Statistics of February

February has became my second best month in earnings for me. I have had 101 downloads with no more than 381 images online. Even though the number of downloads raised a little it is still far away from the record of last August. I have got 10 new accepted images, this is the lowest amount since I have started microstock. These ten images were mainly related to easter, but I also made a few on the current local festival.

I have got my first extended license sale at Shutterstock. Without this sale this month would have been even worse than the previous one. With the extended license sale at Shutterstock I have got a new BME there since last August. Shutterstock was gaining a little momentum over last month with an extra 10 sales even further in earnings. I was hoping better consistency at iStockphoto, however my sales dropped dramatically there from the BME in January, I hope this is not going to be a trend. Based on the earnings results iStockphoto has even lost its monthly crown against Shutterstock. Dreamstime has sold 17 files in a short month that is a new record there, however these sales are either subscriptions or one credit sales so the BME of december seems far away. As for Fotolia I cannot say any good news, its already bad performance has degraded even further.

Here you can find the details for my report:

Agency	Portfolio size	Downloads	Earnings ($)	Change	Views
Fotolia	345	4 sub, 3 OD	2.55	-33%	1296 (~)
Dreamstime	291	15 sub, 2 OD	5.81	+64%	218 (up)
Shutterstock	381	64 sub, 1 OD, 1EL	45.88	+182%	N/A
iStockPhoto	235	11 OD	13.03	-49%	3292 (up)

My multi-site view/download figure is 137 views/download in the month (116 views/download all time). Since I reporting this number this is the first time it decreases significantly. This is mainly because of the high amount of sales at Dreamstime. iStockphoto is back to the league of 300 views/download. Fotolia has barely changed in this figure. As an opposite Dreamstime has almost doubled the number of views on my portfolio, so their views/download figure has been increasing a little.

As I already reported it on my previous statistics page the only agency that I can count on is ShutterStock. This is still the case, however this time it seems iStockphoto could be a good performer even though its fall this month (they are still in the second best earner position with a large margin). My strategy of uploading to iStockphoto all my work accepted by other agencies finally seems to starts paying. My portfolio at iStock have almost reached the 250th accepted photo. In the middle of the month I have already predicted that my earnings would drop significantly at iStockphoto, thus I figured I need some new technique on attract buyers. This new technique is the introduction of my thematic private lightboxes that are referred from all the images they hold. I plan to introduce these lightboxes in this blog soon. They are still in their youth however I can see that they are already generating some further clicks.

At the end of this blog entry I put my total earnings comparison after the end of February. Since I have started at the different agencies at different times I have scaled the earnings down to an average day on each agency in its past year. On this figure you can see that agencies except ShutterStock started to get equalized results. iStockphoto is a little bit stronger than Fotolia or Dreamstime but the difference is still small compared to the overall result of Shutterstock. Trends of the past three-four months show that I am probably going to have the ranking stabilized as I have it today.
So here is my current agency ranking:

1. ShutterStock (-)
   
2. iStockPhoto (-)
   
3. Dreamstime (-)
   
4. Fotolia (-)

Statistics of January

January has suffered a major setback in earnings for me. The saver of the month was iStockphoto where I have had my new BME. Shutterstock was falling even further in earnings. And this month both Dreamstime and Fotolia was performing so badly that I have not seen this bad sales since last June-July. I have had 82 downloads with no more than 371 images online. The number of downloads has decreased significantly since December because of the fall of Shutterstock. I have got 20 new accepted images. This month I have made only two new series, both were short ones. I have seen quite high interest about my Pécs series that covers 2010's European cultural capital. So I also decided to add some further images to my portfolio about Pécs. Shutterstock performed so badly again that it has lost the monthly crown for the second time I have been selling stock photos. But instead of Dreamstime this time the crown went to iStockphoto with a large margin.

