MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: rjmiz on June 07, 2008, 04:14
-
ShutterStock has something like over 103,000 photographers.
Dreamstime like 38,097
A recent Google search turned up nearly 3000 mini microstock sites.
3 years ago many sites you upload to today were celebrating 500,000 images on line, now multi-million images on those same sites are old hat.
More digital cameras have been sold in the last 7 years there then there were film cameras sold in the last 75 years world wide!
Microstock sites are competing for, and cater to the buyer, rather than photographers.
8 years ago 96% of photographers on stock sites were professional...today 85% are hobbyist.
81% of stock photographers in one survey revealed they have less than $400 invested in their camera equipment.
The average new stock photographer made $4500 in his first year 8 years ago. Today it less than $800.
My opinions:
Subscriptions are here to stay. Stock sites are competing to be the next "Walmart" of stock images.
Stock sites can afford dispose of disgruntled and troublesome photog's.
Stock sites compete for selling prices rather than images or photographers since most sites share the same images and photographers.
Are you up to the task? Will you still be in this game 3 years from now?
I ask all you less than mediocre, P&S stock "Wannabies" to voluntarily get out now.....leave. Find another hobby.
Please make room for us photographers and graphic artists with a more promising future.
Cranky MIZ
-
.......
.......
I ask all you mediocre, P&S stock "Wannabies" to voluntarily get out now.....leave. Find another hobby.
Please make room for us photographers and graphic artists with a more promising future.
Cranky MIZ
Big mistake....just mediocre...? I consider myself not even mediocre, but shoddy. So I stay. ;D
-
I changed it to read "less than mediocre"
Cranky MIZ
-
How would you define and measure mediocre?
-
Even if Miz's post is provocative and jerky (lately pretty much a constant), there's truth written all over it.
p.s.: And some might take it personal (myself included), but that's the way things stand. I've been saying the same * thing regarding Shutterstock for a couple of months now.
p.p.s.: The problem is "mediocre" (defined by God or Miz, whatever) sells. And the vicious circle of a saturated market affects us all.
-
I suppose you misunderstood Cranky MIZ:
............
....I ask all you less than mediocre, P&S stock "Wannabies" to voluntarily get out now.....leave. Find another hobby........
...........
He meant "leave and ascent to the next level: Macrostock". These sites are doomed anyway, so all those top phogs with a promising future stay with thriving microstock sites and will earn a fortune.
(For the fellow Germans here: I'm sure MIZ is somehow related with Harald Schmidt.....)
-
Miz makes some excellent points. But I disagree with the conclusion.
I would say if you are a pro and honestly don't feel you can compete with the wannabe hobbyists then you aren't much of a pro and should probably think about getting out yourself ;)
-
It's been getting more and more competitive. It will continue to be that way. Bring your "A Game" guys, or you might not be making as many sales in the future as you are now. A portfolio of 1000 approved pics is probably going to be like a portfolio of 100 pretty soon.
-
I don't think you need your A game to survive just yet. But I have noticed in the past year I've been at this that new contributors seem to be having a much harder time getting accepted and getting sales. 123RF seemed like they used to take everything. Now I'm seeing a lot of rejection posts about them.
-
I would say if you are a pro and honestly don't feel you can compete with the wannabe hobbyists then you aren't much of a pro and should probably think about getting out yourself ;)
You mean just produce more, better, faster, reduce your costs to the bare minimum and all problems are gone? Is this a business strategy or a head-in-the-sand policy?
What about those creating perfectly competitive images but still expecting a sharp decline in revenues due to subs evaporating their profits?
Are they mediocre losers? Or are they smart business people taking even unpleasant decisions before it is too late? Future will tell...
-
Once again, we all seem to construe MIZ articulate verbosity differently,
so I will give my own impression of what MIZ is trying to say.
Originally, only the serious photog did stock photography as an extension of their trade. Then the hobbyists came as digital cameras became affordable.
