Author Topic: Are your earnings down because of vacation (Read 6063 times)

langstrup · « **on:** July 09, 2015, 13:04 »

Hi

Just want to hear about downloads/vacation. Can you see your sales are down yet because of summer vacation in different countries?

PixelBytes · « **Reply #1 on:** July 09, 2015, 13:48 »

Quote from: langstrup on July 09, 2015, 13:04

Hi

Just want to hear about downloads/vacation. Can you see your sales are down yet because of summer vacation in different countries?

Yes. This is normal for summer. But be careful, the last person to bring up this got his head bit off.

langstrup · « **Reply #2 on:** July 09, 2015, 13:53 »

hahaha thanks for the answer anyway PixelBytes

ShadySue · « **Reply #3 on:** July 09, 2015, 14:59 »

My sales are down.
Nothing to do with the holidays, just iStock.

Historically, July hasn't always been a big slump for me.
This year is a huge slump for me, but July ...

PROStalkFatagopher · « **Reply #4 on:** July 09, 2015, 19:07 »

Earnings are waaay down! Deeper than my gopher tunnels as a matter of fact.

Hongover · « **Reply #5 on:** July 10, 2015, 16:28 »

Downloads are down by an estimated 10% for the month of July (relative to size of portfolio) so far, but I'm expecting this. My earnings are on pace to be an improvement of 25% over June because of the new content I uploaded in the last few weeks.

All things considered, it's been a good month so far. Some of my images are picking up steam and moving up the search rankings.

Hongover · « **Reply #6 on:** July 10, 2015, 16:36 »

double post

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 11, 2015, 07:08 »

I think it's down because stock for contributors is dying. Over the past six years, I have never had a WMY in June or July and last year July was my BMY. Often those months are a little slower but the slump this year is much more severe and seems to be across all agencies. Oversupply and the notion among buyers that images should be free have caught up to us - we either need to accept it or stop. Sorry to be so pessimistic but I think that is the current reality.

Hongover · « **Reply #8 on:** July 11, 2015, 13:24 »

To draw a contrast, I've seen a number of posters doing well. One contributor on this forum is making $500 on 500 images and his portfolio was really good with high commercial value. Another contributor with 300 images is getting 300 downloads on Fotolia, which means it's much higher on other sites like SS. Again, his portfolio had high commercial value.

On the other hand, I've seen some portfolios with over 2000 images, but struggling to get downloads. So at the end of the day, it's not how many images you have, but how good your portfolio is. Some contributors are doing very well, even during the summer months. Some are not and while the summer is a contributing factor, the bigger factor is probably because their portfolio need to have better commercial value.

I'm sure some of you may have heard the quote "10% of the ___ get 90% of the ___". It's true everywhere, even in Microstock.

ShadySue · « **Reply #9 on:** July 11, 2015, 13:32 »

Quote from: Hongover on July 11, 2015, 13:24

To draw a contrast, I've seen a number of posters doing well. One contributor on this forum is making $500 on 500 images and his portfolio was really good with high commercial value.

True, but these images are (presumably) expensive to shoot so will take a long time to come into profit.

Hongover · « **Reply #10 on:** July 11, 2015, 13:51 »

Quote from: ShadySue on July 11, 2015, 13:32

Quote from: Hongover on July 11, 2015, 13:24
To draw a contrast, I've seen a number of posters doing well. One contributor on this forum is making $500 on 500 images and his portfolio was really good with high commercial value.
True, but these images are (presumably) expensive to shoot so will take a long time to come into profit.

One of them obviously hired some models, but that's a risk he's willing to take and it's slowly paying off for him. One poster had long exposure shots of cities and bridges...pretty much perfect for luxury, nightlife and advertising. Those images are more about timing than budget. And for vector artists, the production cost is very low.

In every mature market, the competition is going to tough. Quality gets higher, trends change and suddenly your portfolio is out of date. There are always 2 options. Change with it or complain about the changing market and I see more of the later on this board.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #11 on:** July 11, 2015, 16:15 »

Quote from: Hongover on July 11, 2015, 13:24

To draw a contrast, I've seen a number of posters doing well. One contributor on this forum is making $500 on 500 images and his portfolio was really good with high commercial value.

what do you mean by 500 on 500 images? is that the total earning he/she has made with 500 images? if so, i am sure there are others with 500-600 images making far more than that.

e.g. 500 images total earnings 2300 $
eg. 650 images total earning 3199 $

i won't name names, but there are two i know. and more i am sure.

Hongover · « **Reply #12 on:** July 11, 2015, 20:14 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 11, 2015, 16:15

Quote from: Hongover on July 11, 2015, 13:24
To draw a contrast, I've seen a number of posters doing well. One contributor on this forum is making $500 on 500 images and his portfolio was really good with high commercial value.

what do you mean by 500 on 500 images? is that the total earning he/she has made with 500 images? if so, i am sure there are others with 500-600 images making far more than that.

e.g. 500 images total earnings 2300 $
eg. 650 images total earning 3199 $

i won't name names, but there are two i know. and more i am sure.

Monthly earnings.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #13 on:** July 11, 2015, 20:51 »

Quote from: Hongover on July 11, 2015, 20:14

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 11, 2015, 16:15
Quote from: Hongover on July 11, 2015, 13:24
To draw a contrast, I've seen a number of posters doing well. One contributor on this forum is making $500 on 500 images and his portfolio was really good with high commercial value.

what do you mean by 500 on 500 images? is that the total earning he/she has made with 500 images? if so, i am sure there are others with 500-600 images making far more than that.

e.g. 500 images total earnings 2300 $
eg. 650 images total earning 3199 $

i won't name names, but there are two i know. and more i am sure.

Monthly earnings.

500 monthly is excellent for 500 images. but if that portfolio is new, it won't be consistently selling, as it would drop 40% once you are no longer "new".
the search is favoring new members .
also, if you are to maintain that 500 monthly, your images must stay downloaded daily .
if your earnings is due to SOD or ext lic that are large (80 to 120 $) then it would be unlikely you repeat that monthly.
that's just according the most ppl in our network.

ShadySue · « **Reply #14 on:** July 12, 2015, 05:58 »

Quote from: Hongover on July 11, 2015, 13:51

Quote from: ShadySue on July 11, 2015, 13:32
Quote from: Hongover on July 11, 2015, 13:24
To draw a contrast, I've seen a number of posters doing well. One contributor on this forum is making $500 on 500 images and his portfolio was really good with high commercial value.
True, but these images are (presumably) expensive to shoot so will take a long time to come into profit.
One of them obviously hired some models, but that's a risk he's willing to take and it's slowly paying off for him.

The significant point is that 3-4 years ago, I'd have expected that sort of port to have been easily earning that sort of monthly figure on iStock alone, even if indie.

wordplanet · « **Reply #15 on:** July 12, 2015, 16:12 »

SS has been slow for me in July after seeming to recover in June despite no ELs in a few months - it started off well despite the 4th of July holiday but fell off a cliff last week - I had three days in a row (Thursday-Saturday) after the holiday - with no sales - something I have not experienced there in years - other micros about average...
On the other hand, I got a $400 sale on Alamy Friday - (I get $200 which is probably more than I'll earn on the micros combined this month).

I've seen more growth this year in licensing RM images myself directly and also seeing slow but steady growth on Alamy without adding much to my portfolio there (even before this latest large sale), so I'm not really sure if the market is dying but rather changing. I'm still uploading some to the micros because for certain types of images I think they are my best outlet so I'm not bashing them, but when I see a sale like the one I got this week on Alamy or many I've made on my own site the past few months, I'm happy that I've kept the larger portion of my portfolio as RM/higher priced RF, though I sometimes wonder how I'd do if my best shots were on the micros rather than on Alamy.

The summer has always been slow for me, so I'm not horribly worried but I'm hoping the slowdown at SS is just an anomaly.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #16 on:** July 12, 2015, 18:23 »

Quote from: wordplanet on July 12, 2015, 16:12

SS has been slow for me in July after seeming to recover in June despite no ELs in a few months - it started off well despite the 4th of July holiday but fell off a cliff last week - I had three days in a row (Thursday-Saturday) after the holiday - with no sales - something I have not experienced there in years - other micros about average...
On the other hand, I got a $400 sale on Alamy Friday - (I get $200 which is probably more than I'll earn on the micros combined this month).

I've seen more growth this year in licensing RM images myself directly and also seeing slow but steady growth on Alamy without adding much to my portfolio there (even before this latest large sale), so I'm not really sure if the market is dying but rather changing. I'm still uploading some to the micros because for certain types of images I think they are my best outlet so I'm not bashing them, but when I see a sale like the one I got this week on Alamy or many I've made on my own site the past few months, I'm happy that I've kept the larger portion of my portfolio as RM/higher priced RF, though I sometimes wonder how I'd do if my best shots were on the micros rather than on Alamy.

The summer has always been slow for me, so I'm not horribly worried but I'm hoping the slowdown at SS is just an anomaly.

Is your Alamy growth in RM or RF? Since their search change my RF sales nosedived.

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Author Topic: Are your earnings down because of vacation (Read 6063 times)

langstrup

PixelBytes

langstrup

ShadySue

PROStalkFatagopher

Hongover

Hongover

sgoodwin4813

Hongover

ShadySue

Hongover

etudiante_rapide

Hongover

etudiante_rapide

ShadySue

wordplanet

PixelBytes

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