I agree with the others.  Nobody really knows, but most buyers probably only have accounts on one or two sites and are not gong to spend their time searching multiple sites to save a few pennies so the more you are on the better.

To your list I would add SS, BS and CS.  If you're bothered by low RPDL I would skip DP and especially 123 with their recent royalty cuts.  The other low earners probably won't make you much until you have a lot of images unless they're really good.

I'm having a BME for # of sales but about third best for $$.  I used to like them but now it makes me sick to look at the low returns since I am at level 2.  Had a small for 14 cents this week and an XL for $1.05 - pathetic, along with the measly 0.25 subs, and most are subs nowadays.  Had an EL for $16.63 this month but that is a lot less than almost anywhere else.  I've stopped uploading and will decide whether to continue with them during the next month or two.

Mine are OK - slightly more sales than last year but a lower return per sale.  Had a print EL for $16.63 and getting subs sales for 25 cents at level 2.  Better than December and on pace for a BME if I get another EL.

I agree with you that this statistic is very important and an excellent gauge of which agencies are increasing.  It also tells you which agencies should receive your attention for getting new images online.

I calculated average return per accepted image per month for each agency and averaged those over the year.  My numbers are very similar to yours, except sometimes a bit lower.  For 2012:

SS: 0.19
iS: 0.12
DT: 0.05
123, Veer: 0.04
CS and FT: 0.03
DP: 0.02
BS and all the others: 0.01 or lower

Over the 4 years I have been doing this - part time, shooting what I feel like - the ones that have grown are:

SS from 0.14 to 0.19
CS from 0.01 to 0.03
DP from 0.00 to 0.02
123 from 0.01 to 0.04
Veer from 0.03 to 0.04

DT went from 0.04 in 2009, to 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05
FT went from 0.04 in 2009, to 0.02, 0.02 and 0.03
So those two both dropped royalties, then gradually clawed back (not quite back for FT)

iS went from 0.31 in 2009, to 0.31, 0.15 and 0.12
Pretty dramatic drop and not surprising.  I wish they could turn it around and get back to 2009 levels, but that doesn't seem likely for independents.

I'm sure 123 will drop dramatically this year.
The low earners have stayed pretty constant at around 0.01.

I assume those who shoot lifestyle, do vectors or are more skilled than me have much higher numbers.  Overall, it looks like getting images on SS will make you the most money.  Unfortunately, that strategy won't work in the long run if everyone else does the same, unless you can increase quality - that's what I need to do now.

Thanks for starting this thread - I'm glad to know my numbers are quite similar to yours so the results are pretty consistent across agencies even though our subjects differ.

I had a level 2 subs sale for 25 cents but my 2013 earnings shows 0.  They are going to drop to insignificance earnings-wise with the royalty cut.

Hi Alex,

    Thanks for responding, despite the negative attacks from many people.  I hope you understand how frustrating it is for everyone here who are working as hard as possible to make marketable images and to promote agencies that treat them fairly only to be hit with a royalty cut.  It feels like a kick in the teeth.

    I appreciate your interceding with top management on our behalf to try to mitigate the effects of the impending cuts.  Many here will leave your agency in January.  I suspect most of us will stop uploading for a while and see what happens with sales.  If things don't pick up and 123 drops into the low earners then we probably won't bother again.  I hope you can be successful but if management doesn't consider all contributors instead of just the largest ones then everyone else will leave, your database will stagnate and buyers will go elsewhere in the long run as pointed out by others.  We need you to sell our images but without our content you have nothing to sell.  The relationship should be symbiotic rather than parasitic.  Royalty cuts tilt it in the wrong direction.  There used to be lots of positive buzz about 123rf in these forums but you can see that dried up a year ago.  Grandfathering would have solved most of those problems.  Oh well.

    My main criticism now that has not been commented on is with the subscription rates.  A base of 21 cents is just too low.  In two weeks, 123rf will have the distinction of having the lowest payout rate for subscriptions in the industry.  Is that how you want to be known?  I could certainly never recommend your site to any new people with that low subs rate - really it is insulting to pay so low per download.  I will not be at the bottom, but will be low enough that I won't want to sell subs at 123rf beginning in January.

