MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: cobalt on December 03, 2024, 04:44
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Hi all,
I thought we could use a thread where we make our own predictions and personal goals for the year and then we can check back in 12 months how it went?
Commitment to goals is always stronger if you announce them in public...
You can also talk about special shooting plans or new things you want to learn and master.
And obviously feel free to edit your post whenever you have a new idea.
So, here are mine.
Industry predictions:
- most agencies will start taking ai content, because they realize just offering an ai tool for the customer does not replace a nice looking ai collection. Not every customer wants to spend an afternoon prompting if they can just download something useful in 10 seconds.
- probably another drop in royalties, especially for the "usual suspects"...the exciting news of so much more volume if the files just cost 1 cent...particularly worried about p5. How long will there be an exclusive collection with 60%? Or 40% for non ex?
- a renewed increase in buying more non ai content and customers asking to exclude ai more permanently instead of always having to select it with every search.
- increase in video sales, especially for the use of amending an existing video with ai, also increase of people buying images, real or ai, to be used as a base for video
- video ai improves and companies offer cloud upsizing so you don't need to have a 20k computer
- interest in uploading ai actually going down or levelling off, because people realize that what the youtubers promised is not happening, going back to making stickers for etsy or trying a new youtube channel. stock has no viral growth component.
Personal goals
- reach at least 10k files an Adobe (currently 7100) - ideally 12k, but I doubt I can reach that.
- add at least 600 videos to BB and in general get back into the habit of uploading and producing videos. Ideally 1200
- do normal photo/video shootings every week
- upload 1200 files to istock (which can also go to adobe)
- by middle of the year, or whenever sora becomes available start testing ai video again, perhaps 100 ai videos for the entire year
- meet up with people for regular shootings, including meeting up for editorial events
- do at least one city trip over a week-end with a full stock shooting plan
Money: at least 12k for the year, best would be 15k. Longterm I need 30-45k.
Research and genre focus: editorial, ai people, mostly normal daily life food for normal camera work. Little daily life moments, cleaning routine, doing paperwork etc..
Learn about at least one festival or holiday I don't know - perhaps Diwali...and learn what kind of content I can produce as someone not from the region
For people - family life and elder care, business and fashion are not for me even though there is probably a lot more money in both
Private goals: get much better sleep, lose more weight, see more friends again
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Thank you for this post; it was an interesting read. Do you plan for create 1,200 videos assets in 2025 on top of the target for your photo assets? That’s quite an achievement especially if you do this on your spare time.
I plan to grow my portfolio from 2,700 to 4,000 high-quality, diverse videos. Setting a goal of uploading an average of 110 videos per month while working in my free time will help me maintain a focus on quality.
I’ve noticed significant improvements in the quality of my videos since I started shooting stock footage two years ago. With the experience I’ve gained, I anticipate further increases in quality by 2025.
In 2025, I also plan to reduce my coffee intake, which should lead to better sleep.
Overall, the outlook for 2025 seems positive, though I naturally tend to be optimistic.
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The goal is roughly 3000 images, including ai images that will go to adobe but also include 1000 normal camera assets that can go anywhere including istock.
And then I will try to generate 1200 videos, normal videos and a minimum of 600 for BB, but hopefully 1000 for BB.
The volume in video will probably come from editorial and little daily life clips, mostly food.
Most important is to get back into the habit of creating and processing videos. I have to think differently for video and I need to plan my shootings to get the best clips. Also do research for missing content across agencies.
This year I uploaded around 3400 files to adobe, another 120 in the queue and maybe another 300 that I will upload.
So uploading a minimum of 3000 to Adobe looks doable if I already uploaded around 3700 this year. But uploading 5k assets to reach 12k? I don't know. That would require a consistent 420 files a month.
We will see. But I must activate the other agencies and especially istock which has my oldest port and bb which is great for video. It is amazing how reliable their income is and I think I only uploaded 20 clips this year.
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And then I will try to generate 1200 videos
Will you be creating videos using artificial intelligence?
a minimum of 600 for BB
BB sells your video well? Why don't you want to upload it to different stocks yourself.
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no, I don't think ai video is there yet. I tried it but didn't like the results.
There is so much easy and useful stuff you can take with a camera, plus I have a backlog of nearly four years of clips I haven't processed yet.
