$105 for this one and I don't think even think I did a great job to correct the barrel distortion

Quote from: Brasilnut on December 22, 2021, 10:49

I've had images sold within 5 mins of uploading (the breaking news kind)

The next future Yuri! You need to tell us your secrets 

Keyword beforehand, shoot, take out laptop, run to nearest cafe and upload...earn!

It's fun but pitiful earnings for the work involved.

Quote from: Brasilnut on December 21, 2021, 06:23

Quote from: Level6 on December 20, 2021, 11:09

The new compensation model allows contributors to receive a true percentage share from each download, rewarding content creators for producing quality work that is fresh, relevant and currently in demand by our customers.

This sums up SS...by the way, the port is full of stolen images.....

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/Rockkss

Have you reported it to SS or don't they care?

I did...3 years ago.....and they don't care.

Do you guys move after you have taken photos all around you or is it in your opinion just a waste of money because there will be another stock photographer living everywhere? I could start taking photos of every flower I see but photos of flowers I took never sold very well.

I move every two or three years for work - no, photography isn't my full-time job, unfortunately. The stock content I capture is incidental to where I end up. Firstly to London then Netherlands, then Italy, then Portugal, then Madrid. Where to next, not sure. It's fun and a good way to get out of my comfort zone, plus apparently it slows the perception of time since I'm always having new experiences.

If you geo-tag all my pics you can probably quite accurately pin-point where I lived/worked as I'm shooting so much locally.  There is so much more to shoot than flowers.

Interesting question.

I voted for "It's hard work but if you invest the time and effort, and work smart, and learn, you can earn some money."

My reasoning is that since Microstock has no (practically) barriers to entry it can be a smart/easy way for my friend to earn a "free education" on the basics of a good commercial / editorial stock photo. If any $ is made is just a bonus.

I'd advise my friend to try to quickly discover a niche within micros as the market is already oversaturated with pets, flags, sunsets...unless done extraordinarily. Then try to get out of micros!

I'm glad I got into micro photography but I'm finding myself devoting less and less time to it as I'm going after greener pastures as you all may read on my blog. My next frontier.. a drone.

Quote from: Brasilnut on December 05, 2021, 07:17

For the sake of balance, if you mention 7cent sales I feel I have an obligation to also mention the huge sales that may occur at Alamy. Two of my examples from the 8 months. $250+ gross each x 40% for the net.

For the "sake of balance", you should say the same thing about those 10 cents from SS. 

My average sale at SS this year has been 58cents/download, which isn't great. 2020 was only slightly better at 59cents/download.

2017, 2018 and 2019 were my peaks at an average of 74-72cents/download.

Not looking great for the long-run for average download commissions.

Speaking of risky shots, can't believe I got away with this one...

It has sold a few times but doesn't even come close to justifying the risk!

Anyway, with regard to one thing you said: 'as images on Arcangel sell (on average) for 100+ times what they would sell on a Microstock agency' I just worked out my sale in November.  I earned $130 and I tend to receive 10 cents for most of my SS images.  That's 1300 times more on Arcangel 

Thanks all for your nice comments.

can't argue with that statement!

Just put out a new post on the emerging "Metaverse" reality and how we may profit from it as stock contributors:

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2021/11/20/get-ready-for-the-metaverse-future/

I've been paid for my 1st Arc sale.  A little disappointed in that it was just under a 3 figure � sum.  However, it's a lot better than microstock.

I believe from what I've read that the smaller sales � amount is probably due to lower distribution/licensing numbers.  It's a German language novel only, as far as I know only printed in Switzerland. 

I think that English language international best sellers will earn more.

So, the project is that everyone who reads this please buys this novel, to turn it into a bestseller, that will then be translated into several languages (for which I think I'll be paid again).

You may have to learn German 1st.

Christof Gasser: 'When the Shadows Die'.

Incidentally, for anyone who cares to look, the red brush strokes are mine (on an authentic vintage photo).