Here you can find the details for my report:

Agency	Portfolio size	Downloads	Earnings ($)	Change	Views
Fotolia	336	1 sub, 4 OD	3.8	-76%	1275 (up)
Dreamstime	276	5 sub, 2 OD	3.54	-82%	110 (up)
Shutterstock	371	50 sub, 2 OD	16.26	-11%	N/A
iStockPhoto	197	18 OD	25.45	+109%	2938 (up)
StockXpert	344	NONE	0	-100%	2650 (up)

My multi-site view/download figure is 232 views/download in the month (113 views/download all time). This figure has also suffered a major increase mainly because of StockXpert, where I have seen an unprecedented increase in views that did not result downloads at all. iStockphoto made a huge comeback by lowering its 340 views/download figure from the past month to an almost average 163 views/download.

As I already reported it on my previous statistics page the only agency that I can count on is ShutterStock. This is still the case, however this time it seems iStockphotos good performance might lead to a second regular performer. My strategy of uploading to iStockphoto all my work accepted by other agencies finally seems to starts paying because of the steady growth of earnings since last August. My portfolio at iStock have almost reached the 200th accepted photo. Previously it seemed like they don't like my work, however the newly submitted photos have a quite high acceptance rate for me (around 80%).

Unfortunately it seems like even though I have had high hopes for StockXpert they started to drop in earnings and this month they have reached the unprecedented 0 donwloads. This low amount of sales did not happen since I have started to upload to them... Last month I decided that unless they start to bring some "significant" money in soon, I will not even upload to them anymore. I beleive this will be the case if they are not going to sell anything in Febryary.

At the end of this blog entry I put my total earnings comparison after the end of January. Since I have started at the different agencies at different times I have scaled the earnings down to an average day on each agency in its past year. On this figure you can see that agencies except ShutterStock started to get equalized results. As a result of December's bonanza at Dreamstime and Fotolia, they postponed iStockphoto to achieve its awaited second place till this month. My overall ranking however seems to get really unstable for the bottom _three_ places because their daily earnings are really close (the difference between the lowest and the highest ranked agencies is just over 30%). In the coming months I hope these agencies will get more stable earners, as a result they will be more stable in ranking.
So here is my current agency ranking:

1. ShutterStock (-)
   
2. iStockPhoto (^, was 3rd)
   
3. Dreamstime (v, was 2nd)
   
4. Fotolia (-)
5. StockXpert (-)

Statistics of December

December became my BME so far, thanks to the BMEs at iStockphoto, Dreamstime and Fotolia. The past month became BME even though my Shutterstock income suffered a major breakdown. I have had 101 downloads with no more than 355 images online. The number of downloads has decreased significantly since November because of the fall of Shutterstock. I have got 22 new accepted images. This month I have made only two new series, so I lowered my upload average a little bit, however this month I have reached my best acceptance ratio so far (for example I have had only a single rejection at Dreamstime). PPD has peaked at all agencies this month. I have had two series of sales at Dreamstime and also at Fotolia. Without these sales Dreamstime would have closed an above average month, meanwhile Fotolia would have seen troubles again. In case of Dreamstime one of my images just reached the second level. Shutterstock performed so badly that it has lost the monthly crown for the first time I have been selling stock photos. Therefore in December the best earner agency of the month is Dreamstime.

Here you can find the details for my report:

Agency	Portfolio size	Downloads	Earnings ($)	Change	Views
Fotolia	324	4 OD, 4EL	15.3	+446%	1193 (~)
Dreamstime	270	2 sub, 12 OD	19.18	+140%	97 (down)
Shutterstock	355	62 sub, 2 OD	18.24	-31%	N/A
iStockPhoto	150	8 OD	12.12	+87%	2726 (up)
StockXpert	324	7 sub	2.1	-40%	1361 (up)

My multi-site view/download figure is 145 views/download in the month (96 views/download all time). This figure has also suffered a major increase mainly because of iStockPhoto, where I have seen an unprecedented increase in views that did not result downloads. As an opposite Dreamstime made a league of its own by breaking the 7 view/download barrier in December.

