Too many people, especially Americans, have that fast food, I want it now mentality. It's like you said, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Good video, thanks for sharing.
Well done. I think we stay with this, is cause we love photography and creation. Every morning I check my sales and get a good feeling seeing the sales, especially, when it's a first time sale. I feel better, hearing your percentage of sale vs upload. I wish mine was that high, but because of you, it' getting better. Thank You
I can’t really say why people quit, but I can say why I'm in it for the long haul: I have been a nature photographer for over 20 years. Good thing it wasn’t my paying job, because I may have made an average of $200 a year. What I did do was donate my time and images to environmental organizations to support causes I believed in. But for every 100 images I shared there were another 1000 stored on my computer that never got further than a Facebook post. I started uploading them to Shutterstock about a year ago. I now have about over 1200 images in my portfolio and am selling about 50 a month. More than the sales, I am thrilled to see they have been sold on every continent. Sometimes I find where they are being used. Like you, I have noticed that most of my sales are of the same images, and many of my images have no sales at all. Also, people like you, and stock photography have made me a better photographer. I am learning so much and it inspires me to go out and take more pictures, and try new things. So, my motivation to continue is a passion for nature, photography, and learning.
Wow! Thank you for sharing. Very inspirational and generous. It is great to put your images out there and bring some life and light to them, everyone’s work deserves to be seen and stock is a great way to do that! Thanks again. 🙂
Thank you for the fireside chat. It was like I was there with you in a relaxed space just talking. I am also doing YT and stock and just now getting started. I have been trying to get rolling for the last four years. With my stressful full-time job plus life throwing huge curve balls at me, I put it all on hold. I am now retired and I am hitting the ground running. I have missed out on so much. I have so much to learn. The good thing is, now that I am retired I can think clearly and enjoy what I do. I love being creative. It makes my soul happy. It is important to me that when my time comes, to leave this earth, I don't want to go with my music still in me. I want to share it. I feel like RUclips and Stock will give me that.
Congratulation and best of luck in this next chapter 🙌🏼 It is a lot to learn, but thats the beauty of it, just oneday at a time and give it your best! Thanks so much for the comment
After 5 years of making videos I got burned out and stopped about 5 months ago. It never became fulltime for me, it was always a supplement income. Many of my videos are evergreen and I'm still making money on them. But, now I'm using my camera for stock photography instead of RUclips. I know this will be a supplement income also, but I really love taking photos and learning about photography. Thank you for all your help, I've learned a lot from you. Blessings!
Thank you so much! and I totally understand 😅 I'm going on 3 years with a very busy upload schedule and I'm feeling it 😅. Best of luck and thank you for sharing!
Why do people quit? There is perhaps a whole host of reasons, like a change in direction. In the creative field whether it be writing, acting, painting etc it can take years or decades before someone is discovered. I love photography, sure I find it frustrating at times and it is my desire to get better at it. I use to shoot film and only picked up a digital just over a year ago so my learning curve has been huge.
New technology defiantly has a steep ;learning curve, just practice and pretty soon it will be second nature. Thanks so much for the input and comment!
Quitting, because burn out. Burn out mentally, to update great contents on time constantly with full power all way down. Competition is there, copycat is there… I dodge IG and start to learn and listen to profession on YT. Thanks for sharing and raise the topic.
I just stumbled upon this video today and it was perfect timing. I was a wedding and event photographer for about 10years. Made some great money on the side, but it eventually sucked the joy out of photography for me. I hung that up and now I'm a bit over a year into stock photography with only a very small portfolio of 650 images and about 15 videos. I have just over 1500 sales, but only about 120 of my images/videos have sold. I have a career outside of photography, but this has been frustrating me lately and making me question if I'm on a dead-end path. However, it sounds like this rate of progress in stock photography might not be so abnormal.
Thank you! And yes I totally understand what you are going thru, when something doesn’t feel good anymore it’s usually time to change 🤷♂️. You are doing great with stock! I’ve talked to a lot of photographers and usually we only sell about 5% of our photos, the other es have to be there to get us noticed and to help the algorithm. Best of luck! And thanks so much for the comment!
