Author Topic: Some conclusions after my 5 year journey in microstock (Read 6399 times)

spike · « **on:** October 02, 2014, 12:13 »

I miss the old days when there were more graphs and discussions, also a lot of blogs which reported income closed (and they were very helpful to me as a beginner), so this is my thanks to them and I hope you find this useful.

I started microstock in Oct 2009, and I did quite a lot of work, but not with spectacular results. I was a student, so it was lunch money. I was fine with it. However, as I started working, I've noticed that I'd like to improve my income, so I waited until my contract expires and during the summer of 2013, decided to populate my portfolio with quick-to-make, totally generic images. However, something peculiar happened. Now, enough talk, let's see a picture. Blue bars are income, red line is portfolio size.

When I write "spam started", I really mean totally generic images. This is why I was able to increase my portfolio size so quick, and my earnings. However, these totally generic images were not alone, I also tried some more creative stuff or things that I thought would sell. So it was a mixed bag. Upon analyzing my portfolio in 2014, I've found a couple of images which stood out and amounted to most of the income. To put it in perspective: less than 1% of the images were responsible for more than 50% of my income.

In Feb 2014, I updated the niche and, no surprise here, income increased once again - you can see almost a negligible increase in my portfolio size between Feb and March, but the earnings almost doubled. It's all due to this small number of images. In May, I updated the niche again. Income rose. To compare, I started "spamming" again. But although I increased my portfolio size by a significant amount, the earnings did not follow, or at least not as dramatically as after uploading niche content.

What's the take-away message? Shoot in a niche, don't overpopulate stock agencies with generic stuff? I don't know. It'd be easy if niches were easy to find, or if you could predict them. So that's obviously not the advice I'd be willing to take. My advice would be to check your statistics more thoroughly, even with paid solutions if necessary (there are brilliant options available), and base your shooting strategy on numbers. It worked for me.

Hope this helps!

Holmes · « **Reply #1 on:** October 02, 2014, 12:19 »

great thread. thanks

is this for many agencies or just one?

spike · « **Reply #2 on:** October 02, 2014, 12:26 »

Quote from: Holmes on October 02, 2014, 12:19

great thread. thanks
is this for many agencies or just one?

Thanks

Income is from all the agencies I contribute to, portfolio size is from shutterstock, as I didn't want to make averages (there's a lot of variability between the agencies, and SS is around 70% of my income, so it's a good approximation in my opinion.

File Sold · « **Reply #3 on:** October 02, 2014, 12:31 »

Thanks for sharing! May I ask your portfolio size?

spike · « **Reply #4 on:** October 02, 2014, 12:45 »

Quote from: File Sold on October 02, 2014, 12:31

Thanks for sharing! May I ask your portfolio size?

It's in the thousands-range (I suppose you don't need precise information, you just want to know if it's statistical error or coincidence if I have a portfolio of 500 images

I don't).

File Sold · « **Reply #5 on:** October 02, 2014, 13:08 »

Quote from: spike on October 02, 2014, 12:45

Quote from: File Sold on October 02, 2014, 12:31
Thanks for sharing! May I ask your portfolio size?

It's in the thousands-range (I suppose you don't need precise information, you just want to know if it's statistical error or coincidence if I have a portfolio of 500 images I don't).

Ok. Yes I just wanted to know if you had a very little portfolio then it would have been pretty obvious to have big ups

Finding a hot niche is hard, but really rewarding. I've seen that too.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #6 on:** October 02, 2014, 14:41 »

Finding a hot niche is hard. Protecting it from poachers is near impossible.

Holmes · « **Reply #7 on:** October 02, 2014, 14:54 »

i will send $5 to your paypal account if you email me your niche LOL

pancaketom · « **Reply #8 on:** October 02, 2014, 14:55 »

Probably the best way to find a hot niche is to make a keywording tool and then track the users obsessively...

Otherwise serious market research, or spray and pray (and keep track of what actually is selling)... Depending on the niche creating a lot more work to fill the niche might not actually increase your income much - but it might help deter or fend off poachers.