Author Topic: have I been in the wrong industry for years? (Read 7160 times)

madman · « **on:** January 24, 2020, 04:01 »

I am stock photo contributor for about 10 years, as everyone know, the microstock industry grown up every year but small contributor earnings decrease day by day because of the microstock sale sites are in the race of selling our efforts a little more price than free.. while we complain that our earnings are getting closer to zero, something else is happening somewhere.

https://themeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/2833226?s_rank=1

check that link and you see how strange it is, one wordpress template has sold more than $25 million in 8 years.

when I think to myself, it seems like it is not possible to understand this.

Cider Apple · « **Reply #1 on:** January 24, 2020, 04:16 »

OMG that's incredible.
Scary to think of over half a million similarly designed websites out there. Success is all about design, opportunity and timing I suppose.

I've been thinking that I should have been designing AE templates too years ago instead of just AE clips, think I've missed that boat.

I'm thinking like you, maybe the way forward is more specialized content? Harder to do with less competition (although many talented artist's are doing this).

madman · « **Reply #2 on:** January 24, 2020, 04:53 »

it seems there was much more potential in web design, especially wordpress, I would choose to specialize in this way if i could go back in time.

THP Creative · « **Reply #3 on:** January 24, 2020, 08:03 »

I've used Wordpress themes for years, including Avada.

From what I've seen, the ship has sailed on that front. Go back maybe to 2010-12 or so, and sure, there was incredible opportunity. And some capitalised on it, like many microstock contributors did with iStock in the early days.

But now there are a flood of themes and new ones come and go all the time. Most stop being updated/supported after a couple of years, leaving the buyer in a poor position.

That's partly why popular themes like Avada, Enfold (my personal fav: https://1.envato.market/c/361556/275988/4415?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthemeforest.net%2Fitem%2Fenfold-responsive-multipurpose-theme%2F4519990 and other's are successful now - people can rely on them being maintained. So it's WAY harder to break into this market now than before. Plus, providing support for these themes requires a team of people, which I think many guys starting out seem to forget, and very quickly get overwhelmed with support requests.

But like you say, if you could go back in time....I would have started microstock in 2000 and then switched to Wordpress themes in 2010

qunamax · « **Reply #4 on:** January 24, 2020, 10:19 »

Quote from: madman on January 24, 2020, 04:01

I am stock photo contributor for about 10 years, as everyone know, the microstock industry grown up every year but small contributor earnings decrease day by day because of the microstock sale sites are in the race of selling our efforts a little more price than free.. while we complain that our earnings are getting closer to zero, something else is happening somewhere.

https://themeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/2833226?s_rank=1

check that link and you see how strange it is, one wordpress template has sold more than $25 million in 8 years.
when I think to myself, it seems like it is not possible to understand this.

I'm no expert but I suppose making a theme requires at least a handful of coding and if I wanted to do coding in my life making themes would be the last thing I want code on my list, long below mobile apps and games in this moment.

Pixart · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2020, 10:22 »

Almost more interesting, he/she has only ONE theme in their portfolio. But it has almost 570,000 downloads.

I wonder why just one theme? So that he can focus ALL his attention to it? It must be very well maintained, over 22k reviews with 4.7 rating!

madman · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2020, 10:40 »

Quote from: qunamax on January 24, 2020, 10:19

I'm no expert but I suppose making a theme requires at least a handful of coding and if I wanted to do coding in my life making themes would be the last thing I want code on my list, long below mobile apps and games in this moment.

believe me dude, website coding is much more easy from game or software coding.

georgep7 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 24, 2020, 10:43 »

Same applies for lots of professions, I believe.
There will always be extra succesful people and a crowd of "ordinary" ones.
So what?

madman · « **Reply #8 on:** January 24, 2020, 10:56 »

Quote from: georgep7 on January 24, 2020, 10:43

Same applies for lots of professions, I believe.
There will always be extra succesful people and a crowd of "ordinary" ones.
So what?

dude, that guy has incredible income, I made a rough calculation, that guy(s) has almost $100.000 one week income, and being able to do this with just one product is another important thing. thas guy must belongs "very insane most powerfull unusual superhuman extraordinary succesful people " classification.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 25, 2020, 05:43 »

Its easy in retrospect to see where the money was....its much harder to see where the money will be....those that do make a killing including many stock photographers.

offisapup · « **Reply #10 on:** January 25, 2020, 09:34 »

That's a bit like saying, "Hey, look at that guy. He had one hit song and he's still making a million dollars from it 5 years after." But for every musician with a hit song there are a thousand who languish in poverty.

The web designer space is no different. There are many who barely make a living. It is as saturated, competitive and overcrowded as the music/photography space and you have to either be a genius to stand out from the crowd or had to have gotten in early.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #11 on:** January 25, 2020, 11:44 »

Quote from: offisapup on January 25, 2020, 09:34

That's a bit like saying, "Hey, look at that guy. He had one hit song and he's still making a million dollars from it 5 years after." But for every musician with a hit song there are a thousand who languish in poverty.

The web designer space is no different. There are many who barely make a living. It is as saturated, competitive and overcrowded as the music/photography space and you have to either be a genius to stand out from the crowd or had to have gotten in early.

Exactly. The top 1% (like the Avada creator) makes the big bucks, the other 99% rest of the competition has to struggle to make sales. You see this phenomenon in every field.

It's like my own stock portfolio. If only 10% of my portfolio was as successful as my #1 top selling image, I'd be a rich man. But the other 99% doesn't perform nowhere near as good.

qunamax · « **Reply #12 on:** January 25, 2020, 12:02 »

Quote from: madman on January 24, 2020, 10:40

Quote from: qunamax on January 24, 2020, 10:19
I'm no expert but I suppose making a theme requires at least a handful of coding and if I wanted to do coding in my life making themes would be the last thing I want code on my list, long below mobile apps and games in this moment.

believe me dude, website coding is much more easy from game or software coding.

That's what I wrote, if I was gonna code a line of theme I might as well go on and learn something more advanced.

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Author Topic: have I been in the wrong industry for years? (Read 7160 times)

madman

Cider Apple

madman

THP Creative

qunamax

Pixart

madman

georgep7

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Pauws99

offisapup

Noedelhap

qunamax

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