug=venezuela)
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Well, i live in a third world country (Venezuela).
Does Payoneer or PayPal work in Venezuela?
They both work in Venezuela. (I hope they don't give up, many Venezuelan freelancers get paid using them).
What are the prices on the real estate market? (apartment, house). This refers to purchasing a home, not renting it. It is clear that there must be a maximally safe place if there is one in Venezuela.
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Well, i live in a third world country (Venezuela).
Does Payoneer or PayPal work in Venezuela?
They both work in Venezuela. (I hope they don't give up, many Venezuelan freelancers get paid using them).
What are the prices on the real estate market? (apartment, house). This refers to purchasing a home, not renting it. It is clear that there must be a maximally safe place if there is one in Venezuela.
Here i share to you a venezuelan famous real state page, the listing is in a fancy zone.
https://rentahouse.com.ve/apartamento_en_venta_en_caracas_en_altamira-1.html?priceMin=0&priceMax=0&m2Min=0&m2Max=0&bedroom=1&bathroom=1&orderBy=price%20asc&country=venezuela&operationFromSlug=Venta&propertyTypeFromSlug=Apartamento&state=distrito-metropolitano&countrySlug=venezuela (https://rentahouse.com.ve/apartamento_en_venta_en_caracas_en_altamira-1.html?priceMin=0&priceMax=0&m2Min=0&m2Max=0&bedroom=1&bathroom=1&orderBy=price%20asc&country=venezuela&operationFromSlug=Venta&propertyTypeFromSlug=Apartamento&state=distrito-metropolitano&countrySlug=venezuela)
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Contrary to what some may believe, $100 is not sufficient to live comfortably anywhere.
As another member pointed out, $500 might enable some people to live "comfortably" in many developing countries. However, they could earn more by focusing on corporate shoots.
I just put a random amount up there ;) I was just acknowledging the point Stock4me made.
But even then in a lot of countries, in Africa and the Middle-East, $100 a month is above average income. So for those people I would say it would be interesting to engage in Microstock.
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Contrary to what some may believe, $100 is not sufficient to live comfortably anywhere.
As another member pointed out, $500 might enable some people to live "comfortably" in many developing countries. However, they could earn more by focusing on corporate shoots.
I just put a random amount up there ;) I was just acknowledging the point Stock4me made.
But even then in a lot of countries, in Africa and the Middle-East, $100 a month is above average income. So for those people I would say it would be interesting to engage in Microstock.
In Venezuela, especially in Caracas, the cost of living is high, although the majority of the population has incomes below $240 and lives in poverty, the official salary is $5. Many companies pay bonuses to compensate for low pay. The economy is informal in most of the country, many people are always looking for extra income.
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Only 1289 people in the world ahead of you. Very small number of people making a living at this while sales and income are dropping.
The estimated annual revenues from the merger between Getty and Shutterstock will be 2 billion dollars.
Given the earnings of us, contributors, we can estimate that Adobe Stock also has 1 billion in revenues.
Total 3 billion from the 3 main competitors in this market.
And from 3 billion only 1000/1500 contributors manage to make a full-time salary?
This is incredible in my eyes.
But I wonder: Do the agencies take a slice of the profit too big or is the cake divided into too small slices? ???
Aside from "where do you live" and all that. And how much is enough to live on.
I think the answer to your two part question is both. As an example of the agencies taking too much of a slice for themselves. How would someplace like 123RF or Deposit be able to stay in business, if they paid us a fair share. They are both companies that are staying alive, only because they can still make some sort of profit, from artists who supply images and video for a minuscule earnings reward. Eventually they will fail. I'm surprised they are still in business.
Is the cake divided into too small of a slice because of too many contributors? Maybe, but as you pointed out, only the top, the factories and maybe some like Cobalt, who make a serious effort to produce new work, and also study what sells and what's in demand, are making enough to possibly make a living wage from Microstock.
Using the more recent number and I still say it's like a cork floating on the waves, the rank/position, goes up and down. What we should be looking at is not the crests and troughs, but the average position. Looking at things daily for a weekly rank is just too many points and too variable. The best view, in my opinion,is at most Monthly, once a month.
That number will reflect the income and download, peaks and valleys with the average, in a more sensible form. Looking at daily income from Microstock is just watching too close. Also since there are the obvious trends, Saturday stinks, Sunday isn't very special, Friday people are usually working a short day... weekly average, makes for a smoother viewpoint. Unfortunately the "Position" from Adobe is unreliable in any sense, since it's only downloads, not income.
The fact that no one knows how it works and the claim that it's 7 days, including the last 7 days, which is impossible, because it goes back to zero on Sunday night, makes the who idea of watching position, daily, or weekly, even more absurd.
Oh yeah, back to the question. Sorry. Yes I think you are right on both points. The agencies don't pay us a fair percentage. Adobe comes the closest, at 33%. The rest that are 15% or the one that includes the silly dime Singles and the reset are a terrible insult. But then, it's a take it or leave it marketplace for many people, as there's no other way to scuffle for nickles and dimes, from making Stock Products.
The losers, bottom feeder agencies, don't have enough sales volume to make sense for anyone who's actually trying to make a living from Microstock. The only favorable consideration is, the artist already has all the images, with the data, so it's really not much additional effort to add images to the parasite agencies. On an individual level, that might work and be helpful, but for the entire industry, every time, someone adds images to the parasites that don't pay well and are giving us an insulting low percentage, that undercuts the agencies that do give us a reliable return and volume.
So, while we may not be competing directly with our own images, the effect of supporting the parasites is driving the value of the entire market down. And that's where the low paying agencies beat us all into the ground with low pay and low earnings, because too many people are so desperate that they will take fractional cents from places like Freepik or Envato or Miricanvas and so many others.
Whether it's 2,000 accounts, or some other debatable number, the point is, there's not enough business, not enough return and not enough money, for someone to make a living wage from Microstock, except for a very small number of people or businesses. That's in the World! Pretty elite business that says, only 1% of the people who are trying to make a living at it, are a success.
I will admit, people who try and are serious are more than 1%, it's just that if there are 200,000 people who have something online, the return on that is dismal. Personally, from experience and the past, I'd say it's very possible that 5% of the people who work at Microstock are making a true business profit.
For Cobalt as an example, being 2,000 or 3,000 is pretty good and a compliment to her hard work, smart work, paying attention and doing what's right. If I'm usually around 25,000 sometimes higher, sometimes lower, and I represent part time, hobby. That shows something about how few people are serious or making money from this. To be clear, not weeks or months, and I only started when Adobe bought FT, my Lifetime right now is 26,200th.
I'm not very good, I don't work hard, I barely have 1,000 images (1,046), I don't do video. 26,200 of all the people on Adobe. What's the message about how successful others are? And Adobe is my best agency right now, but lifetime I've made more on SS or Alamy, since I started in 2008.
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Good, long ;D story Peter. But even Cobalt who is doing a seriously effort doesn't get further then like $100 a week (at least last week it seems like that). Maybe $200 0r $300 a week when luck is her way? That is not enough in the western world we live in to get bills paid. Unless you have wellfare on the side and don't report income.
Maybe ZeroTalent has enough income to come by (haven't heard from him for a while now though). But otherwise it seems pretty useless to pursue a living from Microstock no matter what history there was how we got to this point in time.
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Good, long ;D story Peter. But even Cobalt who is doing a seriously effort doesn't get further then like $100 a week (at least last week it seems like that). Maybe $200 0r $300 a week when luck is her way? That is not enough in the western world we live in to get bills paid. Unless you have wellfare on the side and don't report income.
Maybe ZeroTalent has enough income to come by (haven't heard from him for a while now though). But otherwise it seems pretty useless to pursue a living from Microstock no matter what history there was how we got to this point in time.
Navigate to page 25 https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/this-month's-sales/600/ (https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/this-month's-sales/600/) and see Reply #615 on: February 01, 2025, 22:58.
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"And from 3 billion only 1000/1500 contributors manage to make a full-time salary?"
No there is a lot more, just from Adobe itself the number with a reliable 3k a month is smaller than expected for images only.
Over all agencies combined, including all the people with high end exclusive material it is much, much more.
But, you rarely see full timers posting earnings on the internet, they are keenly aware of the copy cat problem.
However, the reality is, the people making full time incomes in stock often also make full time income from work for hire or consulting work in marketing.
The vast majority of content uploaded is very mediocre, amateur quality. And duplicates of duplicates of duplicates.
So the "real" and interesting content for customers is a tiny fraction of the content available in the libraries.
If you "filter out" the boring duplicate amateur junk, the libraries are maybe just 20% of what their numbers say.
And then the returns per port and sales numbers make sense.
Only a small part of the content is truly useful, fresh, original high quality.
And these are the ports that make the money.
If you start as an amateur and spend a few years improving your quality AND doing market and customer research you can grow into a higher reliable income.
But the "real stock environment" - real content, real producers and also paying customers is much smaller than people expect.
And the top level producers are taking in much more.
But the amateurs cannot rise to these levels because they don't have enough interesting files. And the majority often refuse to learn and improve.
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Good, long ;D story Peter. But even Cobalt who is doing a seriously effort doesn't get further then like $100 a week (at least last week it seems like that). Maybe $200 0r $300 a week when luck is her way? That is not enough in the western world we live in to get bills paid. Unless you have wellfare on the side and don't report income.
Maybe ZeroTalent has enough income to come by (haven't heard from him for a while now though). But otherwise it seems pretty useless to pursue a living from Microstock no matter what history there was how we got to this point in time.
Last year my average was around 800 dollars a month, from a few hundred to over 1600 in a month. And only my Adobe port was "activated", the rest was income without uploading for nearly 11 years. (except eyeem, but they are currently dead)
On Adobe my port grew by around 4000 files to around 7000 by end of 2024.
I have only been active again, since end of 2022. So basically two years and my adobe port was around 1400 old files when I restarted it.
I think that is a good result.
January was around 750 over all agencies, now with istock results. 58% more in total than Jan 2024.
So...no, I have not yet reached 3k a month.
But for the situation I have no complaints.
Stock is not dead and I am confident I will reach my goals.
But I can't reach them in 6-18 months.
If I had put that effort into a faceless youtube channel, etsy sticker shop, coloring amazon books, chatgpt quickbooks...or a weightloss youtube channel...how I lost 40kg with no drugs and no surgery...maybe I would earn more.
Or just selling french fries and burgers...
But I like this job and want to get back to a higher income.
However for portfolio size, what kind of income do people expect for now 7800 files on adobe and a few old ports?
You are all welcome to earn more :)
eta
I am documenting my journey, because people keep saying it is impossible to grow and earn more. Yet, here we are.
This is just adobe. Beginning to look quite nice. I still need a lot more, but...
eta2
for a reliable 3k a month over all agencies I will certainly need at least 30k files.
or 20k very smart files.
And probably at least another three years.
eta3
When I reach a reliable 12-1500 I will probably stop documenting.
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Just for Adobe - to reach 3k a month/36k a year, I would need around 52k downloads at around 70 cents, my current rpd.
So 52k files that each sell at least once a year, or 52 files that each sell 1000 times a year...or something inbetween. :)
Now usually many files don't sell at all and very, very few will sell reliable 1000 times a year.
At the moment I a trying to create content for very specific and small niches so they hopefully get 1-5 times sales a year. And offer combinations that are hopefully attractive to get a full series download.
If I knew how to create 52 files with 1000 sales each a year...I would do that.
The files will still need two years to really get noticed, lightboxed and eventually used.
Slow process.
But of course I don't want to rely only on Adobe. If I can get a reliable 1500 a month from Adobe, that would be great.
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Now usually many files don't sell at all and very, very few will sell reliable 1000 times a year.
Just curious, do you have files selling over 1000 times a year? I never managed that feat on Adobe. Probably in the past on Shutterstock, but I don't have any data anymore since I deleted my portfolio there.
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I had a very mundane and boring file that sold over 800 times in its first year, then 600 the second then 300 last year. This year will probably be a lot less, because it had very few sales so far.
I uploaded many more files for the genre but they had very few sales. It is also not a rare subject, millions of similar files. I just got lucky with that.
Maybe there are people who can plan 1000 dl a year files, I certainly can't.
So I am trying the long tail strategy, trying to find small niches with few similar files and then hope to get 1-5 sales a year reliably.
Still too early to tell if this strategy works.
On Adobe, if you look at the bestsellers it seems to be ai png that does well.
eta
A little improvement.
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I had a very mundane and boring file that sold over 800 times in its first year, then 600 the second then 300 last year. This year will probably be a lot less, because it had very few sales so far.
Really good! Yes, search ranking is often just pure luck. I have a file which over the years made multiple thousands of downloads, which is of similar quality as other people's files of the same subject. I never understood why my file is so popular, probably pure luck as well.
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Could be files that are somewhere in an external api store. Maybe there they have little competition or front page placement.
On istock I once had an old file that abruptly started selling in China like crazy for two years...and then stopped.
It would explain why similars or extension of the series are not being picked up.
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Good, long ;D story Peter. But even Cobalt who is doing a seriously effort doesn't get further then like $100 a week (at least last week it seems like that). Maybe $200 0r $300 a week when luck is her way? That is not enough in the western world we live in to get bills paid. Unless you have wellfare on the side and don't report income.
Maybe ZeroTalent has enough income to come by (haven't heard from him for a while now though). But otherwise it seems pretty useless to pursue a living from Microstock no matter what history there was how we got to this point in time.
Thanks for NOT quoting the short story. :)
The whole idea, inspired me to create the latest forum poll, and what do you know, people are really doing very well on Adobe, in terms of "Position". Leaf used to do an annual poll, and someone did do one this year, for a general earnings type of thing.
In general, and I don't try very hard, I make more from eBay than I do on Microstock. That's just cherrypicking things from the local estate auctions. I'd rather be making photos. You're right, even some of the good and successful people, have other sources of income, that are greater than Microstock.
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a lot of people think i am crazy to attempt getting back to a full time income. and maybe they are right, we will see?
Cobalt, do you really believe you'll be able to return to a full time income?
I've never thought I could make a full time income or living from microstock but I did think I'd be able to make something half-decent like a minimum of $1000 per month and occasional $2000 plus... hence uploading 2000 to 2700+ videos to four agencies over the past three years. But now with the way things are heading in this industry, I'm not even confident I'll see any sustained increased income in the future.
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Yes, I am very confident that I can return to something between 2-3k a month on average. I would love a steady 4k, but I cannot make that projection now, I can think about how to achieve that once I reach a reliable 2k.
My main dilemma is that I am not producing/uploading full time, because I am a family carer. That just sucks a lot of time and energy out of me.
Most days I spend from 8-2pm on the computer, then family work from 2-7/8pm and then maybe 1-3 hours on the computer again, depending how tired I am.
Sometimes I can squeeze in a full day, but not always and on that day I also have errands to run.
So, let us say I have 60% work capacity.
Last year I made on average 800 dollars a month and added 4000 files mostly to Adobe.
So this year I would like to reach a minimum of 1000 average, ideally 1200-1500, depends a lot on the end of year sales which are often more than 50% of my yearly revenue.
January 25 was 60% more than Jan 24. Feb 25 will also be at least 60% more. And just for Adobe actually 80% more compared to February 24.
In absolute terms the months will be around 750 dollars (over all agencies). Again not enough to live from but the increase is very good.
I currently have 7900 files on Adobe.
And istock, video overall, more for blackbox have all still not been "activated" because I am still processing so much content for Adobe.
But this week-end I have my first editorial/ carnival shooting for the year, together with a stocker friend. And I am working on organising camera content shared shootings with others, mostly centered around food. I would like to build up a nice "real authentic daily life" food video port with a clearly visible German/localized twist.
Lately I have been doing a lot of research on video and it is even more open than I thought.
I just need to get into the habit of processing and uploading my videos. The average for video sales is around 8 dollars on Adobe, around 15 on pond5. istock is very erratic and I still have very few videos there.
Stock is a job I absolutely love to do, I can also still do it into my retirement and my current pension is tiny anyway.
And it fits in perfectly with any family demands. Once the ports are activated and running i could even be ill for a few weeks and still have an income.
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So, let us say just from Adobe I would like to have a reliable 30 000 downloads a year. At a baseline of 70 cents rpd that would be 21k just from Adobe.
This could be achieved with 30 files selling 1000 times each.
Or 30 000 files selling once each.
If 2025 has 40% more downloads than 2024, then on Adobe alone I should be able to reach nearly 1k a month average for this year.
Then there is the question how much I can activate other places, although the real financial increase will probably start coming next year, not this year.
etc...
So my current plan says i will probably reach my target in 2 years and should see a very good increase this year.
Now...how do I survive until then...well, I am looking into many options, especially lowering running costs.
Biggest risks on Adobe
- the crazy hunter killer algo that could deactivate my port at any time without me doing anything criminal or wrong. I think it is absolutely horrible that Adobe keeps hanging that threat over our head.
- the copy cats, mostly ai copycats
Since I am going for a long tail portfolio with mostly very niche images that I expect to sell 1-3 times a year, not 100 or 1000 times a year, i hope my port will not be so attractive for duplicators.
I will do a lot of localized camera content which is difficult to copy from people in other countries. (like the local carnival, localized food etc..)
Hiding successful files, especially video, on places like Blackboxglobal where my total port is not visible under my name.
Also the very long Adobe queue helps, especially for seasonal content. By the time my holiday files are approved it is too late for the copy cats, their files won't reach easter or christmas in time for this years season.
Greeting cards anyway have so much competition even with a large ai volume it is very hard to get into that market. I have the algo advantage because I have an old portfolio...
Biggest overall risks
- a deep recession because of world political nonsense, especially the orange menace madness coming out of the USA.
Again a reason why I would love to have more European centric content, I think our markets will grow closer and maybe become even stronger in the coming trade wars.
- I become ill and cannot produce or work, or my caring situation becomes even more demanding/full time. But you cannot plan that anyway, i can just try to stay healthy and organize our lives carefully
etc...
So...I obviously spend a lot of time analysing and wondering - can it still work??
And I think for my very personal case, somewhere between 20 years experience, good research skills AND old ports with good algo positions, yes I think it is possible with very hard work.
Also having lower costs because I own my little home. If I had to pay rent, especially in this location, it would be impossible, but since i only pay around 600 a month for utilities, fees and taxes as an owner, it works.
So..with a lot of personal details...I genuinely believe it is possible IN MY CASE.
Which doesn't translate to everyone and especially not to total newbies just starting out.
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a lot of people think i am crazy to attempt getting back to a full time income. and maybe they are right, we will see?
Cobalt, do you really believe you'll be able to return to a full time income?
I've never thought I could make a full time income or living from microstock but I did think I'd be able to make something half-decent like a minimum of $1000 per month and occasional $2000 plus... hence uploading 2000 to 2700+ videos to four agencies over the past three years. But now with the way things are heading in this industry, I'm not even confident I'll see any sustained increased income in the future.
Did you upload a total of 2700 videos over four years or every year 2700?
If it is 2700 over four years, it is much too low for a 2k/month income.
Even with a larger video port you will probably need to upload at least 500-600 good useful clips every month to reach a higher sustainable income.
The upload streams are crucial to remain visible in the "newest" search many buyers do. irrespective of medium you produce, you need to create a steady product feed.
The video market is still more open than photos, but it is also a much smaller market.
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Cobalt,
Interesting assessment of your situation. Thanks for sharing your story.
Yes paying rent / mortgage is expensive and very expensive here in south Sydney where I live. My capacity for uploading is limited as I work a full-time job, though fortunately in the public service where conditions and retirement employer contributions are very good. However working full-time is a drag. Anyway yes that was 2000 - 2700 since November 2021 to each of the four ports I should add.
The thing is, this worked really well especially in 2023 and slowed down noticeably in 2024, and has slowed further in 2025. Shutterstock in particular has just about collapsed... at least in terms of earnings. So the challenge of diminished / falling earnings is something I can't keep up with as I don't have the time to upload as much as may be needed in the current stock environment.
Another risk I feel is Adobe Stock's auditing of portfolios to remove what they identify as duplicates. I got the email. Nothing in my port is necessarily a duplicate but rather a series of clips from (mainly) aerial drone shoots. So have to see how this plays out.
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Yes I got that email as well. It is intentionally ambiguous and I don't think they mean actual pixel by pixel duplicats in my own port.
I think they are going after people who upload the exact same images to several different ports. Or the people that buy a "ready made" set of ai images, fully keyworded... but are not aware that the same set is being sold to hundreds of people.
And maybe also the near identical ai images that are being constantly uploaded because people use the exact same prompt on the exact same image generator.
Or they feed adobe bestsellers into the generators for near exact duplication.
I do think in principle it is a good move, but I am concerned.
Even with the best intentions...if there is a hunter duplicate algo software, who knows what it fines???
I also have many similar or identical titles - Easter bunny with easter eggs...if they get flagged because of similar titles, my port might die...
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Yes I got that email as well. It is intentionally ambiguous and I don't think they mean actual pixel by pixel duplicats in my own port.
I think they are going after people who upload the exact same images to several different ports. Or the people that buy a "ready made" set of ai images, fully keyworded... but are not aware that the same set is being sold to hundreds of people.
And maybe also the near identical ai images that are being constantly uploaded because people use the exact same prompt on the exact same image generator.
Or they feed adobe bestsellers into the generators for near exact duplication.
I do think in principle it is a good move, but I am concerned.
Even with the best intentions...if there is a hunter duplicate algo software, who knows what it fines???
I also have many similar or identical titles - Easter bunny with easter eggs...if they get flagged because of similar titles, my port might die...
Yes agree, and good points with regard to the bold text. This I would be very supportive of actually.
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Yes, I am very confident that I can return to something between 2-3k a month on average. I would love a steady 4k, but I cannot make that projection now, I can think about how to achieve that once I reach a reliable 2k.
...
