Author Topic: May 2009 earnings breakdown (Read 14324 times)

KB · « **on:** May 31, 2009, 23:17 »

I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by starting this thread, but I just calculated my results and I wanted to post them and forget about May as soon as possible.

May was a worst month of the year (WMY) at most sites for me, and not by a little bit.

I have never experienced such a sharp drop in earnings before.

In order, from #1 to #7:

IS (40%): +23% over April, and a second-best month ever (SBME?

)
SS (20%): WMY, -10%
FT (14%): +8% (excluding EL) (meaningfully ahead of DT for the first time in over a year)
DT (10%): WMY, -35%! (excluding April's ELs)
StockXpert (9%): WMY, -37%!
BigStock (5%): WMY, -50%! (excluding April's special licenses)
123 (3%): WMY, -7% (Sub sales have dropped 80% here for me from their high in Mar -- anyone else seeing a drop in 123 subs?)

In total, May had the fewest DLs of any month this year, and the smallest total earnings. :-(

I'm rather amazed at the volatility of these results. It's what I'd expect with a tiny portfolio, but not so much a small one (~500 images). Guess I need to start uploading more!

(Edited to add %)

epixx · « **Reply #1 on:** June 01, 2009, 00:03 »

Here are my figures, all compared to May 2008:

IS 35%, up 55%, BME
SS 21% down 57%
DT 18%, up 5%
FT 11%, down 51%
StockXpert 4%, down 28%
BS 3%, down 25%
123 3%, up 4%
FP 2%, no sales last year
Scanstock 2%, same as last year
CS 1%, up 38%
CRE 1%, down 40%

Total, down 21% from May 2008 and down 24% from April 2009.
This is a strange development, since May is normally a strong month for me. It was the best month in 2008, while April 2009 was BME. May is WMY so far, even lower than January. I guess the holidays in May generated an optimum number of long weekends this year, at least in the western world, which probably influenced the results quite a lot.

The big winner is IS, while SS seems to be heading towards the ditch at an incredible speed.

Edit: I just had to check. May 2009 was the worst month at SS for me since September 2006 (excluding Decembers, which are very slow months for me). In September 2006, I had just started with microstock, and had a portfolio that was a fraction of what I have now.

Phil · « **Reply #2 on:** June 01, 2009, 02:10 »

overall best month this year for me (about 10% on previous, although still 20% below BME, because IS so poor)

IS 27%, still dropping

, now 34% of BME & worst month since sep2007
DT 18%, almost made BME (only $20 off)
SS 14%, best this year, up 20% on last month, w/- very little uploads, (almost 50% of BME

)
FT 13.5%, $3 off BME

StockXpert 8.5% BME, just made it

BigStock 6% Easy BME - 4 EL's in 1 day (it was a happy day with 2 on SS as well)
123rf 5%, good
Can 2.8%, down on last few months, but still decent
Cre 1% (no longer submitting)
Zymm(BME), Panther, Most, Scan all 0.7-0.8%
FP 0.5% only about 25-30% of most months

MikLav · « **Reply #3 on:** June 01, 2009, 03:02 »

Quote from: KB on May 31, 2009, 23:17

May was a worst month of the year (WMY) at most sites for me, and not by a little bit. I have never experienced such a sharp drop in earnings before.

same for me

Mellimage · « **Reply #4 on:** June 01, 2009, 03:53 »

Not my worst month of the year, May was slightly better than April.

FT: 61% (slightly down to Apr)
IS: 19% (up from Apr)
SS: 8% (slightly down to Apr)
DT: 12% (BME

)

Perry · « **Reply #5 on:** June 01, 2009, 04:40 »

May was a good solid month for me. I fact it was the second best month ever (after march '09)

-BME for Dreamstime
-StockXpert is almost back at its normal levels from february lows

Remarkable: I uploaded only a few images in may, still good earnings.
I wonder how much I would have made with more uploads...

