Author Topic: Feb 2011 microstock earnings (Read 30007 times)

PixelsAway · « **Reply #25 on:** March 01, 2011, 11:27 »

BME for earnings/day

my big 4 (80% of total earnings, it was 89% in January!):

IS down
SS up
DT down
FT down

unusually good month for CanStockPhoto, VEER and FeaturePics

BigStock up
123RF up

gaja · « **Reply #26 on:** March 01, 2011, 11:33 »

Well...

1. Shutterstock 27%
2. YayMicro 17%
3. Dreamstime 11%
4. Scanstock 11%
5. 123RF 8%
6. Istock 7 %

In total, if you ignore ELs, up from January. Yay and Scanstock are strong because of a few pictures that appeal to a Scandianvian audience, but rarely sell elsewhere.

lightscribe · « **Reply #27 on:** March 01, 2011, 11:37 »

Quote from: aeonf on March 01, 2011, 04:06

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on March 01, 2011, 03:54
Quote from: aeonf on March 01, 2011, 03:19

I wish more people would share REAL NUMBERS instead of very pretty charts and tables which don't really say much.

Real numbers say nothing at all unless you have all of them. I don't know how many files you have online, whether your sales are up or down. If you have 50,000 files then your result is pathetic, if you have 50 files then your result is brilliant. I don't know if your sum of money is more or less than last year (or if you have a big increase in files online or not) so I don't know if things are getting better or worse for you.

Well then just ask
Feb last year we made 80$
We have ~2,000 images online of which ~1/4 are from 2008 and not worth much.
And things are quite stable for us if mesured by DPI & RPI.
We are going to get a substantial boost in income soon since we are expected to hit the 30% target in the next 2-3 months.

So with 2000 images you earned $796 as an Exclusive at istock? That comes to a $0.40 Return Per Image (RPI). Is this what other istock exclusives are earning, any exclusives care to share real RPI numbers. I am earning $0.50 per image/per month at istock as a non-exclusive...I have a much smaller portfolio however, I was thinking of exclusivity just to simplify my life but if these are real numbers from exclusives it doesn't sound so promising.

ShadySue · « **Reply #28 on:** March 01, 2011, 11:41 »

Quote from: microstockphoto.co.uk on March 01, 2011, 08:07

Quote from: lagereek on March 01, 2011, 07:35
All earnings aside. Has it occurred to anyone that the entire micro industry is singing on its 11th year and the novelty among buyers is wearing thin? not so cheap anymore, gazillions of irrelevant stuff in almost every search, painfully slow sites with all sorts of problems.
Its no picknick being a buyer anymore and as many buyers say, even after hours of searching and still dont find it.

a partial solution to these problems could be that agencies started accepting the so called "low commercial value" pictures - which are actually selling if accepted:
- good, interesting lighting doesn't necessarily mean evenly lit;
- there's more to architecture than the big ben and brandenburger tor;
- not everyone is a businessman/woman smiling with a phone;
...

If I were a buyer, I'd like to decide MYSELF what I like, leaving to the agencies just a minimal technical/legal audit.

ITC, if you were a buyer you'd be better off considering Alamy for your main source.
It's often said in their forums that they'd be better off with a more tightly edited collection.
Me? I think they'd be better with more marketing and a better search engine.

travelstock · « **Reply #29 on:** March 01, 2011, 12:31 »

Quote from: lightscribe on March 01, 2011, 11:37

So with 2000 images you earned $796 as an Exclusive at istock? That comes to a $0.40 Return Per Image (RPI). Is this what other istock exclusives are earning, any exclusives care to share real RPI numbers. I am earning $0.50 per image/per month at istock as a non-exclusive...I have a much smaller portfolio however, I was thinking of exclusivity just to simplify my life but if these are real numbers from exclusives it doesn't sound so promising.

You can't compare RPI number between portfolios. If I have a portfolio that has a higher number of downloads per image on average than another portfolio, then the RPI will also be higher.

Going exclusive, your total download numbers should stay about the same, but your RPD will increase significantly. Again exactly how much depends on your canister level, how many images you put in Exclusive+ and how many Vetta files you have. You can get a more accurate idea of your own numbers by analyzing your recent downloads and recalculating the income by applying the exclusive pricing structure and royalty percentage. Its tedious, but fairly effective.

Back on topic - this month was my 6th as an exclusive.

