Author Topic: Sept 2014 Microstock Earnings Breakdown (Read 10748 times)

leaf · « **on:** September 30, 2014, 06:30 »

How were your earnings for Sept. 2014?
... mine are coming soon

Tror · « **Reply #1 on:** September 30, 2014, 06:53 »

Quote from: leaf on September 30, 2014, 06:30

How were your earnings for Sept. 2014?
... mine are coming soon

Still waiting for the last hours, but looks like a solid month so far...

photostockad · « **Reply #2 on:** September 30, 2014, 06:54 »

The second place on BME top, with 50% from Shutterstock (BME there).

Mantis · « **Reply #3 on:** September 30, 2014, 07:59 »

Dreamstime down 50%

Shutterstock down on downloads by 30% but up to normal (avg) on revenue thanks to a few SOD's and video sales. Some may say it's all about the revenue but I disagree, at least in part. A declining frequency of downloads means more and more reliance on big SOD's and EL's. Those do not happen very often, so as frequency declines we can expect to see more and more wild swings in revenue.

Istock up a little. I had two EL's this month that took me to over $200 (before PP, of course). The thing I noticed here was a lot more $1 to $1.30 commissions but for XXXL sizes. This is frustrating.

Pond 5: Interestingly, my still images have sold fairly well there this month, maybe 5-7 downloads, but with good commissions ($5 each). Several video downloads, too.

Alamy while not micro yet, WAYYY down. $73 gross with one of those sales a distributor sales. For real feedback for this community I went back and looked at my sales spreadsheet for alamy. Here are my real NET numbers (averages) and the drastic decline. 2009 - avg monthly net: $350; 2010 - avg monthly net: $240; 2011 - avg monthly net: $180; 2012 - avg monthly net: $120; 2013: avg monthly net: $80; 2014 - avg monthly net: $45

123: Significantly up from ~$100 avg to $160

stockmarketer · « **Reply #4 on:** September 30, 2014, 10:54 »

Up about 10 percent from August, but that's a non-story. We should all expect that. We're going from what is traditionally one of the worst months to one of the best months. If you're not up at least 10 percent from Aug to Sep, there's something seriously wrong.

The bigger story for all of us should be how are we compared to Sept 2013. It looks like I'll be flat, almost to the dollar. Yes, Sept 2013 was a great month, and I'm happy to have a nice chunk of extra income again in Sept 2014, but looking at the month as returns for a business where I invested a lot of my time over the past year growing my port significantly, this is a big disappointment.

As for the agency mix, comparing Sept 2013 to 2014: SS, FT, iS, 123 down slightly or flat. DT up significantly. The rest up slightly.

fotoVoyager · « **Reply #5 on:** September 30, 2014, 11:11 »

Best month ever!

Just kidding. Still waiting for the month to end and be put out of its misery here.

spike · « **Reply #6 on:** September 30, 2014, 13:07 »

It depends on the PP, but it could be BME.

Ploink · « **Reply #7 on:** September 30, 2014, 14:06 »

Folks, as it is not yet October in some places of the world, this thread is completely premature and was opened unauthorized. It will therefore be closed at this point.

Please wait until we(!) open the official "How was your September?"-thread. All other attempts to discuss this topic will be shut down immediately...

Sorry, guys and gals, I always wanted to do a Lobo

As for September, it was meh. Thankfully someone switched ODs back on at SS, and, surprisingly IS was really strong this month, new credits or not. Apart from that, everybody is still on summer vacation or already hibernating. SS still doesn't feel "normal" - today, a weekday at the end of the month and still only three sales - that's not right, European sales are completely gone in the last few months for me...

pancaketom · « **Reply #8 on:** September 30, 2014, 21:59 »

I still have a few hours in Sept, but I doubt there will be many or any more sales. Sept was my 2cd best month of 2014 and it was my BSE (best September ever). I had a BME at stockfresh - which isn't saying much, but is a sign of life. An EL at GL was appreciated as was my one big sale at Alamy. The top 4 this month were SS, Alamy, DT, 123RF (nice surprise - due to an LEL).

