MicrostockGroup

Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: davidbautista on December 21, 2018, 15:27

Title: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: davidbautista on December 21, 2018, 15:27
Hi! What has been your lowest and your highest amount of money received for a single download? In my case, I received some downloads of 0.01 and 0.04 in iStock and the highest was one of almost 30 in Shutterstock.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: dpimborough on December 21, 2018, 16:47
Lowest 0.01 istock

Highest £400 Alamy

Shutterstock $95
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: ShadySue on December 21, 2018, 18:16
All still photos, no videos or vectors:
Highest: $300 from Alamy (back in the day. Haven't had one netting over $100 for a couple of years)
Highest from iS: around $130 back in the day; $97.75 best since ESP started.
Lowest: Apart from Connect which hardly counts, 7c via iS/Getty, but over recent months that seems to have gone up to a glorious 12c. <sarcasm alert>
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: davidbautista on December 21, 2018, 19:44
All still photos, no videos or vectors:
Highest: $300 from Alamy (back in the day. Haven't had one netting over $100 for a couple of years)
Highest from iS: around $130 back in the day; $97.75 best since ESP started.
Lowest: Apart from Connect which hardly counts, 7c via iS/Getty, but over recent months that seems to have gone up to a glorious 12c. <sarcasm alert>
I still have a lot of 7c, 10c, 4c hahahah. Alamy seems to have great sales :o
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on December 21, 2018, 20:21
$.01 - a couple hundred.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: ShadySue on December 21, 2018, 20:30
All still photos, no videos or vectors:
Highest: $300 from Alamy (back in the day. Haven't had one netting over $100 for a couple of years)
Highest from iS: around $130 back in the day; $97.75 best since ESP started.
Lowest: Apart from Connect which hardly counts, 7c via iS/Getty, but over recent months that seems to have gone up to a glorious 12c. <sarcasm alert>
I still have a lot of 7c, 10c, 4c hahahah. Alamy seems to have great sales :o
Just to manage your expectations, my lowest Alamy sale was 66c net! And far fewer sales there, so even with the higher average RPD, the rpi is low and the monthly total is usually well below my iS total - except for October this year when they were roughly equal.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on December 22, 2018, 01:57
...Alamy seems to have great sales :o

Alamy seems tempting when you look at the occasional high value sale, but there are way too few sales overall and many are for modest amounts.

Before I opted out of distributor sales, my highest gross there was $381, but the distributor got 40% of that and Alamy & I split the remaining 60%, so I made $114 net. Shutterstock or Adobe Stock makes more, individually, in one year than Alamy has made the entire time I've been there.

The largest SS royalty was $120, smallest 20 cents; largest at AS was $94, smallest around 27 cents I think (I started at FT in 2005 but old sales records just say "1 credit" so I have no idea now what that paid me).
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: xbrchx on December 22, 2018, 02:26
Those were the days (2015):
"Great news on your recent sale on ImageBrief. IMG-052959-236458 - You will be paid USD $700.00."
This agency is shut down meanwhile.

$0.01 is my lowest (Istock).
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: Dumc on December 22, 2018, 02:32
Lowest 0.01 on istock.

Highest: Alamy 100$ net, fotolia 94€, Shutterstock 70$, istock 80$
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: dirkr on December 22, 2018, 08:59
Lowest probably $0.21 from 123RF or something similar (I left Istock long ago, so none of those 1 cent sales...).

Highest $262,50 from 500px (back when they still payed 70%), Alamy $125 net, Shutterstock $84, Pond5 $126,60 (for a photo, I have set the price to $20, no idea what kind of license that was).
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: everest on December 22, 2018, 16:49
Highest sale: Getty RM many years ago 23000$+ My take 6600$+

Highest RF: 800 $ My take 160

Lowest : Getty Connect 0.01$  My take.....should I calculate it?


..............................Go figure
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: Hansi on December 22, 2018, 18:35
Lowest was so far $0.18 from iStock, highest was a couple of weeks ago 100.00 EUR from Pixabay "Coffee Donations".

All my premium shots goes to SS & AS, my mediocre images go to Pixabay which is surprisingly been a very good to me (I earned at least $25 on weekly basis).
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: cobalt on December 23, 2018, 15:49
Lowest...less than 0.000...cent via istock/getty.

Highest RF image around 300 also Gettyimages.

Impressed to read that people are ready to donate on pixabay.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: Hansi on December 23, 2018, 16:12
Lowest...less than 0.000...cent via istock/getty.

Highest RF image around 300 also Gettyimages.

Impressed to read that people are ready to donate on pixabay.

I got a little frustrated with the number of photos that are just laying on my hard-drive, not good enough to my stock portfolio, so I decided to share them online. Now they are making me more money than my 4000+ portfolio on middle & low tier stock sites out there.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: davidbautista on December 23, 2018, 21:15
Lowest...less than 0.000...cent via istock/getty.

