I'm an indie there with a tiny port but I sure miss the income from when I could promote images to S+ - They actually got seen and the ratio of sales to views was very close.

It's got to be a tough decision when you've got a huge port. Best of luck, whatever you decide.

Quote from: wordplanet on July 02, 2014, 19:14
I'm an indie there with a tiny port but I sure miss the income from when I could promote images to S+ - They actually got seen and the ratio of sales to views was very close.

Me too. Income halved there when they got rid of P+.

Yeah, I had all my images as P+. I don't think it made much difference as far as the number of sales, but it doubled my take, and if someone didn't like the high price they could buy it somewhere else where I probably still got paid just as much.

I read of contributors making high and low percentages of what they used to make but no one ever posts dollar amounts, What, for instance, is considered a good weekly amount of royalties from IS. I also contribute to DT &Fotolia  but my "home base" is IS. I have about 3200 pics in my portfolio but my total earned income for several years of work is below $400. Am I that bad or are some people  stretching the truth.
Don Treadwell

Quote from: DTCOP on July 02, 2014, 22:11
I read of contributors making high and low percentages of what they used to make but no one ever posts dollar amounts, What, for instance, is considered a good weekly amount of royalties from IS. I also contribute to DT &Fotolia  but my "home base" is IS. I have about 3200 pics in my portfolio but my total earned income for several years of work is below $400. Am I that bad or are some people  stretching the truth.
Don Treadwell

Reason many do not post numbers is it will encourage copycats.  Another reason is if you are anonymous here, posting numbers might let agencies guess who you are. 

I might misunderstand you.  Do you mean you make $400 a week at Istock, or that is the total amount you have earned all together in stock ever?  If so I am surprised.   $400 total take for several years of work and 3200 images is very low.  I don't see why to keep trying if that is all you are making off so much effort.

Also I did not give you the -1.

Quote from: DTCOP on July 02, 2014, 22:11
I read of contributors making high and low percentages of what they used to make but no one ever posts dollar amounts, What, for instance, is considered a good weekly amount of royalties from IS. I also contribute to DT &Fotolia  but my "home base" is IS. I have about 3200 pics in my portfolio but my total earned income for several years of work is below $400. Am I that bad or are some people  stretching the truth.
Don Treadwell

Well, I'm not sure what's considered good or bad anymore. An MSG poll from a while back showed 50-75 cents per image per month was about average. So based on that you're at about 10-20 cents which would seem below average. But again, that poll was a year or two old. The average may have dropped to 10-20 cents by now.

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on July 02, 2014, 23:43

Quote from: DTCOP on July 02, 2014, 22:11
I read of contributors making high and low percentages of what they used to make but no one ever posts dollar amounts, What, for instance, is considered a good weekly amount of royalties from IS. I also contribute to DT &Fotolia  but my "home base" is IS. I have about 3200 pics in my portfolio but my total earned income for several years of work is below $400. Am I that bad or are some people  stretching the truth.
Don Treadwell

Well, I'm not sure what's considered good or bad anymore. An MSG poll from a while back showed 50-75 cents per image per month was about average. So based on that you're at about 10-20 cents which would seem below average. But again, that poll was a year or two old. The average may have dropped to 10-20 cents by now.

As PixelBytes observed, DTCOP said $400 was his "total earned income from iStock", not weekly or monthly. If it really is his total income, on 3200 images over 'several' years, I also don't know where he gets his motivation.
However, it was suddenly much more difficult to license files uploaded after late Sept 2012, so it depends how long the 'several' years really are.

Quote from: ShadySue on July 03, 2014, 00:03

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on July 02, 2014, 23:43

Quote from: DTCOP on July 02, 2014, 22:11
I read of contributors making high and low percentages of what they used to make but no one ever posts dollar amounts, What, for instance, is considered a good weekly amount of royalties from IS. I also contribute to DT &Fotolia  but my "home base" is IS. I have about 3200 pics in my portfolio but my total earned income for several years of work is below $400. Am I that bad or are some people  stretching the truth.
Don Treadwell

Well, I'm not sure what's considered good or bad anymore. An MSG poll from a while back showed 50-75 cents per image per month was about average. So based on that you're at about 10-20 cents which would seem below average. But again, that poll was a year or two old. The average may have dropped to 10-20 cents by now.

As PixelBytes observed, DTCOP said $400 was his "total earned income from iStock", not weekly or monthly. If it really is his total income, on 3200 images over 'several' years, I also don't know where he gets his motivation.
However, it was suddenly much more difficult to license files uploaded after late Sept 2012, so it depends how long the 'several' years really are.

You're right. I just re-read that.

DTCOP, I hate to be blunt but there's really no way to candy coat the answer to your question. If you're saying you've earned $400 total after several years with 3,200 images, that's pretty bad. And as a business owner I can't imagine how anyone can financially justify the massive amount of time and cost it takes to produce 3,200 images to get $400 in return after several years.

