I have two go-to lenses for people shots: 70-200mm f/4 and 24-70mm f/2.8.  I use the 70-200 when I'm in a big enough space and don't need to use a small flash for fill (studio or outdoors).  When I'm in a smaller space I like the 24-70.  I try to keep to the middle or telephoto end of the range, but even at the wide end it's good for full length people shots.  Either one produces fine results and they're both more flexible than a prime.  Oh, and the 70-200 f/4 is half the weight and half the price of a f/2.8.  I really like that.

Ditto.  same setup.  I also have the 85mm f1.8 and love it, but it's more of a luxury lens to me.  Optional.  It's not too pricey, which is good.  The quality is there, and the bokeh f1.8 makes is great... but i still prefer my zooms for convenience.  The 24-70 II with the IS sounds nice, but I'm happy enough with my original brick

Is 123rf not working again?  I love this program... planning on subscribing soon.  Thank you for all your hard work.   

Exactly.  Anyone who spends enough time on the internet learns quickly about the adblock extensions.  I still see about 3 ads, but a lot less without ABP installed. 

Canstock sales are down 33% for me since the end of the first quarter 2014.  Ebbs and flows, I guess?  Hopefully it changes.  I love me some CanStock.  They've been an incredible company to work along with, over the years.

If they are all outstanding, and not just mediocre images... some can do $10k on 5000 images or even less.  If you have a lot of common, average, well done yet easy to reproduce type images (food, decent looking people lifestyle portraiture, vector background or raster graphics mixed in, etc) I'd say it used to be $1 per image per month, a few years back.  Now it's closer to $1 per 2-4 images depending on your work.  Right now, with solely using microstock as your sales outlet, if you can pull .25-.50 cents per image, per month, you're doing amazing. 

EDIT:  Just to clarify, I'm talking about selling your work on multiple agencies (non exclusively) combined income, collectively... not just on Shutterstock alone.  To make $10k a month just on Shutterstock alone, you'd probably need at least 30-50k images.  If they're buried, or don't have the right keywords/metadata, they might do you just as good (in terms of sales) as having a portfolio of 1000-5000 amazing vectors, with better keywording.

Things have changed.  Market saturation... the struggle is real.  It will continue getting tougher to eek out a living doing this.  You'll need quality and quantity combined, or just quit and go get a job with actual health benefits working for "the man".  Many of us who have been doing stock for years as our sole business, are also getting "tired".  This business will tire you out.  The freedom of working for yourself is outstanding, but to have to work harder to make the same or less income, that's not something I plan on doing in my 5-10 year plan. 

Will some of us full timers still be selling microstock imagery as our main squeeze 5 years from now?  It's possible; all depends on how much hunger and hustle you have left.  There are a ton of ways to make a living.  Ask yourself how hard you want to work for it.  I am US based.  Many of our European, Russian and Asian friends overseas have more hunger in their left pinkies than many of us in the states have, and a lot lower living expenses, to boot.  Thumbs up to anyone who has the determination to succeed in this business.  For every dollar you earn, you have worked your coolie off to make it.  There are no easy shortcuts in this game.  The times you can coast and not work as hard, while collecting residuals is pretty nice... but get lazy for too long and you'll regret losing your momentum.

Wow - I need to seriously lay off the coffee.  Writing a book, here. 

Quote from: steheap on May 02, 2014, 12:54

Quote

Quote from: steheap on Today at 11:14
Quote
GDUSA
Graphic Design USA Magazine


The Next Step in Simple
http://blog.gdusa.com/the-next-step-in-simple/


I've added a comment to that blog article. Perhaps some of their readers will see it

Steve


I couldn't see your comment, but I've added mine:

I only see mine and not yours! Perhaps they have to be approved first?

Steve

I guess so. (Which probably means that'll never happen )

That GDUSA mag is a free trade publication for graphic designers - I've been getting it since 2004 at least... meaning Fotolia paid them to publish that.  Whole magazine is a huge advertisement.  Anyone you see mentioned in there in any way shape or form has paid their way in. 

I just opted out as well.  Be sure to click "save" at the bottom of the page after you do so, or it won't stick. 

https://us.fotolia.com/Member/Modify/Contributor

At least we now have the option to opt-out.  NO, I don't want to sell high-resolution for $1, when the buyer only needs to spend a minimum of $10.  That is just not a wise business decision for me.  Thank you Fotolia; but no thanks.

I hadn't seen this thread until now.  Good for you, Sean.  Best wishes man

Keep steadily uploading your port in chunks with momentum, I would think you'd get more exposure and sales out of your portfolio that way, rather than uploading everything in one huge lump.   

Yeah, I edited and hacked up the code in my older version of ktools that I don't even want to think about upgrading.

Symbiostock looks nice, and runs on wordpress, but it still looks no frills compared to what you get with ktools.  I'm sure it doesn't run as fast, either.  Who knows/cares.  Selling direct is not something I would ever do over again.  Too much time/pain in the rear to deal with for such a small return, unless you happen to be some sort of special SEO wizard or have bottomless pockets for google adsense to drive traffic.

Good stuff, Jo Ann  More incentive to book your next cruise!  I still have a decent chunk of Bermuda photos to edit and submit from last October. Never enough time in the day.

I put a lot of time and effort into zazzle, and was making bank for a while, but lately it's all died.  Doesn't exactly motivate me to continue... hard enough to keep 5 pots heated at the same time with only 4 burners, in this business.

My Zazzle earnings are down at least 50-70% if that is comforting to any of you.   Whatever they did to screw up their google product base, or website or whatever... I hope they fix it soon.  I'm not lowering my commissions there either, because people just buy what they see and like regardless of the prices.  It's a retail trap, and women with credit cards on sites like zazzle are dangerous ;P LOL

Fotolia earnings have been tanking for me since 2012, just the same.  Bigstock and Depositphotos earnings are beginning to outweigh them. 

It's all just ebb and flow, this is exactly why you never put all your eggs in the same basket.  One marketplace will decrease, another may slightly increase... sadly it seems that they are all slightly decreasing at the same time.  Time to find more baskets and to make more eggs