BB is an insurance against port closure in case criminals attack my port and the adobe algos close me down. Plus, they sell really well, on average better than if I sell myself.
I will still add video to my normal ports but probably 70% will go to BB.
It works for me, doesn't mean others should do it.
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no, I don't think ai video is there yet. I tried it but didn't like the results.
Probably, to create such a video, the authors need a very powerful PC. It is unlikely that the programs use computing resources somewhere in the cloud.
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no, you can very easily create clips on pika or runway. it is created in the cloud.
you just need a good computer for the upsizing software. upsizing 5 seconds takes nearly 3 hours on my computer.
but the generation of the clips is not that easy. any problems you have with generating images is multiplied with video.
sometimes you get very cute looking stuff, but for the time and money invested it is 10 time faster to just shoot something with your camera.
however, there are many people uploading ai video to adobe. thousands of new clips every day, just go and have a look.
i am just not going to be one of them. maybe in 18 months, who knows.
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so what are your predictions and goals for 2025?
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upsizing 5 seconds takes nearly 3 hours on my computer.
:o :o :o
so what are your predictions and goals for 2025?
If Trump doesn't make any sudden moves, 2025 will be the same as 2024. But you can be very wrong when predicting the political situation.
At the moment, the stock market is stable, if of course you upload videos to all the stocks that exist and that sell.
Personally, I don't have any interesting stock targets, because I am in the war zone.
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My goals for 2025 (sadly) don't include anything for microstock. But will be uploading some lower quality content from time to time to "feed the beast" and hopefully keep earning on similar level as in 2024.
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my main goal for microstock in 2025 includes quitting my regular job. i already make more from stock than i make in my job, but i need to get strongers earnings in microstock in general before i can make this move..
sub goals:
-reach 2000 videos (actually only a 100.. :'( )
-1 photoshoot/week fo at least 100 images (can do it)
-keep uploading A.I. (if you cant beat them, join'em)
-travel and get some stock from it (already did it in 2024 and sold over my expectations)
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@mike
Maybe the beast will surprise you in 2025. Could be an interesting year for stock. Good luck!
@pires
That‘s the spirit!
I wish you an exciting 2025, will be interesting to see how well you do if you are fully focused on stock.
Please let us know.
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@mike
Maybe the beast will surprise you in 2025. Could be an interesting year for stock. Good luck!
Thank you @cobalt! I'm not so pessimistic about next year, because I seem to still get a lot of real photo sales despite the flood of AI content on Adobe. So let's see :).
But I can't justify uploading high quality content to microstock anymore because I now demand much higher prices from clients for this type of content. So microstock ship has sailed for me :).
I really like your analytical approach and wish you luck with your goals in 2025! 8)
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Personally, I don't have any interesting stock targets, because I am in the war zone.
Curious - are you prohibited from photographing stock image opportunities there?
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- Increase my ports by at least 1500 assets
- Do more videos
- Focus more on what agencies want/or what is in demand, rather than shooting what I enjoy
- Buy Godox strobe, lantern softbox (for indoor lifestyle shoots), and 10 stop ND for my wide-angle lens
- Take my 1st timelapse
- Reach at least 500/month as my average earning in 2025 (now it is around 300)
- Take many train trips in the weekends (when I can travel for free by train within The Netherlands), and explore many interesting locations also in Germany and Belgium
(I love travelling, hiking, exploring and combining it with stock)
- Have more balance, dont be obsessive about stock, be more social, friendly and serviceful to people in the community where I live.
- Improve my Photoshop/Lightroom/Adobe Premiere skills
- learn even more about CTMU (Christopher Langan), improve and deepen relationships with people that are important to me
- Learn to live with tinnitus
- read more books
- maaaaybe start my yt channel dealing with stock photography, life in The Netherlands, philosophy, survivalism, life in community (or postopne it indefinitely again)
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My industry predictions are that most agencies will accept AI-generated content due to its improved quality and creativity, which cannot be replicated by traditional photography.
Already, it is possible to generate 4K images using Flux Ultra, and upscaling to 8K will not be a problem with online upscaling providers.
My forecast is that AI-generated content will replace up to 80% of generic photo content within the next 1-2 years, and the entire market, as well as earnings, will increase due to the higher quality of content. However, earnings will be more concentrated among a few large contributors who specialize in AI-generated content and understand the needs of buyers.
