My take on 2007

I have been doing stock photo since July 2006, and this year I have the first full year of production, the total result for 2007 is $5,172.04, which is $431.00/month average.

Overall I feel I got lots of joy in doing it, while in the meantime, I spent lots of time working on it, so it is not that you can put it on and forget it, you have to consistently adding more to it in order to grow.

2008 I don't have big plan for that, but I certainly wish I can exceed $500/month on average, which is probably not that hard, I like to keep it as a fun and interesting thing, instead of laboring to a point like a part time job, then all the fun will be gone.

So submit a few per week, over time, I am sure my total online files should gradually increase, my minimum expectation for myself is to exceed 1000 files on all sites other than Istockphoto ( which I hope I will get over 600 files by year end )

Anyway the goal is have fun while in the meantime making a few bucks:)

Dec 2007 Result

Dec. was a slow month as last Dec. it was OK the first half, but the second half is non existence, here are the run down for the month:

SS has a really slow month, finished the month with only 137.37, a huge drop from last two month, but still good enough to lead the pack;
IS has 4 straight month of progress, finished the month with best ever result: 116.77
DT was similar as last month, finished third with 85.13
BSP has a decent month with 58.50
SXP is a little slower, with only 33.30
FT continues to lag, finished the month with nasty looking 21.70
Of course new comer 123rf got only 6.70 for a couple of weeks of work, hope next month it will improve.

Here is the monthly chart:

2nd ELS for the same picture

One of my all time favorite got a second ELS today, it's from SS, last time it was FT, not too bad:

Nov 2007 Update

Nov comes in as the second best month ever, a drop from Oct's great result, a couple of notables:

SS finished with 2 ELS, compared with 3 last month and also a 130 less DL, so the total for the month is $224.41, shy of $282.58 last month.

IS has a solid month, dollar wise it's the best month ever, $106, but DL is little shy of the record 143 last month.

DT comes in 3rd place, but it was a slow month $87.65, a similar pattern as last year, so the Dec will most likely be lower as well.

SXP for the first time comes in 4th place, beating BSP and FT, with $49.40, a solid showing, largely due to lots of large size sales.

BSP got more than 30% drop last month, finished at $45.

FT continues to lag, finished the month with a pathetic $25.76

So the overall for the month is about $537, second best month ever, not too bad.

New ELS From SS

This month I got two ELS so far, hopefully more to come, but anyway, here are the two:

1. Female Surfer
This is the second ELS on the same picture at SS, so not bad:



2. Home Theater:

Oct Monthly Summary

Oct was the best month last year, and this year is no exception, seasonal is a factor, but I think also largely contributed to my recent uploads, anyway here is the results:

SS made it the best month ever with style, 705 Downloads, 3 ELS and over $280 in total revenues, beating the previous best month by $100, not bad at all.

DT has a strong month, but not quite the best month yet, the best two month are April and May this year, overall it's a reputable month.

IS matches the previous best month with close to $100, not good enough since the images have been doubled when it made the best month in May this year, but for now I will take it.

BSP now comes in solid for 4th place with another best month performance at $68.

SXP also made the best month ever, with $39, slowly making some progress.

FT continues to be the laggard, but has since bottomed out.

Two ESLs From SS

After being quite for sometimes, SS picked up two nice ESLs today, and there are from a group of pictures taken last year at Mount Baker, a few of them has extended licenses already, it seems people do like fall color in the mountains.

1.



2.

September Summary

Sept comes in second all time just behind April 07's result, and total downloads reached over 10,000, a couple of things worth noting:

1. Shutterstock reached over 1000 images online and over 5000 download, and Sept is the best month ever, with $175.79 beating the previous record by less than a dollar, but I take it:)

2. Dreamtime and IS both reversed previous trend, inching up nicely.

3. After two big months, BSP this month finally took a dive, finished $43, still good enough to be in 4th place.

4. Stockxpert has the best month ever, of course not by much, $34.5 finished 5th.

5. FT continues to be disppointing, finished last with only $23.23


Monthly Trending Chart:



Total Daily Activity Chart:

New ELS From Istock

Just got an ELS sale on one of the images that I took last year, which is a big surprise, since this one never sold any copies before, but good to find out that one sale is as good as many:)

August Update

August improves a little bit over June and July, still not up to the standard of May, largely due to the seasonal factors, now starts with Sept. I should expect to see things starting to heat up.

Individually, SS has a pretty good month, a 6% shy of its all time high with one ESL;
DT is also not very active, finished the month lower than last time this year, pretty close with IS in terms of result, barely hang in its second place spot over IS.
IS has one of the slowest month, if not for the last day ESL, IS could finish lower than BSP, which never happened before;
BSP almost matched last month's all time high, for the first time BSP became a big contender, a steady performance over the year;
SXP has a little slower month than last month, but beat FT for the 5th place;
FT went to the toilet, finished last among the big 6, not even in the game.