Compared to Jan: Income + 15%, DLS + 12%
Compared to Feb 2010 (non exclusive): Income +15%

Images: + ax.200 with 75 still awaiting inspection - however many of these didn't come online until late in the month.

lisafx · « **Reply #30 on:** March 01, 2011, 13:56 »

Really disappointing February for me. I am up 3% on January (a terrible month) but down 4% on Feb 2010. All the micros are down for me. Only bright spot in my stats was a good month at Alamy. Not all that reassuring since my sales there are very inconsistent from month to month.

      =/- Feb 2010
ISP     37% (-12%)
Shut     19% (-2%)
Dream 12% (-11%)
Fotolia 17% (-14%)
BigS 4%
123     3%
Can     3%
Alm     5% (+27%)

ShadySue · « **Reply #31 on:** March 01, 2011, 14:20 »

Quote from: holgs on March 01, 2011, 12:31

Quote from: lightscribe on March 01, 2011, 11:37

So with 2000 images you earned $796 as an Exclusive at istock? That comes to a $0.40 Return Per Image (RPI). Is this what other istock exclusives are earning, any exclusives care to share real RPI numbers. I am earning $0.50 per image/per month at istock as a non-exclusive...I have a much smaller portfolio however, I was thinking of exclusivity just to simplify my life but if these are real numbers from exclusives it doesn't sound so promising.

You can't compare RPI number between portfolios. If I have a portfolio that has a higher number of downloads per image on average than another portfolio, then the RPI will also be higher.

Plus some contributors remove images which haven't sold over a certain time, and others don't. The former's RPI will 'seem' much better than the latter's, but the figure isn't meaningful.
It matters how much expense and time were put into an image. A picture which was taken when you walked to the shops and sells for $15 during its lifetime has done better than a picture which cost $500 to produce and earns $510.
Although some people bang on and on about RPI, it's really pretty irrelevant.

Oldhand · « **Reply #32 on:** March 01, 2011, 14:23 »

Feb 2011 - $1500 all told from 3-4000 portfolio

SS was king, 123 was over £100 and DT actually did well

IS and BS were steady, but the month's biggest loser was FT. Too many subscription sales for peanuts!

All told quite happy, but growth is a very slow process.

Crestock chipped in with $5, which should buy some more peanuts.

Long month March...

Rgds

Oldhand

aeonf · « **Reply #33 on:** March 01, 2011, 14:37 »

Quote from: lightscribe on March 01, 2011, 11:37

Quote from: aeonf on March 01, 2011, 04:06
Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on March 01, 2011, 03:54
Quote from: aeonf on March 01, 2011, 03:19

I wish more people would share REAL NUMBERS instead of very pretty charts and tables which don't really say much.

Real numbers say nothing at all unless you have all of them. I don't know how many files you have online, whether your sales are up or down. If you have 50,000 files then your result is pathetic, if you have 50 files then your result is brilliant. I don't know if your sum of money is more or less than last year (or if you have a big increase in files online or not) so I don't know if things are getting better or worse for you.

Well then just ask
Feb last year we made 80$
We have ~2,000 images online of which ~1/4 are from 2008 and not worth much.
And things are quite stable for us if mesured by DPI & RPI.
We are going to get a substantial boost in income soon since we are expected to hit the 30% target in the next 2-3 months.

So with 2000 images you earned $796 as an Exclusive at istock? That comes to a $0.40 Return Per Image (RPI). Is this what other istock exclusives are earning, any exclusives care to share real RPI numbers. I am earning $0.50 per image/per month at istock as a non-exclusive...I have a much smaller portfolio however, I was thinking of exclusivity just to simplify my life but if these are real numbers from exclusives it doesn't sound so promising.

If you are considering exclusivity, my RPI should have nothing to do with your considerations.
A general rule of thumb is that your income will be anywhere between double to triple your current IS income.
This also greatly depends on your earning percentage canister, and so does the RPI.
I am at the 25% mark. if I was at the 30% mark that is a 20% increase or 40% increase if I was at the 35% (which I am expected to reach before years end).

GraphicGravy · « **Reply #34 on:** March 01, 2011, 20:18 »

Quote from: Ellerslie on March 01, 2011, 08:40

Luckily I'm not english so I don't understand this flame.

LOL.

My sales were up slightly from January. Almost all my files are vectors, so my results are probably different than most photographers. I made a ranking of my top selling 20 vector sites on my blog, www.graphicgravy.com. Shutterstock was my best, followed by iStock, ClipartOf, Vectorstock, and Can Stock Photo.