Demand for classic shoots will rise only for niches, where byers will need real authentical content, which can't be generated.
AI Video creation will become better but will be still not good enough to replace real video shootings, so that I would wait 2 years before starting generating.
My personal goals in 2025 are:
- To create a portfolio of 20 - 30.000 high-quality, generic AI images with high demand, earning up to $300-500 per week.
So far, I have created approximately 10.000 images in 2 months but uploaded only approx 3.400 images so far. I am currently reaching to approx $80+ this week.
- To create around 300 - 400 high-quality traditional photos during my vacations and photo shoots with my young daughter.
- To learn more about the needs of buyers to create more in-demand content.
- To improve the quality of AI upscaling at higher resolutions.
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In 2025, I plan to reduce microstock. I am a small home studio shooter, producing to much variations.
I hate do shoot up to 10 variations, its boring. No variation, less work thats my goal.
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-Focusing more on videos, including aerials.
-Grow my YouTube channel, including my new channel forum.
-Hopefully to increase my weekly income, now I make around $10 a week on Adobe, nearly 6k assets. :D
-Spending more time with the family.
-Maybe adding new qualifications to my CV.
-Want to travel more.
-Upgrading my drone, and maybe adding new RF glass next to my EF lenses.
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A lot of great ideas coming. Interesting how many already have or want to start a youtube channel. If these channels take off and go viral, it can make a lot more money than a stock port.
I wish I knew how to add 20k files in a year, or over 1000 files a month. It would make such a big improvement to my income if I just had more files. I sincerly regret uploading so little for nearly 10 years.
Please keep the ideas coming, personally I think 2025 will be very good for microstock because the more people play with ai, the more they will realise how much faster it is to download a ready made file from agencies and then maybe adapt it with photoshop.
Plus a lot more people doing things with video, so especially for video I have high hopes.
The biggest risk is what will happen with the royalties at pond5...
eta
Maybe we should have a youtube channel or etsy store section on the forums.
Basically to monetize our content in different ways as an add on to uploading to agencies.
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Maybe we should have a youtube channel or etsy store section on the forums.
Basically to monetize our content in different ways as an add on to uploading to agencies.
And on Creative Market too. ;D
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And then I will try to generate 1200 videos, normal videos and a minimum of 600 for BB, but hopefully 1000 for BB.
What is "BB" (which agency is that?)
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blackboxglobal, a distribution agency and community
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Close down my indoor studio, sell my 50mp d SLR equipment and only shoot vids or images when I feel it with my iPhone and fish more often. Maybe put in a few hours a week processing when I cannot not fish due to poor weather. I put in my 15 years in the is business thus done with it. Time to enjoy my life now...
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blackboxglobal, a distribution agency and community
Okay, that's what I thought... They basiclaly just distribute to the video sites for you on your behalf, correct?
My concern with them was:
a) What happens if you accidentally upload duplicate content? (I.e., say you submit via them, somehow forget that you did, then submit via your own account, or vice-versa)
b) To me - it "seems" they are in a little bit of a precarious position - "because" they are submitting on behalf of a LOT of people - potentially they could get east indian/south asian spammers that simply steal someone's portfolio, get's 'submitted' via bbg - and then jeopardizes the entire bbg account... (if I remember correctly, wasn't their actually a post that said bbg HAD gotten 'banned' temporarily because of something, or maybe they didn't?) that being said - they've been around I think for a couple years now? if they didn't (already) get banned, I'm surprised they don't appear to have had that happen yet... But - maybe they were smart and contacted the agencies to let them know what they were doing (so in case that happens, their entire account doesn't get 'banned').
As an aside:
a) How do you get paid/what payment methods are available? (I didn't see that on the site).
b) Interesting its in Ontario, Canada (at least according to the legalese).
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Close down my indoor studio, sell my 50mp d SLR equipment and only shoot vids or images when I feel it with my iPhone and fish more often. Maybe put in a few hours a week processing when I cannot not fish due to poor weather. I put in my 15 years in the is business thus done with it. Time to enjoy my life now...
Where do you catch fish and what kind?
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@superphoto
The agency that was temporarily banned was wirestock. BB these days has an intensive sign up process, you need to upload a showreel and do a personal interview to get accepted. At least that was the last thing I heard. And they do not accept everyone.
