After 6 months of steadily declining sales, February was pretty decent and March appears pretty good so far too.
Anyone else experiencing this?

No

No way

Nope.  1/3 to a 1/2 of last year on SS.

Instead of being down by my usual 20% /year, February was only down 10% on last year.  So should I call it a good month?  Not sure.  Coulda been worse....

For all steady "NO" people. Have you considered looking for another source of income or money earning hobby (in this case it's still understandable though)? You either doing something very wrong or just like to complain

I very much doubt you will ever earn as much from microstock as Sean does.  Almost everyone doing this hits a wall at some point and experiences lower earnings or finds it very hard to increase their earnings.  If you think you are an exception, then you are probably deluding yourself.

Quote from: Irina Anosova on March 11, 2017, 04:25

For all steady "NO" people. Have you considered looking for another source of income or money earning hobby (in this case it's still understandable though)? You either doing something very wrong or just like to complain

I very much doubt you will ever earn as much from microstock as Sean does.  Almost everyone doing this hits a wall at some point and experiences lower earnings or finds it very hard to increase their earnings.  If you think you are an exception, then you are probably deluding yourself.

I don't want to insult anyone or make any sort of earning competition, but what's the point of continuing any business which declines more and more every month and every year? There surely wouldn't be any kind of miracle and there wouldn't be earnings like in 2006 or 2009. Why not simply concentrate all efforts on something new while getting some residual income from microstock?

fiftyfootelvis, I agree with you, last month was jaw-droppingly epic for me, but then again I've only been in stock for about 1.5 years and making money wasn't, isn't and will never be the driver behind me doing stock. My performance so far exceeded my wildest expectations but I couldn't possibly care less if my next month's paycheck will be equal to 'nada'.

Very best,

Filipe

For all steady "NO" people. Have you considered looking for another source of income or money earning hobby (in this case it's still understandable though)? You either doing something very wrong or just like to complain

And you like to complain about people who complain

Same difference except you come over as pompous

Quote from: Irina Anosova on March 11, 2017, 04:25

For all steady "NO" people. Have you considered looking for another source of income or money earning hobby (in this case it's still understandable though)?

Yes, as a matter of fact I will soon start buying photos. It's obvious that the whole thing has become a buyers' market, so I reckon it should be more lucrative to buy photos and try to monetize the work of other photographers, rather than to spend money on producing my own photos. I will become a buyer. I never thought it would come to this, but the trend is very clear. The value of images will continue to decrease, no matter how good you are and what you shoot. It's maths and basic rules of economy. Unless, you're like Andreas Gursky. But then you most likely don't read MSG.

I wouldn't recommend it. If the value of images is decreasing you will find yourself out of pocket.

Quote from: Irina Anosova on March 11, 2017, 04:25

For all steady "NO" people. Have you considered looking for another source of income or money earning hobby (in this case it's still understandable though)?

Yes, as a matter of fact I will soon start buying photos. It's obvious that the whole thing has become a buyers' market, so I reckon it should be more lucrative to buy photos and try to monetize the work of other photographers, rather than to spend money on producing my own photos. I will become a buyer. I never thought it would come to this, but the trend is very clear. The value of images will continue to decrease, no matter how good you are and what you shoot. It's maths and basic rules of economy. Unless, you're like Andreas Gursky. But then you most likely don't read MSG.

Microstock prices have gone up a lot over the years I have been doing this.  People seem to forget that istock started as a free images site.  I'm making a lot more per sale with SS than when I first started.  There's a lot more competition and that's led to lower sales for a lot of us but it isn't because prices have gone down.  I still think microstock is worth it but only if you don't supply what's already been done to death.

Quote from: sharpshot on March 12, 2017, 04:49

Microstock prices have gone up a lot over the years I have been doing this.  People seem to forget that istock started as a free images site.  I'm making a lot more per sale with SS than when I first started.  There's a lot more competition and that's led to lower sales for a lot of us but it isn't because prices have gone down.  I still think microstock is worth it but only if you don't supply what's already been done to death.

The prices might have gone up, but from the point of view of contributors, it doesn't matter much because the ocean of images has grown exponentially. Nowadays, it is much more difficult to earn $1000 with a new image than it was in 2012 or 2011. The expected revenue from a new image has decreased dramatically, therefore the value of imagery is lower than in the past. And the trend is clear. Oversaturation, much worse than in the oil market.

I think I'll buy a few hundred images and use them in content types that might be more lucrative and sustainable.

Oversaturation is not only in stock imagery, in services field too. And recently started to see a heavy pressure from all sort of middlemen. Growing amount of false service calls published by them, war for traffic, and intentionally disrespectful communication with service providers in "very polite tone". Their purpose is only to take money from photographers in exchange for customer contacts, which are false in 99%. They demand from a photographer to pay to respond for a call like "i want to know your price for a wedding". I have regularly - about once per week calls from "startups" which propose to "manage your clients, accept orders for you and that they are into photography and want to take 25-30%". Another trend: official publications for service calls moved to category "interim". Imagine: they publish a "job" description as following: high photography education, bring own camera, backgrounds, and payment 10 eur.hour, service time 4 hours. Remember, you have to pay your expenses from that and a tax! It is less than payment for a cleaner which will not have any expenses except probably transport.