Experiment 5: keywords analysis

I just did a simple analysis of the keywords on the pictures I submitted the last 6 months to get a quick snapshot. I performed a search for the relevant keywords on my database using Prostockmaster then divided each number of hits by two to calculate the font size.
As expected as I have plenty of building pictures on my portfolio the popular keywords are architecture,buildings,glass,blue,sky....
On the same topic, DT just introduced a new feature allowing the photographer to know what keywords customers used to find and buy pictures, it will be certainly a valuable information to have.

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 ?

December earnings

Highlights

At this time of year, it is usual to look back: beside the financial aspect, stock photography was clearly beneficial in a number of points with probably the most important is the improvement of my photo and software editing skills (especially HDR). Also got a better understanding of what kind of pictures are selling on what websites.

Microstock industry is very changing and it is difficult to make predictions but it is safe to assume that in 2008,Shutterstock, Istockphoto, Dreamstime and Fotolia will generate the most revenue. Next year will be critical for a lot of new microstock or midstock agencies and some of them have clearly less and less time to deliver. Finally it will be interesting to the evolution of prices since I stockphoto put in place a new table of prices.

To go back to December, the month was good with a comforting 14 % growth in earnings compared to November and a second half of the month significantly slower due to the holiday period. Three BME at SS,SXP and DT.

Microstock one by one

• SS (+23%) BME. The biggest earner for the fifth consecutive month and an increase in sales proportional to the number of new uploads. For the first time I sold more than 300 pictures a month and reached also 1000 downloads. I had also my best day ever with 34 sales. Global performance up to 54 % this month
• FT (-25%) Despite one EL (the first in almost six months), earnings went down 25 %. Performance just under 5 %.
• DT (+221%) BME. A very good month and for the first time, DT performed better than FT (just over 7%).Very important also to note, the $/dl almost doubled and was this month $ 1 very close to FT. At this pace I believe than DT will become number 2 earner very soon.
• IS (-15.6%) A bit slower this month but managed to get more pictures this month(+10)
• SXP (+15%) A slight increase this month. 100+ portfolio. Performance 3.8 % no far from FT
• Slow sites (less than 3% of sales): LO (1 sale), BSP (1 sale), CSP (2 sales),CT (2 sales)

No downloads yet on the new midstock agencies with 100 pictures on MP, 17 on ZY and 10 on PS.

Detailed earnings Figures in USD. Note: 100 % global performance is defined by a portfolio with an average of sales of $ 1 per picture. Ratio DL/IS is the ratio of all the time downloads over the total pictures of portfolio


% earnings for each microstock




Best seller december : $ 11.52

Miscellaneous stats

• 445 pictures sold (361 on SS)
• 1 EL on FT
• Days without sales: 0
• Best day: $ 14.84 (18/12)
• Most pictures sold in one day: 38
• Top seller made $ 11.52
• Average per download: $0.37
• Global performance : 89.9 %