Interesting analysis/thoughts... A couple things.
a) "orange man" stuff - lol - what is really going on (in world affairs) doesn't matter WHO is in - "they" are trying to bankrupt EVERYONE (and make one rich superclass, and one big poor class). So if you recognize that, you can plan accordingly. It's not BECAUSE "the orange man" is in office - (it would be EXACTLY same push if say 'biden' or equivalent was in office, just done a 'different way, i.e., w/attacking traditional families promoting gay/trans/les/etc stuff to try and make people so dysfunctional that they NEED handouts from the state/etc)... "Trade wars" are just trying to push the same nonsense a different way - i.e., still trying to make people dependent on "handouts from the state" because of "omfg! trade wars!"... BOTH sides (which are controlled by a small group of literal pyschopaths) are pushing the SAME agenda, just trying it different ways... and that is worldwide - not just usa, includes germany with 'mass immigration', canada with 'mass immigration, etc, etc) - so be aware of that.
b) If you pay taxes to 'keep your home', under threat of losing it if you 'don't pay taxes', you don't actually 'own' it - you rent it... no mater how small or big the amount. There are ways (so I've heard - I am not fully aware of how to do this at this time, just because I haven't really looked in great detail - but am aware that apparently there are people that have done it) - of actually "owning" your home/your land WITHOUT paying "rent" in the form of taxes... since you have some free time, you might look into that. First requires changing your perception of 'taxes' - and realizing it is theft/theft of labor, not "obligatory", and that if you are paying it - you are RENTING your home and RENTING your land, you don't actually OWN it.
c) Your unique/portfolio diversification is an interesting idea. It does seem to be working for you - because your portfolio is smaller than others and yet seems to be outperforming them (at least in terms of downloads). So large portfolio does not necessarily equate with 'more sales'. Interesting strategy.
d) Part of what is going on with the "ai" is enabling the (literal) hordes of east indians/arabs/african/etc countries who don't necessarily have any real talent or skill, to basically steal from those who do in order to try and flood the market with competing assets. Now because for the most part they (in general) are so lazy, greedy, spammy, corrupt (and in many ways literally 'dumb' just because they've never really taken the time to become good at something), - it does make your job a bit easier if you recognize that. Which - in some ways it sounds that you have (because you recognize they are just super lazy and try and copy high performing assets, so by making mid-range assets you do seem to be effectively insulating yourself from that). So that is smart.
Perhaps recognize that is only likely to increase - and adjust your strategy accordingly.
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There is no way in Germany to own any kind of property or land and not pay local taxes. It is not much though, around 30 euros a month or 300-400 a year. Municipality costs for garbage etc.. are a lot higher and a bigger problem. Plus occasional repairs that we share as owners but can be quite high.
I have around 50sqm, the place is fully paid, no debts.
It is funny what you say about the "dark brown masses" of whatever part of the world you personally don't like.
Here in Europe we think that way about the white hillibilly americans that are part of a cult and happily do their masters bidding and long to live under a king or emperor. Unfortunately they also want gigantic wars with millions dead to fullfill their rapture religious fantasies...they are unbelievably uneducated, can barely read and write but always have an opinion...
The ai youtube spammers are the same people that bring you all the crypto scams and there are also lots of very clueless white people who think ai images is some magic money.
There is also one very simple reason that ai attracts many people from ultrapoor countries...50 dollars a month can be like 500 in the us midwest or 2000 here in Germany.
So the high volume but low income ports, make a lot of financial sense to that group of producers.
They are just as clueless as the mobile phone crowd that started doing stock 10 years ago.
Microstock are open platforms for total amateurs. But the talent can learn and rise, including the ai talent.
I am not worried about ai producers, like I am not worried about the mobile phone talent. Most will give up in 2 years and only a few that remain will actually be regular producers.
I hate having bestsellers copied, so I hope the new strategy of a long tail plus editorial will lower that problem.
But I am glad you liked my analysis, I am posting here because I know many people who have neglected their ports and are wondering if it is still worth getting in.
However everyones situation is different and what sold well 20 years ago will not sell in the same way today.
Adapt or die like in every business.
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@pacesetter
yes the downfall of ss has left a big gap that other agencies cannot compensate for now. But that is not the fault of the producers and with the getty takeover there is some hope prices and sales volume can rise again.
But you still have a full time income as a basis and can gradually increase video production.
Perhaps try some new genres that are easy to do but haven't uploaded before. Little clips from daily life or once a week one dedicated little shoot in something new.
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There is no way in Germany to own any kind of property or land and not pay local taxes. It is not much though, around 30 euros a month or 300-400 a year. Municipality costs for garbage etc.. are a lot higher and a bigger problem. Plus occasional repairs that we share as owners but can be quite high.
I have around 50sqm, the place is fully paid, no debts.
It is funny what you say about the "dark brown masses" of whatever part of the world you personally don't like.
Here in Europe we think that way about the white hillibilly americans that are part of a cult and happily do their masters bidding and long to live under a king or emperor. Unfortunately they also want gigantic wars with millions dead to fullfill their rapture religious fantasies...they are unbelievably uneducated, can barely read and write but always have an opinion...
The ai youtube spammers are the same people that bring you all the crypto scams and there are also lots of very clueless white people who think ai images is some magic money.n
There is also one very simple reason that ai attracts many people from ultrapoor countries...50 dollars a month can be like 500 in the us midwest or 2000 here in Germany.
So the high volume but low income ports, make a lot of financial sense to that group of producers.
They are just as clueless as the mobile phone crowd that started doing stock 10 years ago.
Microstock are open platforms for total amateurs. But the talent can learn and rise, including the ai talent.
I am not worried about ai producers, like I am not worried about the mobile phone talent. Most will give up in 2 years and only a few that remain will actually be regular producers.
I hate having bestsellers copied, so I hope the new strategy of a long tail plus editorial will lower that problem.
But I am glad you liked my analysis, I am posting here because I know many people who have neglected their ports and are wondering if it is still worth getting in.
However everyones situation is different and what sold well 20 years ago will not sell in the same way today.
Adapt or die like in every business.
1. Lol - it's not I don't "like" a certain group - it's simply stating a fact how different groups act, and what 'business ethics' they have (or don't have). (And lol, don't believe I've ever referred to them as the 'dark brown masses').
b) Re: what's really going on - each group (speaking of the 'general masses') depending on their country seems to have had their beliefs about other cultures/races/etc shaped by television, the "news", etc.
c) As for your perception of americans, interesting that is what would be filtered down to you, and assuming that is what is presented to German people through t.v./the news/etc. Have you ever lived in the the US for an extended period of time? The t.v. (in the usa) generally portrays the military as a noble cause (and I don't think many know or realize that unfortunately they are being 'used' by a small group of psychopaths to cause chaos in the world, get oil, get gold, control the drug trade/etc. (And interestingly enough, apparently this small groups congregates in the vatican in europe, as well as the ukraine. I think most soldiers (and not just the us, but canada, europe, etc) unfortunately don't see the bigger picture - and the way the military is structured - its designed to keep it that way. I think most people that join the military genuinely believe they are doing good (its only the people at the very top that really know what is going on). (Kind of like freemasonry as well that relies extensively on 'secrets'. Those @ the bottom believe they are genuinely doing good, and in some ways they are - but @ the top - they really know what is going on and are manipulating the masses generally speaking for other purposes).
Not sure if you are aware of this - but I'd say that in North America - through schooling - Germans (generally speaking) are portrayed as really bad "nahzees" through constant bombardment of movies, tell-a-vision, etc, that "hatejews" and "attack" them at every turn, etc, etc. (Even though apparently what really happened in the his-story (aka fiction) books for the most part consists of lies, misdirection, and even if there was an individual who acted a certain way - it doesn't mean their offspring, relatives, etc would be the same). I'd say very few people (unless they've looked into it further) know that a lot of Germans are very intelligent, very good engineers, and many of them (if they come to North America) are fearful of being associated what the t.v., the history books, the schooling, etc portrays them to be (which, pretty much consists of lies/manipulation/etc). Many - if they move here - are so fearful of being associated with that - tend to 'overcompensate' and state their 'love' for the jewishpeople/how wonderful they are/etc, and how they would never to anything so heinous as portrayed in the (hi)story books, so they aren't visciously attacked (from how the t.v., the movies, and schooling portrays them as in general).
But the people pulling the strings like to try and keep people at odds.
d) I would agree with you that a lot of people (in general, not just north america) - are kept 'dumbed down'. Not sure what your definition of being able to 'barely read' is - but yes - schooling (in general) teaches children to 'read slowly' (as a control mechanism), through something called 'sub-vocalization'. (I.e., people generally 'hear' words when they read as opposed to 'visually' reading (aka speed reading), which severely limits their comprehension of topics, how much they can consume, and makes it difficult to learn new things). Apparently - the schooling (controlled in a big part by the Rockefeller family) is designed to keep the general masses able to follow simple instructions (i.e., "dont park here"), but not really able to see much farther than that.
I think that is partly why video is so popular. Yes, it 'looks nice' - but - you can only consume so much video at once, and the 'speed' is throttled. (I.e., one could read a complete 200 page book (60,000 words in a paperback) in 2-3 hours (with subvocalization), 30 minutes with speed reading, but to watch the same video (at a speaking rate of about 140 wpm) would take about 7-8 hours.
e) I do agree with you that there are also 'clueless ai caucasian' people... but the "AI" has been introduced into those (what people tend to call '3rd world countries) in order to try and make a super poor class, by stealing from people (who tend to be white/caucasian) that did the work in the first place. (And interestingly enough, tends by the very super wealthy class - which tends to be 'jewish', just look @ the background of the ceo of midjourney, chatgpt, etc and who tends to fund the other 'ai' companies - and they in general use their vast financial resources to try and cast dispersion if anyone questions their tactics and/or states the obvious. I.e., through things like 'anti-hate' legislature, constant movies about WWII and the 'plight' they face, and constant tell-a-vision programming to make them (in general) appear as a poor, hard done by group that is 'just being picked on'. In general - if anyone says anything - the same television programming as trained many people to respond "omfg! anti-semite", etc - instead of actually doing some investigation for themselves to see if there is merit to the statement. It is a psychological manipulation tactic designed to 'short-circuit' peoples brains/thinking & reasoning capacity.
But bottomline - one of the things going on (esp with "ai", which is simply sophisticated theft) - is "they" (the ultra-rich class that likes to call themselves the 'plutocracy') - are trying to steal as much as they can and make everyone else into poor slaves.
2. a) Wow re: the 50 sqm. By north american standards, that is a very tiny house. (Do you have a family living there too? Or just yourself?)
b) While I haven't looked fully into how German property is structured - I've found in North America people are taught to believe the same thing (i.e., that they 'have' to pay 'property tax' 'or else!') - but requires a bit of digging to realize you don't. But the big fact is - if one pays property tax, and the threat is that if they don't, it will be 'seized' - then they don't actually 'own' the property - but are rather 'renting' the property. It may be a small rent - but it is still rent. And like rent - the landlord at any time could 'see fit' to raise the rent (aka 'taxes'), and if the tenant is not able to pay, use the 'legal system' to kick them out.
3. In terms of still getting in... I agree with you people would need to be smarter about it if they wanted to make some serious $$$... whether it is figuring out how to more intelligent increase production, or more intelligently meet client needs - it does require thinking, which can supercede the spam-all-you-can model employed by a lot of people in '3rd world' countries...
-
There is no way in Germany to own any kind of property or land and not pay local taxes. It is not much though, around 30 euros a month or 300-400 a year. Municipality costs for garbage etc.. are a lot higher and a bigger problem. Plus occasional repairs that we share as owners but can be quite high.
I have around 50sqm, the place is fully paid, no debts.
It is funny what you say about the "dark brown masses" of whatever part of the world you personally don't like.
Here in Europe we think that way about the white hillibilly americans that are part of a cult and happily do their masters bidding and long to live under a king or emperor. Unfortunately they also want gigantic wars with millions dead to fullfill their rapture religious fantasies...they are unbelievably uneducated, can barely read and write but always have an opinion...
The ai youtube spammers are the same people that bring you all the crypto scams and there are also lots of very clueless white people who think ai images is some magic money.n
There is also one very simple reason that ai attracts many people from ultrapoor countries...50 dollars a month can be like 500 in the us midwest or 2000 here in Germany.
So the high volume but low income ports, make a lot of financial sense to that group of producers.
They are just as clueless as the mobile phone crowd that started doing stock 10 years ago.
Microstock are open platforms for total amateurs. But the talent can learn and rise, including the ai talent.
I am not worried about ai producers, like I am not worried about the mobile phone talent. Most will give up in 2 years and only a few that remain will actually be regular producers.
I hate having bestsellers copied, so I hope the new strategy of a long tail plus editorial will lower that problem.
But I am glad you liked my analysis, I am posting here because I know many people who have neglected their ports and are wondering if it is still worth getting in.
However everyones situation is different and what sold well 20 years ago will not sell in the same way today.
Adapt or die like in every business.
1. Lol - it's not I don't "like" a certain group - it's simply stating a fact how different groups act, and what 'business ethics' they have (or don't have). (And lol, don't believe I've ever referred to them as the 'dark brown masses').
b) Re: what's really going on - each group (speaking of the 'general masses') depending on their country seems to have had their beliefs about other cultures/races/etc shaped by television, the "news", etc.
c) As for your perception of americans, interesting that is what would be filtered down to you, and assuming that is what is presented to German people through t.v./the news/etc. Have you ever lived in the the US for an extended period of time? The t.v. (in the usa) generally portrays the military as a noble cause (and I don't think many know or realize that unfortunately they are being 'used' by a small group of psychopaths to cause chaos in the world, get oil, get gold, control the drug trade/etc. (And interestingly enough, apparently this small groups congregates in the vatican in europe, as well as the ukraine. I think most soldiers (and not just the us, but canada, europe, etc) unfortunately don't see the bigger picture - and the way the military is structured - its designed to keep it that way. I think most people that join the military genuinely believe they are doing good (its only the people at the very top that really know what is going on). (Kind of like freemasonry as well that relies extensively on 'secrets'. Those @ the bottom believe they are genuinely doing good, and in some ways they are - but @ the top - they really know what is going on and are manipulating the masses generally speaking for other purposes).
Not sure if you are aware of this - but I'd say that in North America - through schooling - Germans (generally speaking) are portrayed as really bad "nahzees" through constant bombardment of movies, tell-a-vision, etc, that "hatejews" and "attack" them at every turn, etc, etc. (Even though apparently what really happened in the his-story (aka fiction) books for the most part consists of lies, misdirection, and even if there was an individual who acted a certain way - it doesn't mean their offspring, relatives, etc would be the same). I'd say very few people (unless they've looked into it further) know that a lot of Germans are very intelligent, very good engineers, and many of them (if they come to North America) are fearful of being associated what the t.v., the history books, the schooling, etc portrays them to be (which, pretty much consists of lies/manipulation/etc). Many - if they move here - are so fearful of being associated with that - tend to 'overcompensate' and state their 'love' for the jewishpeople/how wonderful they are/etc, and how they would never to anything so heinous as portrayed in the (hi)story books, so they aren't visciously attacked (from how the t.v., the movies, and schooling portrays them as in general).
But the people pulling the strings like to try and keep people at odds.
d) I would agree with you that a lot of people (in general, not just north america) - are kept 'dumbed down'. Not sure what your definition of being able to 'barely read' is - but yes - schooling (in general) teaches children to 'read slowly' (as a control mechanism), through something called 'sub-vocalization'. (I.e., people generally 'hear' words when they read as opposed to 'visually' reading (aka speed reading), which severely limits their comprehension of topics, how much they can consume, and makes it difficult to learn new things). Apparently - the schooling (controlled in a big part by the Rockefeller family) is designed to keep the general masses able to follow simple instructions (i.e., "dont park here"), but not really able to see much farther than that.
I think that is partly why video is so popular. Yes, it 'looks nice' - but - you can only consume so much video at once, and the 'speed' is throttled. (I.e., one could read a complete 200 page book (60,000 words in a paperback) in 2-3 hours (with subvocalization), 30 minutes with speed reading, but to watch the same video (at a speaking rate of about 140 wpm) would take about 7-8 hours.
e) I do agree with you that there are also 'clueless ai caucasian' people... but the "AI" has been introduced into those (what people tend to call '3rd world countries) in order to try and make a super poor class, by stealing from people (who tend to be white/caucasian) that did the work in the first place. (And interestingly enough, tends by the very super wealthy class - which tends to be 'jewish', just look @ the background of the ceo of midjourney, chatgpt, etc and who tends to fund the other 'ai' companies - and they in general use their vast financial resources to try and cast dispersion if anyone questions their tactics and/or states the obvious. I.e., through things like 'anti-hate' legislature, constant movies about WWII and the 'plight' they face, and constant tell-a-vision programming to make them (in general) appear as a poor, hard done by group that is 'just being picked on'. In general - if anyone says anything - the same television programming as trained many people to respond "omfg! anti-semite", etc - instead of actually doing some investigation for themselves to see if there is merit to the statement. It is a psychological manipulation tactic designed to 'short-circuit' peoples brains/thinking & reasoning capacity.
But bottomline - one of the things going on (esp with "ai", which is simply sophisticated theft) - is "they" (the ultra-rich class that likes to call themselves the 'plutocracy') - are trying to steal as much as they can and make everyone else into poor slaves.
2. a) Wow re: the 50 sqm. By north american standards, that is a very tiny house. (Do you have a family living there too? Or just yourself?)
b) While I haven't looked fully into how German property is structured - I've found in North America people are taught to believe the same thing (i.e., that they 'have' to pay 'property tax' 'or else!') - but requires a bit of digging to realize you don't. But the big fact is - if one pays property tax, and the threat is that if they don't, it will be 'seized' - then they don't actually 'own' the property - but are rather 'renting' the property. It may be a small rent - but it is still rent. And like rent - the landlord at any time could 'see fit' to raise the rent (aka 'taxes'), and if the tenant is not able to pay, use the 'legal system' to kick them out.
3. In terms of still getting in... I agree with you people would need to be smarter about it if they wanted to make some serious $$$... whether it is figuring out how to more intelligent increase production, or more intelligently meet client needs - it does require thinking, which can supercede the spam-all-you-can model employed by a lot of people in '3rd world' countries...
Please don't spam here. There are other threads on this forum, where all the ignored people talk to each other. They'll be happy to talk to you.
-
There is no way in Germany to own any kind of property or land and not pay local taxes. It is not much though, around 30 euros a month or 300-400 a year. Municipality costs for garbage etc.. are a lot higher and a bigger problem. Plus occasional repairs that we share as owners but can be quite high.
I have around 50sqm, the place is fully paid, no debts.
It is funny what you say about the "dark brown masses" of whatever part of the world you personally don't like.
Here in Europe we think that way about the white hillibilly americans that are part of a cult and happily do their masters bidding and long to live under a king or emperor. Unfortunately they also want gigantic wars with millions dead to fullfill their rapture religious fantasies...they are unbelievably uneducated, can barely read and write but always have an opinion...
The ai youtube spammers are the same people that bring you all the crypto scams and there are also lots of very clueless white people who think ai images is some magic money.n
There is also one very simple reason that ai attracts many people from ultrapoor countries...50 dollars a month can be like 500 in the us midwest or 2000 here in Germany.
So the high volume but low income ports, make a lot of financial sense to that group of producers.
They are just as clueless as the mobile phone crowd that started doing stock 10 years ago.
Microstock are open platforms for total amateurs. But the talent can learn and rise, including the ai talent.
I am not worried about ai producers, like I am not worried about the mobile phone talent. Most will give up in 2 years and only a few that remain will actually be regular producers.
I hate having bestsellers copied, so I hope the new strategy of a long tail plus editorial will lower that problem.
But I am glad you liked my analysis, I am posting here because I know many people who have neglected their ports and are wondering if it is still worth getting in.
However everyones situation is different and what sold well 20 years ago will not sell in the same way today.
Adapt or die like in every business.
./..., {nonsense deleted}
Please don't spam here. There are other threads on this forum, where all the ignored people talk to each other. They'll be happy to talk to you.
i agree - super constanty posts h is racist-conspiratorial idiocy across many threads - and needs to be called out on it
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Even with a larger video port you will probably need to upload at least 500-600 good useful clips every month to reach a higher sustainable income.
Actually just re-reading this and note 500 clips a month? Who in their right mind would bother just to see an increase in income? At my highest I was uploading, on average over a 12 months period, 100 clips a month to each port. But that alone was increasing income very well and delivering over $1k a month in 2023 and 2024 - and one month in 2023 over $2k with a significant smaller port than now. If this is indeed the situation today where 500 fresh clips a month is needed then it proves how sick this market has become now. The exception is Adobe Stock but now the agency has gone rogue on contributors of non-ai, at least it has for me, everyone else might have a different experience.
ETA just curious Cobalt, I made $895 in February 2025, my slowest month and first month under $1k since January 2024. This total combined includes iStock January 2025 as it is reported in the current month and a few dollars on Dreamstime. Did you do much better this month in February 2025, not just on Adobe Stock but all ports combined?
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@pacesetter
I arrived at the 500 videos a month for pro income from reading around various groups and personal recommendation from someone doing lots of video, or stock in general full time.
If it is possible to significantly raise my income with just 100 clips a month?! Then I am doing something wrong and should quickly change my strategy!! I have a lot of unprocessed videos, but still putting images/Adobe first.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
These are the results for February from stockperformer. istock is still missing and bb, envato, eyeem are not part of the system. I expect to reach around 750 in total.
On just Adobe it was 686 dollars with now 7900 files. An increase of over 80% yoy. February was very weak last year so I tried to add more of what I think works for that month.
Overall an increase around 60% yoy
So...it will take a while but I am confident I can reach a solid income.
And like I explained most agencies are not "activated", even envato hasn't seen fresh content in a year.
eta
Summer is my slowest season, weakest time. I am trying very hard to increase evergreen content to combat that.
But will certainly pull forward processing videos!!!
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I arrived at the 500 videos a month for pro income from reading around various groups and personal recommendation from someone doing lots of video, or stock in general full time.
If it is possible to significantly raise my income with just 100 clips a month?! Then I am doing something wrong and should quickly change my strategy!! I have a lot of unprocessed videos, but still putting images/Adobe first.
I can definitely affirm that 2023 and prior years, you could very easily indeed see income increases with 100 videos uploaded each month. By that I mean 100 fresh video clips which (for the sake of clarification) uploaded to four agencies and all accepted, would be 400 video uploads in the month. Whether that is what those contributors on other groups intended to mean but from my experience, there were certain and significant income growth from uploading the number videos as above. Thanks for sharing your stats... it looks like steady and noticeable increased earnings there.