I was in an email discussion today with Ole (formerly of the Sstock forum) about whether the contributors who spend more (in money and time) say on models, sets etc, are paid more, but my gut feeling is that it's just down to distribution numbers/usage of the image.  I'd love to know the answer to this question ...

Congrats again on your first sale, many more to come.

I don't have a huge sample, just 17 sales but my UK and US royalties are about double that of other countries. So, you're right that if it's translated into English you should expect some good returns.

Repeat sales are the beauty of the Rights-Managed model and one such book has sold 4 times, earning me commission on each sale.

Yes, it's purely down to print run and perhaps resolution size of the image used. There is also negotiations going on between Arcangel and the client, especially if they are a regular client.

Investing in make-up, clothes, setting and post-processing with a strong concept should help the image stand out and in turn sell. I'll be heading down to Granada during the Christmas break with my girlfriend and research some Arabic clothes she may wear when we visit Alhambra!

Quote from: Brasilnut on November 11, 2021, 05:42

Quote from: DOP on November 11, 2021, 04:23

Quote from: Brasilnut on November 01, 2021, 03:06

Welcome to the October 2021 detailed monthly report during these increasingly normal times (on the surface at least).

In addition to the earnings report, check out a summary of a super useful/interesting chat with Nash Mascaro, Sales Director at Arcangel who served me a large portion of humble pie and valuable tips on improving my approvals/sales over at Arcangel.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2021/10/31/october-2021-brutally-honest-earnings-report/

Hope you had a good month and keeping healthy.

Alex

Do you know Alex how many contributors Arc has?

Don't know, but easily a few 1000. Most are no longer active.

As of today, Arcangel boasts 847,652 online images (of which 1,055 are proudly mine ). Drop in the ocean but growing!

Just seen that you've had a whole raft of new images published on Arc - that's no mean feat! Looks like your conversation with Nash paid off 

Also, just read your interview with Kerem Gogus on your website.

Great article + what a brilliant artist he is.

Appreciated Kerem's attitude to creating art and not just thinking about the $, I trust that he'll have success at Arcangel much more so than at the micros where they don't value his work.

Here's a link to the article for all those reading: https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2021/11/13/interview-with-keremgo3d-creative-digital-artist/

As for my port at Arcangel, having a record month number of accepted at currently 48 (here's 4 recent ones) Nash's talk has certainly helped to bring down the rejections to a much more reasonable 30-40%!

Quote from: gemmy12 on November 09, 2021, 11:28

Yes Dop. How can you not know about your sales..

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 09, 2021, 11:16

Quote from: DOP on November 09, 2021, 09:11

I've had one sale when I got to about 100 images and have been uploading for a year.
Unfortunately I still don't know how much I've earned.

How do you not know how much you earned if you made a sale? Don't they tell you?

I'm awaiting an email telling me .. there's no interface like there is with Sstock etc.

At at beginning of a given month you'll receive a notification by email if you had a sale go through on a previous month.

In the meantime, the best place imo to check for sales is by searching your name + Arcangel on Google Books. Will also show some interesting results for sales via microstock agencies.

'Keep in mind that the more famous the book/author, the larger the potential royalties'.

Is that because what we are paid depends on the size of the print run?  Also, am I right in thinking that under this sales model, we can be paid again for the use?

Thanks as ever for sharing your stock photography journey with us 

You're welcome...it's a fun journey which helps to take my mind off my relatively dull corporate day-job.

Not 100% sure how the royalties work (as not involved in the negotiations)...some details here:

https://arcangel.com/buy-stock-images-illustrations/

I only upload Rights-Managed to them so I've received repeat sales for the same image that were printed for different countries.

Following the logic, if an image is selected for a big-time author like Stephen King it will be printed in dozens of places for 100,000s of copies so would produce potentially large royalties. My USA and UK sales have earned me quite a bit more than a book cover published in Poland, for instance.