Author Topic: When is an image a bestseller? (Read 5042 times)

Mactrunk · « **on:** May 03, 2013, 13:29 »

I was looking at Shutterstock best selling images. But how many sales do those images get per week or day? Some of my images sell 7 to 10 times a week and for me I call that a best seller. They just keep selling and generating constant income but how do they compare to the competitions bestsellers?

How many times a week or day do your bestsellers sell? I really like to know how far an image can go and what is a bestseller for you.

steheap · « **Reply #1 on:** May 03, 2013, 13:33 »

My best seller gets about 2-4 downloads a day - maybe 15 - 20 a week. It is hard to see without counting each day.

Steve

daveh900 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 03, 2013, 13:36 »

I had seen someone post at one time that an image on the best selling list is probably selling 15+ times a day. I have no idea how accurate that is.

Poncke v2 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 03, 2013, 16:11 »

My best sellers are the ones that sell best/most regardless of how much per day or month. Just the ones with the most downloads. I only have a few.

VB inc · « **Reply #4 on:** May 03, 2013, 17:00 »

So far my best sellers are selling 3-6 times a day. This would be interesting figures for people to comment on.

Sedge · « **Reply #5 on:** May 03, 2013, 18:13 »

My two best sellers have sold for a combined total of 65 downloads on SS since Monday. Their sales were a little slower than usual over the past five days, but overall sales on SS have been good this week. Both of these images have been on Shutterstock's "Top-Selling Images of the Week" list back when they had separate categories for Photographs and Illustrations. Neither image has been on the list since the merger.

Also, both images have had very good to excellent sales on other sites, except Fotolia. Yep, good 'ole Fotolia rejected both of them!

morning.light · « **Reply #6 on:** May 03, 2013, 19:18 »

Mine gets 1-2 downloads everyday, even 4 sometimes. It was accepted at the end of March and sold 34 times until now.

tab62 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 03, 2013, 20:43 »

I guess I don't have any bestsellers since I don't get total combination of what most of you are getting from a single image

wordplanet · « **Reply #8 on:** May 04, 2013, 00:51 »

The image that has earned me the most on SS has been downloaded a total of 178 times on SS (including quite a few ELs). That single image is not just my best seller on SS but when I add up sales from everywhere, it has earned me the most of any single photo. It gets downloaded several days a week, often twice a day, ranging from 4-8x/wk; the most downloads it had in one day was 4, including 2 ELs. It's a travel photo.

The image with the most dls has 216 downloads from SS, but with no ELs it has earned about one-third of what the other one has. It's a texture I designed using various photos of mine in combination with different blending modes. I use it a lot myself when I do vintage stuff, so I'm not surprised it sells often (to my way of thinking), also usually about 4-8 dls/wk. There are a lot of similar ones on SS though, including one that's always in the top 50, so I think mine got into the game too late, but at least the craze for vintage textures is still going.

Neither of these have ever been in the top images, but since they are all photos, not vectors, I'm not surprised since vectors seem to do much better and neither of these images are very unusual. I put my more unique stuff on Alamy. Most of my portfolio is RM but SS gives me a much better RPI so I'll probably add some new stuff soon.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #9 on:** May 04, 2013, 01:31 »

I would call an image a bestseller if it returns more than $1,000 in royalties. On Shutterstock, I'm only $920 short of that for my best earning file.

modviz · « **Reply #10 on:** May 04, 2013, 07:26 »

I'd define a bestseller as "an image that stays consistently on the top of the front page for an extended period of time". I only have one but it's more than a year old, sells every day, and has sat on Shutterstock's front search page since day one. Over the course of a year its' sold about 300 times. There are all kinds of "bestseller" categories: All time best seller, personal best seller, best seller in its' category, etc.

VB inc · « **Reply #11 on:** May 04, 2013, 08:14 »

Quote from: modviz on May 04, 2013, 07:26

I'd define a bestseller as "an image that stays consistently on the top of the front page for an extended period of time". I only have one but it's more than a year old, sells every day, and has sat on Shutterstock's front search page since day one. Over the course of a year its' sold about 300 times. There are all kinds of "bestseller" categories: All time best seller, personal best seller, best seller in its' category, etc.