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I always mean original creations, that then get distributed to various agencies. If 100 fresh clips can increase income significantly, I should absolutely do much more.
The crash at SS and also at pond5 is not the fault of contributors or too many videos etc...there are still less than 60 million videos over all agencies combined. "The horde" of copycats is not yet coming for video.
I haven't really uploaded many videos because for me this means I also have to do a lot of active research.
My current videos are usually just some clips from daily life, usually food or editorial of events like German carnival, and also some travel clips.
That is not really a "strategy to success" the way I do it with images.
And for me videos also sell more slowly then photos, the first sale often takes more than 2 years.
So again, thank you for the inspiration to get going and process my videos.
eta
sorry for engaging the troll before. I have now added him to my ignore list.
eta2
rank improved a bit
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Actually just re-reading this and note 500 clips a month? Who in their right mind would bother just to see an increase in income? If this is indeed the situation today where 500 fresh clips a month is needed then it proves how sick this market has become now.
I agree with you.
If the norm is to make 500 videos a month, this is a sick business.
And in any case, they must be 500 good quality videos, they must be useful for customers and they must have different subjects. And you must do a bit of retouching and cropping, put good titles, descriptions and keywords.
I think a single producer can't create 500 videos a month following all these conditions.
I struggle to make 100 saleable, varied, and quality photos a month. Sure, taking 100 snapshots without retouching and uploading is very easy, but I think no one or almost no one will buy them from you.
I have known this business for many years, and unfortunately, it has changed a lot due to some factors:
- Increased competition
- Agencies pay lower percentages on earnings
- Open to all amateurs, with 90% of low-quality production, I would say "junk images" that are in huge quantity and limit visibility even to the best content.
- Free image archives (Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels ...) and websites with unlimited downloads (Envato Elements)
- The arrival of AI and the possibility for customers to make their own content.
In 2010, in just two years, I had reached a level of earnings good for living in a European country at that time (>30000$), uploading 400 images per year of very high quality.
I maintained this production pace for 10 years, and my earnings were always constant. Some years I even uploaded less than 400 images.
From 2020 onwards, things started to change for the reasons mentioned above.
To continue this job, we need a break-even point.
This break-even point is the number of contents produced in a year that generates enough earnings to compensate for what the old contents lose every year. (I hope I explained myself and that the translation did a good job).
For many years, mine was 400 images.
For those with lower quality or less saleable images, it could have been 1000 or 2000 images a year.
Since spring 2024, I started uploading 100 photos a month, 1200 a year. I think that's my limit. I don't think I can do better in my niche while maintaining good quality. I don't think I can physically do better than that.
With the new contents I'm increasing my earnings by $30 every month. That's not bad. After 10 months and 1000 new photos, these last ones brought me 300$ in February. Unfortunately, the old ones (about 5,000 images) are losing more than 300$ a month, and this is making me realize that this business is becoming unsustainable.
Probably now my break-even point is even higher than 1200 images a year
I will see in a year how it goes, but the feeling is that it has become a game for amateurs, to buy some equipment every year and have some dinners. Or for contributors from poor countries.
It is no longer a place for professionals.
(Sorry for any errors in the automatic translation ;))
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I am sorry, but for people doing stock FULL TIME as their total day job, maybe even with assistants, it is absolutely not unusual to produce 500 files a month.
How else will they make the money? These are the people with professional ports over 100k files, maybe even more than 200k if they have been doing this for 20 years.
Doing stock as a side hustle to your main job is a completely different situation.
I find the information presented very impressive and interesting, but I have to admit it is the first time ever I hear someone saying that 30k a year was reliably reached for a long time by uploading only 400 files (or less) a year.
Maartje van Caspel is the only one I can think of that for a certain time on istock was one of the top 5 exclusive artists with only around 1000 ultrauseful files and probably had a reliable income of at least 6-10k a month. Perhaps at some time even more.
But she is unusually gifted and today no longer does stock.
Everyone else who has a revenue of over 10k a month, which is what you need to keep a business with a team going, they certainly upload a lot more than 400 files a year or 100 videos a month.
But whatever some people with apparently out of this world unusual talent was possible in the past...these days are gone forever and will never come back.
I do believe video has a lot more options, simply because there is very little video available. Even if you just do shots with a mobile phone, you can still carve out a niche for yourself and have very little competition.
Less than 60 million files versus over 1 Billion over all agencies combined.
I will certainly try to process my videos much faster.
But to really make reliable money in video longterm I need to do a very thorough analysis of the video market, which takes time and lots of test shots. And at least two years of ciollecting lots of details.
I can do photos that will sell reasonably well (I think) for specific genres in my sleep. But also in photo there is still a lot to learn and subjects to explore I have never done before.
Same for illustrations, I can now do ai illustrations, but I still need to learn about the illustration market. I have learned that oil painting style is not very popular...
What I keep hearing about video is that drone shots are very lucrative.
But I don't think that this year I will have time to learn a new tool and new genre.
Eventually I will get there. I will find a video genre that works for me and brings reliable longterm money.
Thank you for all the insights, it is fascinating.
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I am sorry, but for people doing stock FULL TIME as their total day job, maybe even with assistants, it is absolutely not unusual to produce 500 files a month.
How else will they make the money? These are the people with professional ports over 100k files, maybe even more than 200k if they have been doing this for 20 years.
What I wrote is valid for my niche, travel and landscape photography.
Surely, taking lifestyle photos with people is much more productive; you can do many more.
Same thing for holiday or food photos.
For travel and landscape photography there are many more problems: it is expensive, you can't always control the light (it depends on the weather), you have to get up early in the morning and go late to dinner, and you often have to remove people, signs, and brands. Not all locations are photogenic and sellable. Some cities are saturated and do not sell anymore, too many images.
And then you can't do too many repetitions of the same location. A portfolio with 100 images of 10 different locations with very high quality photos, is better than a portfolio of 300 images of 5 locations and photos taken like a tourist ...
You should not only look at the number of photos produced, but also the quality which is very important.
However, as I wrote, for a few years this has not worked anymore. It takes a lot more photos than 5 years ago. And it becomes unsustainable, there is not enough time and it takes a lot of money to travel. I think very few people succeed in doing this.
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And if it takes 500 good useful videos uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income then it will take 5000 good useful images uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income. It's even worse for images with more competition from ai, easy of copycats, much more saturation. So with that in mind, I'd say within the next year or two, you're going to need upwards of 10000 good useful images uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income. Keep rowing men!
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And if it takes 500 good useful videos uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income then it will take 5000 good useful images uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income. It's even worse for images with more competition from ai, easy of copycats, much more saturation. So with that in mind, I'd say within the next year or two, you're going to need upwards of 10000 good useful images uploaded to each agency every month to see a sustainable increase in income. Keep rowing men!
It is very likely that 5000 per month will be needed, especially AI images, since today their production rate is 10 times that of photographic images (look for Jo Ann's post) because they are infinitely easier to make and copy. No need to travel, look for models, set up photo sets.
Adobe's servers will explode ... :o
I wrote the comment above because many contributors focus on how much they earn with new images, but they forget how much they lose every year with the old ones.
Usually the earnings of an image or video grow until the second year and then start to decrease.
It is essential to understand the shelf life of your content.
After almost 20 years of analyzing my statistics I can say that the second year is ALWAYS the best. 25% of the total earnings of a content is made in the second year, then a slow decline begins.
For example, in 2014 I created 370 images that have earned me about $42,000 so far, in 2015 (the second year) with these images I earned $10,800 (their best year), in 2024, after 10 years, $600 ... a constant decline every year.
Today, 400 images in the second year earn about $2,000 ... 5 times less than in 2014. And my retouching skills have improved significantly.
For my quality and variety of images, I would need 2,000 a year, 5 times as many as in 2014. But keeping up that pace with the same quality and variety today is impossible. I can certainly make 2,000 or 5,000 images a year as Cobalt says, but to achieve this goal I have to send less attractive and more repetitive photos and this negatively affects earnings.
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My old camera images created in 2008-2012 have increasing sales on Adobe.
And for ai images being easier to produce, it all depends on what.
I struggle to upload 10 - 20 files a day, because so many details go wrong, which is why I am switching back to camera work or doing things in studio for many subjects.
There has been a huge influx of new producers because so many youtubers have been promising people instant easy money with ai.
That will gradually die down.
And the majority of content coming in are just duplicates of duplicates.
It is similar to the influx of mobile phone content creators a few years ago.
If you look at details, very little real, genuine fresh content is coming to microstock agencies.
So if you pick your niches well, you can continue to upload and make money.
If some producers decide, this is it and want to retire, by all means do that.
But it is simply not true that stock is dead and you can no longer make reliable and interesting money.
Which is why I am documenting my process here.
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And for ai images being easier to produce, it all depends on what.
I struggle to upload 10 - 20 files a day, because so many details go wrong, which is why I am switching back to camera work or doing things in studio for many subjects.
So you agree with me: quality is needed, not just quantity. ;)
But many others take other paths.
Remember JustAnImage's post?
"In 2024 I started with 35,675 files and on 12/31/2024 there were 49,052 - of which about 3,000 photos, 2,500 videos (AI and real mixed), 9,000 AI images.
- in January 25 I had 322 DL so far
- in January 24 (on the same day) I had 480 DL"
50,000 images and videos, and he has fewer downloads than me, who have less than 6,000 images.
But quality takes time ... ::)
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My old camera images created in 2008-2012 have increasing sales on Adobe.
Because you are uploading images again (after years), clients are discovering your portfolio, and maybe the algorithm is bringing your content a little higher in search.
But if you have always uploaded consistently like me and have updated statistics of over 15 years of work, you will see that the earnings after the second year are a curve that slowly goes down ...
Some photos can go up, but it is an exception. The important thing to look at is the general trend.
Your 2024 images will have their "best earnings year" in 2025, and from 2026, they will start a slow and constant decline.
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So if you pick your niches well, you can continue to upload and make money.
...
But it is simply not true that stock is dead and you can no longer make reliable and interesting money.
Which is why I am documenting my process here.
Making money yes, but not to do it as a full-time job.
It's great money to buy some equipment, take a trip, go out to dinner, buy a car ...
All very good things for an amateur who does it as a side hustle.
I'm talking about doing it as a professional like I did for over 15 years.
Yes, I also have other photography jobs (selling prints and licenses from my website and PODs, some commissioned work), but for 15 years stock was my primary source of income and the work activity I dedicated the most time to.
Stock is not dead, agencies are making higher revenues every year.
But for us contributors, the situation is different because of the reasons I already explained in my previous post (increased competition, lower compensation rates, competition from free sites ...)
I hope I'm wrong, but you've just started again and are building your earnings. Now it's increasing, but then the images of 2023 and 2024 will start to "age" and lose earnings. And the new ones will compensate for the loss of the old ones.
You will touch your earnings "ceiling", and going beyond will be difficult.
Your ceiling depends on how you manage quality and quantity. The better you are, the higher it will be. But growth is not infinite ... and that's the sad truth.
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I know many people who do stock as a full time job. With still increasing income. So yes, it is absolutely possible.
From what you are writing it sounds like you are absolutely refusing to move beyond what has worked for you in the past.
If you are doing stock full time, you can easily do something else instead of nature and landscape.
Do model released shootings, studio work, do localized food, most importantly - do video.
If drone video is currently the best the way for serious video income, do that.
You are simply resisting any improvement to your sales. You cannot blame the industry if your income is not growing.
There are some factors nobody can influence like the crash at Shutterstock and pond5 because of agency incompetence.
So go and upload where the money is.
Do you have a getty house contract? A contract with stocksy? Or any of the other premium brands?
I know "the wall", I have hit it before in my previous stock life.
The way around that is to explore new genres and new agencies.
Start working with people, there is so much content missing. I would love to do more with people, but I am currently mostly housebound for family reasons.
Find yourself some acting students or happy retired people looking for some side income.
There is so much you can do.
People AND video is really empty, hardly anyone does great people video content.
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I know many people who do stock as a full time job. With still increasing income. So yes, it is absolutely possible.
From what you are writing it sounds like you are absolutely refusing to move beyond what has worked for you in the past.
If you are doing stock full time, you can easily do something else instead of nature and landscape.
Show me someone who has been "doing microstock" for more than 8/10 years and has never lost any income.
Give me their business name and show me their earnings over time.
Maybe 5% is improving, but 95% is losing. If you analyze a trend you should not take 5%, but the majority.
I occasionally follow many who publish their earnings, and none of them have improved their condition in recent years.
Your vision is distorted for me because you started now, but you are still very far from my earnings and you still don't know how it will end.
I can still do stock full-time. My complaint is for the negative trend that this business is taking and for a job that is becoming a sort of slavery.
I don't do food, lifestyle or anything else because I don't like it and because my skills are in travel. My images are also used for other jobs parallel to stock (prints, premium content licenses ...).
Today if you don't specialize, you don't get very far ... those who do everything do nothing.
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I started out with AS in 2013. Still going and doing nicely. Last year seen a slight dip but, I didn't submit that much. Probably between 500 - 1000 files for the year. This year I will be doing a lot more so should see a return to the usual progression hopefully. I'm a FT contributor and have been since I started.
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I started out with AS in 2013. Still going and doing nicely. Last year seen a slight dip but, I didn't submit that much. Probably between 500 - 1000 files for the year. This year I will be doing a lot more so should see a return to the usual progression hopefully. I'm a FT contributor and have been since I started.
Adobe Stock is the only one growing for me too, but it is not enough to compensate for the losses I have on all the others.
For example: with 123RF I earned $2900 in 2019 and in 2024 I made $124 ... :-\
With Shutterstock I earn a third of my best years ... and (incredible) it is still my best agency.
Adobe's performance is not enough to cover all the other agencies in sharp decline
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Fortunately I'm still up overall, but, the others are standing still or decreasing a bit. I cut off a few of them as I don't need to waste time with them. They represent 30mins earnings on AS.
In 10 years this income will just be a top up income for retirement. Although, I'm unlikjlely to stop altogether. But, I feel for people trying to make this a career today. I'd be concerned if I needed to stretch it to 15-20 years.
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Adobe Stock is the only one growing for me too, but it is not enough to compensate for the losses I have on all the others.
Adobe's performance is not enough to cover all the other agencies in sharp decline
But according to what you write you also did not upload much to Adobe, so it is impossible for them to cover the losses on SS.
Like I said, the people I know with reliable growing income, they are reading here and can decide themselves to share data.
Most of them do a big mix and many have high quality people ports. Some do ai for adobe, most don't.
But nearly everyone also has a dedicated macrostock portfolio on stocksy, adobe prime or a getty house contract.
This year it looks like many have decided to do more video.
The drop on SS and p5 is truly something that a contributor could not anticipate or can affect.
But you can control what you do and certainly uploading more than 400 files a year if you want to seriously grow your income, should not be a problem for someone doing stock full time.
My friends have losses on SS, but many have made Adobe a priority in the last few years, because they could see the writing on the wall.
So they are doing well, but yes...more than 400 uploads needed.
I will keep documenting what I do, at least until I reach a reliable 1200-1500 a month. After that I will update in more private circles.
Again, I am not doing stock full time. Unfortunately.
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Adobe Stock is the only one growing for me too, but it is not enough to compensate for the losses I have on all the others.
Adobe's performance is not enough to cover all the other agencies in sharp decline
But according to what you write you also did not upload much to Adobe, so it is impossible for them to cover the losses on SS.
But you can control what you do and certainly uploading more than 400 files a year if you want to seriously grow your income, should not be a problem for someone doing stock full time.
Cobalt, maybe you missed part of my message #1535
I'll write it again for you here:
Since spring 2024, I started uploading 100 photos a month, 1200 a year. I think that's my limit. I don't think I can do better in my niche while maintaining good quality. I don't think I can physically do better than that.
With the new content I'm increasing my earnings by $30 every month. That's not bad. After 10 months and 1000 new photos, these last ones brought me 300$ in February. Unfortunately, the old ones (about 5,000 images) are losing more than 300$ a month, and this is making me realize that this business is becoming unsustainable.
Probably now, my break-even point is even higher than 1200 images a year.
We'll see what happens after 2 years of 100 uploads per month.
Remember: travel and landscape photography are different from other genres.
It takes money and time (to travel) much more than in lifestyle or food.
I don't know many portfolios with 50k of landscapes. If there are, they have a lot of duplicates and this doesn't raise the earnings much because each similar photograph competes with the others.
I'm not interested in doing other genres. I don't like them, I would have to buy more equipment, set up a studio that I don't have... In my life I don't just think about money, but also about doing a job I like.
I'm highly specialized in one genre. Maybe I'll start doing workshops, even if I don't like it very much. ;)
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Hi,
Adobe Stock is the only one growing for me too, but it is not enough to compensate for the losses I have on all the others.
Adobe's performance is not enough to cover all the other agencies in sharp decline
But according to what you write you also did not upload much to Adobe, so it is impossible for them to cover the losses on SS.
Like I said, the people I know with reliable growing income, they are reading here and can decide themselves to share data.
Most of them do a big mix and many have high quality people ports. Some do ai for adobe, most don't.
But nearly everyone also has a dedicated macrostock portfolio on stocksy, adobe prime or a getty house contract.
This year it looks like many have decided to do more video.
The drop on SS and p5 is truly something that a contributor could not anticipate or can affect.
But you can control what you do and certainly uploading more than 400 files a year if you want to seriously grow your income, should not be a problem for someone doing stock full time.
My friends have losses on SS, but many have made Adobe a priority in the last few years, because they could see the writing on the wall.
So they are doing well, but yes...more than 400 uploads needed.
I will keep documenting what I do, at least until I reach a reliable 1200-1500 a month. After that I will update in more private circles.
Again, I am not doing stock full time. Unfortunately.
Hello, thank you for keeping us informed of your journey! Could you tell me which camera could be used to record videos and photos (I have a Canon EOS 60D and Canon EF 50 mm f1.4 lens), if cameras that record videos in 4k required, or full HD 1920 x1080 is okay (because my Canon 60D record video in 1920x1080)? And now i don't have money enough in order to buy a good camera to record in 4K videos.Thank you so much!
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I'm not interested in doing other genres. I don't like them, I would have to buy more equipment, set up a studio that I don't have... In my life I don't just think about money, but also about doing a job I like.
Good luck with you attitude. In 2012 I started to work as a translator and everything went well, my earnings were slightly above average in my country. But recently (due to technological development) I have been doing only post-editing of automatic translations. If I had said "I´m not interested in post-editing, I don´t like it", I would have been jobless now.
I don´t mean it bad, but sometimes it is needed to adapt. You mentioned workshops, that might be a good complement to your microstock earnings. Or doing drone images - as Cobalt and other people mentioned, drone photos / videos are in demand and it would enable you to stay in your genre - landscape and travel. But you would have to buy new equipment..
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@alexandersr
You have more than enough equipment. I often just use my mobile phone, iphone16 pro max, like the last 3 days documenting the carnival parades in my area.
I am not a video pro, but just from what I have been doing hd still sells very well, it is not necessary to always do 4k.
I do 4k whenever I can to future proof my clips.
Perhaps you might want to invest in a motorized slider, a used one will do. It really adds a very professional vibe and is very useful.
Otherwise I think it is important to consider even a 20 second clip as a "mini story" try to find and entry and an exit to what you are showing and always have 2-4 seconds at beginning and end that can be cut away or used for blending.
Look for a subject you really love and enjoy and just create some content for that theme.
Then see where it takes you.
Video is really very wide open, hardly any content in so many themes.
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@baumann
"I'm not interested in doing other genres. I don't like them, I would have to buy more equipment, set up a studio that I don't have... In my life I don't just think about money, but also about doing a job I like."
You have answered yourself.
There are a million things you can do with stock without investing in a full studio or more equipment.
I am sure you have a reflector, some lights, a tripod and a camera??
There is so much to shoot out there.
What you are doing here is looking for a justification not to adapt.
And if you don't need a regular income because retirement payments are already coming in, good for you.
Maybe do some workshops or private tutoring.
It is perfectly fine to decide that making money with stock is no longer your thing.
But I don't think it is helpful to anyone, least of all yourself, to claim that making money with stock is no longer possible.
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I've already done a job I didn't like for almost 20 years. So I'll fight with all my strength to keep doing this. Now is not the time to adapt; now is the time to fight.
The fault that I sell less is the greed of the platforms. I sell many more photos than 10 years ago ... it's the platforms that have lowered the compensation rates (except Adobe, which is the only agency where I earn more than before).
And a little bit, it's also the fault of the contributors who agree to sell their content for crumbs. Fortunately, I don't make videos (maybe I will in the future), but I'm seeing many "microstockers" on YouTube very happy to sell on MotionArray for an RPD < $ 0.10 ... ridiculous.
I still have about 15 years to retire.
Greetings, and thanks for the exchange of opinions.
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You can avoid greed of the platforms by supplying places like stocksy...if you can get in...
Or selling directly, there still are people with a successful direct webstore and direct contacts to large business clients.
Blaming contributors is like blaming the internet exists. Or mobile phones.
Neither the people, nor the internet, nor the easy camera tools are going away.
If you insist in staying in your personal favorite niche...then I guess you have to reinvent yourself again in that niche.
Find concepts or parts of the world highly desired but still missing.
Or like I suggested add a model shoot at each location, do something interesting and valuable with people outdoors.
Can be as simple as elderly people doing some exercises, sometimes generic, sometimes highly localized.
Videos of every possible yoga pose or exercise movement...there must be thousands. Done correctly with some nice elderly people. Real people, a little overweight - who doesn't need that?
Timeless classics.
Think outside the box and enjoy the challenge.
Being stuck in negative thinking will not increase your sales.
I sincerly wish you all the best and hope you find something that works for you.
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@alexandersr
You have more than enough equipment. I often just use my mobile phone, iphone16 pro max, like the last 3 days documenting the carnival parades in my area.
I am not a video pro, but just from what I have been doing hd still sells very well, it is not necessary to always do 4k.
I do 4k whenever I can to future proof my clips.
Perhaps you might want to invest in a motorized slider, a used one will do. It really adds a very professional vibe and is very useful.
