MicrostockGroup

Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Ron on January 01, 2014, 07:27

Title: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Ron on January 01, 2014, 07:27
               $$$          DLs
Dec-12   $429.66    391
Nov-13   $537.58    761
Dec-13   $558.42    658

                              $$$     DLs
DEC 13 > DEC 12   30%   68%
DEC 13 > NOV 13   4%   -14%

December      2013
Shutter   -   52%
Fine Art America   -   22%
Fotolia   -   6%
123RF   -   5%
Canstock   -   4%
Direct Sales   -   3%
Alamy   -   2%
Deposit   -   2%
Zazzle   -   2%
Photodune   -   1%
Nationale Beeldbank   -   1%
Graphic Leftovers   -   0%

CanStockPhoto had an absolute collapse compared to November.

I did not have any BME in December. Although growth compared to December 2012 is satisfactory, growth compared to November was only 4%. DLs down, thus RPD in December was up.

2013 Year Overview thread: http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/2013-year-overview/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/2013-year-overview/)
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Goofy on January 01, 2014, 07:40
Like you I had a very positive December! Overall, double for December compared to last year December. As a full year over 300 percent gains in dollars but bear in mine I am a major rookie thus expected to continue to have major gains where the seasoned pros will only see single or low two digit percentage growth.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: niserin on January 01, 2014, 07:49
Calculating earnings - a remedy for hangover ? ;)
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Ron on January 01, 2014, 07:54
Calculating earnings - a remedy for hangover ? ;)
Surprisingly I dont have a hangover. Enjoyed plenty of Freddy's and Baileys shots, but its all good. I had a bucket load of food, so maybe that helped. Plus I turned in early at 2am.

 :D
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Goofy on January 01, 2014, 08:11
Wish I could say the same but the bar maid , very attractive, keep filling my glass with high end wine for free thus couldn't say no thus here I lay in bed writing posts on MSG lol! What food is good for a nasty hangover ?

 :-[

Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: niserin on January 01, 2014, 08:15
Food for hangover ? Bananas, yoghurt and magnesium with the B6 vitamin. Provided you don't vomit ;).

Good for me I didn't mix alcohols and drank only Finlandia with juices.

PS: sorry for the offtopic ;)
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Oldhand on January 01, 2014, 08:56
A full English fry up - eggs, bacon, tomatoes, sausages, baked beans, tomatoes, hash browns, black pudding (optional), toast with butter and friend bread. Washing down with sweet tea. Happy hangovers....2pm and my teenage daughter still lies in bed!!!
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: ShadySue on January 01, 2014, 09:11
iStock: Compared to Dec 2012, dls -10%, $$ +1.5% (Dec 2012 was truly dire)
           Compared to Nov 2013, dls - 18% $$ -31%

Year on year, iS alone, dls -21%  $$-10%

Getty: 4 sales from Nov, all the same file (!), 3 poor $$, one good.
Would need to get 3x my best ever Getty sales month to pull the total iS/Getty $$ to the same level as 2012. Still waiting for 17% of my eligible files to be ported over.

Alamy: 3 sales, but one refund from Nov.

FAA: 2 single greetings cards and a phone cover.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Goofy on January 01, 2014, 09:12
Thank u all for the hangover advices!
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: cthoman on January 01, 2014, 10:14
December was pretty bad, but that seems to be common for me. Although, I'd probably have to go back several years to find a month where I earned less. Overall, 2013 was good. It was slightly less than 2012, but more than 2011. Hopefully, the new year is a good one.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: pancaketom on January 01, 2014, 12:24
Dec was ok, but on the low side. DT was the real standout. Lowest RPD since 2010 and nearly the lowest number of sales of which 77% were subs. Alamy was my 2cd best site after SS (which was pretty lackluster).

Year on year only 2 sites made more $ in 2013 than 2012 - BS and PD. I wonder if the rise in BS is mostly due to sales migrations from SS though. December was 65% subs at BS. Alamy had the biggest $ amount drop. I fear 2012 was a pleasant anomaly there. I didn't produce a lot of MS images in 2013 because I was pretty busy with travel and working on my house - which is mostly done. Moving from a truck to a building with no shower or kitchen is a lot of work. Still, I made more than 2011, so it isn't all bad. Hopefully I can catch up with some of my processing and uploading backlog and increase my income in 2014.

Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Goofy on January 01, 2014, 13:50
If I made just a tenth of you pancake Tom I would order my new BMW today  :)

Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Mantis on January 01, 2014, 14:05
Istock has ruined my month. SS was good. Dt fair. Ft at a new low, but of the big four Istock plummeted.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: lisafx on January 01, 2014, 15:34
In keeping with my trend of (most) recent months, December was down 19% from last December. 

