Maybe the difference is the number of sales?

Bingo!!!

In terms of percentage? How much?

For me: I earn ten (10) times more than DT !!!

For me, lifetime earnings on SS are 5.8 times more than on DT and it is probably higher recently.

If you divide 86.4 to 14.1 (from poll results) => 6.12 

My all time earnings on SS are 6,8x higher then those on DT.

Whatever gave you this idea in the first place?  they are simply worlds apart. DT used to be a good earner but nowadays they are just pushing subs and any credit sales are almost extinct.

I don't know my ratio but I am with both agencies since 2007 and DT have never, not even once been close to SS.

My total earnings in SS are 32x higher than DT. Needless to say, I dropped DT last year.

Quote from: canbedone on September 04, 2015, 07:19

In terms of percentage? How much?

For me: I earn ten (10) times more than DT !!!

Out if my 2015 total:
49% comes from SS
3% comes from DT

See my pie.

The bottom line on how SS sales can beat DT is that it isn't just subscriptions. On Demand and Single and other Download sales pay at much higher rates (and more so as you climb the SS earnings tiers). I still regularly get Extended Licenses at SS but can't remember the last time I did at DT.

It varies month to month, but I now see about 40% of my monthly earnings at SS come from subscriptions - the other 60% is all the other higher paying items.

I think DT is in some sort of downward spiral - they can't effectively compete and their quirky approach to pricing just hasn't worked with buyers. I earned more from them back when they paid a straight 50% and had a single tier of pricing.

if you're a dog person, as much as ss is down in the dumps since they went public,
ss was a st bernard before that,
now a mutt.
but compared to dt, which is more like a corgi...
no, correction, an ant (which is i know not a canine, but i can't find any canine
the size of an ant from google)

I know a girl with a 1.5 lb. Mini chihuahua she carries in her purse (hope that thing is house trained good!).  Not as small as a ant, but the best dog example for DT sales. 

I've always had good search placement in the searches at DT so my lifetime (about10 years) earnings are only about 50% more at SS and most of that lead has been gained in the last couple of years.  Nowadays I make between 4 and 5 times more at SS than I do at DT.

The pattern is all the same no matter which stock model. The same thing is happening right across the board. Getty is a classic example of this. Some fifteen years back one often had sales-advices of a five figure caliber, today its pot luck if its around a four figure amount.

SS and the rest is just following the trend of slowly coming down to smaller earnings. The hype is gone, most quality have vanished and given way to quantity and I bet every one of the larger micro's have internal problems, old people leaving replaced by new and without experience, cutting wages and so on.

Its all become a shakey and edgy business. What amazes me more then anything is not at all the drop in earnings or anything money related but the complete ignorance of the people in charge. Slowly killing the business and in a few years they, themselves might be out of a high-flying job.

DT doesn't compare to SS or, much as I hate to say it, IS.  I find that, even though volumes are lower, $ value is generally better than FT or 123 which are more appropriate sites with which to compare.

SS used to be so consistent for me - now it's as inconsistent as DT has always been, and DT has beat SS a few times this year - and not just last month when I got some high credit sales including one that earned me $375 - my highest single sale on SS earned me $80. I have about 50% more images on SS than on DT but I still get a decent number of credit sales on DT. This month DT is earning me twice as much as SS thanks to credit sales but we're only 1/3rd of the way through the month and so far I'm below average on both.
Honestly, I've nearly always beat the DT Earnings rating here (I know that means I need to earn 3x what the earnings show) despite having only a tad more than 200 photos, thanks to having many level 4 and 5 images and a handful of exclusive images that consistently do well for me.
My total revenue over the years is still higher on SS than on DT thanks to past consistency over the years and a larger portfolio, but for me, DT still beats out iS and Fotolio on RPI and is generally a strong number 2 for the micros. DT sells a lot of travel and abstract background images for me, which are overall the strengths in my portfolio. Other than slow months in June and July, DT has been decent this year - I'm not rushing to upload new content since I'm really concentrating my efforts on traditional stock, but it's been okay. Usually my #2 micro and occasionally #1.

With a small port like mine, a few high priced ELs/SODs on either site or even several higher credit sales on DT can skew things toward one site or the other - for me a $200-400 month on either site is close to or a BME so it's easier for the two sites to be closer than if I had a few thousand images and $1000+ in monthly earnings at each site. My monthly earnings at SS are down by about $30-40 a month - not by $600 like yours.

weymouth, I know what you're saying, direct licenses from my site and even a couple of high-value licenses via Alamy can earn me much more than 60+ DLs on SS - but until recently that was less predictable than SS.

I just rejoined FT a few months ago and am earning more there with a handful of files than I did in the past. I plan to upload the rest of my microstock portfolio there over the winter and have also started uploading some iPhone photos there via the Fotolia Instant app. The stock photography market keeps changing - I just wish I'd built up my portfolio back in 2008-2011 when the money was good but I was just dabbling. Adobe seems to be aggressively marketing Fotolia - it pops up every time I open Photoshop and their ads are all over the internet, so it certainly seems like a good place to focus my energy in terms of my microstock portfolio - but I'm also a firm believer that a strong midstock/macrostock presence is needed these days, and my direct licensing efforts have paid off far more significantly than anything else for me.

I'm curious, is your 25% increase at Fotolia due to adding a lot more files or has it just grown due to Adobe taking over?

weymouth, I know what you're saying, direct licenses from my site and even a couple of high-value licenses via Alamy can earn me much more than 60+ DLs on SS - but until recently that was less predictable than SS.

I just rejoined FT a few months ago and am earning more there with a handful of files than I did in the past. I plan to upload the rest of my microstock portfolio there over the winter and have also started uploading some iPhone photos there via the Fotolia Instant app. The stock photography market keeps changing - I just wish I'd built up my portfolio back in 2008-2011 when the money was good but I was just dabbling. Adobe seems to be aggressively marketing Fotolia - it pops up every time I open Photoshop and their ads are all over the internet, so it certainly seems like a good place to focus my energy in terms of my microstock portfolio - but I'm also a firm believer that a strong midstock/macrostock presence is needed these days, and my direct licensing efforts have paid off far more significantly than anything else for me.

I'm curious, is your 25% increase at Fotolia due to adding a lot more files or has it just grown due to Adobe taking over?

With Adobe/FT I keep uloading steady, not too much but around lets say, 30-40 files per month but my material is extremely niched and perhaps thats one reason they are selling well, especially at Adobe/FT, among the micros that is.
SS is still producing good earnings but they are going down, in fact the agency is slowly going downhill, old people gone replaced by new and without any experience. Its turned to nothing but a subs agency and thats really sad.

Yes if I were you, I would invest heavy and upload as much as I can to Adobe. I don't favorise any agency but so far, they are the agency that is getting it right. Time will tell.

FT is on fire for me. has been for 2 months, Maybe more. actually exciting and a fresh feeling.