Otherwise I think it is important to consider even a 20 second clip as a "mini story" try to find and entry and an exit to what you are showing and always have 2-4 seconds at beginning and end that can be cut away or used for blending.
Look for a subject you really love and enjoy and just create some content for that theme.
Then see where it takes you.
Video is really very wide open, hardly any content in so many themes.
Thank you very much for your recommendations, you are very kind!
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....
I will keep documenting what I do, at least until I reach a reliable 1200-1500 a month. After that I will update in more private circles.
...
i really hope not - i've really enjoyed & learned from your posts
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I own a Canon 60D, which frame rate is better for video stock?
The Canon EOS 60D can record 1920 x 1080 video at 29.97, 25, or 23.976 frames per second (fps). This resolution is also known as 1080i or 1080p.
Additional video resolution options
1280 x 720 at 59.94 or 50 fps
640 x 480 at 59.94 or 50 fps
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I record in 4k at 30 fps or 29.97 depending on camera.
Then after processing I export as 4k with 25 fps
I have no idea if that is the best way to do it.
Maybe a video pro can chime in.
I mostly do editorial and simple "authentic" daily life clips. My videos are not designed to be used in the next starwars production, more for youtube channels, mixed in with company content for social media.
eta
In your case I would always record in full hd.
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....
I will keep documenting what I do, at least until I reach a reliable 1200-1500 a month. After that I will update in more private circles.
...
i really hope not - i've really enjoyed & learned from your posts
Well, I have to get there first. But happy to read people enjoy that I am sharing the journey :)
I keep getting people who ask me if I could actively coach them. But for now I just want to rebuild my income.
I read up on your blog, very impressive journey yourself!!
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There is much moaning and complaining on this forum, and negativity is not helpful.
As Cobalt mentioned, when something doesn’t work, try a different approach, and if that still doesn’t yield results, change your strategy again. The ability to adapt is crucial in any business. Companies that fail to adapt ultimately go out of business.
Complaining can adversely affect the person doing so, often without them even realizing it. I have yet to meet a successful businessperson who complains constantly. In contrast, many of the chronic complainers I've encountered have struggled to achieve their goals in life. It's unfortunate as many of them have the potential to do much better.
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You should read Byung Chul Han ... companies (and also microstock platforms) make us compete against each other and we think that failure or success is only our fault.
And so they achieved their success. Platforms like Getty take 85% and we are left with 15% with which we have to pay taxes, equipment, models and travel ... and then I read contributors who are very happy about all this.
Positive thinking is a perfect rip-off of neocapitalism, says the Korean philosopher.
"Divide et impera" the Romans used to say and the platforms are doing it perfectly.
The forum is full of protests and incontrovertible data, and not complaints.
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Instead of perma complaining...people can also just move on to another business.
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Instead of perma complaining...people can also just move on to another business.
Cobalt, I might consider your comments more if you made twice as much as I do. Instead, you make less than a quarter of what I make, at this moment, in this business.
Maybe you should have the humility to listen to what those who have more experience than you have to say.
You should have more respect for what others write and understand why they write it instead of being the teacher who knows everything.
Problems should be reported when the house creaks, not when it has collapsed.
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I made a very large amount of money inspite of an over 12 years break, so please hold back on the lecturing.
And now I am already outselling people with gigantic ports on just Adobe...so...I am very confident in my abilities to generate money with stock. And inspite of not doing it full time.
I am also looking to innovate and improve my business, not complain endlessly which does nothing to make money.
All you do is whine, where is your ambition???
There are huge opportunities to make money with stock, but you simply refuse to take all the very easy money opportunities that exist inspite of claiming that you do stock full time.
I will take a step back and interact more with people who are actively growing their income.
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I just wish the compensation for this work would be fair again.
It isn't anymore. :-\
I have nothing else to add.
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I record in 4k at 30 fps or 29.97 depending on camera.
Then after processing I export as 4k with 25 fps
I have no idea if that is the best way to do it.
Just wondering why you're converting your 30fps/29.97fps to 25fps and not keeping the native frame rate?
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Somebody set it up for me like this many years ago.
Like i said, not a video pro.
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I record in 4k at 30 fps or 29.97 depending on camera.
Then after processing I export as 4k with 25 fps
I have no idea if that is the best way to do it.
Maybe a video pro can chime in.
I mostly do editorial and simple "authentic" daily life clips. My videos are not designed to be used in the next starwars production, more for youtube channels, mixed in with company content for social media.
eta
In your case I would always record in full hd.
Thank you again! I have learned good tips !
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@cobalt
It makes sense that you are supplying the standard 25fps PAL/European frame rate, because it sounds like the type of videos you're shooting are going to mostly appeal to buyers in Europe. Can't you shoot in native 25fps though? Do you only have cameras that can shoot 30fps/29.97fps?
There are a few ways to convert 30fps to 25fps but I think most stock sites recommend sticking to the native frame rate. The simplest conversion method will cause choppiness because one frame in every 6 is dropped.
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That might have been the reason he set it up like that, he was a pro film maker from my area.
I can probably change the frame rate on my camera or change the frame rate for export to 30 fps, thank you for the tip.
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Lol - where is everyone's daily rankings?!??!?!?!
I was enjoying those! Please start posting again! :) It was informative, and I liked seeing how other people were performing as well... cheers!
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4322 files.
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At the moment it is slow. 7900 files, pos 3460
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ty! :)
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Lol - where is everyone's daily rankings?!??!?!?!
I was enjoying those! Please start posting again! :) It was informative, and I liked seeing how other people were performing as well... cheers!
When do we get to have a peek at yours? You get to have a peek at ours.
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Yes, this game is no fun if you hold out.
Get ranked!
@pace always so impressed with how video sales give so much better results with lower sales and rankings.
I will absolutely upload and create more videos.
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Lol - where is everyone's daily rankings?!??!?!?!
I was enjoying those! Please start posting again! :) It was informative, and I liked seeing how other people were performing as well... cheers!
When do we get to have a peek at yours? You get to have a peek at ours.
I need to get them a bit higher first...
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Sigh.
back on ignore...
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Sigh.
back on ignore...
haha. sigh. wah wah wah. who'd you put on ignore, & do you think they actually care? lol, extremely funny that you feel the need to announce that...
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@pacesetter
I arrived at the 500 videos a month for pro income from reading around various groups and personal recommendation from someone doing lots of video, or stock in general full time.
Producing 500 videos monthly for a professional income is sensible and achievable if one commits full-time. To reach that target, I would need to complete 10 to 20 shoots each month, which means I would be working 20 to 25 days a month, encompassing shoots, editing, metadata work, and submissions.
I produce an average of 100 clips per month with 3 to 4 shoots. I manage this part-time on my days off. Each shoot lasts about 2 hours, so I dedicate around 6 to 8 hours a month to shooting to produce 100 quality, standalone clips.
Before reading your post, I understood that transitioning to full-time work would require me to produce 500 monthly clips. I plan to make this change as soon as I average at least $3,000 per month, or if I lose my current job, which I genuinely enjoy. The latter possibility may come first, but it will motivate me to take action and make this venture a reality.
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500 files a month, wether it is video or images can be generated really well if you do two to three people shootings a month.
Alternatively maybe somebody with a good workflow for food photography/video, who has a good standing set up in the studio and just cooks through 2 recipes a day (one soup, one dessert, main meal and appetizer...). Sometimes also with an assistant or a family team.
Then I spoke with someone who has a large port with mostly editorial content and also travels a lot (retired). He is not that selective with his editorial videos but has higher prices on pond5 (most content is exclusive there) and it works really well for him.
His goal was always at least 500 clips a month and very often he reaches 700 or more.
This is not his port but someone who works in a similar way with a different type of content.
Although this producer might also have a team working for him. Now with over 130 000 files.
https://www.pond5.com/de/artist/rajastills (https://www.pond5.com/de/artist/rajastills)
Nearly every day rajastills posts sales in the pond5 sales thread. So it is a very stable income with very nicely put together daily life shots, many editorial.
I will be making a focus of "hands doing something", hopefully not just with my hands and lots of little clips that are easy to cut into a larger theme.
With a quality more for social media or blog posts, not a starwars cinematic production.
I look at the pond5 sales thread every day and also share my own sales...if I have them...for fairness.
The thread is biased towards editorial because that is more difficult to copy.
https://www.pond5.com/de/community?thread=8135844&page=1428 (https://www.pond5.com/de/community?thread=8135844&page=1428)
The biggest content missing are nicely done model released people anything clips.
However, with people you really need to get it right.
So I am thinking mostly hands doing things and maybe occasionally a friendly face with acting experience. Longterm I would like to find a few local hobby or maybe retired actors to work with for regular shootings.
Blackboxglobal offers the ability to add royalties for team members. So a fixed royalty percentage could be agreed with an actor and then building up a portfolio also becomes part of their retirement plan.
But that phase is the next step, maybe for 2026.
For now just process what I already have and get into the habit of maybe 100 clips a month.
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Thank you for sharing.
All of my shoots involve one to two models, depending on the subject. Each shoot lasts two hours and is conducted either right after sunrise or just before sunset. I shoot exclusively outdoors in natural light, although I sometimes use additional lighting for medium and close-up shots when necessary.
Typically, I end up with 20 to 25 high-quality clips per shoot per model. Given the limited time to capture the best light, this is the maximum I can manage.
Producing 500 clips a month would require working with 10 to 20 models; occasionally, I might shoot the same model two or more times.
I focus on capturing authentic scenes of real people engaging in genuine activities.
I am aware of Rajastills and have seen his videos on Pond5. I’m not particularly impressed with the quality of his portfolio, but if it works for him, then that's good for him. Personally, I strive to shoot the highest quality possible because otherwise, I don’t enjoy the process.
I also film hands engaging in various activities. These clips tend to sell very well depending on the subject matter.
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Hi Daniel,
if you are already working with people, then you are building the best longterm video port possible. Good for you.
I agree that the quality of rajastills is not stellar - however, it sells. And it is good reminder that even simple clips can make good money.
At the moment, I am processing mostly simple food and lots of editorial, then I want to establish a corner in the kitchen for simple daily life food shots or somewhere a place for hands doing something. I also have an electric slider and I think once I have the video workplace set somewhere with natural light, I think I will be able to create lots of simple but useful clips.
What is missing for my strategy is a real analysis of the best missing content. At the moment I am just throwing up clips without a proper strategy.
But I think it is very realistic to strive for 800-1500 usd reliable video income longterm.
I also expect istock/shutterstock/pond5 also to improve sales, once the merger is completed.
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This article was posted by Primus1 in the pond5 forums.
Very optimistic for the future of video.
https://www.verifiedmarketreports.com/product/stock-video-market/ (https://www.verifiedmarketreports.com/product/stock-video-market/)
STOCK VIDEO MARKET INSIGHTS
Stock Video Market Market was valued at USD 4.5 Billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 10.8 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2024 to 2030.
The stock video market has emerged as a dynamic sector within the broader media and entertainment landscape, driven by the rising demand for visual content across various platforms. This market encompasses the creation, distribution, and monetization of video clips that can be licensed for commercial or personal use. With the proliferation of digital media, businesses, marketers, and content creators are increasingly tuing to stock footage to enhance their storytelling capabilities. As of 2021, the global stock video market was valued at approximately $2.57 billion, with projections indicating substantial growth. The market is expected to reach around $5.36 billion by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7% during the forecast period.
This growth is largely fueled by technological advancements that have made high-quality video production more accessible. Platforms such as Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and Pond5 have democratized video content creation, allowing even small businesses to leverage stock footage in their marketing campaigns. In addition, the surge of social media platforms has accelerated the demand for engaging video content. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), video ad spending in the U.S. reached $13.4 billion in 2020, underscoring the growing importance of video as a marketing tool. As more companies recognize the value of visual storytelling, the stock video market is poised to flourish.
A significant aspect of this market is the concept of stock footage, which refers to pre-existing video content that can be used by filmmakers, advertisers, and businesses. Stock footage can save time and resources in production, providing an efficient solution for those looking to produce high-quality content without the extensive costs associated with traditional filming. The increasing availability of diverse and high-quality stock footage collections has made it easier for creators to find the perfect visuals that align with their narratives, thus further driving market growth.
Application across industries has also been a critical factor in the stock video market's expansion. Sectors such as advertising, education, and entertainment utilize stock videos to enhance their projects. For example, advertisers use stock video clips to create engaging promotional content, while educational institutions incorporate stock footage into e-leaing materials to provide a richer leaing experience. Furthermore, the rise of remote work has led to increased demand for video conferencing tools, with platforms integrating stock video options to improve user engagement. This broad applicability signifies that the stock video market will continue to thrive as industries increasingly adopt visual content as a primary communication medium.
STOCK VIDEO MARKET KEY TAKEAWAYS
Regional Contribution in 2023: North America accounted for 30% of the total revenue, followed by Asia Pacific at 28%, Europe at 25%, Latin America at 10%, and Middle East & Africa at 7%. Asia Pacific emerged as the fastest growing region, driven by industrial automation and technological advancements.
Market Performance by Type: Non-contact Type held the largest share with 58% of the market, while Contact Type accounted for 42%. The Non-contact Type continues to dominate due to its precision and ability to measure complex geometries.
Fastest Growing Sub-segment by Type: The Non-contact sub-segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period, fueled by its advancements in optical and laser-based technologies.
Key Applications Breakdown: The Automotive Industry led the market share in 2023, accounting for 35% of the total revenue, driven by the need for precision in vehicle manufacturing.
Fastest Growing Application Segment: Aerospace and Defense is projected to be the fastest growing application segment, driven by increasing demand for high-accuracy measurements in aircraft and defense components.
Others Segment: Other industries combined contributed 15% of the total revenue, with emerging sectors such as medical devices and consumer electronics showing potential for growth in the coming years.
STOCK VIDEO MARKET DYNAMICS
The stock video market has seen remarkable growth over the past few years, fueled by the rising demand for video content across various industries. As businesses increasingly adopt digital marketing strategies, the need for high-quality video assets has surged. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the overall digital media market was valued at $220 billion in 2021, and the stock video segment is anticipated to capture a significant share of this burgeoning market. With the proliferation of social media platforms, content creators, marketers, and businesses are continuously seeking engaging video content to connect with their audiences.
The stock video market is characterized by a dynamic interplay of factors influencing its growth trajectory. Among these, stock footage has become a vital component in the video production process, offering a cost-effective solution for creators who require high-quality visuals without the expenses associated with custom shoots. This trend has empowered even small businesses to enhance their marketing strategies through visually compelling content. In addition, advancements in technology have enabled smoother access to stock video libraries, fostering a culture of creativity and innovation within the industry.
MARKET DRIVERS
One of the primary drivers of the stock video market is the exponential growth of online video consumption. The Cisco Annual Inteet Report predicts that by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer inteet traffic, highlighting the critical role video plays in contemporary digital marketing. Furthermore, the rise of social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube has heightened the demand for diverse video content, prompting businesses to invest in stock footage to keep pace with audience expectations.
Another significant factor is the increasing accessibility of high-speed inteet and mobile devices. As more users gain access to reliable inteet connections, the consumption of video content continues to rise. According to Pew Research Center, around 85% of Americans own a smartphone, which serves as a primary medium for viewing videos. This accessibility encourages more content creators to leverage stock video libraries, thereby driving market growth.
MARKET RESTRAINTS
Despite the promising growth, the stock video market faces certain restraints. A key challenge is the saturation of the market with low-quality stock footage. As many platforms have emerged, the influx of subpar content can overwhelm users, leading to frustration and reluctance to utilize stock footage altogether. This situation creates a perception that stock video may not meet the high-quality standards expected by professional content creators.
Furthermore, issues related to copyright and licensing can deter potential users from investing in stock video services. The fear of inadvertently using copyrighted material without proper licensing can lead to significant legal consequences. As a result, some businesses may hesitate to fully embrace stock footage as part of their content strategy, impacting overall market growth.
MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
The stock video market is poised to seize several opportunities for growth. One promising avenue is the expanding demand for niche content, such as localized footage catering to specific cultural or geographical demographics. As businesses strive to resonate with diverse audiences, there is a growing need for tailored video content that reflects local customs and values. This trend opens up avenues for stock video providers to develop specialized libraries, catering to the unique demands of different markets.
Additionally, the increasing popularity of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) presents significant opportunities for stock video companies. As industries explore the potential of immersive experiences, stock footage can play a crucial role in creating compelling VR/AR content. By adapting their offerings to include 360-degree videos and other innovative formats, stock video providers can tap into this burgeoning market.
MARKET CHALLENGES
In navigating the stock video landscape, several challenges persist. A primary challenge is the need for continuous innovation and adaptation to changing consumer preferences. The fast-paced nature of digital marketing means that trends can shift rapidly, and stock video companies must stay ahead of the curve to remain relevant. This includes regularly updating their libraries with fresh, high-quality content that aligns with current marketing strategies.
Additionally, maintaining competitive pricing while ensuring quality can be a balancing act for stock video providers. As more players enter the market, price wars may ensue, potentially undermining the profitability of established companies. To combat this, firms must emphasize the value and uniqueness of their offerings, ensuring they deliver compelling content that justifies their pricing structures.
REPORT COVERAGE
ATTRIBUTES DETAILS
STUDY PERIOD 2023-2033
BASE YEAR 2025
FORECAST PERIOD 2026-2033
HISTORICAL PERIOD 2023-2024
UNIT VALUE
KEY COMPANIES PROFILED Adobe Inc,Footage Firm Inc,Getty Images Inc,Pond5 Inc,Shutterstock Inc
SEGMENTS COVERED By Content Type Segmentation - Corporate Videos, Educational/Instructional Videos, Nature And Wildlife Footage, Event Videos (Weddings, Parties, Etc.), Travel And Adventure Clips
By Usage Purpose - Marketing And Advertising, Social Media Content, Film And Television Production, Corporate Training And Internal Communication, Documentaries And Stories
By Video Length - Short Clips (Under 30 Seconds), Medium Length (30 Seconds To 2 Minutes), Long Form (2 Minutes To 10 Minutes), Extended Content (Over 10 Minutes)
By Audience - Businesses And Corpors, Freelancers And Independent Creators, Non-Profit Organizs, Educators And Academic Institutions, Influencers And Content Creators
By Style And Genre - Animated/ Motion Graphics, Documentary Style, Vlog And Lifestyle, Drone And Aerial Footage, Timelapse And Slow-Motion Videos
By Geography - North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East Asia & Rest Of World.
TOP STOCK VIDEO MARKET COMPANIES
The competitive landscape of the Stock Video Market offers a comprehensive analysis of key players. It includes insights such as company overviews, financial performance, revenue generation, market potential, research and development investments, new market strategies, regional presence, strengths and weaknesses, product launches, product range, and application leadership. These data points specifically pertain to the companies' activities and focus within the Stock Video Market. Some of the major players operating in the Stock Video Market are:
Adobe Inc
Footage Firm Inc
Getty Images Inc
Pond5 Inc
Shutterstock Inc
STOCK VIDEO MARKET SEGMENTATION
BY CONTENT TYPE SEGMENTATION
Corporate Videos
Educational/Instructional Videos
Nature and Wildlife Footage
Event Videos (Weddings, Parties, etc.)
Travel and Adventure Clips
BY USAGE PURPOSE
Marketing and Advertising
Social Media Content
Film and Television Production
Corporate Training and Inteal Communication
Documentaries and Stories
BY VIDEO LENGTH
Short Clips (under 30 seconds)
Medium Length (30 seconds to 2 minutes)
Long Form (2 minutes to 10 minutes)
Extended Content (Over 10 minutes)
BY AUDIENCE
Businesses and Corpors
Freelancers and Independent Creators
Non-Profit Organizs
Educators and Academic Institutions
Influencers and Content Creators
BY STYLE AND GENRE
Animated/ Motion Graphics
Documentary Style
Vlog and Lifestyle
Drone and Aerial Footage
Timelapse and Slow-Motion Videos
BY GEOGRAPHY
North America
Europe
Asia Pacific
Middle East & Africa
Latin America
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Really a very slow week.
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I also expect istock/shutterstock/pond5 also to improve sales, once the merger is completed.
It would be fantastic if that were to happen!
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Really a very slow week.
For me as well: pos 4530
Selling directly to clients was good recently though: 2 sold licenses make the same money as my monthly return from a few hundred downloads on Adobe
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This article was posted by Primus1 in the pond5 forums.
Very optimistic for the future of video.
https://www.verifiedmarketreports.com/product/stock-video-market/ (https://www.verifiedmarketreports.com/product/stock-video-market/)
STOCK VIDEO MARKET INSIGHTS
Stock Video Market Market was valued at USD 4.5 Billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 10.8 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2024 to 2030.
Interesting article, thanks! Some interesting insights here too...
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(https://i.ibb.co/VpSMRKtz/AS-Earnings.png)
It's been a good week so far with 70 downloads / $60 / rank 5,520, but I'm still disappointed that I'm not reaching the top level I had in December, despite adding more images.
Currently, I have 6,579 images in my portfolio, 99.9% of which are AI-generated.
I still have 5,173 unedited AI images on my hard drive, but I only expect a small increase from them. The problem is that my portfolio ranking is improving very slowly, and it feels like only bestsellers can make a significant difference. However, since bestsellers develop slowly due to the large number of the whole Adobe Stock image stock collection, my earnings are also increasing very slowly.
So far, the best-selling images are in the categories of Fashion / People / Environment / Business. Currently, Easter motifs are also selling well seasonally.
I probably need to massively increase the number of uploads, but since my earnings have only grown very slowly, I don't have much motivation to do so at the moment.
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(https://i.ibb.co/VpSMRKtz/AS-Earnings.png)
It's been a good week so far with 70 downloads / $60 / rank 5,520, but I'm still disappointed that I'm not reaching the top level I had in December, despite adding more images.
Currently, I have 6,579 images in my portfolio, 99.9% of which are AI-generated.
I still have 5,173 unedited AI images on my hard drive, but I only expect a small increase from them. The problem is that my portfolio ranking is improving very slowly, and it feels like only bestsellers can make a significant difference. However, since bestsellers develop slowly due to the large number of the whole Adobe Stock image stock collection, my earnings are also increasing very slowly.
