How was your month.  For me it was not bad but still a little disappointing.  It was essentially the exact same as last month, but every year previous saw a big jump for Sept.  It was higher than last year but not by as much as I had hoped.

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

I don't see Stocksy on your chart.

whoops, you're right - it was an old chart template that I just plugged my new numbers in and Stocksy wasn't included.  They would have been .4% .. pretty small for me still but the number of images I have on there is pretty miniscule.  I've been happy with my sales there so far actually.

For me everything is going down compared to last year or the year before that, I do not have such an elaborate graph but mine would be similar to yours. Except DT and 123RF is stronger for me as IS and FTL is.
The biggest loser in my case is FTL. A few years ago they were my second biggest earner now they are back to the 5th place. My income at FTL is down TO 30% compared to 2010-2011.

Says it all really

Stock Site      ------------  Your vote
Shutterstock   ------------   $400
Self-Hosted   ------------   $20
Fotolia   -------------------   $20
Canstockphoto   -------   $20
123RF   ---------------------   $20
iStock   ---------------------   $20
DepositPhotos   -----------   $10
Envato   --------------------   $10
GLStockImages   -----------   $0
Alamy   --------------------   $0

It tells 'a' story, but it doesn't 'tell it all'.
The whole story would include how many files you have on each site and how long they have been there.
(I've said before, there's a guy over on the Alamy forum who regularly states how poor his iS sales are compared to his Alamy sales. It would be astonishing if they weren't: he's got fewer than 20 files on iStock, and last time I looked well over 5000 files on Alamy and increasing rapidly.
Therefore his conclusion that "Alamy sells much better than iStock" makes no logical sense.
NB, I don't mean this to fuel any sort of iS/Alamy debate, just saying that one set of figures don't even tell the full story for one person.)

Quote from: Ron on October 01, 2013, 08:47

Says it all really

Stock Site      ------------  Your vote
Shutterstock   ------------   $400
Self-Hosted   ------------   $20
Fotolia   -------------------   $20
Canstockphoto   -------   $20
123RF   ---------------------   $20
iStock   ---------------------   $20
DepositPhotos   -----------   $10
Envato   --------------------   $10
GLStockImages   -----------   $0
Alamy   --------------------   $0

It tells 'a' story, but it doesn't 'tell it all'.
The whole story would include how many files you have on each site and how long they have been there.
(I've said before, there's a guy over on the Alamy forum who regularly states how poor his iS sales are compared to his Alamy sales. It would be astonishing if they weren't: he's got fewer than 20 files on iStock, and last time I looked well over 5000 files on Alamy and increasing rapidly.
Therefore his conclusion that "Alamy sells much better than iStock" makes no logical sense.
NB, I don't mean this to fuel any sort of iS/Alamy debate, just saying that one set of figures don't even tell the full story for one person.)

My portfolio is almost identical on all sites, except for GL and PD where there are a bit less files. All sites have my portfolio for almost the same period, except GL and PD. But it doesnt really matter because those numbers for the smaller agencies havent changed for over a year. There is no growth on any agency no matter how many files I added. The only agency working for me is Shutterstock.

A different story is IS/PP because with 33 files the performance is exceptional compared to 900 files on other agencies. However, the devil would turn in his grave if I added more files to IS/PP. I have said this many times before, I would love to see my portfolio perform on IS/PP but I just cant get it over my heart to do it.

I'm frustrated and annoyed. The first half of the year was going great. I was having some of my best months ever. Now, things look like they are back at 2011 rebuilding levels. This seems to be the way things are going. I feel like I'm plugging holes in a dam. You get one plugged, then another one pops up. Shutterstock has basically gotten to the point where I'm not sure they are worth it (very similar to iStock when I left there). I can't say I'm doing well enough everywhere else though to give up the little amount they provide. Maybe, I should just go get a job and stop worrying about all this garbage. 

.

Ok..... September was a fantastic month..... 

SS - $30 short to become my new BME, lots of EL's and OD's 
FT - slightly under average 
DT - Very, very good month ,my best month since I quit exclusivity there ( nov. 2011) 
123RF - under average 
Canstock - good month
DP - average
Alamy - one average sale
FAA - my first sale 
Bigstock - dead

The pie slices:

SS - 60%
DT - 15%
FT - 9%
Canstock - 4%
DP - 1%
Alamy - 5%
FAA - 5%

Well, thanks to my pals at Getty, I made about 1/20th what I did last year.

However, Stocksy sales doubled from last month, so that's a plus

DP, GL, Pond and my PS site may have added $1-150 in there too.

A different story is IS/PP because with 33 files the performance is exceptional compared to 900 files on other agencies. However, the devil would turn in his grave if I added more files to IS/PP. I have said this many times before, I would love to see my portfolio perform on IS/PP but I just cant get it over my heart to do it.