@@wollertz I appreciate your reply! Any suggestions on what is the best aspect ratio for image sales? I tend to gravitate towards 16:9 because it looks best to my eye, but lately I've been thinking more about uploading in 3:2 since a buyer might have more flexibility to choose their own cropped ratio from a 3:2 original.
Always look forward to your videos. Thank you. Even full-time jobs are not guaranteed, especially in this day and age. Photography (and everything that goes with it) however is something you carry throughout life. Cheers!
Thank you for sharing this info, I have been selling stock photo in the last 4 years. Its a hobby for me but nice you can see some reward, Yep this make me learn and push me in making more photo and improve my photography skills. I like your video its nice to have a conversation and listen to someone else tough on different subject , make you think
Thanks so much for the comment and best of luck! 🙌🏼 One of the best things about stock is the practice and how much you can improve as a photographer! Cheers
Loved your format this time with the fire and camping! People quit because it is not get rich quick. Agree, people need to set goals and not be bound by fear. It is great you point out the reality as people need to know it takes work. For me, I am retired so I am fortunate to be able to create additional income and have fun doing it. Your methods make it a little easier like shooting a bunch of photos on a day and uploading a few each day. I have just gotten started and have a long journey ahead of me, it is the creativity that inspires me. I am dabling in a few things so I dont get bored and avoid the burn out.
Great video! I've never really ventured into RUclips developing videos, however, I've periodically uploaded images (not a ton) to Dreamstime, Bigstock, and Shutterstock. I've actually been surprised at some of the sales I had received over the past few years that really were not from images that they typically request or look for. Even though it is pennies on the dollar, it always give you some reassurance and excitement when someone purchases one of your images. I recently retired (61) and plan to enjoy my photography more plus will be submitting once again to stock houses on more of a regular business. I agree with you 100% it's a marathon not a sprint. My only reserve is video, however, I've had several stock photographers who have said to start submitting 8-10 second videos with your I-Phone or purchase a GoPro and submit those to start with video. I thoroughly enjoy your videos and find the insightful. Any recommendations concerning the video submission would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!
Thanks so much for sharing. I will work on a video for stock video uploads. Phones are fine, better than gopro in my opinion, unless you are going backflips from cliffs and diving in a lake or something like that. All it takes is 5 to 10 seconds, no audio, steady, smooth movements, exported in mp4 or mov (for most agencies) and for uploads you would use an ftp uploader like filezilla. I'll do some research to see if there are better ways than what I've been doing and come up with a video!
I'm not sure why people quit. Maybe they didn't have someone like you to boost them up. You've certainly helped me! Your personality is great for a youtube channel. You have great energy and enthusiasm. Btw, if you posted your calendars to Australia, I would've bought one. 😁 👍 Thanks for all of your valuable tips!
I've been creating content in some way or another since 2007. Started my first podcast in 2007, ran it regularly until a couple years ago. Then I transitioned to RUclips content. Now I've started a new podcast that is more main stream and I feel it has the potential to provide entertainment and tell really human stories. The point I'm trying to get to is...I've never turned a profit. Ever. I think the main thing is that you have to enjoy what you're doing. A lot of content creators are walking away because they just don't enjoy it anymore. And if you're a new content creator and you don't have a publicity funnel of any kind, it can get frustrating not having any way to get eyes or ears on your product. If I left it up to being financially or notably "successful" I would have walked away a long, long time ago. The ONLY reason I stay is because I enjoy what I'm doing. Once I don't enjoy it, I'll walk without looking back. Unless I'm making buckets of cash...I could really put up with a lot of misery for buckets of cash.
🤣 So true! let me know if you find the bucket 😅 Thanks for sharing, I feel everyones voice deserves to be heard. Doing this has taught me a lot in the last 3 almost 4 years, and you are totally right, when I stop enjoying it, I'm not looking back! Thanks for sharing!
