November 2010 Microstock Earnings Thread

[ceeker]

Thanks for your kind words KB and aeon! And your help and advice!

...even if a little backhanded KB 

[KB]

Kidding, of course (Sean's advice notwithstanding), but I am very envious of your work.  Outstanding stock.

[ceeker]

No problem, KB, got the humor.

Glad you like my stuff. Flattery is always welcome!!

[lisafx]

Wow!  Indeed, very beautiful portfolio! 

[jsnover]

I made $358 at Istock in November (Not a BME, but close, BME was actually October - $423) which represents about 60% of my income across 5 agencies (IS,SS,DT,FT,CS,DP)

I have had fairly steady growth at IS this year, having increased my port from 250 to 580 images.
As IS represents such a large chunk of my income, I am strongly considering going exclusive next year and have already dropped BS and Veer.
I am a little concerned now however as quite  few people seem to be experiencing a drop in IS income. Just wondering if any IS exclusives are seeing this trend also?

You have a lovely portfolio and with a bit more growth should see steady income from IS. What you need to look at before deciding on exclusive status is what your redeemed credits might be for 2011 (which will set your 2012 royalty rate).  Vetta, Agency and XXXL sizes all help boost those numbers and thus your royalty.

When I switched from independent to exclusive I was gold and thus went from 20% to 35%. This year has been excellent for me - partly the doubling of exclusive prices on XS, partly portfolio growth, partly price increase. Before the September announcements, I think I'd have said to wait until you could get to gold to go exclusive, but with the drop in IS income you'll see in January if you don't go exclusive (you'd drop to 16%?) and the percentage of your income from IS, taking the 25% and the huge risk might be a reasonable bet for you.

[ceeker]

I made $358 at Istock in November (Not a BME, but close, BME was actually October - $423) which represents about 60% of my income across 5 agencies (IS,SS,DT,FT,CS,DP)

I have had fairly steady growth at IS this year, having increased my port from 250 to 580 images.
As IS represents such a large chunk of my income, I am strongly considering going exclusive next year and have already dropped BS and Veer.
I am a little concerned now however as quite  few people seem to be experiencing a drop in IS income. Just wondering if any IS exclusives are seeing this trend also?

You have a lovely portfolio and with a bit more growth should see steady income from IS. What you need to look at before deciding on exclusive status is what your redeemed credits might be for 2011 (which will set your 2012 royalty rate).  Vetta, Agency and XXXL sizes all help boost those numbers and thus your royalty.

When I switched from independent to exclusive I was gold and thus went from 20% to 35%. This year has been excellent for me - partly the doubling of exclusive prices on XS, partly portfolio growth, partly price increase. Before the September announcements, I think I'd have said to wait until you could get to gold to go exclusive, but with the drop in IS income you'll see in January if you don't go exclusive (you'd drop to 16%?) and the percentage of your income from IS, taking the 25% and the huge risk might be a reasonable bet for you.

Thanks again everyone for the compliments!  

Hi js,

Thanks for the advice. Everyone is so helpful here! I hope I can return the favour sometime in the future!

Regarding the royalty rate, I am currently on 11433 credits (as of December 8th), so I am uploading like crazy in the hopes that I can squeeze out the last 1067 credits before the end of December which would make the move to exclusive much more attractive.

Unfortunately, my camera (D3) does not quite produce XXXL unless I res the files up which I am reluctant to do for fear of rejection! So I may need to invest in a D3x to get the larger file sizes.

[adijr]

I made $358 at Istock in November (Not a BME, but close, BME was actually October - $423) which represents about 60% of my income across 5 agencies (IS,SS,DT,FT,CS,DP)

I have had fairly steady growth at IS this year, having increased my port from 250 to 580 images.
As IS represents such a large chunk of my income, I am strongly considering going exclusive next year and have already dropped BS and Veer.
I am a little concerned now however as quite  few people seem to be experiencing a drop in IS income. Just wondering if any IS exclusives are seeing this trend also?

You have a lovely portfolio and with a bit more growth should see steady income from IS. What you need to look at before deciding on exclusive status is what your redeemed credits might be for 2011 (which will set your 2012 royalty rate).  Vetta, Agency and XXXL sizes all help boost those numbers and thus your royalty.

When I switched from independent to exclusive I was gold and thus went from 20% to 35%. This year has been excellent for me - partly the doubling of exclusive prices on XS, partly portfolio growth, partly price increase. Before the September announcements, I think I'd have said to wait until you could get to gold to go exclusive, but with the drop in IS income you'll see in January if you don't go exclusive (you'd drop to 16%?) and the percentage of your income from IS, taking the 25% and the huge risk might be a reasonable bet for you.

Thanks again everyone for the compliments!  

Hi js,

Thanks for the advice. Everyone is so helpful here! I hope I can return the favour sometime in the future!

