Author Topic: Income from AI Generative stock (Read 3634 times)

stock shooter · « **on:** January 29, 2024, 21:58 »

Just curious how people are doing selling AI stock. I've been playing around in MidJourney, having fun, considering trying to sell AI stock but wondering if I've already missed the boat? Are there already so many AI images available that it's not worth the time?

wds · « **Reply #1 on:** January 29, 2024, 22:31 »

Isn't that almost like asking are there so many photos that it's not worth the time uploading photos?

alijaber · « **Reply #2 on:** January 30, 2024, 01:37 »

Quote from: stock shooter on January 29, 2024, 21:58

Just curious how people are doing selling AI stock. I've been playing around in MidJourney, having fun, considering trying to sell AI stock but wondering if I've already missed the boat? Are there already so many AI images available that it's not worth the time?

No, you didn't miss the boat. Newly created Ai images do sell well.

cobalt · « **Reply #3 on:** January 30, 2024, 02:24 »

This is like asking does uploading random photos sell?

ai sells just as good as any photo if you create something useful.

and just as bad if nobody needs it.

Just search the agencies and see what kind of needed content is missing. then create content with whatever media you like.

you can also adjust your photos with ai.

ai is just a tool, like photoshop.

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #4 on:** January 30, 2024, 10:01 »

Having done it for a while,

a) Yes, you can make some income.
b) If you get "lucky" (some of your images take off) then you can make what some would consider to be a good income.

I'm not quite yet sure what the magic formula is for (b) yet... I've seen some people that have images similar to mine really take off, and no idea why my nearly equivalent ones didn't... As far as I can tell, I have good keywording, good titling, good images... So I don't know - it seems to be a little bit of luck/right timing/etc to get an image to take off. I did personally have a couple that did relatively well, but others, not yet as well...

So... if you are playing around with it, sure, go for it. But... if you are looking to make more than a couple hundred $$/month - you probably have your work cut out for you.

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #5 on:** January 30, 2024, 10:02 »

Quote from: cobalt on January 30, 2024, 02:24

This is like asking does uploading random photos sell?

ai sells just as good as any photo if you create something useful.

and just as bad if nobody needs it.

Just search the agencies and see what kind of needed content is missing. then create content with whatever media you like.

you can also adjust your photos with ai.

ai is just a tool, like photoshop.

How do you find in-demand content that agencies are missing?

cobalt · « **Reply #6 on:** January 30, 2024, 10:47 »

You do research over all agencies on subject themes that you understand very well.

If for instance, you have a beautiful garden and love gardening and especially caring for roses, then you can do test searches over all agencies what kind of content is available, and what kind of very useful content is missing? If you understand a subject well, you see the missing content very, very easily.

Or you look for a certain region. It can be your home region or maybe your favorite tourist spot you visit every year.

what kind of food images from the region are missing? What kind of typical festivals have not been documented? What kind of favorite resting places of a hike has nobody uploaded…etc..

You are a medical doctor or nurse? Check medical content and you will notice one million things missing…

You are a chef or love to cook? What kind of new trendy food styles has nobody done yet?

You are a carpenter, a body builder, a librarion, an IT guy…look at your genre, what is missing - everywhere?

Often you can reinvent popular genre by just doing something a little different.

The buyers who understand the genre will notice and be grateful.

etc…

The gaps in the agency collections are gigantic, because most people just sort by downloads and then copy the top 20 files as identical as possible.

The libraries are endlessly bloated with duplicates.

Pick a theme you understand well and love and shoot away.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #7 on:** January 30, 2024, 11:03 »

Quote from: SuperPhoto on January 30, 2024, 10:01

Having done it for a while,

a) Yes, you can make some income.
b) If you get "lucky" (some of your images take off) then you can make what some would consider to be a good income.

I'm not quite yet sure what the magic formula is for (b) yet... I've seen some people that have images similar to mine really take off, and no idea why my nearly equivalent ones didn't... As far as I can tell, I have good keywording, good titling, good images... So I don't know - it seems to be a little bit of luck/right timing/etc to get an image to take off. I did personally have a couple that did relatively well, but others, not yet as well...

