I started in 2012 with images on most of the major agencies. SS approval took me 2.5 years to get. I realized few things in these years.
The old method of starting from Zero to building an empire does not work anymore in stock market. May be it will but the path is real long and you will fall on the sides with lot of pessimism and sliding sale numbers. However, the fundamental things are still working for many. I know and can quote the production houses which are doing it full time and have staff of 12 to 20 people to manage this as business. One such studio is in Estonia and that is on SS doing great business. Another is VIA films on SS which is also doing great. All of them operate with market worthy gears and produce content which is being used by commercial clients. 

I have positioned myself to the same direction now. Invested money into gears and now I have small team. We can win this with numbers in our favor. The lone submitter with no support may have small success in stock market. To sustain this business, you need structure in place and production goals. I want to do it full time now.

There is another route too which is traditional which is : Setup a company for selling direct. Operate a site with your content. And then seek investors. After few years, sell the business to someone and exit.  I do not like this model. I would be working on first.

Got much sales on Adobe stock. The highest is $28 and the lowest is $7. While on other stock sites, the sale volume looks ok. Nothing to worry about so far. Also, I am making transition from images to videos now with 4K standard to begin with. The video sale is also picking up.

For March, I would not say that it is worried state but the situation must improve. Nearly all cameras are delayed. Production work is halted. We can still produce some how but the consumer is worried and is working from home. They are not sure when the audience to their work will be available.

looks good not better. But better than Many others including shutterstock and adobe. I began uploading videos to istock as well. So far so good. These numbers are absolutely better than other all in each counts.

Last two months were bad. June is superb. Those 0000001 sales are no longer there. The PDF report is big this time with good spread.

Tried to google with no success, may I ask what Xpikes is? Software? App?

Thanks!

Quote from: 08stock08 on June 19, 2019, 23:11

The first production of 7 4K videos have been accepted by Adobe, Shutterstock, 123rf  and few others. So far there are no rejections. These test videos were shot in low light and objects were illuminated by table lamps. I expected unacceptable grains while shooting. I did not need to denoise any of them. The clear day shots will be awesome. Did not get the chance to shoot in day so far. Life had been busy with day job, I will be hitting the available weekend this week. I plan to go out and shoot some non-nature videos. 

I figured out the video keywording software. Xpikes is doing good job with videos too. 

Next problem to solve is to produce the mov files for istock. Mov files are bigger than mp4. The generation of mov file is too slow and too long. will have to figure out.

Anyone aspiring to venture in to footage, may find this thread good to begin with. So far, I think, anyone can replicate what I am going through and expect the same results. Yes, the money will too follow soon.

Exact name is xpiks. Google this term, the first site is xpiksapp , thats it. It is free and good.

I received the cam and tested it well. Now the first 7 4K vidoes have been submitted to several agencies. Going 4k is certainly a journey itself. My laptop did not work with Premier Pro and everytime I tried to export Mov, it crashed. The mp4 format export was too slow. Its an old laptop with 8GB RAM. Switched from premier pro to hitfilm express. It did good job. The denoise feature is missing. Everything else is lite and good.  I am using free version which is full studio. Works well with my laptop. The newest issue I am dealing with keywording videos as stocksubmitter did not embed keywords in videos like it does for photos. For now, dealing manually and filling on the sites itself. I hope to figure out the better way of dealing with keywords on videos.

Quote from: 08stock08 on June 11, 2019, 17:42

Is anybody else getting the prompt to Syncing Adobe ID with your Fotolia  on adobe stock id. Looks like the adobe stock and my fotolia id are not in sync now. I enter my fotolia login and password, I am getting "account is in already use". and it comes back to login dialog boxes again. Anyone else or just me having this issue?

This is an indication you were signed in with a different Adobe ID than the email associated with your stock account. As you noted, signing out then signing back in with the correct Adobe ID should fix this when it happens.

-Mat

Thanks Mat. Apologies for confusion.

Is anybody else getting the prompt to Syncing Adobe ID with your Fotolia  on adobe stock id. Looks like the adobe stock and my fotolia id are not in sync now. I enter my fotolia login and password, I am getting "account is in already use". and it comes back to login dialog boxes again. Anyone else or just me having this issue?

Quote from: 08stock08 on June 05, 2019, 13:45

Finally today on 15th day since my last sale, I got a sale. Adobe can show us the views  data as fotolia used to show. It enables us to see that things are moving.

How big is your portfolio, how many sales you have  previous year compared to this year?

2500+ images. This year was good untill May.

Thanks dear all for your responses.
I was thinking to keep the DSLR and video camera separate from each other. That is the reason I was looking for pure video camera and Black Magic seems a decent choice. However, the cost wise, upgrading to D850 makes sense if over $1200 money is being invested in video camera.  Because the old nikon DSLR will be upgraded to D850 for image work. May be it can work for video and images both. However, the mental itch will remain 

Please recommend any camcorder or video camera for 4K. I already have a DSLR, shooting video with that is problem with the Battery. My DSLR shoots only HD. Looking for something not very expensive, the beginners budget or medium size cost.

No, the dry season continues. Something weird this time. No sale since 20th May.  With Fotolia, we could see the views to ascertain that something is happening.

Nothing beats image of real objects while this has been established with decade old CGI and other automation options. Same is true for human generated and machine generated music. Generating images and music from computer is still expensive for being production grade. The real stock image is much cheaper.

For pension idea, it has to be mix of several things. First, the stock image portfolio requires 2-3 year of severe hard work inside the studio. If you cross the magic figure of 30,000 images on sale in your portfolio, may be it can replace your main job.  The safest investment is in gold. It is timeless and its appreciation is sure thing. Stock market carries highest risk. If you have money, let fund managers manage your portfolio.