MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: visualsociety on March 24, 2017, 10:56
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Hey all,
Reports of declining stock sales at places like Shutterstock, et al, appear to be growing. There is no doubt a race to the bottom. Unfortunately, contributing photographers have zero say in these business decisions.
We want to do something about it.
But in order to fix what's broken, we first need to identify the problems.
What are your biggest challenges with your stock photography business?
Please share in the comments below. For example: low commissions, low sales, lack of say in pricing/business model, etc...
PS - I'm leading the development of a new platform that democratizes stock/photo website creation. If Squarespace and Shutterstock had a baby - it might look something like what we're building. It's currently in public beta if you want to try it out:
https://visualsociety.com (https://visualsociety.com)
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I'm going to say prices. The volume end of the business isn't very sustainable, so it would be nice to see a shift to lower volume and higher prices.
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I'm going to say the oversupply problem. The rise in new stuff created and accepted is far, far outpacing any rise in microstock sales. The result = slightly larger pie, but much tinier slices for everyone.
The answer must be stricter control on who can contribute (passing a quality/competency test) and cracking down on similars and commercially non-viable work.
The industry isn't just in a race to a bottom, but a race to oblivion. Customers will find it impossible, or at least painful, to find what they want -- and contributors (at least those producing quality, in-demand work) will see no return on their investment of time and resources, and will quit the business.
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Those Buyer's who are sick of looking at spamming, junk, garbage will have to increase their budget and go to a macro boutique shop.
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What's your biggest challenge selling stock in 2017?
It is hard to convince myself to carry on uploading new content.
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I spend too much time answering polls.
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I'm going to say the Agencies are the biggest problem
Get rid of them all and say NO! to any new ones
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Agencies that have fair terms generally can't market the agency or our work effectively. Agencies that have become large and successful typically start cutting costs to boost their bottom line when they can't grow more by expanding the customer base or volume of sales to those customers - contributor royalties are usually where they start.
I did take a look at your site and don't see anything there that tempts me. Regardless of how lovely the site is, it's marketing it to buyers that's the important part. I have my own site (holdover from the original Symbiostock project; license a small number that say) and sell prints through a couple of existing POD sites, plus I license through stock agencies - Shutterstock and Adobe Stock/Fotolia are doing the heavy lifting there.
Does your software handle VAT for European license sales? If not that rules out a lot of markets...
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Only 100gb storage? Selz.com with unlimited storage 19.99$/m
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What are your biggest challenges with your stock photography business?
Thinking of ways to spend the money I earn 8)
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OVERSUPPLY - saturating the market with high quality and not so high quality images/videos
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Jo Ann - Yes, our platform includes the ability for sellers to charge tax/VAT. Sellers can apply the rate to the displayed price of photos (required for Australian sellers) or applied after adding photos to the cart.
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Other than the obvious oversupply, I find the biggest challenge is knowing what will and won't be popular.
I know agencies go to great lengths to inform contributors about current and upcoming trends but I find it all a bit hit and miss. In other words, spending a considerable amount of time and expense on producing images that don't generate many downloads. Sometimes it works the other way, images I don't expect to do well suddenly become popular.
The image requests are helpful but they can also be too specific.
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What are your biggest challenges with your stock photography business?
Thinking of ways to spend the money I earn 8)
I sit and have a coffee and think about that.....then realise the coffee IS what I earn ;-)
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Other than the obvious oversupply, I find the biggest challenge is knowing what will and won't be popular.
I know agencies go to great lengths to inform contributors about current and upcoming trends but I find it all a bit hit and miss. In other words, spending a considerable amount of time and expense on producing images that don't generate many downloads. Sometimes it works the other way, images I don't expect to do well suddenly become popular.
The image requests are helpful but they can also be too specific.
Agencies want to plug holes in their collections so they can retain customers. Often this involves filling niches that will never make enough sales to pay back a photographer's expenses. These images and customers belong on macro stock.
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Other than the obvious oversupply, I find the biggest challenge is knowing what will and won't be popular.
I know agencies go to great lengths to inform contributors about current and upcoming trends but I find it all a bit hit and miss. In other words, spending a considerable amount of time and expense on producing images that don't generate many downloads. Sometimes it works the other way, images I don't expect to do well suddenly become popular.
The image requests are helpful but they can also be too specific.
Agencies want to plug holes in their collections so they can retain customers. Often this involves filling niches that will never make enough sales to pay back a photographer's expenses. These images and customers belong on macro stock.
Yep, this is 100% true. You have to have realistic expectations for returns before you fill those niches. Most of us know what sells already, niche stuff should get a premium.
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It is figuring out what will sell. Images that are in short supply in databases, those that you find only a few with a combination of keywords, tend not to be images that customers are looking for consistently. There are exception, of course, but my experience in trying to supply material where I don't find too many results after keyword searches have ended up in few or no sales. Subjects that are saturated, however, tend to sell much better if you are lucky to have a few customers choosing your photo early on.
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It is figuring out what will sell. Images that are in short supply in databases, those that you find only a few with a combination of keywords, tend not to be images that customers are looking for consistently. There are exception, of course, but my experience in trying to supply material where I don't find too many results after keyword searches have ended up in few or no sales. Subjects that are saturated, however, tend to sell much better if you are lucky to have a few customers choosing your photo early on.
That's true, although it may take a while for people to start searching for those key words. In other words, you may be ahead of the curve and when an upcoming trend does arise, your pics will be right up there (at least in theory).
I can already think of images that will be popular soon:
- Virtual Reality gaming
- Automated technology such as cars and appliances
- Remote medicine
The first page results in SS for "virtual reality" look kinda mediocre in my opinion.
https://www.shutterstock.com/search?searchterm=virtual+reality&search_source=base_search_form&language=en&page=1&sort=popular&safe=true (https://www.shutterstock.com/search?searchterm=virtual+reality&search_source=base_search_form&language=en&page=1&sort=popular&safe=true)