01 Jun 2009 Microstock Earnings Report May 2009

This month we add Jack Hollingsworth’s microstock earnings to the report, providing an entirely different perspective.

Jack has roughly 4,000 very simple images from a recent studio session which were originally intended for another purpose. He has uploaded roughly 700 to each agency, a few more to 123rf, and obviously less to iStockphoto given the upload restrictions. His acceptance rates are healthy, averaging 90%, excluding iStockphoto which is down at 75%. As this content is very simple, his expectations are appropriately low, expecting a monthly RPI of $0.50 is achievable.

Jack’s Results

These early results demonstrate the uphill battle of getting started in microstock:

• He is earning the lowest commissions with the lowest prices. At Shutterstock, Dreamstime and Fotolia the commissions or prices will rise over time as he sells more licenses, but new contributors start at the bottom.
• His search algorithm metrics are low. Both individual images and contributor accounts with a sales history provide an advantage in search result position. Jack’s photos appear lower in the search results because both he and his photos are new to microstock.

Observations

• Rapid portfolio growth lowers the RPI when calculated with the end of month portfolio sizes like this. Calculated with the average portfolio size (between the start and the end of the month) it would be substantially higher
• Calculating monthly RPI from a portfolio available perspective is 842 / $217.24 = $0.26
• Shutterstock’s fast-selling business model really stands out with instant results
• iStockphoto earned the fourth greatest amount despite having less than 10% of the portfolio of all others

You can check out Jack’s portfolios via the links on Jack’s Microstock Celebrity profile.

My Results

May saw my portfolio hit a new record high total earning (over $1,000 with agencies not in the table below) despite, yet again, not having uploaded any new files. So much for “feeding the beast”. I’m obviously happy about this, but now that the summer slowdown is approaching, I’m waiting for the axe to drop!

Observations

• My total earnings, including sales at Cutcaster, passed the US$1,000 mark for the first time
• Still no new uploads for me this month. (I have no idea why my iStockphoto portfolio jumped by 5 this month) So I’m amazed that my earnings went up again. I’m still waiting for the axe to fall.
• Extended license sales at iStockphoto, Shutterstock, Dreamstime and FotoSearch sales at CanStockPhoto played a significant part in my record earnings
• I set new records at iStockphoto, Fotolia and CanStockPhoto (fifth consecutive time for CanStock)
• Cutcaster sold four photos this month bringing my total sales quantity there to six and $18.02 in commissions

I also hit another personal milestone this month with my first blue flame at iStockphoto. Total royalty on this image at iStockphoto so far is $753.15 after over three years online. That’s more than the combined royalty for this image from all other agencies combined.

Despite being my most sold image, it’s not my fastest selling image nor my most lucrative. While checking my stats at LookStat recently I realized a more recent (but still quite old) image had earned more when combined across all agencies. This particular image appears to have outperformed itself at iStockphoto.