MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: Phillip Minnis on June 22, 2010, 01:49
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For the last few months, I've been averaging sales of around $120.00 on iStock each month. So far, this month, I've only had sales of $38.00.
Is it just me, or are there others who are experiencing a downturn in sales?
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Almost the same numbers. :(
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For the last few months, I've been averaging sales of around $120.00 on iStock each month. So far, this month, I've only had sales of $38.00.
Is it just me, or are there others who are experiencing a downturn in sales?
average month for me at IS
it happens at times to have a bad month on a site, I hope it's neither you nor IS, just random statistical variations
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i'm having a bme, thus far. but i hate their uploading process!
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For the last few months, I've been averaging sales of around $120.00 on iStock each month. So far, this month, I've only had sales of $38.00.
Is it just me, or are there others who are experiencing a downturn in sales?
+1 :'(
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Sales for me are on par with previous months and show the same june-trend as previous years.As microstockphoto says; probably just the statistical variations.
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my sales have been dropping for months (although now where near as dramatic as yours). I have seen though the past few days/ week a number of old images with low or no sales pop up and I've had a good week or so, it looks to me that maybe? we had a significant best match shift last week.
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Way way down. Especially disappointing because I'm less than a month away from going exclusive.
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Way down for me as well. iStock's usually my second best seller. So far this month they're in fourth, behind Fotolia and 123RF.
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Waaaaay down here too!
It all went very well until after march...since then it drops quite a bit every month...this month predicts to be 50% down compared to jan-feb-march. A bit dramatic because about 65% of my stock income comes (or rather 'used to come') from iStock.
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Sorry to report the same here. At Istock, my June 1-21 is down 20% vs May 1-21. That's a steeper decline than my numbers across all sites: down 10% vs May.
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Different story here. I am already past my May sales and I am on pace to have my BME.
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This has not been a good year for me on IS, in general. Downloads are nowhere near what they were in previous years, and even $ are lower than last year.
Summer Slump seems to have hit me hard at IS and that has not been the case the previous two summers. My daily average on Istock is down 7% from last month and down 11% from same time last year.
To put it in context, my overall drop from this time last year across all sites was 3%, but it was 11% on IS.
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My sales at IS are projected to be just about on par with last month but about 20% down from June 09.
The 'summer slump' has cut pretty deeply into my sales everywhere this year but maybe a bit worse at IS.
If things go on like this I might actually have to consider working for a living *shudder*
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This May $$$ was up a depressing (to you guys, not me - sorry!) amount from last May. Same roller coaster chart as last year. June is the pit, and a steady climb back up .
Dunno if that helps or not.
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This May $$$ was up a depressing (to you guys, not me - sorry!) amount from last May.
But is that down to the exclusive price rise or increasing sales compared to last year?
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This May $$$ was up a depressing (to you guys, not me - sorry!) amount from last May.
But is that down to the exclusive price rise or increasing sales compared to last year?
Yes, to the first (also Vetta). DLs down 8%.
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This May $$$ was up a depressing (to you guys, not me - sorry!) amount from last May.
But is that down to the exclusive price rise or increasing sales compared to last year?
Yes, to the first (also Vetta). DLs down 8%.
Well, I can't begrudge you the extra $$. It's right for Istock to take care of its exclusives :)
But I continue to wonder if repeatedly raising (exclusive & "collection") prices to shield contributors from declining DL numbers is sustainable for the long term.
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Are you all talking about overall monthly earnings or about monthly RPI?
If you had drop in monthly earnings compared with same month last year, also with all new photos in last 12 month, it would be disaster for your RPI...
More pics but less $ mean "synergy of parameters", but in wrong directions... :-\ :'(
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Are you all talking about overall monthly earnings or about monthly RPI?
If you had drop in monthly earnings compared with same month last year, also with all new photos in last 12 month, it would be disaster for your RPI...
More pics but less $ mean "synergy of parameters", but in wrong directions... :-\ :'(
I don't worry about RPI and such. I'm just talking monthly earnings.
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Mine has remained steady with the partner program doing well, and uploading my 15/week limit. It is disappointing in comparison to other stock sites I work with, but steady.
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Are you all talking about overall monthly earnings or about monthly RPI?
