This is where I am reporting on the results of my microstock experiments. It will probably be quite boring unless you are into this sort of thing. To get an overview of my microstock stuff go to my microstock page, and to see how to start, go to my microstock how to start page.
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Some random images from FeaturePics.com |
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I started in July with Dreamstime (DT) and had only a few files up for sale and only a few sales until the end of November when I signed up with Shutterstock (SS) and started uploading more than single digits a month. Every month I made slightly more than the previous month but at this rate it will be a long time before I reach a payout.
After about a month on SS, I passed DT in income at around $20 (with about 40 images)(DT was practically dead in December).
I signed up for iStockphoto (IS).
SS was my top earner, but less than last month without the video sale. I pass 100 images on SS.
DT had a great month with an extended license (EL) sale.
Best Month Ever (BME) overall, with over 100$ in sales.
SS continues to be the best seller, hitting another payout with the most sales in a month so far.
DT wasn't too bad, but without the EL, it was a lot below last month. I pass 100 images on DT.
IS did fairly well with only 30 images by the end of the month.
Overall, another BME.
SS has another pretty good month just shy of a payout thanks to an EL sale. I pass 200 images on SS.
DT has a poor month, frustrating. However I did finally get a payout.
IS does quite well with over twice the income of DT and only 60 images by the end of the month.
I signed up for Featurepics (FP), and made a few sales - looks promising.
Overall, another BME.
SS went down in downloads and income even with another EL sale. Frustrating.
DT is rather poor, especially considering all of the new images.
IS really sells well, doubling DT's income with less than 1/4 the images.
FP Nothing.
Overall another BME, but barely.
SS is back in form with a BME there that is enough for a payout in a single month thanks to a video sale and passing the 500$ total mark moves me from 0.25 to 0.30 per sale (a 20 % raise makes a difference)
DT has another horrible month despite passing 200 images.
IS starts out strong, but then the tap just seems to shut off. less than 1/2 of the previous month (this appears to be due to a change in their search engine. However it was enough to get a payout.
FP Nothing.
Overall, despite strong sales at SS, this is the first month since I have started that the total isn't greater than the previous month.
SS continues to be my top earner with a one-month payout.I pass 300 images there.
DT is ok.
IS is even worse than the previous month. Frustrating.
FP A few sales.
Overall another BME thanks mainly to SS. I passed the 1K total sometime near the end of this month.
Shutterstock continues to be my best seller, with another payout each month. It also appears that perhaps they have tweaked the search slightly to not favor new images quite as much, although that could be just my imagination. I pass 400 images on SS.
Dreamstime Frustrates with really poor sales and lots of rejections,I did crawl up to another payout.
IS picked up nearly to where it was in June (but with over twice as many images) - another payout just after August.
FP one sale.
Overall, BME again.
SS had strong sales plus a video sale for the BME there by a lot.
DT finally had a good month beating IS.
IS dropped again for poor sales. I pass 100 images on IS.
FP one sale.
Overall, a BME by a wide margin.
SS falls a bit, primarily due to almost no uploads I think.
DT falls slightly, but not bad.
IS goes up for a decent month, but still behind DT.
FP Nothing.
I join StockXpert (SXP) and have a few sales with very few images.
Overall it falls a bit, but still above anything before September.
SS drops a lot, not even making payout for the first time since April. I suspect that not having holiday images coupled with very little uploading finally slowed things here.
DT falls down into fairly weak territory behind IS.
IS seems to perk up at the very end of the month. It appears a search engine tweak has turned the tap back on.
FP A few sales.
SXP a few sales.
Overall another drop, but still better than anything before September.
In general, sales were pretty good for the first half of the month, and then they went down (due to holidays most likely). I started toying with vectors, but didn't make a lot of progress.
SS sales dropped the least, or at least continued through the holidays somewhat, the overall monthly total was back up a little bit. I passed 500 images on SS.
DT started out ok, but pretty much stopped for the second half leaving a disappointing total. I passed 400 images on DT.
IS started out very strong, but also plummeted for the second half. I kept my 20 per week queue full and hopefully the new files will increase sales for the future.
FP only a few sales.
SXP, They finally reviewed my new uploads, but not until after the holiday slump, so only a few more sales than last month.
Overall a slight improvement on last month.
The new year started out a bit slowly, but quickly ramped up nicely. BME at a number of sites has lead to a BME overall by quite a bit. I think the work I put in in late November and December, the new camera, and the new pricing scheme at IS have all raised things a bit. Hopefully this happy trend will continue.
SS sales were fairly strong and steady with one EL and 2 video sales (at new reduced prices), BME for income and BME for number of downloads.
DT had sporadic but decent sales with one file reaching level 3 my average per sale was up. only a few $ short of a BME
IS had good sales and higher return due to new higher prices. All of the uploading over the last 2 months seems to be helping too, BME.
FP - one lonely sale
SXP - still very slow review times, but some of the December uploads are selling - BME (although still new)
Overall a BME by a nice margin.
