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).

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

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.

DreamsTime. 11% of earnings. 54 new pictures added, $1.13/download. A pretty slow month, but my earnings were saved by an extended license in last hours of November. Abandoned farm house on Colorado prairie is one of my favorite HDR pictures.

StockXpert is going down, but there were still sales from Jupiterimages (30%), Subscriptions from Photos.com are gone.

Fotolia is going down since BME in September.

CanStockPhoto. One big sale from PhotoSearch and a few smaller one.

Veer. $35 from 31 sales and I am ready for the first payment.

123rf. Much slower than October.

Big Stock Photo. Same as October.

Featurepics. I reached the payout level in October after 2 years, got my payment in November. One sale worth $2 last month indicate that the next payment will be in the end of 2011 …

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

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!
• My microstock referral links for photographers:
  Dreamstime, ShutterStock, BigStockPhoto, 123RF, FeaturePics.

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.

Number of downloads in iStock, Shutterstock and Dreamstime was much lower in December than in November, but two extended licenses (SS and IS) rescued my savings.

Shutterstock is providing now more than 50% of my microstock income. I experienced a plaque of rejections from SS during the entire of December mostly due to “low commercial value” of my pictures any other than isolated products. These were all similar pictures to my bestselling ones. I managed to get accepted most of them, but it meant more work and extra frustration when working with SS. New reviewers? Policy change?

I stopped including Featurepics in my reports, but I got one sale in December – 4 sales overall during the last year …

agency	portfolio size	downloads (EL)	earnings	% earnings
Shutterstock	711	331 (1)	$149.79	51.0%
iStock	481	54 (1)	$66.81	22.7%
DreamsTime	569	31	$27.28	9.3%
Fotolia	465	24	$16.49	5.6%
StockXpert	683	17	$14.10	4.8%
123rf	683	18	$11.51	3.9%
Big Stock Photo	641	7	$6.00	2.0%
Featurepics	645	1	$2.10	0.7%
	605 average	483 total	$294.08 total

Some other bloggers are reporting monthly earnings from microstock:
Microstock Diaries … Microstock Experiment … NiltoMil … jrtb … Driftless Ramblings … bankizdjec.pl …

Anybody else?

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Related posts:

• Growth of My Microstock Portfolio in 7 Agencies: IS, SS, FT, DT, BSP, 123RF, SXP
• Microstock Photography Earnings in 2008:
  November | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
• 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.

My average portfolio grew up in November from 466 to 546 pictures (17% increase) and my total earnings went up by 16%. I calculate size of portfolio for reporting purposes as an average from 7 agencies where I have any sales. This average portfolio is dragged down by Fotolia with notoriously low acceptance rate (50% or lower).

I have 3 agencies (SS, DT, BSP) going up in November and 4 going down (IS, FT, SXP, 123RF). The earnings from the last 4 sites went down by 17% despite of the downloads number going up by 4%. Much more sales in small and X-small sizes, especially, at iStock. No ELs in November.

The following 4 agencies provide 88% of my microstock income:

1. Shutterstock. 100 new pictures added, downloads – 14% up, earnings – 42% up.

2. iStock. 36 new pictures added, downloads – 7% down, earnings – 16.5% down.

3. Dreamstime. 93 new pictures added, downloads – 36% up, earnings – 23% up.

4. BigStockPhoto. 90 new pictures added, downloads – 83% up, earnings – 160%

November was a good month in receiving actual payments from microstock agencies. I got my first payments from SXP and 123RF.

Some other bloggers are reporting monthly earnings from microstock:

Microstock Diaries … Microstock Experiment … NiltoMil … jrtb … Driftless Ramblings … bankizdjec.pl …

Anybody else?

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Related posts:

• Growth of My Microstock Portfolio in 7 Agencies: IS, SS, FT, DT, BSP, 123RF, SXP
• Microstock Photography Earnings in 2008:
  November | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
• 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.

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 last month.
• $50 first payout from 123RF in 11 months. 123RF was not doing so great in October
• $50 first payout from StockXpert in 6 months. The same performance as in September.

iStock performance was fantastic in October, but … only for the first 3 weeks. The last week went almost without sales. Overall earnings were slightly higher than in the previous month, but I am concerned about the future of my IS portfolio.

I got a very nice growth of earnings from Dreamstime which clearly took the #3 position. SS, IS, and DT provided 79% of my microstock earnings.

It was not so bad month for Fotolia despite the fact that I managed to add there just half of my pictures accepted by SS.

There were no more sales in Featurepics despite my efforts to promote that portfolio across my blogs, e.g, Old Wooden Scoop … or Bent Shaft Paddle and Outrigger Canoe.

I am getting close to one year in microstock phtoography. I will be posting more analysis of my portfolio and efforts trying to figure out: Can I make any real money from microstock?

Some other bloggers are reporting monthly earnings from microstock:

Microstock Diaries … Microstock Experiment … NiltoMil … jrtb … Driftless Ramblings … bankizdjec.pl …

Anybody else?

My latest stock photos on Dreamstime

Related posts:

• Growth of My Microstock Portfolio in 7 Agencies: IS, SS, FT, DT, BSP, 123RF, SXP
• Microstock Photography Earnings in 2008:
  November | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
• 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.