If you had drop in monthly earnings compared with same month last year, also with all new photos in last 12 month, it would be disaster for your RPI...
Not sure who this is directed at, but in my case, the drop in royalties over the past year is in spite of a 20% growth in portfolio (over 1k images added).
My RPI has dropped by 20% in the same year's time.
But, like Sean, I don't give a lot of thought to RPI. If I did I would have probably hung myself by now ;)
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My downloads are waaaaaaayyyyyy down for June but the number of images of mine that have been places in private lightboxes is up considerably so, time will tell.
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Not sure who this is directed at, but in my case, the drop in royalties over the past year is in spite of a 20% growth in portfolio (over 1k images added).
My RPI has dropped by 20% in the same year's time.
But, like Sean, I don't give a lot of thought to RPI. If I did I would have probably hung myself by now ;)
My earnings this month are on track to be my second best month so far (ever). Of course I am exclusive and have been for some time. Price changes, Vetta and E+ are all a contributing factor. DLs are okay, not too low but a small drop from previous months.
As for RPI, I actually pay attention to that. This year my average RPI is way up compared to last year ... for example in May 2009 I sold more images than this year (DLs in May were down 24%), but this year I made 70% more in sales.
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Interesting info Nicole. Sounds like at the moment exclusives are fairing a lot better than non-exclusives overall.
I would be interested to know if the biggest reason for the downturns many independents are experiencing in earnings are largely the result of not having raises at any of the major sites in a couple of years. As opposed to Istock exclusives who have had a number of price raises, both overall, and for the various collections.
Unfortunately, the math to figure out how much raises contributed to my prior earnings growth, and how much stagnant (and falling) royalties have affected the income decline is completely beyond me...
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Downloads slightly up over 2009 for May and June, $ pretty much the same story as Nicole.
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But, like Sean, I don't give a lot of thought to RPI. If I did I would have probably hung myself by now ;)
Maybe you should. Keep track of RPI. Not hang yourself. I reread this and it sounded bad. ;D
If you have a 20% decrease in your RPI on 6000 files, you would make less than you would with the higher RPI and 5000 files. Say you add in a 10% little slump to that and you could lose another couple hundred dollars a month easy. If you don't keep track of RPI, how do you know what you should expect to make?
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For me this month started off normally but really is losing steam over the past week. I think a lot of people are on vacation for summer.
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But, like Sean, I don't give a lot of thought to RPI. If I did I would have probably hung myself by now ;)
Maybe you should. Keep track of RPI. Not hang yourself. I reread this and it sounded bad. ;D
ROFL! VERY glad you clarified. I was about to attach the noose to a rafter beam ;D
If you have a 20% decrease in your RPI on 6000 files, you would make less than you would with the higher RPI and 5000 files. Say you add in a 10% little slump to that and you could lose another couple hundred dollars a month easy. If you don't keep track of RPI, how do you know what you should expect to make?
Yes, this is exactly my point. I am making less with 6000 files this year than I did with 5000 files last year. I do track RPI, hence my being able to quote these statistics.
However, unless somebody can tell me how knowing these statistics will increase my sales, don't see much point in getting worked up about it. :-\
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I am making less with 6000 files this year than I did with 5000 files last year.
I've been wondering what percentage of a portfolio contributors need to create in new images to break even year over year.
You increased yours by 20%+ and didn't break even.
Interesting.
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IS: 2nd BME (after March 2010)
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As long as monthly income stays relatively steady or goes up, rpi doesn't concern me.
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Seems to me that older files will surely become dated/outdone eventually, so RPI must go down as an increasing fraction of one's port becomes unproductive. Some work is needed just to maintain place.
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I think that the growth of images on the stock sites is much more rapid than the growth of most people's ports or the growth of buyers on stock sites, so all things being equal, RPI would drop over time (plus potential old images slowly losing sales).
as far as IS, this month is pretty lousy, on track to be the WM for 2009 and 2010. Hopefully things pick up a bit at the end of the month as they often seem to do. Still, IS has been a bit slow for me since a good March.
I do wonder how long IS can seem to push exclusive and exclusive premium content before something gives. It would be nice (and about time) for another site or sites to up the prices w/o lowering commission at the same time.
--=Tom
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Seems to me that older files will surely become dated/outdone eventually, so RPI must go down as an increasing fraction of one's port becomes unproductive. Some work is needed just to maintain place.