BB does not take ai. That is probably the easiest way to avoid the spammers. And ai is probably the big problem for wirestock.
So now BB is a gated community where not everybody gets in so easily. I am sure they also had/have spammers, but they will kick them out once discovered. But because the sign up is not automatic I am sure they screen out a lot of undesired content.
I got in early when you just had to sign up. Not sure if I could get in today as I am not a pro. But I think they still take amateurs, they just want to know people are genuine and want to be part of a community.
Blackbox has sharing tools built in. So you can have your models, your location team, a make up artist, camera people all sign up and then once the project is completed everybody gets their assigned percentage from the sales. It is designed as basis to do your own movies, not just stock. However so far a complete movie section is still missing. But from what I understand that was the original idea.
It is the main difference to any other distributor or other agency.
You can also team up with someone who does post processing and metatagging for you, so you can optimise your workflow. You can also ask around in the community for shooting partners etc...
BB takes 15% from the sale before they pay out to you. But part of that is compensated because BB as a large entity get higher ranks or percentages than if you do it as a solo producer.
For duplicates...well...you need to be careful...however you could probably write to them. They actually do write back, it is not a distant team.
But the easiest is to decide on a genre that goes to BB versus a genre you upload yourself. In my case a certain type of editorial always goes to BB whereas other editorial always goes to my own accounts.
The duplicte thing is the same as having a contract with gettyimages, stocksy or any other high end partner that requires full exclusivity.
Since you send in the whole shoot, the risk of duplicates is not very high.
You don't have to process the entire shoot in one go, just decide this shoot is exclusive for bb and then process as you please.
The same way I would do it for stocksy. Or the way others do with cavan or archangel etc...
Nobody has to work with a distribution partner.
But personaly I really like the friendly BB community.
And I also see BB as a form of insurance, if the Adobe hunter killer algo targets me for whatever reason and my port gets blocked, the income from BB, including sales from adobe, would still be coming in.
That is why I like them and will make BB a strong part of my video uploads next year.
eta
payment I use paypal, no problems
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Close down my indoor studio, sell my 50mp d SLR equipment and only shoot vids or images when I feel it with my iPhone and fish more often. Maybe put in a few hours a week processing when I cannot not fish due to poor weather. I put in my 15 years in the is business thus done with it. Time to enjoy my life now...
Where do you catch fish and what kind?
Washington state--cascade mountains. Steelhead and salmon
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ai will continue to increase, but won't eliminate other images for specific niches & SS will succumb to the ai memes
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- continue to add metadata to 15K+ images from last 5 years
- continue to add 500+ images to agencies each month
- lead a group tour of xmas markets on the rhine or danube in Nov
- continue to lead tours to Turkey & the Balkans with many photo opportunities - next year i'll take groups to Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria & Türkiye
- organize other discounted river cruises that offer multiple locations over a short period of time
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500 a month is a very good number. I hope I can reach that one day.
Do you also teach a class an optional? class on stock photography on these cruises?
Would there be interest in that?
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Have to say I am not as optimistic about 2025 as I have been in previous years looking forward to the new year. That said, I have not given up and am continuing to upload.
Just generally, compared to 2023, this year 2024 has seen a big fall in earnings on Shutterstock and a smaller fall in earnings on Pond5. iStock has shown a modest rise in earnings in 2024 while Adobe Stock has seen a huge rise in earnings. The end-of-year fall off in terms of earnings has been earlier, faster and further.
Still I did reach some goals with every month since February to November achieving >$1k per month. I just passed my total 2023 earnings earlier this month but must be considered in light of uploading over 500 videos to each 4 portfolios this year, and over 2000 to 2500 to each 4 ports since November 2021.
I just hope 2025 doesn't see a greater fall in contributor earnings overall though I do acknowledged the exceptional performance of Adobe Stock many of us seen this year.
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500 a month is a very good number. I hope I can reach that one day.
Do you also teach a class an optional? class on stock photography on these cruises?
Would there be interest in that?
none of my tours are described as photography, but we do spend more time in less visited places, and stay in central areas so there's time for exploring. many folk come to Istanbul a day or 2 early & i offer suggestions based on their interests.
https://cascoly-images.com/the-rest-of-istanbul-what-you-missed-on-your-1st-days-tour/
https://cascoly-images.com/exploring-the-other-mosques-of-istanbul/
We set up independent tours and also give free advice on traveling in Turkey on your own.
