Difficult to say whether you should try or not. What's your niche? If you don't have one, you'll probably struggle as a generalist.

I'm on my way out of microstock, after some 8 years as it's become rather pointless for me, both financially (all my earnings are public on my blog) and emotionally. But I'm grateful as uploading to micros during all these years have pushed me towards creating book covers which is something I quite enjoy and there's $ to be made with quality content.

Oh, have also recently purchased a drone and even though I'll upload the content soon to the usual suspects (after getting all the compliance out of the way and learning how to use it), I'll soon try to find specialist agencies that will pay what the clips are/should be worth.

Best advice is: don't quit your day-job for this business!

Thanks for your comments...please don't shoot the messenger

Even if some claims sound outright ridiculous without any reliable stats to prove (giving away free pics will lead to more sales of paid pics), it's worth listening to what the top guys in these agencies are thinking so we can adapt accordingly. Like it or not, the free-download model is only going to grow and we need to be aware instead of burying our heads in the sand hoping it will die off.

Vecteezy do have a "pro" section for paid-downloads which I'll give a go. At this stage, as my earnings have decreased so much I have almost nothing to lose.

I saw several of my images stolen by theses contributors :

Nice you saw several. I see 100s of stolen portfolios still operating.

US inflation will likely drop below 5% by the end of the year, EU even lower.

i've started a new thread for this topic before it distorts this one https://www.microstockgroup.com/off-topic/where-is-inflation-headed

so far, i havent seen any inflation related changes - after a dip in 2020 & recovery, sales have been on a steady decline - nothing i'd ascribe to inflation. 

Yes, inflation should drop below 5% per year soon, according to economists as interest rates are expected to steadily rise in the West. Although war brings uncertainty and this latest Russian adventure was not in their projections, the price of WTI is up some $30 in 2 weeks, to further impact on the cost of living.

Nevertheless, even at a more modest 3% a year for the next 10 years, means that $1k earned in 2032 will only be worth roughly $700 in today's value. If anything agencies need to be increasing our royalties not reducing them! But anyway we all know that the business model is broken and there's not much we can except slow down investment in time/equipment or try to find more profitable ventures.

Someone in Belarus just purchased a license to this image...

Quote from: Brasilnut on February 25, 2022, 12:52

Quote from: Brasilnut on February 25, 2022, 10:05

I'm heading shortly to a protest at the Russian Embassy in Madrid to get some content. Wish me luck!

Without getting into politics, captured some cool shots and uploaded them to Rex Features (now Shutterstock Editorial) and Alamy Live News. Shot about 1 hour ago so time was of the essence for these breaking news type shots.

I've never actually sold an image on Alamy Live News (only later as a regular stock), so hoping it will be my first.

Serious question. Of course you are legally allowed to take these photos and license them as Editorial without model releases, but how do you decide with regards to the safety of the people there. For example some these people very likely have connections to Ukraine or Russia and could be back in these countries at some point. They could be in real danger if anyone recognises them, and of course these photos are easily searched and catalogued by bad actors thanks to keywords etc. Just wondering.

It's a good question. Not something I have thought about...until now.

The way I look at it, there were at least a dozen journalists there and some recording video non-stop....live streaming, etc. Also, I'm sure that the Russian embassy across the street also has a CCTV device (one that is clearly visible - see pic and there by might be others) and who knows these days what they do with the info.

So my pics are just a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of content that is being produced especially since I was only there for about 45 minutes. Obviously this is not an excuse and if anything happened to those people because someone spotted them via one of my pics, however unlikely, means that I would be indirectly responsible.

In the end I truly believe that there comes greater good by covering newsworthy content in a transparent way as it's a crucial part of living in a free democracy. 

I'm heading shortly to a protest at the Russian Embassy in Madrid to get some content. Wish me luck!

Quote from: Brasilnut on February 01, 2022, 16:37

Quote from: Wilm on February 01, 2022, 16:18

When over 13000 images bring $39, then it's time to question whether it still makes sense.
The other figures also brutallyhonestly show that microstock is a discontinued model.

Thanks for your info, Alex. As far as the trend goes, it's in line with my experience.

Indeed, probably time to pack it in soon or relegate it to some sort of masochist hobby.

If I do ever decide to commit to Microstock I'll have to have a business strategy like Kaspars who I interviewed in January.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/01/10/interview-with-kaspars-grinvalds-lifestyle-microstock-photographer/

The guy is a Microstock beast and earns regularly EUR 4K a month on "just" 9,376 images and 4 agencies. His content is really technical excellent with trending concepts.

I've had a look at the portfolio, Alex.

