Author Topic: Best sites (earnings) to sell illustrations and vectors (Read 18031 times)

ankarb · « **on:** December 07, 2012, 11:30 »

Could you propose the best sites to sell illustrations and vectors? I don't know if "Microstock Poll" is valid for illustrations and vectors or display results for photos only.

My top five (concerning earnings) is:
1. Shutterstock
2. Fotolia
3. Dreamstime
4. DepositPhotos
5. Canstockphoto

VERY LOW earnings from:
Bigstockphoto, SignElements

No opinion yet (recently uploaded to them) for:
Pond5, 123RF, AllYouCanStock

chromaco · « **Reply #1 on:** December 07, 2012, 11:35 »

You might be interested in this thread
http://www.microstockgroup.com/illustration-general/vector-pricing-breakdown-by-site/msg269838/

ankarb · « **Reply #2 on:** December 07, 2012, 12:50 »

Do you have updated status concerning earnings?

MarkRyanDesigns · « **Reply #3 on:** December 18, 2012, 08:10 »

I am on most of those sites istock and shutterstock seem to be the only ones that sell anything.

ankarb · « **Reply #4 on:** December 26, 2012, 08:43 »

I don't want to start upload to iStock due to low commissions

.

What's your opinion?

vlad_the_imp · « **Reply #5 on:** December 26, 2012, 11:14 »

My opinion is that anyone who is happy to accept 25c per download ( or whatever tiny amount it is) at SS is having a slightly ironic laugh when complaining about low rates at iStock.

Microbius · « **Reply #6 on:** December 26, 2012, 14:05 »

? Istock pays the same 25c for an equivalent sale as ss (ie a sub sale through thinkstock) but with ss you soon rise to 38c. With IS you are trapped on the industry's worst rate forever. Where's the irony?

Poncke · « **Reply #7 on:** December 26, 2012, 15:21 »

Quote from: vlad_the_imp on December 26, 2012, 11:14

My opinion is that anyone who is happy to accept 25c per download ( or whatever tiny amount it is) at SS is having a slightly ironic laugh when complaining about low rates at iStock.

Check the column on the right and look at the #1 site and then laugh again

sharpshot · « **Reply #8 on:** December 26, 2012, 15:55 »

It used to annoy me when people underestimated the commissions most of get with SS but now I'd rather all the exclusives thought we only made 25c a download. Don't really want them all dropping the crown

traveler1116 · « **Reply #9 on:** December 26, 2012, 15:56 »

Quote from: Microbius on December 26, 2012, 14:05

? Istock pays the same 25c for an equivalent sale as ss (ie a sub sale through thinkstock) but with ss you soon rise to 38c. With IS you are trapped on the industry's worst rate forever. Where's the irony?

Uhh. Thinkstock pays 28 cents for nonexclusives and for exclusives it's 38-46 cents per subscription DL. http://www.istockphoto.com/help/sell-stock/rate-schedule. Why is an equivalent sale a sub rather than one sold with an RF license again?

ShadySue · « **Reply #10 on:** December 26, 2012, 16:06 »

Quote from: Microbius on December 26, 2012, 14:05

? Istock pays the same 25c for an equivalent sale as ss (ie a sub sale through thinkstock) but with ss you soon rise to 38c. With IS you are trapped on the industry's worst rate forever. Where's the irony?

I just clicked on a non-exclusive vector image at iStock and the cash price was $15, which would be £2.25 to the lowest indie level contributor.
Credit value was 12 credits. The lowest seems to be c42c for the largest bundle (unadvertised) which would be 75c to the contributor. The largest value bundle is $19.99 for 12 credits, so $3 to the contributor. (Strange that the cash price is less than the bundle price - either my arithmetic is wrong or I'm missing something.)
ISTR there are different price bands for vectors at iStock depending on complexity, the above was the first one I clicked on.
So your devil and deep blue sea decision is:
get more money, but a smaller percentage (start at 15%) at iStock;
or less money, which is a higher percentage (29%) at SS.

traveler1116 · « **Reply #11 on:** December 26, 2012, 16:11 »

Quote from: ShadySue on December 26, 2012, 16:06

Quote from: Microbius on December 26, 2012, 14:05
? Istock pays the same 25c for an equivalent sale as ss (ie a sub sale through thinkstock) but with ss you soon rise to 38c. With IS you are trapped on the industry's worst rate forever. Where's the irony?
I just clicked on a non-exclusive vector image at iStock and the cash price was $15, which would be £2.25 to the lowest indie level contributor.
Credit value was 12 credits. The lowest seems to be c42c for the largest bundle (unadvertised) which would be 75c to the contributor. The largest value bundle is $19.99 for 12 credits, so $3 to the contributor. (Strange that the cash price is less than the bundle price - either my arithmetic is wrong or I'm missing something.)
ISTR there are different price bands for vectors at iStock depending on complexity, the above was the first one I clicked on.
So your devil and deep blue sea decision is:
get more money, but a smaller percentage (start at 15%) at iStock;
or less money, which is a higher percentage (29%) at SS.

