June 2009 earnings

Highlights

My top 6 agencies this month ranked by decreasing monthly earning:

1.IS
2.SS
3.FT
4.CSP
5.DT
6.SXP

A small decrease in earnings was observed compared to May (which was my BME) mainly due to the fact that I did not have any EL. For the second consecutive month IS is ahead of SS and I expect this difference to increase in the coming months. Shutterstock is at an all time low with a RPI of only 0.1 despite six on demand sales this month. Fotolia did better than normal, with just enough earnings to rank number three. With a new BME, Canstockphoto is not far behind followed by Dreamstime.

Stockxpert is on the decline and I do expect this to continue when the subscription scheme Jupiter/Photos cancellation will be kick in. 123RF,SCP and BSP have still low sales and no sales to report on new agencies YAY and Cutcaster:(
I got few sales at Panthermedia though which pushed my earnings very close to $400 this month.

I changed quite a bit my workflow this month using Isyndica platform which I found very useful especially when using a limited broadband access. Although SS and IS are not reported yet, a screenshot below shows respective earnings for the months of June 2008 and June 2009. I found also Deepmeta very useful to submit to IS and I hope to get to 500 pictures online in the near future.
The $ 500 milestone is within reach but I don't see it happening before September.


Figures in USD



June 2009 earnings (Isyndica screenshot)



June 2008 earnings (Isyndica screenshot)

May 2009 earnings

Highlights

Like last year, May sets up a new high for microstock earnings.The most strinking development is that after 24 months, SS lost its number spot to Istock. Two BME to report at IS and SCP this month and a record of $ 0.77 per dl.
I joined Isyndica this month to make my uploading task easier and spread pictures to more agencies . It will be interesting to see if it will help reach my long expected $ 500 target. I will blog on this subject later on.

Microstock one by one

• IS. Put all other agencies in the dust this month and sets the record for the most money made by one agency. Even without the 2 EL, IS would have end up ahead of SS. RPI=0.51
  

• SS. 9 OD's sales and just above $ 100 this month . Earnings down 20% compared to last year with 500 more pictures online ! Growing earnings at SS appear quite limited for the future.... SS represented this month only 25 % of my total earnings compared to 37% last year.
  

• FT. Back to number 3 spot but still on the same flat line despite continuous uploading....
  

• SXP. Down from last month but overall satisfying earnings. It looks like that since Getty got on board some files were desactivated because of IP problems. I noticed that some reviews were not very consistent this month.
  

• DT. Big drop this month , looks like level 2 and level 3 images are not selling anymore.....
  

• BSP and 123RF: quite far from DT in term of earnings with RPI of 0.01......

• Less than 1 % of earnings:CSP, CT (got my 1st payout :)

Earnings in USD

April 2009 earnings

Highlights

This month sets a new high for my microstock earnings just above the $ 400 mark (previous was in May 2008). Several sales contributed to that: 3 extended sales at SS,FT and DT (my first one), a first fotosearch credit sale at CSP. All this translated to 3 best months ever at DT,SXP and CSP and a new record of $ 0.76/dl in average. If 2009 follows the trend of last year sales, I expect May 2009 to be as good or better but we shall see...

Microstock agency ranking by $

• Shutterstock: 1 EL and 4 OD's sales this month, 1 zero sale day. It looks very difficult to increase earnings at SS despite a rather large number of new pictures added this month.
• Istock: Very similar to last month, but it always slow to growth my portfolio: upload limit combined with slow review and high rejection rate. Should take over SS one of this day if I manage to get more best sellers (my best seller made alone exactly $ 214.97 in one year with 164 dls).
• Stockxpert: For the first time in a while, credits sales were largely superior to subscription sales and a single image leads to a BME due to a favorable ranking in the search engine towards the middle of the month. It will interesting to follow up on this one !
• Dreamstime: My first EL there and quite a lot of regular downloads made a BME. Working towards a 1000+ pictures portfolio there.
• Fotolia: Despite constant uploading my earnings in FT did not really change in over a year: low search engine ranking ??? If it was not for a EL, FT would have been at the bottom...
  
• Canstockphoto: A nice fotosearch sale the last day of the month :) Hope to have 1000 + pictures on line soon.
• 123rf: An average month at 123rf, it is the first agency where I have 1000+ pictures on line.

Low earners this month with 1% or less of total sales are BSP, SCP and CT (I am 50 cents shy from my first payout there....). No sales to report at YAY and Cutcaster.

Earnings table (figures in US dollars)

Lookstat screenshot

March 2009 earnings

Highlights

A good solid month with a bit more than $ 300 earned  with microstock alone, not far from my BME in May 2008. Midstock added another $43 to the total. No BME this month but all big agencies performed well especially IS. Earnings are well up compared to last month and March 2008 with a new record of $ 0.7/dl in average. If it was not for 1 EL and 9 OD's sales, Shutterstock would have lost its number spot to IS this month. I had also one day with no sales.....
DT ranked third this month followed closely by FT and SXP. SXP looks like more and more like SS since most sales are from subscription. So far it looks like that my increase in earnings is coming from IS,DT and SXP. On the other hand, FT, BSP, 123RF earning curves are flat despite regular uploads..... I had my first download at Snapvillage for $ 15, I've completely forgot about this one......

Compared to March 2008 in ():

Total earnings: $ 325.76 ($ 209.51)
Pictures sold: 445 (402)
Average $/dl: 0.73 (0.52)
Global RPI : 0.82 (0.78)

February 2009 earnings

Highlights

For the time since I started microstock, my earnings were lower by few dollars compared to the same month last year. On a positive side, I had my first sale and Cutcaster and two new sales at YAY.
A good surprise came this month from midstock agencies taking a bit more than 25 % of total earnings including Panthermedia with 32 euros sales in total. Total earnings with midstock brought this month earnings above the $ 300 mark. I found Panthermedia to be a consistent seller in term of sales and type of pictures sold so I encourage to submit there and see what pictures of your portfolio they accept like I did.

