Microstock Earnings Report June 2008
Posted by Lee TorrensEarnings 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 |
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.
Posted July 1st, 2008 by Lee Torrens
You wrote “I only recorded a”…
Is there something missing?
Yes, there was. I’ve fixed it. Thanks for the note.
-Lee
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.
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
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.
This is my version “my earnings”. An overview of 8 months without uploads.
http://www.perrush.be/SYF_micro_E_25a.html
Greetz
Stefan
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.
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
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.