Microstock Earnings Thread Jan. 2013

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How was your January?

Here are a few stats from me
Dreamstime - 6.3%
iStock - 8%
the 'others'  - 12%
Shutterstock 44%
Bigstock - 2%
123RF - ?? I'm not sure, I haven't been able to see my earnings
Fotolia - 16%
DepositP - 3%

I love that Shutterstock is doing so well, but I'm not sure the contributer wins anything by having one agency so dominant.  It is almost like being exclusive.. without being exclusive.  Alamy had a few good sales this month.  I still really like them and love that they give the photographers a fair 50% of the sale.

Overall income was up about 20% from December 2012 (not surprising) and about about the same about from Jan 2012. The goal this year is to keep the income above 2012 levels.

As always, don't forget to vote in the monthly poll
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?page=microstockmonthlysurvey

[Millionstock.com]

My figures are really similar to yours in terms of percentage.

SS figures are dominating with a BME 

http://www.shutterstock.com/?rid=559990

[ShadySue]

iS exclusive.
Compared to Dec 12: $$ up 4%, dls up 1%
But 1/8 of my month's $$ were from yesterday!
Compared to Jan 12: $$ down 15%; dls down 17%
No ELs since Sept. I'm pretty sure that's proportionately down compared to earlier years.

Alamy: 4 sales.

[nicku]

Overall January was an impressive month with new BME's 

SS - very good month regarding revenue, my 2nd BME regarding sales 

FT -  very good month, 3th BME regarding revenue 

DT -  average month 

123RF - very good month 2nd BME regarding revenue , BME regarding sales 

Canstock -  BME regarding sales and revenue (including my first $25 EL ) 




The pie slices:

SS - 60%
FT - 18%
DT - 8%
123RF - 6%
CS - 4%
Others - 4%

[sgoodwin4813]

For me very solid.  BME on SS, 2nd BME on CS and FT, 3rd BME on BS and 123.  It was a BME for DLs at 123 and would have been a BME for $$ if not for the royalty cuts.  DT and Veer down, iS surprisingly strong.  Overall a 2nd BME and 76% higher than Jan 2012.  No complaints (except for the royalty cut at 123).

SS made 51% of the total, iS 12%, others less than 10% each.

[disorderly]

January turned out to be a good month.  Up 15% over December, up 3% over January 2012, year over year up 10%.  SS was 42% of my total, 123RF was 22%, iStock was 10%, Deposit was 7%, Envato was 6%, Dreamstime was 4%, BigStock was 3%, Fotolia and Veer were 1% each, StockFresh and SignElements were .5% each.

[tickstock]

.

[Anyka]

Not a good month at all.  Overall down 10% compared to Jan.2012.

Went down :   Fotolia (-24%, GLO -40%, BGS -24%, CAN -40%).
Went up :   SS (+10%), 123rf (+30%), DP (+50%) - and DST stayed the same.
Alamy sold 4 files for a total of 17$, so that's micro prices.
I had a very slow start of the year.  Normally sales go up after 15th January, this time I needed 3 weeks to wake up again.  Fingers crossed for February.

[cthoman]

Nice month. It made my top 10 coming in at 7th. January can be hit or miss, so it's nice to see the year start off good.

[Ploink]

All sites combined I had the best January since 2010 and I'm up 17% from 2012.

Disturbing news is that I made more on both Canstock and Depositphotos than I did on Fotolia 

[Mellimage]

Compared to December I was down by over 33%  in income - even though I was up in terms of Downloads on each site. This is in part due to the fact that I had 3 ELs  in December (at different agencies).

SS is my best agency, by a wide margin (contributing a bit more than half of my monthly income), FT and DT fight for 2nd spot and 123rf is trailing behind, though my portfolio is also smaller there. This is also not just based on income alone, but also on RPI. If I look at RPD, DT comes in best, 123rf is last.

Am curious what the next months bring.

