Microstock

Veer Redesigns Web Site, Completes Move from Elite to Middle Market

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 328 Words | Posted 7/14/2010 | Comments
Veer has relaunched its Web site, billing the new treatment as uncomplicated. While Veer still carries traditionally priced stills, it is certainly catering to the no-hassle customer segment with simplified licensing and prices that span the gamut—starting at $1.

How Successful Photographers Do It

By Jim Pickerell | 1112 Words | Posted 7/14/2010 | Comments
Looking for some vacation reading material? Here are some suggestions. If you want to know how successful stock photographers do it, here are links to a series of interviews done over the last couple years. There are lots of different strategies. Some of these photographers are among the world’s most successful. Other’s like Todd Klassy and Holger Mette are relatively new to the business, and have adopted unconventional strategies that may be the wave of the future.

Microstock Plateau: iStockphoto July 2010

By Jim Pickerell | 1545 Words | Posted 7/6/2010 | Comments
A 14-month review of data from the leading microstock supports the theory of the fastest-growing industry segment having reached a plateau, with flat unit sales and revenue growth resulting from price increases.

iStockphoto July 2010

By Jim Pickerell | 3231 Words | Posted 7/5/2010 | Comments
The following material was compiled from iStockcharts.multimedia.de and shows the sales of 198 of iStockphoto’s top contributors in the 14 months between May 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010. (I’ll use the word “contributor” instead of “photographer” because a significant number or the top sellers are illustrators or graphic designers selling illustration, not photography).

Masterfile Acquires Crestock

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 323 Words | Posted 7/3/2010 | Comments
On Thursday, Toronto-based Mastefile acquired Norwegian microstock Crestock. Both companies announced the deal late on Friday, without disclosing financial details.

Yeulet: From BananaStock to Monkey Business Images

By Jim Pickerell | 1117 Words | Posted 6/22/2010 | Comments
Don’t tell Cathy Yeulet that you can’t make money in microstock. She operates Monkey Business Images, one of the most successful microstock production companies. However, unlike many microstockers, she is not new to stock photography. For many years, Yeulet operated a successful rights-managed business in Oxfordshire, U.K. When traditional royalty-free first began to take off, she created the BananaStock brand, which she sold to Jupiterimages in 2005 for approximately $19 million in cash. She started uploading images to iStockphoto in March of 2008.

Market Information Every Stock Photographer Needs To Know

By Jim Pickerell | 1744 Words | Posted 6/15/2010 | Comments
This story provides a list of useful articles that will provide the reader with a good background on the current state of the stock photography business and where it is headed.

CEPIC 2010: State of the Industry

By Jim Pickerell | 1512 Words | Posted 6/14/2010 | Comments
If you are in the stock imagery business and want to stay current with worldwide industry trends, the annual CEPIC congress is a must-attend event. Held every year in early June—this year in Dublin, Ireland, at the brand new Aviva Stadium—the congress provides an opportunity to meet industry leaders and exchange ideas.

Image Demand – Images Licensed Annually

By Jim Pickerell | 1016 Words | Posted 6/4/2010 | Comments
How does demand for images compare to what many agree is an oversupply?

Image Oversupply: The Real Number

By Jim Pickerell | 593 Words | Posted 6/2/2010 | Comments
What does the competition look like in terms of the number of images available online? Everyone knows there are billions of amateur images floating around the Internet, but what is the quantity of unique images currently available in professional collections?

Microstock Pricing Comparison Table

By Tyler Olson | 615 Words | Posted 6/2/2010 | Comments
A comprehensive comparison of the various sizing and pricing strategies between the top 6 microstock photography sites.

Making Money In Microstock

By Jim Pickerell | 1076 Words | Posted 5/26/2010 | Comments
A Russian photographer asks what subjects he should shoot for microstock in order to maximize his earnings. With hard work, he feels he can duplicate the results achieved by Yuri Arcurs, particularly because shooting in Russia can be much cheaper than Arcurs' Denmark location. Yet there are flaws to that logic.

Getting Started In Stock Photography

By Jim Pickerell | 914 Words | Posted 5/5/2010 | Comments
This story provides links to some of the stories on this site that may be of interest to someone new to the stock photography business, or someone who might to have a brief refresher course on some of the things that have been happening in the last few years. Many of these stories will also give you some idea of developing trends and what the future might hold.

