I did a similiar statistic over my big5 (IS,SS,DT,SX,FT) and came with these results. I have also images on other sites (both micro and macro) but those are not included here.
Years in business: about 4
Images produced: about 1500 (between 1200 and 1300 accepted images)
Total amount of licences sold: 46,931
Earned money: $31,392
About $20 for every image produced.
So, what is the situation now?
-RPI is falling because the market is getting oversaturated.
-I have no people shots in my portfolios (except some body parts like hands and such). People shots would most likely have better RPI's, but also more hassle: finding and booking models, releases etc.
-My production speed has increased significately, I just doubled my port size in one year,
and now I have the same goal (3000 images next summer)
-Still going strong, this month is propably going to be my best month ever.
Feel free to step up to the plate and share your cumulative totals, maybe it will help give people just starting out some realistic expectations.
I don't think my numbers give realistic expectations. I had a very good start in the beginning, 2005 RPIs were much better than now. I don't think I would have ever started if the RPIs were as bad as today.