Microstock July 2008 Update

It looks like this should be the month I switch over to reporting only monthly earnings.  I almost doubled my entire previous earnings with 48 downloads raking in $27.85, giving me a total from microstock of $61.37.  Guess I wont be getting any new camera equipment for a while.  I would like to cover some of cost of the Nikon 18-200 VR lens I bought recently.  The way the earnings are being made across several sites makes it look like I’m still several months from a payout.

The horse picture I refered to in my post Microstock RPI (return per image) actually accounts for a large portion of this months earnings.  It was 2 of the 3 downloads from Stockxpert for $6.50 and several downloads on ShutterStock.  The other big picture for the month was another animal shot, namely our wonderful alpaca cria that was born recently.  The head shot was the EL from Fotolia and the only download for the month from IStockPhoto.  And I didn’t think alpaca shots would sell very well!

Overall I’m really pleased with my results for the month.  I’m still working out a workflow that will hopefully allow me to get some more consistent uploads, especially to SS, but to also build my portfolios on the other sites.  Verizon finally made DSL available in my area so it’s a big help actually having broadband at home and not having the take the files to work an upload them.  Actually one of my goals now is to get my microstock earnings to cover the cost of it on a monthly basis.

It’s still July somewhere but I think I’m pretty safe to post this a couple hours before midnight at the international dateline.  Maybe some one from Hawaii will buy one in the next couple hours and I’ll have to edit the post.

Sites	Portfolio Size	Downloads	Balance	Comments
Fotolia	144	2	$8.25	I doubled my balance here with only two sales.  Got my first EL which accounts for $6.60 of the total.
IStockPhoto	55	1	$2.10
Crestock	21	0	$0.00	The only thing that changes as this site is my portfolio size.
ShutterStock	54	42	$10.50	Didn’t nearly as many new ones on here as I had hoped.
Stockxpert	99	3	$7.00	Still trying to figure this site out.  Have gotten several images online, but not working with it effeciently
Dreamstime	14	0	$0.00
123RF	110	0	$0.00
Totals	Avg.71	48	$27.85

Here’s a couple other blogs I follow that report their earnings:

Microstock Diaries
Nil to Mil
Pixels Away
Captured Little Moments  <–  Just found and added

Allen

Tags: earnings, microstock, Photography
Posted in Photography | 2 Comments »

Microstock June 2008 Update

I did okay getting some more images added to my portfolios in the beginning of June, but with preparations for and a vacation at the end of June I didn’t get much done then.  Hopefully in July I’ll be getting some of the stock worthy shots from vacation uploaded.

I have been reading that the summer months are usually a little slower in microstock.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make up for that with additional uploads and have more there for when things pick back up in the fall.

I really want to hit getting images onto ShutterStock.  With only 39 images, which is less than my average portfolio size, it accounts for almost half my overall earnings.  I still want to give some of the other sites a chance but I just can’t seem to get many images accepted Crestock and Dreamstime.

Sites	Portfolio Size	Downloads	Balance	Comments
Fotolia	138	14	$8.25
IStockPhoto	52	6	$7.06
Crestock	11	0	$0.00
ShutterStock	39	71	$17.85	My first week accepted here back in May was better than the entire month of June.  I didn’t get nearly as many pictures on as I would have liked in June though.
Stockxpert	67	0	$0.00	Still trying to figure this site out.  Have gotten several images online, but not working with it effeciently
Dreamstime	14	0	$0.00
123RF	90	1	$0.36
Totals	Avg.58.7	92	$33.52

Here’s a couple other blogs I follow that report their earnings:

Microstock Diaries
Nil to Mil
Pixels Away

Allen

Tags: earnings, microstock, Photography
Posted in Photography | No Comments »

Microstock May 2008 Update

I haven’t really done a lot in getting my numbers of pictures increased this month. My big news this month is that I finally got accepted on ShutterStock and StockXpert. ShutterStock has been doing very well for me as you’ll see in the table below, I’ll take ShutterStock over Lucky Oliver any day. I’ve been accepted on StockXpert but haven’t gotten any pictures in my portfolio yet, not sure if I didn’t submit them correctly or if they just are really slow at getting them reviewed. Would have been nice if the initial five I submitted for approval would have gone right to portfolio, but that doesn’t appear to be the way that site works.

In the last couple days I did finally get some more shots together that I will upload, just need to do the post processing and keywording.

I should point out that these numbers are my career TOTALS not just the totals for May. When I get some more consistent downloads and earnings I’ll switch to monthly numbers.

Here’s a couple other blogs I follow, hopefully someday my earnings will rival some of theirs:

Microstock Diaries: Microstock Results for May 2008
Nil to Mil: May 2008 Microstock Earnings
Pixels Away: Microstock Photography Earnings Report for May 2008

Allen

Tags: earnings, microstock, Photography, portfolio
Posted in Photography | No Comments »