Deb, you have thoroughly embarrassed me . But let me try to explain.

First of all, if we are modest its because we know you dont have to be talented to do well in microstock. You just have to know the ropes.

The other thing is that people like Mihai, myself, Doug Jensen, and remember Iain Campbell with the great model release video port? - are just a few people that come to mind. The common thing is that we all started about the same time - around 2012 to 2013. Why is this important? For one thing, it was a great time to start. There was still quite a bit of competition back in those days, which is important because you need that in order to keep upping your game.

On the other hand, the people who started before us were used to easy street. Back in the beginning when a good stock pic went to the top of the search - it stayed there (forever) depending solely on how many dls it had. So, when things got tough, a lot of them were not willing to change.

When we came along, was the time SS first changed their algorithm and boy did that hurt a lot of people. But the newcomers like us, learnt from it. Also, I remember having all these arguments with Lauren at the time about what sold and what didn't. I started getting 1,000+ DLs on SS a month, and he was trailing behind me, but we still had these arguments. Long story. The older group were not willing to change.

The other thing about the people I know who started then and did well, was we learnt from reviewers rejections. They were even tougher back then, and it was another thing that made or broke you.

And thirdly, we played to our strengths, and we got better and better at knowing how to use them for microstock. Mihai of course is an engineer and brilliant at technical stuff, I come from a business and graphic design background, Iain started off as a model and then learnt video from one of the top video contributors in the industry at the time. Doug had a strong background in video.

So, the question is, can it still be done again if you start today? I know its getting more and more difficult.  SS pulling the rug out of people's feet with their rates restructure has made it even worse. But there is still money to be made with new uploads, and ways to get around all the low subs I have found. And it all comes back to what you shoot, and how to be just that bit different to the rest of the crowd.

So in a nutshell: Play to your strengths, always check with what's already on the database, don't shoot what everyone's shooting, keep learning, keep improving your skills, keep upping your game, and do research. In fact there's heaps and heaps of subject matter that I find every day that is popular on social media and not well covered on the microstock databases.**

And dont listen to all the complaints. It will bring you down. Productivity and negativity don't go well together.

And finally, always remember you are not competing against a million other contributors. You are only competing with those who shoot the same subject matter as you - or rather, those who have the same keywords as you. Puts it all in perspective then.



ETA: ** This is important because advertisers know they have to follow social media trends to sell their products to them - and we (as the stock providers) are there to provide them with that content. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! lol

There are a few others. Adobe premium, Offset, Pond5 setting your prices (basically for video),FilmSupply, plainpicture,...

Quote from: DOP on October 30, 2021, 13:26

Everest, 'As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock'

I am only aware of Stocksy, Arcangel and Trevillion which I assume are 'macro' stock.

Do you know of any others, and which ones are 'medium' stock?

Thanks.

Quote from: wds on October 30, 2021, 18:43

Quote from: everest on October 30, 2021, 15:50

There are a few others. Adobe premium, Offset, Pond5 setting your prices (basically for video),FilmSupply, plainpicture,...

Quote from: DOP on October 30, 2021, 13:26

Everest, 'As suggested I think it is much wiser move to medium or macro stock'

I am only aware of Stocksy, Arcangel and Trevillion which I assume are 'macro' stock.

Do you know of any others, and which ones are 'medium' stock?

Thanks.

There is no anecdotal data on these sites. Yes, they charge more for images, but how much do contributors make compared to:

 - the "glory days of stock" say 25 years ago?
 - the "glory days of microstock" say 10+ years ago?

they don't. Just think the new folks today will look back at 2021 and say those were the glory days getting almost $.10 per image and $.50 per 4K video on SS!

My biggest fear is that whether the photos will indeed be given away for free in the long run or worse (such as forum, blogs, guestbook on my website, photo sites similar to Flickr) Shutterstock or Adobe will suddenly be completely discontinued. So that everything is gone. Although I think/hope it will take some time. 

So my advice in a nutshell: Play to your strengths, always check with what's already on the database, don't shoot what everyone's shooting, keep learning, keep improving your skills, keep upping your game, and do research. In fact there's heaps and heaps of subject matter that I find every day that is popular on social media and not well covered on the microstock databases.

And dont listen to all the complaints. It will bring you down. Productivity and negativity don't go well together.

And finally, always remember you are not competing against a million other contributors. You are only competing with those who shoot the same subject matter as you - or rather, those who have the same keywords as you.

Quote from: Pacesetter on October 27, 2021, 04:52

Big EOTM slump followed by a smaller MOTM slump hot on the heels of a BOTM slump.

Lot of slumpin' going on here.

I'm having an Autumn slump, hot on the heels of a Spring and Summer slump, anticipating a Winter slump ...

At the beginning of October I passed the 10,000 downloads for this year. Just a few years ago, it took me only half a year to do that. In addition, for the first time since 2011, I'm going to make the five-figure income for the year by a relatively narrow margin.

Revenue October 2021 vs. October 2020
AS: + 54.5%
SS: - 31.5%
If I add up all 6 agencies, revenues are identical with Oct. 2020 (though I can only estimate iStock by using September numbers).

Downloads -6.2%
So RPD actually increased slightly compared to 2020, which I would not have expected.