The river cruises are more expensive but enable you to visit many places in a short period of time, with both included walking tours and free time to explore/photograph
these travels are symbiotic - travel provides a varied portfolio and sales pay for more travel.
as far as stock photography, the general level of photography is selfies & snapshots and few know about stock - the few who do are buyers (most commonly known are 'Getty' and Shutterstock )
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So Far this year, I upgraded my camera to Nikon Z50 II which is doing great for videos and images. I like this hybrid camera. I am uploading 100 videos every week now. One trip provides at least 250 videos including editorials and commercial ones. I contribute to only Adobe, Istock, SS and DepositPhoto. I have an account on Alamy but seems like it is not accepting videos. I quit dreamstime and RF123 because I saw no growth there. My biggest disappointment is with SS thats where It sells almost nothing. Adobe has been nice.
This year I travelled to Himalayan Region, Mumbai, Tehri, Rishikesh, Hardwar, Mathura, Vrindavan and next on my list is Kerala or Moscow or Something in between. I like to go to places which either have mountains, river or both. Now Next in India, it will be monsoon season, there are great places to go to and capture amazing videos.
As of now, I have around 8000 images and 1200 videos on sale. My goal is build the post retirement income. Besides a day job, I edit and color grade films for a Hollywood producer. The editing and color grading income is keeping me happy for now. Built some skills on Davinci Resolve and now have its studio version.
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So Far this year, I upgraded my camera to Nikon Z50 II which is doing great for videos and images.
This camera is bad for video. No 120 fps in 4K and no 240 fps in HD.
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So Far this year, I upgraded my camera to Nikon Z50 II which is doing great for videos and images.
This camera is bad for video. No 120 fps in 4K and no 240 fps in HD.
You are right about camera specs. Movie - 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD): 60p/50p/30p/25p/24p ・1920 x 1080: 120p/100p/60p/50p/30p/25p/24p.
This is the best what I could afford for now and it shoots in 10 bit Log. Nothing at this price was even closest to the specs. For all speed related stuff I can manage with Davinci well. I keep my camera at 24fps and 4K and then little zoom in DR to match DCI size. Acceptance rate at agencies is awesome. Only 1% Rejection at max.
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All my plans for the year are broken.
I did not imagine that Adobe would abruptly break their relationship with creators and implement a random upload algo.
I am switching to video for Adobe, but it takes a long time for video to start selling.
The year started very well, January - April I had increases of 60-84% compared to the year before.
But my plan rests on files reinforcing each other. I upload small volumes, but it usually sells.
Now I have to deal with an algo roulette, which is beyond frustrating.
Nobody wins at this, but Adobe is doubling down that the creators are at fault.
Whoever is resposible for the random review mess is more important than the relationship with the creative community.
That is the most depressing part.
Will try to make an effort at istock and overall video, inclufing BB.
I guess this year is the Make istock great again year.
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I guess this year is the Make istock great again year.
??? ??? :-\ :-\ ::) ::) ::)
America will sooner become great again, than istock!
;D ;D ;D
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All my plans for the year are broken.
I did not imagine that Adobe would abruptly break their relationship with creators and implement a random upload algo.
I am switching to video for Adobe, but it takes a long time for video to start selling.
The year started very well, January - April I had increases of 60-84% compared to the year before.
But my plan rests on files reinforcing each other. I upload small volumes, but it usually sells.
Now I have to deal with an algo roulette, which is beyond frustrating.
Nobody wins at this, but Adobe is doubling down that the creators are at fault.
Whoever is resposible for the random review mess is more important than the relationship with the creative community.
That is the most depressing part.
Will try to make an effort at istock and overall video, inclufing BB.
I guess this year is the Make istock great again year.
Wishing you good luck with your changed plans, but I'm afraid not much can be done by now. You are trying to win in a dying market and you build your business plan trusting in agencies you've got no control over. Sure there are some topics where lots of content is still missing, but these topics don't decide content pricing. It is the generic content, which sells well on microstock and which faces the most competition from free AI - thus I think inevitably leading to price drops for all microstock content in future.
