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Messages - Minsc
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301
« on: February 12, 2017, 02:55 »
So your inability to make a living in that market was totally independent of your skill level? You couldn't make a decent living making apps not because you couldn't hack it but because of some outside factor? Why weren't you one of those few hit indie developers?
Sounds like you are just making excuses because you couldn't compete.
It depends on what you consider a one hit wonder. I had a couple decent hits that generated over $25,000 in total profit with a budget of less than $1000. You're right, I can't compete with them anymore. Apps face heavy decline after the first couple months and I don't have millions of dollars to spend on ads. Besides, my time is better spent in microstock, where my earnings can potentially be more than 20x of what I earned in the App Store. I accept what can possibly happen in Microstock, and I plan to be a happy old fart contributor when the time comes.
302
« on: February 12, 2017, 02:17 »
Is it not possible that some of the complaining is by people that have reached the same point of diminishing returns that you reached in the app market? There are still people making good returns in that market that would see your attitude about it in the same way as you see the attitude of some of the photographers on this forum.
Some "complainers" here had the exact same attutude as you a few years ago when they were only a couple of years in.
The app market has been taken over by large players and there's an occasional breakout hit by an indie developer. Overall, 99% of apps don't make a profit. I'm just acknowledging the state of the App Store. I don't go to any message board to complain about it. I accepted the reality of it and moved on to other fields.
303
« on: February 12, 2017, 01:58 »
Do what, exactly? What are your solutions?
So far there have been boycotts, mass content deletions, negotiations, upload stoppages, etc., both by groups and individuals. But things on many sites just keep getting worse.
Let's assume at least some "whiners" have strong portfolios, original ideas, good niches, top equipment, both lighting and photographic, and a diligent work ethic. Probably even a positive attitude for years before things went to spit. And let's assume these guys are losing money anyway because the market is just too crowded and two of the top 3 sites and a bunch of small ones are constantly thinking of ways to screw us and keep more of our earnings for themselves.
What's your advice to those guys? If you have some great solution to the decline of microstock incomes, let's hear it.
I still make what would be considered a living wage in most Western countries, so I am not going away anytime soon, but since my current income is 1/3 of what it was a few years ago, and dropping by 15-20% annually whether I work my a$$ off or not, I will bltch, moan, whine, and complain whenever I d@mn well feel like it.
I'll bite. Photography is one of the easiest hobbies to get into right now. Everyone and their grandma has a camera with a phone. There are 600 million Instagram users and many of them consider themselves photographers. The stock photography market is one of the most saturated markets in existence and the value of photos are dropping by the day. There is nothing anyone can do about it. Everyone already knows the laws of supply of demand, so it speaks for itself. So what is the solution? There is no one solution that fits all. There are a number of solutions and whether it works or not depends on the talent and determination of the contributor. So what are possible solutions? 1. Diversity. Photos, vectors and videos. A pure photography portfolio is going the see faster continued decline than a diverse one. 2. Think commercially. Original ideas doesn't mean anything unless it's something the buyers need. I've seen some of my original ideas getting outperformed by non-original ideas by 100-1. 3. Stop going after niches. Pebble watch tried to fill a niche and now it's dead, got destroyed by Apple and Android watches. Niches always get filled in by the big guys sooner or later. 4. Learn some SEO and keywordings. With 100 million images on SS, top-notch keywording is super important if you want your work to be found. An image with good keywording is more resistant to search engine changes. Native English speakers have an advantage over foreign contributors and I rarely see them take advantage of it. 5. Learn to compete with the best of them. Contributors are not entitled to get sales because they uploading some images, just like how college students are not entitled to a job just because they have a degree. Buyers only need a few images and if what you're offering is not up there with best of them, then the buyer will pass your image over. That's just reality. 6. Learn a new trade. Microstock was my 2nd passive income trade, right after developing apps. The App market has gone to **** and Microstock is heaven compared to that madness. Less work and much higher returns. I'm now working on my 3rd passive income stream and it's starting to gain traction. 7. Accept that the market is never going backwards. No nuclear bomb will be going off destroying everything and rebirthing the market. Even if does happen, all the contributors will fill it back up in a matter of weeks. The market will continue to saturate, just like every other industry in existence. This makes point #5 super important. So go ahead, bltch, moan and complain. It won't solve problems. Meanwhile, some optimistic upstart somewhere is determined to create and upload high valued content and start eating other people's lunches.
