Quote from: stockastic on March 04, 2010, 14:39

I just checked my profile and found out I'm being ignored by 3.   I have no doubt they're "professionals".   

i'm ignored by 12 !
they love me ! 

I don't ignore anyone.  I enjoy the wild mix of opinions, the varying experiences, the rants and the venting of frustrations, even the sarcastic putdowns.  What else is an internet forum for?  If the "pros" want a place where they can chat amongst themselves and not be bothered by the lower classes, they should get someone to set up a "professional" forum with appropriate conditions for membership - invitation only, or verification of photographic income, or maybe proof that you "make your living" from microstock.   

Back in the day - in the music business - sure, we all wanted to define "professional" as "someone who really, really needs the money".    Unfortunately, customers didn't see that as a very good reason for hiring someone, and some "amateurs" were a lot better than many of the "pros".  In the customer's mind, a "professional" was someone who:

- charged money
- did a good job
- didn't act like a dope

The customer really didn't care if your musical income was 10%, or 100%, of your total.

I think this all started with the many threads asking for advices, free informations but also from threads asking for hidden psychological support. Also from blog updates and such. The only bad thing about this is they were all in the same period of time (week).

It's good to ask for opinions/informations, but also to search for the answers in the big thread database that MSG have. That could lower the rate of new threads first.

Then I don't think that advertising blogs almost each weeks is the best idea. Maybe we could have a blog section appearing at the end instead of having a forum section about this topic. I don't want to ignore boards at all, but spam, yes.

Everyone that start in microstock need encouragement, but forum members don't like it much most of times and it's the same in most forums. It need to keep being informative to the others IMO

Finally, I think that if you appear in the top poster / top thread starter many weeks and more in a row, you are exposing yourself at comments, that aren't often compliments. 

Well, this is all pretty funny.
I am not a professional, far from it, I have on average about 200+ pics at SS,DT,FT,IS,BigStock,123RF, StockXpert (oops - this is dead...) for the last 2 years, and I have not submitted a new image in over a year (in hospital most of the time). I am not complaining about sales - I make about $150/month.

But maybe I can put my $0.02 here.
The whole microstock business is a business - for the agencies. For most contributors - it is a dream about being a photographer (I haste to explain that I never had any illusions about what I can achieve there, with full-time job which gets me a decent 6-figure income).

For me the whole microstock adventure is just that - a bit of fun and a couple of bucks on the side.
It has been this way from day one - after I did initial analysis of potential prospects.

So - the equipment is couple of $K. A sellable image is on average about 1-2 hours of work (shooting, processing, etc. - YMMV, of course).
I may be able to put about 25 hours into photography a month - say 20 new pics/month, 250 new pics a year.

With current rates on most sites - these pics may earn (very optimistic here - I know) $5K, at the expense of 300 hours of work + initial investment.
This is about $17 per hour of work invested - before tax (which in my country is 43%).

In other words - a waste of time (again, YMMV, but I think that a similiar situation is applicable to most contributors).
Who is getting rich then ? The agencies who collect 50 to 80% of sales income. And some good, talented, hard working photographers who are prepared to work full-time on increasing their portfolios to get ahead of the competition.

And here it is - it is really a competition, not a business. It is like this in sport: the winner takes all, the second one is just the first of the losers.

 

It is likely a combination of issues.  Most of the long term submitters had little help when they started.  If they did not have an aptitude for photography and post process submitters were more likely to give up.  

The last several years some of the sites have submitters in the critique areas that help people who would have never been accepted before. They get considerable help to pass the initial submission test, right down to advice on which images to submit and how to shoot and process them. Some of these new submitters have come to expect that the process will continue and it is understandable that those who worked hard to build micro skills and ports on their own resent being asked to continually help those not willing to do the same.   It does not help when you see the people you have helped copy your best selling images.

As the economy deteriorated money became more of an issue so dwindling sales hurt a bit more.

Add to the above the sheer numbers of new submitters that are being generated because news spread that some of the hardest working submitters were making good money and the fact that micro info is now readily available to help new submitters get going and you have more new people on these boards.

And you have volumes of new images on the sites, burying even the best of images.

As the economy deteriorated money became more of an issue so dwindling sales hurt a bit more.

I think this is a big part of it.

When the economy is good and it's only a hobby it's not a big deal if the money dwindles.

But when things go bad a lot of people probably need every dollar. Survival instincts kick in.

Not to mention testosterone. 

Heh what about menopause?

Quote from: cclapper on March 05, 2010, 11:34

Not to mention testosterone. 

Heh what about menopause?

I'm still at the PMS phase, but if that's any indication menopause will be Hell....  On my husband

^^Great summation Gbalex! 

Thank you Lisa, nice thread!