You know the old saying..."Those who can't do, teach." 

true,... and those who can,
either are too busy sailing
or/and won't tell you about it

why not get sjlocke here to let you in on his secret???
he makes a lot more than $1K in his first month with ss

Quote from: HappyBunny on April 02, 2016, 13:27

For a side income Microstock is far too much work and time consuming. Does anyone make money by selling my images that get printed? I am not getting sales on FAA.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

If you're asking if people are making money by reselling your micro as prints, maybe.

There could be a lot of different reasons for not getting sales on FAA. One reason could be because buyers can print it cheaper by buying your micro images. I've found that a lot of print buyers do price shopping. The problem with having stuff on both micro and POD sites is you're competing against yourself on price. Meaning if FAA has a print for $50 and the buyer does a quick search and finds the same image on micro for $5 they can buy the micro image, print it for a couple dollars at Walmart, and save $40. A 40x60 canvas on FAA can be over $600. Again, if they can buy the image for a few dollars on micro, print it at Costco for $275, they just saved over $300.

I'd suggest to anyone that you have a strategy with a consistent price model across all sites and all licensing.

good advice. i remember maybe it was you too, who once said the same thing about cannabalizing
micro port ...

Photography was a perfectly good career choice in the 80s and a nice field of study, combining art and technology.   No one could have predicted where it would end up.

it's all about the availability , as you or someone else said in another thread.
remember in the 80's we were maybe one of what??? 50 photographers in the district...
some had photo studios, others go freelance. in NYC the freelancers were earning more money
freelancing there than many studio owners across the USA and Canada.
wedding and retouching were also a "professional" job.

then as every cousin's cousin's cousin got to be a "professional" because they could afford
an automatic camera with BIGGGGGG ZOOOOM lens with the coming of auto and digital
respectively, it became saturated with "professionals".

i remember how just before that, these same people could not even figure out how to use
the gossen luna pro or sekonic meter; never mind figure out the proper fstop for depth of field
manually,etc...

it also started the introduction of department store photo studio where the christmas portrait
with santa and the elves wearing purple suits (*underexposure*) ... and every customer was so
happy with their christmas portraits with those multi size pictures on one 8 by 10.

time capsule till today, it's quite a big step for mankind, isn't it???

personally, if i were to be a photographer today, i rather learn to do the jive, waltz, tango, rhumba,etc.. and become a dancer teacher.
it's highly unlikely there is going to be an automatic learn to dance invention to replace
the dance class.

p.s.

update, last minute...

got a newsflash ... a moment ago,
HEADLINE-   Shutterstock shareholders rejoice for contributors to cease being microstock.
Over the board increase of all usage fee to the old school stock photos rates.

For me they could all dissapear in a big black hole as they care a rat about "suppliers"........

careful what you wish...

for many here, like it or not, ss is still the main earner for them.
we still all make money there... maybe less with absence of the $28-102 single commissions
but still getting paid monthly.

until we find another agency that can replace the history of ss and stability,
(like Tror says rightly) the only one that did not screwup the contributors,

i think many still , unlike you, give r*t-ar$e for ss

Quote from: Alamy on March 30, 2016, 05:34

...Just drop us an email at [email protected] or PM me the image refs here and I'll take care of it....

Alamy support is excellent. They are polite, helpful and prompt - you couldn't ask for more. I recently wrote to ask if they could cancel the deletion of images I had scheduled late last year (when I was thinking of making some images exclusive to 500px, before KK Thompson nuked that notion). I couldn't see where to do that from the contributor interface.

They wrote back that it would have to be done there end and shortly afterward that it had been done. I wish it weren't so exceptional to have great contributor support, but kudos to Alamy for theirs!

that i agree too, but then again elena (if i recall of feature pics), linda of yay, john griffith of cutcaster,
.. all excellent in CR. but CR is not the only impetus to submitting your work there...
sales is.

and to give credit where it's due, ss has always been prompt in responding to their queries (via Contact us). they may not come here to do so, but why would they if you know how to direct
your personal issues to them via their Contact box???

Some people would be interested in having an expensive new device to impress their friends.  A few hotel lobbies and medical offices might nibble, but in the end they don't really care about what's on their walls and won't spend money for that purpose - and they won't want another device to fiddle with and maintain.   FAA has a long history of chasing after the Next Big Thing while neglecting the core business. We've seen licensing, 'designer discounts', the mall retail deal, and now this.

precisely my point why it will sell ! like all those bells and whistle in cars, or digital cameras, gadgets for "guitarists, drummers,etc".  gadgeteers have lots of money to throw to show their buddies they have the latest NBT as you so rightly calls it.

the "pros" don't need all these things, and will not waste their money upgrading every year to the NBT.
the market is always alive with the guy and gal who wants the NBT.
it's what shareholders like to hear... quick profit, no long term value.

you can see it as you drive along the streets during garbage pickup days in the "wealthy" district...
lots of last year's NBT on the sidewalk. still new!

