Everyone has probably felt that way at one time or other (well, maybe not the top earners).

Rather than quit, when you start feeling burnt out by stock, just take a break. Do other photography. Helps keep stock in perspective. Then come back and work some more at it. In the meantime, your portfolios are still earning money--maybe not as much as you'd like, but it's something.

Ken
(new to this forum, but involved in microstock since 2005)

Newbies have to get their port and reputation built.

It can take you a good year depending.

To get good reliable sales you will need a good solid port and at least 1500 images to help stand out among the near 25 million out there.

This is a marathon.

And do as others say take a break.

Right now I am in winter and dont usually do much shooting except every once in a while.

I spend time looking at what is and isn't out here so I have ideas for later when the weather breaks.

Thank you all! I think I need a vacation    Maybe just a week on some typical island and, no stock shooting,  just drinking and laying in the water...

Not yet, I am too new and I am so full of ideas and I know I can do so much better than the level I am at now. I picked up a camera only 18 months ago, and joined stock 10 months ago. The possibilities are endless for me still. I love producing images. I know your feeling tho when people reporting insane sales. But I will get there. I know I will. I can see it happening already.

hit the wall after about 3 years (I think it would be quicker now), then 2 years trying to work out how to get past it, overall I spent 5 years of feeling I should get organised and more focused for stock and was determined to take the next step 12 months ago. Then I decided that I really just couldn't be bothered anymore and have pretty much taken a year off and got involved in other stuff, photography became playtime again (without thinking would this make good stock).
Last couple of weeks started to get motivated again and will start doing stock again.

I have thought about quitting many times. Here is what has helped me:

- Have a break, don't do anything stock related in a month or so. Don't even plan any future shoots or check stats.

- Ramp up your photo quality, concepts/subjects and production speed. That way your sales will eventually get higher. More images with more demand and better quality will equal in more dollars. Of course the total amount of produced images is not necessary the key, but the faster you are to shoot and edit, the better hourly wage you get. Be your hardest critic, just to get the quality up. To get the quality up do what is necessary: study more, test shoot, buy equipment etc.

- The sites have already millions of images. I have found out that nowdays I get best sales from images that are somewhat hard to produce, may require special props, location, shooting skills and/or editing. Generic shots seem to get buried (there are of course some lucky exceptions).

With seeing the monthly threads in Alamy, then looking at my sales... it might be discouraging but it is not to me. I run my own race without worrying about what others do. I have never made the money to support myself full time with it but I did not look at it (even MS included) to be a full time thing. If it happens, GREAT! It gives me some real nice bonuses sometimes though. I keep doing my own thing though and that is good enough for me. I have cut back to a total of 3 Agencies with one on the chopping block when I hit payout. That gives me 1 RF outlet and then a RM outlet.

Got this one last Semester to go through for school then hope to get a job welding. If I work on the road... then there is the bonus of working and having new areas too shoot at each job which satisfies my personal photography and stock.

If you take thousands of photographers and their ports, chances are every week (or even every day) one of them is going to be lucky with a few EL or SOD or Alamy sales or something like that. If you compare yourself every week to the person that just won the lottery you won't come off feeling very lucky. Instead keep track of your stats every few months and notice if they are going up or down. It is frustrating when they go down, but over the long haul they tend to go up. If you hit the wall, hopefully you do so at a level that is worthwhile for the amount of continuous effort you need to stay at the wall. Don't obsess on stats every day, but do keep an eye on what sells and where and what doesn't and what sites don't perform over the long run.

When you get a week of lousy sales (and the last week of December is one of the worst in this business) or a heap of rejections or any other setback it is natural to want to quit. Just take a break, or work on some other aspect of photography or something. Soon you will see something or have an idea and you can be back at it (or maybe you find something else more worthwhile).