Seriously.  Seems like a huge time waste to me.  Isn't these image consumer's time worth anything?  

Not when you're an amateur blogger and you have all the time in the world. My uneducated ignorant guess is that the "imgbuyer" is not a real image buyer but just looking for free pics, as he has time to dwell on Google and all sites to get cheapos.
I have to come up with 3 pics daily for a European daily media since the Indian designers can't understand the articles in Dutch. I have a commission of 2 euro per pic scouted. According to the Hamburger flipping criterion (8 euro/hr) I have to glance through a number of articles, search for 3 shots, and mail those in 45 mins in total. I can only do my searching on a site (DT) since on Google Images, I would work like Mother Theresa.

I also think some photographers have been in the stock business for so long they think only commercial image buyers buy images.  My walls are full of prints, many of which were sold as stock.

If you watch the SS Top 50 for a while, it becomes apparent that many if not most of the images on the list have been dled a lot solely because they are pretty pictures, and not for stock use at all - the downloaders have some dls left in their daily quotas so why not?

Quote from: averil on August 12, 2010, 18:31

Success breeds success but can also breed stagnation. Thus there is room for new players in a changing environment.

Wrong!  today there is no room for new players, youd like to think there is, but it isnt. Theres room for part-timers, weekend snappers, etc, whos happy with a few bucks per month, thats all.
and this is the result of all agencies opening the doors for just about anybody followed by clogged up files, spamming, etc.
Nowdays, the supply is outstripping the demand by lightyears.

I'm in one of the 'races' on istock, with about 60 others - a very small selection. A few are doing very well. Note their start dates. A couple who started a few years ago didn't actually become very active until more recently.
http://www.istockphoto.com/4fr
http://www.istockphoto.com/kparis
http://www.istockphoto.com/taavet
http://www.istockphoto.com/redmonkey8
http://www.istockphoto.com/carlofranco

I believe all of these are making their income from photography (illustration videos on one case), a substantial amount of it from microstock.

You're right, although I'm not sure what Carlo is a student of - might be art and design. Guess they're just are amateurs, uploading crap...

(Vetta crap, of course)

You're right, although I'm not sure what Carlo is a student of - might be art and design. Guess they're just are amateurs, uploading crap...

(Vetta crap, of course)

I never made any comment on what they were uploading. There are some superb photographers within that group.

But your implication that they are making a living from photography doesn't hold up.

The total number of downloads by $ value of download / time on site does not equal a viable wage for most of the examples you quote

I think there is still some room for newer people to be successful, but mostly it seems to be the ones who already have years of stock experience.  Jonathan, you have only been in micro a couple of years, right?  And Monkeybusiness started micro in late 2008.  Both of them were experienced stock photographers, and both of them have shot to success. 

It's quite possible that the trad stock pros like them who are willing to join micros have already done so, though.  Not sure how many more of them we can expect to see entering the micro realm.  Particularly as it appears the bubble is in the process of bursting. 

I doubt there will be many more who start like some of us did - green as grass - and then go on to grow our skills and make a living from micro.  For the hobbyists, amateurs, and "aspiring pros",  the party is probably over. 

I think there is still some room for newer people to be successful, but mostly it seems to be the ones who already have years of stock experience.  Jonathan, you have only been in micro a couple of years, right?  And Monkeybusiness started micro in late 2008.  Both of them were experienced stock photographers, and both of them have shot to success. 

It's quite possible that the trad stock pros like them who are willing to join micros have already done so, though.  Not sure how many more of them we can expect to see entering the micro realm.  Particularly as it appears the bubble is in the process of bursting. 

I doubt there will be many more who start like some of us did - green as grass - and then go on to grow our skills and make a living from micro.  For the hobbyists, amateurs, and "aspiring pros",  the party is probably over. 

I think the "party" is about to start. It will probably be fueled by the great cesspool of 10 million+ spammed-keyword images. I look for micro stock to morph into new specialty sites that do just one or two things (categories) very well with unique and high quality images. I can see a similarity to high quality specialty stores competing successfully with the big box stores like Walmart and Target. Entrepreneurs have great skills for adopting to these kinds of conditions and I expect to see such new ventures in the microstock business as well. I look for those new sites to operate only on a pay-per-download basis, offer custom assignments with realistic pricing, and be fully search-able with Google, etc.

I should have made clearer that the new micro sites that specialize as described could justify a premium price compared to the major sites especially with the no-contract direct pay per image setup. Also, the more "new" shooters entering micro would be a big asset in that such a very specialized site could have their choice of the best of the new work.

Quote from: lagereek on August 12, 2010, 01:26

Take away all this subscription crap and Micro will yet again have a good time.

No, just make subscriptions the right price and pay a fixed commission.  Lots of buyers prefer subs, taking that away from them would probably be a mistake.

Let's say that I'm an enterprising Chinese/Russian and I have a good knowledge of the advertising industry in my country with tons of contacts (relatively small, local players) who frequently buy stock. I, as enterprising person, offer them stock from my 'personal' and private archive. Then I go to Fotolia, for example, and I take out a 200+ dollar premium subscription which entitles me to download 750 files in one month. If FT has the majority of contributors in subs, then depending on their status (white to sapphire and exclusive/non-exclusive), for $200 or so, I can download between $6K-$36K worth of images at XL size that month. For $50-$100 more, I can nominate the clients as one of three or one of an unlimited number of users. I pay < $0.20 per download and my clients pay me a special discount rate, of say, $8/download for files up to 15Mp. Ca...ching, ca....ching.
If I can think this up and I'm not smart, how many hundreds or thousands are doing this already. I don't even know if it would be illegal to provide such a service once you have a bought a sub with unlimited users. And once you have the download, you could re-sell multiple times without ever getting caught. If you keep everything in your own language (not English) no-one will ever notice except the contributors that sell one XL sub, never to be sold again.

Just sayin' that's all.

Shutterstock is the only site that has paid me from their legal winnings when an image was used with an inappropriate license.  I also don't remember ever having a refund with them.  Look at the sites that sell stolen images and they have collections from the PPD sites as well.  A thief can just use a stolen credit card, they aren't going to pay for a subscription.  Lots of us have had refunds, possibly from people using stolen credit cards.  Either shutterstock don't have that problem or they absorb the costs, like the other sites should.

Hi All,

 I would just like to add that I was told 20 years ago by a big stock shooter that the market was shut tight and that we as new students would never have a chance to compete. He's dead now. Always a way in. New images needed every day specially as time makes our older work obsolete. Don't stop trying if you have the passion you will service. Good luck to all of you.

Best,
Jonathan

Are you suggesting that we kill our competition literally? 

:rofl: That gives new meaning to the favourite list on Dreamstime.