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Author Topic: Microstocker Burnout Syndrom  (Read 12544 times)

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« on: November 27, 2016, 08:16 »
+1
How many years does it take for a microstocker to run into a burn-out syndrom?
 
And how to overcome it? To take a break? For how long?

How to overcome a creativity block?

Any experience?


« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2016, 09:32 »
+9
It took me about 7 years, shooting only parttime. I didnt burn out because i was tired of shooting stock, i burned out because i was tired of being taken advantage of by the stock agencies. It lasted 7 years because i started early in microstock history. Today, i am sure it would take less time, and not even sure i would bother. It costs money to buy equipment, props, hire models, pay for travel, etc. At anywhere from .33 per image down to .02 cents per image now at some places, it just isnt worth it.

The only exception to that is if you are shooting other things like weddings, or shooting macrostock, and you use micro as just one more marketing tool. In other words, if you are a fulltime photographer and support yourself with income from work besides micro, i cant imagine burnout.

If you are only shooting microstock, my guess would be a couple of years now. When you start spending money then realize it will take you years for ROI, well...

« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2016, 09:46 »
+21
It took me about 7 years, shooting only parttime. I didnt burn out because i was tired of shooting stock, i burned out because i was tired of being taken advantage of by the stock agencies. It lasted 7 years because i started early in microstock history. Today, i am sure it would take less time, and not even sure i would bother. It costs money to buy equipment, props, hire models, pay for travel, etc. At anywhere from .33 per image down to .02 cents per image now at some places, it just isnt worth it.

The only exception to that is if you are shooting other things like weddings, or shooting macrostock, and you use micro as just one more marketing tool. In other words, if you are a fulltime photographer and support yourself with income from work besides micro, i cant imagine burnout.

If you are only shooting microstock, my guess would be a couple of years now. When you start spending money then realize it will take you years for ROI, well...

Same for me.  I haven't shot any planned studio work in well over a year.  A few video shots to test equipment, but other than that it's been shooting what I enjoy and just uploading that non-stocky stuff.  I have zip motivation to produce good, usable content for micro stock. The agencies have become so greedy and gutter bent on subs that I, like many, have given up the chase.  I will start shooting again after the first of the year but more to start building a site.  I am also going to get more serious about video where the pay is better than stills. 

Someone posted one key truth about the content of micros and that is the quality of the content will be, more or less, sustained by people in third world countries where $800 a month is a nice living.  Much of their work is very well done, both images and illustrations.  They will own micros and micros will keep cutting to tenth of pennies and they will be fine with it.  I'm not. My cost of living is greater than theirs and that forces me into looking for new revenue streams that pay more. It's happening now. No longer a guess as to where micros are going.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2016, 13:12 by Mantis »

« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2016, 09:55 »
+2
For me just the opposite. I love ever minute of stock photography.  I keep making money photographing what i want to shoot. Yes maybe the money is less now but i am doing what i want to do. The 33 cents to even 2 cents add up. Everyone in this industry seems to only complain about how the sites do them wrong.  I say please just quit stock photography and work at Walmart or something.  I will keep getting the 33 cents which add up for me. Do the math and see how much money each sellable  image has made you . Some of your images will sell and some might not. The ones that do sell will add up , even 33 cents. For the rest of your just retire and go to work at Walmart. For me i love making money and knowing that my images are used and published all over the world.   

« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2016, 10:03 »
+12
For me just the opposite. I love ever minute of stock photography.  I keep making money photographing what i want to shoot. Yes maybe the money is less now but i am doing what i want to do. The 33 cents to even 2 cents add up. Everyone in this industry seems to only complain about how the sites do them wrong.  I say please just quit stock photography and work at Walmart or something.  I will keep getting the 33 cents which add up for me. Do the math and see how much money each sellable  image has made you . Some of your images will sell and some might not. The ones that do sell will add up , even 33 cents. For the rest of your just retire and go to work at Walmart. For me i love making money and knowing that my images are used and published all over the world.
Sounds like you are a perfect example of what Mantis mentioned above.

« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2016, 10:18 »
+5
I love doing stock.

It feels very rewarding that strangers that I will never meet use my images in projects I will never see. Even when I am long gone my files will keep circling the globe being used somewhere.

I am focussing more on macrostock or specialized agencies for photos, but have some themes that continue to do well on microstock.

I have also fallen in love with video and at the moment the average download is higher than for photos. But processing and uploading 4k takes a lot of time.

To prevent burnout, I turn to editorial video and photos.

Look at events going on in my city or drive to a new place and try to capture that.

But for me stock is the best thing ever and now we have so many different agencies and styles, you can sell anything.

« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2016, 10:24 »
0
It took me about 7 years, shooting only parttime. I didnt burn out because i was tired of shooting stock, i burned out because i was tired of being taken advantage of by the stock agencies. It lasted 7 years because i started early in microstock history. Today, i am sure it would take less time, and not even sure i would bother. It costs money to buy equipment, props, hire models, pay for travel, etc. At anywhere from .33 per image down to .02 cents per image now at some places, it just isnt worth it.

The only exception to that is if you are shooting other things like weddings, or shooting macrostock, and you use micro as just one more marketing tool. In other words, if you are a fulltime photographer and support yourself with income from work besides micro, i cant imagine burnout.

If you are only shooting microstock, my guess would be a couple of years now. When you start spending money then realize it will take you years for ROI, well...

Same for me.  I haven't shot any planned studio work in well over a year.  A few video shots to test equipment, but other than that it's been shooting what I enjoy and just uploading that non-stocky stuff.  I have zip motivation to produce good, usable content for micro stock. The agencies have become so greedy and gutter bent on subs that I, like many, have given up the chase.  I will start shooting again after the first of the year but more to start building a site.  I am also going to get more serious about video where the pay is better than stills. 

Someone posted one key truth about the content of micros and that is the quality of the content will be, more or less, sustained by people in third world countries where $800 a month is a nice living.  Such of their work is very well done, images and illustrations.  They will own micros and micros will keep cutting to tenth of pennies and they will be fine with it.  I'm not. My cost of living is greater than theirs and that forces me into looking for new revenue streams that pay more. It's happening now. No longer a guess as to where micros are going.

Actually for $800 a month being OK earning you don't have to go to "third world countries". Even in the eastern parts of the EU there are countries with millions of people who would do almost anything for that kind of income.

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2016, 10:47 »
+5
How many years does it take for a microstocker to run into a burn-out syndrom?
 
And how to overcome it? To take a break? For how long?

How to overcome a creativity block?

Any experience?

If I was still making money and seeing growth from my efforts I may not have burnt out. I quit about three years ago after five years of submitting. When I first started, I got really motivated when I saw revenue increasing consistently when I added new images. It was awesome for a few years until the plateau hit and then the drop. The hamster wheel. I still experiment with stuff like mobile to see if there's anything new that makes it worth my time but haven't found it yet. I spend my time producing stuff outside of micro where I still find profits and growth. I also license my own stuff through my site.

Like Mantis said, things are shifting. Up until a few years ago equipment and quality requirements were so high it prevented a lot of people from entering micro. Now the requirements are so low that anyone with a cellphone can join micro which opened up the competition floodgates to just about anyone anywhere in the world. And micros will continue squeezing people until they find that fine line where taking away too much negatively affects their financials. Hasn't happened yet and there's no bottom in sight.

Wish it wasn't this way because in the beginning I was so excited. I actually thought I could live off of this with just a few thousand images. Now I'd need tens of thousands and it's not viable.

Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2016, 10:59 »
+5
I burn out now and then, so I give myself a break and just stop creating images. Last year I took the whole summer off. The great thing about Microstock is that you keep making money even when you take a break, which is impossible in my "real" jobno breaks there.

The bad thing is that earnings are stagnating and decreasing, so I've gotta put on my thinking cap and figure out other ways to make money with my work...and upping the quality and getting a "real" rep is a goal for sure.

« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2016, 11:15 »
+3
Never had burn out syndrom. We are shooting stock video full time. Me and my girlfriend are doing it on daily basis and live just fine from it. It was easier to buy better equipment when we had full-time jobs and doing stocks part-time, but you forgot about relationship. So we dropped jobs and doing stock full-time. We enjoy it, because we work whenever we si it fit. When we have an idea to shoot, we shoot. We have a lot of stuff still waiting to be edited, and even much more to be tagged (still tagging some last year stuff). We perfected the flow of work, it's just the matter of what you feel to work each day. Our part-time work is finding some new niches to grow some new funds. :)

« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2016, 11:18 »
+2
I make a living on micros since 5 years. In my country there is unemployment all over and the chances for decent employment dropped to zero in some areas, which means I am entirely dependent on my creativity. I am happy with every single cent in any hard currency.
I am doing illustrations only, I dont need expensive equipment, models, studio and so on. A simple notebook and some open source software is all what I need. Going through the images I started with years ago, I am getting self-doubts, gosh, what kind of crap. And the crap made money, what kind of a miracle. Micros and a piece of land around the house for vegetables are feeding me and my family pretty well.
What I am only worried is: will I run short of creativity one day?

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2016, 12:02 »
+2
I make a living on micros since 5 years. In my country there is unemployment all over and the chances for decent employment dropped to zero in some areas, which means I am entirely dependent on my creativity. I am happy with every single cent in any hard currency.
I am doing illustrations only, I dont need expensive equipment, models, studio and so on. A simple notebook and some open source software is all what I need. Going through the images I started with years ago, I am getting self-doubts, gosh, what kind of crap. And the crap made money, what kind of a miracle. Micros and a piece of land around the house for vegetables are feeding me and my family pretty well.
What I am only worried is: will I run short of creativity one day?

