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Messages - cobalt
3551
« on: December 21, 2014, 11:39 »
Well, creating stock media files is something that takes years to learn. there is a reason why in some countries commercial stock photography is a six year university degree. Obviously you can also do it by yourself, but from what I see it takes many,many years.
The first thing to learn is to become an excellent illustrator artist and the best way to do that is to work for real live clients or be employed by a design firm. When you see in your day job how graphic art is used,what is it that people will pay money for etc...plus your boss will make sure your quality is good or you simply wont get paid.
And then you can build your stock portfolio on the side.
Obviously,unless you try you wont know if it is the right thing for you.
In my experience though,many people are attracted to stock because they want to get out of their day job and think it will be an easier life. But the reality is that for most people it will be hard to achieve a decent living wage,because it is such a complex industry and changes very,very quickly.
You need to be a great artist, you need to find a niche you can either dominate or become one of the top 100 to really make it work,you have to constantly invest in equipment,software and be ready to learn new techiques,you have to watch overall trends - color schemes,fashion,trends in how society is changing, follow a lot of advertising trends and somehow still be able to create your own style of work that people will recognize.
You need your heart,your gut and a very business devoted mindset to actually make money. And be very, very honest with yourself.
It is the right thing for me, but I usually dont recommend it. Everytime I mentor someone I realize how many things I have learned over the years that I just take for granted, but then you see how long it takes people to actually learn it.
Its like dancing, some people can do a few basic steps, others dance with Alvin Ailey and others just do silly clips for youtube and become millionaires...
ETA: I doubt anyone will recommend a well selling niche to you. It took them years to identify it, youll have to find your own path...
3552
« on: December 21, 2014, 11:11 »
If you have top level quality you will get excellent returns. But is what you are producing top level?
You are competing internationally against artist with 10 year experience who keep uploading superb work every day.
are you ready to work very,very hard for your success? It's a business, you get out of it what you put in.
3553
« on: December 20, 2014, 15:09 »
smartphone images are a much bigger market than just eyeem...there is a reason so many agencies are now writing apps for it. But like with all things stock, the majority wont make money from it, but there are quite a few interesting smartphone artists out there. It is not as easy as it seems, if you want to do it well.
the stock market overall is huge, all kinds of specialized niche agencies, also for high end content. But I think unless you do stock full time it will be very difficult to see where the money is.
3554
« on: December 20, 2014, 09:55 »
the newbies quit after trying it for a while. the number of people getting online worldwide is still growing like crazy,so is the spread of smartphones. the more smartphones,the more people who will try to make some money by uploading through apps. I would expect the volume to grow very strongly in the coming years.
3555
« on: December 20, 2014, 06:19 »
Overall the stock world will become even more diverse and more confusing, which again will discourage the amateur shooter,because it will be very difficult to predict not just what to shoot but which marketplace is best to sell it through.
modern stock is all about quantity and big portfolios and workflow, the average newbie has no chance to win at this game.
exactly what I mean, we will see lots and lots of people every year trying to get into the stock game, but because the initial returns are so low, they will soon move on to try other digital ventures. Even very good people will have a hard time to survive as a single artist. So unusual original material will suffer, because the stock factories will have to shoot mainstream to survive. Of course it will still be possible to make money in stock, but you will need a huge portfolio to make it work,so I suppose for the single artist it will be best to treat stock as a part time job. But many very good people are deciding to invest their time in other projects where they can make more money.
3556
« on: December 19, 2014, 12:05 »
I think the market will lose quite a few talented and very experienced stock shooters,unless they can get their content into higher priced agencies like stocksy or offset. The returns on the micros for stills make it very difficult to predict when the investment will be recovered. And the people that know how to organize, plan and calculate shootings, when they look at the bottom line, many are concluding it is more lucrative to do assignment work.
However with smartphones and filters becoming more and more sophisticated the influx of new people and new content will steadily increase, however it will be increasingly difficult to find the right type of content. Too many people, trying things that are too simple for longterm success. And because they dont get the returns we used to get in the good years they cannot afford to invest and learn, the way we did.
I think it will be necessary for agencies to look how to actively nurture the curational talent in the crowd. There are simply too many images coming for a group of company paid editors to sort. And the world is a huge,global and complex beast,which company can afford to have specialists for all subject matters,all styles etc...?
The demand for stock media will continue to grow,if anything the coming generations are much more media savvy then we are now. And they will use cross media,photos,videos,audio for many different projects,just like people are buying different kinds of writing paper and pens today.
So curational talent that combines many different media successfully and makes it easy for people to follow,discover and buy,something like pininterest for stock, I think this would help everyone.
Personally I want to do more shoot upload repeat and will try to organize more shootings together with other artists instead of working on my own. Not just to share costs but to be able to create a bigger variety of concepts together. Then I will try to pool these files in combined lightboxes/galleries. If these can be shared with other artists like: "stock production from Cologne" that would be even better. Trying to create smaller,networked "virtual" agencies and boost each others work within a common sales plattform.