2013 was down 14% from 2012. 

Also in keeping with my recent trends, sales numbers were actually UP at many sites, but royalties DOWN. 
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: cthoman on January 01, 2014, 15:42
Also in keeping with my recent trends, sales numbers were actually UP at many sites, but royalties DOWN.

That's disturbing.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: lisafx on January 01, 2014, 15:52
Also in keeping with my recent trends, sales numbers were actually UP at many sites, but royalties DOWN.

That's disturbing.

I agree.  The combination of royalty cuts plus many buyers switching to sub plans have certainly taken a toll. 
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: disorderly on January 01, 2014, 16:33
I had a surprisingly good December, especially since I've seen a significant decline in prior years.  Up 9.5% from November and up 40.2% vs. December 2012.  Year over year I gained 11.6%.

Shutterstock was #1 as ever at 32% of my total, down 16% from November, barely ahead of the previous December, up 10% year over year.  123RF was #2 at 24%, up 19%, 18%, and 75% respectively.  iStock was #3 at 13%, up 34%, 9%, and 16%.  Deposit was #4 at 12%, up 40%, 7%, and 14%.  Dreamstime was #5 at 8%, up 256% (from a rotten November), 4%, and down 18% year over year.  PhotoDune and Canstock were #6 & #7 at 4% each; PD was down 12% and CanStockPhoto up 90% from November.

Sales at iStock continue to migrate to the partner program.  PP represented 73% of my October revenue there; in November that increased to 84%  That represents a 37% increase in PP revenue and a 29% decrease in direct iStock revenue month to month.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Anyka on January 01, 2014, 17:00
December showed exactly the same trend als the whole of 2014 :  earnings down 6% in $ and 9% in euros.
For december this was mostly due to low sales at Alamy, Rodeo, Istock and Fotolia - all other sites performed pretty good.

For the total of 2013 (compared to 2012) :
SS :  1% up (port growth 14%)
IS :  9% down
DST :  6% up
FT :  21% down
GLO :  40% down
BIG :  1% up
123rf :  7% up
DP :  60% up
CAN :  1% down
Rodeo :  48% down
Pond5 :  49% down
Alamy :  21% down
Total :  6,1% down

This 6% loss was totally covered by the commissioned work that's growing constantly, so overall I had a good year.
I expect this downward trend to go on, but hopefully not too fast   ;D
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Asthebelltolls on January 01, 2014, 17:39
     The only thing predictable about microstocking is its unpredictability.
     I have no Christmassy stuff to offer buyers. No mistletoe.
No wreaths. No red cheeked Santa Clauses so my expectations were low leading into the month....yet, SS, DT and DP tripled in earnings over last year and for the first time since the start of submitting my #1 earner was Pond5 beating out SS by $30.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Pixart on January 01, 2014, 18:12
What a strange month.... All sites were terrible but DT and SS, but they gave me a better than usual December.

SS 65%!!!
DT 19% (just below DT average)
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: cascoly on January 01, 2014, 18:52
poor DEC, leading to final result of 3% gain over 2012 -- previous 5 years had always seen 15-20% growth
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Gannet77 on January 01, 2014, 19:46
iStock Photo Exclusive - royalties DOWN 22% compared to November 2013, because December is always poor, but UP 28% compared to December 2012, because that was exceptionally poor.

Total iStock earnings UP 5% over the year, including PP and GI; if I include RM and video sales on other sites, total income UP 9%.   That's OK, I haven't produced a great deal of new work this year.

I think I might try and do a bit more on those other sites (RM and video) in 2014...
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: dbvirago on January 01, 2014, 20:06
Not a BME, but my best December and best year. This despite only two agency BMEs all year and iStock and Fotolia falling to all time lows. Fotolia for December was almost exactly the same as my first month there early in 2006.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on January 01, 2014, 21:00
Year to year comparisons don't make sense for me (I was selling at iStock in Dec 2012 and all but left in February 2013). In general, November is my best month of the year and December is a bit behind it but still good (I have a fair number of Christmas images)

SS and DT had good December - SS up 14% over last December in $$ and flat for downloads. Given that I uploaded very little this year, I think that's testament to how much business SS is grabbing from everywhere else. And for those who comment on the "feed the best" theory regarding SS, none of the Christmas images that sold so well were new

DT has had a very good last three months of the year for me - after some pretty lackluster ones earlier in the year. DT was up 9% in $$ over last December

My IS numbers are meaningless with only 100 or so images left, but I did see the low PP for November after a boost in October that other people were seeing

Veer had a good month - I don't have many images there (800+) and the good month vs. bad seems to be driven by whether there are ELs or not. December was up 130% over Nov (i.e. more than double) and 59% over Dec 2012. They just don't have regular sales volume though, so it's a bit lurch-o-matic with them.