So... if you are playing around with it, sure, go for it. But... if you are looking to make more than a couple hundred $$/month - you probably have your work cut out for you.

Same here. Earning currently 10 USD / month with a port of approx. 500 images (ok, just only approx 40 to 50 various topics).

I still haven't figured out which AI content is selling good. I can't recognize a pattern in my port. If I sort the most downloaded AI images on Adobe I can't recognize a pattern either.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #8 on:** January 30, 2024, 11:08 »

Quote from: cobalt on January 30, 2024, 10:47

You do research over all agencies on subject themes that you understand very well.

If for instance, you have a beautiful garden and love gardening and especially caring for roses, then you can do test searches over all agencies what kind of content is available, and what kind of very useful content is missing? If you understand a subject well, you see the missing content very, very easily.

Or you look for a certain region. It can be your home region or maybe your favorite tourist spot you visit every year.

what kind of food images from the region are missing? What kind of typical festivals have not been documented? What kind of favorite resting places of a hike has nobody uploaded…etc..

You are a medical doctor or nurse? Check medical content and you will notice one million things missing…

You are a chef or love to cook? What kind of new trendy food styles has nobody done yet?

You are a carpenter, a body builder, a librarion, an IT guy…look at your genre, what is missing - everywhere?

Often you can reinvent popular genre by just doing something a little different.

The buyers who understand the genre will notice and be grateful.

etc…

The gaps in the agency collections are gigantic, because most people just sort by downloads and then copy the top 20 files as identical as possible.

The libraries are endlessly bloated with duplicates.

Pick a theme you understand well and love and shoot away.

In theory this sounds great and makes sense.
But in praxis your are limited currently by the AI models (you can't generate accurate some topics like medicine stuff, or places it takes to long to find a random seed, which generates a satisfying result).

I also think that most buyers aren't thankful for great content. They just want a fast and cheap result like fastfood.

cobalt · « **Reply #9 on:** January 30, 2024, 12:27 »

then do it with photos.

research works for all media.

everyone I know who makes a full time living from stock does a ton of research into their genre.

it is the way they build loyal return customers.

like any other business. know your clients, supply their needs.

nothing magical about it.

DiscreetDuck · « **Reply #10 on:** January 30, 2024, 14:41 »

Quote from: Andrej.S. on January 30, 2024, 11:03

Same here. Earning currently 10 USD / month with a port of approx. 500 images (ok, just only approx 40 to 50 various topics).

Wow

Hem, why not go to the street, hold out your hand for an hour, and you will have at least the same amount.
Are you a child living with your parents? Are you doing this to keep yourself busy?

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #11 on:** January 30, 2024, 14:54 »

Quote from: DiscreetDuck on January 30, 2024, 14:41

Quote from: Andrej.S. on January 30, 2024, 11:03
Same here. Earning currently 10 USD / month with a port of approx. 500 images (ok, just only approx 40 to 50 various topics).

Wow Hem, why not go to the street, hold out your hand for an hour, and you will have at least the same amount.
Are you a child living with your parents? Are you doing this to keep yourself busy?

Yep, absolutely legitimate question.

Well actually I do this currently just for fun in the late nights (until 2 or 3 a.m.), when my daughter fell asleep in the evening and my wife is either sleeping too or doing her stuff.
For the living I have a well paid main job.

DiscreetDuck · « **Reply #12 on:** January 30, 2024, 16:05 »

Oh ok, now, thanks to you, I feel like a millionaire!

as a traditional photographer, of course.

stock shooter · « **Reply #13 on:** January 30, 2024, 16:20 »

Thanks everybody. I've been shooting stock photography for some 15 years now, the main micros, Alamy and Getty Images. I just got really bored with it a few years ago and disgusted at how my income was falling every year. So during the pandemic I started an Etsy store selling fine art prints. Not a huge money make but picking up some slack from lower earning from stock. I recently started a second Etsy store selling "art" (using that term very loosely) from generated AI, MidJourney. Travel posters and other stuff. Those AI images are selling OK, but Etsy isn't a get rich quick scheme for most although some of the stores selling AI art have impressive sales in a short time. Anyhoo, I've been pondering AI stock and thought I'd get some feedback. Thanks again.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #14 on:** January 30, 2024, 18:07 »

Quote from: DiscreetDuck on January 30, 2024, 16:05

Oh ok, now, thanks to you, I feel like a millionaire!
as a traditional photographer, of course.