So far, the best-selling images are in the categories of Fashion / People / Environment / Business. Currently, Easter motifs are also selling well seasonally.
I probably need to massively increase the number of uploads, but since my earnings have only grown very slowly, I don't have much motivation to do so at the moment.
Wooow! How many years do you have in Adobe Stock as a contributor?
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It is a really slow week. Unfortunately I have not been able to upload much due to family obligations.
I try to do at least 2 files a day to always have something going live.
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It is a really slow week. Unfortunately I have not been able to upload much due to family obligations.
I try to do at least 2 files a day to always have something going live.
Also i have a lot about family obligations, also i'm too busy, however my downloads numbers always are a shame, but i will keep uploading!
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(https://i.ibb.co/VpSMRKtz/AS-Earnings.png)
It's been a good week so far with 70 downloads / $60 / rank 5,520, but I'm still disappointed that I'm not reaching the top level I had in December, despite adding more images.
Currently, I have 6,579 images in my portfolio, 99.9% of which are AI-generated.
I still have 5,173 unedited AI images on my hard drive, but I only expect a small increase from them. The problem is that my portfolio ranking is improving very slowly, and it feels like only bestsellers can make a significant difference. However, since bestsellers develop slowly due to the large number of the whole Adobe Stock image stock collection, my earnings are also increasing very slowly.
So far, the best-selling images are in the categories of Fashion / People / Environment / Business. Currently, Easter motifs are also selling well seasonally.
I probably need to massively increase the number of uploads, but since my earnings have only grown very slowly, I don't have much motivation to do so at the moment.
Wooow! How many years do you have in Adobe Stock as a contributor?
Since about 2012 started with Fotolia. But back then in the old good days it was very easy. I've earned even more then with just approx. 20 vector graphics. Around 2015 I've seen a massive decline so that I've stopped then.
Started again last year with AI images and currently trying to improve.
But even with AI you have to care extremly about quality (spot generation errors) to stand a chance against the monopolist contributors.
I would recommend Flux 1.1 Dev or better Pro. But Google's ImageFX is also fine.
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hmm. how's everyone doing? very slow week for me, quite concerning...!
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(https://i.ibb.co/VpSMRKtz/AS-Earnings.png)
It's been a good week so far with 70 downloads / $60 / rank 5,520, but I'm still disappointed that I'm not reaching the top level I had in December, despite adding more images.
Currently, I have 6,579 images in my portfolio, 99.9% of which are AI-generated.
I still have 5,173 unedited AI images on my hard drive, but I only expect a small increase from them. The problem is that my portfolio ranking is improving very slowly, and it feels like only bestsellers can make a significant difference. However, since bestsellers develop slowly due to the large number of the whole Adobe Stock image stock collection, my earnings are also increasing very slowly.
So far, the best-selling images are in the categories of Fashion / People / Environment / Business. Currently, Easter motifs are also selling well seasonally.
I probably need to massively increase the number of uploads, but since my earnings have only grown very slowly, I don't have much motivation to do so at the moment.
Wooow! How many years do you have in Adobe Stock as a contributor?
Since about 2012 started with Fotolia. But back then in the old good days it was very easy. I've earned even more then with just approx. 20 vector graphics. Around 2015 I've seen a massive decline so that I've stopped then.
Started again last year with AI images and currently trying to improve.
But even with AI you have to care extremly about quality (spot generation errors) to stand a chance against the monopolist contributors.
I would recommend Flux 1.1 Dev or better Pro. But Google's ImageFX is also fine.
Thanks!
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Was really slow this week, almost like the apocalypse arrived on Adobe sales, but it did pick up some yesterday and today...
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It was a really slow week, just yesterday was a little better.
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As usual, shameful numbers. But I keep uploading!
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just keep uploading, we have all been there, it will get better
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It's been a good week.
(https://i.ibb.co/fVNFkcs9/Screenshot-2025-03-14-184916.jpg)
I didn't sell any higher extended licenses as I did in previous weeks, but the sheer volume of downloads still pushed my sales up slightly compared to last week.
What's also encouraging is that Easter sales made up just around 25% of my total sales, which is a much more balanced performance compared to December when Christmas sales dominated my numbers (accounting for over 95% of sales) and when I crashed then really hard in January.
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One of my goals for the year is to strongly increase evergreen content to have more stuff that sells all year round instead of just the holiday images.
That and more videos.
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just keep uploading, we have all been there, it will get better
Thanks! I will keep uploading content!
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I somehow managed to reach a 3-month high this week. 128 Downloads / 105,24 USD, Position 4.280 / 6.834 Files.
(https://i.ibb.co/rGWd22BW/Bild-2025-03-16-231414414.png)
Although it's still about $40 under the all-time high in early December, it's going up again.
I'm hoping for Easter that sales will increase strongly, similar to Christmas back then.
I'm currently focusing on my strongest categories and creating new variations of them.
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Ultra weak monday sofar. 11 downloads / 7,45 USD. Approx. 1/2 to 1/3 of usual sales.
I guess it will be a very dissapointing week...
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Ultra weak monday sofar. 11 downloads / 7,45 USD. Approx. 1/2 to 1/3 of usual sales.
I guess it will be a very dissapointing week...
For me too. Today on AS only 12 downloads ... usually on a weekday I make 40/60 sales a day. All very old images, even from 10 years ago. :-\
On SS an exceptional RPD today: $0.24 ... level 5. :'(
Finding a bit of optimism to work today is really difficult :-[
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Pretty good Monday for me, can't complain, both AS and SS.
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With 37 downloads and 34 dollars yesterday was a lot better
Weekly rank down to 4120, I hope it picks up again this week.
30 dl were in the Euro time zone.
US zone is very weak.
I hope this is not the beginning of the recession in the USA.
Easter is picking up a little but most sales were very wide spread, some backgrounds, some christmas, some people and even flowers.
Now 8000 files.
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had a little jump up pos 3630
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a little jump easter is coming
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days 18 and 19 were good..
today (20) is slow..
so far these are the earnings this week
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That looks great!
i am really worried about the US time zone.
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A little bit.
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things just keep getting worse and worse,to be honest when I started in 2018 I never,ever imagined something like this.
I spent the last 7 years doing this job,all the time,all the effort to learn,all the sacrifices to then see this.
I hope things get better soon because I honestly don't know what else to do,
What should I do at 50?Should I start over again?Something else?Again?
I just can't take it anymore,I feel like I'm living in a nightmare.
late last year things were finally starting to look up,and starting to get interesting,and now this nasty crash,I haven't sold anything since Wednesday.
but what's happening?
However,I have noticed a drastic drop in illustrative editorials,which represented about 30% of my total sales.
when I started more seriously with illustrative editorials in 2022 I started selling them like hotcakes,and now they are not sold at all anymore,probably customers today on Adobe Stock are looking for AI content,because Adobe Stock is now known as the best agency for AI content,so i will focus more on AI content,at the moment i am producing some AI png and jpg.
if things don't improve in a couple of weeks at most,I will start deleting 1000 contents that have never sold in years,or contents that I think will never sell,in this way I increase the percentage of contents that have sold at least once,hoping that it improves my position in the algorithm.
Maybe it won't help at all,but I'm on the road to desperation now,and at this point it doesn't make any difference anymore,whether I have to make 5-10 sales a week or if I make 0 a week there's just no difference.
I hope things get better soon,because I really can't stand this crap anymore.
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I'm not sure what it is that is going on... The last couple months some of my regular sales dropped by about 30-50%, when I was expecting it to the opposite (I was expecting a 30-50% increase). I will see. Perhaps it will get better. Working on making that happen.
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things just keep getting worse and worse,to be honest when I started in 2018 I never,ever imagined something like this.
I spent the last 7 years doing this job,all the time,all the effort to learn,all the sacrifices to then see this.
I hope things get better soon because I honestly don't know what else to do,
What should I do at 50?Should I start over again?Something else?Again?
I just can't take it anymore,I feel like I'm living in a nightmare.
late last year things were finally starting to look up,and starting to get interesting,and now this nasty crash,I haven't sold anything since Wednesday.
but what's happening?
However,I have noticed a drastic drop in illustrative editorials,which represented about 30% of my total sales.
when I started more seriously with illustrative editorials in 2022 I started selling them like hotcakes,and now they are not sold at all anymore,probably customers today on Adobe Stock are looking for AI content,because Adobe Stock is now known as the best agency for AI content,so i will focus more on AI content,at the moment i am producing some AI png and jpg.
if things don't improve in a couple of weeks at most,I will start deleting 1000 contents that have never sold in years,or contents that I think will never sell,in this way I increase the percentage of contents that have sold at least once,hoping that it improves my position in the algorithm.
Maybe it won't help at all,but I'm on the road to desperation now,and at this point it doesn't make any difference anymore,whether I have to make 5-10 sales a week or if I make 0 a week there's just no difference.
I hope things get better soon,because I really can't stand this crap anymore.
Welcome to the club! I joined Fotolia.com in 2009. I haven't uploaded much content, but I've been uploading more since 2015. And I continue uploading despite everything! My numbers aren't that great either. Cheer up!
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Thank you! I am very happy and satisfied that I have finally joined your prestigious club! :D
Now I'm also starting to gain positions in the rankings,I just recovered 100 positions without making any sales!
soon,the less sales we make,the higher we will climb in the rankings!
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My rank is stable but lower than I had hoped. Sales taper off after Europe time which has me worried that we are in the beginning of a US depression.
8000 files, the last 2 weeks I didn't upload much because i was busy with other thngs.
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just for comparison here is my BWE on Adobe in September 2023,best week ever,it has never been the rule,but I have never sold as little as I do now.
@alexandersr I honestly don't know how you managed to keep uploading in these conditions,for all these years.
For now I'm continuing,because the decline began in January,it's still early,and I can continue for maybe another month or two in these conditions,but if I don't start growing again soon,I really don't see how I can continue for long in these conditions.
I congratulate you on your tenacity!Respect! :)
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just for comparison here is my BWE on Adobe in September 2023,best week ever,it has never been the rule,but I have never sold as little as I do now.
@alexandersr I honestly don't know how you managed to keep uploading in these conditions,for all these years.
For now I'm continuing,because the decline began in January,it's still early,and I can continue for maybe another month or two in these conditions,but if I don't start growing again soon,I really don't see how I can continue for long in these conditions.
I congratulate you on your tenacity!Respect! :)
Thanks! Resilience is the key!
Never give up! Never give up!
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Position pretty good but earnings down at lowest in 6 weeks with a much lower RPD...
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I just can't take it anymore,I feel like I'm living in a nightmare.
l hope things get better soon,because I really can't stand this crap anymore.
Man that does look like you're living a nightmare. Are you doing any video? If not, do video and get out there and shoot your local places of interest, landmarks, landscapes, major construction projects, towns, cities and everything in your area. Use a drone for much better results. Reduce your competition by filming subjects that you (and few others... not the rest of the world) have access to. Come back in 6 to 12 months and thank me for it.
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A little improvement, even with slower sales. Guess it is slow overall.
Agree with the doing video part. Need to get into processing and uploading.
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It's been a while since I reported in. It's a fresh start of another week... sort of creeping up steadily. A little down on previous march but only just and there is still another 7 days left. Very similar pattern to previous years.
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I just can't take it anymore,I feel like I'm living in a nightmare.
l hope things get better soon,because I really can't stand this crap anymore.
Man that does look like you're living a nightmare. Are you doing any video? If not, do video and get out there and shoot your local places of interest, landmarks, landscapes, major construction projects, towns, cities and everything in your area. Use a drone for much better results. Reduce your competition by filming subjects that you (and few others... not the rest of the world) have access to. Come back in 6 to 12 months and thank me for it.
I also have videos in my portfolio,and before I used to sell one every now and then,lately I don't even sell one anymore,I sold my last video on February 17th.
and thanks for your interest! :)
I think I'll wait until April 4-5 then I'll do a cleanup in my portfolio,eliminating 1000 contents,I'll cut the dry branches so the tree grows more lush! :D
it will probably be useless,but at this point it's worth a try,better to eliminate old useless content,increase the percentage of content that has sold at least once and improve the overall look of the portfolio.
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I think I'll wait until April 4-5 then I'll do a cleanup in my portfolio,eliminating 1000 contents,I'll cut the dry branches so the tree grows more lush! :D
it will probably be useless,but at this point it's worth a try,better to eliminate old useless content,increase the percentage of content that has sold at least once and improve the overall look of the portfolio.
I get the idea of cleaning up a portfolio, but I honestly think it's a waste of time. From what I've read, buyers rarely browse an entire portfolio—they just search for specific clips. Instead of spending time deleting content, why not focus on producing more high-quality clips? That will likely have a much bigger impact on your sales than trying to ‘prune’ the old ones.
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Is deleting a lot of files not something agencies punish?
Because it means customers that have lightboxed the files for projects see them suddenly disappear.
It is up to you, but I would just focus on uploading lots of videos as recommended.
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It's been a while since I reported in. It's a fresh start of another week... sort of creeping up steadily. A little down on previous march but only just and there is still another 7 days left. Very similar pattern to previous years.
Very nice rank half full!! Congrats.
I am currently very frustrated with the similars rejections.
If you follow the discord you will see some examples of two wedding cakes, where I had one file declined.
I had 8 wedding cakes before, mostly for wedding venue, with people and tables in the background, these were the first "cards".
I also checked for similars with adobe tools and felt confident it was a fresh little niche in design and colors.
I have hundreds of generated cake images, but really made the effort to check what is already available to upload something new to my port and not with similars in the collection.
I chose 2 files.
Now I keep reading this affects everything, ai, photos, videos, png, people are getting a crazy and unpredictable amount of rejections.
It feels like uploading is a lottery ticket at the moment.
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I think I'll wait until April 4-5 then I'll do a cleanup in my portfolio,eliminating 1000 contents,I'll cut the dry branches so the tree grows more lush! :D
it will probably be useless,but at this point it's worth a try,better to eliminate old useless content,increase the percentage of content that has sold at least once and improve the overall look of the portfolio.
I get the idea of cleaning up a portfolio, but I honestly think it's a waste of time. From what I've read, buyers rarely browse an entire portfolio—they just search for specific clips. Instead of spending time deleting content, why not focus on producing more high-quality clips? That will likely have a much bigger impact on your sales than trying to ‘prune’ the old ones.
Sure,it's definitely better to upload more quality videos or any quality content.
however my percentage of content sold at least once is only 13.9% i still want to increase this percentage,maybe it doesn't make any difference,but as i said,i think it's worth a try.
@Cobalt,as as far as I know,you can delete any content at any time,I don't think there is any problem with that,and then at this point,since I now make 5-10 sales a week since 12 weeks I don't see that I could have any more serious problems than this!
and I almost forgot,in the week between February 24th and March 2nd only 3 sales!
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Well, if you do delete so many files, please let us know if it has any effect.
I have many files that never sold but then suddenly a file from 2014 gets its first ever sale.
I only delete if I made a mistake uploading or when I decide something else from the series would be better.
Hope it works!!
Really sorry to read how your sales keep dropping.
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It's been a while since I reported in. It's a fresh start of another week... sort of creeping up steadily. A little down on previous march but only just and there is still another 7 days left. Very similar pattern to previous years.
Very nice rank half full!! Congrats.
I am currently very frustrated with the similars rejections.
If you follow the discord you will see some examples of two wedding cakes, where I had one file declined.
I had 8 wedding cakes before, mostly for wedding venue, with people and tables in the background, these were the first "cards".
I also checked for similars with adobe tools and felt confident it was a fresh little niche in design and colors.
I have hundreds of generated cake images, but really made the effort to check what is already available to upload something new to my port and not with similars in the collection.
I chose 2 files.
Now I keep reading this affects everything, ai, photos, videos, png, people are getting a crazy and unpredictable amount of rejections.
It feels like uploading is a lottery ticket at the moment.
Image rejections can be an issue unfortunately. I've had to contact them once or twice but mostly, I've been ok. Sometimes I've received declined images for quality issues. They're normally correct but one or two have been overturned (Adobe that is). When I've gone in and looked at the .psb file I've found that I missed something on a mask etc. Now, I've set up a system for quality checking masks beforehand. Sometimes a decline can be useful to change the way you approach something.... sometimes not. Adobe I've found responsive and helpful with queries but Shutterstock.... their contributor support is like a black hole. If you're lucky, they'll respond in a few weeks but a month or more isn't unusual either.
I would prefer a more detailed explanation to the decline so you can correct it without taking up their time. One day maybe!
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Cobalt,Thanks for your empathy!
sure,I'll let you know,in the meantime I'll wait until April 4-5,if there are no improvements I'll proceed with the removal.
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One question
Have you been uploading steadily?
Or have you stopped uploading for months?
Is part of the decline from a lack of regular uploads?
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Port size is increazing, but earnings walking sideways, but its ok for me.
weekly rank for this monday is 37 downlaods. 80$, pos 1800 (just had 2 nice $26 sales)
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Well, if you do delete so many files, please let us know if it has any effect.
...
whatever happens there'll be no reason to correlate with any previous action much to show it as a cause. what will they use as a baseline ? last week, month? 6 months ago? - the system is volatile & changing. one person's action isn't going to be able to explain anything as there are many independent sources of variation over time.
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I get the idea of cleaning up a portfolio, but I honestly think it's a waste of time. From what I've read, buyers rarely browse an entire portfolio—they just search for specific clips. Instead of spending time deleting content, why not focus on producing more high-quality clips? That will likely have a much bigger impact on your sales than trying to ‘prune’ the old ones.
...
however my percentage of content sold at least once is only 13.9% i still want to increase this percentage,maybe it doesn't make any difference,but as i said,i think it's worth a try.
...
and I almost forgot,in the week between February 24th and March 2nd only 3 sales!
not everything is worth a try when you're also eliminating the chance of sales
what's the difference between an image that sold once a year ago, & one that's never sold? how likely is either type to get a new sale?
it's self-defeating to rely on an unproved theories of what a site's algorithm is.
and your timeline is unrealistic -- watching day by day is just going to magnify your distress
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@Cobalt I have always uploaded regularly,in December uploaded 617 contents and from January to today I have uploaded 138 contents,I stopped between January 20th and February 20th.
I don't think it's because I haven't uploaded much lately,I've only stopped for a month,and January has already been bad,after I uploaded 617 contents in December.
the cause cannot be attributed to the fact that I did not upload.
@Cascoly sure,I'm the first one to say that most likely deleting 1000 contents from the portfolio is useless.
However,if this 5-10 sales per week thing continues for another 2 weeks,I'd still rather delete 1000 content from my portfolio,increasing the percentage of content already sold and improving the overall look of the portfolio.
It probably won't do any good but at least I'll improve the quality of my portfolio,since I'll be carefully selecting the content I want to delete.
the point is to understand whether or not I can increase sales over time.
Up until now I thought so,because for six years I have always sold more every year,not much more but more,but since the beginning of this year the music has changed.
now I'll see if it was just a moment (which lasted 3 months) or if the melody has changed permanently.
the point is that I already don't earn much,if even that little bit starts to decrease,instead of increasing,that's no good.
if instead I was already earning 1000 usd a month and suddenly I start making 800 usd a month it's different,yes I earn less but I still earn,I can allow a change during the year,it's normal.
if I already earn little and suddenly I start earning nothing for 3 months that's different.
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Ok, those upload numbers are fine. I was concerned you had taken a several month break.
Are you getting a lot of competition, especially for former best selling files?
Otherwise the suggestion still stands to upload 70% video for a few months. Videos of course also need time to get picked up and downloaded, but there is much less competition and ai cannot steal your local location ideas.
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here the discussion becomes broader,and there would probably be a lot to say.
The short answer is yes,I have found some of my best ideas have been widely copied,or simply someone else thought the same thing and then it was copied.
a particular content concept comes to mind,which was my idea.There wasn't this type of content on Adobe before,and now it's full of similar content.
one of the biggest problems is certainly linked to the fact that thanks to AI it is very easy to take a content that sells and create many similar ones by copying the idea.
Often copied content is not as good as the original,but other times it can be even better.
This is why I think it is important to create AI content that is difficult to copy,at least not today with current technology.
anyway,if we put things on this path,at this point not even videos are a guarantee,you know that today it is already possible to produce AI videos of acceptable quality,right?so imagine 2 years from now.
of course the fact remains that a real video in a real location or of a real thing is always real,and is different.
but many other generic videos will soon be replaced by better looking AI videos.
the point,what I still haven't been able to understand is that if I have guarantees that by increasing my portfolio over time, I can have an increase in profits over time,obviously a maximum threshold is acceptable for me,of course probably(or not)it can't increase forever,but at least get to earn something reasonable over time,even if it's only similar to a part-time salary.
in short,if sales continue to increase over time,even if slowly,that's fine,but if start to decrease,or are always the same,clearly I don't see the point.
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there are max 60 million videos over all agencies, including editorial
versus over 1 billion images
plus ai still has huge problems with hands and overall consistency.
and editorial video is safe anyway.
I really don't see ai competing with normal videos for a very long time, plus nearly everything is still wide open in the video genre
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sure,I agree,there is still a lot of time and space for videos.
ouch!the forum is very slow,just writing this simple answer took me about 10 minutes! :D
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there are max 60 million videos over all agencies, including editorial
versus over 1 billion images
plus ai still has huge problems with hands and overall consistency.
and editorial video is safe anyway.
I really don't see ai competing with normal videos for a very long time, plus nearly everything is still wide open in the video genre
Hello everyone, which agencies accept editorial videos? I understand Adobe Stock doesn't accept editorial videos, or does it? Thank you all so much. You always provide valuable information. :)
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for editorial video it is mostly pond5 and shutterstock. dreamstime and deposit take it as well, but i have no idea how the sales are.
if anyone knows a great place for editorial video i would love to hear it.
@halffull
There is a drastic algo change at adobe that makes file acceptance a weird lottery with no logic at all.
Look into various groups or the adobe discord.
I have removed all people images from the queue and I am not uploading what I hope become bestsellers.
I am uploading single images from different series always like 10-20 min apart.
Nothing experimental, nothing with high sales potential. bland boring but useful enough to remain visible in the sea of new uploads.
