Author Topic: How big is the gap between your highest and lowest monthly earnings? (Read 3291 times)

Wrighty · « **on:** November 01, 2018, 10:57 »

I have just over two years worth of sales data now and I was hoping to start seeing a pattern in sales month on month - but actually, it couldn't be more random.

My lowest was Sept 2017 with only $30, whereas my highest was Apr 2018 (same port) at $600. Quite a jump.

I was curious to know just how big a gap most people experience in sales from month to month or if your sales are quite balanced on average?

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #1 on:** November 01, 2018, 11:13 »

Quote from: Wrighty on November 01, 2018, 10:57

I have just over two years worth of sales data now and I was hoping to start seeing a pattern in sales month on month - but actually, it couldn't be more random.

My lowest was Sept 2017 with only $30, whereas my highest was Apr 2018 (same port) at $600. Quite a jump.

I was curious to know just how big a gap most people experience in sales from month to month or if your sales are quite balanced on average?

Seasonal, month to month, sometimes I get more OD and Singles, that changes the normal flow of subs. An EL will throw off any stats, I tend to ignore when I look at monthly averages since that's an exception. I haven't looked in a couple years at best months vs worst months. I think it was January and June, that are the worst but that could have changed.

nobody · « **Reply #2 on:** November 01, 2018, 13:11 »

Quote from: Wrighty on November 01, 2018, 10:57

I have just over two years worth of sales data now and I was hoping to start seeing a pattern in sales month on month - but actually, it couldn't be more random.

My lowest was Sept 2017 with only $30, whereas my highest was Apr 2018 (same port) at $600. Quite a jump.

I was curious to know just how big a gap most people experience in sales from month to month or if your sales are quite balanced on average?

two years really isn't enough data -- you will see big gains during the initial years since your adding more to your portfolio. After you reach say 5,000 or more images in your portfolio you will see the gains getting smaller or even going down. As for patterns you really have a ton of variables - some will seasonal (i.e., holidays), economy related and types of images you do. Spend your time wisely doing very high quality images...

cthoman · « **Reply #3 on:** November 01, 2018, 13:14 »

I find the average month or day is much more depressing now than my highest high or lowest low.

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #4 on:** November 01, 2018, 13:31 »

$0 is my lowest.

If I am *only* talking about videography (because I haven't really done photography nor yet have any photo sales), then combined I think "maybe" $700. (But that is with a portfolio of about 4,000+).

Been doing this about a year, so I consider that pretty low giving all the time/effort/etc I've put into it. (I figure I've worked about the equivalent of about $0.50/hour for my sales to date for video). Of course I'd like to make a lot more, but to some degree I have been doing this just for fun as well.

"Good" video is a lot harder than good photography, simply because in addition to keywording/titling/good lighting/good subject/subject matter/etc - you have to do things like edit the video, if moving (which is almost always), stabilized, good resolution (no artifacts), convert for various platforms, cropped/editing/re-exporting the video (time consuming), etc, etc.

Plus, seems everyone & their dog is doing video (shutterstock boasts 150,000 *new* videos added *every* week)... so, competition is fairly stiff.

Harvepino · « **Reply #5 on:** November 03, 2018, 14:08 »

6 years in and close to 100k images, it is still quite a rollercoaster when it comes to earnings due to seasonalities and occasional large sales of videos or ELs. I tend to measure the trends by simply observing the number of subs sales on Shutterstock. There is rarely more than 10% difference from the expected numbers and 6 months moving average of my income correlates to the subscription sales quite nicely.