December 2010 earnings thread

[oboy]

This is my stock photography sales statistic for December 2010. You can find a complete list of stock photography agencies that I work with here.



These are for me the best 4 performing stock agencies for December 2010:

   1. Shutterstock
   2. iStockPhoto
   3. Fotolia
   4. Can Stock Photo

Surprisingly the income remained constant in December compared to November. I expected to have a big decline in December, the same as the years before.

2010 was a good year for me. The income in 2010 climbed by 60% compared to 2009. This was way above my hopes. My goal for 2011 is to achieve a gain of 20%.

It was for none of the agencies the best month in December, but it was a good month for Shutterstock, Zazzle, iStockPhoto, Can Stock Photo.

[RacePhoto]

I'm with aeonf on this.  My RPI has been consistent, well into my third year at this, so it's a very useful number to track.  I forecast adding a certain number of shots per day to my port, and the money it will generate, and it's been spot on since the beginning.  Sure, I could manipulate the number by removing images from my port, but that would be idiotic and beside the point.  I track RPI for my own forecasting and insight into whether I'm on the right track, not for bragging rights.  It's my belief that if your RPI is falling, you're doing something wrong, and no one has been able to convince me otherwise since I have a ton of data that doesn't lie.

I guess you two are different from everyone else here because for three years I've been reading how more photos doesn't mean more money per image and RPI drops. There's no direct relationship 1:1 between number of images and income from those images.

Unless you are saying all the rest of those people aren't telling the truth?

Which is it?

[lisafx]

 It's my belief that if your RPI is falling, you're doing something wrong, and no one has been able to convince me otherwise since I have a ton of data that doesn't lie.

I guess you two are different from everyone else here because for three years I've been reading how more photos doesn't mean more money per image and RPI drops. There's no direct relationship 1:1 between number of images and income from those images.

Unless you are saying all the rest of those people aren't telling the truth?

Which is it?

Option #3.  We are all doing something wrong

[mtkang]

i had a sudden drop of downloads in shutterstock from the date of 22 dec till now.. I thought it could be due to the christmas and new year holidays? anyone had similar trend?

so the december for me is bad..

[RacePhoto]

 It's my belief that if your RPI is falling, you're doing something wrong, and no one has been able to convince me otherwise since I have a ton of data that doesn't lie.

I guess you two are different from everyone else here because for three years I've been reading how more photos doesn't mean more money per image and RPI drops. There's no direct relationship 1:1 between number of images and income from those images.

Unless you are saying all the rest of those people aren't telling the truth?

Which is it?

Option #3.  We are all doing something wrong

And my mistake is trying to point out that RPI is a vague nearly useless statistic. I should just STFU and leave it alone. Kind of like pointing out that aliens don't fly light years across space, just so they can find a poor farmer, and tell him the secrets of the universe and how they have come to save mankind. They can defeat science and psysics but can't drop a calling card on the White House lawn or send someone to speak to the UN? LOL

Anyone who watches sports betting or any gambling, knows that some people watch the "trends" for an indication of the future. Trends in football only tell what has happened and 99% of the time don't predict what will happen in the future. Watch a roulette wheel, it comes up 14 times in a row on Red, what are the chances the next time it will be Black or Red. Well, the same as every other spin, because the wheel doesn't know what color came up last, only us humans do!

RPI only measures what has passed, what happened last month or last year, and not only do demands change, but the prices and commissions change and so do the markets. RPI doesn't account for any of that.

Now you know why I feel the way I do about RPI. It's nice to know, it's a way to measure sales and success and see how the hard work is paying off. In a very broad sense, it does show earnings and can project potential for the future, but after one months data, the RPI doesn't change in any significant way or show something interesting?

RPI drops as someone works harder, and it makes the returns look like they are diminishing based on more and more work or effort put in. When in fact, income is going up, while the RPI goes down! I might as well track how my sales are, based on the day of the week the photo was taken. There's bound to be some useless statistic I can come up with, like Sundays are best, but using that information doesn't produce more sales or do anything. It just measures what has already happened. If I shoot more on Sunday, because it's the best day for earnings, then other days will start to improve. Silly as it seems, the best way to improve RPI is delete old non-selling images!

[aeonf]

 It's my belief that if your RPI is falling, you're doing something wrong, and no one has been able to convince me otherwise since I have a ton of data that doesn't lie.

I guess you two are different from everyone else here because for three years I've been reading how more photos doesn't mean more money per image and RPI drops. There's no direct relationship 1:1 between number of images and income from those images.

Unless you are saying all the rest of those people aren't telling the truth?

Which is it?

