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Big 4 in My Microstock Portfolio

Marek — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:48:44 +0000

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?

Microstock Earnings – First 30 Months

Marek — Sun, 09 May 2010 17:53:29 +0000

Where are my monthly microstock earnings reports? I stopped posting them … December 2009 was the last one. I was busy shooting recently. And, those monthly graphs got a little bit boring. However, I am going to write some more general posts on trends in microstock photography from my own perspective.

I am trying to follow my microstock business model as described in my earlier posts: Am I Really Making Money from Microstock Photography ? Part 1 and Part 2. I treat microstock photography as a part time job (1/3 of my time = about 60 hours/month) and I tried to keep all related expenses below 30% of total sales.

How that business model works for me in practice? I ended the 2009 year with a little bit more than 40% in expenses due to a new Canon 5D/II camera with two lenses I bought by the end of the year. My expenses should go down to 30% when looking together at 2009 and the first half of 2010. However, I am not sure if my 30% model is sustainable in a long run unless I significantly increase my sales.

60 hours per month? Well, I am sure I am doing some overtime … I could record hours spent at my home table top studio and in front of a computer, but it would be difficult to clearly separate my part time microstock photography from pictures shot just for fun during paddling or hiking (some of them are ending up in my microstock portfolio).

I gathered 30 months of data including sales estimates for May 2010. So, let’s look at some trends.

Trends in my microstock sales from November 2007 to May 2010:
green bars – monthly additions to my portfolio, thick yellow line – total monthly sales,
green, blue and red lines – linear approximations of sales (trends)

Green bars in the above graph represent my work invested in microstock – monthly additions to my portfolio. These are all jpeg pictures processed for microstock including rejects. Thin yellow line shows my total monthly earnings. I approximated that curve with segments of a straight line to show some trends. I can see three distinct periods.

1. Green line – 10 months from February 2008 to October 2008. Slow, but steady growth at about $19/month. In March of 2008 I got accepted to Shutterstock, so I was submitting to all major microstock agencies. At that time, I was producing around 40-60 pictures every month.

2. Blue line – 12 months from November 2008 to October2009. It was a year of more rapid growth in my sales: $96/month. I believe it was a delayed response to the increased number of picture submissions. Between September 2008 and June 2009 I was making from 80 to 120 pictures every month. My earnings were dominated by Shutterstock, but iStock contributions were growing and passed SS in June 2009.

3. Red line – 8 months from November 2009 to May 2010. Slowing down in total sales! $45/month. IS is still growing, but SS sales showing a stagnation since BME in October 2009. I am producing and submitting fewer pictures during recent months, only about 60 per month. But, wait a minute! My pictures are not supposed to be better now? I am spending a similar amount of time shooting and processing with improved skills, a better camera, more expensive props …

Well, I will not try to make any predictions here. Next, I will show some trends in different agencies. iStock dominates my earnings nowadays. OK, but now, back to shooting!

Not many photographers are ready to reveal their financial data, but maybe you could share one piece of information. What percentage of microstock earnings do you spend to cover your expenses including investments in photo equipment?

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Some related posts:
Am I Really Making Money from Microstock Photography ? Part 1 and Part 2.
December earnings report
My microstock referral links for photographers:
Dreamstime, ShutterStock, BigStockPhoto, 123RF, FeaturePics, Panthermedia, CanStockPhoto, Graphic Leftovers, Deposit Photos

Microstock Photography Earnings – December 2009

Marek — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:52:41 +0000

My profit (after expenses) from microstock photography stayed at the same level of $1000 during the last three months of 2009 year. It happened to be my microstock goal for 2009. However, I was rather lucky in December.

I produced a similar number of pictures for microstock as usual (~65), but mostly during the second half of the month during Christmas time. Earlier in December I spent a week at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting at San Francisco. Of course I was shooting pictures whenever I could, but I doubt if a visitor to San Francisco can shoot anything what hasn’t not been shot before. Anyway, I extended a little bit my San Francisco portfolio. It was fun.

Sales in all of my microstock agencies except one went down in December. The most dramatic sale reductions happen in Dreamstime and Shutterstock even with a couple of ELs. BigStockPhoto showed a slight increase but well below its BME.

