Tag Archives: stock photos

Apr 27

Image Sales Report for March 2012

View previous report

March 2012

Red progress line shows a little stagnancy in my sales. I did not upload any images again, although I work on it in my ‘back office’. This time I won’t divagate on any possible reasons. Because the  most significant one is the portfolio size.

So, March was a relatively good month (for that small portfolio) and the result was only -5.6% down from the previous BME ( Best Month Ever ).

Shutterstock was again a leader in all terms, downloads and income. And the second star was 123RF agency.

I joined ALAMY and first 3 images got accepted. Now I have to review my portfolio on Canstockphoto, it seems I forgot to submit some images. Also I stopped uploading to Stockfresh at the moment. Nothing happens there for me.

Thanks for dropping by! See You soon.

Mar 18

Selling images – 02/2012

February was a slow month in terms of sales. Fortunately we may call microstock a passive income, which means I didn’t have to do anything to make sales. Pictures are already on internet and I submitted only few recently. Except of iStockPhoto where I have been submitting all my editorial photos since they finally accept this kind of photography.

It seems like I’m back to August 2011 and even February 2011 was +9% better. So I think it was a good decision at the beginning of the year to put more horsrepower into my workflow. February was -23% to January and -30 to the Best Month Ever.

No surprises, Shutterstock took the first place again.
I’m recently  practicing more some different techniques and learning new things than submitting images to stock.

Photography is not enough, in January I’ve been back to digital graphics using Blender 3D, see my ongoing project : Spitfire – Work In Progress  also 2D graphics using Photoshop and a tablet.
That forced me to critically look at my hand and technique (it never ends), so in February I started to draw with real pencil and got some oil pastels, paint, a set of brushes and canvas.

I already have many books about drawing and painting, I draw since I was a kid and need just bring it back to my head, hand and workflow. Although I have  never really painted anything using a paint and always hated the big format works.
I thought I couldn’t stand to draw an A4 sheet, not to mention something larger. So I’ve put a great pressure on those facts and already got 3 brand new paintings (wow) and large shaded drawings on paper.
Still didn’t used a real paint and canvas, only the oil pastels. But soon…

I’ll keep going in that direction by taking some paid classes  in a Royal Academy of Arts in Warsaw. I hope I won’t break my head and brushes there. The digital tools are amazing, but they made me lazy.

A wanting to create too much and too fast really reduced my invention.
Now it’s time to face it and wash my brain.

*Earnings from Zazzle, Canstockphoto and Stockfresh are not included in monthly charts nor added to the progress line. Earnings from StockXpert/Thinkstock aren’t included.

*Still I need to find some time to start with Alamy and Photodune.

Feb 1

Stock photos and January 2012 sales results

Microstock Earning reports |  previous report

January has passed and resolutions made for 2012 work well. I’m trying hard to take really big steps in organizing my time, workflow and task priority.

This month an average of 17 images has been submitted to all microstock agencies. Not everything got accepted but most of them.

Interesting fact is that what others don’t like (fe. 123RF)…. iStock likes. World changes.

January 2012 takes now the second place after October 2011 as the Best Month Ever. The difference is only -9%.

A real king of January was Shutterstock, which had it’s BME result over 23% higher than last one. Though there are loosers too.

Below is the first monthly graph showing the division of profits from selling photos.

Since iStockPhoto is now accepting editorials, I’ve submitted test batch of about 10 photos from Tall Ships Races and Living History Event – Battle of Grunwald. Need to try first what they want to have,  if the caption format is right etc. I have over 300 pictures to submit to iStock because I hate their uploading service so much;)…  I’ve stoped submissions some time ago.

On the other hand I’ve decided to not to push editorials to DepositPhotos. Now I submit editorial photos only to Bigstock, iStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime and 123RF. The top seller is of course SS.

Nice surpeise is my What graphics pen tablet to choose  which started finally to sell some stuff and increase traffic.

Also I’m back to graphics now, thanks  to the introduction of time and job management. Got my new 3D virus image accepted, created in latest experimental Blender Cycles engine. Took me some time to recall all tricks and to know that new renderer, the rendering itself lasted over 100 hours but it was worth it. Now I’m doing graphics and photos together and switching back and forth. Will try to keep that workflow on.

My notepads with conceptual sketches are back on the table and new projects burning in my head. So it’s time to finish this post, cheers!

PS

Total income chart contains  CanStockPhoto and StockFresh earnings, although they aren’t included in monthly chart and they have no impact on the red progress line. Also earnigs going to StockXpert account (from Thinkstock) aren’t listed here.

Jan 13

Selling photos and graphics in: October, November, December

microstock Earning reports |  previous report

Last 3 months of year 2011 were a bit better than recent trend.

I had a record result on Fotolia in October, so it’s now ahead of iStock, at the 3rd place.

Shutterstock still occupies first place.

Thus October 2011 became the Best Month Ever in terms of sales,  since the beginning of my microstock career. It was about 11% better than the previous BME – February 2011.

Monthly income chart + averaged progress line. / 3 months / after the vertical red line

The end of year was packed with multiple jobs and trips so my portfolio sizes  did not change.
Total income chart below contains now CanStockPhoto and StockFresh earnings, although they aren’t included in monthly chart above and they have no impact on the red progress line. Also earnigs going to StockXpert account (from Thinkstock) aren’t listed here.
I’ll probably include them into monthly chart starting with January 2012.

Income structure chart since February 2009

PS. I forgot to update Zazzle earnings on this chart, next time

As we have a brand New Year, new resolutions has been made. Two most important are: remove all unnecessary tasks from the timeline and put whole power to processing graphics and photos.
My new task manager – Wunderlist – is really helpful. It’s very easy to use, fast and gives me the access from mobile phone or PC. So any thought and idea I have is now immediately put on the list, no more paper stickies.

Also I finally finished the Photo A Day project for 2011 and won’t start another at the moment, because I didn’t just took a picture and share it…  Most of 365 photos was invented and processed, which took a lot of time. But I gained  many new ideas, solutions and tens of own Lightroom filters.

I hope I’ll stay on course and wish You all the same.