I'm glad to have cheered you up ;-)

Quote from: stock shooter on January 30, 2024, 16:20

Thanks everybody. I've been shooting stock photography for some 15 years now, the main micros, Alamy and Getty Images. I just got really bored with it a few years ago and disgusted at how my income was falling every year. So during the pandemic I started an Etsy store selling fine art prints. Not a huge money make but picking up some slack from lower earning from stock. I recently started a second Etsy store selling "art" (using that term very loosely) from generated AI, MidJourney. Travel posters and other stuff. Those AI images are selling OK, but Etsy isn't a get rich quick scheme for most although some of the stores selling AI art have impressive sales in a short time. Anyhoo, I've been pondering AI stock and thought I'd get some feedback. Thanks again.

I had also thought about an Etsy store, especially I saw that baby posters and other baby print products seem to be quite lucrative. At least the margin seems to be not bad at all.

I've even set up a store and uploaded some designs, but I'm still looking for POD providers that I can integrate.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #15 on:** January 31, 2024, 03:26 »

@cobalt

I thought about it again today.

I created a few (about a dozen) illustrations (mainly vector logos and stuff like that) back in 2012/2013 as a student.
I knew back then that there were no logos for dentists, car saling, etc.

I just knew, well this gonna sell well. And that's what happend, after just a few weeks there were regular sales.
It worked just as you described.

I had earned approx 10k USD within a few years. Doesn't sound much, but I think it's quite a lot for a dozen files and 300 - 400 USD / month it was a nice additional income for a student

I wanted to get back into microstock with AI for fun after more than 10 years.
I don't think the market works like that anymore. The oversupply has made it feel like a lottery.
Even many of the niches are oversaturated.

I am not sure if old established contributors can feel the market change or if they are simply still carried by their old good rankings.

I'm currently still seeing more sales of my old stuff from 2013/2014.

My strategy with AI would be to choose a popular and oversaturated subject and press the seed button until one get a composition, color harmony, so one can be sure that it is better than the new current best AI images.

I simply don't believe that analyzing the market niches is actually profitable anymore in the long term.

I would say to all newcomers, just do it for fun and shut the f*** up without whining or do something else.

cobalt · « **Reply #16 on:** January 31, 2024, 06:37 »

Maybe you didn't upload enough content?

I think you will need to consistently produce several thousand files a year, plus it takes 12-18 months to get a significant uptake of new content.

This January many files from last year got their first ever sale. I had given up on some of them. Now I will process the rest of the series and add them gradually.

For a full time income from several agencies I will have to work hard for at least 4-6 years, because I live in a very expensive country with high taxes.

If I could move elsewhere, I could probably already live from stock again next year.

What I do agree - uploading 300 files is not enough. Add a zero to everything.

People forget that it takes files a long time to get discovered and lightboxed by customers and then it again takes time for them to realise their projects.

This process hasn't changed. It takes several years.

Upload more and give the customers some time. It is very rare to have instant bestsellers.

But of course if you have another work or business option that makes you more reliable money in a much shorter time, just do that.

Nobody is forced to do stock. It is just one of many options to run a webshop with digital downloadable products.

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Author Topic: Income from AI Generative stock (Read 3634 times)

stock shooter

wds

alijaber

cobalt

SuperPhoto

SuperPhoto

cobalt

Andrej.S.

Andrej.S.

cobalt

DiscreetDuck

Andrej.S.

DiscreetDuck

stock shooter

Andrej.S.

Andrej.S.

cobalt

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