I'm an iStock exclusive, in February I earned about $1.90 per download on average. That is total amount earned, divided by total number of sales.

I'm curious about what other people's average per download is, especially those who sell on several sites. I was reading on one of the other threads here about someone that sells 25,000 images per month and my first thought was - wow that is a huge number, then my next thought was, I wonder what their average per download was?

Is it possible to see the download history of individual files on iStockphoto.com or on the ESP on Gettyimages.com.

Right now I can see the downloads on the monthly tab on the Getty ESP, but I have no idea how a file is doing over time. I clicked around iStockphoto.com today and on esp.gettyimages.com and I did see where I can find this data for sales over time of a particular file.

Does anyone understand why Shutterstock's stock (SSTK) has surged 13% today, 31% in the last 30 days, 44% in the last 3 months?

I have some Shutterstock shares and have made a nice small profit. I'm trying to understand why Shutterstock is still doing really well, or even better than before, despite the entrance of Adobe stock.

Are there any generic tips on finding locations to shoot city skylines? I've got 3 weeks to drive around Europe later this month. From past trips around the USA, I sort of worked out that if the city is costal, then getting on the river boats is a great way to shoot the city skyline. Sometimes I just look at google maps and have a guess where to go. Sometimes the city will have a tall building with an observatory. Sometimes I'll just Google it.

In the other poll (http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/poll-earning-per-photo-per-year/new/#new) I did recently I saw all these people that were making more money per file per year than me and so I started wondering just how much gross income did other people make last year, 2015?

For those of you who shoot people, in particular those who shoot one gender at a time. Which gender do you find sells better overall, regardless of the theme of the photo.

In my experience I find the men typically outsell women, year after year. Though my best seller of all time is a female. I find women around 18-20 years of age to be typically the lowest selling.

Does isolated on white video sell much? I'm not a video guy and don't know how do shoot video nor have any constant video lights. I do know how to shoot isolated on white photos. Those are easy, and I sell enough to make it worth my while. I've resisted doing learning to shoot videos because I just have so little knowledge, that I've always thought my time is better spent taking photos. The reason I'm asking now is because a friend of mine wants to come to my studio to shoot video on white. I told him I don't know how to do it and it will likely turn out kind of ugly looking but since he is my friend, I'm willing to spend a little time for him if he really wants to come do it at my space. Another video friend of mine explained that shooting video on white is similar to shooting photos on white. The back lights need to be brighter than the front lights on the model, and that this is usually a 6 light setup.

Anyway I'm asking now if isolated on white video sell much because it seems like I maybe learning how to shoot isolated on white video by default. I would be shooting people doing all the usual stocky looking things.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/istockphoto.com

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/shutterstock.com

Looks like in October both sites took a huge dive in web traffic ranking. Does any one have any theory on why this is? Also is there some way to see some educated guess on how many visitors each site gets? It looks like Shutterstock is visited a lot more than iStock by a long shot.

On an unrelated note. Does anyone know if customers who buy the cheaper subscription package on iStock, are they denied the ability to get any exclusive images, other than buying it with credits? I'm exclusive and I'm just wondering if I'm locked out from those customers.

I wonder what people's rough guess of their net return per $ for each hour of work is? Say over a 18 month period. Be it on all the sites or as istock exclusive. I wonder if this might be the equalizer between someone who shoots fruits on white background versus someone who does extensive and highly technical composites. I picked 18 months because that is what I've read previously some where that some have speculated that is the typical life of each image in the search engine before it is mostly forgotten by the search engine.

Stock is mostly my only income. It was more difficult to work out what my hourly earn might be because there were so many variables.

I spent a lot of time doing prep work that is used across multiple shoots. I spend a lot of time doing R&D. I spent a lot of time building sets. I've spent a lot of money on studio lighting. I spend money on models. I have an assistant who helps me. I spend a lot of time working out how to do more with less time.

At this point, most of the heavy one time spending for my photographic needs are done. Most of the set building are done. So the cost of doing each shoot drops when I don't count all these costs anymore. I do cash based accounting. So I only count it when the money enters or leaves my pocket and not when they are actually earned, nor do I spread out costs over it's expected life time. Though when averaged over 18 months, I don't think it matters what type of accounting one does.

My net income before taxes is probably between $25-$40 for each hour that I work over a 18 month period. This is a very rough guess. And could be possibly wildly inaccurate.

EDIT: I do out source keywording, so that saves time. And since I have an assistant who helps me during shoots, the shoots moves much faster and smoother than if it was just me alone. So some of these variables complicate the calculation of what 1 hour of work actually really means.