Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on March 04, 2021, 14:01

Part of the problem is every newcomer doesn't realize it's in decline and many don't care. So if they only earn $100 from 10,000 images they wouldn't know any better.

It's:

• Better than nothing
• Better than collecting dust on computer
• Good enough for them
• A hobby so financials like profits matter
• Amazing someone wants to pay anything for their photos
• Helps pay the bills during tough times
• And on and on

I'm sure a lot of people are selling at a loss and don't even know it. Spend time and money on equipment, props, models, gas, and never hit break even.

If you have the equipment and travel to those places anyway the cost is in effect zero. I gave up with models as it lost money. Now I just do stuff that is extremely easy to produce....it doesn't sell much but it only costs me time that I would probably be wasting anyway. To invest money in production costs  seems very risky to me at this point.

Problem is (for the stock sites) because of the declining return for photos,  more and more photogs will give up on high production value and there will be less and less marketable images for the sites to sell because it isn't worth it for the photogs any more.

Quote from: Pauws99 on March 04, 2021, 14:43

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on March 04, 2021, 14:01

Part of the problem is every newcomer doesn't realize it's in decline and many don't care. So if they only earn $100 from 10,000 images they wouldn't know any better.

It's:

• Better than nothing
• Better than collecting dust on computer
• Good enough for them
• A hobby so financials like profits matter
• Amazing someone wants to pay anything for their photos
• Helps pay the bills during tough times
• And on and on

I'm sure a lot of people are selling at a loss and don't even know it. Spend time and money on equipment, props, models, gas, and never hit break even.

If you have the equipment and travel to those places anyway the cost is in effect zero. I gave up with models as it lost money. Now I just do stuff that is extremely easy to produce....it doesn't sell much but it only costs me time that I would probably be wasting anyway. To invest money in production costs  seems very risky to me at this point.

Problem is (for the stock sites) because of the declining return for photos,  more and more photogs will give up on high production value and there will be less and less marketable images for the sites to sell because it isn't worth it for the photogs any more.

Right. Some of the sites had content requests along the lines of "attractive elderly couples playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship". So assuming you aren't already going on a cruise with your attractive elderly grandparents and their friends, this would seem to be a difficult, high effort and high cost shoot. Back when RM sites were paying top dollar you could probably quickly break even. Now? I doubt it unless you worked out some special deal for premium non-subscription licensing. Otherwise, it's a lot of pennies, nickles and dimes to turn a profit.

Quote from: wds on March 04, 2021, 17:36

Quote from: Pauws99 on March 04, 2021, 14:43

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on March 04, 2021, 14:01

Part of the problem is every newcomer doesn't realize it's in decline and many don't care. So if they only earn $100 from 10,000 images they wouldn't know any better.

It's:

• Better than nothing
• Better than collecting dust on computer
• Good enough for them
• A hobby so financials like profits matter
• Amazing someone wants to pay anything for their photos
• Helps pay the bills during tough times
• And on and on

I'm sure a lot of people are selling at a loss and don't even know it. Spend time and money on equipment, props, models, gas, and never hit break even.

If you have the equipment and travel to those places anyway the cost is in effect zero. I gave up with models as it lost money. Now I just do stuff that is extremely easy to produce....it doesn't sell much but it only costs me time that I would probably be wasting anyway. To invest money in production costs  seems very risky to me at this point.

Problem is (for the stock sites) because of the declining return for photos,  more and more photogs will give up on high production value and there will be less and less marketable images for the sites to sell because it isn't worth it for the photogs any more.

Right. Some of the sites had content requests along the lines of "attractive elderly couples playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship". So assuming you aren't already going on a cruise with your attractive elderly grandparents and their friends, this would seem to be a difficult, high effort and high cost shoot. Back when RM sites were paying top dollar you could probably quickly break even. Now? I doubt it unless you worked out some special deal for premium non-subscription licensing. Otherwise, it's a lot of pennies, nickles and dimes to turn a profit.

I doubt it. I work with a couple of very high-end older agencies and its just the same with vanishing incomes! just a year back or so the average sale was around 100 dollars but today its around 10 or 15 dollars. Its just bad all over. If anything I recon micro-stock has given a "bad" name? its always had a sort of tarnished reputation but now people are actually sneering at it!

Quote from: Pauws99 on March 04, 2021, 14:43

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on March 04, 2021, 14:01

Part of the problem is every newcomer doesn't realize it's in decline and many don't care. So if they only earn $100 from 10,000 images they wouldn't know any better.