Highest RF image around 300 also Gettyimages.

Impressed to read that people are ready to donate on pixabay.

I got a little frustrated with the number of photos that are just laying on my hard-drive, not good enough to my stock portfolio, so I decided to share them online. Now they are making me more money than my 4000+ portfolio on middle & low tier stock sites out there.
How the f**k? :o so is it okay to upload some photos to pixabay?
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: rinderart on December 24, 2018, 00:18
...Alamy seems to have great sales :o

Alamy seems tempting when you look at the occasional high value sale, but there are way too few sales overall and many are for modest amounts.

Before I opted out of distributor sales, my highest gross there was $381, but the distributor got 40% of that and Alamy & I split the remaining 60%, so I made $114 net. Shutterstock or Adobe Stock makes more, individually, in one year than Alamy has made the entire time I've been there.

The largest SS royalty was $120, smallest 20 cents; largest at AS was $94, smallest around 27 cents I think (I started at FT in 2005 but old sales records just say "1 credit" so I have no idea now what that paid me).

About the exact same.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: dpimborough on December 24, 2018, 05:19
Lowest...less than 0.000...cent via istock/getty.

Highest RF image around 300 also Gettyimages.

Impressed to read that people are ready to donate on pixabay.

I got a little frustrated with the number of photos that are just laying on my hard-drive, not good enough to my stock portfolio, so I decided to share them online. Now they are making me more money than my 4000+ portfolio on middle & low tier stock sites out there.
How the f**k? :o so is it okay to upload some photos to pixabay?

Yeah and look which schmucks are sponsoring Pixabay lunacy

"Discover more great images on our sponsor's site
Pixabay users get 30 days of free access to Adobe Stock → "


~

Pixabay is a vibrant community of morons, sharing copyright free images and videos
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: dpimborough on December 24, 2018, 05:21

I got a little frustrated with the number of photos that are just laying on my hard-drive, not good enough to my stock portfolio, so I decided to share them online. Now they are making me more money than my 4000+ portfolio on middle & low tier stock sites out there.

Joined December 22nd and already singing the praises of Pixabay?

Hummm  deeply suspicious
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: Not Today on December 24, 2018, 05:58
Lowest...less than 0.000...cent via istock/getty.

Highest RF image around 300 also Gettyimages.

Impressed to read that people are ready to donate on pixabay.

I got a little frustrated with the number of photos that are just laying on my hard-drive, not good enough to my stock portfolio, so I decided to share them online. Now they are making me more money than my 4000+ portfolio on middle & low tier stock sites out there.

How do you even make money from Pixabay? Everything is free under CC0 there. These types of websites are one of the reason the business is going down.

From their FAQ:

What is Pixabay?
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: davidbautista on December 24, 2018, 09:39
Lowest...less than 0.000...cent via istock/getty.

Highest RF image around 300 also Gettyimages.

Impressed to read that people are ready to donate on pixabay.

I got a little frustrated with the number of photos that are just laying on my hard-drive, not good enough to my stock portfolio, so I decided to share them online. Now they are making me more money than my 4000+ portfolio on middle & low tier stock sites out there.

How do you even make money from Pixabay? Everything is free under CC0 there. These types of websites are one of the reason the business is going down.

From their FAQ:

What is Pixabay?
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
Allegedly by donations...
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: Not Today on December 24, 2018, 09:51
Lowest...less than 0.000...cent via istock/getty.

Highest RF image around 300 also Gettyimages.

Impressed to read that people are ready to donate on pixabay.

I got a little frustrated with the number of photos that are just laying on my hard-drive, not good enough to my stock portfolio, so I decided to share them online. Now they are making me more money than my 4000+ portfolio on middle & low tier stock sites out there.

How do you even make money from Pixabay? Everything is free under CC0 there. These types of websites are one of the reason the business is going down.

From their FAQ:

What is Pixabay?
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
Allegedly by donations...

Wow so that's basically working as a waiter for free, and hoping the tips come in. That sounds horrible.

Also found this on their forum, first guy had about 1000 downloads and no 'coffee' donation... yet.

https://pixabay.com/en/forum/questions-about-pixabay-11/coffee-payments-3240/

Sad.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: davidbautista on December 24, 2018, 09:52
Lowest...less than 0.000...cent via istock/getty.

Highest RF image around 300 also Gettyimages.

Impressed to read that people are ready to donate on pixabay.

I got a little frustrated with the number of photos that are just laying on my hard-drive, not good enough to my stock portfolio, so I decided to share them online. Now they are making me more money than my 4000+ portfolio on middle & low tier stock sites out there.

How do you even make money from Pixabay? Everything is free under CC0 there. These types of websites are one of the reason the business is going down.

From their FAQ:

What is Pixabay?
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
Allegedly by donations...

Wow so that's basically working as a waiter for free, and hoping the tips come in. That sounds horrible.