Talanis · « **Reply #6 on:** June 01, 2009, 06:04 »

WMY for me in may too. Huge drop at SS, worst month since july 2008. BME at DT though and it almost took the first place. BMY at iStock (started back contributing this month). Good month at StockXpert but a considerable drop at FT.

MicrostockExp · « **Reply #7 on:** June 01, 2009, 06:19 »

Second BME in the row

IS took the lead, SS on a flat line like FT.....
more stats on http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com/

L

CofkoCof · « **Reply #8 on:** June 01, 2009, 06:38 »

IS 33% IS 33% Up 15%
SS 21% Up 35%
StockXpert 12% Up 63%
123rf 12% Up 3%
DT 11% Down 30%
FT 9% Down 25%
BigStock 2% IS 33% Up 15%
Overall: Up 10% (down 15% compared to may last year, mostly due to SS)

Observations:
- IS was #1 for me third month in a row. Last year it was the same for SS. Looks like images really start selling after a while on IS while my SS earnings plummeted since I stopped uploading a while a go.
- StockXpert recovered from last month. Don't know what was the reason for such a big drop last month.
- Had a great month at DT last month, this month it was back to normal earnings
- Overall still happy with the earnings even though I haven't uploaded in a while. Hopefully that will change in about a month

packerguy · « **Reply #9 on:** June 01, 2009, 09:06 »

Here is some data from a newbie. I started contributing to microstock sites in mid-January. May was the third full month in which I had images on SS and IS. My portfolios range in size from 130 on IS to 226 on StockXpert. I added about 25 images to the various sites in May. IS passed SS as my highest earning site.

May was my BME on all sites except for SS & FT.

IS 39.15% Rev per DL $1.16
SS 27.36% Rev per DL $0.30
StockXpert 11.87% Rev per DL $0.55
DT 9.31% Rev per DL $0.83
BigStock 5.12% Rev per DL $1.11
123RF 3.66% Rev per DL $0.55
FT 3.53% Rev per DL $0.58

PixelsAway · « **Reply #10 on:** June 01, 2009, 10:16 »

SS 37.6% going down
IS 30.6% BME and a big one!
DT 10.3% up

and, a more detailed earnings report for May in my Pixels Away blog

lisafx · « **Reply #11 on:** June 01, 2009, 11:26 »

May was down from April, but not a bad month.

Istock 39%
SS 16%
DT 14% gained 1%
FOT 18% down 2%
BigStock 3% worst month since 12-07
StockXpert 8% gained 2%
123RF 2%
Crest 1%
Can 1% down 2%

Lee Torrens · « **Reply #12 on:** June 01, 2009, 11:53 »

Wow! A lot of variation in people's results this month. Marek, great work on your continued rise. I envy your consistency. Congrats to Laurent too on your record month.

I can't understand why, but I hit a new record this month and finally met my goal of US$1,000 in a month (more than a year later than my target date). The last time I uploaded was in December, so I'm baffled as to why my sales are still rising.

Freezingpictures · « **Reply #13 on:** June 01, 2009, 12:21 »

Quote from: Lee Torrens on June 01, 2009, 11:53

Wow! A lot of variation in people's results this month. Marek, great work on your continued rise. I envy your consistency. Congrats to Laurent too on your record month.

I can't understand why, but I hit a new record this month and finally met my goal of US$1,000 in a month (more than a year later than my target date). The last time I uploaded was in December, so I'm baffled as to why my sales are still rising.

Congrats to your goal Lee! Nice milestone!

Lee Torrens · « **Reply #14 on:** June 01, 2009, 12:55 »

Quote from: Freezingpictures on June 01, 2009, 12:21

Congrats to your goal Lee! Nice milestone!

Thanks Jan, I feel a bit weird - kind of like I didn't earn it (given I haven't uploaded all year), but I'll take it. At the start of each month I've been telling myself I *REALLY* need to start shooting *THIS MONTH* or my earnings will *DEFINITELY* drop, but nothing happens. As I said in my earnings post, I'm waiting for the axe to drop and I don't like the feeling. Must go shoot!

sharply_done · « **Reply #15 on:** June 01, 2009, 12:58 »

Quote from: Lee Torrens on June 01, 2009, 11:53

...
I can't understand why, but I hit a new record this month and finally met my goal of US$1,000 in a month (more than a year later than my target date). The last time I uploaded was in December, so I'm baffled as to why my sales are still rising.