I did upload a lot (for me) this month, so hopefully that will help boost Oct - which has been my best month of the year a few years in the past.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #9 on:** September 30, 2014, 22:42 »

I have not had time to do the charts yet but generally I see a good uptrend from August. August was terrible. This is not near my best Sept. but any growth over August is pleasing.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #10 on:** October 01, 2014, 07:58 »

Interestingly enough, I made more on Canva than I did on GL, so nice work to the Canva marketers. Another BME on Stocksy and SS push this to the best month I've had since I was forced to go indy.

Valo · « **Reply #11 on:** October 01, 2014, 08:47 »

Sean, without revealing too much, at how many percent of your exclusive days are you now? If you cannot share, I understand. Thanks anyways.

And congrats on the BME.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #12 on:** October 01, 2014, 08:51 »

From my peak, I'd say about 1/6, from a more normal average, probably about 1/4. As I've said before, a lot of that came from the Agency collection sales, which wouldn't be there now. Add that to all the recent drops I read of though, I'm guessing I'm doing about 1/2 of what I'd currently make if still exclusive. Who knows.

Valo · « **Reply #13 on:** October 01, 2014, 08:57 »

Thank you Sean. It is somewhat depressing to read that you are at 25%, but I am hoping you get back to previous earnings soon, someway.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #14 on:** October 01, 2014, 10:06 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on October 01, 2014, 07:58

Interestingly enough, I made more on Canva than I did on GL, so nice work to the Canva marketers. Another BME on Stocksy and SS push this to the best month I've had since I was forced to go indy.

I am not on Canva but I made more money looking for change in the couch than I did on GL.

Pixart · « **Reply #15 on:** October 01, 2014, 10:13 »

I had my first very decent month in about 15 months. Gosh, I'm almost motivated to shoot some stock again!

The problem is, 63% of earnings were from SS. The SS income was curiously almost evenly split 4 ways between Subs, OD, EL and SOD. Haven't had this many total downloads since 2011.

All of the sites were up a bit excluding DT. Cummon DT!!! What is the problem? It looks like they will be down 15-20% from 2013 if I don't have 3 spectacular months.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #16 on:** October 01, 2014, 10:59 »

Shutterstock had a good month - up 18% over August and up 10% on last September (and I haven't uploaded much this year)

Canva is still tiny overall, but as Sean mentioned, they beat GL Stock (and I have only about 250 of my portfolio on Canva)!

Dreamstime was disappointing - 20% down on August and 25% down on last September

123rf fell off a cliff - sales were half what they were last September. They had been doing well prior to some time in August - I wonder if the Dollar Photo Club is having an impact on them (123rf is one of the cheaper agencies).

CanStock would have been a wreck but for one distribution sale that ended them flat with August

PhotoDune was down too - sales were half of August's (but they don't seem to have the clear seasonal rhythms I see at other sites).

Alamy's virtually dead (but I did get paid as some prior sales *finally* cleared). Stockfresh and GL Stock get occasional sales, but the volume is so low that comparisons are meaningless. I get sales every month from my 109 images left on iStock, but again, it's not significant.

FAA isn't regular enough, but two sales in Sept beat my entire month at 123rf (given how low the latter fell) so I'm happy to take another little chunk.

disorderly · « **Reply #17 on:** October 01, 2014, 11:17 »

A strange month. Up 16% on August, dead even with September 2013. SS, DT, DP up significantly on August. 123RF continues to slide, as did BigStock and PD. In order, SS was 47% of my total, 123RF was 17%, DT was 9%, DP was 7%, PD was 6%, iS was 5%, BigStock and CanStockPhoto were 2% each. Canva was 1%; not bad for my 2nd month there. I'll be curious to see how it does, now that I have a good number of my images online there.

loop · « **Reply #18 on:** October 01, 2014, 13:22 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on October 01, 2014, 08:51

From my peak, I'd say about 1/6, from a more normal average, probably about 1/4. As I've said before, a lot of that came from the Agency collection sales, which wouldn't be there now. Add that to all the recent drops I read of though, I'm guessing I'm doing about 1/2 of what I'd currently make if still exclusive. Who knows.

I'm at 25% of my peak at IS (exc.) , maybe 33-35% projecting subs and getty sales. Taking hits everetime they make a change.

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #19 on:** October 01, 2014, 13:26 »

Not a WMY but close - way behind compared to 2013 and 2012 but at least beat Sept. 2011. Surprisingly had BMYs at DT and DP. Had a WMY at CS, and most of the others were at 2011 levels. SS DL volume down about 20% from earlier this year but money hanging in there due to more than usual ELs and SODs. SS about 60% of the total. Like some others, I made more on Canva than GL, even though I only made a small test upload to Canva and only have 11 images online - need to increase that. iS very weak - the new changes don't seem to have helped my bottom line.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #20 on:** October 01, 2014, 13:39 »

Oddly enough I found more money laying on the ground than I made on Pond5, DP, Alamy and BS, all added together. Lets say, those were pretty dead.

Meanwhile IS and SS have come to life, which has led me to continue the "less is more" agency theory.

I'm looking forward to being with two actively before the year ends.

Plus I sold two books from a box lot, while I was still at the auction, that covered the purchase of 100 more that I brought home. (future eBay sales) Problem with books is, about 25% sell for a profit and the rest, never sell. Now what do I do with them.

I hear sitting by the fire with a good book is relaxing... and they burn slow.

Quote from: PixelBytes on October 01, 2014, 10:06

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on October 01, 2014, 07:58
Interestingly enough, I made more on Canva than I did on GL, so nice work to the Canva marketers. Another BME on Stocksy and SS push this to the best month I've had since I was forced to go indy.

I am not on Canva but I made more money looking for change in the couch than I did on GL.

melking · « **Reply #21 on:** October 01, 2014, 14:07 »

BEST MONTH EVER on Shutterstock!!! YAY!!!!!

oboy · « **Reply #22 on:** October 01, 2014, 14:50 »

14% up from last month, and 25% up compared to last year September.
Best four: Shutterstock, DepositPhotos, Zazzle, iStockPhoto

Blog Post: http://microstockinfos.blogspot.com/2014/10/stock-photography-sales-statistic.html

(This statistic include referral earning at the different agencies)

cobalt · « **Reply #23 on:** October 01, 2014, 15:07 »

I had a BME on Shutterstock, thanks to some extended licenses. istock was up a little with seasonal sales and one large extended license for nearly 60 dollars, then came pond5,then fotolia,stocksy,dreamstime and a few others.

I really like the new SS app, hope they expand the concept. It is really helpful to read that a file has been lightboxed many times, even if it hasn´t sold yet.

I am very impressed that pond5 has moved up to number three and that photo sales are picking up, even if most of the income is still from video. And they sell editorial files well, even had an editorial video sale on dreamstime this month. So I think I will try to do a bit more things locally.

I am at around 30-40% of what I would probably be making if I was exclusive. Extended licenses and video sales and stocksy are the most interesting.

Sub sales are extremely low on all agencies. There is clearly a total oversupply of files, unless you can produce huge numbers every week, I don´t see how I can ever recover my income with subs.

So the agencies that have the most extended licenses or "special" deal sales that bring in 20 dollars or more, are what will get me back into doing stock full time again.

fotoVoyager · « **Reply #24 on:** October 01, 2014, 15:32 »

Compared to previous September:

2013: DL -35% $ -38%

2012: DL -43% $ -43%

2011: DL -71% $ -62%

2010: DL -85% $ -72%

2009: DL -87% $ -54%

2008: DL -92% $ -57%

iStock Exclusive. Standard downloads.

stock-will-eat-itself · « **Reply #25 on:** October 01, 2014, 17:44 »

Quote from: fotoVoyager on October 01, 2014, 15:32

Compared to previous September:

2013: DL -35% $ -38%

2012: DL -43% $ -43%

2011: DL -71% $ -62%

2010: DL -85% $ -72%

2009: DL -87% $ -54%

2008: DL -92% $ -57%

iStock Exclusive. Standard downloads.

Even if you included Getty sales (presuming around 20-30% of your port goes to Getty) I would say you now are at parity to indy earnings.

iS are at a pivotal moment now, they need to turn this around with some urgency before they make SS a runaway train that will eat into not just iS but Getty as well.

If they are not careful Yuri will be the only exclusive they have left.

gostwyck · « **Reply #26 on:** October 01, 2014, 18:15 »

Quote from: stock-will-eat-itself on October 01, 2014, 17:44

Quote from: fotoVoyager on October 01, 2014, 15:32
Compared to previous September:

2013: DL -35% $ -38%

2012: DL -43% $ -43%

2011: DL -71% $ -62%

2010: DL -85% $ -72%

2009: DL -87% $ -54%

2008: DL -92% $ -57%

iStock Exclusive. Standard downloads.

Even if you included Getty sales (presuming around 20-30% of your port goes to Getty) I would say you now are at parity to indy earnings.

iS are at a pivotal moment now, they need to turn this around with some urgency before they make SS a runaway train that will eat into not just iS but Getty as well.

If they are not careful Yuri will be the only exclusive they have left.

IS can't "turn this around". No chance whatsoever. With their latest move all they've achieved is to alienate most of their blog-post buyers. This is the internet age and to win you absolutely have to have momentum and be leading from the front.

All Istock appear to be doing is to try and turn themselves into a piss-poor version of SS. No vision there at all.

SS is run by a full-on, highly-skilled entrepreneur, with his own money at stake. In contrast IS is being run by various staff managers who get drafted in and then sacked or moved on every 18 months or so.

It is utterly laughable that Istock, from the position they have put themselves in, could even tread water from this point let alone actually grow the business. Almost every USP they once had has been abandoned in favour of trying, very badly, to copy SS. It isn't going to work.

There is one potential thing that they could do to right the ship ... and that is to restore the original canister-based royalty rates. That, more than anything else, would actually help their bottom-line. Unfortunately TPTB are not bright enough to understand that and how vital the relationship with the contributor actually was to the success of their business. It was the RC debacle that destroyed IS and it is only the restoration of the original royalty structure that will help them.

KB · « **Reply #27 on:** October 01, 2014, 19:03 »

Quote from: fotoVoyager on October 01, 2014, 15:32

Compared to previous September:

2013: DL -35% $ -38%

iStock Exclusive. Standard downloads.

For me, my DLs were down 46% and $s down 47% compared to Sep 2013.

Just brutal.

zstoimenov · « **Reply #28 on:** October 02, 2014, 00:30 »

I am not a professional by any mean and I have just moved back to microstock. I started in 2008 but haven't uploaded anything since. The market is very different now and as we all know saturated in certain areas. Still with portfolios around 150-250 photos I did better than what I expected.

Fotolia is the big surprise for me. First place by a big margin. SS second. IS, DT, 123RF down at the bottom. Can't make any comparisons as this is my first month back at it, but still feels good to have a few sales.

leaf · « **Reply #29 on:** October 02, 2014, 00:58 »

Shutterstock gave me 58% of my income this month - it's starting to be a scary majority.. but nice they are doing so well.

Earnings overall are pretty flat, higher than last year but so is the size of the port. RPI is quite a bit lower than it has been in the past, but I haven't uploaded much in the last 6 months so I have only myself to blame for that.

Gannet77 · « **Reply #30 on:** October 02, 2014, 03:55 »

Quote from: fotoVoyager on October 01, 2014, 15:32

Compared to previous September:

2013: DL -35% $ -38%
2012: DL -43% $ -43%
2011: DL -71% $ -62%
2010: DL -85% $ -72%
2009: DL -87% $ -54%
2008: DL -92% $ -57%

iStock Exclusive. Standard downloads.

Interesting... if I do a similar calculation, I get:

2013: $ -31%
2012: $ -28%
2011: $ -47%
2010: $ -29%
2009: $ +16%
2008: $ +86%

base iStock sales only + ELs, as I don't separate those out; but, if I include PP, GI etc. for the previous month in each case, as those are paid a month in arrears, I get:

2013: $ -7%
2012: $ +11%
2011: $ -19%
2010: $ +11%
2009: $ +83%
2008: $ +197%

Not sure what that tells us, other than what we already know, i.e. that Getty are trying to shift sales from iStock to their other outlets, but there it is.

If only they could add the other sales without losing the existing ones, I'd be a lot happier...

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #31 on:** October 02, 2014, 09:26 »

Quote from: gostwyck on October 01, 2014, 18:15

There is one potential thing that they could do to right the ship ... and that is to restore the original canister-based royalty rates. That, more than anything else, would actually help their bottom-line. Unfortunately TPTB are not bright enough to understand that and how vital the relationship with the contributor actually was to the success of their business. It was the RC debacle that destroyed IS and it is only the restoration of the original royalty structure that will help them.

Well said! The RC change wasn't the only problem but it certainly soured contributors. Admitting that was a bad idea and restoring to the way it was would help a lot from the contributor side. SS so far hasn't messed with their levels and it seems to be pretty sustainable there.

MarcvsTvllivs · « **Reply #32 on:** October 02, 2014, 09:47 »

I had a very solid month, especially at Shutterstock.

heywoody · « **Reply #33 on:** October 02, 2014, 15:43 »

SS - average to good
DT - average to poor
FT - very good, pushed SS for a while
123 - poor
IS - who knows until PP comes in
AM - single sale making them #2 for the month and producing an overall BME

Red Dove · « **Reply #34 on:** October 02, 2014, 15:54 »

SS - King Kong
FT - Mighty Joe Young
IS - Tarzan
BS - Cheetah the Chimpanzee
DT - Baboon
123RF - Monkey puppet with cymbals

PixelBytes · « **Reply #35 on:** October 02, 2014, 22:44 »

Quote from: Red Dove on October 02, 2014, 15:54

SS - King Kong
FT - Mighty Joe Young
IS - Tarzan
BS - Cheetah the Chimpanzee
DT - Baboon
123RF - Monkey puppet with cymbals

All time best report ever!

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #36 on:** October 03, 2014, 12:34 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on October 01, 2014, 08:51

From my peak, I'd say about 1/6, from a more normal average, probably about 1/4. As I've said before, a lot of that came from the Agency collection sales, which wouldn't be there now. Add that to all the recent drops I read of though, I'm guessing I'm doing about 1/2 of what I'd currently make if still exclusive. Who knows.

nice 2 hear u r getting back there, SLP.
it's reading things like this from SLP that makes me feel how IS eff-up bigtime. how could u screw it up when ur agency was doing so well?
like most businesses that went under, greed kills the golden goose.

wordplanet · « **Reply #37 on:** October 03, 2014, 18:58 »

SS: +265% over Sept 2013 (2nd BME there, BMY)
DT: Same as Sept 2013 nearly to the dollar.
iS: -50% (using last month's PP, otherwise, even worse)
Alamy & my own site: OK sales on both with additional zooms and inquiries which I hope mean October has some promise. Trying to stay positive.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #38 on:** October 05, 2014, 04:41 »

Are those with strong FL results opted into DPC? I've seen my sales drop with FL and am opted out.

I don't want to derail the thread, but am interested to know how it's working out for those who stayed opted in.

stocked · « **Reply #39 on:** October 05, 2014, 05:49 »

I'm opted out and deleted several thousands files and my earnings are still stable (actually a little up)

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #40 on:** October 05, 2014, 09:50 »

I am not entirely uncomfortable with the thought of FL making up less of my income, same with DP who I've stopped uploading to.

Just wanted to hear how others are doing. Great to hear that you don't have to be opted in to do well.

Mellimage · « **Reply #41 on:** October 06, 2014, 00:40 »

Compared to August, which was BME I am down by 37%, compared to last September I am up 56%

Stocksy - 68% (-51% from August, +245% from Sep 2013)
SS - 15% (+76% from August (which was really slow), -6% from Sep 2013)
DT - 10% (+114% from August, +78% from Sep 2013) - DT is really picking up for me this year
FT - 7% (+6% from August, -51% from Sep 2013)

overall - and thanks to Stocksy - my Stockyear is going rather well. Revenue up by 127% - I am going to have a BYE - but given that I am generally speaking a low earner this is probably not saying much.