There are other and probably better possibilities for content creators to earn, be it selling stuff on Etsy or starting a Youtube channel. Maybe look into some of these to not depend on stock too much?
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All my plans for the year are broken.
I did not imagine that Adobe would abruptly break their relationship with creators and implement a random upload algo.
I am switching to video for Adobe, but it takes a long time for video to start selling.
The year started very well, January - April I had increases of 60-84% compared to the year before.
But my plan rests on files reinforcing each other. I upload small volumes, but it usually sells.
Now I have to deal with an algo roulette, which is beyond frustrating.
Nobody wins at this, but Adobe is doubling down that the creators are at fault.
Whoever is resposible for the random review mess is more important than the relationship with the creative community.
That is the most depressing part.
Will try to make an effort at istock and overall video, inclufing BB.
I guess this year is the Make istock great again year.
Wishing you good luck with your changed plans, but I'm afraid not much can be done by now. You are trying to win in a dying market and you build your business plan trusting in agencies you've got no control over. Sure there are some topics where lots of content is still missing, but these topics don't decide content pricing. It is the generic content, which sells well on microstock and which faces the most competition from free AI - thus I think inevitably leading to price drops for all microstock content in future.
There are other and probably better possibilities for content creators to earn, be it selling stuff on Etsy or starting a Youtube channel. Maybe look into some of these to not depend on stock too much?
one of the best comments I've seen in a while! Plus +100
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All my plans for the year are broken.
I did not imagine that Adobe would abruptly break their relationship with creators and implement a random upload algo.
I am switching to video for Adobe, but it takes a long time for video to start selling.
The year started very well, January - April I had increases of 60-84% compared to the year before.
But my plan rests on files reinforcing each other. I upload small volumes, but it usually sells.
Now I have to deal with an algo roulette, which is beyond frustrating.
Nobody wins at this, but Adobe is doubling down that the creators are at fault.
Whoever is resposible for the random review mess is more important than the relationship with the creative community.
That is the most depressing part.
Will try to make an effort at istock and overall video, inclufing BB.
I guess this year is the Make istock great again year.
Wishing you good luck with your changed plans, but I'm afraid not much can be done by now. You are trying to win in a dying market and you build your business plan trusting in agencies you've got no control over. Sure there are some topics where lots of content is still missing, but these topics don't decide content pricing. It is the generic content, which sells well on microstock and which faces the most competition from free AI - thus I think inevitably leading to price drops for all microstock content in future.
There are other and probably better possibilities for content creators to earn, be it selling stuff on Etsy or starting a Youtube channel. Maybe look into some of these to not depend on stock too much?
May I ask you how do you imagine earning money on Youtube with stock video content ?
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May I ask you how do you imagine earning money on Youtube with stock video content ?
You should ask yourself that question. Look for examples, how do people with similar content or skills as yours get their Youtube channel monetized and start from there. Learn new skills if needed.
Personally I don't do any video at all and I'm still too busy with other topics (not stock, that's just side hustle with maybe 5 hours per month investment, which also includes this forum ). But in future I want to start doing video and will look into monetizing Youtube.
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I wasn’t looking for advice, just genuinely curious about what you meant by monetizing stock videos on YouTube. Were you referring to creating content that teaches others 'how to make money with microstock', or did you mean publishing videos in the hopes of attracting a large audience?
May I ask you how do you imagine earning money on Youtube with stock video content ?
You should ask yourself that question. Look for examples, how do people with similar content or skills as yours get their Youtube channel monetized and start from there. Learn new skills if needed.
Personally I don't do any video at all and I'm still too busy with other topics (not stock, that's just side hustle with maybe 5 hours per month investment, which also includes this forum ). But in future I want to start doing video and will look into monetizing Youtube.
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I wasn’t looking for advice, just genuinely curious about what you meant by monetizing stock videos on YouTube. Were you referring to creating content that teaches others 'how to make money with microstock', or did you mean publishing videos in the hopes of attracting a large audience?
I never said you should monetize stock videos on Youtube. Most people would need to produce videos for Youtube, but some probably can monetize their existing stock content.
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There are other and probably better possibilities for content creators to earn, be it selling stuff on Etsy or starting a Youtube channel. Maybe look into some of these to not depend on stock too much?
