Here you go. I uploaded about 100 clips in the first month or two I was there, then a gradual increase to 250 today.

How is it possible to have $159 in earnings? Did you forget to renew your W-8BEN?

And you're currently seeing a 29% (yearly, 36% Jan-May) drop in sales compared to last year, which under the circumstances I suppose is good. I'm currently seeing a 65% drop, but with your more unique (to that site) assets your portfolio can be more resilient.

No. Everything you submit you must own copyright to.

Well, you said this, which is correct in a way - you must of course own the copyright to the completed work.

That does not, however, mean that you must own the copyright to every single element in the image. Because you don't. Same in a photograph, you don't (and can't) own the copyright to all the elements in a photo (well, most photos).

Most licenses on stock asset sites (like Shutterstock) do not allow usage as elements in new stock assets, so they would have to come from somewhere else.

You buy whatever lens you want, and can afford. Is your goal to only ever shoot with a 200 mm lens?

On a medium format camera, none of your current lenses would work, and you would have to buy lenses that can cover that sensor. It will likely be very expensive. If you go down the medium format road, you will need deep, deep pockets. 

If you want the same field of view as a 200 mm lens on your APS-C, you would use a 300 mm lens on a full-frame camera.

Your current 200 mm lens will still be a 200 mm lens on a full-frame, if it is a full-frame lens. If you have a lens that is made for APS-C only, it will not work on a full-frame camera. If you can put it on at all, you will get heavy vignetting as it can't cover the whole sensor.

If it is a full-frame lens, it will work just fine on your new camera, but you will see more of the world from the same distance (true 200 mm, instead of cropped to look like 300 mm).

Furthermore, there are different sizes of medium format sensors, so you have to specify a camera before you can know what lens will give you the same field of view as a 200 mm on an APS-C. But it will be more than 300 mm, that's for sure. Probably closer to 400 mm, maybe something like this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1045490-REG/pentax_26555_400mm_f_5_6_smc_fa_645.html

So this question relates to both video (which I do mostly) and pictures. Obviously some of our images are becoming good sellers right away - just a matter of uploading the right content at the right time I guess. But I have read some threads claiming that on most agencies content gets higher ranking as time goes by (again - assuming the content is of good quality). In my portfolio most sales originate from files uploaded on 2016. On one hand I was thinking my new files aren't selling. But should I just wait for the new clips to "kick in"? What's your experience?

The Google reasoning by SuperPhoto can be part of it, absolutely.

But if we're strictly talking about the agency/marketplace search engines, more time by itself is negative in every search engine I've tested.

Very simplified, "Best Match" ranking is most often determined more or less like this: Sales / time. A clip with 0 sales over 1 day can be ranked high, a clip with 0 sales over 2 years will be ranked VERY low.

But, and a big but, as time passes, a clip can get sales from more specific searches, or from links, Google, etc. Enough of those, and over time, it will climb the search rankings.

If it does well, it will now rank high also on very general searches, meaning it will further solidify its position. So indirectly, more time can mean a higher ranking, but only if the clip gets the occasional sale of course.

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Let's say I have a clip of a sunset in the Maldives with a specific sand type. It will be invisible after a week for any general searches like "sunset", "beach", "vacation" etc. There are simply too many clips with many sales that will show up before it, and hundreds are added each week.

But if the Maldives becomes a very hot topic, along with that special sand type, specific searches of "sunset", "the sand type", "Maldives" will find your clip and yield sales.

Let's say you collect a good number of sales over the course of a year or two. Now your clip will also rank much higher on the more general searches like "sunset".

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A direct answer to your question: Yes, time plays a very big role. Sales, however, play a bigger role.

Yes, this is exactly why sales have stopped for us.

By default, the customer used to be presented with the filter showing ALL items.  At some point last year (look at your sales and you'll see when) they made "membership items" the default, so marketplace became invisible unless the customer switched it back. 

The moment this happened, my sales dropped around 95%. 