I think that people are quitting because of impatience and taking it more as a job then fun. It takes some time to get into "plus" - if you consider props, programs, time.. but if you take it as adventure and fun - someone read books in free time, someone takes photos and uploads them. Of course this adventure should has some business background, insights etc. Then it can work!
Nice setup with the fire pit for the video. Stock photography is a lot of work. I don’t dare to think of the hourly income when making a few hundred a year. But I like photography and editing and I can just as well upload. Key-wording isn’t fun, though.
Im just starting out with stock photography. I know you need to upload tons of images, but you've had 40,000 that have never sold or not accepted?? How long does it take to upload that many? Please tell me there's a bulk uploader somewhere. 😂 I'd better hurry up and get my butt in gear cause I have a lot of catching up to do!
I used to upload 300 images a week or so when I started,I did a photoshoot every weekend in a home "studio" with mostly home made diffusers and lighting set ups with second hand lamps and stuff 😅. Later I invested in a couple of speed lights and that made it a much faster work flow, Now it only took 2 hours taking photos instead of 5. and as far as uploaders there are a number of ftp uploaders available that can help im using the one mentioned in this video because it helps with keywords also. ruclips.net/video/h1gAEy5MS1w/видео.html best of luck!
Great video, thank you! Could you please tell me about your workflow/instruments to attribute photos or maybe you have a video about it? It's just takes a lot of time to write descriptions, keywords for each photo.
I have just started uploading stock photos on adobe stock only, I have uploaded 31 photos and my first 16 were accepted directly and 15 are in review since yesterday, I hope they will be accepted. I like photography but I am very busy in my studies I can't go out I am making nature photos with AI. I have not sold any photo yet but it's just my third day only. I just wanted to start something for income online while I complete my studies I hope in 1 or 2 years I sell some.
Midjourney and other AI image makers including Adobe's is killing stock photography! I believe in a few years once AI has fixed its glitches stock photography will be completely replaced.
I haven’t noticed a difference really. If anything I believe with all of the deep fakes that’s the regulations are going to slow down AI generation of images
I'll never quit, but I do now take breaks. After 3 years, I needed the change. I'm still getting subs and revenue. Consistency is key, but I gotta take breaks. I gotta be me. I'm the artist
I realise you are pretty stretched with yoru business but given you have a lot of the video content you made for youtube already - maybe you can consider offering short courses on say a platform like Udemy at $40 a pop? eg Topics such as - Intro to Stock photography, keywording, lighting etc
Too many people, especially Americans, have that fast food, I want it now mentality. It's like you said, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Good video, thanks for sharing.
That’s a great way to look at it! Thanks 🙌
You should repeat this video weekly if not daily as a reminder that it's a FULL TIME job.
Thanks! Yes it is 😅
Well done. I think we stay with this, is cause we love photography and creation. Every morning I check my sales and get a good feeling seeing the sales, especially, when it's a first time sale. I feel better, hearing your percentage of sale vs upload. I wish mine was that high, but because of you, it' getting better. Thank You
Thanks for sharing!
I feel the same way, you said it well!
I can’t really say why people quit, but I can say why I'm in it for the long haul: I have been a nature photographer for over 20 years. Good thing it wasn’t my paying job, because I may have made an average of $200 a year. What I did do was donate my time and images to environmental organizations to support causes I believed in. But for every 100 images I shared there were another 1000 stored on my computer that never got further than a Facebook post. I started uploading them to Shutterstock about a year ago. I now have about over 1200 images in my portfolio and am selling about 50 a month. More than the sales, I am thrilled to see they have been sold on every continent. Sometimes I find where they are being used. Like you, I have noticed that most of my sales are of the same images, and many of my images have no sales at all. Also, people like you, and stock photography have made me a better photographer. I am learning so much and it inspires me to go out and take more pictures, and try new things. So, my motivation to continue is a passion for nature, photography, and learning.
Wow! Thank you for sharing. Very inspirational and generous. It is great to put your images out there and bring some life and light to them, everyone’s work deserves to be seen and stock is a great way to do that!