For 20 years I have been doing stock, never had an experience as weird and drastic as this change.
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for editorial video it is mostly pond5 and shutterstock. dreamstime and deposit take it as well, but i have no idea how the sales are.
if anyone knows a great place for editorial video i would love to hear it.
@halffull
There is a drastic algo change at adobe that makes file acceptance a weird lottery with no logic at all.
Look into various groups or the adobe discord.
I have removed all people images from the queue and I am not uploading what I hope become bestsellers.
I am uploading single images from different series always like 10-20 min apart.
Nothing experimental, nothing with high sales potential. bland boring but useful enough to remain visible in the sea of new uploads.
For 20 years I have been doing stock, never had an experience as weird and drastic as this change.
Thanks!
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Tuesday was the best day this year with 4 sales,and the last approved content was sold within 12 hours of approval,but still too low numbers,for the size and age of my portfolio.
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I am dropping down again because this week is much slower than last week.
And that is weird because we are getting closer to easter spring and things should pick up.
It is the US time zone that is slowing down a lot, Europe is fine.
I wonder if perhaps the algo is pushing US producers more in US time than us europoors.
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Slow week here as well.
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Very slow week here too as shown in the timeline chart. Previous several weeks haven't been great either....
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Slow here as well.
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Can't complain. Strong week so far. Hope to top the current 3-month high with coming friday's and sunday's sales (on saturdays I have never sales).
If you're not catching up with continuous uploads, then the quality and/or keywords aren't right.
If you're uploading AI-generated images, then they should not contain any or only extremely few little generative errors, otherwise the portfolio ranking will be severely penalized.
Try to create in-demand bestsellers, that's the only way to improve your portfolio ranking and increase overall portfolio downloads.
And yeah pray for luck.
(https://i.ibb.co/TBMHPMzX/AS-2025-03-28.jpg)
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those with a slow week, is the slowness mostly in us time zone?
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those with a slow week, is the slowness mostly in us time zone?
Yep absolutely. Basically all my larger-earning sales local overnight time here in Australia have ceased.
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while i am worried about the coming us recession i also just read it is spring break in the us
we will see if it picks up nexr week
i am very worried that with all that is going on clients are postponing projects or saving money
then the dollar might fall
but it is good to share data to see that the problem is not in our ports
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I am very close to my BME on Adobe.
My sales are finally flying. Ranking between 2500 and 3000, this week 3 sales >$20. Just under 6000 images, upload 100 images per month. Only high-quality photos, acceptance close to 100%. No AI.
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Good to hear someone is doing well.
Are your files being accepted?
In one of my groups camera people are also seeing entire batches declined, just like ai content.
I have switched to single uploads and always a wide mix of subjects. No declines so far and every day 4-6 files accepted.
The content uploaded is solid, useful and clean, but not my favorites and not potential bestsellers. I will upload those when I feel the review is logical again.
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Good to hear someone is doing well.
Are your files being accepted?
In one of my groups camera people are also seeing entire batches declined, just like ai content.
I have had 2 not accepted in the last 100 (reason: similar). No AI and no video.
I send batches of 10/15/20 images at a time every 3/4/5 days.
The only problem I have is that some images are sitting in the queue for months. I think it is due to some copyrighted keywords, but I can't figure out which one ...
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Then you are doing much better than most at the moment.
I have now deleted all the stuck files in will gradually add them to new uploads.
I hope my current review experience stays. I rarely have declines but got hit by the similar bug even though there are no visual similars on Adobe or in my port. I often use the similar search tool to test a new series for uniqueness.
If single image uploads solves this, I will just keep on doing it.
Looks like they are experimenting with ai reviews and the software is doing a bad job.
eta
another 3 files accepted. and no declines in the last 4 days.
I will stick to single image uploads for a while.
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I have now deleted all the stuck files in will gradually add them to new uploads.
You can delete files which are already in the queue? I haven't found any delete button yet..
Got one photo sitting in the queue for 7 months and a few for 1-2 months, would be happy to delete and reupload them :D
P.S. never mind, found it. It's hidden in the text without any visual highlighting - someone must have missed web design class :D
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about the files stuck in queue,or increased rejections,it's clearly something wanted,imo It is not due to review made by AI.
given that they are also removing images from the library and the gigantic amount of images uploaded every day,I assume that the reviewers probably have specific directives to slow down the reviews and try to eliminate as much as possible.
it's something wanted in my opinion,it's not a coincidence or the fault of the AI review.
I have been working all week on a batch of AI content,today I'm trying to finish this batch,and I hope it gets approved soon because I think they have good sales potential,since the only approved content from this batch sold within 12 hours of approval.
but then enough with the images,from now on only videos,I'm experimenting with new things,and I'm waiting for the ok from the review,and then I start with these videos.
enough with the images,only videos from now on!
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Broke the 3-month high. Still $30 away from the all-time high. Maybe I can finally catch up over the next few weeks and then really take off. A well-diversified portfolio with seasonal content is really helpful. Currently, Easter images make up around 25-30% of sales and are increasing slightly. But not 95% like at Christmas and when I crashed really hard in january.
(https://i.ibb.co/8nnB23hz/AS-2025-03-28.jpg)
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while i am worried about the coming us recession i also just read it is spring break in the us
Based on my sales data on SS, only a small portion comes from the US, with the majority coming from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
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So we know the slowdown this week comes from the usa
it is affecting all agencies
we hope it is spring break and things pick up next week
easter is coming
if the us does not pick up over easter...
pos 3450
disappointing week but at least I had a few files accepted every day and only one decline for quality and I think I have found the problem and can rework that one
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My slowdown has been permanent since January,whatever the reason,this year I'm selling much less than last year,and I can't stand this crap anymore.
I will try to invest something in video,because in the end what matters most is how much you can invest,in anything, software/hardware,travel,equipment,AI subscriptions... anything,but if you have low investment possibilities this job cannot be done,like many other jobs.
I hope the situation improves soon,because this is just not going well,sales and earnings are too low,and above all much worse than 2024,and my patience is at the limit of endurance! :D
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My slowdown has been permanent since January,whatever the reason,this year I'm selling much less than last year,and I can't stand this crap anymore.
I will try to invest something in video,because in the end what matters most is how much you can invest,in anything, software/hardware,travel,equipment,AI subscriptions... anything,but if you have low investment possibilities this job cannot be done,like many other jobs.
I hope the situation improves soon,because this is just not going well,sales and earnings are too low,and above all much worse than 2024,and my patience is at the limit of endurance! :D
Do you generative AI content or only real photos?
If your portfolio is massively declining then there is probably a problem with your diversification. Which topics do you create?
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while i am worried about the coming us recession i also just read it is spring break in the us
Based on my sales data on SS, only a small portion comes from the US, with the majority coming from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Exactly the same here... Regarding AS, I barely have sales during US work hours recently, so I suppose that majority of my sales come from Europe, Middle east, and Asia.
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Cobalt,Thanks for your empathy!
sure,I'll let you know,in the meantime I'll wait until April 4-5,if there are no improvements I'll proceed with the removal.
Removing images from AS are figured the same as rejections which will lower your approval rate.
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My slowdown has been permanent since January,whatever the reason,this year I'm selling much less than last year,and I can't stand this crap anymore.
I will try to invest something in video,because in the end what matters most is how much you can invest,in anything, software/hardware,travel,equipment,AI subscriptions... anything,but if you have low investment possibilities this job cannot be done,like many other jobs.
I hope the situation improves soon,because this is just not going well,sales and earnings are too low,and above all much worse than 2024,and my patience is at the limit of endurance! :D
Do you generative AI content or only real photos?
If your portfolio is massively declining then there is probably a problem with your diversification. Which topics do you create?
I have mainly real content,which includes videos,illustrative editorials,vectors,illustrations,and photos.
and then I have about 1500 AI photos and illustrations.
portfolio about 7000 contents in total.
The topics I cover are the most varied,including various concepts on various topics.
the possible explanations in my opinion are,decrease in customers,increase in contributors,copycats,algorithm,the reasons can be many,and then from what I see many are registering a drop in sales,someone like you is still doing well,but I think the majority are generally selling less or at most stable.
anyway as I said,now I will try to make only videos,of all kinds,since at least with videos there is still space and time before it gets overcrowded.
this will be my last attempt,if even with this doesn't improve,end of the line.
However,regardless of the type,quantity or topics covered,it is very strange that I am selling much less than last year,in theory I should sell more,because I still have about 2300 more contents than in March last year,which is not a lot in a year,but still I have a bigger portfolio than last year,so why am I selling less?
the explanation could be one of those already listed,or perhaps others.
@alan b traehern:I don't think that deleting content causes any kind of problem,whether it's the approval percentage or something else,simply by deleting a content it is no longer for sale,I don't think there are any other consequences.
maybe i'll start deleting some content,probably 400/500 to start,but i haven't decided yet,for now i'm focusing on creating new videos.
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Ultralow monday. 5 Downloads sofar. This gonna be a weak week.
But I have appprox. new 250 easter images. Hope easter will bring some boost.
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@alan b traehern:I don't think that deleting content causes any kind of problem,whether it's the approval percentage or something else,simply by deleting a content it is no longer for sale,I don't think there are any other consequences.
maybe i'll start deleting some content,probably 400/500 to start,but i haven't decided yet,for now i'm focusing on creating new videos.
Well if you don't think so, then it can't be true? ;D
There are people who believe and say that deleting images from Adobe, will harm your image rank and acceptance ratio. There are others that say, that it makes no sense and should change anything. I don't know. I don't claim to know.
But the place this started was, years ago people would delete images and re-submit them, so they would be new again. All kind of silly, wasted time, trying to game the system. Then the subject came up when the reviews got terribly slow, and people would delete and re-send the same images.
Someone else said that Mat told us this was a fact, but no one has quoted Mat's message or provided a link, so it's the same as knowing that Bigfoot is real, because someone, knows someone, who says they saw one.
My basic point is, if you don't know if this will harm your rank or acceptance percentage, and you are deleting images, why are you deleting images? How will less images for sale, make more sales? You just wrote that you uploaded many new images and sales are lower, you make less. Wouldn't less images, logically, make even less?
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@Uncle Pete,sure,everything is possible,I just said what I think,as always! :D
less content,less sales?Not necessarily in my opinion,so I'm still evaluating,but it's likely that sooner or later I'll delete a few hundred old content that I don't want in my portfolio anymore.
At the moment I'm only producing videos,and I'm still waiting for the first review for these new videos,then I also have other images waiting,but I'm more interested in the video reviews,which I hope will happen as soon as possible,also because I have to evaluate a few things.
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@Uncle Pete,sure,everything is possible,I just said what I think,as always! :D
less content,less sales?Not necessarily in my opinion,so I'm still evaluating,but it's likely that sooner or later I'll delete a few hundred old content that I don't want in my portfolio anymore.
At the moment I'm only producing videos,and I'm still waiting for the first review for these new videos,then I also have other images waiting,but I'm more interested in the video reviews,which I hope will happen as soon as possible,also because I have to evaluate a few things.
I have deleted a couple months ago approx. 3k AI images because of the bad quality and started completely again with better generated quality.
As you can see my earnings increased over the months one can tell that it worked.
But I think it's rather because of the better quality because several hundreds of the old ones, which I have left are still not downloaded yet. So I would say deleting files will not harm your portfolio ranking.
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@Andrej.S.
interesting,thanks!
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For anyone deleting files from Adobe, note the following clause in your contributor agreement:
"6.2 Managing the Work. You may remove any Work from the Website at any time, provided, however, that you do not remove more than 100 items of Work or 10% of the Work, whichever is greater, in any 90-day period without 90 days' prior written notice to Adobe."
https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe_Stock_Contributor_Agreement_Addl_Terms_en_US_20240216.pdf
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For anyone deleting files from Adobe, note the following clause in your contributor agreement:
"6.2 Managing the Work. You may remove any Work from the Website at any time, provided, however, that you do not remove more than 100 items of Work or 10% of the Work, whichever is greater, in any 90-day period without 90 days' prior written notice to Adobe."
https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe_Stock_Contributor_Agreement_Addl_Terms_en_US_20240216.pdf
Yes, I've already quoted this several times in this thread, but was too lazy to do it again.
It's personal risk to get banned by Adobe.
But my opinion is that they only track their work horses and not the low performers (< 1k/week). I would also assume that Adobe would first contact with a warning.
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You can safely delete up to 100 assets or 10% of your portfolio—whichever is greater—every three months, in accordance with Adobe’s policy. Alternatively, you can contact Adobe directly to explain that you intend to delete a specific percentage of your portfolio to remove lower-quality content.
My previous comment was based on the following from Getty on this subject:
“… On occasion, you may want to clean up your portfolio. Customers typically already have a concept or image in mind and use keywords to find the content they want. It’s rare that they take the time to look through contributors’ portfolios, so editing your portfolio isn’t necessary…”
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...
I have deleted a couple months ago approx. 3k AI images because of the bad quality and started completely again with better generated quality.
As you can see my earnings increased over the months one can tell that it worked.
But I think it's rather because of the better quality because several hundreds of the old ones, which I have left are still not downloaded yet. So I would say deleting files will not harm your portfolio ranking.
congrats - your difference here is deleting lower quality images where others are deleting those w no sales
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For anyone deleting files from Adobe, note the following clause in your contributor agreement:
"6.2 Managing the Work. You may remove any Work from the Website at any time, provided, however, that you do not remove more than 100 items of Work or 10% of the Work, whichever is greater, in any 90-day period without 90 days' prior written notice to Adobe."
https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe_Stock_Contributor_Agreement_Addl_Terms_en_US_20240216.pdf
ok,I missed this one.
anyway I was planning on deleting 500 images,which is less than 10% of my port,if I decide to do so.
thanks!
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Well, good luck to everyone this week! How are things faring so far?
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March on AS was a real surprise for me.
BME and today my best weekly ranking ever. :D
I don't have AI or video in my portfolio. Is this a return to classic photography? In the next few weeks, we'll see if this month was a coincidence.
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Comme-ci comme-ca this week.
One day good one day bad.
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treading water at the moment, stable rank with a few ups and downs
i am very frustrated with the new random review system. while i have not been hit again with the similar decline, i am tired of uploading the more boring things that they like to take - people and food, but that is a slow seller.
But the few better ones I uploaded got a quality decline and I am pretty sure there is nothing wrong with them.
I should take this as an incentive to do more for other agencies, especially video.
Will keep uploading to adobe, but in smaller volume.
Also anyway doing more camera stuff again to have content for everywhere.
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March on AS was a real surprise for me.
BME and today my best weekly ranking ever. :D
I don't have AI or video in my portfolio. Is this a return to classic photography? In the next few weeks, we'll see if this month was a coincidence.
I'm glad to read it,here a small improvement,this month seems to have started a little better,but it's still too early to say anything.
here too 101 contents still blocked in review,not for long,the oldest has been waiting for 2 weeks,I'm interested to know especially for 35 videos still in review,I hope it doesn't take much longer.
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Broke my all time week high. That's what persistence looks like. Just keep going.
(https://i.ibb.co/1tgbD6yt/Screenshot-2025-04-03-003154.jpg)
Earnings stats from 03.04.2024 to 03.04.2025.
(https://i.ibb.co/ksrSqxSF/Screenshot-2025-04-03-003043.jpg)
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Congratulations, well deserved.
How large is your portfolio now?
And are you getting good acceptance with new uploads?
I am very frustrated by the upload lottery. I will earn a lot less for easter because I am terrified of the random declines.
So i upload what feels "totally safe" but that is usually a slow selling file with more niche content.
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A very weak week for me! :(
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Congratulations, well deserved.
How large is your portfolio now?
And are you getting good acceptance with new uploads?
I am very frustrated by the upload lottery. I will earn a lot less for easter because I am terrified of the random declines.
So i upload what feels "totally safe" but that is usually a slow selling file with more niche content.
Thank you.
Currently my portfolio size is 7.264 and 220 images are pending in review.
My acceptance ratio is currently 100%.
The review time is all in all very fast (approx 1 to 2 weeks).
Easter images are accepted within 5 minutes to 3 days, so that these are in time.
But 17 images are pending since 3 to 6 months (there is obviously something broken in the review line).
It seems that my portfolio ranking climbed a lot, so that things got this week more easy.
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Was definitely a surprising week. I hope the trend will continue.
(https://i.ibb.co/6cJWsCHC/week-stats.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/zTSWtB8C/3m-stats.jpg)
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Similar to my size but more sales, well done!
This morning I had 8 files accepted that I uploaded yesterday, so this is encouraging. All are photo ai, single uploads from vastly different genres.
I am now making the files smaller, sizes around 1600*2800 or 1700*3022.
Perhaps the smaller size helps.
Other files still in the queue, 18 at the moment.
Might remove that are in there longer and perhaps reprocess/downsize them.
Now I will test ai illustrations, then camera photos and videos.
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Similar to my size but more sales, well done!
This morning I had 8 files accepted that I uploaded yesterday, so this is encouraging. All are photo ai, single uploads from vastly different genres.
I am now making the files smaller, sizes around 1600*2800 or 1700*3022.
Perhaps the smaller size helps.
Other files still in the queue, 18 at the moment.
Might remove that are in there longer and perhaps reprocess/downsize them.
Now I will test ai illustrations, then camera photos and videos.
I don't upscale to high resolutions anymore because it's too risky that you will get unwanted artifacts, which will lead to rejection.
I use 2 x AI upscaling to 2688 x 1536 or to 3072 x 1280 or max to 3168 x 1344 pixels resolution.
My AI bestseller with 139 downloads and 3 or 4 extended licenses has a 2688 x 1536 resolution, so no it's not worth investing more time in upscaling to a higher resolution.
I assume that the majority of the images will be used for digital advertising on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc. rather than for print purposes, and higher resolutions are not required for these platforms.
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All are
Have you tried using ChatGPT 4o to generate AI images? The new updates seem to be a significant improvement over previous models.
I have the paid version for work and have started experimenting with image generation. I'm impressed with its capabilities.
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All are
Have you tried using ChatGPT 4o to generate AI images? The new updates seem to be a significant improvement over previous models.
I have the paid version for work and have started experimenting with image generation. I'm impressed with its capabilities.
The free version takes almost forever to generate one single image. But the quality is o.k. Seems to be near Grok / Flux Dev.
But inpaint / image editing function seems to be good (but haven't tried it out by myself because it's just to slow in the free version).
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For anyone deleting files from Adobe, note the following clause in your contributor agreement:
"6.2 Managing the Work. You may remove any Work from the Website at any time, provided, however, that you do not remove more than 100 items of Work or 10% of the Work, whichever is greater, in any 90-day period without 90 days' prior written notice to Adobe."
https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe_Stock_Contributor_Agreement_Addl_Terms_en_US_20240216.pdf
ok,I missed this one.
anyway I was planning on deleting 500 images,which is less than 10% of my port,if I decide to do so.
thanks!
Please explain how less images and deleting images you already have accepted, will make more money? What's the secret.
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Today I had 8 downloads, it seems that the week is getting better! :)
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For anyone deleting files from Adobe, note the following clause in your contributor agreement:
"6.2 Managing the Work. You may remove any Work from the Website at any time, provided, however, that you do not remove more than 100 items of Work or 10% of the Work, whichever is greater, in any 90-day period without 90 days' prior written notice to Adobe."
https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe_Stock_Contributor_Agreement_Addl_Terms_en_US_20240216.pdf
ok,I missed this one.
anyway I was planning on deleting 500 images,which is less than 10% of my port,if I decide to do so.
thanks!
Please explain how less images and deleting images you already have accepted, will make more money? What's the secret.
do you really have to make me write this? :D
I never said that deleting 500 contents increases sales,if anything the opposite!
but maybe i want to delete 500 old contents,if i want to do it or not.
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For anyone deleting files from Adobe, note the following clause in your contributor agreement:
"6.2 Managing the Work. You may remove any Work from the Website at any time, provided, however, that you do not remove more than 100 items of Work or 10% of the Work, whichever is greater, in any 90-day period without 90 days' prior written notice to Adobe."
https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe_Stock_Contributor_Agreement_Addl_Terms_en_US_20240216.pdf
ok,I missed this one.
anyway I was planning on deleting 500 images,which is less than 10% of my port,if I decide to do so.
thanks!
Please explain how less images and deleting images you already have accepted, will make more money? What's the secret.
I don't think your question can be answered seriously because nobody knows the algorithm.
But: It can be assumed that there is a portfolio ranking that influences where a contributor's newly accepted images are ranked. To put it simply: Poor portfolio ranking = poor classification of new images. And vice versa. And poor ranking of new images can lead to them never being found, which will further worsen the ranking of the entire portfolio. A vicious circle.
And also quite simply put: If you have a lot of images in your portfolio that don't sell at all or have never sold, it could therefore make sense to delete these images (after self-critical analysis) in order to improve the portfolio ranking (the portfolio quality).
This is all a thesis. Nobody can tell you whether this is really the case. But: If you have 10,000 images in your portfolio, of which 9,000 images have never sold, but the remaining 1,000 images are selling very well, such a cleaning action could - theoretically - be advantageous.
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For anyone deleting files from Adobe, note the following clause in your contributor agreement:
"6.2 Managing the Work. You may remove any Work from the Website at any time, provided, however, that you do not remove more than 100 items of Work or 10% of the Work, whichever is greater, in any 90-day period without 90 days' prior written notice to Adobe."
https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe_Stock_Contributor_Agreement_Addl_Terms_en_US_20240216.pdf
ok,I missed this one.
anyway I was planning on deleting 500 images,which is less than 10% of my port,if I decide to do so.
thanks!
Please explain how less images and deleting images you already have accepted, will make more money? What's the secret.
If you replace them by images with better quality / keywords then it absolutely makes sense.
Also it could be possible that your portfolio ranking will rise a little bit up since I believe that there is obviously an algorithm, which takes in account how many downloads each image has. The bestsellers of your portfolio are setting up the most your portfolio ranking.
My currently observation is that an increasing amount of one's bestsellers in a portfolio will lead to further downloads of your whole portfolio.
But it's just in the case of Adobe Stock and could be also just coincidence.
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Today I had 8 downloads, it seems that the week is getting better! :)
In the battle of the losers,this week I win! :D (at least in sales numbers)
anyway today you made 8 sales today I made 0.
