My adventure with microstock photography started in November 2007. 3 years in microstock is an occasion for a statistical summary.

November brought a slight drop in my earnings from microstock photography. I was quite busy last month adding 67 pictures to my portfolio – 1823 pictures in total with the largest selection online with Shutterstock – 1565.

iStock, Shutterstock and Dreamstime provided 81% of my microstock earnings. My RPI (return per image taking into account the entire microstock portfolio) was down to $0.79 in comparison to $0.84 in October and $0.73 in September.

I added a profit line (earnings minus expenses) to a graph below. What it is included in expenses I explained in two previous posts Am I Really Making Money from Microstock Photography ?

I just completed 2 years in microstock photography. November was my 2nd month with a profit above $1000 (well, slightly above).

iStock. BME, 44% of my microstock income. 43 new pictures added. $0.92/download – same as in October.

Shutterstock. 26% of my earnings. 65 new pictures added. $0.45/download (1 EL and 11% from “on demand downloads”) – lower than in October.

“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.

December is traditionally a slow month for microstock industry. However, I managed to keep the same level of my earnings as in November despite of my wrist surgery. I increased my average portfolio by 49 pictures only.

My first 12 months with microstock photography! I will be writing more about my experience, achieved goals and what I have learned, but for now I am just posting my regular earnings report.

I was really busy with shooting and contributing to microstock portfolio in October. My average portfolio grew up from 392 pictures in September to 466 (18.8% increase): 62 new pictures in iStock, 98 in Shutterstock, 70 in Dreamstime. However, my total earnings with 503 downloaded pictures ($0.54 per picture) went up only 12.5% in comparison to September. No ELs in October.

I reached several milestones in October:

$500 total earnings from Shutterstock in less than 8 months. It gave me the 33% raise for new downloads. SS took the lead …

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