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Author Topic: Is it too late for me to start?  (Read 11790 times)

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« Reply #50 on: April 14, 2022, 17:19 »
+1
...
I will add 4th thing, specific to travel (my niche in addition to landscapes).  It's called "Locals only". Example:  Take San Diego, California. But ... not beaches, Torrey Pines, Seaworld, etc. Why? Because you are competing with 1000s of tourists.  But if you go inland where tourists normally don't - just about everything I took photo of sold.  Escondido, Poway .. you name it.  Sold directly through personal website several Lake Hodges area photos.  Had 4 digit sale of Iron Mountain trailhead in Poway on Alamy recently.  USCD campus.  List goes on.

Every part of the world has something like that.   So if you are in San Francisco, took breathtaking shot of Golden Gate bridge and think it will sell - think again.  Same for Yosemite Valley, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon core tourist area.  But if you can find "locals only" place,  sale is almost guaranteed.


yes - many similar opps in the Seattle area, esp'ly  once you leave the city (and ignore the tulip festival!) short hikes at Mt Rainier or St Helens will take you away from the std kodak moments

on an Alaskan cruise, we went hiking at each port, skipping the std port excursions


« Reply #51 on: April 16, 2022, 04:54 »
0
There are images for free and microstock images in a competition about downloads.
I think nowadays its better to give images away for free. If you sell images at microstock there is some extra work with tax.
The few sales don't justify this extra work.


« Reply #52 on: April 16, 2022, 11:38 »
+7
There are images for free and microstock images in a competition about downloads.
I think nowadays its better to give images away for free. If you sell images at microstock there is some extra work with tax.
The few sales don't justify this extra work.
so are you still active? if so, why?

 and btw, tax is NEVER > income.   some income is usually better than no income

« Reply #53 on: April 17, 2022, 11:38 »
+2
There are images for free and microstock images in a competition about downloads.
I think nowadays its better to give images away for free. If you sell images at microstock there is some extra work with tax.
The few sales don't justify this extra work.

I don't see any problem at all as far as taxes are concerned. The microstock income is quickly determined and simply added to the main income. It costs maybe an hour for a whole year - that's all. Compared to the time it takes to put a few images online (even for free) it's not worth mentioning.

« Reply #54 on: April 18, 2022, 08:35 »
+5
My last 100 or so uploads on AS? Not a single sale.

« Reply #55 on: April 18, 2022, 09:04 »
+2
My last 100 or so uploads on AS? Not a single sale.

That's right. It has become really difficult compared to before. My last 100 uploads to AS (i.e. in the last year and a half) have brought in only 155 downloads. Half of the downloads have come from 4 images. And most of the images have not generated a single download.

« Reply #56 on: April 18, 2022, 12:34 »
+1
My last 100 or so uploads on AS? Not a single sale.

That's right. It has become really difficult compared to before. My last 100 uploads to AS (i.e. in the last year and a half) have brought in only 155 downloads. Half of the downloads have come from 4 images. And most of the images have not generated a single download.

not aimed at anyone  but Sturgeon's law states "ninety percent of everything is crap." so, most images are 'expected' to never sell

zeljkok

  • Non Linear Existence
« Reply #57 on: April 18, 2022, 13:37 »
+2
It is certainly true most images will never sell (until they get moved to free collection where they generate 10 cents on some sites)

Reason that AS sales are dropping is saturation;  main thing that brought whole micro-industry down.  Specially after SS restructuring that made people upload more on AS. It is very important that image gets these initial 1-2 downloads, I believe on AS more than elsewhere;  otherwise it just drops into the swamp soon after upload rarely to surface up ever again.

« Reply #58 on: May 29, 2022, 06:28 »
+6
Can anyone tell some recent success story?

Yes, I can tell a success story.

Once upon a time, three years ago. I was so poor but very talented in photography. Then I read something on the internet about stock photography and soon found agencies that allowed me to upload my brilliant photos and videos on their website.
From then on, my money in my bank account grew with each passing day. It grew and grew and I became richer and richer.
Several times a month my bank calls me and tries to persuade me to invest because there are such huge amounts of funds sitting around unused in my account.
I buy at least one property a month and occasionally a few plots of land, but it is impossible to spend all the money I earn from microstock.
After all, I still have a full-time job to do : photography. So I don't have much time to shop around.

If stock agencies didn't regularly cut artist royalties in half, thirds and tenths, I'd probably get even more calls from my bank with investment offers and have to buy even more real estate and gold bullion. That would cost me even more time.

I also don't want to buy a new car every day. I have my Mercedes-AMG One, which I drive when I'm in a hurry. And I have my Rolls-Royce Cullinan, which I drive when I have a lot of time and want to be comfortable. I don't want to have more cars than that.

So from that side, it's a big advantage for me as a contributor that I get less royalties from the stock agencies every year.
The constant royalty cuts are the main reason why all Contributors are successful.
And every contributor should always consider this fact and be grateful.