As I already reported it on my previous statistics page the only agency that I can count on is ShutterStock. This is still the case. Unfortunately it seems like even though I have had high hopes for StockXpert they started to drop in earnings and now they are cancelling most of my income from them by dropping subscriptions entirely. They suggested that if I would like to have subscription sales then they would cut the already low fixed rate of 0.3 to 0.25. This drop does not seem to be bad on first sight in my case since Shutterstock subs earn the same amount for me today, however at Shutterstock I have perspective. So I have opted out from the new subscription model of SXP, and I also decided that unless they start to bring some "significant" money in soon I will not even upload to them anymore.

My strategy of uploading to iStockphoto all my work accepted by other agencies finally seems to starts paying. This month was BME but the number of downloads did not change even though I have uploaded quite a lot to them. My portfolio at iStock have just passed the 150 accepted photos. Previously it seemed like they don't like my work, however the newly submitted photos have a quite high acceptance rate for me

At the end of this blog entry I put the my total earnings comparison after the end of November. Since I have started at the different agencies at different times I have scaled the earnings down to an average day on each agency. On this figure you can see that agencies except ShutterStock started to get equalized results. As a result of this months bonanza at Dreamstime and Fotolia, they really get a boost, and even though I thought iStockphoto is going to climb to the second place this month, it did not happen because of the strong competition from Dreamstime. My overall ranking however seems to get really unstable for the bottom _four_ places because their daily earnings are really close (the difference between the lowest and the highest ranked agencies is just 15%). In the coming months I hope these agencies will get more stable earners, as a result they will be more stable in ranking.
So here is my current agency ranking:

1. ShutterStock (-)
   
2. Dreamstime (^, was 4th)
   
3. iStockPhoto (-)
   
4. Fotolia (^, was 5th)
5. StockXpert (v, was 2nd)

Statistics of November

November has had slightly better results than October, but it was still far away from September's bonanza. These results are mostly coming from the almost identical month at Shutterstock and BMEs from Dreamstime and iStockphoto. But I am still under $50 in earnings from all the sites in a single month. I have had 130 downloads with no more than 333 images online. The number of downloads has decreased a little bit. I have got 26 new accepted images. Since I have started this is the least productive months of mine from the shooting point of view. This month I tried to produce more images, so I have almost reached my upload average. My PPD at Fotolia has drastically fallen to the previously unseen level of July, as a result I have sold more photos than I did in October but I have earned less. I wrote about Fotolia's good progress last month, however since then they have slowed down dramatically, maybe because they don't really like my non isolated shots and they were dominant this month. Other interesting observation that more than half of my monthly earnings from Fotolia and Dreamstime occurred at the first 5-6 days of the month (at least in my past four months).

Here you can find the details for my report:

Agency	Portfolio size	Downloads	Earnings ($)	Change	Views
Fotolia	310	4 sub, 2 OD	2.8	-7%	1219 (up)
Dreamstime	247	6 sub, 4 OD	7.97	+22%	123 (down)
Shutterstock	333	95 sub, 2 OD	26.54	-2%	N/A
iStockPhoto	114	1 sub, 5 OD	6.46	+48%	1281 (~)
StockXpert	305	10 sub, 1 OD	3.5	-35%	1098 (up)

My multi-site view/download figure is 113 views/download in the month (86 views/download all time). This figure has also suffered a major increase mainly because of StockXpert. I am now almost sure that Fotolia (203/downs this month, 175 all time) and iStockPhoto (213/downs, 132 all time) counts the number of views of a photo differently.

As I already reported it on my previous statistics page the only agency that I can count on is ShutterStock. However, in the past months StockXpert seemed like it can become the second stable earner. Of course I came too late to StockXpert, because my majority of my earnings was coming from Photos.com and Jupiterimages Unlimited subscription sales. Since the removal of Photos.com my sales figures has almost halved. So I am still really interested whether the StockXpert sales alone would result similar sales. For the record here are the details of November: Photos.com Sub 5, Jupiterimages Unlimited sub 5 and finally I have got a single StockXpert OD sale. This seems a definite problem after they also remove Jupiterimages sales. Without these sites I would barely have a single download. This is worrying, especially for a site that I have had such high hopes for.