Thanks again. 🙂
Would love to see your photography :)
I don't mind sharing the link to my Shutterstock portfolio if it is ok to do so here. @@haarew8336
Thank you for the fireside chat. It was like I was there with you in a relaxed space just talking. I am also doing YT and stock and just now getting started. I have been trying to get rolling for the last four years. With my stressful full-time job plus life throwing huge curve balls at me, I put it all on hold. I am now retired and I am hitting the ground running. I have missed out on so much. I have so much to learn. The good thing is, now that I am retired I can think clearly and enjoy what I do. I love being creative. It makes my soul happy. It is important to me that when my time comes, to leave this earth, I don't want to go with my music still in me. I want to share it. I feel like RUclips and Stock will give me that.
Congratulation and best of luck in this next chapter 🙌🏼
It is a lot to learn, but thats the beauty of it, just oneday at a time and give it your best!
Thanks so much for the comment
After 5 years of making videos I got burned out and stopped about 5 months ago. It never became fulltime for me, it was always a supplement income. Many of my videos are evergreen and I'm still making money on them. But, now I'm using my camera for stock photography instead of RUclips. I know this will be a supplement income also, but I really love taking photos and learning about photography. Thank you for all your help, I've learned a lot from you. Blessings!
Thank you so much! and I totally understand 😅 I'm going on 3 years with a very busy upload schedule and I'm feeling it 😅.
Best of luck and thank you for sharing!
Why do people quit? There is perhaps a whole host of reasons, like a change in direction. In the creative field whether it be writing, acting, painting etc it can take years or decades before someone is discovered. I love photography, sure I find it frustrating at times and it is my desire to get better at it. I use to shoot film and only picked up a digital just over a year ago so my learning curve has been huge.
New technology defiantly has a steep ;learning curve, just practice and pretty soon it will be second nature.
Thanks so much for the input and comment!
I have a love hate with auto focus and at times wish for the prism to aid focusing@@wollertz
Quitting, because burn out. Burn out mentally, to update great contents on time constantly with full power all way down. Competition is there, copycat is there… I dodge IG and start to learn and listen to profession on YT. Thanks for sharing and raise the topic.
Burn out is a real thing, many of us are affected by it. Best of luck!
@@wollertzYr new sub! Hooked by a fire pit chat.
Thanks so much!
ill have to o more of these 😁@@kyonkyon2010
You got a real talent to give the viewer the feeling that you are in the same room. Keep it up! 🙂
Thank you so much
I just stumbled upon this video today and it was perfect timing. I was a wedding and event photographer for about 10years. Made some great money on the side, but it eventually sucked the joy out of photography for me. I hung that up and now I'm a bit over a year into stock photography with only a very small portfolio of 650 images and about 15 videos. I have just over 1500 sales, but only about 120 of my images/videos have sold. I have a career outside of photography, but this has been frustrating me lately and making me question if I'm on a dead-end path. However, it sounds like this rate of progress in stock photography might not be so abnormal.
Thank you! And yes I totally understand what you are going thru, when something doesn’t feel good anymore it’s usually time to change 🤷♂️.
You are doing great with stock! I’ve talked to a lot of photographers and usually we only sell about 5% of our photos, the other es have to be there to get us noticed and to help the algorithm.
Best of luck! And thanks so much for the comment!
@@wollertz I appreciate your reply! Any suggestions on what is the best aspect ratio for image sales? I tend to gravitate towards 16:9 because it looks best to my eye, but lately I've been thinking more about uploading in 3:2 since a buyer might have more flexibility to choose their own cropped ratio from a 3:2 original.
@@occipitalexposure5059 I’ve always do 3:2, but keep in mind the 16:9 composition, and for verticals 3:2, think magazine covers 🤷♂️
Great talk next to the fire🔥🌲Well done! 😊
@@leonatsiara thank you so much
Always look forward to your videos. Thank you. Even full-time jobs are not guaranteed, especially in this day and age. Photography (and everything that goes with it) however is something you carry throughout life. Cheers!
Absolutely! Thanks for sharing!
I am one of those who just enjoy uploading it and learning, Money is only good enough to pay for my trips and equipment. It is my pass time.