« Reply #59 on: May 29, 2022, 19:06 »
0
I've been lurking in this forum for a while now, and it was very depressing lol.
It seems like the microstock market is a sinking ship, and I was really serious about starting to upload some of my art, but I don't know anymore.
Maybe people only post when they are unhappy and want to complain and successful people are silent lol. Can anyone tell some recent success story?
You mention your 'art'.
Stock and art are not the same thing, and you might be better served looking at some art selling sites.
(That said, there have been people posting here specifically asking about outlets for their "Fine Art Photography", which was anything but.)

Imhave a question here. Been uploading since 2018, and wonder how do you know what youre doing? What sites do you recomend to get metric data on tendencies? Thanks!

« Reply #60 on: May 30, 2022, 00:13 »
+1
Because you are competing with 1000s of tourists.
But you still could win using proper keywords :)

« Reply #61 on: May 30, 2022, 06:58 »
+1
I started working in microstock in 2010, after 6 months I was earning a normal European salary (especially with shutterstock), I remained in this world for a year and a half. Then I had an offer as an office job and I gave up the microstock, to have greater financial security, no longer loading over the years the sales have collapsed. With the covid19 I lost my job. Since December 2021 I have resumed with microstock.

In adobe in this year I have uploaded 512 images, have received at least one download 225 images, in total they have been sold for 2841 times. I don't have these numbers on other sites.

I still don't get a normal European salary, but thanks to Adobestock I can keep going.

I believe that if you are "hungry" and put a lot of effort, the results will come. Good luck!

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #62 on: May 31, 2022, 13:06 »
0
My last 100 or so uploads on AS? Not a single sale.

That's right. It has become really difficult compared to before. My last 100 uploads to AS (i.e. in the last year and a half) have brought in only 155 downloads. Half of the downloads have come from 4 images. And most of the images have not generated a single download.

not aimed at anyone  but Sturgeon's law states "ninety percent of everything is crap." so, most images are 'expected' to never sell

Close enough? He was actually speaking of Science Fiction writing and how the point was, 90% of all books are crap. Thinking of the effort it takes to push a button on a phone and claim to have taken a useful stock image, Microstock might be a higher percentage of crap?  :)  I mean it takes much more effort and time, to write a bad book, than take a crappy snapshot.

This is in no way a brag, because I know I have enough filler and images that I could have left on the hard drive or deleted, without saving or editing. But I wondered, and I looked, 25% of my uploaded images on SS have at least one DL. I'm positive that people who self review and are honest about what they upload and the potential value, will have even better numbers.

« Reply #63 on: May 31, 2022, 13:31 »
0
When you start out with stock photography, you think you have nothing to lose.
But this is a mistake.

Agencies know how photographers think and they use the mentality of photographers and videographers. That's the basis of their business model.
Contributors don't have a contract with the agencies. The agencies can do whatever they want. And they do what they want.

Every Contributor should always remember that they have less value than a slave because they sold themselves to the agencies for so little. In the beginning you start with $0.00 and think you can only win because of it. But this is a mistake.
You lose time, hope, the joy of photography and more. Every year the royalties are cut and you get less and less money for more and more work. But this is not the worst.
One push of a button and your portfolio at the agency is locked and you can't do anything about it. The agencies take all your pictures and videos and then they block your access. No matter how many years you've worked for them. Agencies are not interested in contributors. They only care about profits.

A slave still had an owner (when there were slaves) who cared about the slave's health because he had invested money in him.  So the slave had value.
A Contributor has NO value for the agencies. The agencies have nothing invested in the contributors.

The stock business is worse than a waste of time.
My advice to anyone who wants to get started. Don't get involved with it.
You have no idea how it feels when you have worked hard for many years and suddenly an agency blocks your account even though you have never done anything illegal. You don't know what it's like and you don't want to know.

« Reply #64 on: May 31, 2022, 15:17 »
0
I have no idea what it means to start microstock these days.

It's probably very difficult to get started profitably. Also, I do not know the secrets of the algorithm.

But I advise quite subjectively not to upload images of which there are already tons of better images in the database. I firmly believe that this will have a negative impact on the ranking of your own portfolio. No badly lit flowers, no amateur quality pet photos, no photos where the steak on the grill looks dead and unappetizing.

You have to invest time and do research to find the right niches, or provide better images than the ones available in the database.

Some people have aesthetic talent. Those who don't have it have to approach it conceptually and find the issues that are currently touching society. Everyone can find their way to success.

Whether it's too late to start, I don't know. From the point of view of those who have seen better times, probably it is. But if you're up for it and there's a little money in it at the end of the year, maybe so. There can't be a generally valid and correct answer to the question.

ribtoks

  • Founder of Xpiks
« Reply #65 on: June 01, 2022, 06:46 »
+1
I've been lurking in this forum for a while now, and it was very depressing lol.
It seems like the microstock market is a sinking ship, and I was really serious about starting to upload some of my art, but I don't know anymore.
Maybe people only post when they are unhappy and want to complain and successful people are silent lol. Can anyone tell some recent success story?

Hey @Myster123

Actually you can take a look at the projections we have recently published with Alex here: https://xpiksapp.com/blog/first-years-microstock-earnings/. Hopefully it contains at least some answers to your questions.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #66 on: June 01, 2022, 12:06 »
+1
I have no idea what it means to start microstock these days.