It's:

• Better than nothing
• Better than collecting dust on computer
• Good enough for them
• A hobby so financials like profits matter
• Amazing someone wants to pay anything for their photos
• Helps pay the bills during tough times
• And on and on

I'm sure a lot of people are selling at a loss and don't even know it. Spend time and money on equipment, props, models, gas, and never hit break even.

If you have the equipment and travel to those places anyway the cost is in effect zero. I gave up with models as it lost money. Now I just do stuff that is extremely easy to produce....it doesn't sell much but it only costs me time that I would probably be wasting anyway. To invest money in production costs  seems very risky to me at this point.

Problem is (for the stock sites) because of the declining return for photos,  more and more photogs will give up on high production value and there will be less and less marketable images for the sites to sell because it isn't worth it for the photogs any more.

If that were to happen which I doubt it wouldn't be a problem as people with those needs would have to source the images elsewhere for more $$$. If you have too many people expecting to make a living from high production value images it will always force prices down.

Quote from: Horizon on March 04, 2021, 13:15

Portfolio size isnt the important thing at all. There used to be some sort of an Industrial guy with just 4000 images and he was earning well over 5K a month. The last I hear he was shooting assignments only but he said he was 70% down and that was over a year back!  he deactivated his port needless to say!

If its who I think it is I woudn't take those claims too seriously  .

I wouldn't either. If that's who we think, was barely over 2,000 photos on SS and liked to brag on forums.

Quote from: Pauws99 on March 04, 2021, 14:36

Quote from: Horizon on March 04, 2021, 13:15

Portfolio size isnt the important thing at all. There used to be some sort of an Industrial guy with just 4000 images and he was earning well over 5K a month. The last I hear he was shooting assignments only but he said he was 70% down and that was over a year back!  he deactivated his port needless to say!

If its who I think it is I woudn't take those claims too seriously  .

Well it wasn't me that said it! it was an article in the Sony Image magazine last year and newsletter. Apparently some four stock photographers shoot lots of images for Sony Technicals using their latest cameras and in the newsletter they were talking stock photography!..so I don't know? just saying really.

Different than who would have immediately come to mind as some industrial guy "Lagereek" who claimed to be making $5k a month from 4,000 images.  And when you say now four stock shooters, that's completely different. Oh never mind you just made that up.

But now we see that it is you and you still make up numbers to support you false information, and phony claims, because you only have 2,400 images on SS. Not much new since last time you got banned from here for life?

Maybe I need to get rid of the cameras and prime lenses, get the latest iPhone, then shoot a bazillion cheap snapshots? Nah, I'm just not going to sell out my soul and go begging for dimes. I'd rather make my dimes with a DSLR and high quality lenses. Not very logical or practical, but at least I have some integrity left. 

I reckon Shutterstock have got their back against a wall now. They can't cut contributor earnings to a meaningful cost-cutting level now less big producers of high quality content finally unlicense or withdraw their ports. Very unlikely they'll be able to raise prices on customers. Their other cost cutting avenues are drying up so contributor earnings is all they have left to savage. Their arrogance is almost certain they'll overreach to protect profits and share value and it's gonna come right back and hit them where it hurts and hard.

They have plenty more slight of hand tweaks they can do to the royalty structure to where you'd have no idea what you're earning. That will be the innovation to offset stalled growth.

Interesting that Royalty Free is what microstock invented and it's now probably a big cause of stalled growth. Customers can just keep using the same images over and over for their websites, mailers, financial reports and on and on. After they've been paying for years and have a huge amount of stockpiled images there's really not much of a reason to continue paying the monthly subscription. And I'm sure the massive copyright infringement from free-for-all copying of RF images online isn't helping. I can only hope for an implosion and correction toward more reasonable royalties.

The 'investors' are undoubtedly delirious with the coming of Stan the Man.

SSTK stock price has nearly tripled since his appointment on April 1st 2020.......who's the fool now? And with SS skimming off the top of every contributors old levels percentages from Jan 1st every year until they regain their higher levels again, how do you think that Q1 profits for the investors every year are going to look?

So you would have been on pace to make more this month than you did in March of last year, if your files were still available for sale on SS? Interesting.

I like this guy.

"...actually it's beyond a friendship gone sour, it's a bit like oh yeah I used to friends with this guy and now he breaks into my house and takes a dump in front of my kids on Christmas Eve" LOL 

His youtube videos are great!!  Funny how he describes Shutterstock!!