[John W.]

about 1400 pictures online (Alamy 2200):

 SS 59% BME
 IS 6%
 IS PP 3% estimated
 DT 6%
 FT 9%
 123RF 3%
 BS 3%
 CS 1%
 VR 0%
 DPP 2%
 ALA 7%

[Pixart]

I was only on Istock for 27 days this month but it was an utter disaster, falling slightly behind even Canstock and that's including December PP!! 

SS  39%
DT  23%
CS  10%
IS  10%
FT  7%
BS  4%
DP  2%

[PixelsAway]

I am not impressed with January.

Not bad on SS and IS, BME on DT, but several mid stock sites provided earnings lower than in December. Overall only 8% more earnings than in December.

Comparing January 2012 and 2013:
16% growth in earnings, but with 26% growth of my portfolio

5 years in microstock. Time to hit the wall?

[lisafx]

Overall, Jan is up 17% on December, and (unfortunately) down 19% on Jan 2012.  All sites performing on a par or slightly better than last year, except for Istock and Fotolia, which continue their steep slides into oblivion. 

[cthoman]

I am not impressed with January.

Don't be like that. January has a lot of nice qualities once you get to know it better. 

[Poncke]

Shutter   59.54% - BME DLs
Fotolia   14.36% - BME $$
123RF   3.79%
Canstock   5.08%
Deposit   4.50%
Photodune   3.06% - BME $$
Nationale Beeldbank   4.29%
Direct Sales   3.44% -BME $$
Zazzle   1.33%
Fine Art America   0.00%
Alamy   0.62%

January down by 32% over December, I have no comparison with Jan 2012. I started in March 2012. 700 images online.

Very very disappointing month. Only positive was the BME of downloads on SS and BME $$ on FT and my first direct sales.

[Metsafile]

Shutterstock is like THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN with Fotolia a steady second place.
January was my worst month in 2012 but 2013 turned out fine.

47.8 % Shutterstock
26.8 % Fotolia
07.0 % Dreamstime
06.8 % 123RF
05.2 % Canstock
02.5 % Veer
02.2 % Bigstock
01.5 % DepositPhotos
00.2 % Stockfresh
00.0 % GLStockimages
00.0 % Alamy

[Poncke]

5 years in microstock. Time to hit the wall?

I have hit the wall after 10 months.

[JPSDK]

Im the kind of guy that withdraw my port from agencies that underperform or annoy me.

SS, steady but slow raise during 2012. January up
FT: occational spikes, mostly on the low side. January down.
DT: Until mid 2012 acerage, then down.
Is: Down all the time, now almost zero due to deactivated images, Im happy to leave them.
123: No improvement. Decline after commisions were lowered. Im going to delete.
DP: Deleted my port.
CP: Deleted my port.
Zoonar: Deleted my port.
Bigstock: Have not been migrated.
Stock expert: Deleted many, miss 0.25 before I delete the rest.

So all in all, 2012 was not a good year in microstock with a level and average not climbing income flow. Things polarized and I took a few decisions.
January on Shutter was good suggest that I can continue the climb in income that was halted in 2012.

[John W.]

Im the kind of guy that withdraw my port from agencies that underperform or annoy me.

I have the same idea lately. I'm inches away from deleting a few ports at some agency's. My only concern is that Shutterstock will become too important for my monthly income. It's already 55-60% and as we all know it's not a good idea nowadays to be too dependant (or exclusive) on 1 agency. My goal is to find more outlets and bring SS back to about 30%.

[cthoman]

I have the same idea lately. I'm inches away from deleting a few ports at some agency's. My only concern is that Shutterstock will become too important for my monthly income. It's already 55-60% and as we all know it's not a good idea nowadays to be too dependant (or exclusive) on 1 agency. My goal is to find more outlets and bring SS back to about 30%.

That seems like a decent idea. I'm shocked when I see how high some of these percentages are.

