So I'm curious as I hear the term RPI quite often. I understand it's how much you made vs how many files you have up, but is this number on a per year basis that most people give or a per month?

Also what is considered a normal number for RPI.

More or less trying to compare to others. I've seen numbers thrown about from .40 or so up to 5 or so. Doesn't help though unless I know are we comparing by the month or by the year.

Most microstockers refer to rpi by month.

People have varying methods depending on what they are using RPI for. I just use it as a guideline to predict what I'll make with x number of images at a particular agency, but others use it to determine success of a particular shoot.

You guys are hot (if Veneratio is a guy?) Measuring the cost of production vs RPI from that work, is excellent for evaluating your real profits.

I believe some people have also quoted RPI per year, for their entire collection.

Like everything else, it can mean many things and depending on the person, the time period can be different. I don't think there is  a standard. It's an average anyway.

If lifetime RPI by agency was one number, lifetime RPI for a collection on all agencies, would be another nice indicator?  Although the collection varies between places, because of what one agency or another accepts.

Then the problem. If my RPI on site X is $$$ and I delete the 25% worst dogs, my RPI will now be much higher. Wow I'm happy and I'm improving? LOL

txking, RPI is what it is. If someone says it's annual, that's it. If they record monthly for each agency, that's what it is. I really don't think there's any "standard" for an average return? So you'll need to be specific and ask the people reporting numbers to explain what they mean.

My monthly RPI for the images I have on SS right now (and I calculated it just for you txking)  is 10c a month? or $1.20 a year.

People have varying methods depending on what they are using RPI for. I just use it as a guideline to predict what I'll make with x number of images at a particular agency, but others use it to determine success of a particular shoot.

To add to the confusion:

I calculate my RPI not by images I have online but by images I have submitted. After all, I spent money and work time also on those images that have been rejected, thus they need to be part of the equation as well. This way I can't even fool myself by deleting those "25% worst dogs". 

So depending on what you shot, mode of submission (only the best, everything, whatever...), rejection percentage, etc. RPI varies widely. Comparisons with other photographers don't help you much. But watching your RPI over time can give you insights about your/your agencies progress...

RPI is your best measurement of how well you are doing, at least compared to yourself (unless you know an accurate industry average... which I don't.  Numbers you see in a forum like this will be all over the map.)

I track daily and monthly RPI.  In case it helps, my average daily RPI in the summer is usually around $.08 and in the better selling seasons, it's more like $.10. 

Others here will say that the only number that matters is your earnings.  True enough... you can't pay your mortgage with RPI.  But that kind of attitude is sticking one's head in the sand.  If you want to know the direction you're going, you need a number that is independent of the size of your port.  How are you doing in year 5 vs how you did in year 1?  RPI is a significant key to understanding your performance.

Yeah, it really is about volume.  If you take a scaled back approach and figure out a way to sell at a higher price but get fewer downloads, your RPI will be all over the map.

But since my pictures are everywhere and now I have a big port and lots of daily downloads, I can look at RPI, take a cue from what I made on this day last year (first Tuesday in August as opposed to specific date which might result in a weekday vs weekend comparison), and predict almost to the dollar what I will make today.  There's always the oddball ELs that will throw things off, but by and large, I can now predict with startling accuracy what I'll earn today, this week or this month.  Even if an agency makes a best-match change, these often get balanced out by another agency making a tweak that impacts me in the other direction.

I calculate my RPI not by images I have online but by images I have submitted. After all, I spent money and work time also on those images that have been rejected, thus they need to be part of the equation as well.

Absolutely the right way to go about this.  Otherwise you can manipulate your RPI to be more to your liking which isn't the point of RPI at all. 

Imagine you submit 1000 images to two agencies one accepts all of them the the other only 10.

On the site with 1000 images you make $100 on the one with 10 you make $10.

Which is 10X better?

The key stats are production costs, your cost of your time, income.

Umm... The train gets to Cleveland at 4:00. Dang it! I was never good at these word problems.

I've heard quite a few different rates as to what peoples RPI's are but nobody I've seen ever really gave over what the time range was just that they had a RPI of X. That's why I was curious as to if there was a standard time frame RPI is given over. Usually I just hear that the average for an RPI is $1 but I've never heard someone say is that per month or per year so I was curious from there.

I'm curious on what others RPI's are for just to compare to see how my portfolio is doing vs other peoples. I know it's not a tell all and that depending upon what you are photographing you can get different RPI's. I can see that in my own portfolio even comparing editorial vs non-editorial shots, or even comparing my prison photo's vs photos of me laying on the couch. I've used it for that for a while though to see what sets are working out and which ones are not working out. I already have done that and have my images seperated out by sets, whole portfoilo, editoria vs commercial, even among different topics. This way I can compare images within my own portfolio vs others within my own port.

Still curious though where my portfolio stands compares to others. With that it gives me somewhat of an idea of how my images are earning against the "average" portfolio. Comparing only among myself might help out with seeing which of my sets work well against each other but if I'm taking images of crap compared to other peoples gold and I don't realize it then I'm going to keep doing crap. Here at least if I see my RPI is crap I realize that I am doing something wrong somplace compared to that "average" and from there I need to either change my images or something.

Yes I know in the end the goal is to always drive to higher sales and get a stronger bottem end as that is what pays the bills, and either way I'm going to go out and take more images and always try to get better this I believe can still be used as a tool to see my standing and see how far off from where I should/could be.

Unless anywants to look at my portfolio and point out things that can be improved but usually when someone does that I start hearing complaints about eyes getting poked out and needing bleach to wash the crap away, so with that I think RPI is where I'm going to stay :-)

"For us, RPI/m is one of the most important metrics because it is great at comparing one set of images against another. "

I see your point but I suspect you would need a very large port for this to be statistically meaningful and there are a lot of other factors to consider as stated above e.g production cost. I think for most there are fairly obvious pointers without delving into complex and potentially misleading analysis

What about the cost of your time - if you spend an hour photoshopping each of your images and someone else 5 minutes this is a huge factor. I would say don't worry about comparison just look to improve your own performance over time.