Saturday, January 5, 2008

More $ per download in 2008?

In the last five months of 2007, I calculated that my average commission per image sold reached $ 0.39. I expect this value to increase around $ 0.5 this year. There are three reasons for that related to equipment, time I have been doing microstock and the evolution of the market itself.


  • Photo equipment

Following the purchase of a new camera, I can sell now 10 MP pictures (instead of 5 MP). Agencies like DT, FT, CT allow to get more money for high resolution pictures. Also on subscription based sites, the customer might be tempted to download high resolution pictures.

  • Time on microstock

Every month , Shutterstock counts for 50 to 60% of my earnings. Soon, my commission per download will increase from $ 0.25 to 0.30. On Dreamstime (10 % of my earnings this month), for a medium size picture, the price can jump from $1 to 1.5 after 10 DL’s and even double after 25 DL’s.
At FT (20% of earnings) the average is stable at $ 1 /DL but I do not expect it to increase since an increase in commission will not happen for me this year (silver level ).

  • Evolution of the market

IS represents 10 % of the earnings, a significant increase of $/DL is expected in 2008 since starting the 7 of January IS put in place a new price structure. For medium size picture, the average commission will increase 67%.

Will others follow this trend that is the question ?

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