My strategy of uploading to iStockphoto all my work accepted by other agencies finally seems to starts paying. This month was BME and the number of downloads also reached a number where the earnings seem to become more sustainable. My portfolio at iStock have just passed the 100 accepted photos. Previously it seemed like they don't like my work, however the newly submitted photos have a quite high acceptance rate for me.

At the end of this blog entry I put the my total earnings comparison after the end of November. Since I have started at the different agencies at different times I have scaled the earnings down to an average day on each agency. On this figure you can see that agencies except ShutterStock started to get equalized results. If Fotolia does not catch up soon it will be hardly enough to catch up with the now decreasing sales volume of StockXpert. This month I have not seen any movement in the ranking, however iStockphoto starts to reach StockXpert and soon it will be again second in my stats.
So here is my current agency ranking:

1. ShutterStock (-)
   
2. StockXpert (-)
   
3. iStockPhoto (-)
   
4. Dreamstime (-)
5. Fotolia (-)

Statistics of October

October could not beat September results for me. As a result I am again under $50 in earnings from all the sites in a single month. I have had 133 downloads with no more than 309 images online. The number of downloads has increased a little bit. I have got 29 new accepted images. Since I have started this is the least productive months of mine from the shooting point of view. I only made around half of the submitted images in the recent month. I made the others during August and July, back then I did not have the time to publish all the images I shoot, so now it was time to submit them. If I would not have two OD downloads early in the month Shutterstock would have produced little less money than last month. I wrote about Fotolia's good progress last month, however since then they have slowed down dramatically, maybe because they don't really like my non isolated shots and they were dominant this month. Other interesting observation that most of my earnings from Fotolia and Dreamstime are from the first 5-6 days of the month (at least in my past three months).

Here you can find the details for my report:

Agency	Portfolio size	Downloads	Earnings ($)	Change	Views
Fotolia	294	2 sub, 2 OD	3.05	-65%	982 (down)
Dreamstime	218	3 sub, 4 OD	6.5	-17%	136 (down)
Shutterstock	309	93 sub, 2 OD	27.06	+7%	N/A
iStockPhoto	80	8 OD	4.35	0%	1262 (up)
StockXpert	279	18 sub	5.4	-45%	714 (~)

My multi-site view/download figure is 81 views/download in the month (79 views/download all time). Dreamstime and StockXpert here still contributes a lot. I am now almost sure that Fotolia (245/downs this month, 170 all time) and iStockPhoto (151/downs, 134 all time) counts the number of views of a photo differently.

As I already reported it on my previous statistics page the only agency that I can count on is ShutterStock. However, StockXpert had more frequent downloads, so I could almost count on it two-three times a week. Of course I came too late to StockXpert, because according to other blogs and forums their merger just starts to show its results. So I am still really interested how do my overall sales figure will turn up at the end of the coming months there. For the record here are the details of October: Photos.com Sub 11 and finally Jupiterimages Unlimited sub 7. This seems a definite problem for the future because I read it several times that these two sites will not offer images from StockXpert anymore. Without them I would not even have a single download which is worrying, especially for a site that I have had such high hopes for.

The next paragraph is a recap from last month, unfortunately nothing changed since then, even though the number of accepted photos now are almost reaching 100: I also changed my upload strategy for iStockPhoto because others report sales comparable to ShutterStock there. And I also have surprisingly high rpi there. So now I started to submit all of the photos I have managed to get accepted somewhere. Previously it seemed like they don't like my work, however the newly submitted photos have a quite high acceptance rate for me. The earnings figures however did not change too much.

At the end of this blog entry I put the my total earnings comparison after the end of October. Since I have started at the different agencies at different times I have scaled the earnings down to an average day on each agency. On this figure you can see how much StockXpert gained even in a single month. Also iStockPhoto started to drop a place which is probably because the small amount of photos I have uploaded so far (the new uploads does not seem to catch downloads so fast).
So here is my current agency ranking:

1. ShutterStock (-)
   
2. StockXpert (-)
   
3. iStockPhoto (-)
   
4. Dreamstime (was 5th in Sept)
5. Fotolia (was 4th in Sept)

Statistics of September

Updated with the number of views and analysis.

