According to Ukrainian experts, Trump's goal is not to help Ukraine, but to help Israel. That's why Trump is negotiating with the Russians.
Trump also considers China, not the Russians, to be the number one threat to the US.
The war in Ukraine is a war in Europe, so Trump believes that the EU should help Ukraine, not the US.
This is about Trump's policy.

Your experts are wrong.
With Trump and his policies it's always about Trump himself. He wanted to achieve peace in Ukraine, so he can claim to be a great deal maker and show his voters how great he is. How the peace is achieved, he doesn't care. The easiest route to "peace" is to fulfill all Russian wishes and to put pressure on Ukraine to sign a peace (or rather capitulation) deal. Ukraine didn't sign and now Trump is furious, because he doesn't get the glory of being a great deal maker. It's really super simple to understand Trump and this is why Putin can manipulate him so easily.

For me this week is much better: pos 4190 with 95 downloads.
Photos only. And I don't have any Easter content

You're welcome . Some photographers have pretty inexpensive online video courses. I buy some courses from time to time to learn from these photographers.

I started using limited editions during some shows in "brick and mortar" galleries, after I had won some awards.

I only use them for personal projects of 10-20 images. I make a long selection and publish only the best of the best. Usually they are series with the same concept and style. Consider that I have only done 5 series/projects in 25 years of photographic activity. And with all of them I have won some awards. They are about 100 images in total. Almost all made with medium format film.

I sell them both in galleries that represent me and through my website.

But I sell very few, 3-5 a year. Maybe I advertise them very little. They are for collectors who like cotton papers.

Then I also sell open editions. The images are the same, to which I add other premium images that are not part of the projects. I sell the open editions not only with cotton papers, but also with acrylics (the best sellers), metal, and canvas.

My advice is to reserve limited editions only for special projects. The best thing is to do them for a project that has won an award.

And then you have to do a print run with very few prints (for example: 120x120 cm x5 prints, 80x80 cm x10 prints, 40x40 cm x15 prints). The price must be at least double or even triple that of open editions. I see some runs of 500 prints ... for me this is absurd. Limited editions must communicate scarcity, 50, 100 or 500 prints are too many for me.

Thanks a lot, very helpful! I also do sell quite a few acrylic prints through my website, though they aren't my bestsellers (I think it's actually pretty evenly distributed between paper, canvas and metal prints with a few expensive acrylic ones in between).

I stopped caring about awards many years ago, when I realized they were a lot of effort for little monetary value. Now you gave me a reason to think about contests again

Sounds like Freepik - hello sub-cent royalties. Next step will be removal of the opt out option, when they realize everyone is opting out of this.
Once again makes me happy to have left Shutterstock 

My favorite: https://autumnsky.zenfolio.com/p32736316/h3185da6b#h3185da6b
Really nice side light on this one. Could work well on micros, but hard to say whether it will really sell as it doesn't depict a major landmark. But you might want to straighten the image, it tilts to the right.
No idea about Alamy, I personally never submit anything as exclusive there.

I would say the strongest image is https://autumnsky.zenfolio.com/p424590562/h2d7db09f#h2d7db09f and it should work well on micros.
Replaced sky is very noticeable in some photos, especially since it's the same Photoshop sky thousands of people are using - but buyers don't care about replaced skies, so that shouldn't stop the images from selling.

Are all Adobe contributors porfolios there and are there other similar sites ?

My portfolio is also there. I would guess, they access Adobe search through an API, which gives them all of Adobe's assets (probably except premium ones). Sites like that is why I prefer to upload reduced resolution photos to Adobe, I'd like to keep the option to sell prints to myself 

Quote from: cobalt on February 28, 2025, 12:31

There is no way in Germany to own any kind of property or land and not pay local taxes. It is not much though, around 30 euros a month or 300-400 a year. Municipality costs for garbage etc.. are a lot higher and a bigger problem.  Plus occasional repairs that we share as owners but can be quite high.

