This article shows that although Shutterstock has increased its portfolio by over 300% over the last 3 years, it has only increased downloads by around 9%.

http://www.selling-stock.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=84743e14-8f7e-49e0-8e64-0deff8dcd563

FYI, you do have to pay to view the article.

Quote from: Jogga0 on June 22, 2015, 09:02
Yes, but it took a while! If I compare my income from the last 3 months as an exclusive ( Nov 12 + Dec 12 + Jan 13 ) and compare that to my equivalent Indie income ( Nov 14 + Dec 14 + Jan 15) - Indie income was 8% higher. So it is a small gain for a lot of work, but I can never know how much my exclusive income would have dropped in those 2 years.

To give you an idea, comparing the same period, (Jan 13 + Feb 13 + March 13 vs Jan 15 + Feb 15+ March 15)
I have increased my portfolio by 80% and my income has fallen by 15%

Did you need to grow your port much for that 8% gain?

Quote from: Jogga0 on June 19, 2015, 23:16
Yep became indie in Feb 2013 so RPI went off a cliff at that point!

Did you ever manage to replace your istock income as an indie?

Quote from: Jogga0 on June 18, 2015, 10:25
Not really uploading to IS anymore, but that hasn't really affected my monthly RPI which hovers around 0.15 compared to around 1.00 for SS (Photos only)

Wow, you took a massive hit at the beginning of 2013. Was that a result of dropping your istock exclusivity?

Below is my RPI vs portfolio size graph since 2011.

I'm stock exclusive at the moment and interested in the experiences of other exclusives and independents.
My RPI has dropped by around 65% over the last 4 years and I'm curious if this dramatic fall is industry wide or limited to istock.

Or perhaps its just the micro stock "glass ceiling"....

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

Definitely appears to be a falling trend. July was my best month this year.
August and September were both consecutively lower, and October is not looking great.
Fingers crossed it the US economic problems and we will all bounce back!!.

Down about 20% from March... consistent with most years.

Quote from: jsnover on March 01, 2012, 21:38

Quote from: Difydave on March 01, 2012, 14:19
Wouldn't it be easy enough to just not have the anonymous data shown at all?
If you want to see your data, then everyone else can see it too.
Put ads on there too if need be.
It's a shame it's all just gone.

I don't think that would work - pretty soon you'd have someone with 4,000 downloads as the top seller

But wouldn't it work if everyone was anonymous except the person logged in? You'd see your rank and whether you were up or down, you'd see what sort of uploading those above you were doing. The only thing you wouldn't know without a ton of leg work on your part (which should be enough to discourage lazy copiers) is who the various people were.

That sounds like a perfect solution to me. And I don't think anyone would have a problem with ads on the site, definitely think they should be making a quid!

Just to add a positive note to this thread....

I went full time in MS in March this year and so far have no complaints. However, I should add that there are a few prerequisites:

A sizeable investment in equipment
A solid business plan
Substantial savings to support yourself while you build your portfolio to the point where you make a reasonable income (for me this is around 2 years).
Lots of hard work!

I should also add that I live in Sydney, Australia where the cost of living is fairly high.

I started Micro as a hobby in 2007 and based on a few of years of results went full time this year.

I currently earn about 70% of my income from micro and based on my business plan should earn 100% by mid next year.

Making a living from microstock certainly isn't easy street, but then what is?

Not sure if anyone is still watching this thread, but just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their kind advice.

Been exclusive at istock for 4 months now and all is going very well. My RPI has increased by about 40% and the increased upload limits have allowed me to add to this income.

So once again, thanks to everyone!!!

Courtney

Quote from: Elenathewise on February 02, 2011, 16:47
Thank you all:)

Quote from: Anyka on February 02, 2011, 05:58
Congratulations!  I wish I had your courage to quit my job too!   How much have you diversified, or are you 100% stockphotography ?

100% stock photography. I haven't been even looking for clients. I am very happy with my lifestyle, sometimes I feel a bit isolated, but then there is Facebook:)

Hi again Elena, just wondering if you have made any inroads into the RM market, as I was thinking this may be a good idea also...

Thanks Leaf,

I was thinking about posting on Model Mayhem, but hadn't considered local camera clubs or discussion sites. Will definitely give that a try!!

Congratulations Elena!!

So nice to hear someone being positive about this industry!!

I am currently on the verge of taking the full time plunge myself and it so nice to hear from someone who is actually doing it! Makes me feel much more confident in my descision!

