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

LuckyOliver to close its doors

It looks like Luckyoliver will be closing its doors. This is a shame as this is one of the newer agencies that was trying to do something slightly different, breaking the mould, experimenting, and having fun while doing it. Appologies for anyone I referred but I had high hopes for these guys

If anyone has spare credits that they wont be using, feel free to use them on my photos - http://www.luckyoliver.com/portfolio/CJPhoto - I will repay the favour (contact me by commment - if it is a private message, I wont publish it).

A short extract from their press release:

It's with great disappointment that we have decided to shut down LuckyOliver on May 15th. All Olivers who purchased tokens must use them to license images before May 15th, 2008. Please note that the user agreement will continue to be valid. Any Carny images that are waiting in the queue for Bouncers will not be reviewed. Carnies who have reached the minimum payout must request payout by May 15th. Carnies who have not reached the minimum payout can convert their earnings to tokens by contacting support.

Microstock photography results for March 2008

Sales are up this month and getting back to the highs of last year. However, this was due to a few Extended License sales at shutterstock which helped out alot. A disappointing month at a few sites, istockphoto especially which had been a top earner in the new year and I had great hopes for sales to surge forward in 2008.

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

25% shutterstock
17% dreamtime
3% Fotolia
11% istockphoto
9% bigstockphoto
5% 123RF
17% StockXpert
1% Featurepics
2% LuckyOliver

Previous results for 2008:

Feb 2008 Earnings

Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock photography results for Feb 2008

Well it has been another month on non-action on my part at the micro sites, the reason (a relatively lame one) is that the Hard disk on my laptop is overflowing and my external harddrives are safely stored at my parents house.

Sales are up slight on last month, another great month of passive earnings. With the increase in payouts at shutterstock expected in May, and more photos that are ready to be edited, hopefully I will be able to increase my earnings once I actually start putting some work into microstock again.

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

20% shutterstock
15% dreamtime
8% Fotolia
23% istockphoto
6% bigstockphoto
12% 123RF
14% StockXpert
1% Featurepics
1% LuckyOliver

Previous results for 2008:
Jan 2008 Earnings

Microstock photography results for Janurary

Sorry about the no updates in January but I am struggling with incredibly slow internet. I move into my new place later this month and will hopefully be able to get full speed broadband (no guarantees though).

Anyway, January was slow as expected but slightly up on December. If previous years are anything to go by, sales should increase through to March/April, then slow down abit and then take off for the later part of the year only slowing down for December.

I also have some photos to upload which should kickstart my shutterstock earnings.

So January was slow but istockphoto had a great month. Hopefully they will keep going up from this good base. dreamtime and StockXpert were also quite strong.

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

20% shutterstock
16% dreamtime
4% Fotolia
29% istockphoto
2% bigstockphoto
8% 123RF
20% StockXpert
2% Featurepics
0% LuckyOliver

December Microstock Results

A combination of the Christmas holidays and a lack of Christmas photos has resulted in my worst month Janurary. As I have been away I haven't been in contact with others but I assume it is common for a drop off to be felt during the Christmas period. It will be interesting to see what happens in Janurary.

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

24% shutterstock
16% dreamtime
8% Fotolia
18% istockphoto
5% bigstockphoto
10% 123RF
18% StockXpert
2% Featurepics
0% LuckyOliver

Hopefully over the next few months I will start uploading photos again. I have noticed shutterstock has dropped of a bit which is a common occurance since new photos tend to feature higher in search ratings.

November Microstock Results

Earnings are a bit down on last months best ever earnings but I did have best ever months (BEM) for StockXpert and dreamtime . I dont have any Christmas style photos so a drop off is expected.

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

18% shutterstock
16% dreamtime BEM
10% Fotolia
18% istockphoto
5% bigstockphoto
8% 123RF
24% StockXpert BEM
1% Featurepics
0% LuckyOliver

With the Christmas holidays over the next couple of months, I am expecting a big drop off in earnings.

Microstock Photography results for October

I am still travelling so still haven't had any time to edit or upload any photos. My guess is that at the end of my travels, i will have over 10,000 photos, though probably only 500-1000 will be good enough for stock. When travelling, I constantly have to remind my self to take a photo that while not necessarily perfect, is important as a momento rather than just a stock photograph.

