Author Topic: What content you should have NOT created for Memorial day (Read 2628 times)

ribtoks · « **on:** May 18, 2021, 04:38 »

Hi all

Memorial day is approaching and while it's already too late to create any content for it, you still can check if you have totally wasted your time before.

I analyzed the most useless niches from data perspective: https://stockphotosideas.com/blog/memorial-day-content/

I have bad news for you in case you were working on flags for Memorial day, as well as stars and statues.

Let me know if I missed anything!

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #1 on:** May 18, 2021, 08:49 »

Good reading and interesting perspective. I'm not going to subscribe, I'm just not active enough, but I enjoyed what you researched.

I'm trying to understand something. Did I read all of that right? If someone uses the data and values. Shooting the most searched and popular, is a waste of time, because of the competition, we probably won't be seen. At the same time, shooting less likely subjects, going for the niche, is also a waste of time, because not many buyers are interested.

Is your conclusion, what I came to from reading the stats and data? Don't bother shooting Memorial Day subjects and images? Do something else.

Or did I miss the important obvious and valuable conclusions from all these numbers and search data?

ribtoks · « **Reply #2 on:** May 19, 2021, 02:43 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on May 18, 2021, 08:49

At the same time, shooting less likely subjects, going for the niche, is also a waste of time, because not many buyers are interested.

Is your conclusion, what I came to from reading the stats and data? Don't bother shooting Memorial Day subjects and images? Do something else.

Or did I miss the important obvious and valuable conclusions from all these numbers and search data?

Thanks for the feedback! And no, it's not the conclusion I aimed at. There are profitable niches with customer interest and not so fierce competition. This is the whole point of Stock Photo Ideas service. You can find some examples in the newsletter example: https://stockphotosideas.com/newsletter-example/

As for the Memorial Day itself, it's indeed hard to find as many opportunities as for other niches, but there still are some!

ShadySue · « **Reply #3 on:** May 19, 2021, 04:24 »

I had to Google Memorial Day, whereby I can happily confirm I have not wasted a second creating images representing it.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #4 on:** May 21, 2021, 10:44 »

Quote from: ribtoks on May 19, 2021, 02:43

Quote from: Uncle Pete on May 18, 2021, 08:49
At the same time, shooting less likely subjects, going for the niche, is also a waste of time, because not many buyers are interested.

Is your conclusion, what I came to from reading the stats and data? Don't bother shooting Memorial Day subjects and images? Do something else.

Or did I miss the important obvious and valuable conclusions from all these numbers and search data?

Thanks for the feedback! And no, it's not the conclusion I aimed at. There are profitable niches with customer interest and not so fierce competition. This is the whole point of Stock Photo Ideas service. You can find some examples in the newsletter example: https://stockphotosideas.com/newsletter-example/

As for the Memorial Day itself, it's indeed hard to find as many opportunities as for other niches, but there still are some!

I agree with the niche part, and I've tried to find those and create. I just didn't understand if your point was, don't bother with Memorial Day images. Actually there are some subjects that we can shoot, and upload, but we should NOT expect to get any good sales. Memorial Day for example.

(Sunsets, flowers, sliced vegetables, pets, and a number of things that since the first day, agencies have said "we don't really need more of these".)

Yet before everyone here jumps on me, yes we have all uploaded some of those and had downloads. That's not the point. What I'm saying is, they won't do as well as other subjects that are in short supply and have some customer demand. That's a niche shot, not something that's not in the collections and that hardly any buyer will ever want or search for either. And not something that has hundreds of thousands of similar and over supplied examples.

Can you give us an example of a "good" memorial day subject or composition, that your data and research has discovered, that someone SHOULD create? I missed it.

ribtoks · « **Reply #5 on:** May 22, 2021, 00:25 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on May 21, 2021, 10:44

Can you give us an example of a "good" memorial day subject or composition, that your data and research has discovered, that someone SHOULD create? I missed it.

You can subscribe to the newsletter and you will get those

Actually you can find few profitable Memorial day niches in the newsletter example here: https://stockphotosideas.com/newsletter-example/#memorial-day-us

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #6 on:** May 22, 2021, 10:57 »

See, I actually disagree with this... (I have however enjoyed a couple of your other posts, so you are doing good work!) But in this case...

High search volume is actually a good thing - even with HIGH competition - providing there are lots of sales (which, most likely there are if the search volume is that high)...

As for low volume, low search - again, depends. Without corresponding sales data, hard to say whether or not it would be a good idea.

medveh · « **Reply #7 on:** May 22, 2021, 15:08 »

I hate to be negative about someone's new project, but given the fact that this industry is paying less and less to the contributors I think that not many would spend $9 on a monthly subscription to boost their microstock business. Don't get me wrong the idea is good and I think you have the skills to be great at this. You should have done this years ago when the industry was blooming, because I think the only problem about this endeavour is the timing. Nevertheless I hope you'll succeed with this and it will help every subscriber upload more marketable content and eventually make more money.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #8 on:** May 23, 2021, 12:52 »

Quote from: ribtoks on May 22, 2021, 00:25

Quote from: Uncle Pete on May 21, 2021, 10:44
Can you give us an example of a "good" memorial day subject or composition, that your data and research has discovered, that someone SHOULD create? I missed it.