Regarding the royalty rate, I am currently on 11433 credits (as of December 8th), so I am uploading like crazy in the hopes that I can squeeze out the last 1067 credits before the end of December which would make the move to exclusive much more attractive.

Unfortunately, my camera (D3) does not quite produce XXXL unless I res the files up which I am reluctant to do for fear of rejection! So I may need to invest in a D3x to get the larger file sizes.

First of all, hooray for you!

I was in a similar decision-situation in september- most of my income was coming from istock anyway. I became exclusive in September (my port is a whopping 18 files though. I know, I'm such a noob). Anyway, the result was a nice bump in earnings! For reference, the highest bar on the Graph (Nov 2010) is ~300$. Good luck with your decision!



P.s. I have a whopping 2682 credits . I'm not attempting to make the 12,500 mark

[Jonathan Ross]

Hi adijr,

 Thank you for sharing the numbers, this is a super big help. Sounds like a good November, keep it up.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[PaulieWalnuts]

First of all, hooray for you!

I was in a similar decision-situation in september- most of my income was coming from istock anyway. I became exclusive in September (my port is a whopping 18 files though. I know, I'm such a noob). Anyway, the result was a nice bump in earnings! For reference, the highest bar on the Graph (Nov 2010) is ~300$. Good luck with your decision!



P.s. I have a whopping 2682 credits . I'm not attempting to make the 12,500 mark

Pretty impressive sales performance. 18 files with 400 sales in a little over a year. This debunks any argument that you need to hit some magic number of uploads before starting to make sales.

[PaulieWalnuts]

No problem, KB, got the humor.

Glad you like my stuff. Flattery is always welcome!!

Yes, very nice portfolio.

[adijr]

First of all, hooray for you!

I was in a similar decision-situation in september- most of my income was coming from istock anyway. I became exclusive in September (my port is a whopping 18 files though. I know, I'm such a noob). Anyway, the result was a nice bump in earnings! For reference, the highest bar on the Graph (Nov 2010) is ~300$. Good luck with your decision!



P.s. I have a whopping 2682 credits . I'm not attempting to make the 12,500 mark

Pretty impressive sales performance. 18 files with 400 sales in a little over a year. This debunks any argument that you need to hit some magic number of uploads before starting to make sales.

Yea I'm quite happy with it. I love doing this but I don't really have time, (I am a grad student right now) so the files go up very slow. Nonetheless, despite the numerous rejections and slow throughput pace, I think iStock is doing quite well for me so far. We'll see how it goes in the future.

Keep up the good work everyone!

[RacePhoto]

First of all, hooray for you!

I was in a similar decision-situation in september- most of my income was coming from istock anyway. I became exclusive in September (my port is a whopping 18 files though. I know, I'm such a noob). Anyway, the result was a nice bump in earnings! For reference, the highest bar on the Graph (Nov 2010) is ~300$. Good luck with your decision!



P.s. I have a whopping 2682 credits . I'm not attempting to make the 12,500 mark

Pretty impressive sales performance. 18 files with 400 sales in a little over a year. This debunks any argument that you need to hit some magic number of uploads before starting to make sales.

Don't be so humble yourself, you don't have a huge collection and you have very good sales volume.

Proof that some people make it on volume, some make it on very selective quality products. There's no single simple answer to how various people have made stock a success.

[ceeker]

First of all, hooray for you!

I was in a similar decision-situation in september- most of my income was coming from istock anyway. I became exclusive in September (my port is a whopping 18 files though. I know, I'm such a noob). Anyway, the result was a nice bump in earnings! For reference, the highest bar on the Graph (Nov 2010) is ~300$. Good luck with your decision!



P.s. I have a whopping 2682 credits . I'm not attempting to make the 12,500 mark

Pretty impressive sales performance. 18 files with 400 sales in a little over a year. This debunks any argument that you need to hit some magic number of uploads before starting to make sales.

Hi adjir,

Thanks so much for posting this info. What fantastic results! Definitely made me much more positive about my decision!  Unfortunately, I have to wait until next Feb to go exclusive due to lock ins with other agencies, but very much looking forward to it now. Thanks again! Keep up the good work!

[ceeker]

No problem, KB, got the humor.

Glad you like my stuff. Flattery is always welcome!!

Yes, very nice portfolio.

Thanks Paulie!

[adijr]

Hi adjir,

Thanks so much for posting this info. What fantastic results! Definitely made me much more positive about my decision!  Unfortunately, I have to wait until next Feb to go exclusive due to lock ins with other agencies, but very much looking forward to it now. Thanks again! Keep up the good work!

'pleasure, Good luck with your decision/caring it out.!

[ceeker]

Not sure if anyone is still watching this thread, but just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their kind advice.

Been exclusive at istock for 4 months now and all is going very well. My RPI has increased by about 40% and the increased upload limits have allowed me to add to this income.

So once again, thanks to everyone!!!

Courtney

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