September was BME on Fotolia, Dreamstime and StockXpert for me. And this was the first time I have earned more than $50 from all the sites in a single month. I have had 132 downloads with no more than 280 images online. I have got 21 new accepted images. Since I have started this is one of the least productive months of mine. Even though I slowed down submissions there was an increase on monthly total earnings at all agencies save ShutterStock. Shutterstock started to produce more countable income with 3-4 downloads every day. Fotolia is getting interesting because since April I always earn more there.

Here you can find the details for my report:

Agency	Portfolio size	Downloads	Earnings ($)	Change	Views
Fotolia	273	2 sub, 4 OD, 1 EL	8.7	+45%	1238
Dreamstime	199	3 sub, 4 OD	7.83	+347%	198
Shutterstock	280	101 sub	25.25	-22%	N/A
iStockPhoto	43	4 OD	4.33	+375%	501
StockXpert	265	11 sub, 2 OD	9.8	+113%	725

My multi-site view/download figure is 88 views/download in the month (79 views/download all time). Dreamstime and StockXpert here still contributes a lot. Even though Fotolia has increased the earnings significantly its views/download figure is still around 200... It seems like Fotolia and maybe iStockPhoto counts the number of views of a photo differently.

As I already reported it on my previous statistics page the only agency that I can count on is ShutterStock. This has not jet changed, but in case Fotolia holds on to its steady growth for the coming months then it will be my second agency to provide useful income. As you have seen from this month figures the others are still heavily jumping back and forth, so I cannot count on them too much right now. However, surprisingly StockXpert reached second place with the same amount of downloads that we have seen in last month. I start to believe that StockXpert buyers like my images more than the other fluctuating agencies. Of course I came too late to StockXpert, because according to other blogs and forums their merger just starts to show its results. So I am still really interested how do my overall sales figure will turn up at the end of the coming months there. For the record here are the details of September: StockXpert PPD 2, StockXpert Sub 5, Photos.com Sub 4 and finally Jupiterimages Unlimited sub 2.

I also changed my upload strategy for iStockPhoto because others report sales comparable to ShutterStock there. And I also have surprisingly high rpi there. So now I started to submit all of the photos I have managed to get accepted somewhere. Previously it seemed like they don't like my work, however the newly submitted photos have a quite high acceptance rate for me. The earnings figures however did not change too much.

At the end of this blog entry I put the my total earnings comparison after the end of September. Since I have started at the different agencies at different times I have scaled the earnings down to an average day on each agency. On this figure you can see how much StockXpert gained even in a single month. Also iStockPhoto started to drop a place which is probably because the small amount of photos I have uploaded so far (the new uploads does not seem to catch downloads so fast).

So here is my current agency ranking:

1. ShutterStock (-)
   
2. StockXpert (was 3rd in Aug)
3. iStockPhoto (was 2nd in Aug)
   
4. Fotolia (-)
5. Dreamstime (-)

Statistics of August

August was BME on Fotolia, Shutterstock, and StockXpert for me. I have had 148 downloads with no more than 259 images online. I have got 60 new accepted images. This is almost comparable to the number of accepted images in June (which was 70). Even though there was an increase on submissions my monthly total earnings were not increasing at all agencies. On first of August my 23 day long download record has not counted further. But my downloads only stalled for a single day and it turned out that only 1st of August finished without downloads in the entire month. So now I have a new record still running and it is now on its 30th day. Therefore if this tendency is not broken soon I would count the days where I have had more downloads than a single one.

