Happy MicrostockDay to me! today marks 6 years that I started in Microstock.

It's often difficult to understand how lucky we are to have Adobe Stock.

You understand this when after having worked for 4 and a half years with Istock,you receive an email in the middle of the night in which you are informed that all the work you have done,all the sacrifices,all the time,all the effort made to improve,they were destroyed in a second,without any valid or truthful reason that could justify this.

Adobe can block our account,yes,but then after a month or two at most,it is unblocked,unless a real and intentional violation of the terms is proven and verified,but often even in this case,you can get out of it with a simple warning,then if the violation of the terms is repeated another time or two,Adobe will certainly permanently and definitively block your account.

Is Adobe Stock perfect?probably not,nothing and no one is,but their commitment to trying to be so is certainly closer to perfection than any other agency there has ever been.

today I have been a microstock contributor for exactly 6 years,and a couple of years ago,when I received that email from Istock,I had lost all hope,since I had finally managed to improve my hardware and was aiming to improve myself and my future,just then I received that email that completely destroyed me.

I still earn little,I'm nobody,but I'm improving quickly,but today,I have a completely different perspective of my future,a hope,a reason,and all this thanks to me first of all because I didn't give up,but also thanks to Adobe which makes it possible,today,for me to dream and hope for a better future.

I will make it,I know I can do it and I will!

thanks so much Adobe!

keep it up! 

I also believe that shutterstock doesn't care about our personal opinion.

But I think that shutterstock is wondering whether the approval of pngs will bring in a lot of money for the competing agencies. And whether customers might migrate to the agencies that offer pngs. This may be an attempt to get an idea. And possibly get a slice of the pie.

sure,plausible,but if they want a piece of cake they have to be willing to break a few eggs,but look like this people want to eat all the cakes without breaking an egg!

however,no,some of the png I make require several hours of work,I can't see them go away for 0.10 I just can't take it.

more AI data training material?raise investor morale?

I can't think of any other reasons.

anyway a good shot for SS,to lift spirits temporarily.

I don't think it makes much difference for the contributors,are ships that are sinking anyway.

Firefly 3 is still in beta,you can tell.

I was trying to generate something very simple,but there was nothing to do,then I kept the same prompt,switched to Firefly V2,and I got the result I wanted immediately.

Haven't posted charts of earnings for a while so hopefully folks will find this interesting and revive some discussion about our monthly results.

The charts represent January to April 2024 year-to-date earnings comparing previous years with the current year and comparing earnings by agency.

I had a BME on Adobe Stock in April and Adobe Stock has posted solid earnings each and every month for me so far this year - which is very encouraging because the agency demonstrates consistent sustainable earnings without the volatility of other agencies I contribute to.

Thanks for posting this,and exactly:"consistent sustainable earnings without the volatility of other agencies" that's exactly how it is!

for me not my BME but my BAE,best April ever!

Quote from: Injustice for all on April 30, 2024, 18:14

like many,I know you from the days of the SS forum,excellent work,congratulations! 

I don't think anyone who starts producing videos and uploading them to SS today,will ever be able to achieve these results.

I seem to remember that until a few years ago you used to make over $30k in a year.

luckily there is Adobe,otherwise microstock would have no future!

No, I'm not making $30K per year at Shutterstock, but the earnings keep rolling in month after month with virtually no effort on my part. And quite a few newer clips that I've uploaded are making good money now.  I have had a pretty busy last couple of years with regular work and have not had the time to upload very many new clips.  I'm still out shooting regularly because I enjoy it, but doing the metadata is another story.  I've got a backlog of about 5000 4K clips that are all edited and graded.  Will I ever find time to do the metadata and get them earning some money for me?  I don't know.  Too busy with other work to even think about it right now.  Metadata is the bane of my existence.   It takes time to do it well, and if you don't take that time, then why upload at all? Without good metadata it is just a waste of time.

ok,I thought I remembered a post on the old shutterstock forum,where you showed that for the first time you had reached $30K in a year,but if you say no then I remember wrong,maybe it was someone else.

however you have achieved incredible results,but well deserved,the work you did was extraordinary.

Yes i agree,metadata is as important as the content itself,perhaps even more important in some cases.

so in proportion you are earning more on Adobe,given that on SS you have 3 times more videos,interesting,this shows that even with videos Adobe has now surpassed even Shutterstock.