Is ETSY worth the time for a microstock contributor, if so selling what? I've heard POD is a waste of time with very low commissions and doesn't sell well.
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Is ETSY worth the time for a microstock contributor, if so selling what? I've heard POD is a waste of time with very low commissions and doesn't sell well.
There are shops with thousands of POD sales on Etsy, so for some it seems to work. Also people sell digital downloads there. There are no commissions, you keep the difference between your price and your costs + Etsy fees.
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Wishing you good luck with your changed plans, but I'm afraid not much can be done by now. You are trying to win in a dying market and you build your business plan trusting in agencies you've got no control over. Sure there are some topics where lots of content is still missing, but these topics don't decide content pricing. It is the generic content, which sells well on microstock and which faces the most competition from free AI - thus I think inevitably leading to price drops for all microstock content in future.
There are other and probably better possibilities for content creators to earn, be it selling stuff on Etsy or starting a Youtube channel. Maybe look into some of these to not depend on stock too much?
Totally agree with mike123 as well. We can fool ourselves and hope, but MS is on deathbed. Look at once mighty shutterstock, whoever can make a payment once a year on Dreamstime is lucky and let's not even go into all this Adobe mess we are debating ad nauseam in other threads. Proliferation of pocket cameras and smartphones in particular has placed initial nails in MS coffin; AI is placing the last ones.
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The topic needs to be renamed, something like "how and where to leave stocks".
;D ;D ;D
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I have used the Adobe crisis to start my public blog about my personal weight loss on Medium. Now that I am building up followers, i will slowly start adding articles behind paywall. But i don't expect to get rich from it, it is more a project i wanted to start and slowly learn about monetizing writing, maybe small books, something to learn until retirement.
POD, blogging...again you are dependent on platforms and their algos. Medium had an excellent monetization reputation for writers until last September when they cleared out all the ai spammers who were abusing the medium algo with chatgpt articles, boosting each other with ratings and reviews...
And after that medium apparently cut the payouts overall and many voices left.
Now they are gradually coming back.
The best control is if you sell whatever via your own website.
BUT - I used to have a webshop in my old life and my experience is you spend an endless amount of time answering lengthy questions from customers.
So I REALLY appreciate that with stock agencies I just have to worry about the products I offer and I never have direct contact.
I need a job that is flexible and mostly from home.
With my buyers hat I also think there is a huge and growing demand for good visuals. It will not become less. And I am not scared at all of ai.
My sales on adobe in principle are fine.
The problem is I feel blocked from expanding my port the way I think it works best and wish they would stop trying to micromanage me.
Like I said, i still have good growth, I just need to be able to get stuff up.
If my sales were falling it would be a different thing. But growth is actually better than expected.
I also wanted to create a youtube channel and named my youtube page the same as my blog. But after thinking more about it, creating good useful content is a huge time sink. And reading up on monetization of youtube channels I am not impressed.
I think putting that time into creating stock will earn me back much faster.
You have to sgart somehwere and building a stable income from pod sales, or calendars or writing books or a youtube channel..it is something that will take 2-3 years of invested time.
I have just come out from a "learning ai" phase.
Now I just want to increase production, especially video but also normal photos and see how much can I activate istock if i get 2k files online this year? can i even produce enough?
Every agency is its own market, at least for me what sells where is quite different.
I don't have growth every month on Adobe and 665 dollars is not enough to pay the bills, but it is still just 8k files. So I think I can still work it up to say 1200 from Adobe. that would be my target average. Maybe in 2026...
So with all the doom and gloom...I still have growing sales. Stock is not dead. I moan and complain a lot, but...
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I have used the Adobe crisis to start my public blog about my personal weight loss on Medium. Now that I am building up followers, i will slowly start adding articles behind paywall. But i don't expect to get rich from it, it is more a project i wanted to start and slowly learn about monetizing writing, maybe small books, something to learn until retirement.
Sounds great, good luck with your blog! Every little income channel counts :)
The best control is if you sell whatever via your own website.
Fully agree! Which is why I started selling prints through my own website. It's not fully automated yet, so each sale takes around 20 min of emails and book keeping, but that's OK for now. Of course I still depend on Google etc to be found :D
So with all the doom and gloom...I still have growing sales. Stock is not dead. I moan and complain a lot, but...