It's really strange to me,that at this point in the journey,with my current port,I can't even make 20-40 sales a week,anyway, I hope at least this month to do something more than April 2024,it's still possible.
I'm currently producing some images,while still waiting to see if the new videos are acceptable or not,which is what interests me the most.
41 videos still in review,2 videos from a week ago,the rest less.
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MAYBE... the algorithm is simply just something like this south park episode :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz-PtEJEaqY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz-PtEJEaqY)
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pos 3450
like I said i am in the same range, which is bad because easter is coming
but i was only able tp upload a tiny amount of files because of the troubles.
i used to love adobe, am really depressed about the situation
now testing if downsizing files to round 1600 -2800 or something will help to get files in
otherwise it will mean a much stronger and faster focus on video for all places than I had planned
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I think it doesn't really depend on the image resolution,reviews have become harsher and longer in general.
my current situation is only my fault,because I wasted too much time trying to do particular things,but above all things that required too much time,in fact I only have 1500 AI contents at the moment,and with little different themes.
I also have thousands of real contents though.
in any case,this has become a numbers game now more than ever,and I've never been particularly good at producing a high amount of content because I paid too much attention to detail.
so now that's enough,if I have to do the numbers,let's do the numbers,from now on I will try to send at least 30-50 contents a day.
select the generated contents yes,but without wasting too much time in post-production.
turbo mode activated! :D
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Today I had 8 downloads, it seems that the week is getting better! :)
In the battle of the losers,this week I win! :D (at least in sales numbers)
anyway today you made 8 sales today I made 0.
It's really strange to me,that at this point in the journey,with my current port,I can't even make 20-40 sales a week,anyway, I hope at least this month to do something more than April 2024,it's still possible.
I'm currently producing some images,while still waiting to see if the new videos are acceptable or not,which is what interests me the most.
41 videos still in review,2 videos from a week ago,the rest less.
Videos take longer than images to be approved, at least in my case.
We have to stay strong no matter how bad things get!
Don't give up!
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Average week, 6000 illustrations, 2000 videos (motion graphics), no AI
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And thus ends the week.
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A tiny move up.
Got another similar decline for something that is new to my port.
I am so tired of this Adobe roulette system. I really used to love that agency.
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for me nothing extraordinary everything as always.
regarding "turbo superproduction",I was unable to send a minimum of 30 contents,I sent 21 yesterday and one today,so I am unable to produce a high quantity of contents that are also of quality,I think that an average of 15-20 a day would already be more than good.
Today I deleted about 60 contents from the review,since they kept reviewing one a day and rejecting it for similar content,so I got rid of the problem and deleted the entire batch,which had cost me a week of work,never mind,it doesn't matter,but now,if possible,please review these videos that are 10 days old and I would like to understand what I have to do,if it is worth investing more in this or not.
Thanks.
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I think 15-20 a day is perfectly normal for good content and usually enough to grow a port.
We should not be forced to compete with the spammers.
I uploaded around 10 yesterday and 20 today. I also deleted several older files from the queue.
I think once a few from a day are reviewed, I will always remove those that are left. looks like these files are destined for the garbage bin.
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for me nothing extraordinary everything as always.
regarding "turbo superproduction",I was unable to send a minimum of 30 contents,I sent 21 yesterday and one today,so I am unable to produce a high quantity of contents that are also of quality,I think that an average of 15-20 a day would already be more than good.
Today I deleted about 60 contents from the review,since they kept reviewing one a day and rejecting it for similar content,so I got rid of the problem and deleted the entire batch,which had cost me a week of work,never mind,it doesn't matter,but now,if possible,please review these videos that are 10 days old and I would like to understand what I have to do,if it is worth investing more in this or not.
Thanks.
Don't give up! Never surrender!
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Average week, 6000 illustrations, 2000 videos (motion graphics), no AI
That's pretty good! What kind of motion graphics do you do? Does it take a long time to put them together?
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Average week, 6000 illustrations, 2000 videos (motion graphics), no AI
That's pretty good! What kind of motion graphics do you do? Does it take a long time to put them together?
Thanks! 2d/3d motion graphics, conceptual animations. In these years I've built a library of 3d models and 2d vector objects, so often i can concentrate to animation and compositing. Usually i produce about 3 or 4 videos a day.
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Since last month, Adobe has been on a downhill. Sales are down, above all they are rejecting literally everything since middle of February. Also, some of my images are in review for 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 months now. Every month some of the images gets stuck in review. I am afraid, with the rise of AI, a day will come when they will reduce our royalties like istock and gutterstock.
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this time they were quick! :D
in 21 AI images submitted 3 days ago,16 rejected 2 approved and 3 left for review.
the 2 approved are the 2 images I spent the most time on,so probably a fair review in my opinion.
Of course it's not nice to have 16 images rejected,but in my opinion it's right that they only approve the best of the AI.
the last image I sent is an experiment,still in review,curious to know if it is acceptable,as for the videos they are still there in review.
Thanks for the speed! :)
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please try the small size thing. in the discord there is an ai uploader who just had 400 from 490 accepted and he points out that small size is important.
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Thanks Cobalt,the two accepted are 4200x2400 and 3500x3500.
I'll eventually try to downsize the ones that were rejected and resend,so I'll see if it depends on the resolution.
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Since last month, Adobe has been on a downhill. Sales are down, above all they are rejecting literally everything since middle of February. Also, some of my images are in review for 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 months now. Every month some of the images gets stuck in review. I am afraid, with the rise of AI, a day will come when they will reduce our royalties like istock and gutterstock.
Has the Enshittification of Adobe Stock begun?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)
Probably yes (but I hope I'm wrong).
Like almost all Big Tech in recent years ... Follow the money: this is the only thing they are capable of doing.
No pursuit of quality, customer and collaborator services reduced to a minimum (there are stupid chatbots everywhere now), earnings according to the 80/20 scheme. 80% of the earnings to them and 20% of the earnings to us.
Unfortunately, today almost all companies follow this scheme: 70% marketing, 20% sales, 10% service/product ... and this is why we live in a world of products and services that are increasingly disgusting.
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Thanks Cobalt,the two accepted are 4200x2400 and 3500x3500.
I'll eventually try to downsize the ones that were rejected and resend,so I'll see if it depends on the resolution.
Yes, the minimum accepted resolution of 4 mpx is fine.
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Since last month, Adobe has been on a downhill. Sales are down, above all they are rejecting literally everything since middle of February. Also, some of my images are in review for 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 months now. Every month some of the images gets stuck in review. I am afraid, with the rise of AI, a day will come when they will reduce our royalties like istock and gutterstock.
Has the Enshittification of Adobe Stock begun?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)
Probably yes (but I hope I'm wrong).
Like almost all Big Tech in recent years ... Follow the money: this is the only thing they are capable of doing.
No pursuit of quality, customer and collaborator services reduced to a minimum (there are stupid chatbots everywhere now), earnings according to the 80/20 scheme. 80% of the earnings to them and 20% of the earnings to us.
Unfortunately, today almost all companies follow this scheme: 70% marketing, 20% sales, 10% service/product ... and this is why we live in a world of products and services that are increasingly disgusting.
That's how capitalism actually works. At the beginning, you have to stand out from the crowd with good products or services in the market to be able to compete.
Later, when the large customer base becomes dependent on it, the quality and service/support are reduced and prices are increased. Until eventually a collapse occurs (creative destruction) and the game starts all over again. Currently, we are in the cycle of crap and are drifting towards the big collapse.
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Weak monday again. 17 downloads / 12.62 USD sofar.
Will crash very hard the coming weeks since currently approx 60% to 70% are easter sales.
Also I expect that Trump's tarrifs will destroy the markets and we will see a big decline in the earnings.
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...
Later, when the large customer base becomes dependent on it, the quality and service/support are reduced and prices are increased. Until eventually a collapse occurs (creative destruction) and the game starts all over again. Currently, we are in the cycle of crap and are drifting towards the big collapse.
no, that's just destruction & decay & may not see a replacement
creative destruction is a positive process in which new innovations replace and make obsolete older innovations. -- word processing, transimstors, digital cameras, ...
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Seems like a hard landing is coming this week.
Can't never ever catch up last week with normal downloads without extended licences.
Gonna prepare to rebound the coming decline ... the current position is time lagged from last week.
(https://i.ibb.co/RkcGdvYb/Screenshot-2025-07-03.jpg)
7,264 images / 255 images pending in review.
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please try the small size thing. in the discord there is an ai uploader who just had 400 from 490 accepted and he points out that small size is important.
so no,the reason for the rejection of the 16 contents is not attributable to the size/resolution of the content,because I sent 4 again reducing the size but they were rejected anyway.
It doesn't matter for the 16 contents,but more than anything I wanted to try to understand why for future works.
so I was reading the official Adobe help pages about the criteria and timelines,and the points with which the team evaluates the contents are these:
-legal standards
-technical qualities
-title and keyword accuracy
-commercial value
-aesthetic properties
-uniqueness,both in relation to other content you,ve submitted and content already in our collection.
So a content must satisfy all of this to be accepted.
I think the biggest problem why many contents are rejected,in general for a while now for everybody, is the uniqueness of the content in relation to what is already present in the library,but as you can see the reasons can be many and the resolution/quality of the image is only one of these reasons.
Unfortunately,I don't have much time today in general,but I also have to figure out these videos that have not yet been reviewed,they are not the usual videos that I have always sent and that have always been accepted,so I have to understand why,so I will try various,new options,and I will process these videos again in different ways,and send them again,without deleting the videos that are still under review.
I'll figure this out somehow eventually! :D
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Adobe's rejections are 90% because of quality aspects. I guess that there are a lot of contributors who provide very good quality since the flux model is now very common.
So your competition might become a lot harder now.
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Adobe's rejections are 90% because of quality aspects. I guess that there are a lot of contributors who provide very good quality since the flux model is now very common.
So your competition might become a lot harder now.
true,although I think it's more of a 50/50 between quality and similar,but also these criteria have been around for a long time,so we can say with reasonable certainty,that these criteria are applied with greater intensity today.
Reviews have generally become more restricted,and the library has grown a lot in the last year,making it much more difficult to produce unique content that is also saleable.
Before all my AI content was accepted,it was really rare for me to get rejections,I have AI content for sale with a resolution of 5376 x 3072 and even better.
so in my opinion,today we need to take these points,listed previously,more carefully,and I am also quite sure that if unique contents are produced,even if they are not excellent in quality,but acceptable in quality,will still be accepted.
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Adobe's rejections are 90% because of quality aspects. I guess that there are a lot of contributors who provide very good quality since the flux model is now very common.
So your competition might become a lot harder now.
Some two weeks ago I submitted 3 photos (camera ones), they were all rejected for quality reasons within 24 hours. Few days later I resubmitted 1 of them (unrelated to the other 2) and it was accepted, again within 24 hours. I have not done any changes, no downsizing, nothing. I do not know how to explain it, but there seems to be some automated pre-selection system whose criteria probably got modified between my two submissions.
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I think the current reviews are a form of evil roulette with lots of good content being declined without logic.
Had 6 more files accepted with 4mp size and always doing single uploads, will stick to this for a while.
Also starting to process camera videos, i hope they get accepted.
eta
tiny improvement
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Adobe's rejections are 90% because of quality aspects. I guess that there are a lot of contributors who provide very good quality since the flux model is now very common.
So your competition might become a lot harder now.
Some two weeks ago I submitted 3 photos (camera ones), they were all rejected for quality reasons within 24 hours. Few days later I resubmitted 1 of them (unrelated to the other 2) and it was accepted, again within 24 hours. I have not done any changes, no downsizing, nothing. I do not know how to explain it, but there seems to be some automated pre-selection system whose criteria probably got modified between my two submissions.
I think this can happen.
Your content probably met all the requirements for approval,but this criterion is also applied based on who does the review, someone previously deemed it unacceptable and rejected it,while someone else later accepted it.
I agree,however,that the tendency is to try to approve less AI,because the amount uploaded is excessive.
that's why in my opinion the key is in uniqueness,in fact I will soon,in 30-40 min from now,start a selection of contents that I want to modify in order to make this content unique with a better quality.
I have to see if I can bring to reality what is in my mind! :D
I'll have to find time tomorrow to also follow a tutorial of more than an hour on an interesting topic.
lately,I'm trying to find new ways to make my production more interesting,I hope I can do it.
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crappy week (position is still time lagged from last week).
(https://i.ibb.co/mrZL23Sg/Screenshot-2025-09-03.jpg)
Gonna do more seasonal content to catch up (worldwide national holidays) aswell probably more woke and lifestyle (skin / facial care, etc.) stuff.
Classic business people / food / animals / landscapes seem to be dead on Adobe Stock.
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I’m having an entirely different experience with 100% acceptance rate of both photos and videos.
No ai. And most of my assets have model releases.
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I am still observing few to no sales from the US on SS.
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crappy week (position is still time lagged from last week).
(https://i.ibb.co/mrZL23Sg/Screenshot-2025-09-03.jpg)
Gonna do more seasonal content to catch up (worldwide national holidays) aswell probably more woke and lifestyle (skin / facial care, etc.) stuff.
Classic business people / food / animals / landscapes seem to be dead on Adobe Stock.
if it's a "crappy" week for you I don't know how I should define mine so far!
I repeat,I don't know how it's possible that with a portfolio of about 7000 contents,with 75% real contents and 25% AI i can't even make 20-40 sales a week!
you say that you want to make more skin care concepts,I have 14 in total of skin/facial care concepts generated with MJ for sale for a year,I haven't sold even one so far,I probably would have to have at least 100 of this concepts to sell any,I don't know.
however it is unacceptable to sell so little with my port of 7000 contents,after all there are a lot of different contents,I just don't see how it's possible not to make at least 20 sales a week minimum!
it's too little,this quantity does not reflect what should be at least the minimum for my port per week.
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crappy week (position is still time lagged from last week).
(https://i.ibb.co/mrZL23Sg/Screenshot-2025-09-03.jpg)
Gonna do more seasonal content to catch up (worldwide national holidays) aswell probably more woke and lifestyle (skin / facial care, etc.) stuff.
Classic business people / food / animals / landscapes seem to be dead on Adobe Stock.
if it's a "crappy" week for you I don't know how I should define mine so far!
I repeat,I don't know how it's possible that with a portfolio of about 7000 contents,with 75% real contents and 25% AI i can't even make 20-40 sales a week!
you say that you want to make more skin care concepts,I have 14 in total of skin/facial care concepts generated with MJ for sale for a year,I haven't sold even one so far,I probably would have to have at least 100 of this concepts to sell any,I don't know.
however it is unacceptable to sell so little with my port of 7000 contents,after all there are a lot of different contents,I just don't see how it's possible not to make at least 20 sales a week minimum!
it's too little,this quantity does not reflect what should be at least the minimum for my port per week.
Ok, can you upload some of your images that are similar to your portfolio (so that one can't link it to your portfolio) so that we can compare the quality of the content?
Aswell we can compare the keywording.
I will later provide some of my content.
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Look,when it comes to keywording I'm I'm very thorough,since I do all the keywording by hand,I don't use software to automate the process.
otherwise,i don't see why i should compare someone else's content to mine here.
and then putting aside the AI contents,I also have thousands of real contents.
I'm more than sure that anyone would say that with a port like mine now,I think a minimum of 20 sales a week is normal,less than that is just not acceptable anymore.
I say this because I think it's right to say it,you or anyone else may not believe it,I don't care.
I remind you that I have been doing this job for 7 years,and I'm saying that a minimum of at least 20 a week would be more appropriate,I didn't say 100 per week!
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/edit.
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and then how do you explain this?
If there have been weeks where I have made these numbers,it means that it is possible that I can very well make an average of 20-40 sales a week.
this year so far the best week has been 14 sales,excuse me,I'm also a little tired?
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anyway Andrej.S. well done,nice content and nice descriptions.
but do you have real content?videos?vectors?illustrative editorials?real photos?illustrations?
I also have all this real content,yet I can't even make 20 sales a week!
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and then how do you explain this?
If there have been weeks where I have made these numbers,it means that it is possible that I can very well make an average of 20-40 sales a week.
this year so far the best week has been 14 sales,excuse me,I'm also a little tired?
Adobe punished your portfolio ranking.
One can only guess what the reason was.
Have you uploaded to many similar images?
Got too much competition in best selling categories?
How good is your portfolio diversified?
I mean instead of beeing angry and upset you should either doing other things or analyze and try other content.
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anyway Andrej.S. well done,nice content and nice descriptions.
but do you have real content?videos?vectors?illustrative editorials?real photos?illustrations?
I also have all this real content,yet I can't even make 20 sales a week!
10 years ago I made bestselling vector graphis, but they are not selling anymore.
I have some dozens of real photos but they are aswell poor selling.
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and then how do you explain this?
If there have been weeks where I have made these numbers,it means that it is possible that I can very well make an average of 20-40 sales a week.
this year so far the best week has been 14 sales,excuse me,I'm also a little tired?
Adobe punished your portfolio ranking.
One can only guess what the reason was.
Have you uploaded to many similar images?
Got too much competition in best selling categories?
How good is your portfolio diversified?
I mean instead of beeing angry and upset you should either doing other things or analyze and try other content.
but I'm not angry,I'm just very disappointed.
I'm already trying other ways,for example with AI videos,but are still in review since 12 days.
I'll try downloading Premiere Pro soon and processing this AI videos differently,hoping that somehow they will be accepted sooner or later,I have already used Premiere Pro or even Illustrator,a couple of years ago I had all the Adobe apps,another thing i would like to try is AI vectors too.
I'm still looking for other ways,but in any case,the number of sales I've made since the beginning of the year is really depressing.
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Pos 5000 - probably the weakest week this year. I have no Easter related content, so that's part of the reason. Also a rather weak RPD of $0.73, while US dollar is dropping in value as well.
And I have a feeling the US dollar will continue devaluing, which will reduce earnings of non-US contributors even more.
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productive day for me,definitely a step forward! :)
@Andrej.S. those descriptions look like they were generated by a bot! :D
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Bit better this week though position and sales volume a bit lower so far with still a couple of days to go. RPD and earnings have improved compared to previous several weeks...
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@Pacesetter
Nice RPD. Videos?
(https://i.ibb.co/qLBtSr6f/Screenshot-2025-11-03.jpg)
This week is significantly weaker than the last week but better than the week before. This week I had only one extended license sale instead of 4 or 5.
I hope, however, that the upward trend remains, as I continue to diversify the portfolio with new content.
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today only 23 dl so far, but overall my rank improved a bit
very depressed with the latest declines. it feels like anything that will make money is kicked out and boring images with low sales value is getting in.
I have no control over my port, it is so depressing.
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Andrej.S. yes mainly videos.
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today only 23 dl so far, but overall my rank improved a bit
very depressed with the latest declines. it feels like anything that will make money is kicked out and boring images with low sales value is getting in.
I have no control over my port, it is so depressing.
I thought your results here are quite good but is this slow for you at this time of year / compared to last year?
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This is a better week in terms of earnings / rpd but just want to make the point that our influence to impact sales volumes and the commissions on individual downloads has limitations.
Sure the more work, effort and quality production a contributor puts in will invariably result in improved performance and sales. But its not always going to translate in direct cause and effect. If I had said this last week the typical response would be well your contents must lack quality, you haven't been uploading, you fail to produce good useful files, you don't work hard enough and clearly have no persistence blah blah blah.
So while experiencing good weeks can have some beat their hairy chest and sound the Tarzan call, there always comes a time when downloads will slow and rpd will fall and reality hits. Sorry but just had to say this. ;D
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Here we go, always last but this time better. Never give up! :)
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today only 23 dl so far, but overall my rank improved a bit
very depressed with the latest declines. it feels like anything that will make money is kicked out and boring images with low sales value is getting in.
I have no control over my port, it is so depressing.
What's your earnigs / downloads trends the last 3 months?
Upwards or decline?
Have you uploaded new categories?
I see for example in your portfolio that you have no architecture / interior or "green / environment business" topics.
You have to try to diversify your portfolio since the algos are changing every few weeks.
I would try to focus more on "super real" looking AI content and not AI illustrations or some random fancy looking fantasy stuff.
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I make greeting cards and I am testing illustrations. Watercolor sells, oil paintings don't.
I agree that I need to branch out. My add on theme this year is "ai people" and camera video for everyone. But eco themes are a very good suggestion. However I first need to research and analyse a new genre before production.
"I thought your results here are quite good but is this slow for you at this time of year / compared to last year?"
Last year I made over 730 dollars with easter themes, this year it will probably be less than 500. And a big problem is that the essential flow of the last 6 weeks leading up to the holiday is missing. I couldn't get my good files in. The algo regularly declines potential good selling images, usually with a lot of copy space and accepts often vertical close up images with little sales value. It is the kind of things people might download as an add on, but it is not what makes me money.
My disappointment comes from having a hopefully good stock business plan and now being held back by the crazy adobe algo and what looks like an orange menace recession for the US time zone.
I am trying to rebuild my income to do it full time again. The last years were actually better than expected, but this spring things are really bad.
And I cannot get content approved at my favorite agency, this really ruins all plans for the year.
They apparently also decline lots of camera content.
For the size of the port, now 8100 files, it is probably a good rank, but it could be a lot better.
It should be a lot better.
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Strange. I haven't yet sold any easter stuff it seems... Hmm!
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good start this week!
but new files are not comming in. all i wish is adobe to be clear on what's going on!
i just got 100% rejection, photos and AI. why? weird. i have 6 years experience contributiong and follow all the rules. maybe its time to focus on real videos now..
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Are the videos safe from the killer algo?
I have processed quite a few videos, but haven‘t uploaded yet.
The algo seems to be getting crazier by the day and the situation is not improving.
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Something seems to have been drastically changed in the review process recently.
My rejection rate has skyrocketed over the past two weeks, even though I continue to pay attention to similarly high quality and the images sell well if they pass the review process.
It's really annoying that it seems to be going downhill again with Adobe. I thought we had finally overcome this...
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Good start to the week.
SS is also catching up this month
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Good start to the week.
SS is also catching up this month
Wow. Huh, very good!
