Microstock Photography Earnings – January 2009
I was busy with shooting and submitting pictures to microstock in January. I didn’t have time to write anything in this blog, although, I have a few posts in a draft including summary of 2008 years and goals for 2009. “Volumewise” my strategy for 2009 is simple: focus on my three top agencies (Shutterstock, iStock, and Dreamstime), 100 accepted pictures per month in SS and DT, and all upload slots filled in IS.
I managed to increase my average microstock portfolio from 605 to 698: 104 new pictures in SS, 107 in DT, and 53 in IS (delayed reviewing of December submissions). My earnings went up 26.5% in comparison with December and/or November. I had only one extended license from Fotolia in January.
Microstock earnings and payments from January 2008 to January 2009
Shutterstock is providing now 57% of my microstock income. It is the only agency demonstrating clear growth in my earnings during last 6 months. It is great, but I would prefer more diversification. 10% of SS earnings come from on demand downloads.
A number of downloads in IS is going up, but earnings are going down. Small sizes and low payments are dominating my sales. A similar tendency is visible in Dreamstime. I had BME in January there concerning the number of downloads, but the earning didn’t reach the BME of November.
My other four agencies, FT, BSP, SXP, 123RF are showing more turbulent fluctuations from month to month. The combined earnings from them during last three months: $59, $48, and $66. No sales in Featurepics in January.
| agency | portfolio size | downloads (EL) | earnings | % earnings |
Shutterstock |
815 | 594 | $215.12 | 57.8% |
iStock |
534 | 59 | $56.20 | 15.1% |
DreamsTime |
676 | 48 | $35.10 | 9.4% |
Fotolia |
545 | 25 (1) | $21.85 | 5.9% |
Big Stock Photo |
755 | 23 | $18.00 | 4.8% |
StockXpert |
805 | 39 | $14.50 | 3.9% |
123rf |
759 | 25 | $11.66 | 3.1% |
Featurepics |
796 | 0 | $0 | 0.0% |
|
698 average |
813 total |
$372.43 total |
Some other bloggers are reporting monthly earnings from microstock:
Microstock Diaries … Microstock Experiment … NiltoMil … jrtb … Driftless Ramblings … bankizdjec.pl … MeLastMohican’s Blog … Probably Due To Network Congestion
| My latest stock photos on Dreamstime |  |
Related posts:
- 13 Months of Microstock Photography Earnings:
2008 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August |September | October | November | December | 2009 January - What Sells in Microstock? My List of Picture Bestsellers
- How to Get Accepted by ShutterStock? Don’t Give Up!
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My microstock referral links for photographers:
Dreamstime, ShutterStock, BigStockPhoto, 123RF, FeaturePics.
and
hey, thanks for the linkage
Looks like shutterstock is doing pretty well for you, SS has dropped off a lot for me.
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