sorry, you misunderstood me, what I wanted is to see is the result of your work: your photos!

please, show me the result of your 2080 hours

who on earth shall read through all these long long long scientific analyses about the marketing strategies of SS?

This is a guys talk, like talking about football. Guys, cut it short!!

sorry to tell you, no problem on my end...

Are´nt We All Being Fooled?

@50% I am living in a country which is not all that wealthy at the moment, you might check the todays newspaper of Zimbabwe to learn more about...

Everybody in this forum knows the theory of THE WALL.

I belief that The Wall is related to Burnout. Unhappiness, worries, anger, complaints suck the energy and creativity of your brain, which means that your performance will decrease.... and you finally will hit The Wall.

only the wealthy people cry...

You must burn before you can burn out.

If you are part-time microstocker, you can only cool down a little bit.

My sunny days are now!!!!!!!!

I make a living on micros since 5 years. In my country there is unemployment all over and the chances for decent employment dropped to zero in some areas, which means I am entirely dependent on my creativity. I am happy with every single cent in any hard currency.
I am doing illustrations only, I don´t need expensive equipment, models, studio and so on. A simple notebook and some open source software is all what I need. Going through the images I started with years ago, I am getting self-doubts, gosh, what kind of crap. And the crap made money, what kind of a miracle. Micros and a piece of land around the house for vegetables are feeding me and my family pretty well.
What I am only worried is: will I run short of creativity one day?

How many years does it take for a microstocker to run into a burn-out syndrom?

And how to overcome it? To take a break? For how long?

How to overcome a creativity block?

Any experience?

thank you Irena, I am very happy to read your comment.

Living in Africa the microstock business gives me a tiny piece of paradise on earth, for me and my entire family. This boosts my motivation to compete and to be better than others. Some of the comments in this forum let me think about evil eyes when it comes to contributors in "poor countries" with "low standard ov living", who spoil the market of the people in the rich countries.

Checking the Top-100 Shutterstock Authors where they come from I read: Uruguay, Russia, Romania, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Turkey, Latvia, Belarus, Poland, India, Indonesia, Kazakhsan, Estonia, Pakistan... what does this mean to you?

Are they more talented? more creative? better motivated? better qualified? What´s their secret?
Are these countries represented in this forum?

zero talent, I like your point of you.
There is only one little problem, what about if there is half a million contributors around the world you expect to walk away. Will they?

Cathy, do you believe in your heart, that you will succeed in getting more money by putting your signature under a petition? Are you not afraid that you get blacklisted when you do so?

thank you sharpshot, you are a real smart guy.

dont forget: "fair pay" depends on where you live.
Greetings from Zimbabwe

great idea I will ask Shutterstock for a pay rise

I cannot change the company policy. I can either agree or disagree like in any other business. If I am an employee and don´t like my company, I better quit. If I am self employed and my customer does not pay me what I want, I better look for another opportunity.

What means quality to me as an illustrator?
Number one is Innovation, I have to produce new and better ideas than others.
I have to accept that I have hundred of thousands of competitors world wide.
I have to do extensive studies on present keyword trends. And I have to avoid common and boring keywords. This takes plenty of time! Its horrible, its boring, I hate it!
I have to be perfect in Adobe Illustrator.
I have to archive a very high acceptance rate.
I need good communication skills when I get in contact with agencies.
I must be addicted to the job I am doing.
I have to produce 100 images to get around 5 top sellers. Every day is a hard day´s work.

Jo Ann, your English is very sophisticated and elaborate. Many times I do not have a clue what your message means. This is entirely my fault, because I am not a native speaker in English. It might be, that many misunderstandings and disputes in this forum relate to this problem, that we have a whole bunch of different nationals around here, who´s English is somehow horrible.

A good portfolio makes good money, a bad portfolio goes empty. A bad portfolio means out-dated images which do not meet the demand of the market. The consequence would be, produce better images or leave the business and not to waste valuable time with complaints, petitions or weird accusations.

What are the most worthless Sites?
Which agencies are just a pain in the butt?

Is anybody here who made more than ten bugs on Indivstock?