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.
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Quote from: cobalt on February 28, 2025, 12:31

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...

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.

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.

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 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.

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!       

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 if you pick your niches well, you can continue to upload and make money.

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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.

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.

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.

Adobe's performance is not enough to cover all the other agencies in sharp decline