Option #3.  We are all doing something wrong

And my mistake is trying to point out that RPI is a vague nearly useless statistic. I should just STFU and leave it alone. Kind of like pointing out that aliens don't fly light years across space, just so they can find a poor farmer, and tell him the secrets of the universe and how they have come to save mankind. They can defeat science and psysics but can't drop a calling card on the White House lawn or send someone to speak to the UN? LOL

Anyone who watches sports betting or any gambling, knows that some people watch the "trends" for an indication of the future. Trends in football only tell what has happened and 99% of the time don't predict what will happen in the future. Watch a roulette wheel, it comes up 14 times in a row on Red, what are the chances the next time it will be Black or Red. Well, the same as every other spin, because the wheel doesn't know what color came up last, only us humans do!

RPI only measures what has passed, what happened last month or last year, and not only do demands change, but the prices and commissions change and so do the markets. RPI doesn't account for any of that.

Now you know why I feel the way I do about RPI. It's nice to know, it's a way to measure sales and success and see how the hard work is paying off. In a very broad sense, it does show earnings and can project potential for the future, but after one months data, the RPI doesn't change in any significant way or show something interesting?

RPI drops as someone works harder, and it makes the returns look like they are diminishing based on more and more work or effort put in. When in fact, income is going up, while the RPI goes down! I might as well track how my sales are, based on the day of the week the photo was taken. There's bound to be some useless statistic I can come up with, like Sundays are best, but using that information doesn't produce more sales or do anything. It just measures what has already happened. If I shoot more on Sunday, because it's the best day for earnings, then other days will start to improve. Silly as it seems, the best way to improve RPI is delete old non-selling images!

I think this argument is futile.
No where did I say my goal is to up my RPI. Its just one of the statistical
tools I use to try and give a bussiness forecast of our project.
The buttom line goal is obviusly to make more income with the least expenses.
If you dont find it helpfull by all means, don't use it!
For me its just another line in my excel sheet.

[stockmarketer]

RPI drops as someone works harder, and it makes the returns look like they are diminishing based on more and more work or effort put in. When in fact, income is going up, while the RPI goes down! I might as well track how my sales are, based on the day of the week the photo was taken. There's bound to be some useless statistic I can come up with, like Sundays are best, but using that information doesn't produce more sales or do anything. It just measures what has already happened. If I shoot more on Sunday, because it's the best day for earnings, then other days will start to improve. Silly as it seems, the best way to improve RPI is delete old non-selling images!

After one month at microstock, my daily RPI was 11 cents.  After two and a half years, my daily RPI is 11 cents.  Yes, there was fluxuation... in the summer, it hung around 10 cents, and in the best months like March and November it was steady at 12 cents.  Draw all the comparisons you want to a roulette wheel, saying nearly a thousand days of roughly the same RPI is mere coincidence.  Since your experience is different from mine, I must be wrong, right?   I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, since it seems one of us must be doing something right.

[Blufish]

Race, I get what your saying!  At least one does

[Shank_ali]

Exclusive at Istock.December was my 2nd worst month of the year.However the money earned for  2010 was �4000+ which is kinda cool for a hobby IMO.

[ShadySue]

Exclusive at Istock.December was my 2nd worst month of the year.However the money earned for  2010 was �4000+ which is kinda cool for a hobby IMO.

Indeed, Shankie, you're still My Hero. But I saw you posted on the 'loser' forum over there that you're still quite a way from making Gold RCs, which just shows how ridiculously high the bar is.

[gostwyck]

After one month at microstock, my daily RPI was 11 cents.  After two and a half years, my daily RPI is 11 cents.  Yes, there was fluxuation... in the summer, it hung around 10 cents, and in the best months like March and November it was steady at 12 cents.  Draw all the comparisons you want to a roulette wheel, saying nearly a thousand days of roughly the same RPI is mere coincidence.  Since your experience is different from mine, I must be wrong, right?   I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, since it seems one of us must be doing something right.

Therefore from assessing your RPI, apparently daily, over nearly 3 years, you have learnt ... precisely what?

How have you utilised this 'valuable' information to hone your craft, target your buyers' needs, reduce your costs, improve your profitability, make investment decisions, determine your markets, etc, etc.

Or do you just have a pretty graph to look at?

[stockmarketer]

After one month at microstock, my daily RPI was 11 cents.  After two and a half years, my daily RPI is 11 cents.  Yes, there was fluxuation... in the summer, it hung around 10 cents, and in the best months like March and November it was steady at 12 cents.  Draw all the comparisons you want to a roulette wheel, saying nearly a thousand days of roughly the same RPI is mere coincidence.  Since your experience is different from mine, I must be wrong, right?   I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, since it seems one of us must be doing something right.

Therefore from assessing your RPI, apparently daily, over nearly 3 years, you have learnt ... precisely what?