I see your pov; I feel kicked in the stomach when I get a Main sale for <$1 or even <50c, when it's a unique low-supply, low demand file so wouldn't sell any more often at $1 than it would at $50; and I know that's much more than indies get.

I feel kicked in the stomach when I get a Main sale for <$1 or even <50c, when it's a unique low-supply, low demand file so wouldn't sell any more often at $1 than it would at $50; and I know that's much more than indies get.

So upload your 'unique low-supply, low demand' stuff as RM on more appropriate places like Alamy, etc.

Quote from: tickstock on October 01, 2013, 11:37

Better than last September by 10-20% depending on Getty  and Thinkstock sales.  It is a little worrying that only one image uploaded in the last year has made more than $500 though.  I'm cautiously optimistic about the final few months of the year.

Have you been reading iStock's Sept sales thread?  Better make that very cautiously optimistic.   

Hmm. I must admit the word 'optimistic' is not exactly the first one that springs to mind when it comes to Istock. There are however many other words, mostly utilising industrial language, that come to mind instead.

Quote from: ShadySue on October 01, 2013, 14:35

I feel kicked in the stomach when I get a Main sale for <$1 or even <50c, when it's a unique low-supply, low demand file so wouldn't sell any more often at $1 than it would at $50; and I know that's much more than indies get.

So upload your 'unique low-supply, low demand' stuff as RM on more appropriate places like Alamy, etc.

Obviously, I do when I can.

This time I had an increase of 19% compared to August and a 25% decrease compared to September 2012

Best four: Shutterstock, Zazzle, DepositPhotos, 123RF

More Info: http://microstockinfos.blogspot.com/2013/10/stock-photography-sales-statistic.html






(This statistic include referral earning at the different agencies)

My September was dead even with a very disappointing August.  Not seeing a sales jump in September has never happened before in my 8 years of doing microstock. 

Continuing my trend of year on year losses, I am down 18% from September 2012.

Pretty much as expected not seeing much growth in the amount I've earned from actual new files (most of my income is from files > 6 months old) but overall my stock photo income is growing on SS, DT and iS. However erratic it may be month to month, the overall trend is upwards. Though I only had card sales on FAA this month, it's been earning me $50-190 per print sale most months, and with occasional sales due to people finding images on my website, I'm cautiously optimistic about selling stock photos.

I've done some cold-calling to a few places that buy stock images with hopeful results so I'm thinking that may be where I put the bulk of my energies for the next few months, submitting RM files and lists of what I have available to various travel agencies, magazines, and calendar companies, together with putting all the RF files I have on Alamy onto the micros since my RPI on Alamy doesn't justify my leaving them there exclusively. My average sale on Alamy is now less than $50 with less than $25 coming to me, and most RM sales there net me $15-18, a fee I can easily earn from a "single & other download" file on SS, and about the same or less than I can earn from an extended license there or elsewhere.

I'm reluctant to add more files to iStock but my RPI is good there despite the fact that (a) all my photo+ files which were my best sellers are now stuck in the Main collection and (b) most of my income there is from the PP, so I may add a few new files there. RPI doesn't lie.

I just did a detailed analysis of my RPI for the entire year and it has increased more than I'd expected on SS, DT and even on iS, while it has decreased significantly on Alamy. I forget where I read a discussion about this, but RPI is really the most important thing to look at because it gives you a decent comparison of how each site is doing for you, whether your portfolio there is large or small. If my RPI is rising on the micros, that tells me my photo portfolios are improving and it gives me an idea of how much more I can expect to earn for every photo I add.

I think the keys are marketing my work directly to buyers who need the kinds of images I shoot, letting me earn 100% of the profit, and uploading to the sites that have a proven track record so they can market those other images for me.

I'm up 2% compared to last year's September, but that's mainly because Sept.2012 was not a very good month  (I'm down 5% compared to Sept.2011).

SS went up 15% because of 10 lovely EL's, while downloads and SOD's went down with 5%.
The good guys were Dreamstime and 123rf, both good for 12% and 18% growth, and this was all "eaten" buy the losses at Istock (-16%) and Fotolia (-17%).
Canstock had a bad month (-33%), GLO had almost no downloads but 1 very nice EL.

Rodeo was down almost 40%.  Juha said this was due to "growing competition by international sites", but it MIGHT also be because the site is really passive this year :  I have a backlog of almost 600 files waiting to be approved since May !!.

On 30th Sept. Alamy saved the month with a super sale of 140$ (net).

October 2012 was a BME, so as a true pessimist, I expect Oct. 2013 to be down at least 20% 

And today was my Best Day of the Month!  Things are looking up.

OK, I was thinking October had begun badly; but of course yesterday was my BDM. 

pancaketom , just love your avatar 

Mimadeo, there is no way to tell if you are doing well or not.  Too many variables at play - timing, type of images, luck, keywording, competition, more luck etc.