[Bauman]

Excellent, BME (+41% on previous).

13 months of Microstock

Avg port 470 img (last month +16%)

SS 52% -> BME (2 EL)
FT 18% -> BME
IS 10%
DT 8% (1 EL)
123 5% -> BME
DP 4%
PD 3% -> BME
BS 1%

8 agencies, 4 BME.

[MisterElements]

yep, lol...... I remember 60%...I decided that in Nov 2011 after years of steady sales on SS ...and then over night (no joke) my SS sells dropped 35% and never came back. It took a year to recover that income and beyond. I'm happy to say SS is much much less then 60% of my MS income now. I'm free of fear and I never ever want something like that to happen again. I work very hard to keep my income balanced and steady.  Even if it takes promoting smaller dogs to keep balance. I do not want the Sith or the Jedi to control the market. There needs to be balance in the universe.

[OLJensa]

Its nice to be a noob. BYE allready

SS 49.3%
FT 28.1%
123RF 10.6%
DT 7.9%
CS 1.8%
DP 1.0%
BS 0.9%
Veer 0.4%

[dbvirago]

2nd BME for both SS and overall. Previous BMEs for both in November and before that in 2009, so I'm hoping things are looking up. Also a BME for Canstock

[tickstock]

.

[gostwyck]

I was 7% down on last January, the month was just very slow to get going.

SS was 7% up, DT steady, IS were 24% down and FT was ... wait for it ... a staggering 52% down on Jan 2012. Lucky for me that I went Emerald in 2012, eh? FT are probably going to be in 5th place in my earnings table once the PP numbers arrive.

[cthoman]

Here's how it went for me...

Clipartof led the way again with 27% of earnings. My own site, MyStockVectors, dethroned Shutterstock, the reigning number 2, with 22%. Shutterstock slipped to third with 15%. It was followed by Dreamstime (8%), Can Stock (7%), GL Images (6%) and Toon Vectors (5%). Big Stock showed a little life this month at 3%. The rest were 1% or under.

This month came in in 7th place, so not too shabby a beginning to the year.

[Jo Ann Snover]

January was pretty decent. I'm estimating the PP totals.

For me, there is always a big dip after December (with a reasonable crop of Christmas images, it's generally the 3rd or 4th best month of the year). This year was no exception - compared to December, $$ down 30% and DLs down 25%

Over January 2012, my $$ are up 54% and downloads up 65%. That isn't as good as it looks Last January I was still climbing out of the hole of switching back to independence; virtually nothing was in the PP (busted connector); nothing on Alamy except for the old RM stuff.

I added GL Stock and Fine Art America this month and each of them made one sale. For GL that was $2.60, but a start's a start! For FAA that was $32.60, so even if I can manage only one or two sales a month it'll be like a low performing stock agency. FAA beat PhotoDune which had a very disappointing January (down 68% from December)

SS was up 45% on January 2012 but the ELs and S/OD were lower than for the last few months, so iStock beat it for $$ (2 ELs there helped boost the totals as did the fact that I was getting 18% royalty vs. 17% last January)

DT was flat with Jan 2012 and down 18% on Dec (i.e. less than the overall drop which is good, sort of). 123rf downloads were flat with January 2012 but $$ down because I dropped to 45%

If it weren't for the Getty Gloom hanging over me (think ominous thundercloud), things would be looking pretty good

[steheap]

A pretty good month for me - not the best ever, but a big step up from my $1735 in December to $2180 in January. It was a slow start, but then each site seems to have given me some solid sales, with 123RF doing particularly well (although I have a great referral person who must be doing fantastically on that site!) . Here is my normal graph showing the growth over the past 2 years:

As a change this month, I decided to work out the percentage of earnings that came from each site during the past 13 months. Of course SS is the clear winner in consistent sales, but it is interesting to see how some of the smaller sites can add up to a reasonable amount of my monthly income:


As usual, more details on my blog at: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/02/earnings-from-stock-photography-january-2013/

Steve

[Megastock]

51.5 % Dreamstime
30.7 % Shutterstock
  6.4 % 123RF
  4.3 % iStock
  2.0 % Fotolia
  2.7 % DepositPhotos
+ other minor amounts...

