I could swear I read somewhere that Yuri had something like this in the works. This was quite a while ago, so I don't remember exactly where I read it.

Seems like a good move for him, though. Develop some new things around microstock and expand his business. Based on his recent posts in other forums about a slowdown in his earnings growth, I'm not surprised to see him exploring new things. Image sales will always be there for him, and I'm sure the guy could just stop uploading and drop his employees, and live quite well off the income for several years. Numbers would drop, of course, but with his kind of numbers, he could stop producing new stuff and just travel for a year or two and still have a nice income generating the whole time.

I almost wonder if that is the real microstock dream. Build up a portfolio to a level that you are very happy with, then leave it alone and just spend the bare minimum number of hours per week maintaining it. Like no more than 8 hours a week. Spend the rest of the time doing whatever you want. Or start a new business, branch into something else, make even more money all while your microstock earnings continue to come in. I wonder if that is Yuri's plan, and maybe this keyword thing is his first step into a business of other microstock-related products and services.

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openpathdesign.com Microstock - A Crash Course

I confirm, I did read it too, on some agency forums.

Maybe he figured out that helping his competitors was causing the drop he was seeing.

Although the huge silence we've noticed since then might show he learned his lesson.