July earnings

Highlights

Despite new uploads, I am still in the $ 300-400 bracket, for three consecutive months now. The same global trend within microstock agencies was observed: SS and IS leading the pack taking more than 60 % of earnings this month. These two agencies have been increasing steadily the past three months and I had a BME for both of them.

On the midstock front, things were still very quiet with no sales for the past two months . I registered at YAY micro last month but nothing happened yet so I gave it a go at Cutcaster, the uploading and approval were very fast, let’s see what happened. I sent my first right managed pictures to Photoshelter which I do not propose to microstock , I will probably expand to Alamy in the near future.

Microstock one by one

• SS Above the $ 100 mark again this month but RPI continues to go down at 0.33 despite new uploads and an EL this month
• IS (+18 %) BME. IS confirmed its second place this month and the $ gap with SS is closing down. Best RPI this month at 0.37 doing better than SS for the first time. I did not have any sub sales yet.
• FT. Normal month for FT stable compared to last month but always under performing with a RPI of 0.06. They still reject almost everything so my pictures are in the queue waiting for better days…..
• SXP (+38%) BME. A very good month at SXP with again the highest $/dl at $ 1.94 /dl this month. SXP pictures will be available for sales at www.photos.com in August and this caused a lot of controversy amongst contributors ( low price of EL and the impossibility to opt-out).
• DT. Very average month but on the positive side a new price structure is in place now so $/dl should increase, logically ….
• 123RF. Disappointing month again at 123RF where I did not even made $ 10 this month. Credit package sales did not change anything for me. RPI is 0.02 the lowest of the big six
  

1% or less of earnings: CT, SCP,CT,BSP. BSP and SCP are the only ones where I continue uploading.

• Big six ranking

$ : SS>IS>FT>SXP>DT>123RF

Performance (RPI): IS>SS>SXP>FT>DT>123RF

$/dl: SXP>FT>IS>DT>123RF>SS

Earning figures in USD

June 2008 earnings

It is being a year already that I am selling my picture on microstock agencies and report my earnings.
This month was pretty good considering I did not have any extended license sales and also no sales on midstock. I am down 13 % compare to last month but still above $ 300 for the total earnings. It was was record month in number of sales with 601. For the first time it is worth noticing that IS is number 2 just after SS.
So far I have significant earnings on 6 sites and if I had to pick 3 of them my choice would be SS,IS and SXP.
I joined YAYmicro this month and will join Image Vortex next month to try to get more value out of my portfolio by selling at higher prices.

• SS (+11%). BME. Another good month explained by quite a lot of uploads. Approval rate was 81 %. RPI stable compared to last month with 0.41. May batchRPI dropped from 2.08 to 0.85 taking 27% of the earnings this month.
  

• IS (+56%). BME. Earnings increased for the third consecutive month. Interestingly,one picture took more than 70% of the earnings! I expect to see flames in few weeks on this one :) RPI of 0.35 which is not far at all from SS. I reached the bronze canister in June with more than 250 dl's. The only advantage is that I have a higher upload limit now.
  

• FT. Better than last month but not quite what I would expect from FT. I had few sub sales as well making $/dl the lowest in few months. FT is simply not predictable at all ! RPI very low at 0.06. I noticed that sub sales concerned my last uploaded images.
  

• SXP. Equal my BME of last month there again.Approval times were very fast this month. The highest $/dl of all agencies with $1.85.
  

• DT BME by few dollars. Still at low RPI at 0.06. Earnings might go up next month again due to an upcoming price change and a change in picture levels.
  

• 123RF. The last of the pack this month , a big drop compared to May where i had 2 EL. Hope July will get better, earning seems to stalled otherwise... 600 + portfolio.

Low earners (less than 1 % of earnings)
BSP, CT. No sales at SCP this month for the fist time since i started there, pictures at no reviewed as well :(

* Big 6 rankings

$: SS>IS>FT>SXP>DT>123RF
Performance: SS>IS>SXP>DT=>FT>123RF
$/DL: SXP>FT>IS>DT>123RF>SS

Detailed earnings figures in USD.