Just a guess but maybe the 80-100K or so new images coming on-line each week could also have an effect on Sales/Income?
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It would be nice (and about time) for another site or sites to up the prices w/o lowering commission at the same time.
Seriously! It is overdue.
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My revenues this year are about 20% more than last year. My upload since last year represent about 10% of my portfolio. So I guess i'm doing ok. (I'm exclusive).
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Seems to me that older files will surely become dated/outdone eventually, so RPI must go down as an increasing fraction of one's port becomes unproductive. Some work is needed just to maintain place.
Just a guess but maybe the 80-100K or so new images coming on-line each week could also have an effect on Sales/Income?
Not just a guess, it's the main reason. Over 1 million images a year. It represent something like 20% of portfolio increase, only to maintain the exposure. Some photographers are nowhere near making a quality research about the viability of a photoshoot. They are like bikers at Le tour de France.
They shoot the same darn happy smilling girl with rock on her back. The result is maybe 300$ for the photoshoot and 40$ of returns after one year
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My revenues this year are about 20% more than last year. My upload since last year represent about 10% of my portfolio. So I guess i'm doing ok. (I'm exclusive).
Tony, does this represent an increase or decrease in actual downloads?
Seems like most exclusives are seeing increases in $$, but I have yet to see one whose actual DL's have increased. Would love to be proven wrong though :)
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But, like Sean, I don't give a lot of thought to RPI. If I did I would have probably hung myself by now ;)
Maybe you should. Keep track of RPI. Not hang yourself. I reread this and it sounded bad. ;D
If you have a 20% decrease in your RPI on 6000 files, you would make less than you would with the higher RPI and 5000 files. Say you add in a 10% little slump to that and you could lose another couple hundred dollars a month easy. If you don't keep track of RPI, how do you know what you should expect to make?
Of course!
RPI (tracked monthly) is the best measure for all our performances....
With that measure is easy to predict quantity and quality in the future...
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Seems like most exclusives are seeing increases in $$, but I have yet to see one whose actual DL's have increased. Would love to be proven wrong though :)
I got the impression from the IS forum that exclusives with mature ports were generally reporting about a 40% increase in $'s but a 15% decrease in sales.
If you factor in the price increase of a standard exclusive image (e.g. at Medium size from 6 credits to 10) then a 15% reduction in sales, plus a 66.67% increase in commission, would indeed produce a 41% increase in overall revenue. Obviously the increase varies across the sizes and there is also the fancy collections so some will do better/worse than others.
If an exclusive has only experienced a 20% increase in revenue since last year then the maths would suggest that sales must have dropped by nearly 30% __ and that's not so good.
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RPI (tracked monthly) is the best measure for all our performances....
With that measure is easy to predict quantity and quality in the future...
What good would tracking yet another number do me? I seem to be doing ok not being too concerned with that right now.
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RPI (tracked monthly) is the best measure for all our performances....
With that measure is easy to predict quantity and quality in the future...
Utter nonsense. RPI 'measures' nothing and is just a meaningless snapshot of a given point in time. Most definitely you cannot extrapolate any predictions of 'quantity and quality in the future' __ whatever that is supposed to mean.
If my RPI is 4.1 (or any other number) what will be my 'quality and quantity' next March please?
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Oh guys!
Obviously you have never dealt with statistics ...
Statistics is used to predict future events based on the past, if assuming the same conditions will remain ...
So here is my RPI stats from begin:
(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3557/screenhunter02jun241418.jpg)
After the "upsurge of the beginner" (because SS) RPI has fallen very low in accordance with the quality of my pictures, concepts, and position on Search Engines ...
With time, I am more familiar with the market, my pictures are moved forward in the search engines and my RPI grows almost sinuous pattern...
If it suddenly occurred a great decline in RPI, probably not my fault. But if the same sinuous pattern began to decline there is likely a possibility that the quality of my photos is cause...
So all of this is because of pattern, and how to predict possibilities in the future...
For now , with this conditions, I expect further growth o my RPI and profitability...
This is just a basic explanation and forecast ...
A bigger number of different patterns mean more accurate prediction of events in the future ...
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RPI (tracked monthly) is the best measure for all our performances....
