I have actually lost my enthusiasm for stock over time. For the time involved along with changes at different levels and Agencies, it is not right for me anymore. I have already started the process at SS and next months payout will be my last there. Once this next Alamy payment clears and gets to my bank, I will pull out there. That leaves me DT. been waiting forever for the trickle of sales to reach $100 so I could drop them. I have read that they will not pay out without reaching that, even if you are closing your account... unless they changed somewhere. Just simplifying taxes by not having these around.

On the bright side, I have been experimenting with another money making project. Learning all I can and testing waters. It is working out well enough that possibly in 2 - 4 months, I will be working it as a legit small business.

I will probably still pop in to read but my involvement will probably not be much at all though. I did learn a lot here and appreciate a majority of the members. 

Good luck everyone. 

 

I'll be dropping GL as soon as I hit payout.  Sitting $5.80 away from payout but haven't had a single sale there in months.  Veer is almost as bad. February was the worst month I've had at DT since joining back in 2006.  I'll give it a while longer to see if this is a trend or not.

Drop list

#1 Fotolia

#2. Deposit Photos

I just dropped:

Alamy - Very bad system for managing files and upload system - No sales;
GLStockImages - No sales at all!

I have progressively stopped uploading to some different agencies. Would really have to annoy me or screw me over to actually drop any of them completely.

I really don't get why anyone quits GL. It's exactly the kind of site we should be hoping somehow turns things around and grows. That won't happen if people are leaving.

I deleted my port from 123rf. Unhappy with their pricing strategy, specifically for ELs. Now I found that images I deleted last year can still be found - but i cannot delete them at all. Waiting for my final payment and then I am out there. Currently looking for another agency worth to be supported. I am looking for an agency that treats contributors fairly.

I left 3d Studios and Big Stock this year due to low performance.  I'm waiting on 3 more to get to payout to take off my list.

I've also been far too busy with doing other things like writing and playing my bass instead of churning out illustration after illustration.  If I could ever feel more motivated to sit down for a weekend and do anything I might upload more often.  Sales everywhere have been dismal for over a year and I'm not seeing any kind of  recovery from it.  I'm trying to remain positive but it sure is hard when there's nothing to really show for your efforts.

Instead of creating and uploading more work, which I know takes tremendous creative effort to do something good.

Why dont you spend that time promoting your existing vectors?

Blogging about an individual image might sound boring but you need a statcounter to see what visitors you're getting. This helps you understand what youre doing right. Then do more of it. 80/20 rule, perato principle. Without seeing what visitors are coming and from where and what sales occured and which article, you're in the dark and doomed to dust.

Also I play bass and I concur Id often rather do that.

probably crestock, the upload method is tedious, acceptance ratio is too low, i can only upload 10 photos week, reviews take more than 1 month

I haven't tried to blog about my images before so I'm not sure how I'd even start other than something like I've got new artwork and here's all the places you can get it?  Wonder if that would actually work.  What . what have I got to lose right?

Course I never did think that living on the low end would apply to stock work and not just the bass either 

I dont think this is too off topic. You do what you love, you spend your days creating. Now all you have to do is make it pay. Cropping an exclusive agency after all that uploading work may seem counter intuitive, but I have done it and it sort of psychologically "un shackles" you from a negative low end experience.

We forget we are free agents. Microstock is a business and its our own business, not the stock agencies. They are just a means to an end. Not to say i dont need them, just on my terms. I have tried making a website like symbo and others but its too time consuming. The hybrid solution works for me.

Not knowing if blogging will work or not sounds tentative. You have to be hard nosed and energetic about your business and test, try, fail, test again. You will find a river into the big sea if you keep working. The creative is only 10% of the business. The other 90% is selling it so spending time appropriately makes sense.

I dont think this is too off topic. You do what you love, you spend your days creating. Now all you have to do is make it pay. Cropping an exclusive agency after all that uploading work may seem counter intuitive, but I have done it and it sort of psychologically "un shackles" you from a negative low end experience.

We forget we are free agents. Microstock is a business and its our own business, not the stock agencies. They are just a means to an end. Not to say i dont need them, just on my terms. I have tried making a website like symbo and others but its too time consuming. The hybrid solution works for me.

Not knowing if blogging will work or not sounds tentative. You have to be hard nosed and energetic about your business and test, try, fail, test again. You will find a river into the big sea if you keep working. The creative is only 10% of the business. The other 90% is selling it so spending time appropriately makes sense.

I'm going to give blogging a shot later on this afternoon and test the waters.  Working an overnight job full time has zapped my creativity and productivity though I have a to do list of images in a file that I need to get started on soon.  I also have a symbio site and you're right it is time consuming and I'm not really seeing much of a return on my efforts for that.  Then again I don't spend a lot of time marketing it either which I should probably kick myself in the arse and get going on.  So lack of sales on my own end is justifiably my fault where my own site is concerned.

And on the topic of leaving agencies, I just put in an email to leave Stock Fresh which knocks my list of waiting down to two left to go.

I droped crestock today, simple process, just send them an e-mail and after a few hours they removed all my photos

Good to know they at least make it easy. 

Do you read that Dreamstime and others? ? ? ? It's possible! Learn!

I don't even know what that comment meant??? What are you saying? speak english?

Sparking interest in images happens one image at a time, then you hit it good with some SE and then suddenly you can quit ur job, because you're making 50 bucks a day every day. Then you figure out how you did it and do it again.