May earnings

A record month for earnings which for the first time were above the $ 300 and closing down on the $ 400 mark....
4 BME on the big 6. 123RF performed very well this month due to two EL and the new price structure. SS came back to the first position with a record month in sales helped by the 32% increase in commission.
FT came down very hard but was better at the end of the month. It can explained by the fact the search engine was scrambled..... Apparently FT is also implementing a subscription package but at $ 0.23 it will be the lowest price in the industry, not good... So far it only possible to opt-out exclusives pictures, even worse.... That is what I did first.
BME at IS as well where the subscription package started the 26th but apparently sales were not credited yet.
SXP gave me the highest $ per regular dl's with $ 1.82 helping by some $ 5 sales (I still opt-out for sub there).
Regarding midstock one sale to rport at Zymmetrical for $ 19.6.

Microstock one by one

• SS (+72%). BME. Excellent month and with global performance coming back up again to the level it was last December. More than 400 pictures sold this month. performance 43 %

• 123RF (+559%). BME. Record month due to 2 EL at $ 36.5 each few days apart.$ per download of $ 3.4 the highest this month.
  

• IS (+21%) A good month at IS with a average of $ 0.87/dl this month and a global performance of 28 %.
  

• FT (-64%) Earnings clearly down this month and only number 4 this month.... $ 1.5 /dl
  

• SXP (+96%) BME. SXP continues its progression with an average of $ 1.82/dl (subscriptions opt-out). Global performance 11 %.
  

• DT (+9%). Stable compared to last month. Average return of $ 0.77/dl and global performance of 4 %.

Low earners (less than 2 % of earnings)
BSP (no sales this month) CSP ($ 0.75...) , SCP ( $1.5), CT ($ 1.5....), LO ( $ 0.4) RIP

* Big 6 rankings

$: SS>123RF>IS>FT>SXP>DT
Performance: SS>IS>123RF>SXP>FT>DT
$/DL: 123RF>SXP>FT>IS>DT

Detailed earnings Figures in USD. Note: 100 % global performance is defined by a portfolio with an average of sales of $ 1 per picture.

April Earnings

This is now my 10th consecutive earnings report and the best so far closing down on the $ 300 mark. For the first time, SS lost his number one spot over FT. All the other sites are performing as usual no surprise there. I got my first sale (11.97 euros) at Panthermedia with a very small portfolio which is encouraging.

The surprise this month in microstock was LO announcing that they will close down the 15th of May due to a lack of funding. Got one payout there and have so far $ 3.40 on the piggy which will probably get lost.... Other agencies are following this path and it looks like that on the long term, micro will evolve to midstock.
Next month should see an increase in earnings: SS will announce and implement its raise for its contributors in the first two weeks of May, I hope it will be something like $0.40.... IS will implement subscription at the end of the month (26th) and finally 123RF implements its new credit prices today the 2nd of May.
Go back to stats now with microstock one by one

Microstock one by one

• FT (+74%). BME. My best earner this month for the time since I started contributed to SS last August. A exceptional month at FT with good sales volume and a record of $ 2.57 per download due to an extended sale ($ 26, picture was exclusive to FT). Global performance of 14 %.

• SS (- 5%). Despite uploading new pictures, earnings do not increase like they did before , it is hard enough to maintain them.... Hopefully with the raise coming and more uploads it will possible to make $ 100 a month on SS. Global performance down to 29 %, an all time low.

• IS (+72%) A good month at IS with a average of $ 0.72/dl this month and a global performance of 27 % just behind SS...

• DT (+28 %). Not far from a BME this month. Average return of $ 0.85/dl and global performance of 4 %.

• 123RF (+31%) A dip in sales compared to last month but 123RF is pretty stable otherwise. Hopefully earnings will go up this month when the new credit prices will kick in this month. Performance of 3 % and average of $ 0.72/dl.

• SXP (+8%) BME. SXP continues its slow progression with an average of $ 1.44/dl (subscriptions opt-out). Global performance 6 %. 200 + portfolio this month.
  

Low earners (less than 2 % of earnings)
BSP, LO (RIP), SCP, CT (a slight improvement in sales this month). No sales at CSP for 2 months in a row (next to go down ??).

• Big 6 rankings

$: FT>SS>IS>DT>123RF>SXP

Performance: SS>IS>FT>SXP>DT>123RF

$/DL: FT>SXP>IS>123RF>DT>SS

Detailed earnings Figures in USD. Note: 100 % global performance is defined by a portfolio with an average of sales of $ 1 per picture.

March earnings

Highlights

For the first time since I started this blog, I had a drop in earnings of 14% but I am still above the $ 200 mark. Three BME at FT, SXP and 123RF and an EL at FT. Regarding midstock this month only one sale of $ 7 to report at Zymmetrical which is not bad considering it was a small size.

