Author Topic: Which agencies are DEAD?! (Read 5521 times)

Mrks · « **on:** July 13, 2020, 08:06 »

So I know that there is A LOT of stock agencies, but which ones for you are dead with no very low or no sales at all and are there any new ones that are worthy?

Noedelhap · « **Reply #1 on:** July 13, 2020, 08:14 »

Dead: GlStock, StockFresh, Bigstock

New ones that are worthy: none right now.

aitor · « **Reply #2 on:** July 13, 2020, 08:19 »

SS are dead, but they don't know it

gameover · « **Reply #3 on:** July 13, 2020, 08:24 »

Quote from: aitor on July 13, 2020, 08:19

SS are dead, but they don't know it

Mimi the Cat · « **Reply #4 on:** July 13, 2020, 14:04 »

Canstock, 123rf, Depositphotos & Zoonar

Pacesetter · « **Reply #5 on:** July 13, 2020, 19:33 »

Alamy for me and the rest are limping at this time.

Roger Mitsom · « **Reply #6 on:** July 13, 2020, 22:26 »

I've only been doing this for a few months. I know, great timing right? But for me AS is the only one worth while. I won't even mention that IS/ Getty is like 2 months behind on data so I wouldn't know.

fotoroad · « **Reply #7 on:** July 14, 2020, 07:20 »

Quote from: MarkoSubotin on July 13, 2020, 08:06

So I know that there is A LOT of stock agencies, but which ones for you are dead with no very low or no sales at all and are there any new ones that are worthy?

Make it easier - which agencies are Alive?

cathyslife · « **Reply #8 on:** July 14, 2020, 11:02 »

It’s summer. On top of everything else. They are all pretty much dead.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #9 on:** July 14, 2020, 11:55 »

Quote from: fotoroad on July 14, 2020, 07:20

Quote from: MarkoSubotin on July 13, 2020, 08:06
So I know that there is A LOT of stock agencies, but which ones for you are dead with no very low or no sales at all and are there any new ones that are worthy?
Make it easier - which agencies are Alive?

Yes and the answer is right here on the right, if you believe the poll at all.

What is good enough for someone will vary. Those numbers are from some serious people with thousands of good images. iStock for example, non-exclusive, 15% for life, no hope for a raise anymore. I make around $10 a month now, which would be "2" on the poll. Personally that's not enough for me to be motivated or upload. Same for DT.

Anything you don't see a number, I don't have an account and won't.

Look at the poll as representative values between the agencies, for what someone on the top, maybe top 5% can expect from them. Anyone new? Divide by 10

Clair Voyant · « **Reply #10 on:** July 14, 2020, 12:13 »

Sadly the industry is dead, only if you are a contributor.

Roger Mitsom · « **Reply #11 on:** July 14, 2020, 12:38 »

Quote from: cathyslife on July 14, 2020, 11:02

It’s summer. On top of everything else. They are all pretty much dead.

Is summer always slow for stock sales?

alexandersr · « **Reply #12 on:** July 14, 2020, 12:56 »

Quote from: Clair Voyant on July 14, 2020, 12:13

Sadly the industry is dead, only if you are a contributor.

This is sad but true, as contributors, it is a bad time for us.

cathyslife · « **Reply #13 on:** July 14, 2020, 14:56 »

Quote from: Roger Mitsom on July 14, 2020, 12:38

Quote from: cathyslife on July 14, 2020, 11:02
It’s summer. On top of everything else. They are all pretty much dead.

Is summer always slow for stock sales?

Always was for me. YMMV

Pauws99 · « **Reply #14 on:** July 15, 2020, 03:40 »

I'm quite surprised how well my sales are holding up so far. I'm not sure it will last. When government intervention starts to tail off I think economically things are going to get worse.

whosvegas · « **Reply #15 on:** July 15, 2020, 03:51 »

AS, for almost 2 weeks no sales, wich is unusual for me
If i see the earnings rates, AS pass almost SS
But not for me, strange!

Last month i uploaded almost no new content

Also dead: AL and DT

Snow · « **Reply #16 on:** July 15, 2020, 05:55 »

My experience,

Shutterstock sells higher volume (wel used to anyway) but has lower RPD, especially now with that 10c fiasco.

