Author Topic: Your first year - How was it? (Read 3470 times)

lucato · « **on:** November 25, 2013, 03:01 »

Hi folks, I think it would be a great share for a lot of people interested starting microstock life.

The question is:
How was your 1st year as microstocker? Answering the following:
- How much did you do in your 1st year income? (1st income:)
- How many agencies have you contributed in your 1st year and what agencies were them? (Agencies:):
- How many files have had you in your portfolio in your 1st year? (Portfolio size:)
- How many downloads did you get in your 1st year?
- Extra info if wished.

So you can answer like that, my case:

1st year (2003): US$ 130.00
Agencies: iStockphoto (non-exclusive)
Port size: 150 (Fotos and vectors)
Downloads/y: 1294
Extra info: In that time I just used to upload scanned paper photos, once I had no digital camera and also used to upload vetors.

Have a nice day.

ShadySue · « **Reply #1 on:** November 25, 2013, 07:30 »

first year: 2007
Files by end of that year: 919
Agency: iStock
Income: $1460.63

HOWEVER: the above will be of NO help to newbies, as for me and most other iStockers, files uploaded since late Sept 2012 have had very few sales / income. Of people reporting sales here or there, only two have reported decent sales of new-ish work. Also a quick and random search by newest in the ports of very high sellers over there indicate they're finding the same. I doubt if my files uploaded in the past 14 months have raised $150 between them, despite the much higher prices nowadays.
PP may be a different story, but I read that it's about as difficult for files to get moved over there as it is to get older E+ files moved to GI.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #2 on:** November 25, 2013, 07:40 »

Quote from: lucato on November 25, 2013, 03:01

Hi folks, I think it would be a great share for a lot of people interested starting microstock life.

I'm not sure it would be useful, actually.

roede-orm · « **Reply #3 on:** November 25, 2013, 07:45 »

My first year in microstock was extremely good - everything first went up. The setbacks came after

heywoody · « **Reply #4 on:** November 25, 2013, 17:05 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on November 25, 2013, 07:40

Quote from: lucato on November 25, 2013, 03:01
Hi folks, I think it would be a great share for a lot of people interested starting microstock life.

I'm not sure it would be useful, actually.

Yeah, large element of "that was then, this is now", possibly interesting for some but not useful

disorderly · « **Reply #5 on:** November 25, 2013, 18:13 »

I suspect our results will be all over the map, but I'll play.

First year: March 2005 - February 2006
Agencies: Shutterstock, iStock, 123RF, Dreamstime, Fotolia, BigStock, CanStock, ScanStock
Files at end of year: 850
Income: $1500

spike · « **Reply #6 on:** November 26, 2013, 08:06 »

Probably won't be informative, but it's fun, so why not.

First year: 2010
Agencies: Shutterstock, iStock, 123RF, Dreamstime, Fotolia, BigStock
Files at end of year: 380
Income: $1400

Mantis · « **Reply #7 on:** November 26, 2013, 08:29 »

Feels like year one with all the commission cuts.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #8 on:** November 26, 2013, 11:13 »

I started with iStock in September 2004 and Shutterstock, Canstock & Dreamstime a couple of months later. Honestly what happened then is so disconnected from what's happening now that there's not a lot of point in making comparisons, IMO.

However, if I take 2005 (I don't keep numbers in such a way as to make it easy to go from Sept 2004 to Sept 2005) I was $3 shy of $4,000 with 11,796 downloads from iStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, CanStock, 123rf, BigStock (started in March), Fotolia (Started in September). My portfolio was around 900 by the end of the year

Travelling-light · « **Reply #9 on:** November 26, 2013, 13:36 »

Similar to Jo Ann, started late 2004, so this is for 2005 - $4000 approximately.

Interesting facts - SS and DT were only $3 different over the full year.

IS was more than both of them added together.

grsphoto · « **Reply #10 on:** November 26, 2013, 13:53 »

In my 11th month of my first year
Agencies: SS,IS,123rf,DT++++
If it wasn't for the sales from SS I would have walked away by now...
Images in Port (SS) 625
Total income all source approx $260.

If I were to concentrate more on images that would be more salable, this figure might be higher. I have a large number of editorial travel images, which are really poor sellers. I look at this as an education, and at some point I may get serious

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Author Topic: Your first year - How was it? (Read 3470 times)

lucato

ShadySue

Sean Locke Photography

roede-orm

heywoody

disorderly

spike

Mantis

Jo Ann Snover

Travelling-light

grsphoto

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