Author Topic: How things change (Read 7099 times)

chromaco · « **on:** February 15, 2012, 17:23 »

I was thumbing through an old Communication Arts design annual (from 2006). In the back are adds for SS and IS.
Shutterstock's headline "Over One Million Images- Royalty-Free $159 / Month"
IStocks emphasis -simple pricing- "Small $1, Medium $3, Large $5, XL $10, XXL $20/40"

My point is... things change and it is better if you are paying attention. You may not want to contribute to all of the new guys but it would be smart to at least pay attention to what they are doing.

Now here is my question. How many people are actually doing worse today than say 3-4 years ago? The collections are bigger, there are more micros sites, and the pricing is more complicated. Is that bad, or has it overall been good for the average contributor?

louoates · « **Reply #1 on:** February 15, 2012, 18:23 »

Sales for me are declining rapidly at IS but much less so at SS and DT. Considering that over the last two years I've uploaded LESS THAN 12 new images to those sites, I'm pleased with the income per hour spent.
I can't imagine anyone putting much effort into uploading with the track record and site antics I've seen over the last few years. Happily I don't need income from this segment so I'll be just sitting here watching the revenue from past work roll in. Maybe someday the income return on the work invested won't seem too bad.

lisafx · « **Reply #2 on:** February 15, 2012, 19:15 »

Quote from: chromaco on February 15, 2012, 17:23

Now here is my question. How many people are actually doing worse today than say 3-4 years ago? The collections are bigger, there are more micros sites, and the pricing is more complicated. Is that bad, or has it overall been good for the average contributor?

2009 was my best year. Been slowly going down hill since then, despite adding more and varied content (no, in answer to the anticipated criticism, I am not just rehashing my old stuff). So no, IMO it has not "overall been good for the average contributor". Either that, or I am not average enough.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #3 on:** February 15, 2012, 20:11 »

2010 was my best year so far. 2011 was better than 2009 and all prior years. You should take into account, however, that my portfolio was smaller in some of those earlier years so you would expect that it made less money just on the basis of number of images sold.

I have given some attention to "new guys" - Stockfresh, PhotoDune, Veer and Pixmac. There's some possibility PhotoDune may end up as a long term middle tier site, but Pixmac seems to be going nowhere (I uploaded a few hundred to see, but haven't seen any indication it'd be worth uploading more); Stockfresh is on life support, Veer has potential, but their reviews are slow and odd, and sales are of the once a week variety, so for the moment I'm not encouraged to upload the rest of my portfolio there.

DepositPhotos seems awful. They sent me e-mail encouraging me to upload and I told them prices were just too low to consider it. Then they sent me a "deal" which (a) wasn't all that great and (b) part of it offered preferential search placement and that seems like a massive loser. Sounds good until you consider that they've offered that to others, and probably will again in the future, in which case the deal will be meaningless. Not to mention how does this help the buyer that they're playing with search (which I know all the agencies do for one reason or another, but doing it to lure contributors just seems to me fundamentally corrupt).

So I don't think things are better than they were, except possibly for the agencies. And they certainly aren't better than they could have been if the deals we all started out with were adhered to.

chromaco · « **Reply #4 on:** February 15, 2012, 22:00 »

I essentially wasn't around two years ago. Exclusive at DT with less than 100 images. It sounds like I missed the heyday and that is probably why my perspective is different than a lot of people here. I never made a ton of money with istock and since I've been with DT for so long my rpd is pretty good. I can't understand exclusivity although I get that for many of you it makes sense. When I dropped exclusivity my income skyrocketed. I also contribute a sample set of good images to almost all of the sites. Roughly 25% of my portfolio. This way I can track any changes or unusual improvements or declines. I have found that very often my results are not at all the same as many other people are reporting.

Thanks to you Lisa and jsnover and others who have been around for a while I am able to get more of a long term perspective. Your feedback combined with my own stats help me to make educated guesses as to what may happen for me in the upcoming months and years.

I appreciate those of you who voice your opinions regardless of whether I agree with them or not.

Allsa · « **Reply #5 on:** February 15, 2012, 22:34 »

My best year was 2010. I keep adding to my portfolio, which probably helps slow down the downhill slide a bit.

dreamstock · « **Reply #6 on:** February 16, 2012, 01:22 »

things have been great for me.

with portfolio size growth 44% per annual, my total income is increasing 100% per annual since 2008.

lagereek · « **Reply #7 on:** February 16, 2012, 01:56 »

No, not in my case, been doing this since 2006, cant believe it myself but in spite of the IS tumble, and in spite of leaving 123, I am actually up! not by much but still slightly up.
For me, about a year back, SS, shot up almost 90%, FT and DT, about 50% and the new guys Im trying out, such as DP and Veers, have proven to be exellent.

best.

disorderly · « **Reply #8 on:** February 16, 2012, 03:08 »

I've managed to gain at least a little every year:

2011 vs. 2010: up 9.5%
2010 vs. 2009: up 3.5%
2009 vs. 2008: up 31.9%
2008 vs. 2007: up 10.9%
2007 vs. 2006: up 38.8%

(Corrected - I should know better than to edit so late at night.)

