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Microstock Photography Earnings – September 2009

1 October 2009 10 Comments

I got more busy with microstock shooting in September and added 77 pictures to my portfolio. However, the September results are somewhat mixed. BME in iStock and Fotolia, a not bad performance of Shutterstock and Dreamstime, but my smaller players went down. I increased my earnings by 8% in comparison to August, but I hoped for better results after summer slow time. Well, actually August was pretty good for me.

IS and SS provided 74% of my microstock income. Adding DT and FT makes almost 89%. This is my big 4 or rather 2+2.

microstock photography earnings september 2009

Microstock earnings and payments from September 2008 to September 2009

iStock. BME, but a smaller growth than in last months, #1 with almost 44% of my microstock income. A new weekly upload limit of 20 pictures due to a silver canister level makes my uploading more comfortable and and allows to resubmit some old files. 61 new pictures added. $0.99/download.

Shutterstock. A better performance than in August, but still well below the April or June. 67 new pictures added, $0.43/download.

DreamsTime. Performance close to July BME. 59 new pictures added, $0.86/download.

Fotolia. BME duet to 5 ELs. 50 new pictures added, $0.94/download.

StockXpert. Unfortunately going down after 3 months of good performance (-33%). Photos.com and JupiterImages subscriptions provided more than 60% of earnings.

Veer. I uploaded most of my portfolio. My acceptance rate is above 80%, however, they rejected practically all my best selling pictures as not suitable for stock. Nevertheless, it looks promising.

Big Stock Photo. Slow, but steady.

123rf. Usual low, but steady earnings.

CanStockPhoto. Low! No big sales from PhotoSearch.

Featurepics. 1 small sale. Will I ever reach a payout here?

agency	portfolio size	downloads (EL)	earnings	% earnings	RPI
iStock	908	572	$565.78	46.1%	0.623
Shutterstock	1429	791	$339.64	27.7%	0.238
DreamsTime	1130	123	$105.30	8.6%	0.093
Fotolia	942	84 (5)	$78.55	6.4%	0.083
StockXpert	1388	121	$45.4	3.7%	0.033
Veer	845	8	$32.8	2.7%	0.039
Big Stock Photo	1330	43	$30.00	2.5%	0.023
123rf	1341	26	$20.9	1.7%	0.016
CanStockPhoto	1278	11	$5.45	0.4%	0.004
Featurepics	1405	1	$2.50
	1676 total	1659 total	$1226.32 total		0.732

Some other bloggers are reporting monthly earnings from microstock:
Microstock Diaries … Microstock Experiment … NiltoMil … MeLastMohican’s Blog …

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Related posts:

13 Months of Microstock Photography Earnings: September | October | November | December | 2009 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September
How to Evaluate Performance of My Microstock Portfolio?
A Reverse Look at Microstock Sales from My iStock and Shutterstock Portfolios
What Sells in Microstock? My List of Picture Bestsellers
How to Get Accepted by ShutterStock? Don’t Give Up!
My microstock referral links for photographers:
Dreamstime, ShutterStock, BigStockPhoto, 123RF, FeaturePics, Panthermedia, CanStockPhoto.

10 Comments »

plrang said:

Nice numbers, I wish I could upload more :/ anyways as a slow uploader hI ad this month +7%, greetings

# 1 October 2009 at 1:36 pm

Matt Antonino said:

Your IStock numbers make me drool – it gives me something to look forward to as I start to push my stuff there.

I’m excited that it’s almost time for my yearly return following wedding season – I have to get caught up on reading your blog now! I’m so far behind on all-things-micro right now.

# 1 October 2009 at 4:20 pm

Marek (author) said:

I didn’t include in my report my first and only sale in Yay Micro – 1 Euro. I stopped uploading to Yay a few months ago when my portfolio reached 1000 pictures there.

# 1 October 2009 at 4:40 pm

Luis Santos said:

Hi! What about 3D Studio, I have uploaded a lot there and not a single sale..!

# 1 October 2009 at 5:18 pm

Marek (author) said:

3D Studio?

100+ uploaded pictures, thousands of views, zero sales …

I believe that Laurent (Microstock Experiment) has some success there.

# 1 October 2009 at 5:37 pm

Luis Santos said:

Yes that’s true, I have been talking to him, but I was wondering how were you doing, once you are the man

# 1 October 2009 at 5:48 pm

Maluson said:

As Matt said above : “Your IStock numbers make me drool – it gives me something to look forward to as I start to push my stuff there.”

Same feeling here, but i’ve been pushing everything I can to IS, I manage to have more music online than vectors, still hoping, praying and wishing for a big start up in music sales.

# 2 October 2009 at 5:06 am

Laurent said:

Congrats Marek, your Istock numbers are quite amazing guess you have few flames coming up there:)
Still working on my earning report but it was a BME also for me with a BME at SS which surprised after more than a year

Laurent

# 2 October 2009 at 9:48 am

Marek (author) said:

Until January 2009 my IS portfolio didn’t perform so great (a plateau during 2nd half of 2008) and my microstock sales were dominated by SS. IS and SS switched roles in June this year.

# 2 October 2009 at 2:40 pm