Some news in the microstock world this month: SXP and 123RF followed IS and FT in the increase of prices which is good news for contributors. SS is expected to implement a raise next month and it was the subject of a lot of discussion across the forums.
I will be interesting to follow SS this year to see if they will stick to the subscription model: a lot of photographers noticed a significant drop in sales at SS this year. I observed this also despite having from 0.25 to $ 0.30 and the upload of new pictures.
Because SXP in their new price structure include a XXXL size I am still opting out for subscription. I did the same at Snapvillage and decided for the time being to put all my pictures at $ 50 treating SV like midstock not microstock. However I do not have any sales to report it there.

Microstock one by one

• SS (- 19%). A significant drop in sales this month despite a raise at $ 0.3/dl early this month. It looks like SS is slowing declining , hopefully the coming new price structure will compensate some of it. Global performance down to 32 % which is the lowest since I starting uploading there.
  

• FT (+13%). BME. A good month at FT where the effect of the price increase are still there with an average $/dl close to $ 1.5. Global performance of 9 %.
  

• 123RF (+31%) BME A surprise 3rd place for 123rf. A lot of credit sales with few sales at $ 3.75 which is much higher than all the other sites for a 5MP picture. Performance of 5 % but a good $ 0.89/dl this month.
  

• IS (-47%) IS did not continue its progression of last month after the price increase. Less sales and a slight drop in $/dl explain this result. Good performance of 16%
  

• DT (-38%). Despite the fact the DT is my 3rd largest portfolio among my leading agencies, sales are not really following. I still do not have any level 2 images but the $/dl is not bad at $ 0.85. Performance at 4% so less than 123RF.

• SXP (+85%) BME helped by the new prices in place at the end of the month with the highest $/dl of all the major sites at $1.5 . Performance 7 %

Less than 3 % of earnings
BSP, LO, SCP, CT(1 sale at $ 0.25). No sales at CSP this month

• Big 6 rankings

$: SS>FT>123RF>IS>DT>SXP

Performance: SS>IS>FT>SXP>123RF>DT

$/DL: SXP>FT>123RF>IS>DT>SS








Detailed earnings Figures in USD. Note: 100 % global performance is defined by a portfolio with an average of sales of $ 1 per picture.

February earnings

Highlights

Very good month overall and with the help of my first referrals earnings I am now just above the $250 mark (+24%). 5 BME on the 5 main agencies. I saw this month a very positive effect of the price increase at FT and IS with return of more than $1/dl. I got for the first time 2EL at Shutterstock!

On a previous post I was speculating about the increase of the $/dl and it really happened this month with the highest I had so far with $0.69.

However nothing to report on the macro site this month, not a single sale despite the fact than one of my picture (green spiral staircase) is on the frontpage of Zymmetrical with few others.

Ranking $: SS>FT>IS>DT>123RF

Ranking performance: SS>IS>FT>DT>123RF

Ranking $/DL: SCP>FT>IS>LO>CSP

Microstock one by one

• SS (+37%). BME. My highest earner for the 7th consecutive month but % earnings continue to decrease down to 41% this month. I got not only one but two exclusive extended sales this month which is pretty unusual. Without them, SS would have taken just under 30% of earnings. Global performance 45%.
  

• FT (+29%) BME. A nice growth this month mainly due to the new prices put in place because I had less sales than the previous month. This is the highest $/download I ever had with $ 1.46 ($ 0.91 last month). Performance up to 8%.

• IS (+36%) BME. IS continue its growth and due to the price increase a very good return per image at 1 $/per download ($ 0.79 last month). I get more pictures accepted because of my better camera resolution now I think. Global performance up to 33%.
  

• DT (+71%). BME. A surprisingly good month with a significant decrease in subscriptions sales (4 out of 27) which gave a much higher $/dl than last month at $ 0.87

• 123RF (+40%). BME. I continue to be impressed by 123 RF , earnings are up this month again with almost a perfect split between subscription and credit sales.
• SXP (-11%) A slow month at SXP , sales did never really pick up since I started.
  
• Slow sites (less than 2% of sales each): BSP,CSP,CT,SCP,LO. LO and SCP are actually the best of this pack. Only sub sales at CT , I will pause my uploads there from now on.
  

• 379 pictures sold (229 on SS)
• Best day: $ 29.36 (25/02)
• Average per download: $0.63
• Global performance : 106 %

Detailed earnings Figures in USD. Note: 100 % global performance is defined by a portfolio with an average of sales of $ 1 per picture.