304
« on: February 11, 2017, 18:02 »
Looking at the world with rose tinted glasses doesn't change the world only your perception of it. Sometimes complaining is the first step to changing things, more often it's not, but you have to test the waters. It's not all negative.
Complain if you can change something. Don't complain if you can't. If my neighbor is blasting his music at 2am, I would complain to the landlord. If the neighbor is a contributor and he's making 5x as much as me, what's the point of complaining?
It's not really about looking at the world with rose tinted glasses. complaining about falling sales isn't going to stop all the other contributors from uploading new work. The only thing you can do is analyze your portfolio's weaknesses and learn to compete better against an ever growing competitive environment.
You are not getting it, remove the glasses, but then again you don't even follow you own advice.
If you want to complain, no one is going to stop you. I'm not here to convince people, only offering a solution. I've interacted with a lot of negative people over the years...they always have a problem for every solution. This is no different.
305
« on: February 11, 2017, 17:06 »
Am I the only one that could care less about the map? It is just a pointless gimmick. I guess if you only make one or two sales a day it could be fun to see where those people are from. As a useful tool to help me run my business it is utterly pointless.
If they get rid of it, I wouldn't care at all. It's fun for the first few times you look at it, then it becomes useless.
306
« on: February 11, 2017, 17:05 »
Looking at the world with rose tinted glasses doesn't change the world only your perception of it. Sometimes complaining is the first step to changing things, more often it's not, but you have to test the waters. It's not all negative.
Complain if you can change something. Don't complain if you can't. If my neighbor is blasting his music at 2am, I would complain to the landlord. If the neighbor is a contributor and he's making 5x as much as me, what's the point of complaining? It's not really about looking at the world with rose tinted glasses. complaining about falling sales isn't going to stop all the other contributors from uploading new work. The only thing you can do is analyze your portfolio's weaknesses and learn to compete better against an ever growing competitive environment.
307
« on: February 11, 2017, 15:05 »
It still feels good to let loose about it even though it won't make a difference. I find comfort knowing I'm not the only one upset ... we are in the same boat.
True but in the end just complaining achieves nothing you have to do something or it becomes whining
Now that's the truth. Complaining is contagious. Once you start complaining, your brain starts to adjust itself to accommodate negative thoughts. The more you do it, the more it accommodates and the next thing you know, you're complaining more and more often and your productivity goes to hell. Then people you interact with starts to complain, influencing you to complain even more. I have no doubts that the recent political landscape greatly contributed to the increase complaining, either consciously or subconsciously. I'm not so innocent myself. I used to complain a lot and it took quite a bit of work to adjust my own attitude.
308
« on: February 11, 2017, 13:30 »
FT is now #1 for me. It was inching closer and closer for months and then it finally took the top spot. It continues to improve consistently while SS fluctuates with all the changes.
Maybe SS will take back the top stop. They certainly has the potential to.
309
« on: February 09, 2017, 18:25 »
All right then - can anyone give any concrete reasons to be 'optimistic' about microstock?
Can anyone give any concrete reason to be 'optimistic' about startups, the job market, politics, life, work, relationships, the app store, anything? I can write 10 reason, but why bother? People has already made up their minds. Individuals need to convince themselves, that's the only reliable source of optimism. It's incredibly easy to be pessimistic, but it takes a lot of determination to be an optimist. I have my many reasons to be optimistic. People need to find theirs.
310
« on: February 09, 2017, 14:07 »
All newbies and all "optimists" should print these words, frame them and hang them above their desk or bed.