The situation was saved by iStockphoto. It was showing a slight increase of revenue with comparison to November. Then, a day before Christmas, I got a nice gift in the form of three extended licenses. This put IS out of scale and, now, I have problems with my performance graphs.

Microstock earnings, payments and profit after expenses from December 2008 to December 2009

A little experiment. Let’s repeat the above graph, but with a logarithm scale for earnings. Anybody here has bad feelings towards logarithms?

Now, we see beter the performance of my smaller players like Fotolia, StockXpert, 123RF and BSP. My earnings from CanStockPhoto and Veer Market Place are not very consistent.

I don’t have clear goals for 2010 yet. I am probably going to keep my microstock involvement at the same level, i.e., 1/3 of my time or ~60 hours per month. My general goal is to improve my microstock productivity in terms of anhourly rate and try some new things both in photography and marketing.

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

Related posts:

13 Months of Microstock Photography Earnings: November | December | 2009 January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November
My Favorite Camera and Lens for Microstock Photography
My Microstock Pie – Earnings Split by Agency
A Reverse Look at Microstock Sales from My iStock and Shutterstock Portfolios
My microstock referral links for photographers:
Dreamstime, ShutterStock, BigStockPhoto, 123RF, FeaturePics, Panthermedia, CanStockPhoto.

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

2 Years Ago: Starting Microstock Photography

Marek — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:36:47 +0000

Two years ago in the middle of November 2007 I started my adventure with microstock photography by submitting a few pictures to iStockphoto, and then to Dreamstime, Fotolio, 123RF and Bigstockphoto. It took me much longer to get into Shutterstock (4 attempts) and StockXpert (5 attempts).

On November 28th, 2007 I got my first sale at iStock just 8 days after uploading this picture of a hot air balloon shot a few weeks earlier at the Hot Air Balloon Harvest in Greeley, Colorado.

Here are my first two posts related to microstock (I moved them from the old blog):
Starting Microstock Photography
Polaroid Transfers for Microstock?

These two years passed really fast …

Microstock Photography Earnings – August 2009

Marek — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:57:46 +0000

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.

Microstock earnings and payments from August 2008 to August 2009

iStock. BME, a steady growth during last 6 months, #1 with almost 50% of my microstock income. I reached the silver canister level in August (2500 downloads) and my weekly uploading limit increased from 15 to 20 pictures. I have a chance to resubmit some old pictures now. 22 new pictures added. $1.03/ download.

Shutterstock. A better performance than in July, but still well below the April or June. I reached $3000 total earnings in August, so my payment rate increased from $0.33 to $0.36 for subscriptions and from $2.48 to $2.70 for on-demand pictures. 33 new pictures added.

DreamsTime. ~15% down from July earnings. 30 new pictures added.

Fotolia. Better performace than in July which was pretty bad. 22new pictures added.

StockXpert. BME, still going strong with a lot of contributions from from Photos.com and JupiterImages subscriptions. Reviews and payments seems to take much longer time than it used be …

123rf. Slow!

Big Stock Photo. Better than in July.

CanStockPhoto. Earnings seem to stay on the same level: one big sale through PhotoSearch and a few $0.30 subscription sales. 2nd payout.

Featurepics. 2 small sales … Will I reach my first payout this year?

Veer. Almost 500 pictures accepted. My acceptance rate is above 80%, however, they rejected practically all my best selling pictures as not suitable for stock.

The 3D Studio. Some photographers reported pretty good sales there. I uploaded 100+ pictures: thousands of views, zero sales.

agency	portfolio size	downloads (EL)	earnings	% earnings	RPI
iStock	847	529	545.51	48.2%	0.644
Shutterstock	1362	582	271.34	24.0%	0.199
DreamsTime	1071	107	$92.25	8.1%	0.086
StockXpert	1315	143	$67.80	6.0%	0.052
Fotolia	892	73	$56.30	5.0%	0.063
Big Stock Photo	1260	28	$37.00	3.3%	0.029
CanStockPhoto	1201	19	$26.75	2.4%	0.022
123rf	1274	28	$16.69	1.5%	0.013
Veer	497	9	$14.65	1.3%	0.030
Featurepics	1333	2	$9.00	0.7%
	1599 total	1520 total	$1133.04 total		0.709

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

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Related posts:

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

Summertime! Earnings from Microstock Photography in July 2009

Marek — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:14:02 +0000

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.