It's probably very difficult to get started profitably. Also, I do not know the secrets of the algorithm.

But I advise quite subjectively not to upload images of which there are already tons of better images in the database. I firmly believe that this will have a negative impact on the ranking of your own portfolio. No badly lit flowers, no amateur quality pet photos, no photos where the steak on the grill looks dead and unappetizing.

You have to invest time and do research to find the right niches, or provide better images than the ones available in the database.

Some people have aesthetic talent. Those who don't have it have to approach it conceptually and find the issues that are currently touching society. Everyone can find their way to success.

Whether it's too late to start, I don't know. From the point of view of those who have seen better times, probably it is. But if you're up for it and there's a little money in it at the end of the year, maybe so. There can't be a generally valid and correct answer to the question.

Good viewpoint. Made me think, is it too late to quit?  ;) Is there some sort of stock photo rehab group to help people adjust to a normal life again? No one can just quit cold turkey on their own and expect to be a success at leaving the world of Microstock.





« Reply #67 on: June 01, 2022, 16:20 »
+3
When you start out with stock photography, you think you have nothing to lose.
But this is a mistake.
...

Every Contributor should always remember that they have less value than a slave because they sold themselves to the agencies for so little. In the beginning you start with $0.00 and think you can only win because of it. But this is a mistake....

comparing microstock artists to slaves is both ignorant & disgusting

slaves were denied their humanity - no matter how nice their 'masters' might have been

photographers are free to work w agencies or not and to stop that work at any time; even as a (bad taste) metaphor, the linkage makes no sense

Milleflore

« Reply #68 on: June 01, 2022, 16:46 »
0
I have no idea what it means to start microstock these days.

It's probably very difficult to get started profitably. Also, I do not know the secrets of the algorithm.

But I advise quite subjectively not to upload images of which there are already tons of better images in the database. I firmly believe that this will have a negative impact on the ranking of your own portfolio. No badly lit flowers, no amateur quality pet photos, no photos where the steak on the grill looks dead and unappetizing.

You have to invest time and do research to find the right niches, or provide better images than the ones available in the database.

Some people have aesthetic talent. Those who don't have it have to approach it conceptually and find the issues that are currently touching society. Everyone can find their way to success.

Whether it's too late to start, I don't know. From the point of view of those who have seen better times, probably it is. But if you're up for it and there's a little money in it at the end of the year, maybe so. There can't be a generally valid and correct answer to the question.

Good viewpoint. Made me think, is it too late to quit?  ;) Is there some sort of stock photo rehab group to help people adjust to a normal life again? No one can just quit cold turkey on their own and expect to be a success at leaving the world of Microstock.



lol

Milleflore

« Reply #69 on: June 01, 2022, 17:01 »
0
I've been lurking in this forum for a while now, and it was very depressing lol.
It seems like the microstock market is a sinking ship, and I was really serious about starting to upload some of my art, but I don't know anymore.
Maybe people only post when they are unhappy and want to complain and successful people are silent lol. Can anyone tell some recent success story?

Hey @Myster123

Actually you can take a look at the projections we have recently published with Alex here: https://xpiksapp.com/blog/first-years-microstock-earnings/. Hopefully it contains at least some answers to your questions.

There's some good advice in there.

Quote
"Some reasons to upload in 2022

This is turning into quite a depressing, albeit accurate, piece but we have to accept that although the market has changed / continues to change for the worse there are still some opportunities if you possess the right skill-set, which include:

A strong work ethic;
Strong technical skills;
Access/knowledge of an in-demand niche;
Tap from new content types (like drone video)"

...

To the OP:

Keeping your costs down is critical at the moment. I've always gone by the old 20% - 25% rule to ensure that I am not losing money. ie. allocate 20% to 25% of your stock income to the cost of props, models, equipment, travel, etc.

A percentage budget for your costs, rather than a straight dollar amount, is safer to work with.

Its difficult when you are starting out because you don't have much income to work with. But that's how I started. Working out of my dining room, with very el-cheapo lights, and made most of my props and backgrounds, or looked for very inexpensive alternatives. The quality of my props and equipment increased as my income grew.

Finding niches is of critical importance too. But it always has been. You just have to think smarter nowadays if you want to stay in the industry.


ETA

Venturing into video is very expensive as I mentioned in an earlier post on this thread, especially for 4k. If its something you really want to do, then you need to have a careful read of the subscription licenses. Look for the areas that are outside the subs agreements and try to shoot content for that. For example, establishing shots that are used in movies, documentaries, and tv shows.


"Standard permissions do not include:

Television Distribution The standard Shutterstock footage license does not permit for any usage in television shows or commercials. Usage is also prohibited for distribution over any broadcast, cable or satellite.
Movie Theater Distribution Distribution in movie theaters is not permitted with the standard footage license.
Over the Top (OTT) Video Distribution Over the top video distribution, or streaming services such as Netflix is not permitted by the standard footage license."


https://support.shutterstock.com/s/article/What-usage-is-permitted-with-the-Shutterstock-Footage-license



« Last Edit: June 01, 2022, 17:51 by Annie »


 

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