Quote from: SuperPhoto on October 12, 2018, 23:58

So... thinking of uploading to shutterstock...

Then took a look at a few numbers, did some math, and then noticed a few posts talking about 'spammy' portfolios (i.e., 1000 pictures of a pair of shoes, from 0-360 degrees in 0.3 degree increments, etc)...

If my math is correct, it seems on 'average' right now you'd need to have a portfolio size of about 10,000 images to 'make' about $600/year? Does that sound right? (Of course, I realize there would be outliers on both sides), but that seems to the case?

Any agreements/disagreements?

No.

I have less than 10,000 and even if I took a below average daily stats I would be well over that....in a month. Today, for example, I currently have $211.68. A mix of large clip packs, Enhanced, ODDs and SODs plus Subs.

I'd put good money on my earnings being no where near the top and certainly not an outlier.

Sure its possible! a couple of years back every single month was between 2500-3000 a month, easily! no problems at all. Something happened about a year back and that was it! and for some of us that became a doomsday and today I just let my port hang in there, dont upload anymore and since new images dont even see the light of day its no point!
Adobe/Ft have come on strong and fill the loss pretty well and so has Pond-5!  so in the end of day the loss at SS is made up!

pkphotos!!...  correct 100% and there are tons of examples of this. I know a lifestyle guy using pro fashion models, 1300 pics in his port and earning well over 3K per month!  and what about that Russian woman with her dreamy sci-fi pics whos well over 5K per month and a port of barely 1500 shots.

A travel photographer have 14K files in his port and hardly reaching payouts.

This is a common rookie mistake to mix up quantity with quality and high commercial value images.

Quote from: derek on October 11, 2018, 01:32

Fine!  but we are not talking sub-standard agencies anymore. Everyone of these sites have got the same identical portfolios. Members are loading up the same stuff to everyone of them, haha!   this is one of the reasons why we are in this mess!..there are members who have joined 20 agencies and uploaded identical files to everyone!  thats micro-agencies for you......now given the fact that SS with their hundreds of million files and their constant changing search, well see how far you get??

Well, maybe so. But every search is different for each agency. So again, every buyer is different, and having been a contractor for many places that have accounts, I can also say that in my experience, I have never seen a company have less than 2 accounts with different agencies.

In my opinion, and I have said this for years, the problem with micro was there was little to no quality control, in BOTH directions. Micro could have been a stepping stone to macro for those who could learn to produce quality images. Instead, the macro crowd jumped on the bandwagon early and uploaded awesome photos to compete with "apple on white" because it was so immediately lucrative. They killed the quality barrier and made good images almost worthless in only a few years. Sure, lots of other factors involved, but this was a big one in my mind.

The agencies helped the ball to speed down the hill by not pricing differently for better images. They could have easily in the beginning. Dollar or free bins, and then medium quality, then offset and stocksy quality stuff, and so on, all in one portal. But they didn't. So now the market is completely saturated by crap and gold and the long time micro guys now sound exactly like the macro guys when MS started (remember those rants? Exactly the same as now). We could have had a ladder to grow our work, our talents, and our income by advancing up the quality stream. Instead, we all chase the same (decreasing) pennies.

So now, SS is public. Their duty is solely to shareholders, some of whom I am absolutely sure have no idea what it is we even do. And as public companies are usually doing, they look for short term profit over sustainability to keep their shares up. Expect nothing but worse and worse news because when innovation starts to go, cutting costs is the only means they have to show an increasing profit. We are only a cost to them.

I think I fell off topic. Sorry!

I agree with you 100%!  quality has completely flown out the window, there just isnt any. SS lowered the bar and made it so easy to gain entry thet every weekend snapper is applying.
I had a buyer last week looking for some of my shots, he sent me a PM saying he was lost couldnt find anything, I directed him to one of my trad-agencies and he paid a bit more for EL's but so what.

Yes youre right its only going to get worse!  short term profit thinking, screwing up the searches in hope for more revenue, dumping the western world and nursing the eastern countries and not giving a f&%k about contributors only leads to disaster.