I have around 50sqm, the place is fully paid, no debts.

It is funny what you say about the "dark brown masses" of whatever part of the world you personally don't like.

Here in Europe we think that way about the white hillibilly americans that are part of a cult and happily do their masters bidding and long to live under a king or emperor. Unfortunately they also want gigantic wars with millions dead to fullfill their rapture religious fantasies...they are unbelievably uneducated, can barely read and write but always have an opinion...

The ai youtube spammers are the same people that bring you all the crypto scams and there are also lots of very clueless white people who think ai images is some magic money.n

There is also one very simple reason that ai attracts many people from ultrapoor countries...50 dollars a month can be like 500 in the us midwest or 2000 here in Germany.

So the high volume but low income ports, make a lot of financial sense to that group of producers.

They are just as clueless as the mobile phone crowd that started doing stock 10 years ago.

Microstock are open platforms for total amateurs. But the talent can learn and rise, including the ai talent.

I am not worried about ai producers, like I am not worried about the mobile phone talent. Most will give up in 2 years and only a few that remain will actually be regular producers.

I hate having bestsellers copied, so I hope the new strategy of a long tail plus editorial will lower that problem.

But I am glad you liked my analysis, I am posting here because I know many people who have neglected their ports and are wondering if it is still worth getting in.

However everyones situation is different and what sold well 20 years ago will not sell in the same way today.



Adapt or die like in every business.

1. Lol - it's not I don't "like" a certain group - it's simply stating a fact how different groups act, and what 'business ethics' they have (or don't have). (And lol, don't believe I've ever referred to them as the 'dark brown masses').

b) Re: what's really going on - each group (speaking of the 'general masses') depending on their country seems to have had their beliefs about other cultures/races/etc shaped by television, the "news", etc.

c) As for your perception of americans, interesting that is what would be filtered down to you, and assuming that is what is presented to German people through t.v./the news/etc. Have you ever lived in the the US for an extended period of time? The t.v. (in the usa) generally portrays the military as a noble cause (and I don't think many know or realize that unfortunately they are being 'used' by a small group of psychopaths to cause chaos in the world, get oil, get gold, control the drug trade/etc. (And interestingly enough, apparently this small groups congregates in the vatican in europe, as well as the ukraine. I think most soldiers (and not just the us, but canada, europe, etc) unfortunately don't see the bigger picture - and the way the military is structured - its designed to keep it that way. I think most people that join the military genuinely believe they are doing good (its only the people at the very top that really know what is going on). (Kind of like freemasonry as well that relies extensively on 'secrets'. Those @ the bottom believe they are genuinely doing good, and in some ways they are - but @ the top - they really know what is going on and are manipulating the masses generally speaking for other purposes).

Not sure if you are aware of this - but I'd say that in North America - through schooling - Germans (generally speaking) are portrayed as really bad "nahzees" through constant bombardment of movies, tell-a-vision, etc, that "hatejews" and "attack" them at every turn, etc, etc. (Even though apparently what really happened in the his-story (aka fiction) books for the most part consists of lies, misdirection, and even if there was an individual who acted a certain way - it doesn't mean their offspring, relatives, etc would be the same). I'd say very few people (unless they've looked into it further) know that a lot of Germans are very intelligent, very good engineers, and many of them (if they come to North America) are fearful of being associated what the t.v., the history books, the schooling, etc portrays them to be (which, pretty much consists of lies/manipulation/etc).  Many - if they move here - are so fearful of being associated with that - tend to 'overcompensate' and state their 'love' for the jewishpeople/how wonderful they are/etc, and how they would never to anything so heinous as portrayed in the (hi)story books, so they aren't visciously attacked (from how the t.v., the movies, and schooling portrays them as in general).