You may or may not run out of creativity. But one thing is certain that applies to everybody. Micro sites will continue to squeeze contributors by dropping commissions, removing benefits, or coming up with vague new licensing schemes that are a disadvantage to contributors until it financially hurts them. Which means contributors are leaving in waves every time there's a squeeze. Eventually things may drop to a point where it's no longer worth your time. That's been the trend. At some point image factories may take over where people are getting paid $1 a day to crank out hundreds of images per person and the market will be so flooded that few independent contributors will be making enough money to be profitable regardless of where you live. This is the nature of business. Walmartstock.

« Reply #12 on: November 27, 2016, 12:04 »
+2
On the contrary Josephine, i think you will never run out of creativity, because making stock gets in to your veins. If you have any sort of creativity blocks, go out, enjoy nature.

« Reply #13 on: November 27, 2016, 12:04 »
+5
I quit shooting micro over a year ago, because of declining returns, but also because the future - subs, 'packages', giveaways - was obvious.  No offense guys, but in my math, 33 cents never adds up to anything.    Let's not even talk about 2.

Obviously there are people who would do this for nothing, at least for some period in their lives; and I think they'll get the chance. 


« Last Edit: November 27, 2016, 12:24 by stockastic »

« Reply #14 on: November 27, 2016, 12:34 »
+9
I am a noob and i am trying to get into stock and I dont understand what its happening. I see people complain about revenue and that they stopped producing years ago and my question is why are they still here wasting time on this forums ? I dont mean to be rude but something does not sound right to me :)....

« Reply #15 on: November 27, 2016, 12:50 »
+4
I am a noob and i am trying to get into stock and I dont understand what its happening. I see people complain about revenue and that they stopped producing years ago and my question is why are they still here wasting time on this forums ? I dont mean to be rude but something does not sound right to me :)....

I still have photos on sale at a couple of agencies, so I watch developments.  You never stop hoping for a miracle, some new agency that does things really different but actually makes some sales.  It's not likely anytime soon.  Many former posters here are gone.   There's also discussion here about POD sites and I'm active in that.

Really, the OP's question was about burnout, right? So, I'm a burnout and gave my response.

« Reply #16 on: November 27, 2016, 12:52 »
+6
There was a time when it was extremly easy to make money with stock. Especially with microstock, where we got 20 cents a download, but the images were bought in very, very high volume.

Cloudy sky, a patch of grass, a nice sunset could earn you thousands of dollars.

It also brought in enough money to pay for models, equipment and location in places like London or New York.

In those days the agencies had 5 million files and accepted 30 000 a week.

Now they have 100 million images and take 1 million a week.

I dont mind selling for 20 cents, if the volume is there.

But I dont see a lot of high volume sales on SS. With equal size portfolios, the number of downloads from macrostock are very similar to microstock.

So I have scaled down investing into my productions and try to create for macrostock or niche agencies.

For microstock only if it has potential to sell in very high volume.


« Reply #17 on: November 27, 2016, 13:14 »
0
It took me about 7 years, shooting only parttime. I didnt burn out because i was tired of shooting stock, i burned out because i was tired of being taken advantage of by the stock agencies. It lasted 7 years because i started early in microstock history. Today, i am sure it would take less time, and not even sure i would bother. It costs money to buy equipment, props, hire models, pay for travel, etc. At anywhere from .33 per image down to .02 cents per image now at some places, it just isnt worth it.

The only exception to that is if you are shooting other things like weddings, or shooting macrostock, and you use micro as just one more marketing tool. In other words, if you are a fulltime photographer and support yourself with income from work besides micro, i cant imagine burnout.

If you are only shooting microstock, my guess would be a couple of years now. When you start spending money then realize it will take you years for ROI, well...

Same for me.  I haven't shot any planned studio work in well over a year.  A few video shots to test equipment, but other than that it's been shooting what I enjoy and just uploading that non-stocky stuff.  I have zip motivation to produce good, usable content for micro stock. The agencies have become so greedy and gutter bent on subs that I, like many, have given up the chase.  I will start shooting again after the first of the year but more to start building a site.  I am also going to get more serious about video where the pay is better than stills. 

Someone posted one key truth about the content of micros and that is the quality of the content will be, more or less, sustained by people in third world countries where $800 a month is a nice living.  Such of their work is very well done, images and illustrations.  They will own micros and micros will keep cutting to tenth of pennies and they will be fine with it.  I'm not. My cost of living is greater than theirs and that forces me into looking for new revenue streams that pay more. It's happening now. No longer a guess as to where micros are going.