~ Eli

redo · « **Reply #35 on:** March 02, 2011, 05:23 »

agency %2011 (%2010) %+- average USD 2011 (average USD 2010) average USD +-
istock 33 (37) -4 - 3,13 USD (2,64 USD) +0,49 USD
shutterstock 21 (24) -3 - 0,5 USD (0,61 USD) -0,11 USD
fotolia 20 (22) -2 - 1,66 USD (1,83 USD) -0,17 USD
dreamstime 15 (13) +2 - 2,83 USD (2,41 USD) +0,42 USD
canstock 5 (1) +4 - 1,88 USD (0,67 USD) +1,21 USD
veer 3 (0) +3 - 6,39 USD (4 USD) +2,39 USD
123rf 2 (1) +1 - 0,89 USD (0,71 USD) +0,18 USD
bigstock 1 (1) +-0 - 1,39 USD (1,19 USD) +0,20 USD
StockXpert - (1) -1 -- (1 USD) -

money 02.2011/02.2010 -4,5 %
but only some new pictures

qwerty · « **Reply #36 on:** March 02, 2011, 05:58 »

Good month for me
total earning for feb 2011 up 70% on feb 2010
portfolio is about 30% bigger (total of between 550 and 700 online now)

steheap · « **Reply #37 on:** March 02, 2011, 10:46 »

Quote

Real numbers say nothing at all unless you have all of them. I don't know how many files you have online, whether your sales are up or down. If you have 50,000 files then your result is pathetic, if you have 50 files then your result is brilliant. I don't know if your sum of money is more or less than last year (or if you have a big increase in files online or not) so I don't know if things are getting better or worse for you.

This is a good point. I mentioned earlier a total set of earnings of $500 in the month, and I have now added a graph of the number of images online on each site at the end of February to my blog. The average is around 1300 mainly travel type images at this point.

Hope this is useful for beginners. I wish I had maintained a database of the number of images online through 2010 - I think it was about 300 or 400 last January, but I'm not very sure.

Steve
http://www.backyardsilver.com

lisafx · « **Reply #38 on:** March 02, 2011, 11:16 »

Anyone read through the Feb stats thread at IS? Reads like an obituary for the site. The mature portfolios, particularly diamonds, seem to be very hard hit. Looks like the month-on-month drops in downloads have finally begun to translate into drops in royalties.

Considering at IS I am 12% down on royalties and 18% down on DLs from last year, I feel their pain. Only 4% down across the board, so the other sites are picking up some of their slack.

I wonder how much of this is a result of the lower royalties kicking in, and how much of it is related to departure of some buyers?

ETA: Sorry, misspoke. I am 4% down, across the board, from Feb '10, not 5%. Only 1% difference, but hey, I'll take it

lagereek · « **Reply #39 on:** March 02, 2011, 11:39 »

Quote from: lisafx on March 02, 2011, 11:16

Anyone read through the Feb stats thread at IS? Reads like an obituary for the site. The mature portfolios, particularly diamonds, seem to be very hard hit. Looks like the month-on-month drops in downloads have finally begun to translate into drops in royalties.

Considering at IS I am 12% down on royalties and 18% down on DLs from last year, I feel their pain. Only 5% down across the board, so the other sites are picking up some of their slack.

I wonder how much of this is a result of the lower royalties kicking in, and how much of it is related to departure of some buyers?

Hi!

Well Im not surprised at all. I did some searches and it baffled me! Vetta and agency files, many with hardly any DLs at all, no flames, nothing are pushed right up front way before top-commercial sellers that generate money.
I thought the art of business was to make money, etc, but not in this case. As far as independants, well thats even worse.

Fair enough, Im not complaining, its Gettys company and maybe they have some secret logic behind it all but it sure as hell beats me.

lightscribe · « **Reply #40 on:** March 02, 2011, 12:08 »

Quote from: holgs on March 01, 2011, 12:31

Quote from: lightscribe on March 01, 2011, 11:37

So with 2000 images you earned $796 as an Exclusive at istock? That comes to a $0.40 Return Per Image (RPI). Is this what other istock exclusives are earning, any exclusives care to share real RPI numbers. I am earning $0.50 per image/per month at istock as a non-exclusive...I have a much smaller portfolio however, I was thinking of exclusivity just to simplify my life but if these are real numbers from exclusives it doesn't sound so promising.

You can't compare RPI number between portfolios. If I have a portfolio that has a higher number of downloads per image on average than another portfolio, then the RPI will also be higher.