You can subscribe to the newsletter and you will get those

Actually you can find few profitable Memorial day niches in the newsletter example here: https://stockphotosideas.com/newsletter-example/#memorial-day-us

I like your ideas and methods, I can't afford to pay more a month than some agencies pay back.

Especially since I'm cutting more and more of them for minimal payback for any work.

Do I understand? Green stars are the good ones? That would be these?

4    happy memorial day thank you    12    1.1k    1.6k
5    memorial day clipart    63    1.2k    4.3k
7    memorial day cartoon    48    4.8k    350

Your idea is Google Volume vs Existing results and then looking at SS traffic?

Quote from: SuperPhoto on May 22, 2021, 10:57

See, I actually disagree with this... (I have however enjoyed a couple of your other posts, so you are doing good work!) But in this case...

High search volume is actually a good thing - even with HIGH competition - providing there are lots of sales (which, most likely there are if the search volume is that high)...

As for low volume, low search - again, depends. Without corresponding sales data, hard to say whether or not it would be a good idea.

Actually I agree with you but I also agree with his research. Not sure I'd agree with the Stock Photo Ideas conclusions, which is where I'd agree with you.

Sometimes something that isn't a well represented group of images, can be better than one where there are many searches and more interest. But if the competition isn't what buyers want, then a larger subject, isn't necessarily bad.

Let me just say, sales numbers would be the real answer, not searches. Look at the most searched words on the Internet, number one for years is FREE.

Example, and relate to stock photos? Stock is #10

1    Photography Editing    9,140,000
2    Sexual Photography    1,500,000
3    Photography    1,000,000
4    Sexy Photography    673,000
5    Porn Photography    450,000
6    Photography Shops    301,000
7    Mirror Photography    301,000
8    Babies Photography    246,000
9    Nudist Photography    246,000
10    Stock Photography    201,000

or "ART"

1    Pets Art    3,350,000
2    Electronic Arts    1,220,000
3    Nail Arts    823,000
4    Pixel Art    450,000
5    Clip Art    368,000
6    Creative Arts Agency    301,000
7    Wall Art    201,000
8    Martial Arts    165,000
9    Arts and Craft    165,000
10    Paper Art    110,000

What does this actually say about what stock sells? Pets or Wall Art?

Knowing what sells is real and valuable, knowing what is searched is relative, but can't predict sales. Look at Alamy sales? You can see what has sold, but you still can't see what WILL sell in the future.

ribtoks · « **Reply #9 on:** July 28, 2021, 06:01 »

Quote from: SuperPhoto on May 22, 2021, 10:57

As for low volume, low search - again, depends. Without corresponding sales data, hard to say whether or not it would be a good idea.

I fully agree that it depends. In general, I think, it's not a good idea, but I'm sure there are notable exceptions! Honestly would love to see those.

ribtoks · « **Reply #10 on:** July 28, 2021, 06:03 »

Quote from: medveh on May 22, 2021, 15:08

I hate to be negative about someone's new project, but given the fact that this industry is paying less and less to the contributors I think that not many would spend $9 on a monthly subscription to boost their microstock business. Don't get me wrong the idea is good and I think you have the skills to be great at this.

Thank you for your feedback and for the good words. I would actually very interested to hear how much would you pay for such service?

I think the whole idea of what I'm doing is to make contributors earn more on the long run. Constantly producing content that will sell is much better than sometimes to produce content that is a best-seller, in my opinion.

ribtoks · « **Reply #11 on:** July 28, 2021, 06:22 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on May 23, 2021, 12:52

I like your ideas and methods, I can't afford to pay more a month than some agencies pay back. Especially since I'm cutting more and more of them for minimal payback for any work.

Do I understand? Green stars are the good ones? That would be these?

Your idea is Google Volume vs Existing results and then looking at SS traffic?

Knowing what sells is real and valuable, knowing what is searched is relative, but can't predict sales. Look at Alamy sales? You can see what has sold, but you still can't see what WILL sell in the future.

Hey Uncle Pete. First of all sorry for the late reply, I totally missed this post (does Microstock Group forum have email notifications?).

Secondly, good news is that Stock Photo Ideas became cheaper! I hope this will help you to make a right decision

As for your other questions:
- green is a good one, yes
- I look first at Shutterstock Traffic + Existing results and only after on Google Volume. Google Search volume is general interest marker, but Shutterstock Traffic is way more specific
- I also fully agree with you that having internal Shutterstock sales data would create way better suggestions, but I truly believe that a) we will never have it and b) in the absence of it what I suggest is the 2nd best