Also found this on their forum, first guy had about 1000 downloads and no 'coffee' donation... yet.

https://pixabay.com/en/forum/questions-about-pixabay-11/coffee-payments-3240/

Sad.
It's the same as Unsplash.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: fritz on December 24, 2018, 10:11
.

Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: charged on December 25, 2018, 01:13
Highest: $26,000 USD.

Back in 2006 big tobacco contacted me and wanted to buy one of my top selling smoke photos on iStock. They wanted to buy it out right and wanted me to remove the photo off iStock. They had already done market testing on my photo and knew they liked it. The conversation went on for several weeks via email and phone. I asked for a lot more than $26,000 and they wanted to give me much less. I refused to sell at their lower asking price of around $2,000 because it was one of my top sellers at the time. I figured I would be better off not selling out right to them. Basically at the time a comparable smoke photo on gettyimages.com for a 10 year license was around $90,000. That is how we ended up at the final sale price of $26,000. They used it on the packaging of one of the brands they have. That brand was discontinued about 5 years later in 2011. So I guess my photo didn't help it sell enough after all.

Just for the sake of clarity, the tobacco company very clearly understood that they could have bought my image on iStock at the time for just a few bucks. What they wanted was exclusive usage, even though that photo had already sold a few hundred times. They wanted no other tobacco brand to be able to buy that photo. And just incase your wondering, my photo is nothing special, there are hundreds of photos on all stock sites that look just like mine. They just happen to pick one of mine to do market testing on and saw that people liked it a lot out of the other options they saw as well. I think I just got lucky :)

Here's a picture of part of the signed contract and the final packaging with my smoke photo on it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bmp97t50mwm3akv/tobacco2.png?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/bmp97t50mwm3akv/tobacco2.png?dl=0)
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: davidbautista on December 25, 2018, 01:34
Highest: $26,000 USD.

Back in 2006 big tobacco contacted me and wanted to buy one of my top selling smoke photos on iStock. They wanted to buy it out right and wanted me to remove the photo off iStock. They had already done market testing on my photo and knew they liked it. The conversation went on for several weeks via email and phone. I asked for a lot more than $26,000 and they wanted to give me much less. I refused to sell at their lower asking price of around $2,000 because it was one of my top sellers at the time. I figured I would be better off not selling out right to them. Basically at the time a comparable smoke photo on gettyimages.com for a 10 year license was around $90,000. That is how we ended up at the final sale price of $26,000. They used it on the packaging of one of the brands they have. That brand was discontinued about 5 years later in 2011. So I guess my photo didn't help it sell enough after all.

Just for the sake of clarity, the tobacco company very clearly understood that they could have bought my image on iStock at the time for just a few bucks. What they wanted was exclusive usage, even though that photo had already sold a few hundred times. They wanted no other tobacco brand to be able to buy that photo. And just incase your wondering, my photo is nothing special, there are hundreds of photos on all stock sites that look just like mine. They just happen to pick one of mine to do market testing on and saw that people liked it a lot out of the other options they saw as well. I think I just got lucky :)

Here's a picture of part of the signed contract and the final packaging with my smoke photo on it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bmp97t50mwm3akv/tobacco2.png?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/bmp97t50mwm3akv/tobacco2.png?dl=0)
Great story
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on December 25, 2018, 05:31
Highest commission was $362 on Alamy almost 10 years ago. I've also had $120s from SS but the only place still delivering the odd £100+ return from a single sale is Fine Art America (I've had $200, $170 and a few $50s and 60s there in 2018, but that's generally for travel image wall art).
Lowest? Well, how about some of the Alamy refunds? -$50 here -$100 there.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: sgoodwin4813 on December 25, 2018, 23:26
Highest was over $400 from iStock, lowest was a couple of cents, also from iStock.
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: tupungato on March 01, 2023, 06:41
Bumping the thread. I want to hear some more inspiring stories  8)
Title: Re: Lowest and highest amount of money received
Post by: Uncle Pete on March 01, 2023, 12:33
Highest was over $400 from iStock, lowest was a couple of cents, also from iStock.

You mean fractions of a cent for a connect sale, right?  ;D Not including the - numbers and the all zero, which I don't understand, DM sorted by commission:
Connect,2018-01,11/1/2016, image ID removed",0.00001,15%,0.00006,Creative Image,iStockphoto,Other,"Getty",US,"California"

If we're only talking Microstock, then Alamy more than a few at $200 with the old system. I did have an agency buy the rights to distribute a series of images for $350. Single Sunset on SSTK went for $84 commission, who know why or for what use? A Sunset? I'd never know on Adobe we can't see our lifetime stats. iSTock juggled the system, I can't see back before we got "Exciting News" about ESP.

Single sales are the dessert treat after the weeks and months of nothing but dried crackers and water. And I'm sure happy for those encouraging larger sales that come in, now and then.