6 Reasons Why Microstock Earning Will be Down in 2015

Microstock sales has been on a declining trend since the middle of 2014. It looks like this dreadful trend will continue to 2015 and more. Below are 5 reasons why this downtrend will continue.

1. The strengthening of US dollar against Euro and other currencies may seems to be positive thing at first. But in reality, buyers are taking a major hit. European, being the biggest buyers of microstock is having a tough time as Euro has hit 11 year low vs the USD. This means, buyers will be buying less stock images because it is much more expensive now. So far, my number of sales has gone down by about 30%.

2. More and more well establish stock factories are producing amazing number of qualities images everyday. To be honest, I am not sure if they could actually cover up the expenses to produce these images given the golden era is over, but this intense competition is not a good thing for lone ranger like us.

3. Another bad news would be iStock HQ is being moved from Canada to USA now. This means, we will have to pay 30% tax to US government if the purchase is being made from USA. Moving forward, I predict my earning will be at least 10% less from iStock now.

4. Stock agencies are getting more and more sneaky by manipulating numbers and playing with their system to benefit themselves more than us, the contributors. Cutting royalties, and introducing confusing sales packages and partners site are some examples of such manipulations.

5. Microstock is now being treated as commodities. The prices are getting hammered due to stock agencies pricing war. Nobody win in this situation, except the buyers. 

6. Smaller agencies such as CanStockPhoto, Crestock, GraphicLeftovers, and GraphicRiver are starting to feel the pressure with lack of regular sales. Inactivity is the scariest thing for Internet business. Check out all the 0 sales for new vectors at GraphicRiver http://graphicriver.net/category/vectors?page=1. It is very demoralizing to see such sight. With the weakening of smaller agencies, bigger agencies will soon take even more control. This is not a good thing.

As a conclusion, I predict 2015 will be a pretty bad year for us. There will be a lot of contributors giving up this year. It may no longer be worthy to be a stock vector artist now. In 2009, you can make $100/month. In 2015, you can only make $10/month with the same images.

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Weekly Writer Challenge 1 Write Down 10 Ideas for Articles

Okay, new plan. We are going to write TOGETHER. I need a butt-kickin just like maybe you do. I am going to assume you like to procrastinate like I do. Or are extremely busy. Or sometimes maybe even do something crazy like ... oh, I dont know ... CLEAN when you are on a deadline and should be writing.

So Im going to give you some challenges. Please share this with any bloggers (= aspiring writers) or writers you know so they can participate.

You have until Sunday to do this first challenge, then new challenges will come out on Mondays and you will have 7 days to complete them and report back here! Even if you didnt do it or only half-assed it, let me know, because chances are I might not always be rockin the challenge, either.

At the very least, we can offer support to each other. Dont forget there is also a Facebook fan page for this site where we can interact and you can always email me at mommykerrie at yahoo dot com, and when it comes time to start submitting, you have to have the resource Im using so we can be Submission Twins.

CHALLENGE #1 is to come up with 10 ideas for articles for the regionals (the smalls). Lead time is not usually as long as with the nationals (the bigs) so you can spitball some summer ideas NOW, for instance.

Check out the photo below for some help (general categories, but you need a more solid idea, which nobody is going to steal, dammit), and Ill see you next week!

Oh, and because Im a pushover mama, Im also a pushover writing coach, so here is some more help!

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