AFAIR, Stockmarketer used to be an "optimist", too.
BTW, Stockmarketer do you have an exit strategy or a lifeboat? I am trying to build a lifeboat myself, but it is very difficult.
So you're suggesting we shouldn't be optimistic? That's quite pessimistic. Optimism is a great difference maker between moderate success and greater success. There's a lot been a lot of complaining lately in politics and that subconsciously spreads to every aspect of daily life, even the life of a contributors. That's why I avoid the negativity. If anyone is still optimistic here, stay optimistic. It'll keep your mind clear and your goals in perspective.
311
« on: February 04, 2017, 00:17 »
AdobeStock is the future leader. Some people can't see that. Financially and from an artistic business sense, they are smarter.
SS has got to catch up with forward thinking, or be passed. IS is already sinking and hopeless to try to rescue. I think Getty has seen that and is dumping IS and us.
Agreed. SS is just a 1 trick pony, but a very popular pony. Adobe has so many products that they can integrate their stock business with. They're already doing it with Creative Cloud. They may integrate it with Adobe Post and Adobe Spark next, giving their stock business extra exposure. They definitely have more potential for growth.
312
« on: February 04, 2017, 00:10 »
I hate to point out the obvious, but we all have good and bad periods, beyond the usual. I'm having a good week also. Somewhere else, someone is saying this is the worst week ever.  Might be what material we have, the season or just something that buyers happened to need.
I've been having first time sold for a couple weeks. What? Stuff that hasn't sold in years, just suddenly gets a download, while a million new and probably better files, come in every week. What's that about? I like it, but sure is a mystery.
I'm at top level. No reason for SS to be pushing my junk to the front for less money. I never bought that claim anyway. I don't have an answer, makes no sense. Never sold, undiscovered, old images from years ago, and now I get sales?
Next someone will make up some deep reason why I'm getting sales and they aren't like tweaking the search. So why would they treak or twist the search for my old files? Bonus time for people who's last name starts with the same letter as mine.
Or maybe there are just good and bad periods at random, beyond the natural flow. There's not a conspiracy or twist or something behind the scenes that's agencies are doing to manipulate sales. Maybe people are searching so hard for reasons that they make up answers for things that have no easy answer!
Yes, Microstock itself is going down the toilet. For us as contributors. There doesn't have to be some dark plot or secrets behind the why. There's far to much accusing and false claims going around to explain what was predicted years ago.
Microstock will be crushed under it's own weight. That weight is the number of files and cheap images on cheap sites. Quality will always sell, but cheapness is millions of new files a week, smothering the marketplace. We lose, they win.
Stop finding excuses and blame and see the truth.
If someone has a low number of sales per day, they're more probably likely see fluctuations. My sales are very consistent and I don't see a lot of fluctuations between days. This week, sales are noticeably up and I'm talking about 10-20% higher than every week since mid-November. I'm also at the highest level, and I haven't seen any difference in terms of sales. I have a theory on why there are more first time sales than ever. If I recall correctly, in the old Image page, they only showed 1 row of 'Similars'. Now there are 2 rows. The chances of your old images appearing in the 'Similars' section are much higher than before, giving your image a chance to be downloaded. Conversely, this also means your image is also less likely to be downloaded if the customer originally clicked on your image from a search. Contributors gain some exposure for some images, but are exposed to more competition by the 'Similars' section. I don't know the algorithm behind the Similars section, but I'm guessing they show a mixture of new, and old images. The non-contextual "Same Artist" used to show similar images from the same contributor and people would download multiple images from the same set. Now that it's non-contextual, contributors are getting less downloads. Despite the heavy competition, I still believe there is good money to be made.
313
« on: February 03, 2017, 19:48 »
I like the visual appeal of the new interface. However, it doesn't quite work right on mobile devices. I agree with all who are saying purchases should all be shown on one page instead of switching between multiple. However, I can live with that. The thing I really would like to see go back is sorting on the Insights pages. I sort by Total Number Sold. The new method of Dollars Earned isn't as helpful to me as I have files that jumped way up because because of single high-dollar sales.