Up about 40% over January 2012 (and Jan 2011 which was my last January as an exclusive) as I enter my 5th year of this.  I'm surprised at how well DT continues to do for me as a non-exclusive.  Based on the current percentages, doesn't seem to be much advantage for me in going non-exclusive.   My results, as usual, are way off the rankings on the MSG poll.  Bumped up a notch on the 123RF scale as of today, 2nd best month there...  Wish I could elevate my other sites up to reduce Dreamstime to 10% of my total like so many others

[08stock08]

Dear all,

Can you please also share the portfolio size on each of those sites. It is certainly encouraging for people like me who have just started in microstock markets.

Your % is good way of presenting, how much you get from each site. The percent figures are misleading but it is good to know the numbers.

Regards

[dbvirago]

steheap

Dude - 26 sites? You graph a lot of data. Take a look at how much time a month you spend on the bottom 10. I'm currently trying to branch out from 7. Over the years, I probably topped out at 12.

Good on ya,man

[steheap]

steheap

Dude - 26 sites? You graph a lot of data. Take a look at how much time a month you spend on the bottom 10.

Yes, but I choose sites at the bottom of the list that are very low maintenance. I use Lightburner to upload to all sites in parallel, which gets the images there. Most of them either require no action, or maybe a visit to the site to move them from import to acceptance. So I probably spend a total of an hour a month on that set of sites. My view is that each one may earn $10 a month, but over time, that adds up and I do get payouts from them.

I also count Zazzle in my earnings, which isn't really a stock site, and PrintBusinessCards where I have stopped uploading, but still get occasional sales.

steve

[aeonf]

Horrible month.
down 18% from 12/12
down 41% from 01/12
Port over 5,000 photos
port grew 50% in the last year.


All stats before PP and GI.

[fotoVoyager]

iStock exclusive, 9000+ images.

This January compared to:

Jan 12: $ -39% DL -43%

Jan 11: $ -43% DL -67%

Jan 10: $ -37% DL -76%

[thepoeticimage]

IS 39%
SS 22%
DT 16%
123 5%
CS 5%
FT 5%
BS 4%
DP 2%
SX 2%

I haven't been uploading microstock for about 5 years, so it's interesting the istock sales have done consistently pretty well.

[Reaktori]

ss   69%
is   3%
dt   13%
ft   7%
others      8%

[wordplanet]

SS 65%  (136 photos - BME - up 67% from Jan 12)
DT 20% (131 photos - down 54% from Jan 12 and down 56% from Dec 12 which was my BME)
iS 10%  (had 45 photos now at 30 photos - closing when I get my next payout - I had also stopped uploading there when the controversy started and removed my pending photos)
FT 5% (45 photos)

Alamy (700 photos) best month since September 12 with each sale in the what I'd consider the mid-stock range (by today's standards : $50-100). Prices have been all over the map there lately so nice to see all my licenses there were over $55 each this month. Bummed to be getting 50% instead of 60% but far better than percentages at most others.

Had sales at redbubble (where I have a handful of cards, iPhone and iPad cases for sale) and Fine Art America (70 photos) in December but none at either this month, so overall January sales were even with December thanks to stronger sales at SS and a stronger than usual January at Alamy.

[ShadySue]

Alamy (700 photos) best month since September 12 with each sale in the what I'd consider the mid-stock range (by today's standards : $50-100).

Gross or net?
RF or RM?

[roboz]

Compared to my BME December 2012: 10% more downloads, but around the same income. By far more subscriptions than December, especially at SS, with 5% more downloads but 16% less income. On the other hand a nice surprise by Veer, thanks to a few extraordinary good sales ended up in my Top 3.

