Quote from: cthoman on September 27, 2017, 16:12

Quote from: obj owl on September 27, 2017, 15:58

Quote from: cthoman on September 27, 2017, 15:50

Yeah, the "there will be bigger jobs in the future" line seems to never pan out whenever I've heard it.

That's because it only happens to one in a thousand, the optimistic, glass half full hard workers who get off their arses and collect points.

Is there somewhere I can redeem those "I got scammed" points or is it like a karma thing?

I conceed that in most cases you will be able to tell me "I told you so" time and time again in thread after thread.  I have no doubt the vast majority of people will be disapointed with this scheme, but carrots work and some kid could well become the next big thing chasing them.  I think any decent microstocker could take some of these assignments make them their own and submit the images and videos to half a dozen sites and make a lot more than they are offering, but if the Enterprise Team do their work a few very good ambitious photographers will break through and make a lot of money.

I actually have no idea how it will all turn out. It may very well work out just fine for some people. I was just teasing because that is one of those classic pitches you get from clients trying to get a big discount.

Overall, I'm not sure about their offering. It seems to have potential, but selling off rights to a middle man without a lot of guarantees of future earnings seems a big leap of faith. They seem to want a stable of reliable artists without putting much investment into those artists. Call me old fashioned, but I like to be wined and dined a bit.

Quote from: obj owl on September 27, 2017, 15:37

Quote from: Zero Talent on September 27, 2017, 15:16

I'm not pretending anything. I just believe it is rather safe to assume that there are not too many photographers ready to travel and shoot in that area, if any.
So counting on the full amount could make sense. But I repeat: not even this full advertised amount is sufficient to make me move my ass, let alone if, after the first assignment, I would find-out that I wasted my time.

It is definitely not about your "robber barons" myth. We have the choice to say no!

If all photographers from my area will do the same, they will quickly learn that what they are ready to pay is below the market price. Subsequently, they will adjust their rates accordingly, until their offer will make me, and the others like me, move our asses.
If somebody else is already free-willingly accepting this assignment, it means they got it right. It means this is the market price for that type of work.
As simple as that.

You need to get with the program and rack up your points quick, these people now have the Enterprise Team behind them and will grow exponentially and pretty soon they will have $40,000 commissions for the favoured few.  It's not about $680 at this time it's all about points, get off your arse before you get left behind.

Thanks! I appreciate your advice, but I'll pass!
I don't trust "points" as currency nor the promise of a better afterlife.

Yeah, the "there will be bigger jobs in the future" line seems to never pan out whenever I've heard it.

They are going to get what they pay for ...

It will be like one of those Fiverr projects where the client picks the perfect design only to learn that the designer just lifted some stock art. They should change the name of that site to "recommend a stock artist to hire by stealing their stuff". That might need a clever acronym.

I hope their prices are better than that. That's pretty low. Do they really want to destroy the whole market?

I'm perry sure a sizeable proportion of forum posters shoot video as well as photo, some have even posted that they submit mostly videos.

But indeed, that's another reason why the poll is pretty irrelevant, without knowing whether people who vote in the poll are submitting photos, videos, vectors or audio, and in what proportion.

Wait? What are photos and videos? I don't make either of those. Honestly, I haven't voted on the poll in so long because it became so irrelevant because of specialization.

In the golden days, people can sell Fart Apps for $.99 and make thousands doing it. In the golden days, there is little to no competition. The market was immature. It grew up. To some contributors, the present is golden and there is still good money to be made.

I've always found poop themed sells better than fart themed.

There's been healthy competition the whole time. Bars got raised. Amazing artists entered the market, and I never felt threatened. It just pushed me more, and I encouraged it. The market moved forward and grew with changes and innovations.

The moment I started to get worried was when a lot of that innovation and positive changes stopped. Companies reduced royalties, prices stagnated and even affiliate programs were scrapped. It seemed to get hostile overnight when companies realized that money was going to make them a lot more happy than us. There also seemed to be a trend of dumping as much low quality images on the market as possible. Honestly, places that have kept stricter review standards have changed very little or a lot less.

One of the other changes that personally hit me hard was with Google and search engines, it seemed to kick some of the smaller and boutique shops in the shins. Which is a shame because they were the part of the market that was trying to keep the rest of it honest.

So, yeah, there's still plenty of money out there, but it is not the same friendly landscape regardless of competition.

It always seemed more topic based to me. Although for balance, can we get a "grizzled veteran" section because I've seen some stuff? 

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on August 25, 2017, 00:22

A global virus that killed 90 to 99% of all stock producers? That should do the trick. Or some kind of 'carousel' like on Logan's Run, where anyone who has been producing stock for 5 years has to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of the next generation. 

Run runner!

I have been, first escape was stop feeding the parasite agencies and keep supplying the good ones that pay. But at that point, people here are all deaf, and can't hear the message. Anyone with one photo on DP, 123RF, Panther, DT, BS or anything below that, is killing their own sales, with their own price cutting low value desperation to make a few more dollars. STOP! If you have integrity and your work is artistic or out of the ordinary, stop driving your own value down.

Micro will never be the way it was. The world economy has people who live from this work, to survive. There are collective agencies that pay them per image. There are managers who own all their work, for the loan of a camera. We can't compete with that. And those same people are feeding the price cutting agencies to keep them in business, competing with those of us who have some integrity and value.

An easier answer is, world of over supply, limited demand for the product. We will all make less. Nothing will ever be the same and it will never be the way it was. Now it's all about finding a smarter way to make your product available and desirable to buyers. The nobrianer days of Micro are well past, and history. I have high confidence that the agencies will never care about us as individuals when they have suppliers begging to be taken advantage of for less and less pay.

Why are those the bad ones compared to the rest?

i do appreciate all the comments on this post, i am not that kind of person who would willingly allow for a false hope or miscalculated judgments. what i am trying to say is that you people, for sure, love photography and maybe some started doing it as a hobby like me and then loved it and enjoyed doing it. also, from what i have read so far in the forum, the vast majority are doing microstock business as a side stream income. based on that, why not just enjoy it and be a bit more tolerant to whatever this strange market brings ?!

LOL. I'd love to show up at everybody else's job with 10,000 friends, each of us taking a small fraction of their paycheck, declare what fun this hobby is for some spare change, then tell them not to worry because I have a day job. 

There's not much point in making new images for a lot of us and that was the fun part, so that doesn't help with optimism.

Is SS going to follow iStock in its footsteps as the next big stock business slowly sinking under the weight of its own size and mismanagement? I'd like to think SS is fundamentally different from iStock/Getty, but maybe it's the same kind of corporate/technical mess after all.

Makes you wonder if smaller players will show up and just start poaching talent out from under these companies. I know I'd sign up if someone offered me a salary to manage my portfolio. I like making the artwork, but can't say I've ever been great at the business part.

I'm waiting to be offered my salaried position as a contributor... waiting... still waiting...