Author Topic: I reached plateau (Read 4891 times)

melastmohican · « **on:** February 26, 2009, 14:49 »

I have seen same level of sales or small decline for last couple months despite of my efforts. So I wonder if this is just related to recession or maybe I need some time off :-)

MikLav · « **Reply #1 on:** February 26, 2009, 17:57 »

It is typical for many microstockers to come to a plateau at some point. You do certain things certain way and with certain pace and you reach the ceiling at the end. That means you reached the top at your level. I was on a plateau myself from mid 2007 till mid 2008. Then I changed that.

To overcome that situation you need to change your level. Some factors I would name:
* become a better photographer. Learn from books, learn from others, attend workshops and practice...
* take your photoshop skills to the next level - get more from your photos
* evaluate your subjects and possibly make adjustments. If you have a very strong preference in some area - learn to make it perfectly well. Most of the the time preference isn't absolute - so why not trying new things and step beyond your zone of comfort?
* make more photos - better than before and on wider variety of subjects.

helix7 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 26, 2009, 23:48 »

Spot on, MikLav.

I would just reiterate the importance of getting out of your comfort zone. I realized that my sales were falling flat because I was doing a lot of the same things over and over again. My images were too similar to older images, and really I was just competing with myself. I have noticed a nice boost in sales since I forced myself to get away from comfortable images and work on things that I hadn't tried previously. It can be tough to get going in a completely different direction creatively, but once you do, it pays off.

Norebbo · « **Reply #3 on:** February 27, 2009, 11:02 »

Another thing to consider is that the market for your particular type of work may only be so large. In other words, let's say you have 500 images online, and you sell 250 this month to 250 different buyers.

There may only be 250 buyers at any given time that are interested in your work. So even if you increase your portfolio to 10,000 images next month, there are still only 250 buyers.

It's overly simplistic, I know. But I wonder about the same thing with my portfolio sometimes too.

cthoman · « **Reply #4 on:** February 27, 2009, 12:57 »

I've been thinking this for a while as well. The comment about breaking out of your comfort zone or diversifying your portfolio makes sense. It's just hard to get away from what you like doing.

e-person · « **Reply #5 on:** March 01, 2009, 05:30 »

If your imagery does not get licenced, it is either because they don't need it, or can not find it.

Perry · « **Reply #6 on:** March 01, 2009, 07:27 »

Quote from: e-person on March 01, 2009, 05:30

If your imagery does not get licenced, it is either because they don't need it, or can not find it.

Not neccessarily. Don't dorget the growing over-supply of stock images and the economic situation.
This is all about (falling) RPI in the whole industry and there's nothing that can be done (You can fight it a bit with better images and more streamlined productio/workflow but there comes limits to that too)

e-person · « **Reply #7 on:** March 01, 2009, 13:05 »

Quote from: Perry on March 01, 2009, 07:27

Quote from: e-person on March 01, 2009, 05:30
If your imagery does not get licenced, it is either because they don't need it, or can not find it.

Not neccessarily. Don't dorget the growing over-supply of stock images and the economic situation.
This is all about (falling) RPI in the whole industry and there's nothing that can be done (You can fight it a bit with better images and more streamlined productio/workflow but there comes limits to that too)

My statement does still apply.

over-supply, bad economy, etc, etc = they don't need it.

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Author Topic: I reached plateau (Read 4891 times)

melastmohican

MikLav

helix7

Norebbo

cthoman

e-person

Perry

e-person

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