New ELS From Istock

Got a new ELS from istock today, it's for 10K print run of poster for this picture:

Kitchen--People's Choice

It's been a while since I got the last ELS, but it's always good to see that happens, here is the image:

My Annual Trend Chart

I turned my spreadsheet into chart style, maybe it's easy to read here:

Annual Summary

July 2006 is the month I started in microstocks, and it's been an up and down year, overall, it grows slowly and steadily, some of the sites started slow, but picked up strongly, like Bigstock, the month of July is the best month ever, even Stockxpert also posted the best ever month.

Shutterstock is doing pretty steadily, while Istock and Dreamtimes slowed down the last couple of months, Fotolia is still going through it's pain of change over from V.1 to V.2, but I do see more activities the last few days, given me hope for the coming months.

There are lots of new sites available, but at this time, I just want to restrict myself to the 6 sites, it's way too busy to keep lots of sites active, besides it may not worthwhile to upload to lesser sites anyway.

Here is the result from July, 2007:

June Update

June turn out to be a really slow month, other than SS holds it's own against May, all other websites suffered somewhat, maybe it's because the summer is here, certainly this is my first June, so I don't know whether it's seasonal or something else.




Nothing has changed the daily chart, average 24 downloads and 11.69 per day.

New Enhanced Licensed Sale From SS

Finally after 1 1/2 month without a single ESL, I got one today from Shuttterstock, great to see that every time:)

May Summary

For the month of May, pretty quiet, not much going on, not even an extended license sale, the overall result still pretty good, thanks to April's upload, May finish the month as the second best month.
Shutterstock has a 20% raise, that helps, Dreamtime is strong, Istock has the record download month, but overall money is not the best, FT, BSP and SXP are neck to neck in terms of overall results.

Here is the monthly chart:





And the Daily chart:

Month of April Update

April comes in with a back to back best month ever, thanks to strong showing in record month from my big three, SS, DT and IS, also BSP turned in a record month, but the dissppointment came from FT and SXP, they both finished the lowest on my monthly result, but overall no complaining, here is the detailed report;





And here is the daily chart updated May 1st, 2007:

Photo Made the Cover for Textbook

Just got a word from a designer who purchased my photo, that the photo he purchased has published in:

Record Id: 41406803 (Australian Library Collections)
Author: Henderson, Scott, 1936-

Title: Issues in financial accounting / Scott Henderson, Graham Peirson and Kathy Herbohn.

Edition: 13th ed.

Published: Frenchs Forest, N.S.W. : Pearson Education Australia, 2007.

Description: 1 v.

ISBN: 9780733983979 (pbk.) :

New Extended License From Istock

Just got a new ESL from Istock, here is the image, this is an identical to the one sold on FT.

ELS Sale at Shutterstock

Even though it's been quite normal right now, that I will get a few big sales each month, but when it came, it is always nice to know.

Here is the latest one:

Picture at California Home And Design Magazine

I just got an email from a designer at Istockphoto, that one of my photo will be in the next issue of Califonia Home And Design Magazine, it appears that they altered my carpet to a kind of greenish color, not as good as my original, but anyway it is a published photo now.

March Update

I finished the month of March with the best month ever, thanks to 2 ESLs from Fotolia, also Shutterstock picked up some for me due to recent upload, though small batches, but it does pick up the volume.

Here is my updated chart:

And of course my daily chart:

Start The Week With An ELS

Woke up Monday morning, the first sale from Fotolia is a $50 expended license sale by Abstract Art UK, for my all time favorite, pretty good to start the week.

A Few Extended License Sales at Shutterstock

I got the most from Shutterstocks, here are a few examples:













This blue sky with cloud one came with complete surprises.

My Extended License Sale at Dreamtimes

Since DT reduced the price from $250 to $50.00, I got my first ELS here:



© Photographer: Beisea | Agency: Dreamstime.com

My Most Recent Extended License Sales at Fotolia

I set my price of all my photos from FT at$50.00 for ELS, every time I got an ELS, it's still very exciting, not just about the money, but the fact that your photos are good enough that people are willing to pay a good price for use of my image.
Here are the 3 I got in the last 3 months.

My Daily Chart as of March 9th, 2007

I am updating my daily chart regularly, so you are welcome to stop by from time to time.

My Feb 2007 Monthly Update

My First Ever Published Photo

The following picture with a white van is taken during my family vacation in Mount St Helens, it's not a great picture, but to see your own work published is something else.