But, that also could be the state of microstock today. A few years ago maybe $1,500-$2,000 per month would have been average for 3,200 images. I don't think that's true today. If this is the kind of financial return newer contributors are getting that's pretty scary.

I can't imagine it's $400 total with 3200 images. I have a tiny port there, 86 images, and I've made more than that. Even $400 a year would be very low. $400 a week on the other hand would be $6.5 per image per year (RPI), a tad more than 50 cents per image per month RPI, which would be in the ballpark others have mentioned, assuming you're not an exclusive.

Edited to add:
Aside from one of my old P+ files which is a decent earner, most of my sales even today are on the 35 images I uploaded from my acceptance in February 2011 through late 2012 (I joined in 2009, got rejected, tried again, then didn't bother for nearly 2 years). I took a look and more than half the photos I've uploaded since September 2012 have no views at all, and the rest have very few views and very sparse sales, if any. So this could certainly be affecting Dan's returns.

With so many millions of photos, new photos can't get any traction without some sort of bump. That's why I miss the old P+

Okay, the consensus seems to be that I am wasting my time because I am making  so little money. On the other had I am a photography addict so unless they have a rehab for it I'm in for the full ride. Because of this I will ask, humbly, for a mentor or mentors to get some help. Samples of my work can be seen  at www.flickr.com/photos/willied. I shoot with a CanonD5 MkII and I have been a serious photog for about 13 years. I qualified for iStock in 2006 but got quite active about 3 or 4 years ago. Right now I have 3099 photos in my port, have sold195 for a total earnings of $387.56. I have researched keywords extensively and I do not seem to have a problem there... that I know of. I know my earning are low so I am asking for someone... anyone... to offer some helpful advice. And quitting is not an option. Thanks in advance for any takers.

I don't suppose that any of the images in that Flickr link are on iStock, so that won't help.

If you want advice on your IS stock portfolio, provide a link to that (I did a google search for your name and iStock but nothing came up). I have only 109 images left at iStock (I pulled my 2,500 images last February 2nd over the Google drive deal) but I'm a diamond contributor (in other words I have some real world experience of selling at iStock). I don't mind taking a quick look at your iStock portfolio to give you an idea of why sales have been so thin on the ground for you.

perhaps IS is not the place to sell your work - Unless you are exclusive or are really set on it, I would research other sites and join ones that look like a good match.

IS made nearly $2,200 off your images. But that does still seem low.

I have been IS exclusive contributor for about 6 years,but it seem to be more and more harder to increase my income on it.

Quote from: Henvry on July 05, 2014, 04:00
I have been IS exclusive contributor for about 6 years,but it seem to be more and more harder to increase my income on it.

Increase your income?

I'd guess that most exclusives these days would be happy to not decrease their income. I'm down less than 10% for the first half of the year as compared to last year. But the downtrend appears to be accelerating, so I'm not terribly hopefully for the next 6 months.

Quote from: KB on July 05, 2014, 04:38

Quote from: Henvry on July 05, 2014, 04:00
I have been IS exclusive contributor for about 6 years,but it seem to be more and more harder to increase my income on it.

Increase your income?

I'd guess that most exclusives these days would be happy to not decrease their income. I'm down less than 10% for the first half of the year as compared to last year. But the downtrend appears to be accelerating, so I'm not terribly hopefully for the next 6 months.

Me too, 15% down compared to last year.

Likewise, my YTD iStock revenue down 15% compared to this time last year - although if I compare the last 12 months with the 12 months prior to that it's almost exactly the same amount, which is not so bad.

So for me it really depends on the performance during the rest of 2014, and whether or not the RC targets are applied this year (they haven't been for two years now) as, if they are, my revenue would go down seriously next year...

Wow, still istock exclusives existing? I mean, leaving all the financial stuff out, it must feel really bad supporting such a screwy company and depending on them...

"I mean, leaving all the financial stuff out, it must feel really bad supporting such a screwy company and depending on them..."

Why not try engaging brain before posting? You're insulting people whilst having no idea of other contributors circumstances.

Quote from: Henvry on July 05, 2014, 05:35

Quote from: KB on July 05, 2014, 04:38

Quote from: Henvry on July 05, 2014, 04:00
I have been IS exclusive contributor for about 6 years,but it seem to be more and more harder to increase my income on it.

Increase your income?

I'd guess that most exclusives these days would be happy to not decrease their income. I'm down less than 10% for the first half of the year as compared to last year. But the downtrend appears to be accelerating, so I'm not terribly hopefully for the next 6 months.

Me too, 15% down compared to last year.

Down 15% over the last 2 months here.
Definitely looking at plans to drop the crown if the downward trend continues over the coming months

Dropping the Crown? More like 'Punting' the Crown