2009 Review

2009 was relatively slow, thanks for the fact that I uploaded less than 30 photos for the year, so I am thankful for all the sales, overall results for the year was 6800.00 which is about 1100.00 less than 2009, here is the year end chart:

Oct. 09 Summary

Oct of the last three years are typically one of the best month of the year, but this year is different, certainly I have not been actively contributing would be a main reason for that, here is the running total:


IS: $135.04 a slow but a reputable month
FT: $114.05 solid month for FT
SS: $ 72.19 fairly decent
DT: $ 62.85 another slow month
SXP: $ 51.10 not a bad one
BSP: $ 33.50 nothing to be exciting
123rf: $ 16.42 non factor

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TOTAL: $485.15 worst month of the year.

Sept 09 Summary

Very poor performance for the month, actually Sept. is one of the worst month ever, here is the breakdown by sites:

IS 147.74 Continue to chip away SS's overall lead, not too bad
FT 81.79 a little slower for FT
DT 68.84 one of the worst month
BSP 62.50 not bad
SXP 50.50 not bad for SXP
SS 48.45 made a new record on lowest earning ever
123rf 23.80 nothing to be excited
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Total: 483.60 probably one of the worst ever.

August 09 Summary

SS has the best month overall, thanks to it's 8 ELS sales, DT is also pretty impressive, while FT and IS faded a little, overall results are better than any other month this year:

SS 281.12 Good to be the leader, maybe all time high for SS?
IS 144.96 At least beat last month's result
DT 110.33 Solid month
FT 71.31 Fairly slow month, also a big minus due to one of the purchaser has a bad credit card, so previous sales were reversed
BSP 42.50 Not much going on
123rf 28.92 Same thing here
SXP 26.70 Another last place performance
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Total: 705.84

July 09 Summary

July started pretty good, but tapered off in the second half of the month. FT stands out due to 2 extended license sale. Most agencies are pretty slow, here is the rundown:

1. IS 126.77 barely hang on to the 1st place
2. FT 123.58 solid month with extended license sale, maybe I should increase the price
3. DT 88.91 20% drop
4. SS 74.38 SS is losing steams by the day
5. 123rf 33.24 Moved up a little
6. BSP 32.50 Nothing exciting happening there
7. SXP 23.20 With the sale to IS, I don't know how the revenue will be impacted
Totol: 502.58 worst month this year so far.

June 09 Summary

The last few months the dollar amount is pretty consistent, stay around 600, even though I have not uploaded any images for over 8 months, not too bad.

IS: 172.82 IS has been the most consistent one in the last 5 months
SS: 125.71 thanks for the two extended license, great month for SS
FT: 105.38 Beat DT by a penny, a great month
DT: 105.37 Solid month, better than May and in line with Apr and Feb
BSP: 51.00 Slower month as usual
SXP: 47.70 Not too much activities
123rf: 20.79 Nothing to be excited
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Total: 628.77

Extended License Sales from SS:

House Backyard in the night:


Lavender Field:

May 09 Summary

6 months of inactive in terms of uploading, the May result is actually pretty decent, thanks for two ELS from Shutterstock:
1. School music teacher

2. Korean Doll


As usual, the leading performer is:
1. Istockphoto 181.61
2. Shutterstock 113.60 thanks for the two extended license sale
3. Fotolia 103.13 have been a very consistent player
4. Dreamstime 93.42 a slower month
5. Bigstockphoto 54.00 nothing exciting there
6. Stockxpert 46.70 same there
7. 123rf 24.41 one of the worst month
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Total for May 616.87 Slightly better than last month

April Summary

April is not the same with March, no extended license sale, nothing too exciting, here are the numbers:

IS $180.24 match last month's performance
DT $107.55 pretty decent
FT $101.11 decent month due to no ELS
SS $ 77.17 SS really struggles due to no new uploads
BSP $ 68.50 slower month
123rf $ 43.78 similar performance as last year
SXP $ 33.30 finished the month last
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Total $611.65

Feb 09 Summary

The month of Feb 09 is another slow month, not only seasonal factors, but also due to the fact that I have not uploaded any photos for three months.

IS: 167.18 Very good month overall
DT: 105.17 Solid month
FT: 87.07 Decent performance, thanks for an ELS
SS: 69.52 Has been really slow these days
BSP: 60.50 Not a good month
123RF: 35.82 better than last month, but not very exciting
SXP: 24.40 One of the slowest month
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Total this month 549.66 not too bad since I have not uploaded any photos for three months.

Jan. 09 Summary

This is where I finished in Jan. 09

Details of each agency are as follows:

DT: 129.46 BME, first time to lead the pack thanks for a pair of ELS
IS: 127.95 Decent month compared to the previous few months
FT: 104.72 Solid performance
BSP: 73.00 Average month
SS: 66.64 Continue to suffer
SXP: 33.80 Slow month
123rf: 17.34 Worst month ever
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Total: 552.91

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
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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
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$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: