In their desperation to accelerate profits (before the impending sale) Istock have accidently crashed the car. They've tested the patience of buyers beyond their limits and lost the trust of contributors too. Things will never, ever be the same again. It's as simple as that.

I think you're right.  We are beyond the point of no return. 

Zazzel? Never heart of it, I can't even google it up. Awesome jump last month.

I'm not sure which of the traffic sites is the most accurate but Google Trends is showing a pretty significant traffic drop for Istock putting it barely above the other top sites.

For the people who are saying it's the worst month since 2009 that matches the traffic pattern.

Fotolia - last time I had so few sales was March 2008!!!!!! -50% earnings on april last year.
Dreamstime - BME
Shutterstock - best match since march last year
123rf - BME
BS - BME
IS - average month,not seeing the same recent drop as some but sales still less than a half what they were a couple of years ago.

Not good to say the least. I was down over 14% on April 2010 and 24% down from March 2011. Percentages as follows (with 2010);

Shutterstock  - 35.4%  (25.8 )
Istock  - 26.7% (34.4)
Fotolia  - 21.7% (24.3)
Dreamstime  - 10.0% (10.3)
BigStock  - 3.4% (2.8 )

In terms of $'s lost or gained over April 2010 per agency results were;

Shutterstock  - +17.4%
Istock  - -33.5%
Fotolia  - -23.7%
Dreamstime  - -17%
BigStock  - +7%

My microstock earnings peaked in March 2010. Until that point the trend-line on the graph pointed inexorably upwards. Ever since it has been gradually going south with remarkable symmetry and current projections suggest that earnings may dwindle back to the point where they started (i.e. zero) about 5-6 years after they peaked.

I hope not obviously but is it possible that microstock could eventually prove to be a '10-year bubble'? By then images may be so plentiful that their value could be virtually worthless to the photographers. Supply is simply outstripping demand to such an extent that it is difficult (and painful) to predict what will happen.

Quote from: gostwyck on May 03, 2011, 05:47

My microstock earnings peaked in March 2010. Until that point the trend-line on the graph inexorably upwards. Ever since it has been gradually going south with remarkable symmetry and current projections suggest that earnings may dwindle back to the point where they started (i.e. zero) about 5-6 years after they peaked.

I hope not obviously but is it possible that microstock could eventually prove to be a '10-year bubble'? By then images may be so plentiful that their value could be virtually worthless to the photographers. Supply is simply outstripping demand to such an extent that it is difficult (and painful) to predict what will happen.

Surely there must be a point at which the return becomes so low that it will no longer attract quality contributors and the supply dries up? The designers will still be buying so that should lead to a more or less steady-stated division of the spoils between existing contributors? I think the graph will have a rapid rise to the peak, a limited period of equally rapid decline and then a long, flattish tail.

I seem to have peaked at Feb 2010.

Statistics on the rate of increase of active contributors at top sites and the rate of growth of collections would be interesting, if anybody has them.

Good question. I haven't seen any statistics but if Istockcharts is any indication, the top 50 contributors ranked by total downloads don't seem to be too active when looking at "New Files 30 Days".

There are a couple of people that submitted a few hundred images but the rest seem to be anywhere from inactive to somewhat active. Most sent under 100 images which isn't even close to their upload limits.

Quote from: Slovenian on May 02, 2011, 17:57

Zazzel? Never heart of it, I can't even google it up. Awesome jump last month.

Probably Zazzle.

Thank you for pointing out that typo. I typed it only one time wrong in my excel sheet. Can't believe how often it shows up wrong because of it.

I know Zazzle is not a stock photography agency, but because many stock photographer have an account there too I include it in my statistic. The good thing with Zazzle is that only a few large orders can bring in a big profit.

I'm a bit late in posting this month, and I was very pleased to see another best month, with a particular strong showing from Shutterstock with six enhanced downloads and then a real surprise at the end of the month when I sold two images on Veer for $46 each. I don't fully understand their licensing but this appears to be for unlimited seats and unlimited reproduction. Veer has come from nowhere (average of $10 per month) to give me $169 in this one month. I am really glad I kept up the uploading to this site.

Here are my main graphs. As usual, I have expanded on the best selling images in the month on my blog: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2011/04/best-selling-images-in-april-2011/



Steve