I think this illustrates two things:
* some vital sales elements are (seemingly) beyond immediate control
* constantly uploading is not necessary to maintain or build sales

As to not understanding how you achieved a record sales month, I think you'd be wise to investigate how and why this happened.

oboy · « **Reply #16 on:** June 01, 2009, 13:41 »

It was my best month ever, but this was only because of an EL sale with Zymmetrical. Most of the other Agencies were right around average except SS. SS drop ~ 26%.

Zymmetrical = 36%
Fotolia = 20%
Shutterstock = 14%
StockXpert = 12%
Dreamstime = 7%
iStockPhoto = 4%
BigStockPhoto = 4%
123RF = 2%
Scandinavian Stock Photo = 1%
Albumo = < 1%
Can Stock Photo = < 1%
Snap Village = < 1%

melastmohican · « **Reply #17 on:** June 01, 2009, 14:02 »

Basically all my top 5 under performed this month. Some are barely above 50% of last month some are even 30%. On the other hand Fotolia and IStock did better than usual but both are still below 5% of my earnings. Other slow earners like SV or CS did well too. I guess it's easy to double when you are so low :-)

Code: [Select]

		May	May/Apr
SS		50.86%	61.89%
DT		14.66%	32.29%
StockXpert		13.08%	53.99%
123RF	9.19%	24.46%
FT		4.64%	153.85%
IS		3.78%	159.80%
SV		1.63%	175.00%
CS		1.55%	200.00%
BS		0.39%	25.00%
CanStockPhoto		0.23%	1.52%
		Total	46.64%

Lee Torrens · « **Reply #18 on:** June 01, 2009, 14:20 »

Quote from: sharply_done on June 01, 2009, 12:58

Quote from: Lee Torrens on June 01, 2009, 11:53
...
I can't understand why, but I hit a new record this month and finally met my goal of US$1,000 in a month (more than a year later than my target date). The last time I uploaded was in December, so I'm baffled as to why my sales are still rising.

I think this illustrates two things:
* some vital sales elements are (seemingly) beyond immediate control
* constantly uploading is not necessary to maintain or build sales

As to not understanding how you achieved a record sales month, I think you'd be wise to investigate how and why this happened.

Thought provoking as always Stephen. I like it.

* I can put part of it down to an unusually high number of ELs. I had 9 including FotoSearch at CanStock (IS 1, DT 2, SS 2, FT 1 + CanStockPhoto/FS 3)
* My stock market photos sold particularly well, for obvious reasons.

Any other possible theories?

I was in a fortunate position to get the access required for the stock market photos (I worked at the exchange). I'm now living on a different continent, making access to that particular location a little more tricky, but one could indeed follow that theme and produce different images along the same lines.

But that's not for me. I've found that I much prefer themes around the broad 'travel lifestyle' genre, which is where I plan to focus when I resume shooting.

Thoughts?

MAF · « **Reply #19 on:** June 01, 2009, 14:37 »

Just my two cents worth Lee but if you prefer shooting travel lifestyle, I'm guessing that those will actually be better pictures anyhow. For me if my heart's not in it, the results really show it and SUCK.

Marlene

michealo · « **Reply #20 on:** June 01, 2009, 14:38 »

Lee,

I think your ability to access a stock market is a nicely protected niche

& not to dis your images in anyway but your website is probably a very effective marketing tool.