Thanks!!!

Quote from: Karimala on February 01, 2011, 03:40
I've met a lot of good folks through Meetups who will trade time for training.

Thanks Karmalina, I will definitely have a look into this.

Just wondering if anyone knows of a good site to find freelance photography assistants?

I am Sydney, Australia based and usually my wife gives me hand, but she is not always available.

Thanks

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on December 11, 2010, 02:16

Quote from: ceeker on December 08, 2010, 05:06
No problem, KB, got the humor.

Glad you like my stuff. Flattery is always welcome!!

Yes, very nice portfolio.

Thanks Paulie!

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on December 11, 2010, 02:12

Quote from: adijr on December 10, 2010, 22:19
First of all, hooray for you!

I was in a similar decision-situation in september- most of my income was coming from istock anyway. I became exclusive in September (my port is a whopping 18 files though. I know, I'm such a noob). Anyway, the result was a nice bump in earnings! For reference, the highest bar on the Graph (Nov 2010) is ~300$. Good luck with your decision!



P.s. I have a whopping 2682 credits . I'm not attempting to make the 12,500 mark

Pretty impressive sales performance. 18 files with 400 sales in a little over a year. This debunks any argument that you need to hit some magic number of uploads before starting to make sales.

Hi adjir,

Thanks so much for posting this info. What fantastic results! Definitely made me much more positive about my decision!  Unfortunately, I have to wait until next Feb to go exclusive due to lock ins with other agencies, but very much looking forward to it now. Thanks again! Keep up the good work!

Quote from: jsnover on December 08, 2010, 19:19

Quote from: ceeker on December 07, 2010, 21:48
I made $358 at Istock in November (Not a BME, but close, BME was actually October - $423) which represents about 60% of my income across 5 agencies (IS,SS,DT,FT,CS,DP)

I have had fairly steady growth at IS this year, having increased my port from 250 to 580 images.
As IS represents such a large chunk of my income, I am strongly considering going exclusive next year and have already dropped BS and Veer.
I am a little concerned now however as quite  few people seem to be experiencing a drop in IS income. Just wondering if any IS exclusives are seeing this trend also?

You have a lovely portfolio and with a bit more growth should see steady income from IS. What you need to look at before deciding on exclusive status is what your redeemed credits might be for 2011 (which will set your 2012 royalty rate).  Vetta, Agency and XXXL sizes all help boost those numbers and thus your royalty.

When I switched from independent to exclusive I was gold and thus went from 20% to 35%. This year has been excellent for me - partly the doubling of exclusive prices on XS, partly portfolio growth, partly price increase. Before the September announcements, I think I'd have said to wait until you could get to gold to go exclusive, but with the drop in IS income you'll see in January if you don't go exclusive (you'd drop to 16%?) and the percentage of your income from IS, taking the 25% and the huge risk might be a reasonable bet for you.

Thanks again everyone for the compliments!  

Hi js,

Thanks for the advice. Everyone is so helpful here! I hope I can return the favour sometime in the future!

Regarding the royalty rate, I am currently on 11433 credits (as of December 8th), so I am uploading like crazy in the hopes that I can squeeze out the last 1067 credits before the end of December which would make the move to exclusive much more attractive.

Unfortunately, my camera (D3) does not quite produce XXXL unless I res the files up which I am reluctant to do for fear of rejection! So I may need to invest in a D3x to get the larger file sizes.

No problem, KB, got the humor.

Glad you like my stuff. Flattery is always welcome!!

Thanks for your kind words KB and aeon! And your help and advice!

...even if a little backhanded KB 

Thanks KB,

That makes me feel much better about my decision!

Thanks Lisa, very enlightening, looks like a mixed bag but the majority seem to be doing OK.

KB, thanks so much for sharing your info.

my projections really only take into account the almost 100% price increase by moving to exclusive, so the 25% commision increase is a bonus, and any extra sales would be fantastic, but not really counting on that.

Thanks again guys

I made $358 at Istock in November (Not a BME, but close, BME was actually October - $423) which represents about 60% of my income across 5 agencies (IS,SS,DT,FT,CS,DP)

I have had fairly steady growth at IS this year, having increased my port from 250 to 580 images.
As IS represents such a large chunk of my income, I am strongly considering going exclusive next year and have already dropped BS and Veer.
I am a little concerned now however as quite  few people seem to be experiencing a drop in IS income. Just wondering if any IS exclusives are seeing this trend also?