With that measure is easy to predict quantity and quality in the future...
Utter nonsense. RPI 'measures' nothing and is just a meaningless snapshot of a given point in time. Most definitely you cannot extrapolate any predictions of 'quantity and quality in the future' __ whatever that is supposed to mean.
If my RPI is 4.1 (or any other number) what will be my 'quality and quantity' next March please?
Agree 100% just another silly number to track. Bottomline are your download and end of month money up or down.
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Obviously you have never dealt with statistics ...
Statistics is used to predict future events based on the past, if assuming the same conditions will remain ...
And if they don't, they don't, and if they do, they do, and one number divided by another isn't going to change that. You just do the best you can do and gauge the result on how successful you are per month (or whatever time length you enjoy).
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And if they don't, they don't, and if they do, they do, and one number divided by another isn't going to change that. You just do the best you can do and gauge the result on how successful you are per month (or whatever time length you enjoy).
Abso-blimmin-lutely!
Life's too short for all the stress involved in meeting or not meeting suppositions. I much prefer to deal with what is.
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Obviously you have never dealt with statistics ...
Statistics is used to predict future events based on the past, if assuming the same conditions will remain ...
And if they don't, they don't, and if they do, they do, and one number divided by another isn't going to change that. You just do the best you can do and gauge the result on how successful you are per month (or whatever time length you enjoy).
Sorry guys if I sound provocative , it is not my intention to...
However, my English is just "school English"...
The statistics are only one too forecasting trends. How proverb in my country says: "Who loves is welcome ... "
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Statistics may have limited prognostic value in microstock, but they have some motivational value for me. If I see a positive trend in my portfolio performance it can motivate me to keep those efforts, and, in turn, it's likely that I will get better results in the future.
I don't follow my statistics so closely as I used to at a very beginning - more like quarterly than monthly now. I don't really look at RPI (it can be calculated in different ways anyway). I am trying to include expenses into my microstocks statistics. Under some assumptions I am deriving my hourly rate for microstock work.
At least I know that I am making more than a minimum wage. It is also useful when making decision if it is worth to submit pictures to a low earning site: my time spent uploading vs sales ($ to $ comparison).
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I'm kind of surprised more people don't look at earnings projections. I'm not talking about frittering your whole day away with statistics. Just a simple, if I upload x amount of images here, I should make this much. I set target goals for each agency that I upload to.
I can understand why an exclusive wouldn't worry about it too much. They are only dealing with one agency. Although if my RPI dropped well below $1 as an exclusive, I might start thinking about dumping the crown.
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Unfortunately yes way down once again this month (as with last month) by almost 40% in both Royalties and Downloads, more than I expected for the so called summer slump, and worst period for some years for me at IS
Not sure what is causing this downward spiral and finding it disappointing as my new uploads which are proving to be sellers elsewhere are not performing there, oh well :-\
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And if they don't, they don't, and if they do, they do, and one number divided by another isn't going to change that. You just do the best you can do and gauge the result on how successful you are per month (or whatever time length you enjoy).
Abso-blimmin-lutely!
Life's too short for all the stress involved in meeting or not meeting suppositions. I much prefer to deal with what is.
When I submit more images to the ms sites, it's because I have an expectation that they will earn me money. I know they will earn money because I know my RPI. What if my only photos that sold were my very old stuff and my recent images did not sell at all? A falling RPI would clue me in to this. Of course, there could be other causes, but it would be an indicator that there's a problem, and I would be better off for knowing this. Those who say RPI is meaningless are really saying that the last time they looked at it, they didn't like it, so they stopped looking.
On the flip side, wouldn't it be extremely interesting to know that after a significant amount of time, your RPI held steady at a constant number? That's a valuable piece of information! It gives you some confidence that unless significant factors change, you can increase your output and your revenue will increase at a constant rate. This has been true for me after nearly two years in microstock, so it is encouraging and helpful for me to track it.
Put it this way... you get hired for a job and your boss gives you no idea how much money you will make. All you know that your paychecks come in on schedule and the numbers on the checks are acceptable. Wouldn't you really like to know that X hours times Y rate of pay = Z revenue? In microstock, "Y" is your RPI. Hardly a meaningless number.
