Mon - December 1, 2008

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for November 2008



microstock photography earnings November 2008

My first 12 months with microstock photography! I will be writing more about my experience, achieved goals and what I have learned, but for now I am just posting my regular earnings report.

My average portfolio grew up in November from 466 to 546 pictures (17% increase) and my total earnings went up by 16%. I calculate size of portfolio for reporting purposes as an average from 7 agencies where I have any sales. This average portfolio is dragged down by Fotolia with notriously low acceptance rate (50% or lower).

I have 3 agencies (SS, DT, BSP) going up in November and 4 going down (IS, FT, SXP, 123RF). The earnings from the last 4 sites went down by 17% despite of the downloads number going up by 4%. Much more sales in small and X-small sizes, especially, at iStock. No ELs in November.

The following 4 agencies provide 88% of my microstock income:

1. Shutterstock. 100 new pictures added, downloads - 14% up, earnings - 42% up.

2. iStock. 36 new pictures added, downloads - 7% down, earnings - 16.5% down.

3. Dreamstime. 93 new pictures added, downloads - 36% up, earnings - 23% up.

4. BigStockPhoto. 90 new pictures added, downloads - 83% up, earnings - 160%

November was a good month in receiving actual payments from microstock agencies. I got my first payments from SXP and 123RF.

agency portfolio size downloads (EL) earnings % earnings

Shutterstock

649 386 $134.71 45.8%

iStock

450 68 $61.68 21.0%

DreamsTime

522 38 $38.09 13.00%

Fotolia

404 18 $15.22 5.2%

StockXpert

622 25 12.90 4.4%

123rf

612 11 $7.78 2.7%

Big Stock Photo

569 22 $23.5 8.0%
546
average
503
total
$293.88
total

Some other bloggers are reporting monthly earnings from microstock:

Microstock Diaries ... Microstock Experiment ... NiltoMil ... jrtb ...
Driftless Ramblings ... bankizdjec.pl ...

Anybody else?

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime Stock Photography Community

Related posts:



Fri - October 31, 2008

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for October 2008



microstock photography earnings October 2008

I was really busy with shooting and contributing to microstock portfolio in October. My average portfolio grew up from 392 pictures in September to 466 (18.8% increase): 62 new pictures in iStock, 98 in Shutterstock, 70 in Dreamstime. However, my total earnings with 503 downloaded pictures ($0.54 per picture) went up only 12.5% in comparison to September. No ELs in October.

I reached several milestones in October:

iStock performance was fantastic in October, but ... only for the first 3 weeks. The last week went almost without sales. Overall earnings were slightly higher than in the previous month, but I am concerned about the future of my IS portfolio.

I got a very nice growth of earnings from Dreamstime which clearly took the #3 position. SS, IS, and DT provided 79% of my microstock earnings.

It was not so bad month for Fotolia despite the fact that I managed to add there just half of my pictures accepted by SS.

There were no more sales in Featurepics despite my efforts to promote that portfolio across my blogs, e.g, Old Wooden Scoop ... or Bent Shaft Paddle and Outrigger Canoe.

agency portfolio size downloads (EL) earnings % earnings

Shutterstock

549 336 $94.48 37.4%

iStock

414 73 $73.88 29.3%

DreamsTime

429 28 $31.02 12.3%

Fotolia

359 22 $18.63 7.4%

StockXpert

522 21 15.20 6.0%

123rf

508 11 $10.33 4.1%

Big Stock Photo

479 12 $9.00 3.6%

Featurepics

507 0 $0.00
466
average
503
total
$252.54
total

I am getting close to one year in microstock phtoography. I will be posting more analysis of my portfolio and efforts trying to figure out: Can I make any real money from microstock?

Some other bloggers are reporting monthly earnings from microstock:

Microstock Diaries ... Microstock Experiment ... NiltoMil ... jrtb ...
Driftless Ramblings ... bankizdjec.pl ...

Anybody else?

Related posts:



5 Months and a Scoop of Muesli to Reach First Payment from StockXpert



StockXpert portfolio - pepita papaya muesli In my previous post I presented the scoop project in my microstock photography. It happens that one of these pictures, a scoop of my favorite cereal, pepita-papaya muesli, just helped me to reach the first $50 payment from StockXpert.

I had a late start with StockXpert and started to sell pictures in that microstock site in May. This is what I wrote in my April 2008 earnings report:

A few days ago I got accepted by StockXpert after 4 failed applications "At the moment we are not looking for pictures as the ones you uploaded". I got tired with typing my bio and info over and over again. So, I just wrote "please visit my website to see my photography and microstock earnings." Maybe, that worked, because I didn't really change my pictures.
In September, StockXpert provided 6.7% of my earnings with 417 picture portfolio. Earnings in October are staying at the same level.

Related posts:



Sun - October 26, 2008

My Photography is Dominated by Microstock ...



It seems that my photography is dominated by microstock lately. Certainly, this blog is.

word cloud

I was just playing around on the Wordle.net website. It’s an online tool that creates word clouds from any text provided by you. There are several option to try: different colors, word orientation, shapes, etc. Just a little fun online.

I entered the text of my posts in this blog from recent months. You can see the resulting word tree above.

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime Stock Photography Community



Microstock Earnings Milestones: $500 from Shutterstock, and ... $50 from 123RF

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for September 2008

500 Downloads from iStock - River Dam Spillway in the Big Thompson Canyon

Speedlinking for Microstock Photography, September 25, 2008

iStock Earnings and 7 Best Selling Pictures in My Microstock Portfolio

Speedlinking for Microstock Photography, September 18, 2008

9 Months and Some Sunflower Seeds to Reach Payment from Dreamstime

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for August 2008

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for July 2008

Growth of My Microstock Portfolio in 7 Agencies: IS, SS, FT, DT, BSP, 123RF, SXP

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for June 2008

Reaching the First Big Stock Photo Payment with the Horse Abstract Picture

Reaching the First Fotolia Payment with the Idylwidle Dam Picture

Reaching 250 Downloads from iStock with the Devil's Backbone Picture

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for May 2008