Unexpected acquisition of BigStockPhoto by Shutterstock is discussed everywhere today on all microstock forums and blogs. So, I took a quick look at my portfolio performance at BSP.

I started to submit to BigStockPhoto in January 2008 and currently I have close 1300 pictures there. BSP provided 4.3% of my total earnings from microstock. I plotted my monthly earnings from the last 13 months below.

It is my regular graph of monthly earnings, but I removed iStockphoto and Shutterstock which provide together more than 70% of my income. We can better see how my portfolio is performing in lower income microstock agencies.

Earnings from BSP are low but steady and higher than from 123RF and CanStock. When their payout limit was $30 I was receiving regular monthly payment.

Is it the end of BigStockPhoto or new beginning? I will keep to submit my pictures.

Related post: Microstock Photography Earnings – August 2009

I spent much less time on microstock in August than usual. I added only 40+ pictures to my portfolio. Nevertheless, I reached to important milestones at iStockphoto and Shutterstock, and a new BME in total earnings.

Summertime and microstock sales are slow. I added 61 new pictures to my portfolio in July, but my earnings dropped down by 9%. My RPI was down from 0.70$/image to 0.61. This is my total RPI derived using the number of all my pictures prepared for microstock (not pictures accepted in any particular agency).

IS continued to climb and is definitely my #1 earner. DT was also growing. SXP stayed at the same level despite of uncertain future of that agency. Earnings from SS with only one EL dropped down by 25%. FT experienced even more dramatic decrease in earnings.

July was my 20th month in microstock with $7215 of total earnings.

This month my earning report is shorter than usual since I am just leaving for a week of vacations away of computer and submissions to microstock. I will be paddling in the Missouri River 340 race – 360 miles nonstop from Kansas City to St Charles. This year I am taking Surfrigger, my outrigger canoe, for the race.

I will try to shoot some travel oriented pictures for stock when driving from Colorado across Kansas to Missouri and back. However, during the race I will have only my “paddling” camera, waterproof Pentax Optio W30, so I would be shooting mostly for my Paddling with a Camera blog.

13 Months of Microstock Photography Earnings: June | July | August |September | October | November | December | 2009 January | February | March | April | May | June

I prepared 77 new pictures for microstock in June extending my total portfolio to 1492 pictures. It means that I am slowing down a little bit in shooting for microstock. Fortunately, I don’t see a summer slow down in my earnings. For the first time I reached more than $1000 of monthly earnings!

iStockphoto and Shutterstock provide 70% of my microstock earnings with IS moving to the first place. Adding income from Dreamstime makes almost 80% of earnings, so it’s clear where my focus should be.

After 18 months I have my portfolios in 8 agencies with some regular earnings. These portfolios differ in size and, also, in content. The differences will grow in time. I expect to to have two times more pictures with SS than IS soon.

My microstock earnings in May were still growing (+10%), but I see a slowdown. Summer time? There are some changes in performance of my top players: Shutterstock and iStockphoto.

I spent less time in May in creating new images for microstock, but I managed to increase my average microstock portfolio from 942 to 1002 files. 86 new pictures in SS, 56 in IS, and 45 in DT.

April was a good month for my microstock photography – 22% increase of earnings in comparison to March. BME in Shuterstock, iStock (the last two weeks were great), Dreamstime, Fotolia, and 123RF.

Let’s take another look at my microstock earnings from iStock and Shutterstock. Time on a horizontal axis in the two pictures below has double meaning: time of uploading (submitting) pictures or time of downloading (sales).

Lee Torrens at Microstock Diares mentioned that microstock is up and his March earnings report confirms that. However, I got somewhat mixed results from my portfolio.

Great month in microstock! First time I made more than $500 in earnings. 46% increase in comparison to January. BME in Shutterstock, iStockphoto, Dreamstime, Fotolia and StockXpert.