Microstock earnings and payments from July 2008 to July 2009

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.

2008 Missouri River 340 – start of the race at Kaw Point

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: June | July | August |September | October | November | December | 2009 January | February | March | April | May | June
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.

1000 Pictures in My Dreamstime Portfolio

Marek — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:04:51 +0000

Yesterday, I reached 1000 pictures in my Dreamstime portfolio with this image of green peas from my garden. It feels like just a few days ago I was shooting quite different picture of the same peas. A stormy spring in Colorado with a lot of hail was not very kind for my garden.

Today, I requested my 7th payout from Dreamstime, so it looks like this microstock agency is working pretty well for me. It is on the third position in earnings after iStock and Shutterstock.

However, the growth of my Dreamstime portfolio slowed down during last few months. My effective acceptance rate dropped down below 50%, i.e., I am submitting selected pictures only, and they take only 64% from them. “Too many shots of the same item or from the same series” is the rejection theme. It seems that for some inspectors the main picture subject is not important. The same prop (e.g., my wooden scoop) may be a reason for a rejection.

Here is how my Dreamstime portfolio compares to some other microstock sites. ShutterStock accepts almost everything what I submit. The size of my iStock portfolio is kept down by their uploading limits, but my acceptance rate stays the same at 75-80%. My Fotolia portfolio is also quite small due to rather low acceptance ratio. It used to be really low last year, but improved during recent months.

$1000 in Earnings from Microstock Photography in June 2009

Marek — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:02:04 +0000

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.

I added back a column with RPI (return per image) to my earnings table below. However, my total RPI is calculated now using a total number of my microstock pictures, i.e., pictures prepared for microstock sitting in my computer. RPI = $0.70/image seems to be pretty low, but my goal is to increase that number. Keep in mind that my production costs are also really low.

Microstock earnings and payments from June 2008 to June 2009

iStock. BME. IS is returning to #1 position in my earnings . 45 new pictures added. $1.04/ download – better than in the previous month. 755 downloads left to reach the silver canister (2500 downloads).

Shutterstock. 3 EL. A better performance than in the previous month, but still below the April BME. 70 new pictures added. $362 left to reach my next milestone here, $3000 in total sales.

DreamsTime. BME. Good sales, but my effective acceptance rate dropped down below 50%, i.e., I am submitting selected pictures only, and they take only 64% from them. 38 new pictures added. “Too many shots of the same item or from the same series” is the rejection theme.

Fotolia. BME. My acceptance rate is improving slightly. They even accepted some of my backgrounds. 53 new pictures added.

StockXpert. BME. 40% came from Photos.com and JupiterImages subscriptions (more than 20% less than in May).

123rf. Slowly going down in earnings since April BME.

Big Stock Photo. BME. Review time is much faster since they introduced upload limits.

CanStockPhoto. One big sale through PhotoSearch and a few $0.30 subscription sales. I reached the first payout. Unfortunately, PayPal is charging a fee from their deposit.

Featurepics. 2 small sales …

Panthermedia. 400+ images in my portfolio. 1 sale in June. I reached the payout of 40+ euros with 4 sales. They sent it to PayPal. When it will arrive?

agency	portfolio size	downloads (EL)	earnings	% earnings	RPI
iStock	773	357	$372.95	35.7%	0.482
Shutterstock	1269	699(3)	$360.28	34.5%	0.284
DreamsTime	980	83	$91.40	8.8%	0.093
Fotolia	833	69	$65.06	6.2%	0.078
StockXpert	1222	115	$61.60	5.9%	0.050
Big Stock Photo	1163	45	$42.50	4.1%	0.037
123rf	1184	33	$24.05	2.3%	0.020
CanStockPhoto	1106	10	$22.50	2.2%	0.020
Featurepics	1230	2	$4.20	0.4%
	1492 total	1829 total	$1044.54 total		0.700

June was my 19th month in microstock with $6266 of total earnings.

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Related posts:

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

Microstock Photography Earnings – May 2009

Marek — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:02:34 +0000

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.

