Author Topic: Projected Revenue? (Read 9652 times)

visceralimage · « **on:** February 05, 2011, 19:20 »

I know this will be inaccurate but I am curious what my possible projected monthly income might be.

I am converting from exclusive at DT to multi-submissions. I have 808 files on DT (hopefully will have that up to 1000 by months end), monthly income of roughly $70-100.

Assuming I upload to the big four (actually, the big 3 as already submitted to DT) and a few of the middle tier; what would be my projected income.

IS will only allow 18 uploads a week so it will take time to get files on there. I have been accepted at SS, Veer, FT and all other agencies so no waiting time to be accepted. I will also be submitting to Business Cards, Zazzle, et al but do not wish to include these in projected income.

pancaketom · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2011, 19:25 »

350 $ per month at all the sites once all the images are up with the vast bulk coming from SS at first. If you do 200 new images per month, this will rise rapidly. (DT will drop to about 50/mo)

I just pulled these #s out of the air, but it is vaguely based on the ratio I get between DT and the others. Please tell us how it works out.

redwater · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2011, 19:26 »

the rule of thumb would probably be, double what you are earning now in the long term as your images would have more than twice as much exposure. but it would it would also mean twice as much hard work for you though up ahead.

visceralimage · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2011, 20:43 »

Quote from: redwater on February 05, 2011, 19:26

the rule of thumb would probably be, double what you are earning now in the long term as your images would have more than twice as much exposure. but it would it would also mean twice as much hard work for you though up ahead.

Double? That is not so encouraging; much more than twice the hard work as must upload, set categories, etc for multiple sites. I was hoping for triple current income. Anyone want to bid 3, triple going once, going twice...

Triple to the man in the red water, now do I hear 4......

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #4 on:** February 05, 2011, 20:55 »

I say 8 times. How's that?

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #5 on:** February 05, 2011, 21:03 »

You have some nice wildlife images but I don't think wildlife sells as well as some of the more popular stock categories.

With your 800 images at the top four sites I would say $250 - $350 per month.

Kone · « **Reply #6 on:** February 05, 2011, 21:03 »

visceralimage · « **Reply #7 on:** February 05, 2011, 22:12 »

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on February 05, 2011, 21:03

You have some nice wildlife images but I don't think wildlife sells as well as some of the more popular stock categories.

With your 800 images at the top four sites I would say $250 - $350 per month.

That would be acceptable, 2.5 to 3X would make it worth the extra effort. Add another $1000 a month and i will be close to minimum wage.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #8 on:** February 06, 2011, 00:16 »

I hate to throw cold water on the whole prediction plan, depends on how many get accepted. What goes on DT isn't always the same as what makes it on IS and SS. Also for me it seems they have been tougher on reviews than two years ago.

Might just be me getting lazy and sending them crappy pictures, But I think they have become a little more selective about materials and image quality.

I'd believe what the people tell you. IS you only get 15 a month until you reach a higher level, so that's going to take a while. Lets say you have the 1000 pictures as projected and they are all just superb. You can come back and tell me how I guessed, but lets say 70% accepted at most and if some of the places are as tough as people are reporting on similar images, even less.

That's 700 pictures?

Whatever you do, 2-3 times more money would sure sound good to me.

Why this will take some time. Uploading, acceptance, rejections, it's nice to be an optimist but it will be months before you start seeing the results. After that more months to get everything uploaded. Maybe next year you will see things reach a stable position.

Bigstock for example:

Contributors whose images are consistently approved will have few or no limits on how many images they can submit. However, to keep our approval process moving smoothly, we impose limits on new contributors and those with lower approval percentages.

   * New users with fewer than 15 approved images: Maximum of 15 images in the Approval Queue.
   * Users with an approval rate of 50% or less: Maximum of 10 images in the Approval Queue.
   * Users with an approval rate of 50% to 70%: Maximum of 20 images in the Approval Queue.
   * Users with an approval rate of 70% to 85%: Maximum of 40 images in the Approval Queue.
   * Users with an approval rate of 85% to 92%: Maximum of 50 images in the Approval Queue.
   * Users with an approval rate higher than 92%: No limit.

Images you upload and delete before submitting them to the Approval Queue do not affect your approval rate. However, we may place upload restrictions on users who frequently submit and then delete their images.

Send them your best images first so your upload queue will improve and increase fastest.

iStock your limits per 7 days are now:

15 (base)
20 (bronze)
30 (silver)
40 (gold)
50 (diamond)

Reviews take about a week. It's going to take some time.

visceralimage · « **Reply #9 on:** February 06, 2011, 00:45 »

DT is pretty selective for wildlife; they will not let anything close to a duplicate in of an animal. So my acceptance rate on DT is 80%; that translates to at least 1000 total images I can submit to others. DT is also very picky about depth of focus; if you take an image of animal and you are close to the ground, they will reject because of the blurry foreground even though the animal is tack sharp.