February was a short month, although not as short as it usually is. In any case, things weren't as good as January.
SS BME in terms of number of sales, but with no "special" sales, it wasn't so great for $ (#3 overall).
DT had less sales than last month, and more of them were subscription, so rather disappointing (#4 overall).
IS was pretty good, but not as good as last month #3 overall.
SXP a little better than last month, BME, but lower return per image.
FP one sale, weak.
Overall, #2 return (beat previous #2).
I had high hopes for March, and it did ok, but not as well as I'd hoped. I participated in the "300-600 dl challenge" on SS having been in the middle of that range the previous month. I started out slowly and didn't really pick up steam until the last week. I submitted 100 images of which 78 were accepted there. I also kept the IS queue full. Perhaps the Easter week (and my no Easter images) contributed to the slow sales.
SS A strong finish saved this from being a disaster month here, #4 in DL,#5 for $. I passed 600 images online.
DT sales were sporadic, but BME for $, #2 for total DL. Passed 500 images online.
IS BME in $, tied for #2 in DL (by 1), my first IS EL, maybe all the painful uploading is finally paying off.
SXP BME for DL, but with 1/2 sub sales, the end result was a poor showing. Their reviews were very slow, so most of my new uploads were not reviewed.
FP first month in a while with 0 sales. lame
overall, #2 return with many new images uploaded.
April was a good month with BME overall as well as at each of my biggest 3 sites. I think the start of the month benefited from all of the "challenge" uploading from March. I also uploaded a fair amount this month which helps.
SS: A very strong start with regular uploading led to a strong finish. Week 3 downloads were a bit slower, but I still notched up a BME for DL and total $. One EL and one video sale helped put things over the top.
DT: sales were fairly strong, with a good number of higher $ sales, led to a BME for $, and tied for BME for DL. I had a fairly high acceptance rate, which was nice.
IS: BME in $ and DL, My return per image is falling slightly, but keeping the queue full is increasing my images enough to offset that.
SXP: #3 for DL and #2 for $, with over 300 images, this is pretty disappointing.
FP: 2 sales. better than nothing, but barely moving
overall, BME return with many new images uploaded.
I am looking forward to the price increase at SS and the new subscription model at IS to come into effect in May.
May saw a decrease from April's BME, but not as much as I feared at the midpoint. I managed to pass even 100 numbers of images accepted on all sites. The price increase at SS and the new subscription model at IS came into effect in May, the 10% increase for me at SS makes a difference, but I didn't get any subscription sales at IS.
SS: Much slower than April at the start, but a price increase helped, as well as 5 video sales. It ended up being only a few $ short of a BME. Passed 700 images accepted.
DT: sales were fairly strong at first, but then things slowed down somewhat. Passed 600 images online.
IS: My return per image continues to fall, but keeping the queue full is increasing my images nearly enough to offset that. The subscription program started at the end of the month, but I had no subscription sales. Passed 300 images accepted.
SXP: BME for DL and $. Over 400 images accepted, although the acceptance/rejection seems arbitrary and random by review batch, often nearly 100% acceptance or over 50% rejection.
FP: 2 sales. better than nothing, but barely moving with over 1000 images accepted.
Overall, a number 2 return with many new images uploaded - first I thought it was the start of the summer slump, but since things generally picked up at the end of the month, perhaps it was something else.
June sales were down a bit again, but still decent. Uploads were down a bit too.
SS: Good sales, plus some video subscription sales resulted in a BME for $ (barely) and #2 in DL.
DT: There were some strong sales runs, but some weak runs resulted in a drop.
IS: There was a big drop at IS in the middle of the month which resulted in another drop there.
SXP: Very weak sales at SXP, disappointing.
FP: 1 sale. better than nothing.
Overall, a number 4 return, perhaps this is the start of the summer slump.
So far ranking the sites return for me would put SS on top by a wide margin, then IS, DT, much lower SXP, and finally FP in the basement.
As far as ease of uploading I'd say FP, SS, DT, SXP, and IS in the basement.
Sales go up, sales go down, sales go up more. In general, as I've gotten more images uploaded for sale at more sites, I've made more money. However there is some variability in this. There is some seasonality to this business, with a bit of a summer slump (somewhat offset for me by a lot of uploading in 2007) and a December slump for the holidays. Weekends generally are slower, but on any given day, you could get some decent sales, especially with the sporadic nature of EL and Video sales.
SS continues to be my best seller, but almost no uploads from early Sept to late Nov 2007 seems to have hurt things by November. They continue to have fairly predictable and quick reviews. The increase to .33 per download plus the occasional video and EL sales there help.
DT is all over the board. I often get multiple downloads one day, then a few days with nothing. They continue to reject a lot for "we have enough of these" with a queue of up to a week. Unfortunately the acceptance percentage might make a difference in where images come up in a search. Their search seems to come up with the fewest completely bogus returns though. Price increases there might be helping, although the new subscription might counteract it.