The agency world will continue to be multi polar,SS, Fotolia,istock etc...will not disappear. There might also be a few more specialized and tightly edited collections like offset and stocksy.
Overall the stock world will become even more diverse and more confusing, which again will discourage the amateur shooter,because it will be very difficult to predict not just what to shoot but which marketplace is best to sell it through.
But for myself I am very optimistic that 2015 will be a great year.
3557
« on: December 18, 2014, 12:33 »
this is my main problem that keeps me from selling direct. I really dont have the time and energy to follow the complicated eu vat system and changes. Ill happily pay an agency to handle these things for me.
3558
« on: December 11, 2014, 16:57 »
very interesting. this could mean quite a boost for fotolia, to be part of the adobe creative community.
what will the other players do now?
3559
« on: December 03, 2014, 05:54 »
Its ok. SS leads,followed by istock,pond5 and stocksy, then fotolia.
I upload more, I earn more. The way it should be.
3560
« on: December 02, 2014, 05:34 »
Welcome! 
3561
« on: November 25, 2014, 08:27 »
Its a small agency, their online community life is all in German. They also coproduce together with their artists in Germany/Switzerland/Austria, so I think it makes most sense to apply if you live in the region and can benefit from working closely with them.
However there seem to be a few stocksy artists there, so if you are interested in working with a macro agency or have previous experience with Getty macro or maybe Corbis, you can apply.
I dont know how difficult it is to get in, I met them at a dinner during mexpo and then applied and they took me.
Why not just write to them to find out what their procedure is.
But keep in mind that working with an agency that specializes in distribution means you dont get any real time sales info and that because their many different partners might take files only once every few months it can time quite a while to see your files spread around the globe. It is a different way of working and you have to be very patient.
My portfolio is still new and very small, so I cant comment on sales, but from what I hear it is similar to what you would expect from what we had as Getty house artists. Except that you are not limited to getty, but your files can end up on offset, corbis,masterfile and many,many others. But - they also might not go there, so for instance I have found my files on Corbis but not (yet?) on Offset or Getty.
If you want the real time sales experience, then stocksy is more what people are used to from microstock. But the prices on stocksy are limited to 100 dollars (plus extended licenses). Here your files will be offered for much higher prices (529 euros in Germany), but with discounts can also end up with sales that are lower, like on Getty. But no subs sales. And they also sell direct here in Germany.
But the artists who have been with them for a long time, seem to be very happy.
I dont know how many more artists they want to have or how they want to grow.
Maybe just write to them and ask when it is best to apply or what subject matter is on their needed list.
Overall the biggest advantage in my opinion is that they take in a huge diversity in styles and subject matter. They have such a small group of artists but get an incredible variety out of them.
3562
« on: November 25, 2014, 07:06 »
I am seeing quite a big jump for PP sales,looks like three times more than September.
Around 25% of my income for October is PP.
Overall the month is 30% less than October 2013.
3563
« on: November 25, 2014, 06:34 »
They have been around for 11 years, more than most agencies in the market. And they dont depend on microstock, their main income is from macro and direct sales here in Germany.
But like I said, i am keeping my own portfolios,but will specialize them more. So for me this is a good option, but nobody has to follow my path.
However I am not aware of any other macro agency that offers specific micro distribution as well. I just see blend, tetra etc...distributing older content via the micros, but maybe they offer a micro distribution option for their artists as well, I dont know.
In the end it is not different to sending files to stocksy,getty,spacesimages... or any other excusive sales/distribution agent. There is always a risk, but by spreading files, you lower the risk.
3564
« on: November 25, 2014, 03:10 »
maybe there is someone out there who is ready to connect people and offer something like this as a service. Westenend is a Macro Agency, this is just an add on for their Artists.
might be a market niche somebody could develop. Perhaps in combination with hosted webshops or direct sales shop of the material.
Or specialized by themes, food, medical images, only families, only for the asian market etc...
3565
« on: November 24, 2014, 17:51 »
yes you can, if they earn double than i would myself because they have for instance a much higher ranking at fotolia, while my individual account is still bronze, plus higher rankings in searches...etc...
Ive looked at my numbers and for me it should work. But everybody has a different situation. Also depends on what type of content they will take, how much time it costs me to produce them etc..
Will this be the best system forever? I have no idea...but I see it as an interesting opportunity and another option to move files around with less work.
However I wont close my individual accounts.
The alternative is to hire people to produce more volume. This is less risky.
Westend61 pays 50% "forever" after you reach a base level. 40% is just when you start.
tuned in is one more collection for their artists, nobody is forced to take part. Many of their artists have never done micro, they just want to shoot and are happy to let someone else do the rest.
So you can send them macro, only RM, only RF, only smartphone images, micro or everything.
It is up to the artist, this is just one more option.