They have admitted they did this and explained that they're always looking for ways to "improve the customer experience."

Yes, but their goal has always been to push their membership library, for obvious reasons. They had a brilliant and unique idea to offer 100% for marketplace items so that most of us stock sellers just couldn't say no to uploading to their library.

Then it was very easy for them to just drop an e-mail and offer a small buyout fee for a part of our portfolios. They had access to all the download and search data which made it very easy to pinpoint the clips that were most likely to draw in, and keep, the customers.

Since the clips were already uploaded (again, brilliant strategy), it was a very easy "yes" for many. No extra work, just a "yes", and some $$$ in the bank. Voila - their membership library could now grow very easily and quickly, and the marketplace section was not as important anymore.

It's not like this was a secret.

Its funny that seasoned pros like Laurin have experienced decline for some time. Ss is in decline FACT. I have an image in a specific genre that comes out first image on the first page if I thpe the basic keywords but it has declined in sales.

Some "seasoned pros" have very outdated portfolios.

And are you suddenly talking about an overall decline over the years? I thought we were talking about agencies manipulating your sales month to month... Or on the 15th every month...

So, what are we talking about?

And can we see a link to your portfolio ?

Why do you need that? There are enough copycats as there is.

Unlike others, I actively work to protect my business, not invite others to compete. I've already had assets blatantly stolen and put up for sale. I know you've had that too, and I do my best to avoid it.

Shutterstock is my main source of income. But Pond5 is growing each day.

I actually wrote a full report of my earnings (yes, even the $$) here:
https://medium.com/@creativeincome/my-stock-footage-top-sellers-how-much-i-earn-on-shutterstock-pond5-istock-adobestock-71374560b3fb

Or also in video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HVD_L2EI1I

May I ask what your incentives are for writing such an article?

Do you make money from ads?

Do you just think it's fun to write?

Do you think that footage buyers read those articles and will rush to buy your clips?

Do you think you earn too much and want to invite thousands of competitors to copy your clips by showing that you can make thousands of dollars?

My country does have tax treaty with US and every other agency doesn't have a problem with that. Only VB has. Now go figure.

Have you renewed the W-8BEN? They usually require you to fill it out again each year and I know one time there was a bug that reset the W-8BEN so you had to fill it out again.

The W-8BEN works fine for me at VB and there are no taxes withheld.

I'm a professional animator, so your "ask any profession" is just wrong. It definitely depends on the scene you're working on, but I would guess that a significant amount of the computer generated stock images and videos were entirely created by one person without buying 3D models or textures.

Yes, that's why I specified detailed/complete scenes.

If what you're selling is two palm leaves waving in the wind, yes, I would hope they were created by the seller.

But any exterior real estate render - not as likely. Bushes, grass, textures, street lamps, etc. are usually created by someone else. An interior render of a kitchen with all the plates, floor textures, outlets etc. No, the majority didn't model all (or any) of that themselves.

The popular space animations you see with satellites, galaxies, astronauts, space vehicles. Nope. Models from NASA and other places.

Satellite dish time lapses on Earth. 3D models from someone else. Solar panel videos. 3D models from someone else.

Anything with the Earth, which is in thousands (tens of thousands) of popular videos. Did they model the world map? I can guarantee they did not. Willing to bet $$$ on this one. 

3D cityscapes? I see a lot of City Kit and other city generators...

Everyone has a lot to worry about from competition. I worry about it. As I said, SEO is more important than quality. Being overconfident in your work and spilling the recipe for success is one of the dumbest things you can do in a business with zero barrier to entry, and a sure way to decrease your sales.

Do the work instead of coming up with conspiracy theories all day long.

I can't possible find out all that criteria by searching every single file. If you did this with relative ease why not share the results and save us all the time ?

Well, I have spent quite a few hours on it and I'm not that helpful (or dumb) to give it all away to the competition. Do the work. And keep it to yourself.