Comments on: Microstock Earnings Report July 2009

By: Richard Cote

Richard Cote — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:41:44 +0000

I have my doubts about the lack of uploads fading. My sales were down rather sharply for July, but it fits with the time of year. I sense that Shutterstock’s subscription model has the strongest business type of customer (PowerPoint presentations, etc.), and the instant July comes around, vacations are in full swing, and Shutterstock was hit hardest.

iStockPhoto sales do seem to be picking up where StockXpert dropped off, so the Photos.com and Jupiterimages Unlimited switchover seems to be complete. It’s not just sales at iStockPhoto that tell me this; there has been an increase in small size sales — whereas iStockPhoto’s “direct” sales tend to be larger for print and/or graphic designer reworking. Sales at StockXpert are barely a fraction of what they were a month and a half ago.

The upload issue I don’t see being too large a concern; a good image is still a good image, even years later (provided the image is not fashion- or artistic style-dependent).

I’m sure the agencies have an algorithm for revolving search results, but it’s in everybody’s interest that the stuff that sells get fronted, whether it’s new or not. That said, I’ve noticed that ANYTHING fresh & decent on Shutterstock gets a flurry of downloads; there is a small contingent of people “hoarding”, apparently filling out their download quotas — and let’s thank them for it

A customer rarely needs to look for the same type of image over and over (e.g. “two young adults hosting a beer while wearing Tyrolian suspenders”), so what’s tired to a contributor is not so to a customer:

“There’s no such thing as an old joke. If you haven’t heard it before, it’s new.” — Ted Healy, as told to Milton Bearle, who went on to catalog one of the largest joke collections in the world…

By: mystockphoto

mystockphoto — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:33:08 +0000

Feed the beast and summer slowdown… Feeding the animal with some snaps and a very good Fotolia end of the month, let me stay in my average earning level.
Just a few photos sold at Canstockphoto but I’m seeing that it’s rising up (look at alexa rank
7 day avg 25,764 – 1 month avg 38,170 – 3 month avg 45,567)

Best,
roberto

By: Laurent

Laurent — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:13:01 +0000

Still not bad considering that you did not upload for so long, you must have some strong best seller images. I am still far away working on my $ 500 target
L

By: steve weinik

steve weinik — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:48:41 +0000

Although I’ve been at it less than a year, this was my best month ever in terms of sales and royalties. Total downloads beat my previous “bme” by about 85%.

By: Orson

Orson — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:42:26 +0000

Well for me the July was same as June. Only on iStock i have BME (and I didnt put there new images since May!). You can check detailed report on my site.

By: Marek

Marek — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:17:00 +0000

It feels like summertime! My total earnings went down about 9%, but IS and DT was up, and all others down with a leading looser – SS. My portfolio is still growing , so I cannot really compare my results with earnings a year ago (well, it was 5 times less).
http://microstock.pixelsaway.com/summertime-earnings-from-microstock-photography-in-july-2009/

By: AUGUSTO

AUGUSTO — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:43:30 +0000

This was my best month, even though it’s only my third month in microstock. I’ve grown 65% from last month and had 1 EL.

I think it’s really amazing that you keep making good money even with no new uploads. By me downloads I see that if I stop uploading I’ll soon drop to zero earnings.

I’ll post my earnings on my blog later today.