My number two image listed on the page I know has only sold twice, but I only know that because I remember. Just looking at the stats it appears like it must be very popular, when really it's not, and if I uploaded more like it I wouldn't have much sales luck.
If you're on mobile, you should use their app. It's so much cleaner and easier to use.
314
« on: February 03, 2017, 19:47 »
I think FT is the best agency right now. They've become my best earner and I'm very happy with them. There's less competition on there than SS and they've been quietly purging spammers in large numbers. I remember seeing so many spammers (repeating images and vectors like it's on SS) about 2 years ago and now they're all gone.
315
« on: February 03, 2017, 19:34 »
Sales have picked up lately. This is the best week I've had since November.
316
« on: February 03, 2017, 14:36 »
It's poor usability design. You have to click more than before the see the same information, like 3 more clicks. I stick to the app these days. It's much easier to navigate.
The new design does lighten the server load for SS though. Maybe presenting everything at once was too server intensive and this new design was created to make the things run faster.
317
« on: January 31, 2017, 14:56 »
A late surge of ELs and SODs turned January into a decent month. I didn't expect that much from January anyway. That late surge gives me hope that February will be a good month despite being a short one.
Companies should have their budgets figured out by now and they should have more of a stock budget in the upcoming month. Just like everyone else, my sales has fallen a bit as well, by about 20%. With the new format, I think good content and good keywording is more important than ever. SS has really made the entire site a bit more competitive among contributors and if you half-ass anything, it's going to be rough.
318
« on: January 31, 2017, 14:49 »
123RF has been slowly rising and it's consistent. It's only a fraction of SS and FT, but it's a nice extra bit of income.
319
« on: January 31, 2017, 14:42 »
New images take time to establish on FT if it's in a popular category. Just be patient and wait. If your work has commercial value, it will be found and once it gets downloaded, it'll start climbing the search results.
320
« on: January 26, 2017, 12:30 »
The ELs and mid-size SODs keep rolling in. It's like SS heard me that it's going to fall behind FT and it's making a last desperate effort to catch up. What was a lousy month is starting to turn into an decent month.
321
« on: January 26, 2017, 12:25 »
Oops, wrong thread.
322
« on: January 24, 2017, 12:48 »
Yes, but they will most likely ask for a photo reference.
323
« on: January 23, 2017, 17:24 »
Had my first EL of the new year. Haven't seen one of those in a while. Hopefully all the companies will increase their stock budget for February.
Sales are chugging along, but it could be better. 100% sure that FT will overtake SS for the first time ever this month.
324
« on: January 17, 2017, 14:44 »
The new image page does seem to have changed things a bit. Sales dropped a bit since November 21st, but I still can't pinpoint where it changed since image placement remained the same.
The 'Similar Images' are much more prominent than before, which actually benefits other contributors almost as much as you. You do all the hard work of placing high on the search and now it benefits other people. Someone can look at the similar set of images and next thing you know, they've clicked away to another image.
This presents a problem and a benefit. If you have a better image, there's a good chance they won't click away, but if another contributor has a better one, then there is a good chance the buyer will click away and you lose the sale. The benefit is that your images could also show up in 'Similar Images' for other contributors search. This really pits contributors against each other and it's the survival of the fittest...or in this case, the best image.
The "Same Artist" section is a mess at the moment. It doesn't show anything that's relevant to the search...just the most popular images from that contributors. There's almost no benefit to the buyer since it doesn't have context. They really need to fix that so the original contributors has a chance to fight back against the 'Similar Images' section.
For the last couple months, sales has fallen roughly 20% on SS. Things are starting to look up though. Today had the highest volume of sales I've seen in a long time, almost as high as pre-November 21st levels.
325
« on: January 11, 2017, 12:31 »
The holidays hasn't been kind, unless you have a lot of Holiday and New Years related images. January will be worse than November for most people, but February is usually the moth that goes back to normal.
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