How have you utilised this 'valuable' information to hone your craft, target your buyers' needs, reduce your costs, improve your profitability, make investment decisions, determine your markets, etc, etc.

Or do you just have a pretty graph to look at?

Let's be clear here.  RPI alone can't do the things you describe.  What it can do is help you project, IF it is a consistent number.  And RPI can be one indicator of whether you are on the right track or wrong track.  For instance, if it was steady for a year, then started to drop, I would look for the point of the drop and try to assess if I started to do things differently at that time, if suddenly there was increased competition, changing market tastes, etc.  In my case, however, the number has stayed the same, which is an important piece of feedback suggesting I am meeting buyers' needs and have a good handle on my market. 

When I started in microstock, I wanted to guess how much I could make if I maintained steady output and a consistent RPI.  After a month, seeing .11 as a daily RPI, I created an Excel graph that assumed a regular daily output and .11 RPI over several months and years.  I called this the goal line on my revenue chart.  I enter my total sales every day, and after more than two years, my revenue has been riding the goal line pretty reliably, dipping around holidays, and vaulting over it in great months like March and Nov.  Averaged out, my revenue trend line is almost exactly overlaying the goal line which is based on RPI.  It's a pretty graph to look at indeed. 

It's been said before, this argument is futile.  I'll shut up after one last point: If your RPI is falling consistently, you can stick your head in the sand and say it's not important.  But if you truly want to be successful at this, you'll see this measurement as an important indicator of the health of your portfolio, and if you see an unexpected drop or rise, you'd be wise to dig deeper to look for possible causes.

[gostwyck]

^^^ But everything you've stated there can be assessed just from your monthly (or weekly/yearly) revenue.

The point you (and all the other newbies who get excited about RPI) are missing is that simply dividing your revenue by the number of images in your port doesn't actually give you any more info than the revenue figures on their own.

I've been doing this over 6 years. What became clear over the first few years is that growth (in revenue) was actually being achieved as much by price increases at the various agencies as it was by portfolio growth __ if anything more so.

Here's an example for you. In 2006 I had almost exactly the same number of sales at Istock as I did in 2010. The revenue from those sales however has almost trebled as indeed has my portfolio over the same timescale. Therefore my 'RPI' over that period should have remained relatively constant. So what? That doesn't tell me anything at all. If anything this 'constant RPI', if I were to take any notice of it, would actually be disguising the underlying issues that are really going to affect my future income. Namely the ever-increasing competition.

Needless to say my experience, technical knowledge and therefore the quality of my images has improved immeasurably too as indeed has my understanding of the industry. Just as well. Although I have increased my port by about 3x, the Istock library has probably increased by at least 6x although the number of buyers will also have increased hugely too. 'RPI' tells me none of that. My constant RPI tells me that I should just continue to do the same thing and then everything will be alright. It won't be. The data and projections that I do rely on tell that I'm looking  right into the eye of a catastrophic collapse in earnings unless I find a way of doing things differently. By the time RPI flags up the issue it will be too late __ much, much too late.

[RacePhoto]

Interesting and nicely consistent. Is that RPI per month? I'm guessing it is. Which would mean that your type of material and the sites you sell on, you get about $1.20 a picture, on average per year? Nice.

Using the football betting example, some people will say this team does better on turf than grass. They have a 10 and 6 record on turf vs grass. And I say... Who did they play? Is the home field grass or turf? That's what counts.

Since you have a nice level RPI and it produces a nice respectable return of $1.20 per year per image, my next question would be - what sites do you sell on to get your 10c RPI. That's a good piece of data for someone to read.

One person here might say their RPI is 20c and they are an exclusive on IS. Another might find they are making 5c and they never passed the test for IS or SS. Someone might have 100 really good pictures and their RPI is $3. It always comes back to What Pictures Are they, not a broad, how much per image, because everyone has different pictures. But as a general measure the 10c is a good number.

Your 10c sounds very reasonable and normal. What sites?

RPI drops as someone works harder, and it makes the returns look like they are diminishing based on more and more work or effort put in. When in fact, income is going up, while the RPI goes down! I might as well track how my sales are, based on the day of the week the photo was taken. There's bound to be some useless statistic I can come up with, like Sundays are best, but using that information doesn't produce more sales or do anything. It just measures what has already happened. If I shoot more on Sunday, because it's the best day for earnings, then other days will start to improve. Silly as it seems, the best way to improve RPI is delete old non-selling images!

After one month at microstock, my daily RPI was 11 cents.  After two and a half years, my daily RPI is 11 cents.  Yes, there was fluxuation... in the summer, it hung around 10 cents, and in the best months like March and November it was steady at 12 cents.  Draw all the comparisons you want to a roulette wheel, saying nearly a thousand days of roughly the same RPI is mere coincidence.  Since your experience is different from mine, I must be wrong, right?   I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, since it seems one of us must be doing something right.