But the people pulling the strings like to try and keep people at odds.

d) I would agree with you that a lot of people (in general, not just north america) - are kept 'dumbed down'. Not sure what your definition of being able to 'barely read' is - but yes - schooling (in general) teaches children to 'read slowly' (as a control mechanism), through something called 'sub-vocalization'. (I.e., people generally 'hear' words when they read as opposed to 'visually' reading (aka speed reading), which severely limits their comprehension of topics, how much they can consume, and makes it difficult to learn new things). Apparently - the schooling (controlled in a big part by the Rockefeller family) is designed to keep the general masses able to follow simple instructions (i.e., "dont park here"), but not really able to see much farther than that.

I think that is partly why video is so popular. Yes, it 'looks nice' - but - you can only consume so much video at once, and the 'speed' is throttled. (I.e., one could read a complete 200 page book (60,000 words in a paperback) in 2-3 hours (with subvocalization), 30 minutes with speed reading, but to watch the same video (at a speaking rate of about 140 wpm) would take about 7-8 hours.

e) I  do agree with you that there are also 'clueless ai caucasian' people... but the "AI" has been introduced into those (what people tend to call '3rd world countries) in order to try and make a super poor class, by stealing from people (who tend to be white/caucasian) that did the work in the first place. (And interestingly enough, tends by the very super wealthy class - which tends to be 'jewish', just look @ the background of the ceo of midjourney, chatgpt, etc and who tends to fund the other 'ai' companies - and they in general use their vast financial resources to try and cast dispersion if anyone questions their tactics and/or states the obvious. I.e., through things like 'anti-hate' legislature, constant movies about WWII and the 'plight' they face, and constant tell-a-vision programming to make them (in general) appear as a poor, hard done by group that is 'just being picked on'. In general - if anyone says anything - the same television programming as trained many people to respond "omfg! anti-semite", etc - instead of actually doing some investigation for themselves to see if there is merit to the statement. It is a psychological manipulation tactic designed to 'short-circuit' peoples brains/thinking & reasoning capacity.

But bottomline - one of the things going on (esp with "ai", which is simply sophisticated theft) - is "they" (the ultra-rich class that likes to call themselves the 'plutocracy') - are trying to steal as much as they can and make everyone else into poor slaves.

2. a) Wow re: the 50 sqm. By north american standards, that is a very tiny house. (Do you have a family living there too? Or just yourself?)
b) While I haven't looked fully into how German property is structured - I've found in North America people are taught to believe the same thing (i.e., that they 'have' to pay 'property tax' 'or else!') - but requires a bit of digging to realize you don't. But the big fact is - if one pays property tax, and the threat is that if they don't, it will be 'seized' - then they don't actually 'own' the property - but are rather 'renting' the property. It may be a small rent - but it is still rent. And like rent - the landlord at any time could 'see fit' to raise the rent (aka 'taxes'), and if the tenant is not able to pay, use the 'legal system' to kick them out.

3. In terms of still getting in... I agree with you people would need to be smarter about it if they wanted to make some serious $$$... whether it is figuring out how to more intelligent increase production, or more intelligently meet client needs - it does require thinking, which can supercede the spam-all-you-can model employed by a lot of people in '3rd world' countries...

Please don't spam here. There are other threads on this forum, where all the ignored people talk to each other. They'll be happy to talk to you.

Now usually many files don't sell at all and very, very few will sell reliable 1000 times a year.

Just curious, do you have files selling over 1000 times a year? I never managed that feat on Adobe. Probably in the past on Shutterstock, but I don't have any data anymore since I deleted my portfolio there.

Now that is peculiar. Is that picture actually from 'today'? Because right now I have a higher download count than you with a much lower 'ranking'.
Possibly maybe your console just hasn't been 'updated' yet (so your ranking is say as of Monday or something). Because otherwise I find that a bit peculiar...!

You might find it less peculiar, if you knew the rank is calculated based on the performance from the last 7 days, not based on the performance from the current week (which are the download count numbers you see on your dashboard). No conspiracy theory here 

Yes, kinda. Obviously way less sales than on Adobe, but enough sales to make 1-2 payouts per year with < 1k assets. And really super easy to upload. For me Dreamstime is still worth the upload time.