More detailed:


ss      42,5%      0949 images      BME DLs
dt      15,5%      1884 images      BME DLs   
ft      08,5%      0807 images      BME DLs
is      07,7%      0011 images      BME RPD   
123      06,7%      0900 images      BME DLs but lowest RPD ever
cs      02,9%      1434 images   
dp      02,0%      1155 images
v      13,5%      0284 images      BME RPD
sf      00,3%      0639 images

Overall a good start into 2013.

[oboy]

January was very weak, down 37% to last month, and down 21% to January 2012. Best four: Shutterstock, Depositphotos, Dreamstime, and Zazzle.

Complete statistic at http://microstockinfos.blogspot.com/2013/02/stock-photography-sales-statistic.html







(This statistic include referral earning at the different agencies)

[gillian vann]

January was very weak, down 37% to last month, and down 21% to January 2012. Best four: Shutterstock, Depositphotos, Dreamstime, and Zazzle.

Complete statistic at http://microstockinfos.blogspot.com/2013/02/stock-photography-sales-statistic.html

can I just say: phwoarrrr, nice pie chart.

[shopartgallery]

My January was....SURPRISING! 

[Freezingpictures]

Since April 2010 I have not really seriously uploaded images. Just end of January I started to upload a lot again.

Interestingly earnings of all agencies went down except Shutterstock. On Shutterstock I had my best January ever.

My earnings compared to the last years:

Total current income went down from 2010 (best January ever) by: 52%
 from 2011 by: 44%
 from 2012 by: 36%

Shutterstock now generates over 50% of my income,  istockphoto (BIG drop) 20%, DT 20%, Ft 10% (this one went over 80% down from 2012- really crazy)

[daveh900]

My January:

SS: 66%
123RF: 13%
CanStockPhoto: 7%
FT: 4.5%
DT: 4%
BS: 3.5%
DP: 2.5%

[wordplanet]

Alamy (700 photos) best month since September 12 with each sale in the what I'd consider the mid-stock range (by today's standards : $50-100).

Gross or net?
RF or RM?

I have both RF and RM photos on Alamy. My sales in January were all RM and the gross was $55-100 per sale netting me $27.50-$50.00 per license. I've seen a real drop this year in average prices there - my RF and RM sales there used to be more in the $75-$250 range, with most (especially RF) over $150 (gross) and a 60% commission. Since my portfolio nearly doubled from about 350 images to 600+ (closer to 650 than 700 - I messed up on my count - I have two separate accounts there - news and creative - and various pseudonyms - counted one twice) I'm earning more these days but only because I get more sales per month than I used to.

[ShadySue]

Alamy (700 photos) best month since September 12 with each sale in the what I'd consider the mid-stock range (by today's standards : $50-100).

Gross or net?
RF or RM?

I have both RF and RM photos on Alamy. My sales in January were all RM and the gross was $55-100 per sale netting me $27.50-$50.00 per license. I've seen a real drop this year in average prices there - my RF and RM sales there used to be more in the $75-$250 range, with most (especially RF) over $150 (gross) and a 60% commission. Since my portfolio nearly doubled from about 350 images to 600+ (closer to 650 than 700 - I messed up on my count - I have two separate accounts there - news and creative - and various pseudonyms - counted one twice) I'm earning more these days but only because I get more sales per month than I used to.

Oh, well done! I've got loads more pics and fewer dls, all RM, but only averaged just over $18 net per sale. I'm in the newspaper scheme, so that drags down the average, but I can't get anyone to tell me for sure whether if you opt out of the scheme, whether the newspapers get to see your pics at all. If they don't get fed opted out pics, it's arguably better getting something rather than nothing in the race to the bottom.

I've had a GI sale netting me just over $1, and I don't know how that's even possible, but I'm not the only one.

Thanks for SMing me.
Slainte
Liz

[tickstock]

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