[lisafx]

Interesting and nicely consistent. Is that RPI per month? I'm guessing it is. Which would mean that your type of material and the sites you sell on, you get about $1.20 a picture, on average per year? Nice.

I believe he said it was .11 a DAY.  Which is quite outstanding IMO.  That equals out to $40.15 per image per year.  With, say, 5k images, he would be making over 200k annually.  That would probably put him among the very top elites in the country. 

[gostwyck]

I believe he said it was .11 a DAY.  Which is quite outstanding IMO.  That equals out to $40.15 per image per year.  With, say, 5k images, he would be making over 200k annually.  That would probably put him among the very top elites in the country. 

Well spotted! I thought you said you didn't do math? 

[lisafx]

LOL!  You got me!  

I can do basic computation.... with the help of a calculator that is

As for Stockmarketer and his stats, I am guessing he has a fairly small portfolio, otherwise he would be sunning himself on his yacht instead of bothering to post in here with us losers

[RacePhoto]

Interesting and nicely consistent. Is that RPI per month? I'm guessing it is. Which would mean that your type of material and the sites you sell on, you get about $1.20 a picture, on average per year? Nice.

I believe he said it was .11 a DAY.  Which is quite outstanding IMO.  That equals out to $40.15 per image per year.  With, say, 5k images, he would be making over 200k annually.  That would probably put him among the very top elites in the country.  

Caught that when I read it later, and now I see you have caught me, not catching it.

WOW, 11c a day RPI? I'd retire from my day job and the part time weekend work and concentrate on micro 100% of the time. That number is fantastic to say the least. It's astronomical!

With 200 pictures it would be over $8000 a year. Let me make that an even bigger - WOW!

stockmarketer I see the meters, how about a link to what you shoot. You are amazing!

[qwerty]

I saw the 11cents and though geeze even I'm going better than that, then I looked at the istock dial pointing towards the top and went hang on, re-read and saw the per day.

um not going quite that well, maybe if I deleted all but about 5 of my portfolio.

That's pretty good going.





 

[PaulieWalnuts]

<snip>I've been doing this over 6 years. What became clear over the first few years is that growth (in revenue) was actually being achieved as much by price increases at the various agencies as it was by portfolio growth __ if anything more so.

I've noticed this too. Revenue growth is outpacing download growth. So even if you increase your portfolio by 25% and you see an increase in revenue by 25% it's misleading. The revenue growth may have come from price increases while year to year download totals are flat. You're running in place. What happens if/when the price increases are less frequent or stop?

What's the cause? Are price increases causing sales volume to drop overall? Are individual sales volumes stalling from competition?

[PaulieWalnuts]

Interesting and nicely consistent. Is that RPI per month? I'm guessing it is. Which would mean that your type of material and the sites you sell on, you get about $1.20 a picture, on average per year? Nice.

I believe he said it was .11 a DAY.  Which is quite outstanding IMO.  That equals out to $40.15 per image per year.  With, say, 5k images, he would be making over 200k annually.  That would probably put him among the very top elites in the country. 

Yeah, I measure monthly RPI and that's around $3.30 RPI per month which has got to be at the high end of the performance scale.

[aeonf]

Interesting and nicely consistent. Is that RPI per month? I'm guessing it is. Which would mean that your type of material and the sites you sell on, you get about $1.20 a picture, on average per year? Nice.

I believe he said it was .11 a DAY.  Which is quite outstanding IMO.  That equals out to $40.15 per image per year.  With, say, 5k images, he would be making over 200k annually.  That would probably put him among the very top elites in the country. 

Yeah, I measure monthly RPI and that's around $3.30 RPI per month which has got to be at the high end of the performance scale.

VERY high indeed.

[rubyroo]

Finally got my figures done:

Across the year 2010 saw an increase in sales of 55%

December wasn't so rosy - down 16% on 2009.  iS performed relatively badly for
me in November and December.  DT the surprise winner this month, due to the
volume of PPDs I had there.

DT - 28%
SS - 19%
iS - 15%
Veer - 12%
FT - 9%
BigStock - 8%
123RF - 6%
CanStockPhoto - 3%

[MicrostockExp]

December 2010  was  9% up compared to 2009.
Shutterstock still 1st but Fotolia not too far behind. Veer number 3 this month ahead for Istock.
A bit more stats on my blog: http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com/

Regards
L

[cthoman]

It's been said before, this argument is futile.

I hear you and all the other people in the million other arguments about RPI that happened before. I'm not sure why people love to hate RPI, but they do.