Microstock earnings and payments from May 2008 to May 2009

Shutterstock. 37.6% of earnings (was ~50% in April). The first decline in earnings since August 2008. Number of downloads was at the same level as in April, but only two ELs and much fewer downloads on demand. The average earnings per download dropped from $0.53 to $0.46. 86 new pictures added (almost all accepted). $722 left to reach my next milestone here, $3000 in total sales. 2 or 3 months?

iStock. 30.6 % or earnings (was 22.5% in April). BME and a big one! Will IS catch up with SS? 53 new pictures accepted, i.e., more than in DT. A lot of sales from a couple of pictures uploaded in May. Mostly X-small sales, but in average $0.89/download.

DreamsTime. BME. Good sales, especially, in the end of May. Only 45 new pictures added. A lot of rejections: “Too many shots of the same item or from the same series”. “This is a very well covered subject in our data base or the subject of your image is too specific”. I am not submitting all my pictures to DT any more. Nevertheless, my acceptance ratio dropped down to 63%.

Fotolia. Lower earnings than in my April, but still almost at a payout level every month.

StockXpert. BME. 64% from subscriptions.

123rf. Slightly lower earnings than in April which was BME.

Big Stock Photo. Earnings lower than in April, but sufficient for my monthly $30+ payout. March’09 was my BME.

CanStockPhoto. BME. One big sale through PhotoSearch and a few $0.30 subscription sales puts CSP into the same income league as 123RF and BSP. I added CSP to my earnings graph.

Featurepics. No sales.

Panthermedia. 350+ images in my portfolio. 1 sale in May.

agency	portfolio size	downloads (EL)	earnings	% earnings
Shutterstock	1199	687(2)	$314.06	37.6%
iStock	728	286	$255.90	30.6%
DreamsTime	942	92	$85.60	10.3%
StockXpert	1163	111	$49.20	5.9%
Fotolia	780	56	$44.62	5.3%
CanStockPhoto	1039	7	$29.55	3.5%
123rf	1121	55	$29.03	3.5%
Big Stock Photo	1103	35	$27.00	3.2%
	1002 average	1329 total	$834.96 total

May was my 18th month in microstock with $5221 of total earnings.

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Related posts:

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

Microstock Photography Earnings – April 2009

Marek — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:11:12 +0000

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. I managed to increase my average microstock portfolio from 859 to 942: 106 new pictures in SS, 70 in DT, and 46 in IS.

Microstock earnings and payments from April 2008 to April 2009

Microstock portfolio growth from November 2007 to April 2009

Shutterstock. ~50% of earnings. BME with 3 ELs, but the actual number of downloads was lower than in March. I see more and more older pictures in my sales as illustrated by my recent analysis.

iStock. BME. Last two weeks were very good. Effect of Best Match 2.0 ?

DreamsTime. BME. Still on the 3rd place due to several sales in the last day of the month. Increased number of rejections: Too many shots of the same item or from the same series. Unfortunately for me, a scoop of rice and a scoop of wheat or other grain is the same subject according to DT inspectors.

Fotolia. BME. The same high rate of rejections as usual, but much better sales. It is my smallest portfolio, except IS.

StockXpert. A little lower earnings than in March. 57% from subscriptions.

123rf. BME. They usually accept everything, but, recently, requested a property release for my watercolor painted backgrounds. A complement? Am I getting recognized as an artist? Or just silly inspector?

Big Stock Photo. Earnings lower than in March, but sufficient for my monthly $30+ payout.

CanStockPhoto. I uploaded most of my pictures there, but so far I have got only a few $0.30 subscription sales.

Featurepics. No sales.

Panthermedia. I started to upload some of my microstock pictures two months ago. Submission is quite time consuming and sometimes doesn’t work. ~70% acceptance rate. 290 pictures online. So far, 2 sales, ~14 euros total.

agency	portfolio size	downloads (EL)	earnings	% earnings
Shutterstock	1113	683(3)	$363.54	48.1%
iStock	675	153	$170.01	22.5%
DreamsTime	897	74	$61.81	8.2%
Fotolia	735	60	$49.49	6.6%
StockXpert	1038	97	$44.70	5.9%
123rf	1203	40	$31.67	4.2%
Big Stock Photo	1038	34	$31.00	4.1%
CanStockPhoto	941	9	$3.15	0.4%
	942 average	1150 total	$755.29 total

April was my 17th month in microstock with $4386 of total earnings.

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Related posts:

13 Months of Microstock Photography Earnings:
2008 March | April | May | June | July | August |September | October | November | December | 2009 January | February | March
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.