SS doesn't pay out 29% as far as I know, isn't that the number they pay out to the highest level contributors? I just saw a friend's stats and for their 1100+ sales they averaged 47.6 cents a DL (counting ELS, video sales, on demand, etc..) which comes to about 20% I think. If you took out video sales (since this is just about illustrations) the RPD would be about 33.5 cents which is a 14% royalty rate I think.

vlad_the_imp · « **Reply #12 on:** December 26, 2012, 16:21 »

Quote

with ss you soon rise to 38c. With IS you are trapped on the industry's worst rate forever.

Hang on, you believe rising to 38 cents is something to celebrate? When I sell a Vetta file on IS I can make $80 and more. Ordinary files make $5, $10. I understand not all files are those prices, but I have no Thinkstock files, and I would not personally be celebrating a rise to 38c.

Quote

Check the column on the right and look at the #1 site and then laugh again

That column means nothing. It doesn't mean if my work was available on SS I would earn twice as much as I do at IS. That is the only important figure to me.

chromaco · « **Reply #13 on:** December 26, 2012, 16:50 »

Quote from: ankarb on December 26, 2012, 08:43

I don't want to start upload to iStock due to low commissions .

What's your opinion?

To answer the original question. As an independent already uploading to SS you might as well upload to IS as well. Your sales volume will be significantly lower at IS but your rpd is likely to be about 3 times higher if you don't count the pp. The only reason I don't upload as much to istock is that compared to everyone else besides Graphic River the upload process is a nightmare. My revenue per image per month is about 1/3 at istock what it is at SS. IStock usually falls between #3 and #6 in revenue per image per month. As an independent istock should be one of your regular uploads if you can put up with the hassle.

Microbius · « **Reply #14 on:** December 27, 2012, 04:09 »

Quote from: traveler1116 on December 26, 2012, 15:56

Quote from: Microbius on December 26, 2012, 14:05
? Istock pays the same 25c for an equivalent sale as ss (ie a sub sale through thinkstock) but with ss you soon rise to 38c. With IS you are trapped on the industry's worst rate forever. Where's the irony?

Uhh. Thinkstock pays 28 cents for nonexclusives and for exclusives it's 38-46 cents per subscription DL. http://www.istockphoto.com/help/sell-stock/rate-schedule. Why is an equivalent sale a sub rather than one sold with an RF license again?

You are right
I was remembering the pre backlash 25c before they revised it up to 28c. The reason SS rate is equivalent is that the low rates on SS are also sub package sales. Think stock is the IS equivalent as far as indies are concerned as there is no opt out

Microbius · « **Reply #15 on:** December 27, 2012, 04:13 »

Quote from: vlad_the_imp on December 26, 2012, 16:21

Quote
with ss you soon rise to 38c. With IS you are trapped on the industry's worst rate forever.

Hang on, you believe rising to 38 cents is something to celebrate? When I sell a Vetta file on IS I can make $80 and more. Ordinary files make $5, $10. I understand not all files are those prices, but I have no Thinkstock files, and I would not personally be celebrating a rise to 38c.

Quote
Check the column on the right and look at the #1 site and then laugh again

That column means nothing. It doesn't mean if my work was available on SS I would earn twice as much as I do at IS. That is the only important figure to me.

For the most part this is all irrelevant to an indie as they have no choice but to sell through TS which drags their r p d down to broadly comparable rates. I am just trying to keep the discussion relevant to the op rather than turning it into another indie vs exclusive war

MarkRyanDesigns · « **Reply #16 on:** January 25, 2013, 09:45 »

Istock has always been better for me, doubling sometimes tripling what SS in a monthly basis for the past 3 year. But there is also what type of illustrations you are doing to consider.

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Author Topic: Best sites (earnings) to sell illustrations and vectors (Read 18031 times)

ankarb

chromaco

ankarb

MarkRyanDesigns

ankarb

vlad_the_imp

Microbius

Poncke

sharpshot

traveler1116

ShadySue

traveler1116

vlad_the_imp

chromaco

Microbius

Microbius

MarkRyanDesigns

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