With this came all the "wannabees" becoming "stock photographers". They cheer for the site when money was rolling in, then bicker when sales dropped.
It became quite irritating to the agencies and the forum became a bit of a shouting match of disgruntled "photogs and illustrators".
MIZ now wants to these "noisy" (bad pun) ppl to clear out, so the pros can keep the standards and civility.
We don't hear Yuri making too much "noise" in forums. He's too busy producing new and sellable images. That's how a pro works.
Silence is golden, except this silence is now broken and the empty vessel is making one heck of a noise... ;)
Good point though, MIZ . Get them in the jugular, as always!
MIZ is not one to mince his words. Hoorah for MIZ ;D ;D ;D
-
It became quite irritating to the agencies and the forum became a bit of a shouting match of disgruntled "photogs and illustrators"... silence is now broken and the empty vessel is making one heck of a noise... ;)
LA DEE DAH, so take ur new digital toy and go play somewhere else ;D
-
It became quite irritating to the agencies and the forum became a bit of a shouting match of disgruntled "photogs and illustrators"... silence is now broken and the empty vessel is making one heck of a noise... ;)
LA DEE DAH, so take ur new digital toy and go play somewhere else ;D
rejected again!!! shoot, think i will come here to sulk >:(
easier than find out why my images were rejected, and learn to make better ones to be accepted ::)
poor thing ! ;D
-
Miz makes some excellent points. But I disagree with the conclusion.
I would say if you are a pro and honestly don't feel you can compete with the wannabe hobbyists then you aren't much of a pro and should probably think about getting out yourself ;)
Well said. agree. But some good Cranky points in there as well. I Identify with Cranky...LOL
-
...I ask all you less than mediocre, P&S stock "Wannabies" to voluntarily get out now.....leave. Find another hobby...
So when are you leaving? You're a self-proclaimed hobbyist yourself, based on previous comments about not being in this for the money and all.
-
helix7
Your nasty comment to me was meant to hurt. It was non-constructive and I label you a trouble maker.
Cranky MIZ
-
Your nasty comment to me was meant to hurt. It was non-constructive and I label you a trouble maker.
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
-
...Your nasty comment to me was meant to hurt. It was non-constructive and I label you a trouble maker....
Hmm. So telling people to "drop our or DIE" was instead meant to inspire and spread feelings of joy?
My comment is based solely on the fact that you have many times before stated no interest in being a professional here, you're not in it for the money, etc etc. So you're a hobbyist. Nothing wrong with that and I have no problem with hobbyists in microstock what-so-ever. I just found it ironic that you're pretty much telling hobbyists to get lost, when you are one yourself, by your own admission.
Again, nothing against hobbyists. Just wondering if you intend to follow your own advice.
For reference:
Miz ([url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php/topic,4117.msg40391.html#msg40391[/url]): I don't mind the money I like it. However its not the driving force. Take the monetary value of the cash I earn away and I would still play this game
-
+1 helix7 LOL
-
+1 helix7 LOL
correction, the batting score is: MIZ 1 helix7 2 ;D ;D ;D
-
@rjmiz: I'd really like to know where all the figures are from!
-
P.S.: @ faber: Ja, Harald Schmidt macht im Stockgeschäft ne Mark nebenbei!
-
ahem, can I ask where the heck you got those statistics?
ditto on what Lisafx said...
-
Miz has some good points in the first post.
I don't really care for any hobbyists that don't calculate their ROI (Return Of Investment). It's really hard for us others to compete against people that work for (almost) free.
I do both microstock and macrostock (with different images, of course). Because of the falling ROI I'm starting to get the feel that selling images for peanuts has been a fad and I'm moving my efforts toward macrostock more and more. Microstock sites are going to flourish, but I'm suspecting they won't feel as attractive to the most skilled and talented shooters anymore.
Even in the future microstocks are going to remain as a handy outlet for "grade b" images.
