2008 Annual Summary

2008 was an up and down year, it started strong, but finished the year pretty slow, I guess the economic downturn actually have an impact on stock photo as well, but overall the year is pretty good compared with 2007, let me first summarize the December result:

Dec. was extremely slow for the big three, IS, SS and DT, however the smaller agency doesn't seem to be affected as much:

FT $104.87 Ranked #1 for the first time!
123rf $ 77.01 Ranked #2 for the first time!
DT $ 75.89 A little improved over last month
IS $ 73.27 Pretty lousy month
BSP $ 67.00 Just like any other month
SS $ 64.13 Worst month ever
SXP $ 50.40 Like any other month
----------------------------------------------------
Total $512.57 Worst month of the year


But for the year the total is 7907.00 which is more than 1 1/2 year of total earnings, so the result is pretty decent.

Nov 2008 Result

With the economy got into a deep recession, the stock photo business also took a big hit, Nov. 08 proved to be the worst month of the year, the top three IS, SS and DT all suffered a huge slow down, while the low performers holding their places, so in the end, DT dropped to 6th in earnings, really ugly picture.


1. SS $124.74 Shutterstock got into the top spot with one ELS
2. IS $88.50 Worst month this year
3. FT $88.41 very decent result
4. BSP $87.00 Pretty good result for the site
5. SXP $62.90 Good solid month
6. DT $60.95 Worst month this year
7. 123rf $32.97 slow month
_______________________________________________
$552.77

Oct 08 Final Results

Oct typically is always a great month, arguably the best month in a year, which proved to be true in the last two years, however, this year's result is a diversion of history, I hope this is just a short term thing rather than a trend, one interesting thing is that the big earners all falters but the lower tiered player has a pretty decent showing, of course, when IS and SS not performing, the overall results will suffer a big deal, anyway here is the individual result:

Fotolia: $110.19 a solid month, 2nd BME, for the first time FT leads the pack
IStock: $106.87 worst month of the year
Shutterstock: $103.71 second worst month of the year
Dreamstime: $99.78 an average month, however dollar per download is the highest at 1.26 which means the total download is one of the lowest
Bigstockphoto: $72.00 also a slow month
123RF: $64.97 BME, thanks for the last day actions
Stockxpert: $44.80 a slower month
Total: $602.32 one of the slowest month this year.

Summary of Sept 08

Typically Sept is starting to pick up from the summer slump, however this year the result is not as good as I anticipate, the good thing is that the low performers are doing better than the high performers, here is the breakdown of the result:

IS 178.56 A very decent month thanks for an ELS, but falters in the last week
SS 123.44 After a very dissppoint month in Aug, Sept is not much better, if without the ELS, Sept should be the same as Aug
DT 93.91 A relative slow month as well
FT 85.23 A decent month for FT
SXP 82.30 Best Month Ever for SXP, very encouraging
BSP 68.50 A slow month
123rf 52.23 Second BME, very good showing
Total ------------------------------------------
684.17

New ELS

This month got two ELS, one is from IS, which has been rare at the most,



The second ELS is from SS, this is the first time I got ELS from SS since they raised the price of ELS in May.

And this very image already got 2 ELS in the past from SS:

Aug 08 Summary

As usual, August is a slow month, but it did have some improvement over July, here is breakdown of each site:

IS: 207.21 Finally an ESL helped IS to get over the $200 mark for the third time this year, overall download is in line with previous month, but dollar per download certainly has increased this month.

DT: 107.26 A solid month for DT

SS; 90.32 For the first time since the last two years, SS failed to break $100, pretty bad month for SS

FT: 83.36 A decent month considering how much FT has improved over the last few months

BSP: 81.00 Last few days of activities make the month reputable.

123RF: 44.19 A Decent finish for the new site

SXP: 40.30 Finished last, but not too bad

Total 650.64, much better than last year, but not to the level of May/June month.

July Summary

July is always a slower month every year, this year is no exception, on top of that, I have not uploaded any images for over two months, so I don't have any complaints for a slower month, here it is though:

IS 126.13 barely hang on it's leader position
SS 120.80 for sometimes I was thinking it won't break the $100
FT 99.17 thanks for it's ELS earlier in the month
DT 78.08 takes a backseat this month
BSP 72.50 not much better
123rf 37.18 actually in line with its performance
SXP 36.90 in line with previous month

Total: 570.76 worst showing this year:(

Here is the chart for overall performance data:




This is the only ELS this month from FT:

June Summary

June was a decent month, pretty much same as in May, total for the month is $736.92, good for the 3rd BME.

IS leads the pack with 192.90, almost same as last month
SS barely hangs on to the second place with 122.68
DT has a good month with 122.65
FT continues to improve with 1 ELS, total 108.90
123rf has a good month with 57.99
SXP also improved a little with 37.30

May 2008 Summary

May seasonally is always a good month, however the last month did not perform as good as I expected, even though the overall result is almost as good as April, thanks to 4 ELS from FT, otherwise the result will be a lot less.

