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Big 4 in My Microstock Portfolio

24 July 2010 2 Comments

iStockphoto, ShutterStock, Dreamstime and Fotolia are considered nowadays a Big 4 among microstock agencies. Indeed, they bring together between 80 and 90% of my earnings from microstock photography. After 32 months of submitting the size and content of my portfolio at different agencies are quite different: iStock – 1425 pictures, Shutterstock – 2024, Dreamstime – 1586, Fotolia – 1392.

The above graph show percentage of my earnings from the Big 4 agencies and other mictostock sites during last 2.5 years. I plotted quarterly values to smooth out month to month fluctuations.

I started to submit my pictures to iStock in November 2007 and that agency dominated my earnings until I got accepted by Shutterstock. Then, Shutterstock took a lead for a year so. In the beginning of 2009 my sales at iStock started to grow and today iStock in my number 1 with 40-50% of all microstock earnings. Is it a permanent trend? My sales at iStock are slowing down despite of reaching a gold level which allows me to submit more pictures.

Dreamstime is holding number 3 in my microstock earnings with a pretty steady contribution of about 10%. The number 4, Fotolia, shows some growth recently.

All remaining microstock agencies contribute currently about 12% to my income. I can divide them into two groups: (1) agencies with regular payouts every month or every second month (BigStock, 123RF, CanStockPhoto, Panther Media) and (2) agencies where need several months or a year to reach payout level (Veer, FeaturePics, DepositPhotos, Graphic Leftovers).

In my next post I will analyze the trends in performance of the Big 4 agencies. Is it possible to predict my income from the microstock business?

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2 Comments »

Lee Torrens said:

Still enjoying your insights and watching your growth, Marek. Keep it up.

What are your thoughts on whether or not to continue with the smaller agencies given they constitute so little of your portfolio? Does the income they generate compare favorably to the time it takes you to upload and submit?

-Lee

# 25 July 2010 at 4:00 pm

Marek (author) said:

12% of $100 is very little. 12% of let’s say $1000 starts to look interesting at least for me.

It is useful for me to calculate not only earnings from microstock, but also all related expenses and estimate my “hourly rate”. It makes sense only when you shoot and submit a on regular basis. My hourly rate (even very approximate) helps me to compare earnings with uploading time/cost and to decide whether it is worth to submit pictures to a given low earning agency. Or, I may decide to invest my time hoping for some future sales, but I am aware that I am loosing money there.

I don’t look too closely at sale statistics from those sites – rather quarterly than monthly – since they have a lot of month to month fluctuations.

# 27 July 2010 at 5:42 pm