Quote from: BikeTourist on March 29, 2016, 12:57

Quote from: Rinderart on March 10, 2016, 00:50

Funny that true editorial Means News worthy to some And a position of respect.Not just another person in a crowd with a camera. what microstock and wireimage has turned it into. In My town [Beverly Hills] anyone can shoot a premier or red carpet. . Hell in the alley behind my House every day are 50 Paparazzi waiting For Kim or Langoria to come out of Craigs restaurant. Thinking it's Important. I have to chase them away. These guys gave up doing stills 3 Years ago. all Video Now.

I'm so old school (or just old) that I think of editorial as photojournalism, telling stories through a picture or series of pictures, not always newsworthy but encompassing human interest as well. I think of Eddie Adams, Mary Ellen Mark, and Alfred Eisenstaedt (the list is long) as master story tellers whose work these days would be rejected by SS reviewers as not meeting their standard of quality before content.

I hear ya. and how much do they make. these kids with a camera or video. about 30 Bucks if sold.

i think it's time we stopped feeling sorry for ourselves.
old school is finish... we went from view to medium format to 35mm;
film to digital; and now digital to mobile.

looking back, i was greenhorn fresh out of school, and got paid $150 to $400
per photo-essay (a write-up + 50 bucks per b&w photo) each weekend with the newspapers.
these days, i have to get over 400 dls to even earn the lower bracket.

if i keep crying victim, i 'd shoot myself in the head and blow my brains off
or drown myself in drugs or whatever

it is a good idea, definitely. more in line with the painters you see at the plaza in Italy,etc...
who tells me they do make a good living in spite of having to pay a hefty fee to be there during tourist season.
it all goes in line with the thought that human-beings are good and seek fairness...
as opposed with the get-rich-quick mentality that you have to exploit ppl to get rich.
or as one fella so puts it, most ppl will wish you "make a living".

so, where did microstock go wrong to think giving away or making the most for me and least for you mentality??? a long time ago, stock photography was a bit steep, and now it's pennies or peanuts
for monkeys.
somewhere in between must be the answer... as they call it "the middle way"
but who is going to lead the way to burn the castle of microstock out or tear down the "berlin wall"
or microstock???

Thanks to everyone for all the help. I have a couple of weeks until the surgery. I know the chances are all will be fine but I want to make sure my wife and children can pay the mortgage just in case!

My passwords are mostly saved on my home pc and I will get a guide together for my wife on how to cash out. I think I will also write a letter but suspect she may need a something from a lawyer longer term saying she is the beneficiary of my will. At least it seems like none of the agencies have a clause to try and grab our IP if we pop our clogs.

If an anonymous woman comes on asking for advice middle of next month you know what happened 

i suppose another way is to just change the paypal or where the money goes...to your wife's
and have a joint account where she can transfer from paypal or wherever.
this way, she already will know what to do during your recuperation
and she will do it for you .

i think that should work, since the payout , say of most agencies, is based on the email address to paypal, etc..
so you can change that , right???

do whatever's easier for her. she can then continue even if you recover.
good luck, every success in the surgery.

as so well said by kslbear..
but also it may be a bit different according to your country and the agency.

generally,
it requires the family send the death certificate, saying you wish to close the account.
or if your heir has the right as to the estate ,
you get the letter from the will "executer()" which verifies you are the legal heir
of the estate, to which the agency will then transfer the name to the name of the rightful heir.

for specifics, it is fastest to go to "contact us" of each agency and
write them to say urgent question re last will and testament ...
or something like that in the heading.

yes, as kslbear points out too, esp if your earnings is substantial, it should be handled
the same way as your other estate issues (house, land,etc) since it is like a bank account,etc...
if not, it will be just like those many unclaimed bank accounts
that goes into your country's central bank and filed under "unclaimed".
although i am sure the agency will no doubt not do anything
since it really does not know you are really dead 

Quote from: Elenathewise on March 24, 2016, 18:00

New investment came in from China. Visual China Group. https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2016/03/tech-startup-500px-creating-high-value-jobs-in-ontario.html  ... I am deleting my stuff at the end of the month.

This gets me a bit riled up.  Yay, great for Ontario.  But they don't go into explaining how it affects Ontarians and Canadians along with the other "7 million professional and hobbyist" contributors.  Obviously this is why the drastic cut in royalties.


Edit:  I had a little rant.  Why can't I tag Kathleen Wynne though?   
https://www.facebook.com/lorraine.swanson1/posts/10153578066702992

i have nothing against chinese or canadians (istock is based there),
but along with this other thread from a chinese
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=27293.msg0;topicseen#new
and when i mentioned about businesses turning to china to a group of chinese people locally,
they sort of laughed and say , "when our business ppl sell you something, you can be sure
we want to not only make 100 percent , but we will want to earn another cent on top of it."
and when  i told them about this move by 500px, they laughed and say, "who in china
pays for anything? the rich ppl did not get to be millionaires giving you anything,
and they do not expect to pay for anything either".

this sort of worrying explanation why not to expect anything better, no???