123rf had a good December - better than November, atypically - but it was about $9 shy of the total last December. That isn't up, but as I haven't uploaded since they cut my royalty from 50% to 45% it's not bad.
 
Canstock fell off the edge of the known universe - about half the sales of last Dec and a 56% drop from November.

PhotoDune is flat - no real anything from them which is a shame as I had once hoped they'd be able to provide a new strong middle tier player. For the year, they and Canstock were about equal, which I suppose is good when you consider how much longer Canstock's been around.

GL stock is on life support - there were 3 sales in December, which is 3 more than Stockfresh who I think are now officially brain dead for me :)

My RPD on my own Symbiostock site is good - $12.50 for December - but as that was 2 sales, I'm not yet buying the tickets to Tahiti. I'm obviously hoping volume will pick up, but right now an RPD of 98 cents at SS looks a whole lot better
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Ploink on January 02, 2014, 01:15
Overall 2013 was my worst year in Microstock since 2009. Funnily enough, December 2013 was the best December since 2009 :o

This is mainly the "fault" of SS, which developed nicely from September and still continues to grow. In December SS made up more than 60% percent of my total earnings, a new record for me.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: wordplanet on January 02, 2014, 21:13
December sales were 1/3rd of what I had in November though they were an improvement over December of 2012 - SS was up 26% over last December, DT was down 17% from last December, and Alamy was up 76% from December of last year - though sales there vary so widely that the percent change really isn't significant.

Overall I'm up 116% over last year, microstock income grew on all sites from small growth of 15% at SS to significant growth of 77% at DT and 106% at iStock, overall micro income increased 43% since SS accounted for 45% of my micro income last year. Though my traditional stock photo sales at Alamy decreased for the second year in a row, down a disheartening 64% from 2012 (my best year there was 2011), overall my traditional stock photo income (primarily RM) increased by 167% thanks to direct stock photo licenses to magazines and calendar publishers. I'm planning to query more publishers in 2014 since I've had a very positive response so far.

For December SS, DT and Alamy were each within $5 of each other, with other sites contributing a miniscule percentage of income.

Though it isn't stock photo income, I saw a 123% increase in sales at Fine Art America this year. I joined there in December of 2011, so this was my second full year there. I also had some very strong local gallery sales this year, something I'm hoping to increase in 2014. Even had sales at redbubble this month so that was nice and I have a photo in a show at the Museum of the City of New York this week so the year ended on a positive note!
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Jogga0 on January 03, 2014, 06:01
Dec '13 not a good month with royalties down 30% on Nov '13. Earnings a shade lower than Dec '12 (when IS photo exclusive) at -2%.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: asiseeit on January 03, 2014, 12:48
oops... wrong thread
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: nicku on January 03, 2014, 14:03
Overall an under average month :(. 15% under Dec 2012.

SS -  dissaster...  - 30% compared with last december ( wich was a bad month).... Dec. 2013 was the worst month since may 2012.  :( :( :(
DT - good month  :D
FT - only 20 euro short to become my new BME.... very good month there
DP - average
123 - average
Can stock  -  average. Canstock is slowley growing every month...not bad :)

Hope Jan will be a better month  ::)
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: melastmohican on January 03, 2014, 14:49
Maintained position this year. Got more from SS and less from everything else.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: spike on January 03, 2014, 16:28
~40% drop from Nov '13 (which was an exceptional month, and a BME), mostly due to a drop in SS sales. I was "feeding the beast" in September and October, so there was a spike in sales in Oct/Nov, but Dec was kinda disappointing. Guess I'll have to start production again.
Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: lightphoto on January 06, 2014, 17:56
Significantly down from my BME in November (which was the 3rd BME in a row!), but December 2013 ended up just below average for 2013, and was up 68% from Dec 2012, which was itself the 2nd lowest month of 2012.

Bright spot - BME for Dreamstime, which passed iStock main for the first time. 

Bad and getting worse - Istock, including November PP (I calculate based on reporting, not sales), was the worst month since late 2011.

Very slow start for January - let's hope we get back to that Sept-Nov pace soon!

Title: Re: December 2013 earnings
Post by: Mantis on January 06, 2014, 21:19
Horrible at IS, FT, DT, 123 & BS, 2nd best at SS.