Microstock Earnings Report February 2008
Posted by Lee TorrensFebruary started off extremely poorly for me, but the latter half picked up and brought my total back up to a respectable level, but still nowhere near reaching my next milestone.
| Agency | Earnings US$ | Portfolio Size | Return per Image |
| iStockphoto | 190.77 |
722 | 0.26 |
| Shutterstock | 179.95 | 752 | 0.24 |
| Dreamstime | 96.25 | 664 | 0.14 |
| Fotolia | 41.71 | 556 | 0.08 |
| StockXpert | 29.80 | 221 | 0.13 |
| BigStockPhoto | 29.09 | 314 | 0.09 |
| 123rf | 15.84 | 242 | 0.07 |
| LuckyOliver |
6.60 | 276 | 0.02 |
| Crestock |
2.75 | 241 | 0.01 |
| Total: | 592.76 | Avg: 0.12 |
Observations:
- Dreamstime were the only agency where I earned any Extended License sales in February (2)
- In response to some insightful comments, I’m now reporting my average Return Per Image (RPI) rather than the total
- I uploaded around 50 new files during the second half of February, which helped the earnings recover from the slow start to the month
- Best month ever at BigStockPhoto and 123rf
- I initially reported LuckyOliver as having achieved no sales in February, but on the last day (after I wrote this post) I sold seven photos of the one series
- I purchased my first prime lens in February, taking my lowest possible aperture from f3.6 to f1.8 – a whole new world of light and depth-of-field!
Posted March 1st, 2008 by Lee Torrens
I’m excited about my results for Feb. It’s the BME for all time.
It’s also the BME for several top agencies: SS, BSP, FT, SXP and IS.
Sales on DT are sadly plummeting. Even IS where my portfolio is minuscule compared to DT has almost caught up with being my 2nd earner after SS.
I have posted my numbers for February which was my third month in microstock with a ~100 picture portfolio:
http://www.pixelsaway.com/C911796005/index.html
My iStock portfolio is doing quite well, FT is starting to move, others – no comments …
Marek
Well Lee, It seems I forgot to put up my January earnings so I will start with those.
January Earnings:
Agency Earnings US$ Portfolio Size Return per Image
ShutterStock $40.25 46 $0.88 – 1 EL
iStockphoto $15.74 69 $0.23
Fotolia $ 2.64 53 $0.05
BigStock $ 2.00 72 $0.03
DreamsTime $ 1.80 59 $0.03
LuckOliver $ 0.30 188 $0.001
Total Per Photo $1.21
Average $0.0025
February Earnings:
Agency Earnings US$ Portfolio Size Return per Image
iStockphoto $30.55 72 $0.42
ShutterStock $28.75 78 $0.37
Fotolia $11.22 56 $0.20 1 EL
DreamsTime $ 2.80 63 $0.04
BigStock $ 1.50 72 $0.02
LuckOliver $ 0.00 205 $0.00
Total Per Photo $1.06
Average $0.002
I learned a hard lesson about Fotolia this month. I only get $6.60 for each EL until I get 100 DLs! ELs I sold on LO and SS always pay $20.00. Only 1/4 of the way to Bronze on FT so I guess I just have to step up the contributions.
I find it interesting that on LO you sell a few every month yet have so few comments on images. Lends credence to my theory that comments have a lot less to do with how many downloads you get than many are saying on some of the forums.
I was also wondering if as a journalist you take any precautions against site owners/operators downloading your images in order for them to show better stats on your blog. Would be pretty cheap and effective advertising to entice contributors I would think. I guess all you could do is request they give you information on who downloads from your portfolio – Fotolia already does this for everyone so it should be possible.
Really enjoy your blog. Please keep it up.
c h e e r s
fred
Fred, your iStock numbers look interesting. You added just a few new files last month, but doubled your earnings.
Yes iStock is quite good to me. I have a rather poor acceptance rate – hope to fix that with a new Nikon D300 – but a few I have there sell pretty regularly.
I really enjoy Pixels Away also. I see you are moving pretty quickly everywhere and submitting pretty aggresively – compared to me at least.
Best of luck and
c h e e r s
fred
Hey Fred,
Fotolia and Dreamstime earnings are low at the start, but if you can make it ‘over the hump’ the earnings really start increasing rapidly. Or so I’m told.
Many people underestimate Bryan and the LuckyOliver team. They would certainly have allowed for commenting/rating campaigns when they set their algorithm.
No, I don’t do anything to ensure site operators don’t download my images. I don’t think they’d bother. It’s much more difficult to attract buyers than contributors. But good question!
-Lee
How are you calculating the average now?
Hi John,
It’s simply an average of all the RPI figures above, rounded to the nearest integer.
-Lee