I expect I will encounter different standards; I accept that fact. Before I went exclusive with DT, I was submitting to 11 sites. All the majors except SS; was getting roughly the same acceptance rate from all (some a little higher and FT a little lower)

lagereek · « **Reply #10 on:** February 06, 2011, 02:06 »

Quote from: sjlocke on February 05, 2011, 20:55

I say 8 times. How's that?

No! 20 times! hows that for starters!

travelstock · « **Reply #11 on:** February 06, 2011, 03:15 »

Quote from: visceralimage on February 05, 2011, 19:20

I know this will be inaccurate but I am curious what my possible projected monthly income might be.

I am converting from exclusive at DT to multi-submissions. I have 808 files on DT (hopefully will have that up to 1000 by months end), monthly income of roughly $70-100.

Assuming I upload to the big four (actually, the big 3 as already submitted to DT) and a few of the middle tier; what would be my projected income.

IS will only allow 18 uploads a week so it will take time to get files on there. I have been accepted at SS, Veer, FT and all other agencies so no waiting time to be accepted. I will also be submitting to Business Cards, Zazzle, et al but do not wish to include these in projected income.

Just start uploading your best sellers and within about a month you'll have the majority of your portfolio (in revenue terms) uploaded on IS. In $ terms I'd go with the lower end of Paulie's estimate, but probably that's a little bit optimistic at the start. It takes time to build up ranking at FT, SS and IS each of which will increase your percentage on those same images. At the moment you'll be at the lowest percentages on every site. If you get to $250 per month in about 3 months its a good start.

qwerty · « **Reply #12 on:** February 06, 2011, 03:45 »

$ = i x a + sqrt(pi x (n-1))
where n = 0 to 199

i = number of images

a = some random number to make the equation work.

Will the number change your actions.

You have photos ready to go, there isn't much doubt that you will earn more submitting your best sellers to Istock,shutterstock and fotolia than remaining exclusive at dreamstime.

Just submit the best and then go back to producing images and upload the remainder in slower times.

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #13 on:** February 06, 2011, 07:12 »

Quote from: qwerty on February 06, 2011, 03:45

$ = i x a + sqrt(pi x (n-1))
where n = 0 to 199

i = number of images

a = some random number to make the equation work.

Will the number change your actions.

You have photos ready to go, there isn't much doubt that you will earn more submitting your best sellers to Istock,shutterstock and fotolia than remaining exclusive at dreamstime.

Just submit the best and then go back to producing images and upload the remainder in slower times.

good formula! with n=0 it even results in an imaginary number which may be the only way to explain many weird things in microstock

ShadySue · « **Reply #14 on:** February 06, 2011, 07:21 »

Quote from: RacePhoto on February 06, 2011, 00:16

I hate to throw cold water on the whole prediction plan, depends on how many get accepted. What goes on DT isn't always the same as what makes it on IS and SS. Also for me it seems they have been tougher on reviews than two years ago.

Certainly true in my experience for iStock. And take note they hate flat, natural lighting.

lightscribe · « **Reply #15 on:** February 06, 2011, 15:23 »

all silly answers aside....most people seem to average roughly $1-1.50 per image per month total. On average these numbers take into account that most people are on the top four plus about 4 other low earning sites. so if your portfolio is 800 and you actually get 800 images on about 8 sites you should earn $800 that is if you are earning $1 per month per image. I have mostly nature (no people) and earn $1.35 per month per image on average.

PeterChigmaroff · « **Reply #16 on:** February 06, 2011, 15:28 »

The assumption is that all the images that were accepted as exclusive to DT will be accepted elsewhere. Can that assumption be made?

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #17 on:** February 06, 2011, 16:03 »

Quote from: lightscribe on February 06, 2011, 15:23

all silly answers aside....most people seem to average roughly $1-1.50 per image per month total. On average these numbers take into account that most people are on the top four plus about 4 other low earning sites. so if your portfolio is 800 and you actually get 800 images on about 8 sites you should earn $800 that is if you are earning $1 per month per image. I have mostly nature (no people) and earn $1.35 per month per image on average.

I don't think most people are at $1.00 to $1.50 per month. Probably closer to $.25-.50. If you're making $1.35 you're doing better than most.