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Good week sofar. Hope the trend will continue.
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looks like things are improving...for a few days...
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It’s a good start to the week.
Upon reviewing sales on SS, I noticed that the majority are coming from the EU, Middle East, Asia, and South America, with very few sales coming from the USA. I assume that sales could improve significantly if more customers from the US were buying. However, there’s always the possibility that sales might also pick up there in the coming weeks.
My portfolio consists of 2,900+ videos and 400+ photos.
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It’s a good start to the week.
Upon reviewing sales on SS, I noticed that the majority are coming from the EU, Middle East, Asia, and South America, with very few sales coming from the USA. I assume that sales could improve significantly if more customers from the US were buying. However, there’s always the possibility that sales might also pick up there in the coming weeks.
My portfolio consists of 2,900+ videos and 400+ photos.
Wow, super weird - my sales seem to be very low this week, and everyone else (at least that has posted) seems to be doing quite well.
What are you selling/what types of photo/videos are selling for you?
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I’m primarily selling niche content this week, which makes up about 90% of my portfolio. I only produce real videos and images—there’s no AI involved in my work. What excites me most is being outdoors for shoots, rather than being stuck behind a computer. However, I do enjoy keywording because it helps me learn more about the subjects I capture.
I hope you understand that I can’t disclose what I shoot, as this is a very competitive market and I want to minimize competition.
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I’m primarily selling niche content this week, which makes up about 90% of my portfolio. I only produce real videos and images—there’s no AI involved in my work. What excites me most is being outdoors for shoots, rather than being stuck behind a computer. However, I do enjoy keywording because it helps me learn more about the subjects I capture.
I hope you understand that I can’t disclose what I shoot, as this is a very competitive market and I want to minimize competition.
Hi,
Re: disclosing, haha - was just asking for the general idea, not specifics. I.e., is it easter stuff that is selling well? (I.e., not a specific type/subject/etc of a shot).
Was just curious, it's odd - I don't seem to have yet sold any easter content... hmm!
Re: outdoor stuff, cool. Yes, probably a good idea to get some fresh air :)
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I don't have any seasonal content in my portfolio, such as Easter or Christmas.
I primarily shoot underrepresented niche content that I have access to, and I love shooting outdoors. So, I get a lot of sunshine!
I must also add that most of my shoots involve one or two models.
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Good week but approx. 90% sales are easter images.
I guess I'm going to crash the same like after christmas afterwards.
\\\Edit:
Would be nice if I could break my all time week high from the week before.
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It was fun, next week will be sad
@Daniel
Your port is a great example for the power of video. You are making similar money like me, but you will still have that next week when my easter sales disappear.
Doing video is really the way forward for many of us looking for a full time income.
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@Jasmin, yes, videos can earn well, except on iStock (at least for now) :)
I'm gradually growing my portfolio by adding 800 to 1,000 clips yearly, working about 2 to 4 days a month. I can manage this while holding a full-time job. I also realize that if I upload 500 clips per month, I could earn a full-time income within 1 to 2 years. However, I still enjoy my job for the next 3 to 5 years, and then who knows, I might decide to make the leap.
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Really strong week. Easter sales even better than Christmas. Had 3 Christmas sales today, what haha.
Already broke again my weekly all time high.
Downloads and earnings are slightly time lagged.
///Edit:
Alone today 75 downloads and almost 60 USD are really strong. If I can sell more extended licenses again like I did two weeks ago, then I can aim the 300 USD per week goal.
I will now continuously try to diversify my portfolio with new content and reduce the rejection rate due to already similar images in the portfolio.
The good thing is, I still have almost 5,000 more unedited AI images that I need to upscale and upload. Realistically about 3,000 will be accepted, so my total portfolio will increase to over 10,000 images.
With that I should be able to consistently earn around 350 USD per week in the second half of the year.
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For me this week is much better: pos 4190 with 95 downloads.
Photos only. And I don't have any Easter content
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Found today my Adobe Stock portfolio on a chinese (?) agency https://www.droitstock.com (https://www.droitstock.com).
Does some one know what stock agency this is? Is this a cooperation reseller?
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looks like an api deal like ukposters.
interesting find, thank you
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Yesterday was my best day of the month with 68 dl. But I am still on track to earn less this easter than last year, because the critical last 4 weeks I could not upload my best files :(
rank also improved, that will be it for this month
pos 1660, 8100 files
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looks like an api deal like ukposters.
interesting find, thank you
Yeah, it's the official Adobe partner in china.
So I was lucky. This would also explain my increase in downloads and earnings.
Probably I should do more chinese content, since the market seems to be very stable in comparison to the US.
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good point!
is this a new partner?
might explain a small uptick in more asia centric content from my port.
probably should do more for china, you are right.
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Really strong week. Easter sales even better than Christmas. Had 3 Christmas sales today, what haha.
Already broke again my weekly all time high.
Downloads and earnings are slightly time lagged.
///Edit:
Alone today 75 downloads and almost 60 USD are really strong. If I can sell more extended licenses again like I did two weeks ago, then I can aim the 300 USD per week goal.
I will now continuously try to diversify my portfolio with new content and reduce the rejection rate due to already similar images in the portfolio.
The good thing is, I still have almost 5,000 more unedited AI images that I need to upscale and upload. Realistically about 3,000 will be accepted, so my total portfolio will increase to over 10,000 images.
With that I should be able to consistently earn around 350 USD per week in the second half of the year.
Congrats Andrej that you are doing so well in such a short time!
In fact I was wondering about your portfolio and why it is so successful. You know, so we can learn a thing or two. So on Adobe there are multiple portfolios called Andrej. Each portfolio has it's own product/theme so it looks like the same producer uses different accounts for each category. Are you all of them? Or is this another Andrej.
Then another thing is that on LinkedIn you can find an Andrej S which is or was working for Adobe. Is that you as well?
That might also explain the success of your portfolio obviously ;)
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Really strong week. Easter sales even better than Christmas. Had 3 Christmas sales today, what haha.
Already broke again my weekly all time high.
Downloads and earnings are slightly time lagged.
///Edit:
Alone today 75 downloads and almost 60 USD are really strong. If I can sell more extended licenses again like I did two weeks ago, then I can aim the 300 USD per week goal.
I will now continuously try to diversify my portfolio with new content and reduce the rejection rate due to already similar images in the portfolio.
The good thing is, I still have almost 5,000 more unedited AI images that I need to upscale and upload. Realistically about 3,000 will be accepted, so my total portfolio will increase to over 10,000 images.
With that I should be able to consistently earn around 350 USD per week in the second half of the year.
Congrats Andrej that you are doing so well in such a short time!
In fact I was wondering about your portfolio and why it is so successful. You know, so we can learn a thing or two. So on Adobe there are multiple portfolios called Andrej. Each portfolio has it's own product/theme so it looks like the same producer uses different accounts for each category. Are you all of them? Or is this another Andrej.
Then another thing is that on LinkedIn you can find an Andrej S which is or was working for Adobe. Is that you as well?
That might also explain the success of your portfolio obviously ;)
No, I am not Andrei S., who works as a Sales Manager at Adobe, but it's indeed a very amusing coincidence.
Regarding your question about my portfolio: When I search on google for my portfolio name, I find following API resellers.
Some of them are https://www.europosters.ch (https://www.europosters.ch), https://www.ukposters.co.uk (https://www.ukposters.co.uk), https://www.abposters.com (https://www.abposters.com), https://www.posters.pl (https://www.posters.pl), https://www.europosteri.hr (https://www.europosteri.hr), and https://www.posters.sk (https://www.posters.sk).
Some of my images are referenced here. However, I doubt that anyone actually buys anything here, since my images only have 4 megapixels. On the other hand, I have sold some extended licenses that would be priced similarly to the poster prices. But I am not sure, since my content isn't suitable for posters.
Another reseller is https://www.droitstock.com (https://www.droitstock.com).
This is the official partner of Adobe in China. My entire portfolio is linked here.
I only discovered this yesterday, so my link can't have been up for long.
I think a large part of my sales are being made through this reseller, i.e. the Chinese market. The increase in sales would also fit with this timeline.
I probably just got lucky.
\\\Edit:
Stats of April 18th.
\\\Edit2:
Currently aiming to 300 USD (27 USD left).
Tried out Google FX with some adjusted prompts for visual appealing looking. * this image model is so fu*kin good, almost better then Flux since the generations errors are almost zero.
Gonna generate even more stuff the coming months.
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made it pos 1430, this is probably my easter high for 2025
I really wish adobe had allowed to keep uploading. It could have been so much better.
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Had even on a saturday today 31 downloads / 21 USD.
Regurally I have only about 3 to max. 5 downloads.
Broke the 300 downloads bar this week. Tomorrow should follow the 300 USD.
Already generated new content but I am afraid the most will be rejected again. Very demotivating ...
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You both are doing very well - nice to see :)
I had a terrible week, Saturday had 3 Dl - the complete week is "123 Dl, pos 3.560, RpD $0,76"
(By the way, out of my about 270 easter images I had exactly 1 Dl this month...)
After my AI work I am 95% back to camera stuff... with the actual chaos in rejections you have to ask yourself whether uploads AS still makes sense at all and I don't see that at the moment.
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seasonal images can take up to 3 season to get regular sales. customers have very, very long planning times. you need to build up a following of regular seasonal image buyers and that takes a very long time.
congrats andrej! well done!
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seasonal images can take up to 3 season to get regular sales. customers have very, very long planning times. you need to build up a following of regular seasonal image buyers and that takes a very long time.
Maybe we will see that next year ;-)
Had the same effect last easter (and christmas), my for that season are not that new but they never started - they probably just drowned in the flood ^^
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A very bad week for me, in last place as usual. I have no Eastern or AI content. I'm standing firm. Giving up is not an option!
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seasonal images can take up to 3 season to get regular sales. customers have very, very long planning times. you need to build up a following of regular seasonal image buyers and that takes a very long time.
congrats andrej! well done!
Thank you. Broke today already 330 downloads and 310 USD.
Seasonal content is a must for everybody.
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another day of uploads is over...come on Adobe,approve everything don't be nasty! :)
for the rest..i can barely define the shape of this moment in time!
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In quiet times you can move up
pos 1180
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Following a brilliant performance last week (346 downloads / 324,30 USD / position 1000), this Monday was very mediocre with only 11 downloads and $9 in earnings.
Currently, I have 287 images pending in review and 209 uploaded images that still need to be keyworded.
However, the rejection rate has been brutal sofar. Adobe somehow fu*ked up.
To mitigate this, I've optimized my workflow by switching from Flux to Google's model, which has helped reduce generative errors.
I'm also using Photoshop's generative fill feature to touch up any remaining minor issues - a nice and helpful feature by the way.
Additionally, I've replaced Pixify with the Llama-4-Maverick-17B Image Describer and Keyword Generator, as Pixify's time limitations were becoming a constraint for me.
My strategy now is just to flood Adobe with unique content. I hope to increase my overall chances of success despite the current brutal rejection rate.
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Sounds like a good strategy.
I took some time off and started my blog project for something outside of stock.
This week I will finally process videos and every day I will also upload a tiny amount of images, camera and ai to adobe to test the waters.
My biggest concern is the holiday season, especially xmas.
I must upload now to get good returns, but I am worried that it all gets declined because the images always have a lot of copy space.
I feel like I am being punished for having experience.
Adobe is my favorite agency and I could have certainly had a much better season if I had been allowed to work normally.
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Okay, after having dozens of images rejected again after yesterday's submission with the reason 'The submitted work is too similar to the ones already submitted' and the Adobe discussion forum being full of it, I'm taking a break.
I don't want to risk Adobe classifying me as an AI spammer and banning me. I've invested too much time in this. So, all I can say is that Adobe can fu*k off if they don't want to make money with me. I don't need the money anyway, since I'm doing it just for fun.
So, in that sense, see you in the next months. Everybody good luck and success!
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Have you tried uploading camera content? Or camera videos? Illustrative editorial?
I really need the money, but my business plan for 2025 did not include Adobe using a russian roulette ai for reviews.
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Best $ April comfortably but not with highest weekly rank. Also best in terms of DL vol... 3201 so far in April. It would suggest Adobe is growing in strength in terms of customers/sales and contributors. I would probably need 3800 or more DLs for the same period to match highest rank in April. I'm ok dropping in weekly rank if the $ are going up and I'm improving on my PB's.
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Congratulations!!
Are your acceptance rates normal?
Or are you subjected to the russian roulette declines as well?
I hope they make an exception for those higher up in rank.
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Congratulations!!
Are your acceptance rates normal?
Or are you subjected to the russian roulette declines as well?
I hope they make an exception for those higher up in rank.
Thanks...I don't submit in large numbers but the ones I did submit in February & March were accepted. I think there was one with "Quality issues" and to be fair, they were right. I just missed something that I'd normally check for so I corrected it and resubmitted and it was accepted.
I would add that in times past I have had random declines but they're normally resolved after emailing them. I talking about ones being declined for not labelling as "AI" when I don't submit AI. Normally an explanation plus a couple of screenshots of the PS layers etc sorts it out. I've started using Content Credentials to see if that helps avoid accidental declines of this type.
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@ Andrej.S. thanks and good luck to you too.
@ HalfFull congrats,it must be a great satisfaction! :)
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@ Andrej.S. thanks and good luck to you too.
@ HalfFull congrats,it must be a great satisfaction! :)
Thanks... yes, when I started FT back in 2012 it felt like a gamble and required long hours but now it feels more relaxed and calculated. Still hard to believe it's nearly been 13 years... it's treated me well which I'm grateful for!
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@halffull
I am asking because also the camera producers photo/video are reporting random declines of entire batches for similar or quality. They have been uploading for years with 90% acceptance rate. So now they have stopped uploading.
Somebody is suggesting to do editorial photos. Might try that.
But i am really worried about the rest of the year. If I don't get holiday christmas content into my port now the rest of the year will be a disaster.
I feel like I have been barred from uploading of any content type.
I will try editorial, but that is not a reliable market.
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@halffull
I am asking because also the camera producers photo/video are reporting random declines of entire batches for similar or quality. They have been uploading for years with 90% acceptance rate. So now they have stopped uploading.
Somebody is suggesting to do editorial photos. Might try that.
But i am really worried about the rest of the year. If I don't get holiday christmas content into my port now the rest of the year will be a disaster.
I feel like I have been barred from uploading of any content type.
I will try editorial, but that is not a reliable market.
Does editorial illustrative content in Adobe sell a lot? That's the question!
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I can perhaps shed some light on this since I have I have a decent illustrative editorial port,not big but already ok.
when I left Istock,immediately after I started uploading illustrative editorials to Adobe,types of content that Istock did not accept,in the rejections Istock indicated that they were sorry but they could not sell this type of editorial.
On SS my illustrative editorials are my best sellers,I sell them every day,it's incredible.
on Adobe,when I started uploading them about 3 years ago I started selling them often,so much so that today I have 20 on the first page,so the short answer is yes,on Adobe illustrative editorials sell well.
This year,on Adobe however,I have sold fewer than usual,but I am also uploading fewer illustrative editorials than usual.
Today I just sold 2 illustrative editorials on Adobe.
at the moment I'm stuck with the illustrative editorials,but I'm always there ready to start again,I'll probably produce new ones soon,it clearly depends on many factors,I still have things to evaluate,I also have to see how it goes.
The illustrative editorials that I produce are images that generally require at least an hour of post-production,but often even 2-3 hours.
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I can perhaps shed some light on this since I have I have a decent illustrative editorial port,not big but already ok.
when I left Istock,immediately after I started uploading illustrative editorials to Adobe,types of content that Istock did not accept,in the rejections Istock indicated that they were sorry but they could not sell this type of editorial.
On SS my illustrative editorials are my best sellers,I sell them every day,it's incredible.
on Adobe,when I started uploading them about 3 years ago I started selling them often,so much so that today I have 20 on the first page,so the short answer is yes,on Adobe illustrative editorials sell well.
This year,on Adobe however,I have sold fewer than usual,but I am also uploading fewer illustrative editorials than usual.
Today I just sold 2 illustrative editorials on Adobe.
at the moment I'm stuck with the illustrative editorials,but I'm always there ready to start again,I'll probably produce new ones soon,it clearly depends on many factors,I still have things to evaluate,I also have to see how it goes.
The illustrative editorials that I produce are images that generally require at least an hour of post-production,but often even 2-3 hours.
Thanks!
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Thanks for giving me a little hope about illustrative editorial.
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I upload both photos and videos camera content and have maintained a 99% acceptance rate until today. My uploads are typically reviewed within a few weeks, or at most, within one month. I submit one picture per topic or subject each day, consistently uploading every day. I usually have 5 to 7 topics submitted at the same time, resulting in 5 to 7 photos or videos uploaded daily. So far this year, I have had only one image rejected for being similar to another.
No AI.
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Glad to hear your strategy is working.
But I see no difference in decline complaints between camera and ai.
I did a test with an ugly and probably unsellable ai easter illustration. That was accepted in 2 days.
Now I will try other more ugly content to see if it can get through.
My camera images are still in review, so are my test videos.
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I upload both photos and videos camera content and have maintained a 99% acceptance rate until today. My uploads are typically reviewed within a few weeks, or at most, within one month. I submit one picture per topic or subject each day, consistently uploading every day. I usually have 5 to 7 topics submitted at the same time, resulting in 5 to 7 photos or videos uploaded daily. So far this year, I have had only one image rejected for being similar to another.
No AI.
Congrats on the high acceptance rate! I'm wondering of the majority of your content is model-released? (And therefore has to be reviewed by a human, not a bot.)
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Recently, many of the photos and videos I submitted did not feature any models. It’s troubling to hear about the experiences others have had, and we can certainly attribute this situation to the surge of AI-generated content uploaded over the past two years.
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The random reviews are affecting people with camera content and no ai as well.
Creators have long proposed that Adobe should add sensible upload limits, but instead they removed the 3k limit.
The situation is very demoralising.
If you do a search for any subject and look at newest you see all kinds of crap being accepted, including large batches with 50+ near identical files.
So why are our files declined as similar?
There is no improvement in the quality accepted and especially if I do a search for fresh people content, the quality and choice has gone down.
Nobody benefits from an algo roulette review. Least of all the customers.
I did a test with 3 boring files, one ai illustration that will never become a bestseller. Still cute and usable but a design that is hardly needed. A very simple ai photo with copy space that probably has lots of similars in the collection, but is a genre I usually don't have in my port. And one very simple camera food image.
All 3 were accepted over several days.
Will now again try with maybe 5 mixed files, including some camera stuff.
When I look at what is accepted, I would say there is a bit of a shift to the more boring B roll images with lower sales value.
Less content coming where I would say that might get bought 100 times in the first year.
Perhaps the algo prefers this content because creators usually produce files they hope will sell well. And thus declines files that are more useful.
But in the end I am just guessing.
The algo ai simply does not work and has zero intelligence in the choices it makes.
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So, easter is over, all the way down I go. pos 3760
This is also the beginning of the upload chaos on adobe. If I cannot add files and grow my port I am invisible in the newest search.
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Yesterday I had my best day ever at Adobe, a buyer bought a whole video collection of 50 clips, I went from ~13000 to 7160... Pure luck
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Yesterday I had my best day ever at Adobe, a buyer bought a whole video collection of 50 clips, I went from ~13000 to 7160... Pure luck
And next week your account is blocked because of irregular activity ;)
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Yesterday I had my best day ever at Adobe, a buyer bought a whole video collection of 50 clips, I went from ~13000 to 7160... Pure luck
And next week your account is blocked because of irregular activity ;)
Hehe... I don't think so, because these videos are related, and if a user has a certain type of projects, he will need them all.
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pos 4740
going down fast
this is the result of not being able to upload fresh content. it will get worse if i cannot learn how to get content accepted again.
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now down to 5000
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I'm up to 3500 with just 54 downloads this week (and last week was pretty slow as well for me). Adobe seems to be slow for everyone currently, usually I'd need more downloads to reach that rank
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This month has been strong for AS, but sales slowed last week and so far this week.
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I'm going to post in this thread again despite my previous goodbye.
Guys, just brutal ...
Adobe announced today that the high rejection rate is the new normal. The scumbags really screwed us over.
As it would be not enough the currently sales are really *removed coarse language*. What a mess.
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Quality contributors are just going to give up. Not because they don't have a great work ethic or high quality work but because agencies are treating contributors poorly. There's just no incentive to continue with the nonsense low commissions and constant roadblocks and jumping through hoops. I've seen contributors with large quality ports on Pond5 remove their contents completely.
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I'm going to post in this thread again despite my previous goodbye.
Guys, just brutal ...
Adobe announced today that the high rejection rate is the new normal. The scumbags really screwed us over.
As it would be not enough the currently sales are really *removed coarse language*. What a mess.
Where is the announcement?
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Very depressing news.
Adobe has made it official that they prefer the ai spammers.
They have removed the upload limits, so you can read people boasting how they upload 20k files a week to Adobe.
At the same time they are now using a random roulette review algo that is declining files with no logic.
Also affecting many ports with no ai, who only upload camera content.
They could have implemented simple upload limits, instead prefer the spammers.
I will now focus more on camera video and camera photo and also more on other agencies.
This is certainly an opportunity for istock to win creators back.
They still have a normal human review and sensible quality control.
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I do hope this isn't a complete pivot by Adobe in the direction of autospamaiuploaders.
I had as many sales today on DT as I have had on Adobe all week and more $ - definitely not normal - both an atrocious week so far on Adobe, and a rather good day on DT.
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Customers follow the upload flows. That is how SS kept losing clients
They kept buying agencies but refused to heal their brutal break up with the creator community.
So creators who are often designers buy elsewhere.
Dreamstime has always been good to us, the only agency that paid out more to creators during the pandemic.
They also don‘t randomly block accounts and their support always writes back quickly.
And now that Adobe is randomly declining content, Dreamstime has always been much better variety to offer especially for ai content.
I think many will replace buying from Adobe with a combo of istock and dreamstime.
istock has more model released people anyway and Dreamstime will have more ai selection.
Creators determine where customers buy or were they buy for their clients.
It will also affect Adobe subscriptions.
Why use the software of a company that gaskights creators and looks down on them?
Affinity photo is always there.