Comments on: Microstock Earnings Report February 2009

By: Lee Torrens

Lee Torrens — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:21:49 +0000

Hi Jaren, ‘best match’ on iStockphoto is one of the search result sort options, alongside Downloads, Age and a few others. Best Match is aimed at providing the most relevant results and is based on an algorithm which takes many different factors into account. Most agencies have a similar sort order, though it goes by different names.

When the algorithm is updated some contributors find their sales go up and some find them going down. However, the objective of algorithm updates is to give buyers the photos they’re seeking, which benefits contributors as a group despite the fact that some see earnings drop.

It sounds like this time you didn’t benefit, while I certainly did. Maybe next time it will be the reverse. The best thing to do is contribute photos that sell.

By: Jaren Wicklund

Jaren Wicklund — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:40:46 +0000

Okay Lee…. I’m lost. What exactly is ‘best match’ on iStock? I’ve heard of it and I haven’t had time to look into it. All i know is that my sales at IS have gone down 50%…

By: Lee Torrens

Lee Torrens — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:33:59 +0000

Sure, I used the Google Chart API – http://code.google.com/apis/chart/

By: Jade

Jade — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:09:44 +0000

Those are really nice looking graphs. Could you tell me what you used to create them?

By: pdtnc

pdtnc — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:18:33 +0000

My Dollar Bin Files so far… http://imagepushing.com/2009/03/06/stock-photos-from-1-the-istock-dollar-bin/
Nothing I’ll be missing…. a fair bit of crossover from the recent non-selling files at Fotolia.

By: Lee Torrens

Lee Torrens — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:53:54 +0000

I blog to learn. So far I haven’t put much of it into practice, but that day is getting closer.

By: Michael Brown

Michael Brown — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:39:07 +0000

Congratulations on a great month! Looks like the Best Match changes at iStock helped you (I know they helped me).

By: Matt Antonino

Matt Antonino — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:25:20 +0000

Yes, February was a great month! I’m excited to see how everyone did as well – glad to hear you had a record IS. I had IS BME as well and it was on 0 new images.

Do you see yourself being a microstock photographer this year or more blogger/reporter? You are delving more and more into the news/philosophy of microstock. It’s an interesting read for me as my own writing tends to be more result-based and educating myself (and hopefully others) as I go along.

(And one day soon I will realize my goal of passing you in earnings… but alas not this month either!)

By: Marek

Marek — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:19:52 +0000

February was a great month for sure, especially, in iStock, I got BME in SS, IS, DT, FT, SXP and crossed $500/month line after 15 months in microstock (earnings report). I am still adding pictures on a regular basis aiming for 100 pictures accepted every month in SS and DT.

Let’s see if this trend in microstock continues in 2009 …

I am playing with different metrics for my portfolio performance, but they are not very useful for my relatively small (~800 pictures) and growing portfolio.