Compared to February 2008 in ():

Total earnings: $ 238.33 ($ 239.18)
Pictures sold: 435 (379)
Average $/dl: 0.55 (0.63)
Global RPI : 0.46 (1.06)


Microstock one by one

Shutterstock . Less than 30% of microstock earnings this month way down compared to February last year. It is the first time since I joined Shutterstock that I did not reach a payout.... Only 2 OD sales this month

Istockphoto. Earnings slighty better than last month with a RPI of 0.16 the highest of all the microstock agencies

Fotolia.Number 3 only because I sold a bunch of old and ugly pictures for 0.5 credit each

Dreamstime. One of the most consistent agency this past months in term of earnings and very close to a BME. Above average rejection rate this month though.....

Stockxpert. Earnings are in the normal range this range although a lot of sales came from subscriptions.

A lot of action in low earners this month: 4 BME to report at Crestock, Yaymicro,Cutcaster and Scanstockphoto.

123RF and BSP joined the rank of the low earners this month but all of them made a non negligeable 15 % of earnings. . I had my first sale in 7 months in CSP as I uploaded my entire portfolio there after the Fotosearch acquisition.

Lookstat screenshot

January 2009 earnings

Highlights

A good month in term of earnings considering the slow start of the month and the fact that I did not have any EL and sales in midtock. Among the 10 agencies, I had only one BME at Dreamstime. RPI went up so does volume of sales from last month. However compared to the same period last year, RPI is only half its value and volume of sales about the same despite the fact that I have a larger number of pictures on line.

Compared to January 2008 in ():

Total earnings: $ 265.08 ($ 179.26)
Pictures sold: 462 (446)
Average $/dl: 0.58 (0.42)
Global RPI : 0.48 (0.89)

• Shutterstock. A good month above the $ 100 mark again due a large number of OD sales which represent 15 % of the earnings, up from 5-8 % normally RPI=0.17. I had however my first 0 sale day ever this month.
  
• Istockphoto. Sales are getting better again. IS new price structure certainly boosted my earnings.RPI=0.16
  
• Fotolia. Very close to the second position this month and earnings. RPI=0.05
  
• Dreamstime. A BME by few dollars hope it continues this way. RPI = 0.04
  
• Stockxpert. A lot of sub sales this month since I had a only 6 credit sales on 45 sales. RPI=0.03
  
• Bigstockphoto . Dissapointing month with earnings lower than in december
• 123RF. Dissapointing month as well, a bit better than last month but still far from past performances....
  

Less than 1%: SCP (no sales this month),CSP,CT


On the midstock front no sales this like I mentioned earlier. I have 500 pictures on line now on YAY and decided to hold uploads now on. I give a bit more time to Cutcaster but still wait for my first sale there. I hope Zymmetrical and Panthermedia will pick up next month....



Stats

Lookstat screenshot January 2009

The trends of this month are clearly visible on this screenshot from Lookstat. FT should be added shortly to the list of agencies and it worth mentioning that Lookstat implemented a new feature this month to track earnings per picture. I will do a post about this later on but it is definitely a very good tool to analysis strengh and weakness of a portfolio.

Detailled earnings January 2009 (figures in USD)

December 2008 earnings

Highlights

As expected, a slow month in microstock especially during the second half of the month .Looking at the yearly graph, earnings dropped from September despite adding new pictures which is the opposite of last year. Compared to december 2007 most agencies are down also.
This month is the 2nd worst month of the year for earnings, the lowest RPI and $/dl with just below $ 200 for microstock. Quite unusual month as I did not have BME in the big 6 this month. No help from extended sales but a sale a panthermedia brings total earnings to almost $220. I also had my first payout there. Shutterstock was the only agency not be affected this month. I definitely looking forward to january to see an increase in downloads!

Compared to December 2007 in ():

Total earnings: $ 192.47 ($ 163.46)
Pictures sold: 383 (446)
Average $/dl: 0.50 (0.37)
Global RPI : 0.38 (0.90)

• Shutterstock. A pretty good month considering the slow down at the end of the year, SS takes almost 50% of the earnings this month. As last, I sold less pictures this december than the one last year but because of the higher commission earnings are few dollars up. On demand sales made up for 5 % of the earnings.RPI=0.16.
• Istockphoto. Very similar to last mont with RPI of 0.11 hopefully IS will pick up again next month. Got my first sub sale there for $ 0.19.
  
• Fotolia. A big drop compared to the last two months at Fotolia. Very RPI at 0.02
• Dreamstime. A bit slower than last month. RPI 0.02.
• Stockxpert. A decrease compared to last month despite my first ppd sales of $ 7.5 via photos.com. RPI of 0.02
• Bigstockphoto . Not bad considering the performance of other stocks. RPI 0.01

CT had a BME but still under 2 % of total earning. I tried to resume my uploading but got 100% rejection! I think I will just for my first payout there !
Less than 1%: SCP,CSP


Stats

For the first time, I include this month stats provided by Lookstat that I joined recently. At the moment it allows to track the stats of SS,DT and IS. I had Rahul Pathak , CEO of Lookstats,on the phone recently to give him some feedback. Exciting developments are on the way, the ultimate goal being to move away to the classical Excel spreadsheet. Some features like tracking earning by keywords across agencies would a powerful tool since it very difficult or impossible to do that manually . FT will be added next as well as more flexiblity about the date periods selection.