Adobe Stock has higher RPD but sells much lower volume which is too bad since these guys could rule this market if they want to but I guess they either don't care or want to eventually follow in SS footsteps.

Pond5 is to me the most contributor friendly agency out there, no competition!
Uploading, editing, pricing, reviews, royalty rate, contributor support, all top notch!
Only thing is they haven't sold a single clip so they are completely useless to me. Truth be told I have a small video portfolio compared to my image portfolio but these clips have made sales at SS as well as AS so that is no excuse. I started to upload some of my images as well but I highly doubt sales will occur.
I have mentioned this before I'm not a top seller by all means but my best seller at SS has over 9k downloads since 2012 with second best over 5k downloads since 2014 so I do know how to create sellers.

Alamy tries to act like macrostock but they sell like microstock. These days they hardly make sales and if they do it's always with some kind of discount that dips into microstock pricing.

Others such as IS, 123RF, DP, DT and BS I have left a long time ago so I couldn't say how they perform these days.

I'm getting far more enjoyment from selling fine art prints these days. Much higher return and no reviewers messing around with you. I also have a completely different portfolio for this. I see many people mixing their micro, macro and art to where I can't tell the difference anymore! Makes no sense to me but I guess if you can still fool the buyers... I'm not like that though.

So yes pretty much all agencies are dead as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't recommend joining any at this time!
Most contributors who claim they are still doing well are hobbyists making a few hundred bucks a month with thousands of images, some ten thousands. No offense though since it looks like I joined that club with my current earnings.

Sure there are still a few lucky contributors that can make a living from micro/macrostock but they are getting extinct!

Good luck!

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #17 on:** July 15, 2020, 10:11 »

Snow, a fine summary. One small point.

If anyone is watching the poll, AS vs SS, keep in mind that many people are angry, have shut down, closed, removed best sellers, or disabled, which means they will put in low numbers for SS to make that look bad. Or $0 because they are $0 but a disabled port isn't really supposed to be reported.

Yes traditionally Summer is lower. Yes, the virus has driven down demand and sales.

Quote from: Snow on July 15, 2020, 05:55

I see many people mixing their micro, macro and art to where I can't tell the difference anymore! Makes no sense to me but I guess if you can still fool the buyers... I'm not like that though.

AS doesn't take Editorial, many other agencies do. There are other differences, what sells on Alamy isn't usually the same as Microstock sites. Many other distinctions of what sells best and where. One more example, illustrations don't sell as often or as well, on Alamy as Adobe. Travel and editorial sell much better on Alamy than Adobe. Illustrative Ed. is allowed on Adobe, no such designation on Alamy because it's not needed to be defined that way.

50% · « **Reply #18 on:** July 15, 2020, 12:17 »

For photos it's only the big three that are alive: Shutterstock, iStock-getty, Adobe
Stocksy is alive too but hard to get in and if you are in it's still hard to build a reasonable sized portfolio

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #19 on:** July 16, 2020, 08:50 »

Quote from: 50% on July 15, 2020, 12:17

For photos it's only the big three that are alive: Shutterstock, iStock-getty, Adobe
Stocksy is alive too but hard to get in and if you are in it's still hard to build a reasonable sized portfolio

Might as well add that ClipartOf seems to do pretty well, but I asked years ago and was told, that site isn't accepting new contributors. Seems like a nice balance where the people who are involved, provided what's needed, new and currant, without loads of similar, so the customers are also happy.

https://www.clipartof.com/

I don't know what she's using to run the site, but it's very streamlined, simple (in a good way), I mean functional, and works.

If someone was going to go self hosted, this would be the idea example of what to do and how to do it.

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: Which agencies are DEAD?! (Read 5521 times)

Mrks

Noedelhap

aitor

gameover

Mimi the Cat

Pacesetter

Roger Mitsom

fotoroad

cathyslife

Uncle Pete

Clair Voyant

Roger Mitsom

alexandersr

cathyslife

Pauws99

whosvegas

Snow

Uncle Pete

50%

Uncle Pete

Related Topics

Sponsors

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors