Quote from: HalfFull on January 12, 2022, 15:08

Quote from: Wilm on January 12, 2022, 12:24

Quote from: HalfFull on January 12, 2022, 08:40

SS - $152 approaching level 4 but lots of $0.10
AS - $535 approaching a normal month

How many images and how many videos do you have in your portfolio? Your numbers are strong.

AS - Images 16k - 2.5k Video
SS - Images 12k - 2.5k Video

I don't upload as much to SS now, much of my focus is on AS.

Sapphire? Emerald?

That's a blast from the past. I had to check... a couple of k of Sapphire.

SS - $152 approaching level 4 but lots of $0.10
AS - $535 approaching a normal month

I like the way they combined all threads about it, then locked it and finally moved it to a quieter spot of the forum 

Since everyone's predictions for 22 seem so gloomy, I thought I would share some numbers to give some people hope that maybe not all is lost in microstock. I am sure it's not the "good old days" anymore and rerquired more work these days, but it's not just all going downhills.
 I am not one of the "big players" in microstock, I don't make tons of money from it, but it's till a nice amount each month that contributes greatly to covering my living costs, so definitely more than just pocket change.

Shutterstock earnings
January 20->21: +131%
February 20->21: +214%
March 20->21: +151%
April 20->21: +74%
May 20->21: +132%
June 20->21: +140%
July 20->21: +148%
August 20->21: +123%
September 20->21: +45%
October 20->21: +98%
November 20->21: +23%
December 20->21: +11%

iStock earnings
January 20->21: +76%
February 20->21: +117%
March 20->21: +130%
April 20->21: +62%
May 20->21: +158%
June 20->21: +50%
July 20->21: +79%
August 20->21: +131%
September 20->21: +33%
October 20->21: +79%
November 20->21: +170%
 
Adobe earnings
January 20->21: +41%
February 20->21: +50%
March 20->21: +56%
April 20->21: -11%
May 20->21: -12%
June 20->21: -45%
July 20->21: +99%
August 20->21: +131%
September 20->21: +35%
October 20->21: +53%
November 20->21: +37%
December 20->21: +50%

My conclusions for 2021 and prediction for 22: Not everything is on the decline. If you  keep putting effort into microstock, there is still a reward in in, income can still increase. I don't have any plans (mostly for the lack of ideas) to find a different way to sell my photos, but only plan to expand my portfolio and hopefully further increase my earnings.
Also, some conclusions at least from my portfolio:
The level earning structure on SS doesn't seem to be so bad, at least if you rise in level fast.
iSTock and SS, the agencies most people seem to hate are not only the ones that earn me the most money, but also the ones where my income improved the most in 21 compared to 20.
- Adobe, which averyone praises so much, is the agenciy with the smalles increade in earnings, even with a decline in earnings compared to 2020 during some months. Me and Adobe will probably never become good friends.

I didn't add the numbers for the small agencies, because it's so much work and also because I only joined most of them this year, so I don't have numbers to compare. On Alamy my earnings seem to be a bit better than in 20. At least they are more frequent, but with the many very low sales and me still waiting for sales from 9 months ago to clear, it's not so easy to get proper numbers. Last year Dreamstime was my best-selling agency of the "small ones", but both sale numbers and earnings are now on the decline, so not much hope for my future there.

Apart from a couple of smaller agencies,things have been good in 2021. My main  agencies provide 10%+ year on year increase in profits and I'm able to continue doing this job FT.

I see people say, "There'll only be hobbyists and part timers left". I don't buy that at all. In fact, I think it'll be that group that will bail out first. It is becoming harder and harder to make money from micro... hobbyists and part timers don't have the time to produce the volume/quality work consistently over the year to make a dent in the market. Yes, they don't need that extra money but, they'll not put up with earning a couple of $'s while using up all their spare time.

SS now reset their earnings each year so the spend more time trying to regain what they've lost... a lot of part times took a good couple of years or more to reach the previous SS max commission level. By mid Jan I'll already be more or less back to my pre Christmas level. It's certainly a PITA but I recover my previous level quite fast.

For hobbyists, what used to be maybe $50-$100 a month is most likely $15-$35 and will require a lot of their free time to achieve it! Possibly even less $. People will get bored of that quite quickly. The problem new starters have is getting from the point of nothing to earning enough to survive. That is certainly a lot harder now than it was back in say 2010 when I started out.

So far I've received 81 of these sales that result in $0.04 payment. That makes SS $0.10 seem good.

They provide very few sales other than these dirt cheap ones, normally less than 20 and they're not at the level they once were either. I stopped submitting to them regularly some time ago but this is close to seeing me pull my work from them.

"If a payment fails the system will try and make the payment again next month until successful."     

    Try this payment strategy for paying employees and see how long you're in business...

If they did do this I would be getting all medieval on them.... as would a lot of other full timers who use this money to pay their bills!

Quote from: thijsdegraaf on November 25, 2021, 04:44

Quote from: Microstockphoto on November 25, 2021, 03:41

sales are dropping, no shiiiiit sherlock, you are all selling your images for 5 dollar and now adobe takes all sales, how could not have seen this coming???

On average, my sales in a year with Adobe are not $5. If they had accepted all the suggested photos for 5 dollars I would have made more profit than otherwise
I didn't participate because I think it's going the wrong way when so much is given away for free to customers. It seems to me that with such a large offer, a customer will first look at the free photos and only if there is nothing there that he likes, at the other photos. As a result, fewer of them will be sold.
A store also tries to lure customers with bargains (not for free) in the hope that they will buy more and stay customers. That will also be the intention here, but I wonder if you can compare this with a store.

i participated in the $5 event - with NO effect on my other sales - AS earning have been stable over the last 3 years

Exactly... if anything, they went up a bit.

The problem with some of the percentages being quoted in terms of increase/decreasess in sales / earnings is knowing what is a normal sales month. If you sell 100 a month, it's very easy to see big swings one way or the other.... 500 a month is better but even at 1500 I see spikes and look back to the same month over previous years to get a feel as to the average. Swings and round-a-bouts. One month down and another goes up. Best to focus on producing the best content you can.

I work stock FT and normally hit 5k in April/May but really appreciate all the help I can get in a very competitive business. The full package is a reasonable amount each month and while AS is better than a lot of agencies, it isn�t like we�re rolling in money� as I�m sure most will appreciate.

Set the bar too low and you might as well give your software away free to all creatives. While I appreciate a lot of people do this as a hobby and the higher numbers will seem very hard to get, do they need the full package or would the choice of a single app be a nice perk especially if they don�t rely on it to pay their bills?!?

I think they�ve set the bar at a good level� it�s challenging but not too hard.

I guess it depends on what you have to sell. For me, this is one of my busiest times of year.

I don't think anyone is working at SS at the moment. It's a US holiday and judging by all the spam on their forums, they've all gone home and the apprentice is looking after things!

Thanks Mat... that'll explain that unexplained largish payment then 

Cheers!

I received word this morning that payments may not happen until tomorrow (Wednesday). There are a lot of moving parts with this process so your patience is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Mat Hayward

It's Ok Mat, I understand... the massive wagon required for my payout can't be easy to get a hold of 😂😉
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One can dream 😜

I would say that it's possible there is more to this than meets the eye but selective quoting to try and prove a point doesn't make it any clearer.