Even though I have done nothing, it has been another record month. istockphoto continues to grow and I had an Extended License from LuckyOliver which distorts the percentages a bit. This EL now means that I qualify for a payment from LuckyOliver (at long last) which means taht I have finally received a payment from all sites I submit to (and haven't given up on).

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

28% shutterstock
9% dreamtime
6% Fotolia
25% istockphoto BEM
4% bigstockphoto
7% 123RF
13% StockXpert
0% Featurepics
7% LuckyOliver

Off to Africa for the next 50 days so wont be updating till after Christmas now.

Microstock photo results for July

July was a best ever month for me thanks to great sales at shutterstock , istockphoto , StockXpert. The increase at shutterstock was expected as I have uploaded a number of new images there over the past two months and have really felt the benefit of the "new photo" effect. istockphoto was a supprise as it really took of this month for no apparent reason. This has happened before (in March) and wasn't sustained but hopefully it will be this time. All the other sites were a bit disappointing but the season pros were expecting the "normal July slow down" (caused by holidays in the US??) so maybe it was effected by this. August is quite a popular holiday time in Europe but hopefully there wont be an August slowdown as well as I have no Christmas shots to enjoy the Christmas rush which lots of people enjoy.

Sales are creaping back at Fotolia following the relaunch of its site. Sales dropped of considerably but in the second half of July, they were almost back to normal. They are still experiencing issues with there search engine so hopefully they will get this fixed shortly, or even better, the buyers find my photos at sites with a higher commission like StockXpert.

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

34% shutterstock BEM
12% dreamtime
5% Fotolia
23% istockphoto BEM
3% bigstockphoto
4% 123RF
16% StockXpert BEM
1% Featurepics
2% LuckyOliver

I am off on holiday shortly for a few month so posts will be very intermittent if at all. Hopefully i will get some great shots.

Microstock photo results for June 2007

June was a good month and an interesting month. First of all Fotolia relaunched a new version of its site which has had major issues (this is why I haven't reviewed the new version yet). Sales are down significnatly since the change over but just prior, I had an Extended License sale which means it was a better than average month there. I also uploaded a few photos finally starting onthe backlog of photos to edit. This has has positive results for shutterstock which always does well after new photos go online. It has also seen the launch of SnapVillage, Corbis new entry into the microstock market. Have a lot at my previous blogs to see why I am not that happy with it.

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

32% shutterstock BEM
15% dreamtime
12% Fotolia
13% istockphoto
7% bigstockphoto
7% 123RF
11% StockXpert
3% Featurepics
0% Canstock
0% Galastock
2% LuckyOliver

I am looking forward to another good month as I continue to get more photos on line. Then I am gonig on holiday for a while which means that uploads will stop completely for a few months.

6 sites with over 1 million images

There are now 6 sites that have over 1 million images. New entries are bigstockphoto and 123RF . bigstockphoto gave a prize but 123RF did it on the quiet so I am not exactly sure when they passed the mark.

These sites are “the big six” but it is interesting that most people (including myself) rate StockXpert within this crowd, even though they have fewer photos.

I guess the key statistic is number of buyers to photos but no site will ever release this info so we must judge attractiveness to buyers by the number of photos. As far as attractiveness to seller goes, site ratings (ie alexa) and users experiences (such as my month stats) are a better indication.

It is also interesting to note that Fotolia has reduced the number of photos it has from over 3 million to 1.9 with the release of v2 of its site. I am not sure whether this is due to a more accurate count (lots of people disputed its previous number) or whether they deleted over 1 million photos as part of their clean up (they were to delete photos with no sales in 18m). By sales though, I still believe it warrants its top 4 status but definitely not the number 1 spot.

The latest photos numbers are:

Fotolia 1,961,129
shutterstock 1,971,332
istockphoto 1,813,000
dreamtime 1,300,000+
bigstockphoto 1,179,000
123RF 1,000,000+
StockXpert 569,397+
Featurepics 301,275

My Microstock results for May 2007

 

Another solid month of earnings in May. Off my best ever months but still a solid effort. I haven't uploaded anything for the past 2 months so it is good to see things are still ticking along. Hopefully I will get around to uploading some more this month. I have photos or NOrthern Ireland, New Zealand and the French Riviera to edit, keyword and upload so hopefully I will be able to get 50 - 100 of these accepted at all the sites this month.