P.S... And really, guys, if you track your ms revenue in any meaningful way, you probably have it in a spreadsheet. It is NO extra work if you already have columns containing the current size of your portfolio and your revenue. RPI can be an automatically calculated column that divides one number by the other. You all know this and probably did this at one point, but when the RPI started to depress you, you probably deleted or hid the column.
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When I submit more images to the ms sites, it's because I have an expectation that they will earn me money. I know they will earn money because I know my RPI.
No, you don't 'know' anything. There are many other factors in play besides prior experience from other locations.
It gives you some confidence that unless significant factors change, you can increase your output and your revenue will increase at a constant rate. This has been true for me after nearly two years in microstock, so it is encouraging and helpful for me to track it.
It wouldn't give any confidence about anything. I grow the size of my portfolio, and my downloads keep relatively steady. Because there are many other factors in play, again.
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On the flip side, wouldn't it be extremely interesting to know that after a significant amount of time, your RPI held steady at a constant number? That's a valuable piece of information! It gives you some confidence that unless significant factors change, you can increase your output and your revenue will increase at a constant rate. This has been true for me after nearly two years in microstock, so it is encouraging and helpful for me to track it.
Nope. I imagine that most of us who don't bother with RPI can simply see that dividing one number into another doesn't actually tell you anything. When you've been doing this for a while longer you will probably come to the same conclusion.
Monthly earnings is all that really matters and you will soon find that the most significant factor in earnings is the season. When you have a mature portfolio, say 4 years +, you'll almost certainly find your RPI will shoot up and down according to the season. If you are struggling to pay your mortgage one month what do you think your bank manager is going to be interested in? A nice spreadsheet showing the seasonal variation of earnings over each year ... or your RPI?
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On the flip side, wouldn't it be extremely interesting to know that after a significant amount of time, your RPI held steady at a constant number? That's a valuable piece of information! It gives you some confidence that unless significant factors change, you can increase your output and your revenue will increase at a constant rate. This has been true for me after nearly two years in microstock, so it is encouraging and helpful for me to track it.
Nope. I imagine that most of us who don't bother with RPI can simply see that dividing one number into another doesn't actually tell you anything. When you've been doing this for a while longer you will probably come to the same conclusion.
Monthly earnings is all that really matters and you will soon find that the most significant factor in earnings is the season. When you have a mature portfolio, say 4 years +, you'll almost certainly find your RPI will shoot up and down according to the season. If you are struggling to pay your mortgage one month what do you think your bank manager is going to be interested in? A nice spreadsheet showing the seasonal variation of earnings over each year ... or your RPI?
Funny, but true.
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Monthly earnings is all that really matters and you will soon find that the most significant factor in earnings is the season. When you have a mature portfolio, say 4 years +, you'll almost certainly find your RPI will shoot up and down according to the season. If you are struggling to pay your mortgage one month what do you think your bank manager is going to be interested in? A nice spreadsheet showing the seasonal variation of earnings over each year ... or your RPI?
Of course I take seasons into account when looking at my RPI. But it IS instructive to know how my summer slowdown RPI last year compares to my summer slowdown RPI this year.
Another analogy... you own a business and hire employees. Don't you want to know how productive each employee is, or do you just care about the bottom line and not how you got to it. "Well, I got to my revenue goal last month, but I don't care if 10 employees were super productive and the other 90 were dead weight." Or "I hired another 20 employees and still hit the same monthly revenue as last year, but I'm happy with that number, so I don't care." You should want to know that as you hire more employees your bottom line increases by a significant number, or you wouldn't devote the resources to bringing on more workers.
Back to the microstock world... if you put in 20 hour days for a solid month, and the end result was that you made $100 more than the same month last year, are you thrilled simply because you made more? I suspect you'd only be happy if the revenue increase was proportional to the amount of extra effort you put into it. That's when RPI is helpful.
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As I have said, I DO track RPI. But no, it isn't helpful. Because knowing it doesn't give you any ability to change anything.
And some of the other factors that affect it will be competition, both globally and in your specific niches, raises or cuts in royalties from the various sites, seasonal changes, and just good old ebb & flow. None of those are things you can do anything about.
The things you can control are the quality of images you upload and the amount of images you upload. To some degree, quality of images should increase your RPI, but amount of images will probably lower it. Since one can assume that most of us who have been at this several years are already uploading the best quality of images we can, that just leaves quantity as the only variable we have much control over.