Here you can find the details for my report:

Agency	Portfolio size	Downloads	Earnings ($)	Change	Views
Fotolia	251	1 sub, 3 OD, 1 EL	6	+79%	1117
Dreamstime	168	5 sub	1.75	-74%	211
Shutterstock	259	123 sub, 1 OD	32.43	+73%	N/A
iStockPhoto	9	2 OD	0.91	-85%	115
StockXpert	236	12 sub, 1 OD	4.6	+1433%	624

I usually monitor the number of views on my images also, and from now on I plan to include the views column my the statistics. My multi-site view/download figure is still around 85 views/downloads, thanks to StockXpert. Fotolia's figure has dropped significantly first since I have started to calculate this number, and now instead of 135views/downloads now I measure 156. And these are the all time figures this month Fotolias monthly average has gone over 200!

As I already reported it on my previous statistics page the only agency that I can count on is ShutterStock. As you have seen from this month figures the others are heavily jumping back and forth, so I cannot count on them too much right now. However, surprisingly StockXpert starts to rise the volume of its sales for me. It might happen that StockXpert buyers like my images more than the other fluctuating agencies. Of course I came too late to StockXpert, because according to other blogs and forums their merger just starts to show its results. So I am really interested how do my overall sales figure will turn up at the end of the coming months there. For the record here are the details of August: StockXpert PPD 1, StockXpert Sub 4, Photos.com Sub 7 and finally Jupiterimages Unlimited sub 1.

At the end of this blog entry I put the my total earnings comparison after the end of August. Since I have started at the different agencies at different times I have scaled the earnings down to an average day on each agency. On this figure you can see how much StockXpert gained even in a single month.
So here is my current agency ranking:

1. ShutterStock (-)
   
2. iStockPhoto (-)
   
3. StockXpert (was 5th in July)
   
4. Fotolia (-)
   
5. Dreamstime (was 3rd in July)

Statistics of july

July was BME on all agencies for me. I have had 86 downloads with no more than 199 images online. I have submitted 34 new images. This is a huge drop on the number of submitted images compared to more than 70 in june. Even though there was a drop on submissions my monthly total earnings on all agencies got doubled. I have broke my record of 9 consecutive days with downloads. The new record is still running and it is now on its 23 day.

Here you can find the details for my report:

Agency	Portfolio size	Downloads	Earnings ($)	Change
Fotolia	198	7 sub, 3 OD	3.35	+86%
Dreamstime	126	3 sub, 4 OD	4.94	+312%
Shutterstock	199	64 sub, 2 OD	18.69	+55%
iStockPhoto	8	2 OD	6.09	inf
StockXpert	176	1 sub	0.3	inf

I usually monitor the number of views on my images also. I started to submit to StockXpert late june because I have seen a serious drop on the number of views at Dreamstime. Later on I have realized that Dreamstime changed the algorithm behind logging views. But I was afraid of the possible drop on sales, so I have chosen another popular agency. StockXpert did not have any sales in June because I have had very few images submitted back then. But now I am a little disappointed that with my full portfolio it still did not produce so many downloads.

Fotolia has a really good way to monitor the views on the portfolio, so from the very beginning I have tried to make predictions on downloads based on the view count. Earlier I have had 190views/download, but nowadays this number seems to decrease and it is already at 135views/download. This is an all time figure, however I have also counted it for monthly periods and this month I have had it at 85views/download. I have also started to take notes on the views number at Dreamstime and iStockPhoto. Since I have more downloads on Dreamstime I can calculate a meaningful number now: 19.5views/download. Unlike Fotolia I have not had time to check how accurate this number is (especially after the recent changes in view counts at Dreamstime). On Fotolia I really get a download around every 135 views (+/- 30 views usually).

I think if the downloads will be more frequent, then the number of views will not be that interesting for the statistics. However for example on iStockPhoto I have not had any downloads in June, so all I could measure was the number of views - this is the reason the value of change column for iStockPhoto is infinite. Later on the only reason to still have a look on the number of views would be the identification of those photos that have good keywords but bad execution. This will show when I would need to take a new shot about the subject.

Because my sales are so small the only agency I can count on is ShutterStock. The others are heavily jumping back and forth, so I cannot count on them too much right now. At the end of this blog entry I put the my total earnings comparison. Since I have started at the different agencies at different times I have scaled the earnings down to an average day on each agency.