It really must be a slow news day, if this made the nightly news... goodness gracious.

Angela you have nothing to be ashamed of.  This is just a baloney news story, and these people being interviewed know nothing.  There is a huge need and a market for EVERY type of image, both authentic and posed / corny / stereotypical.  People are going to try and say this or that, at the end of the day who gives a rats cooley if it's selling and paying your bills. 

Even if some don't like the corny posed and stereotypical type images, guess what!?  Millions of folks are still buying them, thinking that it's what folks actually want to see on their company website or advertising.  What do we care... I am not losing sleep over it.  I produce both types of imagery, and will continue to do so. 

I'm done focusing on microstock as my main and sole income from here on in.  This year is the last straw.  The last few years have been down at least 25%, consistently.  I will be supplementing this dying income with other photographic opportunities, from skills I've developed through this business.  So for me it's like this...

Thank you, college... for the 4 year BA degree that got me a job working as a full-time graphic designer for almost 4 years; which then introduced me to stock imagery; which later became my main income source for 8 years full-time... now on to the next adventure.   I'm still thankful to the microstock community for helping me get through the last decade financially. 

You have to view everything is a stepping stone.  Businesses and commercial industries change all the time (supply/demand).  Hardly anyone retires from the same job anymore.  You have to constantly re-invent and morph your career as you need to.  It's just how the world works nowadays. 

Stock will still be a side-hobby, but with dwindling returns at best.  Is it still worth me submitting?  Maybe for a little bit of extra income.  It's definitely not going to be cost-effective in terms of your time, for too much longer.

The search feature is awesome, but can you please make an option for it to search also through sub-folders?  I have my images organized this way, and I'm sure many others do as well.  If searching from a parent folder, can you make it so that all sub-folders are searched as well!?  That would me amazing, if it would be easy to implement.  Thanks again for all of your hard work 

Excellent post HalfFull - I think this is exactly what's happening.   "...there is a a cut off that slows sales down once a threshold is met" - that's what I see. Which brings me back to my original question - does SS decide how much to pay each of us and we're just getting a salary? It sure feels like that to me. What's the point of improving then and growing your portfolio? Motivation - down the toilet...
Time to move out of this business.

Amen, sister friend.  I've uploaded 511 images so far this year.  The quality of my images has improved better than anything I've uploaded through my career.  I have been focusing more on photos however, rather than illustrations, vectors, or raster graphics.  511 uploads is not my best performance, but I've been kind of discouraged with these earnings (so what's the point of killing myself to try and make a few more bucks per month?)  Some artists who are hustlers, as I used to be, can easily submit 100 new images every week.  I'm done killing myself for diminishing returns. 

Now is the time when microstock really is only pennies, per hour... at least from new work!  My motivation is gone as well.  Why?  I have no shame to share my actual earnings from newly approved uploads from this year, as they are almost laughable.  Here's what I've figured out: 

From those 511 new files approved, I have earned a whopping $1-something-per-hour (from time spent actually working) on Shutterstock alone, which is an agency that makes up 35-40% of my total income.  What is my motivation for staying in this business?  Back in 2008 if you uploaded 500 new images, you'd be earning $500 more collectively, per month.  Much different than today.  Yes, I can go out and grab a corporate dayjob to double my income right now.  I'd rather be poor and have no stress.  And yes, the newly approved images will earn more in the years to come... but not that much more, the way the files keep dumping in.  Market saturation is a bigger beast than any of us individually can control anymore. 

The "backbone of the company" statement I made was incredibly misunderstood.  Contributors as a whole are the backbone/product supplier, is all I meant.  That doesn't mean we still can't be under appreciated or jerked around by complicated back-end ranking or capping systems.  Maybe you guys are on to something.  I just know I'm done working for slave wages. 

What's my solution?  I'm moving over to one-time-commission-work and freelancing, with stock as a solid transitional back-burner income.  I can't apply for unemployment, being self-employed, so whatever trickles in from stock residual earnings is as best as I'll get.   Time to start making the transition because for me, the 10 year full-time income run is now beginning to show the ugly signs that it's soon over.  This year I should make about 50% of the income I made at my highest yielding year. 

Business sense tells me - I'm beating a dead horse.  It just isn't going to magically wake up.  It's time for me to move on, and I think it's been a long time coming.  No more paralysis of analysis for me.  Time for me to wake up and smell the coffee... because someone has to pay my bills.  I'll always love stock and continue contributing whenever I have spare time, if I feel like making slave wages in my spare time. But other than that, it's not the most lucrative choice for me anymore.  For other artists, they may be seeing different results.  I wish them the best in the road ahead   It's not going to get any easier.  Prepare yourself for it.  Change sucks - but it is inevitable in this life. 