Visceralimage is currently at around .10 and jumping to $1.00 just by adding SS, FT, and IS would be a stretch.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 06, 2011, 17:38 »

as I can see from other topic I have read that you were before in all agencies.. how was it? why did you decide to go exclusive? (more time to shoot ?) from what I know and talk DT are very nice to their exclusives (maybe they aren't giving the exposure you deserve)

it is hard to project what will be your earnings but they will go up 4 or 5 times for sure, I would say 300$ but honestly you might earn a lot more, again hard to predict, you have great pictures so if IS, SS start enjoying your work you might get a big increase but it will take time (I an still waiting for it but my portfolio is a mix of subjects and still learning a couple of things, like shooting better and stockier)

you are in photography for a long time (5 years on RM) you have a lot of skills and pictures talk there! don't know how many wildlife photographers are on SS, IS but I guess a few and very good ones so a little competition.. you will have a spot 100%..

regarding RPI thats the same history, like Paulie said going to 1$ is a lot but I am sure a few very good and consistent phographers may go a lot higher, don't think that 'stock' is only about people or other popular stock subjects, it is about delivering very good pictures (not saying I am doing them, far from that) my pictures are far from perfect and I am having around 0.35$ for RPI (of around 1600 average portfolio, from 2400 at SS and 600 at IS)

the start will be hard but if you have been before as non exclusive you will get used fast and will be a lot more happy regarding stock income, wish you the best

visceralimage · « **Reply #19 on:** February 06, 2011, 19:03 »

Thanks all. I am having good luck with acceptance at SS; the one agency I can upload to test the waters without the images going up for sale (opt-out). I expect some images to not be accepted by agencies that were accepted by DT but then again, I expect some images that were not accepted by DT to be accepted by others.

I have lightburner setup and ready to go as soon as my exclusive contract expires; in a fact, since lightburner stores the images for four days I will start the uploading a couple days early. i also have deepmeta setup and ready to do the uploads of the first 18.

Luis; the reason I went exclusive with DT was, at the time, I did not have the ability to load images to multiple sites (limited internet). I was only on the other sites for a month (or so) but was seeing good sales with IS and FT. Was not on SS and no sales with BigStock. I had loaded with mostphotos and DP but not enough time to see sales. I had also loaded images with CanStock but they never got reviewed so deleted that account also.

Now that I will be using lightburner, I will load to all sites it supports.

I also have about 100 business card templates setup and ready at theartofbusinesscards.com plus a store at zazzle.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #20 on:** February 06, 2011, 20:14 »

glad to hear that it is going good, I guess having pictures opted-out isn´t a good idea, I understand you are waiting but SS give more exposure to newer photos, you can always delete them and upload again.. I guess also that wildlife photography don´t get that buried if they don´t sell nicely on the first days once I believe there are a lot less photographers in that area..

visceralimage · « **Reply #21 on:** February 06, 2011, 22:04 »

Quote from: luissantos84 on February 06, 2011, 20:14

glad to hear that it is going good, I guess having pictures opted-out isn´t a good idea

i had read so many horror stories about low acceptance rates with SS and IS, i want to make sure my stuff would be accepted by the top agencies. I submitted 30 images to SS with greater than 75% acceptance; these were not my top sellers, just regular stock. This gives me a solid belief that my images will be accepted. A couple of these 30 were also rejected by DT, but not the same ones rejected by SS.

Update: Just got the results in on 20 samples I had submitted, now at near 93% acceptance with SS; I am pleased my work is acceptable to SS.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #22 on:** February 07, 2011, 01:48 »

Quote from: visceralimage on February 06, 2011, 19:03

Now that I will be using lightburner, I will load to all sites it supports.

Sorry but I'm getting a little confused. The lightburner site says it's run by Pixamba. But Pixamba shut down back in May? How does this happen? At least it's Beta and run for free. But it is confusing?

visceralimage · « **Reply #23 on:** February 07, 2011, 02:11 »

Quote from: RacePhoto on February 07, 2011, 01:48

Quote from: visceralimage on February 06, 2011, 19:03

Now that I will be using lightburner, I will load to all sites it supports.

Sorry but I'm getting a little confused. The lightburner site says it's run by Pixamba. But Pixamba shut down back in May? How does this happen? At least it's Beta and run for free. But it is confusing?

Beats me, it works and they respond to email; must be someone managing the store.

dirkr · « **Reply #24 on:** February 07, 2011, 10:44 »

For me DT makes less than 10% of my total stock income. And my portfolio is mainly wildlife / nature as well. So if a similar relation in sales between the different agencies holds for you as well, you might make a lot more than today.
Some disclaimers:
- your DT percentage is currently higher as an exclusive, so the direct comparison does not work
- my best earner is FT where it can take a long time for images to get a good search position (some of my old files from 2007 keep on selling although there are competing images that I believe are better quality - hard to tell how that will impact your sales if you upload now)
- my numbers are from a total of about 20 sites...

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Author Topic: Projected Revenue? (Read 9652 times)

visceralimage

pancaketom

redwater

visceralimage

Sean Locke Photography

PaulieWalnuts

Kone

visceralimage

RacePhoto

visceralimage

lagereek

travelstock

qwerty

microstockphoto.co.uk

ShadySue

lightscribe

PeterChigmaroff

PaulieWalnuts

luissantos84

visceralimage

luissantos84

visceralimage

RacePhoto

visceralimage

dirkr

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