People, don't sell your best images for $0,25 when you could get $250 a pop.
-
Us microstockers are "Macro" wannabies.
We just get thrilled and excited when we get a payout.
we check our accounts about 15 times a day
we complain alot
we cry al ot
We get insulted if anyone is critical of our images.
We are a gang of nasty thugs.
Cranky MIZ
The voice of reason
-
we check our accounts about 15 times a day
More than that some days. :-X
It's kind of an OCD problem.
Is there a group for this? ECA (Earnings Checkers Anonymous)?
-
I check my account once in the morning and once at night. I will admit to checking them much more than that a while back but I kicked the habit. I concentrate on shooting rather than the internet since most of my household income comes from photography. Microstock accounts for less than 10% of my income.
Miz,
I have been a professional photographer for over 30 years. I've not been doing stock that long but should I get out too? It's NOT a hobby for me. "Sometimes I wish it was" I also have well over 10k in equipment not counting film cameras. So given these circumstances should I stay or go in your opinion?
-
ShutterStock has something like over 103,000 photographers.
Dreamstime like 38,097
A recent Google search turned up nearly 3000 mini microstock sites.
3 years ago many sites you upload to today were celebrating 500,000 images on line, now multi-million images on those same sites are old hat.
More digital cameras have been sold in the last 7 years there then there were film cameras sold in the last 75 years world wide!
Microstock sites are competing for, and cater to the buyer, rather than photographers.
8 years ago 96% of photographers on stock sites were professional...today 85% are hobbyist.
81% of stock photographers in one survey revealed they have less than $400 invested in their camera equipment.
The average new stock photographer made $4500 in his first year 8 years ago. Today it less than $800.
My opinions:
Subscriptions are here to stay. Stock sites are competing to be the next "Walmart" of stock images.
Stock sites can afford dispose of disgruntled and troublesome photog's.
Stock sites compete for selling prices rather than images or photographers since most sites share the same images and photographers.
Are you up to the task? Will you still be in this game 3 years from now?
I ask all you less than mediocre, P&S stock "Wannabies" to voluntarily get out now.....leave. Find another hobby.
Please make room for us photographers and graphic artists with a more promising future.
Cranky MIZ
I struggle to believe that half of shutterstock's 103000 submit regularly. I think more and more we will see people struggle with approval, get 20-50 images online find they dont sell much and give up.
last year I read an article from a guy who ran a rm macrostock (forgot which one). he made the point that as far he and others were concerned the stock industry was flooded for photogs in the late 1980's, and that during 1990s the amount spent on stock photos didnt change but the number of photogs did. somehow I think that would be worse now :):)
-
Miz makes some excellent points. But I disagree with the conclusion.
I would say if you are a pro and honestly don't feel you can compete with the wannabe hobbyists then you aren't much of a pro and should probably think about getting out yourself ;)
-
Ancient thread alert!
-
Just so you know, Blammo. The Miz passed away - quite some time ago now.
-
Seriously! what??? He didn't even add to the discussion. Just regurgitated some ancient comment of mine. Should I be flattered ;) ?
-
Seriously! what??? He didn't even add to the discussion. Just regurgitated some ancient comment of mine. Should I be flattered ;) ?
Sure! Because you have the same Avatar that you have since the start, unlike "some people" (like me) who change theirs depending on mood. Because you aren't one of the people he would have been speaking about, as a serious success. (unlike me producing CrapStock) And I suppose an over two year old topic from the cranky MIZ maybe be valid, but I agree, it is a little old.
Anyone want to argue if Lucky Oliver will survive or if Albumo is a fly-by-night agency? ::) Maybe we can debate if Snap Village is a junk shop and taking too many crummy photos. Ah those were the days.
-
Seriously! what??? He didn't even add to the discussion. Just regurgitated some ancient comment of mine. Should I be flattered ;) ?
Maybe the irony ... "dropout or die?"