Thats awesome! money for equipment is always a very nice thing 😁.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Good message. Stock photography is not for everyone. Patience is required and many don't have it. Thank you for your continued sharing.
100%!
Patience is key 😅
Thanks for the support!
Thank you for sharing this info, I have been selling stock photo in the last 4 years. Its a hobby for me but nice you can see some reward, Yep this make me learn and push me in making more photo and improve my photography skills. I like your video its nice to have a conversation and listen to someone else tough on different subject , make you think
Thanks so much for the comment and best of luck! 🙌🏼
One of the best things about stock is the practice and how much you can improve as a photographer!
Cheers
Loved your format this time with the fire and camping! People quit because it is not get rich quick. Agree, people need to set goals and not be bound by fear. It is great you point out the reality as people need to know it takes work. For me, I am retired so I am fortunate to be able to create additional income and have fun doing it. Your methods make it a little easier like shooting a bunch of photos on a day and uploading a few each day. I have just gotten started and have a long journey ahead of me, it is the creativity that inspires me. I am dabling in a few things so I dont get bored and avoid the burn out.
Well said!
We are all in it for different reasons, lets all make the best out of the opportunities!
Thanks for the comment!
You are driven by the love of what you do and it shows in the videos. We appreciate you!!!
Thanks so much Karon!
thank you for the motivation, not sold much yet, but I won't give up. When I can see where it is sold it makes me happy!!
Awesome! I'm glad this was helpful.
Best of luck!
Great information, patience is key and learning and improving is success 🌏🙌🙏🙏🌱🌄🦋
Absolutely! 🙌 thanks for the comment!
Most welcome 🙌
Thank you for the shout out! I enjoy watching and supporting your channel.
Absolutely! I don’t thank you guys enough! 🙏
Great video! I've never really ventured into RUclips developing videos, however, I've periodically uploaded images (not a ton) to Dreamstime, Bigstock, and Shutterstock. I've actually been surprised at some of the sales I had received over the past few years that really were not from images that they typically request or look for. Even though it is pennies on the dollar, it always give you some reassurance and excitement when someone purchases one of your images. I recently retired (61) and plan to enjoy my photography more plus will be submitting once again to stock houses on more of a regular business. I agree with you 100% it's a marathon not a sprint. My only reserve is video, however, I've had several stock photographers who have said to start submitting 8-10 second videos with your I-Phone or purchase a GoPro and submit those to start with video. I thoroughly enjoy your videos and find the insightful. Any recommendations concerning the video submission would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!
Thanks so much for sharing. I will work on a video for stock video uploads.
Phones are fine, better than gopro in my opinion, unless you are going backflips from cliffs and diving in a lake or something like that. All it takes is 5 to 10 seconds, no audio, steady, smooth movements, exported in mp4 or mov (for most agencies) and for uploads you would use an ftp uploader like filezilla.
I'll do some research to see if there are better ways than what I've been doing and come up with a video!
I'm not sure why people quit. Maybe they didn't have someone like you to boost them up. You've certainly helped me! Your personality is great for a youtube channel. You have great energy and enthusiasm. Btw, if you posted your calendars to Australia, I would've bought one. 😁 👍 Thanks for all of your valuable tips!
Thanks so much Cheryl! I appreciate this very much!
Maybe next year I will do “smaller” calendars, shipping has been very expensive 😅
Great advice thanks
🙌 thanks for the comment!
I agree, it was long time run and you must love it :)
100% Thanks for the comment!
I've been creating content in some way or another since 2007. Started my first podcast in 2007, ran it regularly until a couple years ago. Then I transitioned to RUclips content. Now I've started a new podcast that is more main stream and I feel it has the potential to provide entertainment and tell really human stories. The point I'm trying to get to is...I've never turned a profit. Ever. I think the main thing is that you have to enjoy what you're doing. A lot of content creators are walking away because they just don't enjoy it anymore. And if you're a new content creator and you don't have a publicity funnel of any kind, it can get frustrating not having any way to get eyes or ears on your product. If I left it up to being financially or notably "successful" I would have walked away a long, long time ago. The ONLY reason I stay is because I enjoy what I'm doing. Once I don't enjoy it, I'll walk without looking back. Unless I'm making buckets of cash...I could really put up with a lot of misery for buckets of cash.