Quote from: Injustice for all on April 30, 2024, 12:40

my decision remains unchanged,they can keep the 50 usd,too bad it's not possible to actually give them to charity,instead of leaving them to dreamstime!

Actually you can donate to Ukraine directy from your account if this charity still exists at Dreamstime:
-> https://de.dreamstime.com/donate-for-ukraine

yes,you are right,I just checked,it still exists,I make the donation,I will never collect this money anyway,it's better to donate to Ukraine!

Quote from: Injustice for all on April 30, 2024, 05:44

@blvdone    I save time,and time is money,better to lose 50usd than continue to waste time there!

@cascoly I'm more than sure they will never lower the minimum payout,but tell me if I may ask,how much content do you have there,and how much do you earn in a year?Do you sell a lot of AI there?

i've got about 30K  images, only about 150 ai so far.  upload i easy, so i continue even though  returns are low

ok thanks,and thanks also to "fotoroad"

my decision remains unchanged,they can keep the 50 usd,too bad it's not possible to actually give them to charity,instead of leaving them to dreamstime!

the few sales I have of 0.32 come from content that I rarely sell,I don't know,maybe it's just a coincidence,or maybe not.

There is someone here who,despite being an active contributor,that upload at least 30-40 content per month on average,did earn less than April 2023?

I earned already 50% more than in April 2023,so the ranking doesn't matter,for the moment everything is fine!

we are all in the hands of the sales system.

fortunately Adobe's sales system is the best among all agencies,because it allows everyone to grow and earn more over time,unless you are a terrible contributor who only has photos of stones indexed in a generic way,well,in this case I don't think the sales system can help you much!

I dom�t think it makes a big difference because ai can also copy normal photos easily.

Only editorial would be safe from ai.

But the majority of new producvers just make copies of copies of existing content, just like they do with normal photos.

However with ai, the content is now at least well lit and has a professional look.

You still need to build a port and find your niche.

After the gold rush many ai producers will move on to the next thing.

I don't agree with this 

there is a lot of content that AI simply can't do,not just editorial,just as there is content that only AI can do,that's why it's important to try to do everything,if possible.

I definitely still have a lot of work to do,but more than anything it's also a question of time.

I am quite certain that even if I continue to upload only 20 contents per month I will continue to earn more,because I already have thousands of contents and above all it is a question of time.

but obviously I don't want to do this experiment because the quantity certainly has its weight.

better to always continue to give the best.

to change the world you have to be a dreamer!

@Pete,the key factor is most likely "when" it is calculated,and in my opinion the number of sales is the rank,but the weekly ranking changes a lot,obviously I think that what really matters is the complete ranking,that for me continues to go better,let's say I recover 100 positions every week in the complete ranking.

@Cobalt I see that you are going down quite a bit  , but i think because for the sales system,you have already reached your goal this month,as you have already earned 50% more than April 2023,and is giving more space to others,because in my opinion,Adobe's sales system must give space to everyone,and over time it allows you to increase sales,at least this is my experience.

next month you will go back up again!

I don't know about uploading to other agencies,yesterday I was comparing my sales on SS in April with the April sales of another contributor who has a much more varied portfolio than mine,as he is lucky enough to travel a lot and have more money to invest than me in general,but despite this I earned more than him on SS,even though I don't have big sales this month on SS.

in my opinion,as I have already said,uploading to other agencies is no longer of much use,it only serves to increase the race to the bottom.

as far as I'm concerned,working only on Adobe brings me many advantages,I have the opportunity to take care of my portfolio in a better way in many aspects.

I believe that someone want to base the portfolio with AI,need to produce in very large quantities,which is why I prefer to focus on real and hybrid content,because producing large quantities isn't really my style.

However,if anyone is interested in my opinion,I don't think that AI content can have a long life,of course it can be sold,but it is too easy to replicate and in general there is too much competition,working only with AI can result in a huge waste of time in the long term.

compared to april 23 i am up by 51%, so I should probably not complain. but compared to march 24 I am down by 57%...

and...it is far from enough money, so...I will complain

summer is always very slow for me.

what is good is that many of the illustrations that I uploaded last year, that never got a single sale, are slowly beginning to sell. I simply have no "footsteps" in the algos for illustration.

for now illustrations are perhaps 5% of my sales, although it is over 20% of my port. longterm I hope it will increase and I will learn what I can produce that customers like to buy.

and what about March 2023?70% more?

Cobalt,If I was already earning as much as you,I would probably have a party every day!