Stock photo earnings November 2009

Microstock – the game of chance. I wanted to try it and I am in, since almost a year. Great challenge, a way to improve skills and meet new friends. But not only ‘throwing the dice‘ gives results. It needs a hard work and a lot of time. Watching, trying, editing, capturing, shooting, describing, keywording…

November 2009 was the ninth month of my microstock career  (previous:  October earnings) and most important things  happen: less uploads from me again :/ caused by lack of time and enhancing my graphic techniques.
Right now I just ended next illustration where I studied the 3D materials generation what is very time consuming and needs a lot of patience and observation. Also my PC isn’t the fastest rocket in the industry.

Monthly Income Chart
with averaged progress line ( November 2009 )

Stock photo earnings September 2009

September 2009 – the seventh month of my microstock activities  (previous: August earnings).
It was a second month without submitting any images. Just in last 3 days I’ve added some photos thus these don’t count at all. I’ve changed slightly the chart for proper display (corrected the total agencies count (factor from 5 to 7) throughout the whole period).

Monthly Income Chart
with averaged progress line (September)

Selling pictures on the web?

Since February passed by I can present a summary report of my tiny microstock achievements.
Everything started up on 01-18-2009 12:48:31 – the first image was uploaded to Fotolia, just  for fun.

Few days later I’ve joined Dreamstime 01/25/2009 to compare.  And since my portfolio wasn’t hughe,  about 8 -15 images   decided to  join StockXpert, especially that I’ve remembered that more than six months ago I tried to apply there but they rejected my not seriously selected photos.

First image submitted
(- Digital Fountain – links  to the whole portfolio)

Several downloads showed up but with this portfolio size could’nt be more. It’s hard to compete with 15 images when there are milions waiting. But! Some of the pictures was selling.

After gathering a 10 good (for me) illustrations and photos I’ve sent an application ( this 10 image pack ) to Shutterstock. Pictures got approved  so I started to upload more. And that was a good move.

In a week Shutterstock has beat all other microstock agencies with downloads count and left  Dreamstime and SXP behind with earnings.  With 20 images ;> in portfolio after one week Fotolia got beaten with the revenue and download count  as twice high.  Sure there are some price differences  but.. that was a big improvement.

Next week there was  46 paid photo downloads,  still with those 20 pictures in gallery. After third week  about 60 downloads with 24 images working.  Not bad.. but I wanted more now.

So  more images would give much higher sale dynamics, unfortunately most of my thousands of photos taken before I joined wasn’t suitable for photo stock market. There are many things  to bare in mind taking a shot for stock.  But some photos of course have been useful.

And one thing..  each stock site has it’s own image preferences and custumers type then don’t get surprised with that,  just continue  efforts and try to improve  skills.

And that’s why most of my earnings come out of illustrations. I don’t like/want to shoot  isolated vegetables or cell phones,  I prefer to wait for an opportunity to take a picture during the day-trips.  No trip no photo.

I’ll continue with illustrations also, they’re very popular, more original and I can be more creative. Studio shots are not for me.

Craps table
©plrang

If You have a quite large photo collection, want to make them work for You and  find them apriopriate for photo stock market – don’t hesitate, go and submit Your files. Every stock site has it’s own tips and submitting guidelines then check’em out, search Your library for proper photos and send’em away. What’s needed most, check out Fotolia’ s blog for example.

Also if You’re good in raster illustrations or even better vectors then try those services, maybe You’ll find an extra way to make money. Vectors are more profitable because designers can reedit them without loosing the  quality..

And my own surprise are these sphere images, if there is no sale – sphere gives a shot, that’s  really intriguing!

Halo sphere
(see more spheres)
© plrang

Update: 13-01-2010
It’s nice to see created design on a  real object like a  T-shirt. Great Zazzle helps with that.

Holo sphere green
© rangpl

Thanks for reading and all the best while participating. See You at some stock forum and in another next post.