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May 26, 2012, 06:47

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Topic: Lifecycle of a Stockphoto

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gunnar3000

« on: August 31, 2008, 16:59 »

#link

Hi,

I have some little question about the "lifecycle" of a stockimage today.

1. what do you think is the total earning of an average stockimage during its life?

2. how does the monthly earning of an average stockimage change during its life?

3. How long can a stockphotographer expackt significant earnings from an average photos`?

4. Do you have any other thoughts about the lifecycle of an image?

thank a lot, I am curious about your thoughts.....


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lathspell

« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2008, 08:27 »

#link

Quote from: gunnar3000 on August 31, 2008, 16:59

4. Do you have any other thoughts about the lifecycle of an image?

Yep, I do: IMO there's nothing predictable, and none of your other questions can be answered.


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yingyang0

« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2008, 09:02 »

#link

Quote from: gunnar3000 on August 31, 2008, 16:59

2. how does the monthly earning of an average stockimage change during its life?

It goes up, then down over time, then up again when it hits the dollar bin.

OR

It stays 0, then goes up when it hits the dollar bin.

OR

It stays a consistently high producing photo until they change the search algorithm again.

Take your pick.


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eppic

« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2008, 00:47 »

#link

It would also depend on where it's submitted. Shutterstock for example would be a couple weeks or a couple months if the image is quite good. Istock seems to be longer, like 6 months.
My best image with microstock so far has earned me about 90 bucks with Istock. That same image earned me about 10 bucks with Shutterstock. Of course submitting images to better stock sites like Photoshelter can earn you potentially alot more money especially if you license it as Rights Managed.


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sharpshot

« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2008, 02:27 »

#link

Most images fade away with SS but some carry on selling. I have been doing this for 2 years and some that I uploaded in 2006 are still getting downloads. A lot of the photos on my first few pages are over 12 months old.


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Clivia

« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2008, 03:08 »

#link

I have recently had good sales on images uploaded in 2005 that had very few sales before. Predictions are pointless, it depends on the images and the current trends in the market.
My best selling images have earned hundreds of dollars on both SS and IS, but have hardly sold at all on all the other sites.


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mollypix

New Member

« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2008, 18:06 »

#link

Try this little search on iStock

Surfing (Water Sport)

Photos only no illustrations, flash or video in the search

20 images per page

Sort by downloads NOT by best match

Now add up all the downloads for the the first 20 images

Comes to 10556 downloads

IF... all of those images had been on the site for 5 years (which they haven't been) but I'm not going to look at each image to find out how long they have been then...

Average downloads per month per image is 8.79 over 60 months.

What this tells me is...

The subject is popular and I can expect good downloads from my images for a good time to come.

Other subjects can be looked at the same way, and a good picture of subject value can be obtained, by working out that average.

Cheers


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Gizeh

« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2008, 05:15 »

#link

Agree that knowing more about image lifecycles would be extremely helpful for those serious about microstock.

Still I think a good guesstimate is almost impossible because looking at data from the past can be completely misleading in a fast moving world like microstock

Today one of your images might compete with 10 similars, tomorrow it might be 11, 100 or 1,000 similars. Who knows? Also search engines at agencies are in a permanent flux. You might have a favourable ranking today but find your images at the bottom tomorrow.

IMHO making predictions in microstock is as reliable as forecasting roulette numbers (the bank always wins that is for sure).


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gostwyck

« Reply #8 on: September 04, 2008, 09:04 »

#link

Quote from: gunnar3000 on August 31, 2008, 16:59

It's normally 5.4 potatoes per lunar metrocycle.


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gunnar3000

« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2008, 03:30 »

#link

interesting thoughts, I guess you are right. but sometimes I am realy interested in calculating potential future earnings ;-)

thanks a lot :-)
gunnar


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Seren

« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2008, 14:15 »

#link

I know photographers that have been selling some of the same images for 30 years plus. They don't count it up in terms of monthly earnings per image, they just figure out if they're earning enough to live on. Wink

However, these are the same guys that have 15,000 images on traditional stock agencies as well as specialist agencies. Notice, they don't sell their photos on microstock...


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Karimala

« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2008, 17:35 »

#link

Trendiness will shorten an image's life, such as fashion, photographic styles, hair, etc.


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Site	Earnings Rating
Top Tier - Big 4
Shutterstock	100
iStock	66.7
Fotolia	34.9
Dreamstime	26.7

Middle Tier
DepositPhotos	21.6
123RF	16.3
Canstockphoto	11.2
Bigstockphoto	9.5
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Low Earners
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GLStockImages	2.7
Stockfresh	2.2
YayMicro	1.8
FeaturePics	1.4
MostPhotos	1.3
ScanStockPhoto	1.1
Crestock	0.8
Cutcaster	0.6
AllYouCanStock	0.1
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