Microstock results for March 2009

Sales jumped up significantly to levels not seen since March 2008.  Istock has changed their search algorithm again and it seems to have helped me.  A big jump at stockxpert as well as I think they now license through an additional site.  All the others keep providing which is nice considering it over 18 months since I last contributed (literally all I do is check my earnings once a month to request payouts and write this blog (and I dont do this half the time)).

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:
14% shutterstock
12% dreamtime
19% Fotolia
14% istockphoto
3% bigstockphoto
6% 123RF
32% StockXpert
0% Featurepics


Previous 12 months results:

February 2009 Results
January 2009 Results
December 2008 Results
November 2008 Results
October 2008 Results
September 2008 Earnings
August 2008 Earnings
July 2008 Earnings
June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings

Microstock results for February 2009

Results were up a bit on the Dec/Jan low which is expected.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:
18% shutterstock
14% dreamtime
28% Fotolia
11% istockphoto
5% bigstockphoto
6% 123RF
18% StockXpert
0% Featurepics


Previous 12 months results:

January 2009 Results

December 2008 Results

November 2008 Results
October 2008 Results
September 2008 Earnings
August 2008 Earnings
July 2008 Earnings
June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings

Microstock results for January 2009

It has been a busy three months for me so a bit of a catchup post. Results were about the same as December so not great but better than nothing. 

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:
19% shutterstock
11% dreamtime
24% Fotolia
19% istockphoto
5% bigstockphoto
5% 123RF
17% StockXpert
0% Featurepics


Previous results for 2008:

December 2008 Results

November 2008 Results
October 2008 Results
September 2008 Earnings
August 2008 Earnings
July 2008 Earnings
June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock results for December 2008

Results were down for December which is expected due to the number of public holiday during the month.  Shutterstock slowed down majorly but istock was only down a little.  Fotolia actually increased.  I have started to here good things about Fotolia and it is definately one of the top earning sites now.  They do however seem to piss of their contributors regularly which changes, though iStock has a history of this as well.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:
16% shutterstock
12% dreamtime
18% Fotolia
23% istockphoto
2% bigstockphoto
7% 123RF
23% StockXpert
0% Featurepics

Dont forget to check out my other blog: http://cj-photography.blogspot.com/. I have been a bit quite there but hope to pick up the posts once I get into a routine for the new year.

Previous results for 2008:

November 2008 Results
October 2008 Results
September 2008 Earnings
August 2008 Earnings
July 2008 Earnings
June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock results for November 2008

I had quite a good month this month with a couple of EL sales at Shutterstock and a BME at Bigstock.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:
37% shutterstock
5% dreamtime
9% Fotolia
18% istockphoto
10% bigstockphoto
5% 123RF
16% StockXpert
0% Featurepics

Dont forget to check out my other blog: http://cj-photography.blogspot.com/

Previous results for 2008:

October 2008 Results
September 2008 Earnings
August 2008 Earnings
July 2008 Earnings
June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock results for October 2008

It was an interesting month – Getty (owner of istock) bought out Jupiter (owner of Stockxpert).  Fotolia changed its affilate program and didn’t tell anyone and StockXpert hasn’t being paying out on some sales (from affilate sites).

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

20% shutterstock
11% dreamtime

11% Fotolia
20% istockphoto
6% bigstockphoto
14% 123RF
18% StockXpert
0% Featurepics

Dont forget to check out my other blog: http://cj-photography.blogspot.com/

Previous results for 2008:

September 2008 Earnings

August 2008 Earnings

July 2008 Earnings

June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock results for September 2008

Another good result with constant results despite no uploads.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

28% shutterstock
7% dreamtime
9% Fotolia
14% istockphoto
5% bigstockphoto
17% 123RF
18% StockXpert
3% Featurepics

Dont forget to check out my other blog: http://cj-photography.blogspot.com/

Previous results for 2008:

August 2008 Earnings

July 2008 Earnings

June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock Photography results for August 2008

Not a bad month considering.  I was lucky with a couple of Extended licenses at Shutterstock and Fotolia , otherwise it could have been a disaster.  Shutterstock is trending down and I dont think this is just me.  My referrees are down about 50% this month on the average for 2008.  Other sites are ticking along nicely but slowly.  I really need to start editing photos and getting them online.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

26% shutterstock
10% dreamtime
14% Fotolia
17% istockphoto
5% bigstockphoto
9% 123RF
19% StockXpert
0% Featurepics

I have decided I am not doing this Blog proud.  I am not keeping up with market news.  If you want news about the microstock industry, the best source is on Lee Torrens Blog who is making a very good job of publicising what is happening in the Microstock world.  I will keep publishing my monthly results but my main focus will be on my personal blog and to get through the 10,000 photos I took on my last holiday (while keeping my day job).  So add my personal blog to your RSS feed - http://cj-photography.blogspot.com/- and have a look at Lee’s for Microstock news.