Do I blame these changes on the agencies?  No, I don't see how we can do that.  I don't see how I could begin to blame any agency.  They're in the same boat.  Do you blame the grocery store when there is a chicken bird flu, and eggs are now $4 per dozen?  The suppliers get the blame, not the middlemen.  In our case, we can't control the fact that our market is being saturated at a rate that no one can slow down. 

Elena - on the other side of the coin, is this.  How many people do you know that can get regular raises every year at their dayjobs?  Not many... usually they are few and far between.  If you can still do what you do and enjoy the freedom and extra time that self-employment awards you, and still at least MAINTAIN your current income, then it's not as bad as it seems.  I still don't think it makes sense for me, to work any harder just to keep having my income decline.  My income will be down another 5 figures this year, over last... for the second year in a row.  I personally don't think I can keep up with how quickly the rock is sinking.  If things level out by year-end, then perhaps I'll change my mind... but I seriously doubt it will.  Even if I edit and submit another 1000 images from my hard drive before year's end. 

I honestly do believe there is a delay or server lag sometimes, because you can sit there and refresh your earnings for an hour at a time (sometimes) and not see a change.  Even on high-earnings days.  Although those seem to be fewer and further between, lately.  It might be a technical thing.

I don't think Shutterstock is "skimming" or limiting us in our income potential.  All contributors are the backbone that helped them gain and continue to hold their top spot in the microstock market.  They haven't been shady in the past, and let's hope it stays that way.

I will on rare occasion sell a file within the first week of it online at Fotolia.  For the most part, sales there seem to be sort of like Dreamstime, where they have to age like cheese or wine before really building steam.  There is no more "feed the beast" anymore with microstock.  It's a momentum quality and quantity game now.  You don't make instant cash anymore from uploading like a fiend... some slow long-term risidual cash, but it's not like it was back in 2008-2010 

LOL at Sean's link ^^^

Don't forget this guy.  He's added even more!
http://www.shutterstock.com/portfolio/search.mhtml?gallery_landing=1&gallery_id=1256674&page=1&safesearch=1&sort_method=newest

Don't you guys realize!?  Limited commercial value is reduced, when minor variations are produced times infinity.



Kids in Africa are starving over the amount of money it's costing for the bandwidth and server space to host all of these gems

Every year my earnings drop from 20%-30% on Alamy.  Yet another blaring instance of market saturation.  I have about 75% of my portfolio uploaded there so far.  It's probably not even worth my time for me to submit the rest, unless things pick up.  It's more likely that I will grow a third nipple from accidentally eating a moldy piece of fruit. 

That's around 6000 images out of almost 62 million...  If my math is correct, that means I'm personally holding .000096 % of the market share, baby!  Talk about domination.  Anybody want to buy me out?  LOL I crack myself up. 

The tax forms to fill out for PIXTA are a nightmare... it's almost worth it to leave the 20% withholding in tact, unless you are earning thousands each year here.  https://www.pixtastock.com/faq_contributor#Will_my_earned_credits_be_subject_to_withholding_tax

I never had to jump through that many hoops to get my payment with 0% withholding for other agencies and other countries... so it makes no sense to me.  USA has a tax treaty with Japan.

Try creating images, not just capturing whatever you stumble across.  Be the director.  Plan more.   Put some more thought into "why someone might need this" or "how someone could use this".  If it's too specific, keep moving along. 

Stumbling across random crap is lucrative for stock, only if you have the right eye for it.  Right now, what I'm seeing is a portfolio of what everyone's mom with an iphone shoots.  Keep trying to throw some more ideas at the wall, something is bound to stick... and maybe then you will have found your style or niche.  Best wishes

I have always put my highest quality images on microstock, and (there are exceptions) but usually they make more sales to justify the extra time/investment spent on them.  End of story.  Works for me.

Do what you think you can, try hard, and ignore the general population of naysayers.  Back in 2008 it was all "doom and gloom" on this exact same forum... I'm still waiting.  Maybe the "wave that will be crashed by 2009" passed right over us so quickly that it evaporated.  I was sitting on my butt on the beach yesterday with a rum drink in hand, enjoying the company of my girlfriend and relatives, earning some nice passive residual royalties.  It's a semi-retired feeling.  It came with a ton of work over the years, but once the ball is rolling with some momentum, you can reap the rewards.  It's not a true retirement, but if I were honest about how few hours I actually work each week, I would probably be embarrassed.  I kick myself for not working more full-time weeks during the past 5 years.  I'd probably be making double my income.  But then again, not all of us live to work... I prefer to work (just enough) to live.  This field comes with its pros and cons.  I'm a glass-half-full type of person. 

To the OP - if you want to build a nice passive, side-hobby income, then go for it... anything is possible with hard work and ingenuity.