01 Jul 2008 Microstock Earnings Report June 2008

Posted at 10:08h in My Microstock Experiences by Lee Torrens 9 Comments

Earnings were down this month as expected with the onset of the slower period usually experienced by microstock contributors over the northern summer months. Fotolia was the only ones to record a worthy rise in earnings, though Dreamstime and StockXpert both rose marginally.

While I did a lot of shooting in June, I haven’t uploaded any of the new photos yet. They’ll go up in July and hopefully help shelter my earnings from the typically weak sales of July.

Agency Earnings US$ Portfolio Size Return per Image
 Sell-through Rate %
iStockphoto 190.05 735 0.26 73
Shutterstock 166.52 799 0.21 92
Dreamstime 130.07 694 0.19 65
Fotolia 54.36 585 0.09 47
StockXpert 47.80 262 0.18 33
BigStockPhoto 9.00 375 0.02 27
123rf 6.06 280 0.02 18
Crestock 1.50 293 0.01 19
Total: 607.53 Avg: 0.12 Avg: 47

Microstock Earnings Chart - June 2008

Observations:

  • Only one Extended License sale this month at Dreamstime
  • Eight of 67 sales at Fotolia were from their newly launched subscriptions, but standard sales were also up (from 44 last month)
  • The trendlines for my Dreamstime earnings continue rising despite the market slowdown. I only recorded a small increase in earnings in June, but in the context of the declining earnings at most other sites, that’s positive.
Tags:
,
9 Comments
  • R. Kneschke
    Posted at 12:58h, 01 July Reply

    You wrote “I only recorded a”…

    Is there something missing?

    • Lee Torrens
      Posted at 16:27h, 01 July Reply

      Yes, there was. I’ve fixed it. Thanks for the note.

      -Lee

  • Marek
    Posted at 14:01h, 01 July Reply

    I just posted my June microstock earnings:
    http://www.pixelsaway.com/C911796005/E20080701070144/index.html

    They went up a little bit mostly due to IS and SS which provide 73% of my total income. However, my “return-per-image” in these two portfolios is still declining from month to month.

  • James
    Posted at 12:47h, 02 July Reply

    Not too shabby! I’d take your earnings over mine 😉 My earnings are down this month, but it’s good to know that this is pretty common for most folks. Bad to know that it’ll get worse next month 🙁 Here’s my earnings: http://jrtb.com/blog/?p=309

  • Matt Antonino
    Posted at 18:10h, 02 July Reply

    Pretty good! I should have been closer in June but I didn’t get to work enough on stock. 🙁 I will give you a run for your July though. It should be close! 😀

    Good work – keep up the growth and you’ll do fantastic at hitting that 1k a month goal…and then the rest.

  • Perrush
    Posted at 09:25h, 03 July Reply

    This is my version “my earnings”. An overview of 8 months without uploads.

    http://www.perrush.be/SYF_micro_E_25a.html

    Greetz
    Stefan

  • John
    Posted at 13:48h, 07 July Reply

    Did you ever think about looking at your monthly sell through rate? Your STR will just keep growing.

    A monthly STR would be more interesting.

    • Lee Torrens
      Posted at 15:05h, 07 July Reply

      Hi John,

      Yes, I have thought about that but there’s no easy way to look it up without going through each individual sale on each site each month.

      Sell-through rates will drop when you contribute new photos, so it doesn’t always grow. But I agree that a monthly sell-through rate would be more interesting.

      -Lee

  • John
    Posted at 08:48h, 08 July Reply

    On some sites MSTR is easier than others.
    example: on istock, dreamstime and fotolia just sort your portfolio but last download and keep paging until you reach the next month.

Post A Comment