Microstock Sites and Stats

Microstock sites operate in the same way for the most part, but earnings I recieve from them vary greatly from site to site. Also some are much more difficult on approvals than others. Below I have created a few different tables to give some insight into the different sites and how they perform. I have now been a part of microstock for 1 full year, I am no expert, but hopefully this information can help you decide if microstock is for you and which sites to sign up for. I have a relativly small portfolio of about 150 pictures on average across the sites and so far have averaged about 400 dollars per month for the last couple months. This works out to about $2.80 per image per month. I am really pleased with how things went this first year. As I expected sales of older images diminished over time, but not by much. I did get a better feel for what sells and this helped maintain a nearly constant value per image per month. I am truly suprised how easy things got once I had a decent set of images online. The amount of work at first seemed to make it not worth it, but once I reached about 75 to 100 images, the effort decreased while still increasing earnings month to month. At this point I try to upload about 10 images per month, which takes maybe takes 5-10 hours depending on the type of images and how much post processing is involved.

Earnings took a huge dive the last 2 months, mostly due to Istockphoto. One of my better earners made a change to the algorithm that does the best match search and my porfolio took a giant hit. Earnings on that site alone dropped nearly 70 percent. Hopefully things will come back, but I am glad for the other sites because they at least kept my earnings at a decent level. Stockxpert is slowly working its way up the list, with nice increases the last two months.

February was my best month ever, with no new images added for over 2 months. Istock implemented a new best match algorithm that brought some of my best photos back to the top of search lists, which helped a great deal.

February Total Earnings - $461.01 with an average of 165 images online
Previous Month - $321.96

Below is just a recap showing the overall percentage that each stock site has contributed to my earnings.

Shutterstock - 45%
Istockphoto - 29%
Dreamstime - 16%
Fotolia - 6%
BigStockPhoto - 5%

For those of you doing the math, yes that is 101%, I'm telling you microstock rocks! Some of these may seem fairly low per month, but my thought is since I am using IPTC (explained below) it is easy to upload the photos to a few more sites and in a year the amount begins to add up.

Okay, now for a little info on the stock sites themselves. Below is each microstock site and some information on pricing, commissions, exclusivity, payouts, and other good tidbits for both buyers and sellers.

Shutterstock (Really fun site, lots of downloads, great earner)

Getting Accepted Article

Buyers purchase a monthly subscription that starts at $249/month, which allows them 25 downloads per day. Longer commitments allow buyers to get reduced rates. Commissions for photographers start at 25 cents for each picture downloaded and after 500 dollars in earnings this bumps up to 33 cents each and can continue to go up with greater earnings. This may not seem like much, but because of the monthly subscription style a much larger number of pictures are downloaded each day. To be accepted as a member you have to submit 10 photos and have at least 7 of them approved. If you get less approved you will have to wait 30 days to try again. Don't be bummed if you don't get accepted on your first try, I didn't and from the sound of it it takes most people several tries. Just make sure your pictures are nice and sharp and stock oriented. Shutterstock is extremely fun to be a part of because of the high number of downloads per day and high earnings. Shutterstock is extremely conscious of noise in your photos so shoot at low ISOs and if needed use noise reduction software. Minimum payout is $75.

Istockphoto (Very professional site, great earner)

Buyers purchase credits which can then be used to download images. Images are priced based on the size the buyer wants to download (starting around $1 and going up from there). Standard members get a 20% commission on each sale, where exclusive members (meaning you only upload images to Istockphoto), get 25% to start and can work there way up to 40% as they sell more photos. To apply you must upload 3 photos for review and if they approve your application you can begin uploading. If your application is denied you can try another 3 at anytime. Make sure your submission is 3 files of different types, so they can see your overall abilities. The only downside to Istockphoto is a somewhat cumbersome upload system when compared to FTP, but it is well worth it. When submitting images be sure to remove even the tiniest and seeminly un-noticeable logos or trademarks, because Istock is very critical of this. Minimum payout is $100.

Dreamstime (Nice site, excellent for microstock beginners, good earner)

Buyers also purchase credits and photos typically cost 1, 2, 3, and 4 dollars based on size. As a photo gets more sales, the price increases as well. Exclusive members get a 60% commission and standard members get 50%. There is no application review process so you can start uploading photos once signed up. Minimum payout is $100.

Fotolia (Nice site, excellent for microstock beginners, good earner, high photo acceptance rate)

Credits purchase images that start at $1 and go up from there based on size. Once members have sold enough images they can set their prices to some extent. Commissions start at 33% for standard members and 50% for exclusive members. Both commissions go up as members sell more photos. There is no image application so you can begin uploading once signed up. Fotolia has no minimum payout.

Bigstockphoto (Started slow, but picking up speed)

Buyers purchase credits and files start in price at $1. Members recieve a 50% commission and they have lots of different special licensing options. Things like licensing for your image to be on coffee mugs or T-shirts. These pay various amounts. Minimum payout is $30.

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