Quote from: derek on October 10, 2018, 04:02

First 5 pages are the important in a search! then the buyer will move on. SS is forcing people, telling them what to buy and pushing sub packages that way!...its completely destroyed as a money spinner for contributors.

When I used to buy for various companies, if my search didn't turn up what I needed I changed the search, not choose some sub standard picture.

I think so many forget that people who license images are as diverse a group as those who make them. I think it is virtually impossible to quantify what most buyers do without access to metrics from the agencies.

Fine!  but we are not talking sub-standard agencies anymore. Everyone of these sites have got the same identical portfolios. Members are loading up the same stuff to everyone of them, haha!   this is one of the reasons why we are in this mess!..there are members who have joined 20 agencies and uploaded identical files to everyone!  thats micro-agencies for you......now given the fact that SS with their hundreds of million files and their constant changing search, well see how far you get??

Lets concentrate on Adobe instead, lets give them the cream of our crop!......SS is screwing many of us BIG-Time and in every single way. All revenue is going into specific pockets and the rest of us are expendible. Well lets look upon this cheapo site as expendible and anyone doubting this is a complete cretin!

Really???  you dont say!  I thought they were the best in town! on a serious note: its all crap!

Terrible, abysmal etc etc etc. Ss is run by Muppets.

Better work harsmarter like the expert in the forums. Who is Barry btw ?

I dont know if true or not so dont quote me on it!  but I personally know somebody who worked there since the very start ( not now though) well something drastic must have happened because they have got rid of all people associated with oringer?? and replaced them with a cheap younger Admin team not even getting half the wages as the prior! hence no experience what so ever!...true or not?
This could explain a lot!  some years back Getty had Internal politics problems and for a couple of years nothing worked as it should everything went downhill. They finally got new staff admin etc and slowly things got back to normal, only seems the damage was done they lost some really famous photographers and buyers. I dont think many here remember that since it was around 2010.

Trouble is once this starts within a corp it might hold for a year or two but sooner or later the downhill starts it might not have an effect on sales in the beginning its enough with bad investments etc, etc!

Look at IStock some years back it was enough that loads of members complained giving a terrible picture in public forums and the word went around! and Istock nearly crashed!

LOL!!  a brief worth 10 grand!

Anyway who in their right frame of mind wants to survive on micro-stock alone, keep uploading junk all day long, every day like a blue arsed fly, checking sites every 5 minutes and diving on the Alka-Seltzer if the going is bad anf then finally after every schitzophrenic search-change get suicidal!...being under the power of the cretins running the business. Nah do me a favour!....its a hobby just a hobby and if it pays for a few cups of coffee and a few beers thats it!

The sad part of this now 15 years old story is that it could have been something! could have been a good good going but then greed and short term profit thinking got the better of the been-counters and it all derailed!

RIP to microstock photography I say reluctantly. The millennials expect everything free on a plate.

Yeah and add to that this new Admin at SS is made up of bean-counters and cretins! haha! fat chance!

Nowadays I cant see many surviving on microstock alone, few years back, yes!...not today. However many, many are surviving on commissioned work, trad stock-photography and microstock, all together!

Quote from: DavidK on August 23, 2018, 05:24

Quote from: pkphotos on August 23, 2018, 04:17

When was the last time anyone anywhere uploaded something to Istock? Surely at least a year or two now given their greedy unethical commission % and sales prices

The same could be said of many other micros as well. Take the SS $1.50 streaming video commission for example. I'm certainly not defending IS, but at this point I will take any revenue stream available. That's how bad things have become.

I have closed quite a few accounts over the years "in protest" or just because the agencies just didn't deliver.  But at this point the microstock biz is done for contributors. While the industry may be fruitful for the agencies themselves, the losers are the suppliers.  So I am letting my stuff ride and will take every last cent I can.  However, and I've been honest about this before, I am not shooting for microstock any more.  Not doing any studio "stock" work for them and just not putting any time into building a broader portfolio. Basically, I am winding down. I make more money shooting dildo sanitizers for a client than I do in microstock.

I think you are underlining what most of us " old" members are doing, just letting the portfolios ride along and no more uploading to microstock which is a pointless excersise!
I only upload RM nowadays fair enough they might not seel often but when is does, at least in my case its good prices and thats something!