Previous results for 2008:

July 2008 Earnings

June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock photography results for July 2008

Sales picked up which is great as they had been going down for the past few months (total earnings up 25% this month).  I still haven’t got round to upload which is very disappointing.  I have some ready to upload and have another batch ready for editing.  StockXpert had a great month and iStock picked up a bit after a couple of disappointing months.  Shutterstock put in another solid effort but is still way of its highs.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

22% shutterstock
15% dreamtime
7% Fotolia
22% istockphoto
3% bigstockphoto
7% 123RF
23% StockXpert
1% Featurepics

Since I have been doing this for about 2 1/2 years now, I thought it would be interesting to see annual trends.  Ignoring the fact that I was constantly upload until about August 2007 ( I have uploaded very few since then), you can see that we have just gone though a slow patch and things should increase now till about November.  Most of my photos are travel shots (not a Christmas one amongst them) so my trends may be different to those which different photo mixes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previous results for 2008:

June 2008 Earnings
May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

Plagiarised photos

I found an interesting post at PDNpulse about Blog readers catch Plagerizing Photographer.

It was quite interesting as the readers of the blog identified that a photographer was copying photos taken by other photographers.  there was an uproar (maybe an overstatement) and the photographer has taken the photos down.

Makes you wonder about microstock.  Do a search for jumping fish and you will find photos taken by Yuri, G Cohen, khz, velychko, K Brown, mikdam, lisagagne (I stopped looking but I am sure there were more and that was only searching shutterstock and istock).  Did anyone notice two of the biggest names in microstock in that list. 

None of microstock versions that I linked to above are exact copies like the ones listed in blog above, but they are very close.  So how far can you go with derivative works?

    

Microstock Photography results for June 2008

Another slow month – slower than last month.  I uploaded about 10 photos at all sites which seemed to pick Shutterstock up but the rest are just falling into the mid year slow down.  Have got some more photos ready to upload so will see if I can get some more up in July.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

28% shutterstock
14% dreamtime
9% Fotolia
18% istockphoto
4% bigstockphoto
9% 123RF
16% StockXpert
2% Featurepics


Previous results for 2008:

May 2008 Earnings
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock’s main market don’t use photos

iStock commissioned a survey of small and medium businesses in the UK to determine how they use images in their marketing.  The key finding are:

• 27% of SMBs don’t use imagery in their business at all
• Of organisations who use imagery, 51% use imagery on their website, 40% use imagery in presentations, 31% use imagery in marketing & advertising collateral and 14% use imagery in the office interior design
• 71% of SMBs use photography more than other types of imagery
• The majority of SMBs, still go in-house to source images, with 59% taking photos with their own camera, compared with 40% using online stock photography and 31% commissioning photography

See here for more detail

New Article on Getty and iStock

As part of filings made with the SEC, Getty has had to disclose some information which it would normally keep secret. 

One interesting quote is:

"The introduction of microstock has significantly increased the availability and usage of stock imagery. The advent of affordable high-end digital cameras and broadband Internet access has enabled semi-professional and hobbyist photographers to greatly expand the supply of digital stock imagery, and low microstock prices have put stock images within reach of far more potential customers. The primary consequence of the introduction of microstock has been to open the creative stock imagery market to new segments of users. Small and medium-sized businesses represent a large customer segment for which stock imagery was previously too expensive. For example, a dental practice might now include a microstock image of a boy brushing his teeth on its mailers to patients, whereas before it might have only shown a drawing of a tooth and toothbrush (or perhaps just a message in formatted text) on its appointment reminders because of the relatively high cost of stock imagery. Microstock also enables traditional stock image users to cost-effectively use stock images for interim uses such as storyboarding, customer pitches and internal presentations. Previously these applications would have contained lower quality, freely available images, or hand-drawn sketches. Customer research suggests that approximately 40-50% of microstock demand is comprised of entirely new end-uses, such as those described above. As a result of the combination of new customer segments and new end uses, volumes of microstock images are 15-20x greater than traditional stills.

Another interesting part is a comparison of sales volume between Getty and iStock, the market leader of macrostock and microstock respectively:

More details at this article from pdn.

The filings at the SEC are found here.

The average American/Kiwi/Australian family

The NZ government put out a brochure today setting out the benefits of its latest budget.

It was discovered however that the picture used (left) was bought from from iStock. To me that isn’t a problem.  If the government decides to spend $20 for a photo rather than over $1,000 for a custom photoshoot that is a good idea.