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

26% shutterstock
17% dreamtime
7% Fotolia
15% istockphoto
8% bigstockphoto
6% 123RF
11% StockXpert
5% Featurepics
0% Canstock
0% Galastock
4% LuckyOliver (BEM)

shutterstock is again the top performer. Downloads was slightly down but this was more than compensated by the increase in payouts. StockXpert has settled down to its long term average after a stellar month a couple of months ago. dreamtime also did well. Infact, it is interesting to see how the sites are settling down to return close to their all time average (as far as percentages go).

Fotolia had a bit of a dip but hopefully the upgrades to their website this weekend will improve the experience to the buyer.

Why sell for as little as 20c

The common criticism of Microstock is that we sell our photos for nothing and that this devalues the industry.

When researching my last post - Earn $300 a day on microstock I came across Yuri Arcurs website. In his website, he explains why he sells on microstock and not at one of the larger agencies, like Getty, where he could earn $100's per sale.

"Selling my pictures this cheap makes some old school photographers angry. Photography is filled with tradition, and before digital cameras became accessible, stock photographers selling their pictures on agencies like Corbis of Getty Images were paid very well. Some (like me) think that they were paid a little too well. Charging $300 for a one-time usage of a picture of a flower was not unheard of, and this is still the price estimates found at Corbis and Getty Images today. In 2000, istock started a revolution in the stock photography field by selling pictures online (not by catalogue as in the old days) and selling these pictures as low as $1 per each picture. This price drop started a heated debate and an almost warlike conflict between the new microstock photographer (at the time mostly semi-professional or amateur photographers) selling their pictures for as low as $1 and other timers use to get an overly high price for their pictures. The old timers accused the microstokers of destroying their own ability to make real money by under pricing the value of their pictures and were also somewhat angry that these new pictures put an “unfair” mark on their own highly priced pictures.
…
I have considered being a Getty of Corbis photographer, but after reviewing their contract and looking at the sells of other Getty photographers, I was able to estimate that I would actually lose income by become one. So it seems that “underpricing”, as the microstockers were accused of, has gradually shown to be a “best pricing” polity instead, with great side effect: Breaking apart an old price conspiracy."


The reason I started with microstock is the ease of entry. The likes of Corbis and Getty would never accept me (they are like an old boys club). After selling for a while it also seemed to make sense. On forums like DPreview, the Pros critisised the microstockers but when they set out the large amounts they are earning, the amounts are matched by an equally large portfolio, resulting in an average price per photo per year similar to what I make. Sure my portfolio isn't as big but then I don't do this full time.


The selling for 20c each is also slightly misleading. From my sales, the average I earn from each DL is (approximately per sale - not per photo per year):

25c shutterstock This will increase to 30c folling the pay increase this month.
77c dreamtime
64c Fotolia
71c istockphoto
76c bigstockphoto
58c 123RF
110c StockXpert
190c Featurepics
80c LuckyOliver

You also have to remember that microstock works on volume (the walmart of photography). As such, while shutterstock pays out the least per download, it actual pays out the most per month due to the volume of sales generated by its subscription model.

Microstock photography results for April

I am overseas at the moment so just a quick post to update the stats for April:

23% shutterstock
17% dreamtime
14% Fotolia
20% istockphoto
5% bigstockphoto
5% 123RF
10% StockXpert
3% Featurepics
0% Canstock
0% Galastock
3% LuckyOliver

New features at LuckyOliver - the Slideshow

LuckyOliver is starting to add some of the new features they promised at the beginning that they said would set them apart from the competition.

The first is "the slideshow". A premium placement section (like the paid ads in google searchs). The bonus for the photog is that you can set your own price and you get 50% commission. The downside is it is only avaliable to those with over 100 sales and in the future it will cost to get this placement (it is free for the first 90 days).

I can see pros and cons for this and at this stage, I would question why you would pay to get placement on a site where sales are still slow. But for 1 token (lots of people have these already so why not use them) getting premium placement might drive the sales?

To read the full details, have a look at this link.

They have also launched a forum. Nothing new - most sites have one but theirs is different, they call it the odditorium. The difference is it has no subforums but a search feature that works on keywords. I think this is good as I find it annoying to hve to look into several subforums just to find the new posts.

Have a look here.