3566
« on: November 24, 2014, 16:44 »
You make it up by better placement in the search engine and by moving up faster across the levels. At least that is the idea.
As a single artist, I cannot produce very high volume of images every month to stay visible. But if we bundle our uploads, the westend portfolio will rise up for all of us. Many agencies will increase the visibility of your images based on the size of the batches you upload. If you can upload 500 files a week all files will be pushed higher than if I send in 50. And the westend portfolio will reach silver/gold/ruby/diamond levels long before I do as an individual.
I just joined, Ill see in a year how it goes. But I think it is worth testing and if I am happy with the results, then I will feed my own portfolios with more specialized content. or I send a special theme to westend for the micros and other things to my normal micro portfolios. We will see.
I am not going to close my normal accounts or pull my files. I see this as an additional opportunity and if it works well, I should have more time to focus on what I love.
The other alternative would be to hire staff and produce higher volume,which is what many smaller studios do. But i dont want to become a studio, so this is another way to do it.
3567
« on: November 24, 2014, 13:59 »
If they do that, how many customers will they lose? On SS and other places you have smaller sizes available and regular discounts so that customers have options for 10-20 dollar files. If pond5 wants to raise the base price by 300% it would make sense to offer multiple sizes.
3568
« on: November 18, 2014, 09:02 »
i really enjoy the mix of freedom and sales on pond5 very much. I sincerly hope they become just as strong in photos as they are in video.
3569
« on: November 17, 2014, 17:40 »
i would like to experiment with higher prices on pond5 and keep them only there for a year or so to see what happens.
But all I can do is write in the description field that these files are only available at pond5. or maybe I could make a lightbox with exclusive content.
but I think it would be useful if I could somehow visibly mark a file as an exclusive one,maybe with a star or a red frame so that it is easy to see.
however, I don't think exclusive content should be favored in the search and I wouldn't expect more than50%. i think the fact that I can set my own prices is value enough.
Maybe if enough artists are interested an option in the search filter for exclusive content would be useful.
but search results should be as always, only if a file gets lightboxed and bought should it rise in the search.
and of course,all totaly voluntarily, nobody should be forced to upload exclusive content. Not even series exclusivity, let the artists find their own system.
3570
« on: November 16, 2014, 02:56 »
As a contributor, with commercial images, you also state that "this image does not violate the rights of others". When you upload an image to an editorial section, you do NOT state the same. From my point of view, as a contributor you are on the safe side when someone uses an image you uploaded to an editorial section because with that you already make a clear statement that the image contains unreleased content and it's the buyers risk to use it.
I wouldn't have any problem allowing any image user to license any of my images for whatever they want to if they want to take the risk.
You are not a lawyer Michael, I would be very careful to generally believe you are not liable or safe from harm if you upload content as editorial. And the biggest problem of a court case are the costs and time involved. Even if you eventually win the case,you might go bankrupt inbetween, because you cannot afford the running fees. The question: do you believe anyone could take your material as an incentive to sue you in any way, even if they were in the wrong...then I wouldnt allow my work to be used otherwise. But I would make that decision very carefully for every individual case.
3571
« on: November 15, 2014, 03:35 »
If I could move I would probably go to Berlin. Excellent work environement, lots of Models,locations and much lower cost of living than many other big cities in Germany.
3572
« on: November 14, 2014, 18:43 »
Yes, I learnt the last days that the way for videos to go to bigstock is via ss, not by direct upload as I was told.
so at the moment I don't have to worry that my files will be affected.
Do those who have files on bigstock know about this new offer? Maybe they were asked and agreed to this experiment?
or perhaps it is their own content? I mean, if it is their own files, they can obviously do whatever they like.
3573
« on: November 13, 2014, 13:52 »
i would need to see proof of super high volume downloads, like hundreds a day or thousands a week. like on istock in 2004 with photos.
but I doubt the video market will ever have a size where 30 cent sub downloads will bring sensible returns.
It is too specialized, video has never been as big a hobby as photography.
3574
« on: November 13, 2014, 13:47 »
Pond5 and SS are 90% of my video income. i am seeing a slow uptick in video sales on fotolia, but I suppose this is because I am European artist.
I was quite enthusiastic when istock opened their vastly improved upload system, but now I have paused all uploads there because of their extremere low 3-7 dollar royalty.
I hope they will adjust it, the way they already said, they would change it for illustrations. then I would be happy to upload regularly. A multi polar video market is better for everyone.
3575
« on: November 13, 2014, 13:36 »
i am sure this is SS's idea. But this doesn't mean it will be automatically transferred to SS.
My video income is 90% pond5 and SS. So having to drop SS, or downgrading them to a place "for testshots only" would be really sad.
Mostly I worry about agencies taking in content under one business model, then abruptly changing that business model without giving us an opt out, the way fotolia did with DPC.
if this new subscription offer was a new standalone agency and they invited contributors to upload content...
who would send them files for this?
I think they would have a very hard time attracting normal content.
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