Marek also seemed to have a good month and again he has a blog that I am sure helps in attracting buyers

M

Kngkyle · « **Reply #21 on:** June 01, 2009, 14:50 »

34% Shutterstock
24% Istockphoto - BME
12% Dreamstime
10% Fotolia
6% Crestock
6% StockXpert
4% Bigstockphoto
2% 123RF
1% Canstockphoto

Overall best month of the year. 21% better than April. Shutterstock reclaimed 1st after a few months of being 2nd - 3rd thanks to multiple EL sales this month.

sharply_done · « **Reply #22 on:** June 01, 2009, 15:27 »

Quote from: Lee Torrens on June 01, 2009, 14:20

...
Any other possible theories?

It's pretty plain to me: You've benefited from search engine streamlining/revamping at several key agencies. Your aim should now be to capitalize on your increased exposure. Sure, you could upload more, but that isn't absolutely necessary. So you need to ask yourself - what else can I do?

Lee Torrens · « **Reply #23 on:** June 01, 2009, 16:18 »

Quote from: MAF on June 01, 2009, 14:37

Just my two cents worth Lee but if you prefer shooting travel lifestyle, I'm guessing that those will actually be better pictures anyhow. For me if my heart's not in it, the results really show it and SUCK.

Marlene

Yes, I totally see that. There are some photographers who's enjoyment clearly comes through in their work. I too would expect my shots to be better when shooting something I enjoy, though in this situation it's not much of an issue given I shot the stock market photos over three years ago and I'm unlikely to be shooting something similar again. But yeah, totally agree that images shot with interest turn out better.

Quote from: michealo on June 01, 2009, 14:38

Lee,

I think your ability to access a stock market is a nicely protected niche

& not to dis your images in anyway but your website is probably a very effective marketing tool.

Marek also seemed to have a good month and again he has a blog that I am sure helps in attracting buyers

M

Well, it's not that well protected. If you get your camera out while the security guards are changing shift you could get the exact same position I had. A stock exchange is just a computer network these days and the only thing to photograph are the 'public' display boards - which is what I shot.

I don't think my website helps my sales at all. I know not everyone shares that view, but there's nothing at my website for buyers. As an indicator, I can count on my fingers the number of times I've earned referral income from buyers. I would be surprised if more than 1% of my earnings are even an indirect result of my website. But, I'm interested in hearing other points of view on this.

Quote from: sharply_done on June 01, 2009, 15:27

Quote from: Lee Torrens on June 01, 2009, 14:20
...
Any other possible theories?

It's pretty plain to me: You've benefited from search engine streamlining/revamping at several key agencies. Your aim should now be to capitalize on your increased exposure. Sure, you could upload more, but that isn't absolutely necessary. So you need to ask yourself - what else can I do?

Based on what you said you've been doing for the past six months I'd guess you're subtly suggesting optimisation of the meta data. I've thought about this quite a lot over time. Yuri says it makes a big difference and he does a lot of it, but Andres says it doesn't make any difference and doesn't do any of it. Do you have any insights from your optimisation sabbatical that you'd care to share with us Stephen? Or is it too commercially sensitive to share in such a competitive environment?

..or am I totally off track?

Freezingpictures · « **Reply #24 on:** June 01, 2009, 16:29 »

Quote from: sharply_done on June 01, 2009, 15:27

Quote from: Lee Torrens on June 01, 2009, 14:20
...
Any other possible theories?

It's pretty plain to me: You've benefited from search engine streamlining/revamping at several key agencies. Your aim should now be to capitalize on your increased exposure. Sure, you could upload more, but that isn't absolutely necessary. So you need to ask yourself - what else can I do?

Agree with Stephen. But would be interested as well what you mean with streamline. Could you extrapolate?
The only agency where I believe this would make sense is Dreamstime, because there focus is so strong on title, description and keywords.

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Author Topic: May 2009 earnings breakdown (Read 14324 times)

KB

epixx

Phil

MikLav

Mellimage

Perry

Talanis

MicrostockExp

CofkoCof

packerguy

PixelsAway

lisafx

Lee Torrens

Freezingpictures

Lee Torrens

sharply_done

oboy

melastmohican

Lee Torrens

MAF

michealo

Kngkyle

sharply_done

Lee Torrens

Freezingpictures

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