Perry · « **Reply #9 on:** February 16, 2012, 08:59 »

Here are mine:

2011 vs. 2010 up 9.5%
2010 vs. 2009 up 27.2%
2009 vs. 2008 up 36.7%
2008 vs. 2007 up 62.8%

It's becoming harder and harder. Partly because portfolio size is increasing (it takes much longer to for example double the portfolio size). And partly because the RPI is falling. In 2007 my RPI yearly was $14.88 and 2011 it was $9.60. Thats -35%

I have a decent amount of commisioned shoots, I don't seem to be able to produce more than about 50 stock images per month in average (20 images on a month with lots of commissioned shoots and 80 on a more laid back month) . To increase my stock earnings I should produce more, but because earnings are falling I can't afford to put any more time and effort to my stock business. My goal is still to earn a bit more every year.

Perry · « **Reply #10 on:** February 16, 2012, 09:00 »

Quote from: disorderly on February 16, 2012, 03:08

I've managed to gain at least a little every year:

2011 vs. 2010: up 9.5%
2010 vs. 2009: up 3.5%
2009 vs. 2010: up 31.9%
2008 vs. 2009: up 10.9%
2007 vs. 2008: up 38.8%

Check your years... you have 2009 vs 2010 two times...

disorderly · « **Reply #11 on:** February 16, 2012, 09:41 »

Quote from: Perry on February 16, 2012, 09:00

Quote from: disorderly on February 16, 2012, 03:08
I've managed to gain at least a little every year:

2011 vs. 2010: up 9.5%
2010 vs. 2009: up 3.5%
2009 vs. 2010: up 31.9%
2008 vs. 2009: up 10.9%
2007 vs. 2008: up 38.8%

Check your years... you have 2009 vs 2010 two times...

Thanks, I made the correction.

stockmarketer · « **Reply #12 on:** February 16, 2012, 12:00 »

I'll play, since I already have the numbers handy in my spreadsheet...

2012 vs. 2011: up 53.2% (2012 projection based on current daily rate of growth)
2011 vs. 2010: up 100.0%
2010 vs. 2009: up 166.9%

On the one hand, it looks like my growth is slowing, but on the other hand, this the increase in income is consistent and exactly what I expect to see. Every new image I upload today delivers the same RPI that newly uploaded images in past years delivered... and on average my RPI for my total port has held steady. But since I upload at a fairly steady rate, my port size no longer doubles, but goes up by a smaller and smaller percent each year relative to the total.

asiseeit · « **Reply #13 on:** February 16, 2012, 13:10 »

I've been around since 2004, full time since 2009 and I continue to see steady increases with equal increases in quality and quantity. The days of increasing 100%+ annually are probably over with the size of my portfolio growing, but 30%-50% annual increases are fine with me

I do think it is and will continue to be difficult to maintain significant increases while working this part time or as a hobby.

gostwyck · « **Reply #14 on:** February 16, 2012, 16:47 »

Here's mine with my first full year of microstock being 2005;

2006   +56%
2007   +56%
2008   +77%
2009   +26%
2010   -2.6%
2011   -2.2%

Seems to me that it is very difficult to maintain growth after 5 or 6 years of steady uploading. Income from older images begins to decline as fast as it can be replaced from new uploads.

I'm actually finding very different patterns from the different agencies. Income from SS has more or less risen in a straight-ish line ever since I started. IS peaked for me in March 2010 and has been steadily dropping since. FT has been in decline from about the same time and DT has stalled since 2009.

wut · « **Reply #15 on:** February 16, 2012, 16:55 »

Quote from: gostwyck on February 16, 2012, 16:47

I'm actually finding very different patterns from the different agencies. Income from SS has more or less risen in a straight-ish line ever since I started. IS peaked for me in March 2010 and has been steadily dropping since. FT has been in decline from about the same time and DT has stalled since 2009.

What about mid/low tier agencies and Alamy, do you contribute to those agencies?

gostwyck · « **Reply #16 on:** February 16, 2012, 16:58 »

Quote from: wut on February 16, 2012, 16:55

Quote from: gostwyck on February 16, 2012, 16:47
I'm actually finding very different patterns from the different agencies. Income from SS has more or less risen in a straight-ish line ever since I started. IS peaked for me in March 2010 and has been steadily dropping since. FT has been in decline from about the same time and DT has stalled since 2009.

What about mid/low tier agencies and Alamy, do you contribute to those agencies?

Just BigStock and Rodeo.fi

borg · « **Reply #17 on:** February 16, 2012, 17:08 »

Hahahaha! You can't measure your data on relative way... In fact you can, but results are unusable for comparison...

Here is explanation:
If I have 100 images on first year, and I can produce cca 100 images per year, this means that growth of my portfolio is 100% in second year, so probably income raise will be excellent (with doubled portfolio)...

But after 5 years, if I am still making 100 images/year, my portfolio will be bigger only 20% than previous year..
So,how can I expect a larger increase in earnings in the last, in relation to the second year...?

When you look at your percentage changes from year to year, this is the main reason, folks ...

Otherwise you have to double production every year...

Suljo · « **Reply #18 on:** February 16, 2012, 18:44 »

For now I am happy with growth even I slightly imperceptible increase upload during years.
Still during past years I have month or two without any upload...

luissantos84 · « **Reply #19 on:** February 17, 2012, 10:51 »

Quote from: gostwyck on February 16, 2012, 16:58

Rodeo.fi

never heard of it, will take a look, thanks

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Author Topic: How things change (Read 7099 times)

chromaco

louoates

lisafx

Jo Ann Snover

chromaco

Allsa

dreamstock

lagereek

disorderly

Perry

Perry

disorderly

stockmarketer

asiseeit

gostwyck

wut

gostwyck

borg

Suljo

luissantos84

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