If I upload and sell three images from my latest shoot my RPI is likely to be higher, but if I upload 50 (different!) images from the same shoot and sell lets say 25 of them, the RPI will be lower. However by uploading a greater variety I am offering a better selection to the buyer and demonstrably increasing my sales overall and the money in my pocket.
Does that mean I should upload fewer images? No. That would hurt my overall sales. So focusing on RPI to the exclusion of other factors could actually have a negative affect on overall income.
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So focusing on RPI to the exclusion of other factors could actually have a negative affect on overall income.
Excellent summary, Lisa. Agree with everything you said. In particular the ending line about the risk of focusing on RPI to the exclusion of other factors. RPI on its own can't tell you anything. But it can be combined with other evidence to paint a picture, or it can raise a flag that something is going on that merits looking into.
By advocating that RPI is a good stat to watch, I'm not saying to exclude anything else. My spreadsheet tracks my uploads and sales in every conceivable manner. RPI is just one of many equations available for me to look at.
My RPI is currently steady, but if it dropped suddenly, it would alert me that I should look at what I'm doing and find where the problem is. Maybe I shifted into different subject matter that isn't attractive to buyers. Or maybe it's a seasonal slowdown (looking at my RPI for the same period last year might shed light on that question). Or maybe I'm "hitting the wall" that microstock veterans tell me that I WILL hit someday. A fading RPI would clearly be an indicator that I may have hit it, but again, it's just one indicator of such and I would want to look into it more deeply to find more evidence to confirm it.
Basically RPI is just one of many pieces of information I feel I should be looking at to make smart marketing decisions in terms of what to create and where to upload it (yes, my sheet even automatically tracks RPI per agency... it helped me decide to stop uploading to Crestock and Veer).
To me, saying I don't want to see RPI is like saying I want less information. The people who succeed in ms, as well as any other part of life, are those who collect as much useful information as they can, but more importantly, know how to use it to their advantage.
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Another analogy... you own a business and hire employees. Don't you want to know how productive each employee is, or do you just care about the bottom line and not how you got to it. "Well, I got to my revenue goal last month, but I don't care if 10 employees were super productive and the other 90 were dead weight." Or "I hired another 20 employees and still hit the same monthly revenue as last year, but I'm happy with that number, so I don't care." You should want to know that as you hire more employees your bottom line increases by a significant number, or you wouldn't devote the resources to bringing on more workers.
That's not an appropriate analogy. Poor sellers don't 'cost' you anything, while poor employees can be replaced by more productive ones.
Back to the microstock world... if you put in 20 hour days for a solid month, and the end result was that you made $100 more than the same month last year, are you thrilled simply because you made more? I suspect you'd only be happy if the revenue increase was proportional to the amount of extra effort you put into it. That's when RPI is helpful.
And again, it wouldn't really matter, because you put in the best work you could, and what happened happened.
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Back to the microstock world... if you put in 20 hour days for a solid month, and the end result was that you made $100 more than the same month last year, are you thrilled simply because you made more? I suspect you'd only be happy if the revenue increase was proportional to the amount of extra effort you put into it. That's when RPI is helpful.
And again, it wouldn't really matter, because you put in the best work you could, and what happened happened.
... and of course it can easily take 6 months for an image to gain good position in the best match anyway. Sales in microstock are not generally a function of 'effort' but mainly of skill and knowledge. Dividing one number into another is a pointless exercise.
The financial world likes ratios. I'm sure BP shares must have looked like a solid buy a few weeks ago. Enron had excellent ratios too. Pity that the massive underlying problems each company had was not reflected in them.
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To me, saying I don't want to see RPI is like saying I want less information. The people who succeed in ms, as well as any other part of life, are those who collect as much useful information as they can, but more importantly, know how to use it to their advantage.
This argument looks very familiar, but your wasting your breath. For me it was like they were trying to tell me that math doesn't exist. I had a sad look and thought, "but the numbers... they're numbers. Don't you see."
I guess everyone is entitled to run their business in their own way. No matter how much it hurts my robot brain.
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To me, saying I don't want to see RPI is like saying I want less information. The people who succeed in ms, as well as any other part of life, are those who collect as much useful information as they can, but more importantly, know how to use it to their advantage.
