RPI is a big topic in microstock analytics, so let me chip into the discussion :-)

For us, RPI/m is one of the most important metrics because it is great at comparing one set of images against another. For instance, if you want to know whether your cat images sell better than your dog images, you would compare the RPI/m of both sets of images.

Imagine cats brings you $2 per month per image and dogs brings you $3. That clearly indicates that dog pictures outsell cat pictures and you should produce more dog pictures. (Sorry if anybody here is a big fan of cats ;-)  )

The nice thing of RPI/m or RPI/yr is that it normalises the value and facilitates comparison. If you only compared general RPI then you would not be able to compare two sets of images, therefore general RPI is of limited use. We prefer measuring overall return on investment instead of general RPI.

Use RPI/m to identify your strongest themes and produce more of those! It should help you increase your revenue.

We once wrote a glossary to help make these terms understandable. Feel free to have a read here: https://www.stockperformer.com/glossary

hope that helps!
Luis

We just added support for 123RF. With this addition, Stock Performer now supports all big 5 and is able to provide you with up-to-date charts and metrics to see and analyse your data in various ways.

https://www.stockperformer.com

Enjoy! :-)
Luis

@ShadySue: that's a good point. Offering a more niche product will allow you to push higher prices through.

But since it is not always possible to objectively identify whether an image has or has no competition, or whether it is niche or not, the suggestion is to base the decision on an easier to measure metric: revenue per sale. That's whether a file usually sells in large size or in small size. If it usually sells large, then you know that the file targets bigger budget customers which could cope with a price increase.

By using that method, you can focus on the numbers you have, which are measurable, and ignore all other aspects which are difficult to measure. Obviously, there is no 100% certain strategy, but I believe revenue per sale is quite a close and objective metric for this decision.

@jsnover: you are right that E+ is riskier than P+, since the price increase is very steep. But that should not put anyone off putting the files with best chances in those collections :-)

Thanks for the post and your interest in Stock Performer! We have sent out invites to all people who have requested one, but have had issues with our invites landing in the Spam folder. I assume this might have happened in your case.

Send me a message to [email protected] and I'll make sure you get your access code.

Thanks for your patience, and let me know if there is anything else I can do
Luis