It's not dead yet. But I'm afraid it's just a race to the bottom. Maybe macrostock agencies will be a solution for niche content, I can imagine this kind of content actually increasing in price as less and less professional creators are supplying agencies with high-quality content.
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Well, people told me in Sept 2022 stock was dead and I could never grow a steady income. Here I am 3 years later and still have double digit growth. With only one agency.
When is the death of stock coming?? :)
I still cannot support myself, but I am still doing stock only part time because of other obligations.
Also if you look at the Discord and many other groups there are still people with good sales and good growth.
Will work on my blog, would lovely to get written content monetized.
Good luck with your webshop. It is internet real estate you actually own.
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Well, people told me in Sept 2022 stock was dead and I could never grow a steady income. Here I am 3 years later and still have double digit growth. With only one agency.
When is the death of stock coming?? :)
Will work on my blog, would lovely to get written content monetized.
I would like you to be right. I really would. And I congratulate you for still having decent return. But I can't just ignore what I see across industry. It is basic law of economics - supply and demand. As simple as that. On top now incompetent and disrespectful Adobe contributor relationship. Everything points to the end. I am sorry.
Only thing that is positive for me are people like you or Alex Rottenberg, that still treat this with great enthusiasm and are willing to share their views and knowledge. This is what keeps community strong. But it is far from enough.
But we should discuss things. And try to support and learn from each other. This is how I see things at least.
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I absolutely agree, we should discuss things and share information.
On pond5 I just read that an experienced pro video creator went from an income of 160k a year! down to 300 dollars a month.
That is truly crazy.
He specializes in weather and storm material. He says his business died because storm chaser hobby groups are all sharing their clips on social media and allowing news companies to use them without paying.
They invest heavily in gear and time and upload for no money, just followers and likes.
Perhaps some of them monetize their channels, I didn‘t ask that.
But the speed of the drop is unbelievable.
I see the biggest opportunities in video, but I also see a lot of options in photos because so much content is missing.
If my test searches showed me everything is filled, it would be different.
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On pond5 I just read that an experienced pro video creator went from an income of 160k a year! down to 300 dollars a month.
:o
There are authors on this forum who sell videos on pond5 on an exclusive basis. Not long ago they bragged about their sales and income. It would be interesting to hear what their sales are like. Of course, I have never been a supporter of being an exclusive author somewhere, but what will those who uploaded videos only to pond5 do?
I think this author got such income only because he was an exclusive author on pond5. But I don't believe his numbers, I think he's lying.
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I am ready to believe him, because I have heard from others with high income who were exclusive to pond5.
They set high prices 300-500 dollars and at 60% you can make quite a bit of money. He also has a lot of Covid related content and anyway around 30? videos. So, I think it is possible.
That is why they always got so upset when people like me would price hd clips at 10-20 dollars. But I was uploading ducks in the park, I didn't feel it merited higher prices :)
Basically they set the price according to what they would have earned if it was a custome shot. Maybe a little cheapee but still in the range.
Nothing wrong with that.
Files are not created equal, I don't understand why it all has to be the same price.
An agency with good quality content where creators can set their own prices, I think that is now missing.
The video people have better networking, maybe they will rally around a smaller existing place or somebody starts a new company with high quality exclusive content.
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The video people have better networking, maybe they will rally around a smaller existing place or somebody starts a new company with high quality exclusive content.
Pond5 and Getty is such a place.
But I will say this, now good content is uploaded to subscription stocks and authors have good income there. The times of macro exclusive stocks with high prices and incomes are over.
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I am ready to believe him, because I have heard from others with high income who were exclusive to pond5.
They set high prices 300-500 dollars and at 60% you can make quite a bit of money. He also has a lot of Covid related content and anyway around 30? videos. So, I think it is possible.
That is why they always got so upset when people like me would price hd clips at 10-20 dollars. But I was uploading ducks in the park, I didn't feel it merited higher prices :)
Basically they set the price according to what they would have earned if it was a custome shot. Maybe a little cheapee but still in the range.
Nothing wrong with that.
Files are not created equal, I don't understand why it all has to be the same price.
An agency with good quality content where creators can set their own prices, I think that is now missing.
The video people have better networking, maybe they will rally around a smaller existing place or somebody starts a new company with high quality exclusive content.
The slash of percentage from 60% to 40% for exclusives have another big impact on their income...