Pixels Away

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for November 2008

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:48:52 -0700

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

Related posts:

Growth of My Microstock Portfolio in 7 Agencies: IS, SS, FT, DT, BSP, 123RF, SXP
Microstock Photography Earnings in 2008:
November | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
What Sells in Microstock? My List of Picture Bestsellers
How to Get Accepted by ShutterStock? Don't Give Up!
My microstock referral links for photographers:
Dreamstime, ShutterStock, BigStockPhoto, 123RF, FeaturePics.

Microstock Photography Earnings Report for October 2008

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:37:00 -0600

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:

$500 total earnings from Shutterstock in less than 8 months. It gave me the 33% raise for new downloads. SS took the lead last month.
$50 first payout from 123RF in 11 months. 123RF was not doing so great in October
$50 first payout from StockXpert in 6 months. The same performance as in September.

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:

Growth of My Microstock Portfolio in 7 Agencies: IS, SS, FT, DT, BSP, 123RF, SXP
Microstock Photography Earnings in 2008:
September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
What Sells in Microstock? My List of Picture Bestsellers
How to Get Accepted by ShutterStock? Don't Give Up!
My microstock referral links for photographers:
Dreamstime, ShutterStock, BigStockPhoto, 123RF, FeaturePics.

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

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:24:04 -0600

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:

Microstock Photography Earnings in 2008:
August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
My microstock referral links for photographers and other contributors:
Dreamstime, ShutterStock, BigStockPhoto, 123RF, FeaturePics.
What Sells in Microstock? My List of Picture Bestsellers
Growth of My Microstock Portfolio in 7 Agencies: IS, SS, FT, DT, BSP, 123RF, SXP