You wrote that he earns $4000 per month with just under 9,500 images. That's certainly a decent rate these days. But I also see a lot of different models in his portfolio. Are the costs for that taken into account?

$4,000 is an average gross income in Central Europe. If there are too many additional costs (models, rent, equipment, software...), then there won't be much money left over to live on.

Therefore, the figures are not extremely impressive by local standards.

True, he mentions gross earnings...not sure how much he spends on models, etc.

He did mention in the interview that he often photographs his wife, so that should help to keep his costs lower.

Randomly checking up on how some of my best-sellers on SS rank for certain keywords and was surprised to see that some of those best-sellers have listed to buyers as "Never Used".

Here's an example of one of my best-sellers from Sept 2015. I've randomly checked other best-sellers and have encountered the same issues. How about yours?

Perhaps to entice buyers to use it so that it's more unique to their content, which would be fraud. Or at the very best, just plain old negligence. I'm all for more sales but not if you need to trick buyers to achieve this result.

I'll create a thread on their forum, oh wait, there is no more forum 

Quote from: Wilm on February 01, 2022, 16:18

The other figures also brutallyhonestly show that microstock is a discontinued model.

No, they show that it is a discontinued model for Alex, unless he changes his model or microstock changes. Obviously it is not working for him the way it is now. There are people with smaller port size, but bigger earnings.
 I made more in January from Shutterstock alone than he made with 16 agencies combined and SS wasn't even my best earning agency. Whenever I write stuff like this I fear people might think I am here to boost. I am really not. Compared to some other people my microstock income is a joke.
I just feel the need to point out that Alex is not representative for the whole microstock market. Different people produce different content, some things work for microstocks, some don't. Some things work better at certain times than other things. For example, it's not surprising that someone who spend years building a microstock portfolio focused on travel photography will not see the greatest results during a still ongoing world pandemic with travel restrictions.

Well put and pretty much sums it up.

My results are disappointing to say the least but I'm of course largely to blame. I've focused on a travel niche that is both expensive and not highly paid, while not hugely sought after, especially during the middle of a pandemic.

It's been a choice all along and even though I've delved into model released lifestyle stuff and composites, it's not something I particularly enjoy(ed) even if I know for a fact that it would bring in more returns. For those that have been following me for a while, about 3 years ago I decided to focus more on videos but even that isn't bearing fruit. Perhaps with some quality drone shots that will change.

I'm not greedy and have no intentions to make this a full-time job, my expectations have always been realistic but anything under $800/month at this stage in the game is simply a disaster. Hope that this year at least the average earnings will balance out at $1k/month on average which would be acceptable but seems quite unrealistic at the moment (only real hope are the book covers). $1k a month would be enough for guilt-free gear upgrades and travel with enough leftover for some surprises. The rest, to cover my living expenses, I can make with my dayjob, photography commissioned work and freelance writing.

If I choose to continue with Microstock it's insanity which is defined as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting expecting different results". I'm glad I managed to get a bit of tail-end of the good times of the business back in 2012/2013. Nowadays, I'm hoping that I can give away most of my Microstock images for a one-time fee for $5 as was done with AS and not look back.

Happy about book covers and it shows Greener pasture there, or I should say a torture chamber of dark themes Here's to death of Microstock!

When over 13000 images bring $39, then it's time to question whether it still makes sense.
The other figures also brutallyhonestly show that microstock is a discontinued model.

Thanks for your info, Alex. As far as the trend goes, it's in line with my experience.

Indeed, probably time to pack it in soon or relegate it to some sort of masochist hobby.

If I do ever decide to commit to Microstock I'll have to have a business strategy like Kaspars who I interviewed in January.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/01/10/interview-with-kaspars-grinvalds-lifestyle-microstock-photographer/

The guy is a Microstock beast and earns regularly EUR 4K a month on "just" 9,376 images and 4 agencies. His content is really technical excellent with trending concepts.

I know I read this a few months late -but thanks so much for sharing the tips re:Arcangel

I've been concentrating much more on fine art this past year with growing sales and I realize that some of my moodier concept art might be right for Arcangel. I've considered applying before but fear of rejection kept me from doing so. Your post has me thinking it should be on my resolutions for 2022 and since it's still January it's a timely goal to add to my list.

Thanks as always for your in-depth report.

You're welcome

No harm and sending over a first batch, even if it's rejected you may receive some feedback to improve for next time. Embrace it and try to improve...we often think that our work is better/more commercial than it actually is.

Glad I stuck with them, already anticipating that my goal for 2023 is to give up completely on Microstock (right after SS adopts the "free-download model"). Let's see!