I have updated RPI trends for my portfolio and added RPI for the middle tier agencies:

http://microstock.pixelsaway.com/return-per-image-rpi-from-microstock-photography-istockphoto-shutterstock-dreamstime-and-midlow-earners/



I didn't realize that FT is falling down so badly before plotting it ...

More graphs in my blog.

I am not going to look again at these statistics before the end of the year.
Then, I will see if I am still growing or reaching plateau in terms of RPI.
I am just counting payouts on monthly basis.

I had BME in January 2012 and, then, 60-70% of that in the following months and I am adding pictures on a regular basis as to the other sites.

BME, but IS and SS slightly lower than in February.

IS (31%) returned back to the 1st place, SS (30%) second, DT (10%), 123RF (4.6%)).

I had a strange spike of sales on Feb 8 at iStock - 100+ extra downloads.
And now, IS is sending me about 10 refund notices every day for $1.80 each from this particular day.
Anybody has similar experience recently? Or maybe it just a norm nowadays when dealing with IS.

BTW. I had a similar experience on a somewhat smaller scale on two low earning sites low.
I got an e-mail with explanation from one site. The other site simply erased those sales after 2 weeks without any notice.
I guess I am getting popular ... 

subs%

61% overall (4 years)

45% Oct'11
51% Nov'11
49% Dec'11
44% Jan'12

I use Transmit without problems ...

my graph shows monthly RPI

unfortunately, outdoor pictures contribute just a very tiny fraction to my total sales, so no new canoe from microstock sales for me 

6 months later ...
I just posted an updated graph of RPI for my microstock portfolio covering 2009-2011 period:
http://microstock.pixelsaway.com/microstock-portfolio-return-per-image-rpi-2009-2011-trends/

Nothing very surprising: IS is going downhill and SS up.

Something new ...
I've got a few downloads at Featurepics. All came with the message
"Transaction needs to be verified. The pending status will be changed if refund is not requested in 3 months"

All pictures are my local shots from Colorado, so a buyer shouldn't that exotic ...

Jun  - 2
Jul   - 4
Aug -  4
Sep - 17    (starting 9/20)
Oct - 18
Nov - 12    (last 11/24)
Dec -  2

Nov 3% lover than October which was BME  (IS and SS slightly down, most of others up)
      50% up from Nov'10 (~1000 pictures added)

SS 34%  (23% a year ago)   
IS  28%  (44% a  year ago)
DT 12%
FT   5%
123 4%
PD,DP,VEER 3%

In November I've completed my 4th year in microstock.

Photodune is complicated, confusing and not worth joining! That's the correct conclusion. Yes, please stay away. :-)

BTW. I am submitting my pictures to Photodune as for any other site without any special treatment, but I haven't read the author tutorial ...

65-70% - a rough estimate from my Deep Meta records without counting any files just listing active files and measuring a cursor position on scroll bar

September 2010 and September 2011
SS moved to #1

The same top earner on IS and DT, different on SS:

IS  - 100%
SS  - 27%
DT  - 15%

BME:  +20% in reference to July, +68% in ref to Aug'2010

IS         40%    (+28%)        ( ) - growth from July'11
SS         27%   (+11%)
DT        14%    (+46%)
FT           4%   ( +6%)
others    15%   ( =)

I derive 1/2 of my living from microstock and 40% of that is coming from IS.
So far, it doesn't look that SS or DT can provide any replacement for IS, FT is a way down.
I am rather thinking about putting more efforts into my non photography activity and less time for microstock.

I am posting some real earning numbers time to time in my blog.
E.g., my June 2011 post shows RPI (return per image) from my top 4 (IS, SS, DT, FF) and all others lumped together over 3+ years:

Return Per Image (RPI) from My Microstock Portfolio – 3 Year Trends

total earnings in July almost the same as in June, but slightly down in comparison with May (BME)

IS          37%     (slightly up)
SS         28%     (slightly up)
DT         11%     (way down)
FT           5%     (way down)
others    17%     (slightly up)

IS used to be close to 50% in my earnings a year ago

reached the diamond canister in IS in July

I should close the 2011 year with 50% of my living coming from microstock
assuming that I manage to keep my expenses down
(no new lenses or camera).

RPI (return per image) graph in my last blog post illustrates trends in my earnings.

http://microstock.pixelsaway.com/return-per-image-rpi-from-my-microstock-portfolio-3-year-trends/

IS is going downhill while SS up during the last year, but both are down in June (the graph includes first 10 or 11 days of June.

Quote from: adijr on June 13, 2011, 01:27
Out of curiosity, why do you think IS RPI is slowly falling?

RPI is affected by

1 - number of sales (downloads) going down
     many threads on IS situations in this forum
         
2 - change in commission
     10% cut for 2011

3 - acceptance rate and upload limit
     more rejections during last year or so
     My RPI is based on a total number of pictures in my portfolio, not pictures accepted by IS.
     This factor really affects my RPI for DT ("too similar" rejections).
     I have a similar size portfolio with FT, but they don't reject my bestsellers like DT.

I posted 3+ year trends of RPI (return per image) statistics from my portfolio:
http://microstock.pixelsaway.com/return-per-image-rpi-from-my-microstock-portfolio-3-year-trends/

I am not sure if the overall picture is encouraging or discouraging.
IS is obviously going downhill (it would be worse without pictures+),
SS is going up, but still cannot catch IS. And, it's summer now.
Perhaps, it's time to shoot something for fun ...

~50%

Quote from: digitalexpressionimages on March 26, 2011, 15:24
What would dreamstime's response be if I put something like "variations available from photographer" in the description of some of the images I have similars for? Since they reject them anyway there shouldn't be any issue with buyers going straight to the source for the variations. It would allow buyers to get what they want and me to sell the shots dreamstime rejects.

I am going to try that.