The problem is that the photo is of an American family, not a New Zealand family.

To make matters worse for the NZ government, the photo has already been used by the Australian government to advertise their affordable homes program (right).

To things to take out of this:

1. the perfect stock photo is one that can be used in a variety of circumstances and by a variety of buyers.  This photo has been sold over 2,000 times and can be used in any western country.
2. microstock photography can create problems from a buyers perspective when the photo is recognisable in other peoples campaigns.

Link to article

[EDIT - it has even been used as an irish family]

Microstock photography results for May 2008

Another slow month. Earnings down again but still tracking ahead of last year. Interestingly, last year, sales dropped in the period from March to May and then rose month on month all the way through to October. It will be interesting to see if this happens again though it does look line the trend in 2007 was caused by no uploads during the March to May period followed by a couple of big upload sessions.

I could replicate this as I have a few shots ready for upload so it is just a matter of prioritising microstock which I haven't been doing since my big trip (Basically I have too many photos that I am just overwhelmed of where to start). Winter is here now so hopefully I will get some time to do it.

The other thing that is interesting is how different sites do better for no apparent reason. I have done nothing in the past year yet StockXpert had a great month last month and dreamtime had a great month this month. As long as each month a few sites do well, I dont complain if it isn't the same ones.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

15% shutterstock
21% dreamtime
9% Fotolia
27% istockphoto
6% bigstockphoto
8% 123RF
14% StockXpert
0% Featurepics


Previous results for 2008:
April 2008 Earnings
March 2008 Earnings
Feb 2008 Earnings
Jan 2008 Earnings

A problem with Royalty free - buyers perspective

Anyone see the problem with the two photographs?

That's right, two competing computer companies bought the same photo from Getty, doctored out the original computer and inserted their own low cost PC.

Even the photoshopping isn't that good. The arm of the kid on the left is blurry where they had to make up pixels, the computer int he photo on the right seems to hover in mid air. This is because the original photo featured a apple computer.

Note: this is not a "microstock" issue but an issue with royalty free photos in general as apparently the photo came from Getty, not its low cost son, iStock.

This is very similar to when Dell and Gateway sent the same girl back to school (different photo but from the same series with a model). More detail on royalty free vs rights managed here (with more examples of duplicates)

Original story

iStock - now waiting for my third flame.

The race may be over, but now the vine yard shot is a flame, so next in line is this shot of Rangitoto - a volcanic Island in the middle of the Hauraki Gulf, Auckland.

This shot was taken as I was going for a walk on the beach. It is the cloud formation that really took my fancy, how it was just hovering above Rangitoto, but the rest of the sky was bright blue.

Microstock photography results for April 2008

A bit down on last month as I didn't get any extended licenses sales but still averaging up after the slower Christmas period. It is coming into our winter know so I may be spending a bit more time in doors to get through my backlog of photos. This should pick up the earnings at shutterstock which always happens when I upload more.

Finally had my first flame at istockphoto which you can read about here.

Disappointing news is that Luckyoliver is closing its doors, and I am just shore of a payout. I cant use any of the credits I have, as they have locked all credits which they gave away for free. Not happy but as they say, nothing in life is free.

Good news is that StockXpert seems to be picking up. Hopefully this trend continues.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

17% shutterstock
11% dreamtime
6% Fotolia
19% istockphoto
9% bigstockphoto
5% 123RF
28% StockXpert
4% Featurepics


Previous results for 2008:

March 2008 Earnings

Feb 2008 Earnings

Jan 2008 Earnings

We have a winner - race for my first flame

As a follow up to my previous post, we have a winner for the race to my first flame. And the winner is ......


the picture of the morrocan entrance.

By way of comparison, the morocan entrance is also my top seller at Shuterstock with 149 sales. The vineyard shot isn't even in the top 20 but a similar shot (shot in landscape rather than portrait about 10 seconds apart) is my 4th top seller at shutterstock with just over 90 sales.

Article on iStock

An interetting article from the British Journal of Photography. It talks briefly about what istockphoto earns, the top earners and what the "average" contributor can expect. Extract below or click the link above for the full article:

[ istockphoto has] 4000 contributors, and if that figure remained even, they would be earning an average more like $5225 last year. Then you have to calculate that against the costs of the shoots, factoring in how many images you need to hit a premium and how often you need to refresh your portfolio. Lee Torrens, who runs a blog called Microstock Diaries, calculates that each of his images at iStockphoto generates just 30 cents a year. Compared against nine other micro-stock agencies he has images with, iStockphoto paid the best return. The worst, CanStockPhoto, delivered just one cent per image.