That's good to know that files that sell well have longevity. Could it be possible that a file can stay at the top of the search for a really long time or does age play a factor.

modviz · « **Reply #12 on:** May 04, 2013, 08:26 »

In this case, no, age doesn't play a factor. I should also note that this particular image is with three other agencies and sell very infrequently! So creating a "bestseller" maybe more than composition, subject matter, technical and creative aspects. Partnering with the right agency may also factor into it.

MisterElements · « **Reply #13 on:** May 04, 2013, 10:37 »

I really don't have any best sellers on SS in recent years.......Now in the last year on FT I have files that have sold hundreds of times each pushing ahead from the pack in my port. Oddly this does not happen any longer for me on SS.

SS is like rolling dice for me now.

dhanford · « **Reply #14 on:** May 04, 2013, 10:39 »

For me and my relatively small vector port, I consider files that have earned over $500 and still get sales, my better sellers. I do have a few the have more sales, but the image is simple, so worth less money per download.

OM · « **Reply #15 on:** May 05, 2013, 10:24 »

Don't bother looking at "Most popular images This Week" page on SS as I don't think that it is updated with any regularity. Top of the week list still includes various Valentines Day themes! Also, top of the list is always a SS free photo/vector.
Similarly at FT their best seller of the day/week etc is just rubbish. You can have a new photo which takes off there and sells 10 times in the first week but you'll probably not find it on the best seller list for the week. Instead you will find new files that sold one or twice and loads of other files that seem to come from FT selectors' favourite contributors.

I have an image on both FT and SS that has sold more than 300 times since October/November 2012 on SS and 84 times on FT. Never seen it on any best seller list but I suspect to get on that SS list you need to sell 50+/week (if that list is actually updated regularly).

sfmthd · « **Reply #16 on:** May 05, 2013, 17:51 »

i have a few images that sell 5 or 6 times a day and have done so for years and they've never touched the best seller list that i've seen. i'm guessing it takes more like 30 or 40 downloads a day.

Sedge · « **Reply #17 on:** May 05, 2013, 22:52 »

The last few posts made me curious about the weekly download stats for my best-selling image when it made it onto Shutterstock's list of the "Top 50 Images this Week." So I did a little research with some very surprising results. On May 6, 2011 (a Friday), my best-selling image make it to the 10th position on the list. This was back when you could filter the list, choosing either photographs or illustrations (wish SS still had that option). My image was originally uploaded and accepted on January 15, 2011.

I went back and checked my download stats for the previous week, 4/25/11 to 5/1/11. Surprisingly, my image hadn't been downloaded nearly as much as I'd expected, with the total for that week at only 50 downloads. I checked other weekly date ranges before and after May 6th with little statistical variation. A bit of a surprise, wouldn't you agree?

Obviously, it's much more difficult to get an image onto Shutterstock's Top 50 Image list today, especially now that the two lists have been consolidated. My image is selling at least at the same rate as two years ago, with no sign of it getting back onto the list. So if I had to guess, I'd say it would take 15 to 30 downloads a day to get on that Top 50 list, or perhaps more as has been suggested in other posts. Right now I'm just happy that my image continues to sell on a daily basis.

tickstock · « **Reply #18 on:** May 05, 2013, 22:55 »

Sedge · « **Reply #19 on:** May 05, 2013, 23:00 »

That sounds like a plausible average. How did you find that information or figure it out?

tickstock · « **Reply #20 on:** May 05, 2013, 23:04 »

Sedge · « **Reply #21 on:** May 05, 2013, 23:08 »

Intriguing; thanks for the link.

Poncke v2 · « **Reply #22 on:** May 06, 2013, 04:56 »

Quote from: tickstock on May 05, 2013, 23:04

http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/2013/02/infographic-shutterstocks-global-design-trends-2013/
It assumes that the file was up for the whole year or else the average would be a bit higher but no photo up for the whole year averaged more than 11 dls per day.

Thanks for that link

DrC · « **Reply #23 on:** May 06, 2013, 12:11 »

Throughout the years I had a few images in the weekly top 50 but that was when we could choose photos or vectors only. Those images had to sell from 8 to 12 (+-) times a day for at least a week to appear in there. Now it is much more difficult...

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Author Topic: When is an image a bestseller? (Read 5042 times)

Mactrunk

steheap

daveh900

Poncke v2

VB inc

Sedge

morning.light

tab62

wordplanet

MichaelJayFoto

modviz

VB inc

modviz

MisterElements

dhanford

OM

sfmthd

Sedge

tickstock

Sedge

tickstock

Sedge

Poncke v2

DrC

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