Quote from: Red Dove on January 31, 2015, 08:36

Quote from: PixelBytes on January 30, 2015, 21:35
For me the wall is not running out of creativity, its financial.

Good point and why icebergs or beautiful people prancing about in Gucci don't feature in my port.

If I were brand new at this or any business though, I'd want someone to tell me not to be worrying about walls and focus on getting my pigs to market.

I don't disagree.  The Wall is not something a newbie need to worry about.  Aren't most newbies in it for fun?  I know I was. 

Only when you been in 5 or 6 years or threreabouts that the wall is a problem, but when you do hit it, the funs over.

I have been in the game for 7 years, and I hit the wall a long time ago.
The wall being defined as not being able to grow your income according to the work you put in.

But there is a garden behind the wall. Its kind of lush. It does not matter if I upload or not, nor if I innovate and produce better quality.
I still have the same monthly income, and it does not vary much and it does not fall.

So we could say that the wall works in both directions, it also shields you from the impact from the worlds competitors.

So a better definition of the wall would be that the quality and size of your port is at a point where it cannot be beaten.

Quote from: JPSDK on February 01, 2015, 19:16
I have been in the game for 7 years, and I hit the wall a long time ago.
The wall being defined as not being able to grow your income according to the work you put in.

But there is a garden behind the wall. Its kind of lush. It does not matter if I upload or not, nor if I innovate and produce better quality.
I still have the same monthly income, and it does not vary much and it does not fall.
I
So we could say that the wall works in both directions, it also shields you from the impact from the worlds competitors.

So a better definition of the wall would be that the quality and size of your port is at a point where it cannot be beaten.

Lucky you.   My income has fallen each year since hitting the wall and I am now earning half what I did my best year.

It would be interesting to know why?

Quote from: JPSDK on February 01, 2015, 19:58
It would be interesting to know why?

Your guess is as good as mine.  Makes more  sense mathematically  to lose income than stay steady as the collections growth outpaces your own.   

If you haven't lost income maybe you are in some niche areas where competition is not so strong?  I do lifestyle.  My work is buried farther down all the time.

Yes I do niches that cannot so easily be copied:

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/88729/125154020/stock-photo-swallowtail-life-cycle-swallowtail-life-cycle-the-lifecycle-of-the-swallowtail-papilio-machaon-125154020.jpg

I'm sure there are people who have read or contributed to this thread for whom "the wall" does not exist, financially or creatively.

An Uncle of mine built an income that allowed him to retire from the corporate treadmill before he was 50, firstly by teaching himself carpentry and progressing from fitting kitchens to making bespoke furniture and even pro-spec crossbows before moving onto ornate, wooden clocks and picture frames. If he ever hit a wall, which I seriously doubt, he clearly found a way over, around or under it.

QuoteLucky you.   My income has fallen each year since hitting the wall and I am now earning half what I did my best year.

same for me

Quote from: PixelBytes on January 31, 2015, 21:26

Quote from: Red Dove on January 31, 2015, 08:36

Quote from: PixelBytes on January 30, 2015, 21:35
For me the wall is not running out of creativity, its financial.

Good point and why icebergs or beautiful people prancing about in Gucci don't feature in my port.

If I were brand new at this or any business though, I'd want someone to tell me not to be worrying about walls and focus on getting my pigs to market.

I don't disagree.  The Wall is not something a newbie need to worry about.  Aren't most newbies in it for fun?  I know I was. 

Only when you been in 5 or 6 years or threreabouts that the wall is a problem, but when you do hit it, the funs over.

Well, kinda. It's far from a hobby to me. Sure, as a traveler I love the freedom and the sort-of passive income micro provides, and unlike a job you get to be creative and work whenever you want... but it's still work. If I'm putting all the effort to make this my prime income, I definitely want to know beforehand what to expect from this business. Thanks again for the replies.

Here is my wall....
- First the downloads begin to decline and then the monthly income begins to follow. Though I didn't try hard, it becomes difficult to impossible to offset both losses by increasing uploads.
- Yes, it's true that iStock changed a lot of strategies in customer pricing and contributor royalties over these years (some major data shifts) but I suspect that is a factor in the timing more so than the overall trend result seen in the data.
[Edit: Graph Image link deleted]

Shutterstock is now adding 40,000 images per day; hard to keep up (and the poor grammar and punctuation in this press release is driving me nuts):

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shutterstock-surpasses-500-million-images-licensed-2015-02-04

Quote from: Shelma1 on February 05, 2015, 11:19
Shutterstock is now adding 40,000 images per day; hard to keep up (and the poor grammar and punctuation in this press release is driving me nuts):

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shutterstock-surpasses-500-million-images-licensed-2015-02-04

they are adding close to 60.000 per day. 410.000 per week.

Quote from: Semmick Photo on February 05, 2015, 12:38

Quote from: Shelma1 on February 05, 2015, 11:19
Shutterstock is now adding 40,000 images per day; hard to keep up (and the poor grammar and punctuation in this press release is driving me nuts):

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shutterstock-surpasses-500-million-images-licensed-2015-02-04

they are adding close to 60.000 per day. 410.000 per week.

I am amazed I have sales. How do you outshoot the flood?

And there's exactly the problem. Maybe the search is a little crazy, but SS is selling more, so it's not a lack of sales or buyers, it's just too darn many GOOD newer images that are competing. Not that the old images are BAD or unsuitable.

People can claim some conspiracy, the search favors other people, or that new transfers get some special status, or that we need to add new content to meet the latest colors and trends. All of us are the other people. Who here is getting the favorite spot, front page, in the search? Seems like no one we know.  Someone gets it...

Here's who:

50 million competing images (before March 1st) that's the problem. Nothing wrong with what you do or anyone here in general. If it's accepted it's good enough to be sold.

It's not a flood, it's a tsunami and we can't outrun it. That's why the same number of images, make less money and why adding as much as one person can, will not keep us from being overtaken and drowned by the WALL of new images.

(so I guess that makes two walls? One the new materials chasing and overtaking us and one we are running smack into, stopped us with an income crash?)

The good old days and the days of revise or add a new image and it gets sales, because it's on the first page = Are Over. It's not going to change back. Here's where we make the best of what we can and what we have.

Quote from: cobalt on February 05, 2015, 12:51
I am amazed I have sales. How do you outshoot the flood?