Going exclusive, your total download numbers should stay about the same, but your RPD will increase significantly. Again exactly how much depends on your canister level, how many images you put in Exclusive+ and how many Vetta files you have. You can get a more accurate idea of your own numbers by analyzing your recent downloads and recalculating the income by applying the exclusive pricing structure and royalty percentage. Its tedious, but fairly effective.

Back on topic - this month was my 6th as an exclusive.

Compared to Jan: Income + 15%, DLS + 12%
Compared to Feb 2010 (non exclusive): Income +15%

Images: + ax.200 with 75 still awaiting inspection - however many of these didn't come online until late in the month.

Are you saying that your sales have only increased 15% since you went exclusive? and that 15% increase most likely includes increasing your portfolio size over the past year. I am just trying to gauge what type of increase to expect if I decide to go exclusive. Some say 200% to 300% increase in earnings if you go exclusive, but you are seeing a 15% increase? Sorry if I am reading these numbers wrong.

loop · « **Reply #41 on:** March 02, 2011, 12:22 »

It's true that Feb downloads were somewhat dull at IS. Ot the positive side, these three first days of March, at least for me, are the best I can remember.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #42 on:** March 02, 2011, 12:41 »

Quote from: loop on March 02, 2011, 12:22

It's true that Feb downloads were somewhat dull at IS. Ot the positive side, these three first days of March, at least for me, are the best I can remember.

How have you managed to squeeze three March days in, while I am only halfway through the second?

velocicarpo · « **Reply #43 on:** March 02, 2011, 12:41 »

Quote from: lisafx on March 02, 2011, 11:16

Anyone read through the Feb stats thread at IS? Reads like an obituary for the site. The mature portfolios, particularly diamonds, seem to be very hard hit. Looks like the month-on-month drops in downloads have finally begun to translate into drops in royalties.

I welcome that. It shows that contributor (and possibly buyers) protest is working. Better to cut out a foul branch instead of letting it infect the whole organism :-)

adamkaz · « **Reply #44 on:** March 02, 2011, 12:43 »

Royalties pretty much = to January and last February. But March is off to an incredible start....

loop · « **Reply #45 on:** March 02, 2011, 12:48 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on March 02, 2011, 12:41

Quote from: loop on March 02, 2011, 12:22
It's true that Feb downloads were somewhat dull at IS. Ot the positive side, these three first days of March, at least for me, are the best I can remember.

How have you managed to squeeze three March days in, while I am only halfway through the second?

Ouch... I meant the tree days of this week, Monday, Tuesday and today, that is shaping even better than Monday and Tuesday.

Kngkyle · « **Reply #46 on:** March 02, 2011, 12:56 »

IS exclusive, no new files. Second worst month since going exclusive in August 2010. I'm not too fussed though since it was a short month and PP income hasn't been added yet.

Kinda funky how 40% of my PP downloads come from just one file, and that file never sells on IS.

oboy · « **Reply #47 on:** March 02, 2011, 14:29 »

This is my stock photography sales statistic for February 2011. 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 February 2011:

1. Shutterstock
2. Alamy
3. StockXpert
4. Can Stock Photo

February was a good month with a 4% increase compared to January. It was the best month ever for Alamy, Featurepics.

djpadavona · « **Reply #48 on:** March 02, 2011, 15:28 »

Is it just me, or are the 5.9 and 5.4 Earnings Ratings on Shutterstock and iStock respectively the lowest they've been in years? I don't recall seeing the #1 earner below 6 lately.

tanedesign · « **Reply #49 on:** March 02, 2011, 22:03 »

Im an illustrator, my feb. was pretty lousy. Maybe if due to RC I hadnt lowered my royalty rate, my earnings would have matched last year´s. Only a couple of days of march have gone by and if they are representative of the rest of the month Id better go out of this business as Ive had hardly no downloads,it seems like someone turned some switch and my portfolio went off! Its truly discouraging. There was a time when I an average of 15 DL per day, with some months of even higher daily scores, now Im "happy" if I see 7.

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Author Topic: Feb 2011 microstock earnings (Read 30007 times)

PixelsAway

gaja

lightscribe

ShadySue

travelstock

lisafx

ShadySue

Oldhand

aeonf

GraphicGravy

redo

qwerty

steheap

lisafx

lagereek

lightscribe

loop

BaldricksTrousers

velocicarpo

adamkaz

loop

Kngkyle

oboy

djpadavona

tanedesign

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