Actually for $800 a month being OK earning you don't have to go to "third world countries". Even in the eastern parts of the EU there are countries with millions of people who would do almost anything for that kind of income.

Thanks for the added insights.

« Reply #18 on: November 27, 2016, 13:45 »
+7
Through the 80s, 90s and 00s, I watched my software work being increasingly transferred to Indian companies bidding 1/3 the price.  They had the educational system, were getting the connectivity, and the cost of living was a fraction of ours.  I didn't resent those guys, it was just their turn and they deserved the opportunity.   Eventually things started to level out as their wage demands went up and some of their shortcomings became evident; but that took years.  Same thing will happen to stock photography.   

There are other trends harder to overcome: oversupply and coverage saturation.   

But the biggest obstacle is the distortion of the market by a handful of middlemen who control the market, competing only on price and paying token commissions.   Software developers can form new companies, or go independent, and have ways of reaching potential customers.   Photographers currently don't have those options.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2016, 14:16 by stockastic »

« Reply #19 on: November 27, 2016, 14:30 »
+1
I am a noob and i am trying to get into stock and I dont understand what its happening. I see people complain about revenue and that they stopped producing years ago and my question is why are they still here wasting time on this forums ? I dont mean to be rude but something does not sound right to me :)....

You'll also see war veterans meet up long after the war is over... Some people just like to hang out together and talk about their glory days. Glory days, when they were younger and ELs at Shutterstock were as common as sunny days... And when you were getting instant downloads...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQpW9XRiyM

« Reply #20 on: November 27, 2016, 15:27 »
+2
I`m sorry if I seemed suspicious but the thing is that all this forum reading about how tiered people are and about how sales are so bad its kind of discouraging for a noob :( ...I mean the thought of starting producing now its just frightening considering everybody is saying that the market will go down or the sales are bad and so on. I dont find to many optimistic treads an maybe that is why I felt the need to express my fear here.  :(

« Reply #21 on: November 27, 2016, 15:33 »
+1
My sunny days are now!!!!!!!!

« Reply #22 on: November 27, 2016, 15:43 »
+2
if you see a sunny day in England its time for rejoicing

if you see a sunny day in California, its the same old, same old

« Reply #23 on: November 27, 2016, 15:51 »
+1
I've been doing this for 2 years now and it's normal to have some burn out every now and then. I haven't been discouraged, just pushed myself too hard and needing a break to get my senses together. I keep a long list of ideas and I'm constantly trying to go through it, but everywhere I go, everything I see gives me ideas. It's uphill battle to clear my plate.

The only time I really burned out was doing something else; making a game. That took me about 8 months and 1000 hours. Burned out multiple times. After going through that craziness, microstock is a walk in the park by comparison.

« Reply #24 on: November 27, 2016, 16:07 »
+1
How many years does it take for a microstocker to run into a burn-out syndrom?
 
And how to overcome it? To take a break? For how long?

How to overcome a creativity block?

Any experience?

If I was still making money and seeing growth from my efforts I may not have burnt out. I quit about three years ago after five years of submitting. When I first started, I got really motivated when I saw revenue increasing consistently when I added new images. It was awesome for a few years until the plateau hit and then the drop. The hamster wheel. I still experiment with stuff like mobile to see if there's anything new that makes it worth my time but haven't found it yet. I spend my time producing stuff outside of micro where I still find profits and growth. I also license my own stuff through my site.

Like Mantis said, things are shifting. Up until a few years ago equipment and quality requirements were so high it prevented a lot of people from entering micro. Now the requirements are so low that anyone with a cellphone can join micro which opened up the competition floodgates to just about anyone anywhere in the world. And micros will continue squeezing people until they find that fine line where taking away too much negatively affects their financials. Hasn't happened yet and there's no bottom in sight.

Wish it wasn't this way because in the beginning I was so excited. I actually thought I could live off of this with just a few thousand images. Now I'd need tens of thousands and it's not viable.

as a photographer from view camera media to 120 to 35mm to digital to mirrorless (no, will never go to mob)...we all go through that more than one phase of becoming old school .
i don't think of ever being burnt out. i just move on and off photography... going into other things to keep me advancing and never getting sick and tired of photography.

i remember Sting from his post Police days saying the same thing..
you play or do for yourself first, and you will never give it up. photography is that to me, like music is to Sting.

microstock is not a livelihood to me; it never was. i merely started microstock about 12 years ago only because it seemed like a good idea at that time when istock was kicking @$$ ... keeping ss on their toes.

like paulie and many of my peers who have more or less given up or died..

i just do microstock whenever i run out of football, beer , etc..
and come in here to leaf's MSG to whine and grunt

... because it's there !!! (to coin some mountain climber when asked why do you climb mountains???)


 

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