those who think rm is the solution maybe not have done a lot of rm or don't know what they talk about...rm is a t dead end...most of time you are earning low money like rf but sal are one a t month.
i'm talking real rm dedicated agency, alamy is  in the middle...maybe you can have one giant sale at year but you need something really strong or have a big name between advertiser company..
i collaborate with the most important documentary agency in usa and this month i had one sale for 64 dollar....of those 32 went to the agency who sold it...26 to my agency....and 6 to me...it makes 10 percent royalty....for those who complaint about istock....and i have a royalty of 50% but most of files are sold by 3 party so i get sometimes 25 sometimes 12 if 4 party sale it...in my opinion if you not do well in rf forget rm.

i am contributing micro since 2006...till 2016 i uploaded just 1500 files...i had money and travel a lot, i collected file who never put on sale...i worked more as documentary and collaborate with rm agency mostly or news....i had big photos sold for more than 20000 euro by demotix for example...so actually i didn't find interest in rf.
but i still got good earning.
last year i decided to clean all the backlog i have, more than 260k files not touched collecting dust.
between them i have choose rf alam and rm content to send to some agency i want collaborate, one is stocksy but it not opens the door so i will send to my documentary agency i think.
since march 2016 i had uploaded 4000 files in ss and i can see the benefit of this with sale growing every month.
i have still a gigantic backlog to work so no need to create a lot. i add that i m uploading more commercial files compared to the past i uploaded only editorial.

ss and stock are growing at 50 % month, since january 2017...the rest of agency are dying..fotolia, which works for many,  for me is a dump....this month so far ss has 98% earning 2 % dreamstime fotolia the rest zero. i don't know why i cannot
sell good in fotolia, but i suspect since i not upload nothing till 2016 and my new files goes undiscovered pretty fast.

Quote from: wollwerth on July 03, 2017, 08:43

It's easy to have a BME when you've only been around for a year or two. I've been with Shutterstock now for 12 years, and June was the worst month in 5 years, down 50% from last year. Something is seriously wrong.

I totally agree. I've been doing this for 10 years and June was not good. I wish there was a way to put how many years someone has been doing micro under their name. I think it would be a valuable insight for people reading the forums.

Why do you want to discredit people who are newer? Used to be Lagereek would demand that people couldn't answer his messages unless they had 2,000 files accepted. Is that a way to shut off anyone who's positive or doesn't wallow in the misery we find here day after day? 10 years you could have 200 files, or 10,000. Time doesn't make you better at quality or more experienced at making what buyers want.

Myself ten years, June 2017 on SS was double June 2016 or 2015, June 2014 and 2013 were half of 15 or 16. My earnings are growing because I upload new and better photos that match what buyers want. I don't upload subjects and concepts that are over supplied, unless I have something that I think will be better than most of them.

I still have a number of page one in the search for common terms and words that buyers would use to find a specific subject or content.

Chris can come back with a new name ever few months and hammer us with how the old days and trads were better, or how RM is the answer. Many of us switched to Micro because it was the future. The good old days and the past are not coming back. RM is good for some specific areas and agencies that deal in niche markets, but the Micro "Make Money at Home" group isn't going to be taking over or getting accepted with those places.

Face the facts. Most of Microstock is hobby and there are very small numbers who make a living doing this. Most who are any sort of success, use this market as supplemental income, not a full time job. The income and entire Microstock market isn't reliable.

Look at the poll on the right. This is people here, many who are serious and work hard at making money from Microstock. If you worked all of them showing, the top ten, you would make $700 a month. SS contributes nearly half of that, and many of us don't upload to many of the middle tier which are actually low earners.

Is $30 a month good income? That's what the Middle and Low are averaging. You can make MORE that at a minimum wage job working one day a month!

Yada, I didn't mean to discredit anyone in their 1 or 2 year sales stats but it is hard to draw conclusions over a 1 year span. The first 1 or 2 years always have significant growth - it is interesting to see 5 years and 10 years sales data. Just my opinion...

well 10 years ago was easy to earn due to low competition....if u not earn now with competition maybe all fault is not rf....your niche, children photography is one of the most saturated. maybe if you begin understanding this you should improve. if you have decided that uploading is useless and rm is the only way to go you are ready to have a big disappointment.. rm is much more difficult of rf.

Quote from: angelawaye on July 04, 2017, 09:38

Yada, I didn't mean to discredit anyone in their 1 or 2 year sales stats but it is hard to draw conclusions over a 1 year span. The first 1 or 2 years always have significant growth - it is interesting to see 5 years and 10 years sales data. Just my opinion...

well 10 years ago was easy to earn due to low competition....if u not earn now with competition maybe all fault is not rf....your niche, children photography is one of the most saturated. maybe if you begin understanding this you should improve. if you have decided that uploading is useless and rm is the only way to go you are ready to have a big disappointment.. rm is much more difficult of rf.

Ouch! I kind of feel attacked here. What did I do? I'm only with one RM agency - arcangel. Never said it was better or worse than rf. I think you got the wrong impression of me...

Average. 

There is also a fact, that newcomers are competing with more contributors, than oldtimers did in the past, so in that sense, it's harder for them, to increase earnings.

Realy bad month. With over 15000 vectors, illustration and photos and with over 7 years working this I don't have  $15 in one day! :-(
As they close my ports!!!



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Everyone is good in June? You don't have nothing to say?


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Quote from: Misic on July 05, 2017, 23:37

Realy bad month. With over 15000 vectors, illustration and photos and with over 7 years working this I don't have  $15 in one day! :-(
As they close my ports!!!



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Agreeing!  $ 30 per day but used to be 80 plus. Game over!

, this is really game over!
They don't need the quality only quantity!
Over time they will lose the customers!!! And the game will be over for them to!


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