    Could you please check with management to ask whether we can have an opt-out option for subscription sales?  If I could opt out of subscription sales until I would have a decent rate of return I would feel much better about the cuts.  Even better would be to increase the base subs rate to at least 25 or 30 cents to be consistent with your competitors - nobody else pays lower than 25 cents.  You can understand that if we continue to support a site that undercuts all of the others in subscription payout rates it might encourage the others to drop theirs.  Therefore, for us to maintain our business it becomes best for 123rf to fail.  I'm sure that's not what you intend but that will be the outcome.  Dropping royalty rates is bad, but dropping them below anyone else in the industry is unacceptable.  I hope you can get management to do something about the proposed subscription rates before the relationship becomes antagonistic - you can see how well that has worked out for iStock.  Thanks.

BME for me, mainly due to my first ever EL there.  Without the EL it is still strong but probably not a BME.

Brava!

That pretty much sums it up.

The Focus Nazi strikes again!  I've had a decent AR at SS all year and then the past couple of months all of a sudden most got shot down.  Every rejection on the last two batches at SS was for focus, and almost no focus rejections of the same images at 12 other agencies.  I had one batch where 9/10 were rejected by SS, mostly for focus.  The same batch at BS was 9/10 accepted, with one rejected for focus - the only one that was accepted at SS.  Very weird.  I haven't resubmitted any in the past couple of months, but the last time I did had good luck with resizing and limited high-pass sharpening.  Now have enough rejections to prepare another batch for resubmission and hope for the best.

I think it's just a rogue reviewer, because similar batches of the same subjects and similar quality will get through with few or no rejections, then all of a sudden switch to high rejections with the next submission.  Sometimes I can understand the focus rejections, other times some that I thought were a little soft got through at SS but were nailed at other agencies.  If resizing doesn't help it will be a problem - I hate resizing and sharpening but will do it if necessary.

Quote from: MetaStocker on December 10, 2012, 15:40

"That said, the #1 priority for today, as it has been all weekend, is Best Match, which Mary and the engineers are looking at and working on as we speak.  Please stay tuned."

What a farce.
An IT/ICT illiterate female announcing that another female (Mary) will take over the Best Match issue aided by their eunuch engineers.

I've seen first hand what kind of disasters females in management can do, you better leave the ship before it sinks like the Titanic.

And she must be really desperate to ask for help in the forum as it's backfiring big time.

I thought "Mary and the engineers" were the latest sensational rock group.

I thought it was "Mary and the eunuch engineers"

I have found it almost impossible to get anything accepted on Fotofolia  and of the 5 pics I have there only 2 views in a long time. Compared to DT this is a no site for me.Though 123RF accept all my pics except a handful the sales are very slow there. Is it just me or is this a trend? Yet on DT I have sold 4 in the last week.  The ups and downs of  this hobby are a little strange   to say the least.

It isn't just you, but my experience is much different - lately usually 80-100% acceptance on every batch, and usually the weakest ones get rejected.  They are much easier than DT in my experience.  With only 5 images you're unlikely to generate many sales anywhere - wait until you have 500 to make comparisons.

You will need to take microstock as more than a hobby if you want to see any financial results - maybe then it won't seem quite so strange.

I usually leave my images but if the site can't make at least an annual payout, I will probably remove them.  I usually leave my images because it's taken time to get them on the site and there might be the possibility that things will improve in the future.

+1 
After all the work of uploading I don't want to undo it when there is a possibility that the site may turn around.  Leaving images is a way to monitor success and if they start selling again I will resume uploading.  Veer is one of those on the edge for me - after slow and weird review results plus slow sales I get annoyed and take them off the list, then will get some string, high-value sales and put them back on.  Right now they're on, but my last batch was 100% rejected and I've had no sales so far this month so they may be off again in January.  Crestock is one where I have stopped and started but have now stopped for a long time - with a 20% commission and 25-cent subs they will have to generate phenomenal sales to get me interested again.  Featurepics is another one that I have stuck with - sales are slow, but prices are reasonable and their commission is 50%, uploading is easy and reviews are fast and consistent.  They will stay on the list as long as they generate some sales.  I stopped uploading to Cutcaster a couple of years ago due to no sales ever but have kept images there to monitor in case they improve.  Nowadays companies can go in and out of favor quickly and I like having something ready to go just in case.