I was wondering if I could get an opinion from you veteran microshooters out there. Your best selling images on SS, do they  usually start off with an obvious spike in sales and continue along being generally high in sales or do they have a much longer longevity than the average image where they never really soar but never die off either, always giving you a sale here and there?

I'm not a veteran, but I do pull about $150 per month from Shutterstock these days. I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

I'll throw some pure statistics at you, as it is easier than trying to put it into words.

My best selling Shutterstock image sold like this:

1.  20 sales Week 1
2.  20 sales Week 2
3.  12 sales Week 3
4.  7 sales Week 4

I thought it was dying off, but for the last 2 months, it has reliably delivered 7 to 10 sales per week.  So Weeks 3 and 4 seemed to be most telling of its future.

Here's an example of a more modest success, but a steady seller nonetheless:

1.  10 sales Week 1
2.  8 sales Week 2
3.  7 sales Week 3
4.  1 sale Week 4

Despite a lousy week 4, this image fluctuates between 3 and 8 sales per week.  It has been doing so for 4 months.

An even slower selling example, yet a slow and steady seller to this day:

1.  17 sales Week 1
2.  4 sales Week 2
3.  4 sales Week 3
4.  4 sales Week 4

For the last 2 months it has been getting 2 to 5 sales per week.  It hasn't died, and it maintains its search position.  This is an example of not getting too caught up with Week 1.  It sure looked promising, but alas it was not meant to be a big seller.

As you can tell, I'm a bit of a stat freak.  I track way too much, but I figured it might be useful info to somebody someday. 

You won't get rich on sales like these, but if you can slowly build a library of long term steady sellers, Shutterstock can provide some mighty returns.

Click "By subscription download" on your download stats page.

Hello Dan,

I been scrolling the detailled earnings of SS also try to find some meaningful metrics. I ve calculated a batch RPI whcih give me a good picture of the lifetime of a batch of pictures you upload every month.
It is a pain to calculate but I had interesting results.
I still have to put some graphs to illustrate all of that. There is a draft on my blog .
This month otherwise is poor on EL and mid stock sales so I don t think I will go over the projected $ 400 target 
SS and IS are doing well so far , about 70 % of earnings
what about you ?