All the big three has a big drop this month, while 123rf and FT had their best month ever, here is the break down:

IS 194.18 Continue to lead the pack
FT 150.22 For the firt time, FT finished second, BME
SS 139.14 From the #1 spot, SS has dropped to #3
DT 102.31 A slower month for DT
BSP 79.00 Quite a drop from the previous two month
123 48.57 BME for the slow earner
SXP 30.10 Finish last with a big drop over last month's BME

Total result for the month: 743.52 second best month, only 10 dollars behind April's record pace, so the overall result is not too bad.

FT Extended License Sales

I don't even remember when was the last time I got one ELS from FT, it's been more than 6 months or more, but this month I got a present surprise from FT with 4 extended license sale, 3 with $50, the lastest one is with $100, maybe I should change my ELS price to $100 for all of them now:)

Here is the shot that sold $100 today:

April Summary

April was a great month, it started really strong, but kind of slowing down in the final two weeks, still good enough to be the best month over all.

IS continue to lead the pack with BME $259.00
SS had a Extended License Sale, so finished second with $159.97
DT is pretty stable, with $109.81
BSP will not be able to duplicate the last month second place finish, but with a decent result of $96
SXP woke up this month with the BME $60
FT is doing a little better at $46.99
123RF is no where to be found, at the worst month of $22.96

So, overall April is the best month of $753.73

ELS From SS

After a really slow month, SS picks up this month with an ELS,

March 08 Summary

March results are in, here is the run down:

IS $218.62 Not as good as Feb, but good enough to lead the pack
BSP $128.00 BME, record breaking month, hope the trend continues
SS $108.02 one of the worst month ever, barely break the $100 mark
DT $105.20 a little slower than Feb, but I take it
SXP $ 56.90 BME despite all the rejections
FT $ 37.37 slow as usual, not too excited about it
123rf $36.66 a little slower than Feb.

Total $690.77, good for the second best month.

Feb 08 Summary

Leap year Feb 08 takes on a new record, overall it is the best month ever, most notables are IS, which has been on a steady rise for the last 5 months, and this month for the first time beat SS, becomes the highest earning site for the month, FT is also making a come back ever since hit the 1000 DL mark, 123RF completed the 2nd full month with decent result, and DT also make the best month ever, here are the details:

1. IS $239.31 BME ( best month ever )
2. SS $172.72 with 2 ELS
3. DT $127.07 BME
4. BSP$ 58.00 20% down from previous month
5. FT $ 47.73 good improvement, but still shy of it's previous high of 70.53 in 3/07
6. 123$ 40.66 solid improvement over the fist month
7. SXP$ 20.50 one of the worst month since started

Total 717.00 BME

Two New ELS From SS

I seems right now the only place gives me consistent ELS are from SS, in a way it helps to offset the low subscription fees 0.30/image there, here are this month's two:

1.




2. Came as a surprise, as I was even hesitated to upload the image at the time

Jan. 08 Summary

Jan. was a great month, it has second best month of all with $631.00, a little shy of the Oct. high of $641.00, ｈｅｒｅ　ｉｓ　ｔｈｅ　ｄｅｔａｉｌｅｄ　ｂｒｅａｋｄｏｗｎ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｅｓｕｌｔｓ：

ＩＳ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｆｉｒｓｔ　ｔｉｍｅ，　ＩＳ exceeded SS for total earnings for the month, even though very close, but SS with two extended license still lag behind, IS　ｈａｓ　ｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓｅｄ　ｎｉｃｅｌｙ　ｏｖｅｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｌａｓｔ　５　ｍｏｎｔｈｓ，　＄１７８．５１　ｉｓ　ｔｈｅ　ｎｅｗ　ｂｅｓｔ　ｍｏｎｔｈ　ｆｏｒ　ＩＳ．

ＳＳ　ｉｓ　ｓｌｏｗ，　ｅｖｅｎ　ｔｈｏｕｇｈ　ｔｏｔａｌ　ｅａｒｎｉｎｇｅｓ　ａｒｅ　ＯＫ　ｔｈａｎｋｓ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｗｏ　ｅｘｔｅｎｄｅｄ　ｌｉｃｅｎｓｅｓ，　ｔｏｔａｌ　＄176.32　ｆｏｒ　ｓｅｃｏｎｄ　ｐｌａｃｅ　ｆｉｎｉｓｈ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｆｉｒｓｔ　ｔｉｍｅ．

ＤＴ　ｈａｓ　ａ　ｄｅｃｅｎｔ　ｍｏｎｔｈ，　ｗｉｔｈ　ｅａｒｎｉｎｇｓ　ｔｏｔａｌ：　$97.74

BSP has the best month overall with earnings $75.50

FT finished with 35.44, slightly better than previous month, also made it to Silver level with over 1000 downloads

SXP finished with $33.60, nothing to be excited about.

123RF just finished it's first month, very easy to upload, and get approved almost everything, the sales not that great, with only $26.13 to finish last.

Another ELS from SS

Glad to see another ELS, and it is from my favorite image.

NEW ELS

2008 begins with the first ELS on Jan.4th from SS, hope this trend continues.