🤣 So true! let me know if you find the bucket 😅
Thanks for sharing, I feel everyones voice deserves to be heard. Doing this has taught me a lot in the last 3 almost 4 years, and you are totally right, when I stop enjoying it, I'm not looking back! Thanks for sharing!
@@wollertz oh, I found the bucket. It’s the “full” part that’s escaping me.
🤣@@ZacBarclay
I think that people are quitting because of impatience and taking it more as a job then fun. It takes some time to get into "plus" - if you consider props, programs, time.. but if you take it as adventure and fun - someone read books in free time, someone takes photos and uploads them. Of course this adventure should has some business background, insights etc. Then it can work!
100%
Nice setup with the fire pit for the video. Stock photography is a lot of work. I don’t dare to think of the hourly income when making a few hundred a year. But I like photography and editing and I can just as well upload. Key-wording isn’t fun, though.
It is a lot of work and sometimes for very little return, but I don’t know what I would do without it 😅
they have one thing in common, they dont make enough money (or even any money) from doing it.
Im just starting out with stock photography. I know you need to upload tons of images, but you've had 40,000 that have never sold or not accepted?? How long does it take to upload that many? Please tell me there's a bulk uploader somewhere. 😂 I'd better hurry up and get my butt in gear cause I have a lot of catching up to do!
I used to upload 300 images a week or so when I started,I did a photoshoot every weekend in a home "studio" with mostly home made diffusers and lighting set ups with second hand lamps and stuff 😅. Later I invested in a couple of speed lights and that made it a much faster work flow, Now it only took 2 hours taking photos instead of 5. and as far as uploaders there are a number of ftp uploaders available that can help im using the one mentioned in this video because it helps with keywords also.
ruclips.net/video/h1gAEy5MS1w/видео.html
best of luck!
Great video, thank you! Could you please tell me about your workflow/instruments to attribute photos or maybe you have a video about it? It's just takes a lot of time to write descriptions, keywords for each photo.
I have this video, it might help. But yes it takes time ruclips.net/video/imcjRu9MBaU/видео.html
I have just started uploading stock photos on adobe stock only, I have uploaded 31 photos and my first 16 were accepted directly and 15 are in review since yesterday, I hope they will be accepted. I like photography but I am very busy in my studies I can't go out I am making nature photos with AI. I have not sold any photo yet but it's just my third day only. I just wanted to start something for income online while I complete my studies I hope in 1 or 2 years I sell some.
perfect! Do what you can, but remember to stay consistent with uploads!
Midjourney and other AI image makers including Adobe's is killing stock photography! I believe in a few years once AI has fixed its glitches stock photography will be completely replaced.
I haven’t noticed a difference really. If anything I believe with all of the deep fakes that’s the regulations are going to slow down AI generation of images
I got 24k and 13k of them sold at least once (maybe more, my stats not including freepik and couple of other agencies).
awesome!
I'll never quit, but I do now take breaks. After 3 years, I needed the change. I'm still getting subs and revenue. Consistency is key, but I gotta take breaks. I gotta be me. I'm the artist
100% be you! thats one thing we should try to be.
not you, just ourselves. or Bambi, if you can be like Bambi.
@@wollertz No one can come close to ever being Bambi. No one puts Bambi in the corner.
🤣@@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle
@@wollertz I don't know what's funny about that. I hope Bambi doesn't read this...
Thank you
You're welcome
I realise you are pretty stretched with yoru business but given you have a lot of the video content you made for youtube already - maybe you can consider offering short courses on say a platform like Udemy at $40 a pop? eg Topics such as - Intro to Stock photography, keywording, lighting etc
Thanks so much!
I am working on something along those lines 😁
I believe it helps that you are a "coffee" half full kind of guy. Did I hear ice in that coffee? 😉
😁 thanks!
Ice coffee 😅 🙌