Microstock Photography Interviews With 9 Industry Leaders

Back in May this year I attended CEPIC and did a number of video interviews with some of the people who were there.  I was interested in hearing from leaders in the microstock industry, agency owners, CEOs, well informed industry critics, etc.  The video interviews 9 people and is 10 minutes long so get a warm drink before you press play :) .  I also have included the time each question starts if you want to jump directly to a group of answers.

The questions

Where do you feel the microstock industry is headed in the short-term (1-5 years)? (00:00)

Where do you feel the microstock industry is headed in the long term (5-10 years)? (02:55)

Tips for anyone wanting to get involved in the microstock industry. (05:02)

How to improve your search rank (07:46)

There were some interesting trends among the respondents.  I don’t want to spoil the video but a few of the interesting points were…

  • Sales channels are moving away from the stock sites themselves
  • The microstock industry is still profitable and will continue to be so, but it is getting tougher to compete
  • Video is a growing fast and is a hot commodity
  • Keep your collection tight with relevant keywords

Thanks to everyone in the interviews

Tom Bennett – CEO / Co-founder Pond5.com
Ellen Boughn – Author / Stock Photo Consultant – EllenBoughn.com
Serban Enache – CEO Dreamstime.com
Dittmar Frohmann – Senior Director Europe - iStockPhoto.com
Mark Milstein – MicrostockSolutions.com
Jim Pickerell – Author / Stock Critic – PhotoSellingOptions.com / Selling-Stock.com
Amos Struck – StockPhotoPress.com
Lee Torrens – MicrostockDiaries.com
Robert Walters – Managing Director PantherMedia.net

And also thanks to those who I didn’t manage to edit into the video due to technical difficulties :(

Shannon Fagan – Photographer, Previously President at Stock Artists Alliance
Cathy Yeulet – Stock Photographer, Business Owner – Monkey Business Images
Pankaj Shah – Photographer / CEO AllIndiaImages, GulfImages.com


Sorry for the poor audio quality on some of the interviews.  I was just learning to use a new microphone :S

About The Author:

Tyler Olson works as a microstock photographer who also runs the MicrostockGroup forum and blog. Being so closely involved in the microstock community as a submitter, forum moderator and blogger, Tyler is able to keep updated in the constantly changing microstock marketplace.
http://www.simplefoto.com
Posted on November 25th, 2010 in Microstock News | tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
  • http://www.annparryny.blogspot.com/ Ann

    Tyler, your video of interviews at CEPIC is a must-see for stock photographers who want to not only keep up with, but get ahead of, the significant, ongoing changes in stock photography business.

    Gone are the days of “quantity for quantity’s sake” – rather, lots of stress on: Quality – Keywords – Stock footage

    • http://www.simplefoto.com Tyler Olson

      Yeah, I agree – high quality and good keywording was really stressed. I don’t think mediocre anything really cuts it anymore. At the big 4 (or 10) agencies the marketplace has really become a professional arena.

  • http://www.dutchicon.com Hemmo de Jonge

    That was really helpful. My personal goal: become the best in my niche (Ellen said that i think)

  • http://blackrhinoillustration.blogspot.com/ TheBlackRhino

    Wow. Thanks for creating and sharing that video to the public. Any input from that show regarding illustrators?

    • http://www.simplefoto.com Tyler Olson

      Sorry, no. The conference was focused around photography so there wasn’t really any talk about illustrations.

  • http://blog.debenportphoto.com Steve Debenport

    Thanks Tyler for putting the work in to do this. Very informative. Now… where’s that extra 10 grand for my next shoot ;)

  • JohnnyByFlash

    For a newbie this is a brilliant intro to the now and the future… thanks Tyler

  • http://CarolinaSmith.com CarolinaSmith

    Thank you so much for taking the time to do and post the interviews. A good summary to the things we hear alot (find a niche, quality, etc.). Much appreciated.

  • http://sharronclemons.co.cc/ Sharron Clemons

    That was really helpful. My personal goal: become the best in my niche (Ellen said that i think)

  • http://www.facebook.com/gulfimagebank Gulf Image Bank