Of Interest To Microstockers

By Jim Pickerell | 1100 Words | Posted 5/4/2010 | Comments
This is a list of 14 articles that will provide microstock photographers, or those considering contributing to microstock sites, some useful background and insights into the industry.

Specialized Microstock Collections: Point/Counterpoint

By Ellen Boughn | 1498 Words | Posted 5/1/2010 | Comments
This article by Ellen Boughn raises the question of whether there is a need for specialized niche microstock collections, argues the case for them and points to Vivozoom and Microstock Israel as indications that we may see more of them. Jim Pickerell presents counter arguments as to why the success of such sites is unlikely.

The End of Stock Photography as a Career? Interview with Jim Pickerell

By John Martin Lund | 6797 Words | Posted 4/27/2010 | Comments
Jim Pickerell has a long history in stock photography as a stock shooter, an agency owner, and an industry analyst. In this wide-ranging interview he shares his experience and insight on the future of stock photography.

Census Information Sheds Light on Education Image Use

By Jim Pickerell | 565 Words | Posted 4/14/2010 | Comments
For those who think that the use of photography in education will remain the same, here are some numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Do Book Publishers Use Microstock?

By Jim Pickerell | 840 Words | Posted 4/6/2010 | Comments
Only a couple years ago, a researcher for a major book publisher said the company would never use microstock for a textbook, because of the "difficulty of securing rights." Though that was puzzling given typically solid microstock releases, I came away believing that maybe the textbook market was a last bastion of hope for photographers trying to license images at rights-managed prices. But things have changed.

Ubiquitous Use Debate Misses Mark

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 538 Words | Posted 4/5/2010 | Comments
Chris Barton, a photographer and the managing director of Photographers Direct, has written an article highlighting multiple uses of the same microstock image and asking why a reputable company would do this to itself. There are numerous answers, and most are so mind-bogglingly simple as to make anyone wonder why stock-industry insiders are still having this meaningless debate.

iStockphoto First Quarter 2010

By Jim Pickerell | 972 Words | Posted 4/2/2010 | Comments
In January we published an analysis of the units licensed in 2009 by a group of iStockphoto’s most successful contributors and asked the question “Has Microstock Reached a Plateau?” The first quarter 2010 results seem to confirm this is the case. As a baseline, on June 1, 2009 we did a count of the total number of images licensed in May 2009 by a group of 196 out of the 250 top selling iStock contributors. (Information on some of the top 250 was not available.) There were 442,533 images licensed by this group in that month. Average monthly sales were up only 5% by the end of 2009, but they were down 1% to only 3.9% by the end of March 2010. See the full analysis and the implications for the future.

Devaluing Your Images

By Jim Pickerell | 983 Words | Posted 3/23/2010 | Comments
There is a persistent idea among many image creators that a photographer somehow devalues his work if he ever licenses it for low prices. Yet recent years have shown that volume can be as significant a factor as price, and there are numerous other considerations.

Two-Tier Pricing System Allows Pros To Capitalize on Small Uses

By Jim Pickerell | 1242 Words | Posted 3/22/2010 | Comments
If stock photography as a profession is going to survive, we are going to have to find a way to develop a two-tier pricing system. One tier would be for commercial use of images, and the other for personal and small use.

All Images Available To All Customers

By Jim Pickerell | 1394 Words | Posted 3/18/2010 | Comments
After publishing my article on a Two-Tier Pricing System I’ve had a series of discussions with several photographers. There seems to be some general misunderstanding as to why I think such a system is in the best interest of all photographers regardless of whether they currently license their work as rights-managed (RM), traditional royalty-free (RF) or Microstock. Two-Tiers is not just another pricing model. The whole purpose is so all images can be made available to all customers at appropriate prices depending on how the customer intends to use the image.

Who Is Yuri Arcurs?

By Jim Pickerell | 1404 Words | Posted 3/17/2010 | Comments
Anyone who has heard the term microstock has probably heard of Yuri Arcurs. He is recognized as the worlds most successful microstock photographer but is much more than just a photographer: he is a brilliant businessman adept at marketing, self-promotion and managing a large staff.

Everything You Knew

By Paul Melcher | 614 Words | Posted 3/16/2010 | Comments
Photography has a long way to go. Compared to other digitized creative forms, like music, it is light years behind. And, for once, that could be a good thing. Like the youngest brother of a family, it can learned from it’s elders. For once, it has not yet been touch at full impact by the whole free file sharing tsunami that hit music a while back. Certainly the dams are leaking and breaking, but we are no where near what the music industry has experienced.