IS seems to be very search dependent (I suppose they all are, but they seem to make the biggest changes in the search algorythms.) Their upload process and limits are a pain, but fighting through it does seem to get more than I expect accepted, although it can take a week, and there are plenty of rejections that I just shrug off. They are the hardest for me to predict. At first they seemed to get almost all the sales from just a few star images. Their low low percentage to photographers (20%) is frustrating. They seem to be leading the pack in raising prices though, unfortunately that is barely noticeable on the small end. If they didn't have the massive site traffic and high sales numbers they do, I think few photographers would put up with them. Someone described them as an "abusive spouse", which often sums up my feelings.
FP sales are pretty weak, especially since I have the largest number of my images up there. I think it is only going to generate many sales if you send them there yourself with links. Uploading is quick and easy with 100% acceptance as long as the file isn't corrupted and the model release is attached.
SXP has had some reviewing issues and I have very few images up, so I can't really tell how it will be. It shows promise though, and others report it in the top few sites.
sales have been enough to pay for all of my camera equipment this year and then some, so that is nice. Luckily I am not relying on this as my main source of income though.
The things a submitter can control include what images are uploaded, when they are uploaded, and the keywords etc. The things that can't really be controlled are how the sites rig their search engines. This can make a huge difference, but there isn't much you can do about it other than try to include keywords, descriptions, and titles that might get your pictures found.
There has been a lot of discussion about when to upload to get favorable reviews and maximise sales, for instance having an image first show up on SS search Monday would allow the greater traffic all week a chance to download it before it gets buried by new images. These early sales might keep it from getting lost in the "most popular" search and keeps sales steady. Holiday images would need to be available as early as 3 or 4 months before hand, but a Christmas tree probably won't get a lot of action in January. Depending on how the searches work, uploading at the wrong time could make a difference.
It also might be worth stretching a batch over a few weeks rather than sending one huge pile and then letting it wait for a while before sending another. This is probably a good idea if you only have a few images for a few months on a site like SS. Doing a few every few weeks would be better. A number of small batches spreads the risk of getting a reviewer that either is feeling strict or has a poorly calibrated monitor or whatever from rejecting the entire batch. It happens from time to time, and would be particularly painful if it was a big batch. Of course sometimes you get a reviewer that seems to like all your stuff and the entire batch gets accepted, which would be great with a big batch.
I have been looking at return per photo per month, which is probably the best way to track how things are going. The numbers aren't super accurate because the number of images is changing, and I used the total at the end of the month for my calculations so this is a low estimate, but not wildly off, especially as the number of images increases. One EL or video sale, or a good month when I had relatively few files up skews the high numbers up a lot.
SS High 1.06 low .20 around .3 but falling?
DT high .51 low .047 seems to be settling in around .10 +-.04
IS high 1.19 low .23 still bouncing around, but maybe around about .33
FP high .017 low 0 - its way down there, but i also have nearly 100 images there.
SXP not really valid with this sample, but about .10 or less so far.
I imagine these numbers are much higher for photographers that have more stockworthy images.
I have heard other people talk of $1 per image per month, which I suppose across the sites might be valid, especially with more stock oriented images. I heard that the old school macrostock returns were $1 per photo per year, but I have also heard per month for that. In any case, with that kind of return, someone could make a decent living even in an american city with a portfolio of a few thousand images, and in places with a much lower cost of living, it could be even easier to do well. I myself haven't seen that kind of return, however between rejections, upload limits, and frustration, I don't have all that many images on a lot of sites.
What really matters is how the images perform over time. If sales continue and even increase on sites like DT and IS where it seems to take a while for images to get found, then the lifetime earnings per image would be worth it. If not, then not. Microstock is more like "loose" nickel slot machines with fairly frequent but small sales versus the much larger jackpots on the high roller macrostock machines that happen only once in a while.
I found an outdated article on the web from 2006 or early 2007 maybe, it listed total sales and total images for Getty of $ 807 million with 90 million images = $8.96 per image per year total. I don't know what percentage the photographers got from that, but probably 50% or less, so some $4.50 per image per year or less for the photographers.
A similar analysis of the Corbis numbers were $ 251 million from 100 M images = $2.51/image/year.
Fotolia (a microstock) mentioned <$10M for 2.2M images = < $4.54/image/year ~50%? for photog
DT reported <$10M for >1M images = <<$10/image/year ~50% for photog
SS reported >$10M for >1M images = ? $10/image/year ~30%??? for photog
It would be nice to see some more concrete numbers, but this gives a general idea. I strongly suspect that there is a very uneven distribution of earnings though, with top images making orders of magnitude more than the bottom images (with little to no sales).
If you are interested in seeing my portfolios, here are some links...
Pancaketom's portfolio on Dreamstime
Pancaketom's portfolio on Shutterstock
my istock portfolio
my photos for sale on FeaturePics