His numbers would be a whole lot higher than .50 per download because of the levels that many of his images must have reached to have an average of 12 downloads. Probably a lot of level 3,4 and even 5 images balancing out the slow sellers. The RPD on those images would be pretty high by now. You're right though, even at $.50 thats a pretty good return for not much effort in the last 3-4 years.

Yeah I know that I don't know. 

Unless someone posts the earnings, I just went at it from average sale, We could say $1 a sale and then it's $13 an image over seven years.

The question was, what does an image, on average, earn lifetime. Is somewhere between $5 and $10 a fair guess for seven years?

We're getting into that place that I don't agree with, because it's an average and doesn't take into account, "what image" or who made it. RPI is a nefarious statistic. And if we had a poll of RPD  for DT, then we could see what this nice example might represent. I didn't just pick on The Miz because he's passed on, but more because 1000 images from someone who's pretty good, is a nice example, and he's not changing things, it's a fixed number that can be documented now and then checked in a year. Kind of what people were asking about... the lifetime of an image?

If it was 1000 of my Crapstock for the same period I can promise you, the sales would be much less than 50c per image per year. This is the flaw with averages in a creative effort. Some people are better and some people don't really have marketable products, even if they are acceptable to the agency.

I'm not saying I have the precise answer, just pointing out that here's something that points to the answer, without being a dynamic and changing portfolio.

I expect $.12 per day from each image.  When I started several years ago, I was seeing more like $.09 per day per image, and that has increased gradually to $.12/day as I added more agencies to the mix and became better at figuring what buyers want and sharpened my skills. 

Many of my pics from the beginning still sell well, and I believe they'll outlive this arbitrary "5 year shelf life" number that people are throwing around.  But if I use that 5-year number for the sake of argument, that comes out to .12/day x 365 days/year x 5 years = $219/image.

Yes an interesting poll - but the top number is too low.  If it was done again with some higher ranges at the top end, I'd participate in the vote.

You're scaring me.

Ah, OK, I thought the figure was an average of the total uploads. And since I am too stubborn to chase maximisation of earnings, I suppose I shouldn't be jealous, either. On the other hand, I have got some super Mediterranean flower shots that probably won't make anything, while I've been wandering cheerfully around Crete for the last month or so.

I found a fabulous colony of orchids in a gorge yesterday.

Nothing beats commissions that let you live whatever life you choose.

True monthly RPI of 3.2-3.6 (all images uploaded to anywhere at all divided by total monthly income) so I guess lifetime earnings per image will be (how many months till I die or take down all my images or RPI drops; not sure how to calculate image's lifetime?) x (3.2 to 3.6)

another factor that warps any caluclation is figuring the lifetime of an image -  my microstock portfolio includes many scanned slides that previously were part of getty and corbis collections from mid 70's to late 90's and now sell as MS

I read it as referring to how much you expect the average image to make, otherwise which specific image are we talking about? my worst performer or my best? my best has bought me over $4000 on IStock alone, probably 3X + that in total, my worst nothing in 5 years.