This argument looks very familiar, but your wasting your breath. For me it was like they were trying to tell me that math doesn't exist. I had a sad look and thought, "but the numbers... they're numbers. Don't you see."
I guess everyone is entitled to run their business in their own way. No matter how much it hurts my robot brain.
I hear you, I give up. I'll just stick to my voodoo math... whatever I'm doing, it's working OK for me, and it seems you're doing OK too.
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@ PowerDroid
So look at my example, I had over 5000 images on DT and I deleted more than 2500, so my RPI went through the roof. That happened because I deleted the images that had no sales. But that doesn't mean anything to my income, I did not collect any more money than before and I am not going to. Actually, this may even hurt my income in the long run. But as I said, my RPI is now very high.
Lisa, gostwyck and sjlocke are right.
So it is good to know your RPI to compare past earnings to current ones. However, my monthly income is the only thing I look at. If you track your hours and monthly income, that will tell you how much you are making per hour. But again, the next month will be totally different and you can't use this to predict your future income.
You mentioned that RPI tells you to stop uploading to some agencies, I don't need the RPI to tell me that, if I see no income, I will quit that agency on my own. So this is very simple, without spending days, or even months, to calculate your RPI accurately.
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So look at my example, I had over 5000 images on DT and I deleted more than 2500, so my RPI went through the roof. That happened because I deleted the images that had no sales. But that doesn't mean anything to my income, I did not collect any more money than before and I am not going to. Actually, this may even hurt my income in the long run. But as I said, my RPI is now very high.
OK, first, why would you delete images? I've never understood the logic in doing so.
Lisa, gostwyck and sjlocke are right.
Yes, and no. Statements to the effect of "RPI tells you nothing" are true, in that it is only useful as an indicator of something happening or not happening. For instance, if I am worried about the severity of this year's summer slump, I can look back at my RPI during last summer to see how I was faring then. If it is roughly the same (which is true in my case) I take that as ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE that things may be OK. OF COURSE there are other factors to consider... am I on more sites now, the level of competition, etc... but it IS useful to me.
So it is good to know your RPI to compare past earnings to current ones. However, my monthly income is the only thing I look at. If you track your hours and monthly income, that will tell you how much you are making per hour. But again, the next month will be totally different and you can't use this to predict your future income.
If all you look at are monthly totals, how do you compare a month like January with 31 days to a month like February with 28 days? I'd say you need more sophisticated metrics than monthly totals.
You mentioned that RPI tells you to stop uploading to some agencies, I don't need the RPI to tell me that, if I see no income, I will quit that agency on my own. So this is very simple, without spending days, or even months, to calculate your RPI accurately.
As I mentioned, I spend NO time calculating RPI... my spreadsheet automatically does it as long as I enter my port size and income numbers. I'd say RPI is an excellent way to determine if a site is worth uploading to. For me, my RPI at all the sites except Crestock and Veer were holding steady or increasing. Falling RPIs at Crestock and Veer told me that these are underperforming sites and not an effective use of my time, compared to the others. Sure, you could just eyeball the monthly totals for individual sites and say, "those are low... I'll stop submitting to those"... but what if those sites actually were starting to perform better for you? It may be that RPI would be the only indicator to tell you this.
I feel I've given a number of examples of how RPI... COMBINED WITH OTHER FACTORS... can help people make smart decisions. If anyone reads too much into RPI and jumps to conclusions from it, that's using RPI incorrectly. However, I feel it's helping me, and I'm extremely pleased with my current ms income. If you choose to ignore it, that's fine. Over and out.
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It's too complicated and confusing. We supposed to be photographers, not scientists ... :o
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For the last few months, I've been averaging sales of around $120.00 on iStock each month. So far, this month, I've only had sales of $38.00.
Is it just me, or are there others who are experiencing a downturn in sales?
Back to the OP!!!
I've had a really weird June. First week was dire, I thought the dreaded 'summer slump' was early. Then I had two good weeks; best nonEL weeks this year. Then this past week has been dire again, 3dls Fri, 0 Sat, 1 Sun 2 today. No best match shift that I can see. Maybe this is the start of the summer slump; or maybe it's just ebb, flow and ebb again. Who knows?