More to the Big Man, Less to Us.

I'm actually writing this about 2 weeks ahead of time. I just got my notice from StockXpert about the transferring of my images over to the new Getty Images Subscription site. Of course, my commission now drops to $.25. I could opt out, but then I would not get anything at all. The question is, when will it end? When will Microstockers banned together and say no to this exploitation of our work? Most likely never. The more who opt out, the more profits others will make. The only consolation we can hope for is an increase in sales to offset the loss of profits. In my blog last week I discussed how I track how long it takes to make a $1000. I may have to adjust my goal if anybody else follows suit.

Meassuring Your Progress

One of the things that I do is set goals. I set them for example, achieving a new commission level or total sales for a period of time. One of the goals that I have been watching is how much time does it take to make a thousand dollars? That is a good question. Here are my numbers

1st $1000 - 455 Days

2nd $1000 - 300 Days

I'm nearly at my 3rd $1000. My goal was 275 days. My projections have me at 270 days. That should be on or about Jan. 23 2010. Why am I not improving at the same rate as before? I should. I am using more stock companies. I had 5129 opportunities for a sale (includes the same images on multiple sites) when I made my 1st $1000. I had 10155 opportunities for sales when I made my 2nd $1000. Currently I have 12375 potential sales opportunities. By the way, I consider an opportunity an image online. These numbers are the total images I have on all sites combined. Some of these sites are dudes and I no longer contribute to them, but still occasionally get a sell.

Here is my theory on why I am only improving by 30 days where the previous mark was an improvement by 155 days. Subscriptions. Our commissions have been lowered drastically because of the subscription model. When I made my first $1000, I did it with 1165 sales. My second was made with 1034 sales. Currently I'm at 1109. I'm estimating that I need to sell 191 more images to reach the $3000 mark. That number would have been higher had it not been for extended license sales.

At this point most of my commissions are on subscription sales. That means that I should now start seeing my time to reach my next $1000 level decrease with the more images I upload. Because we are still in a recession, my goal to hit $4000 is 250 days. However, my goal to reach $5000 will be 200 days after that.

New Camera!!!!

OK, OK. I know that I have not been keeping up with this blog. I've been very busy trying to manage a business and also taking my skills to the next level. Over the past several years, I have felt hampered by my equipment. I purchased a refurbished Canon Digital Rebel with two lens. I have been struggling ever since. I have nothing against Canon. As a matter of fact, I'm still using Canon. My refurbished camera has been the source of rejection after rejection because of the bad image quality. Not any more. I have now upgraded to a Canon EOS 7D. WOW! What a difference!

The images are sharper. Colors more accurately captured and noise is greatly reduced. I also have a 18-135 mm lens with image stabilization. This means that I will be able to capture wider angles then before.

There are two times of the year when Indiana is just not that photogenic. Ok, I should say worst then usual. Those times are after the leaves fall and before we get any decent snow. And after the snow melts until spring. We are in that first period. I did take my camera to downtown Indianapolis after a rain shower and got some beautiful images. I've been doing some studio work to get a better feel for the camera. Thus far I am very satisfied.

Another thing to note here is this. I paid for the camera, lens, cable release, cleaner and backpack entirely with earnings from my stock photography. Not bad, uh?

August results

August was really a down month. I'm still having trouble staying above $100 a month. I did build myself a light tent. Its small, but I've started uploading images from it. We will see if it helps as the months go by.

I also started using iSYndica. Lee over at Microstock Diaries had a neat posting about it. I tried it and loved it. It still does not have a connection for IStockPhoto. Also, Crestock does not report its income data. I'm using it though to upload to all my sites. It has taken a several hour chore down to about 45 minutes including key wording. Below is the data for this month.

May Results

Spring has continued to keep pace with approximately $100 in sales a month. I did manage to contribute a few new images. My re-allocating of exclusive Fotolio images to non exclusive has started paying off. Several images have sold on other sites. Also, I had 3 sales in my first month with CanStockPhoto.
This month I earned $102.

Monthly Sales over the past 12 months

Historical Sales

Downloads Per Month

This month StockXpert had a record 36 sales. BigStockPhoto was very quiet until the last week of the month. Although landscape images are some of the slowest sellers on the stock photo industry, I'm heading to Montana in July to look for a new home. Hopefully I'll be able to take some time and capture Big Sky Country with my camera.

Review of Fotolia Portfolio is Paying Off!

A few weeks ago, I started the process of removing my original images from exclusivity with Fotolia. Nothing against Fotolia. My statistics say that when you spread the love around, you get more back in return ($$$). Anyway, my first reclaimed image sold on StockXpert.

Sorry for the water mark. Anyway, this photo was taking in August of 2006 in the Mammoth Hot Springs campground of Yellowstone National Park. The tent is in Wyoming but the mountains and valley are in Montana. The tent actually belongs to friends of my mother, Bob and Cheryl Merchant, who happened to be in Yellowstone at the same time. After a long hike to a water fall, Cheryl cook out over the camp fire and I got this great outdoor image.

Changes at StockXpert

Two changes happening at stockExpert. As part of their Gettyimage acquisition, they are going through their database and removing any legally questionable images. Also, they are raising their image approval standards. for more information, here is the article: http://www.stockxpert.com/message/view/7905971

Change to BigStockPhoto Delete Policy

BigStockPhoto announced that they are making a change to how your approval rating is calculated. Currently if you upload and then delete an image, it is counted as a rejection. This policy is going to be changed so that when you delete an image, it down not harm you approval rating. BigStockPhoto origionally did this to discourage contributors from flooding there upload queue. This change is not yet in effect, but soon will be.

Chnage is in the Air at BigStockPhoto.

BigStockPhoto is tightening their submission process a bit. They feel that to many "low quality" images are being submitted and overwhelming their submission queue. Hey, look at it this way. You have a better chance at selling a great image then one that just does not stand out. Here are the new upload limits:

New users with less than 15 total approved images are limited to 15 images in the Admin Approval Queue at a time

Users with an approval percentage of 50% or less are limited to 10 images in the Approval Queue at a time

Users with an approval percentage of 70% or less are limited to 20 images in the Approval Queue at a time

Users with an approval percentage of 85% or less are limited to 40 images in the Approval Queue at a time

Users with an approval percentage of 92% or less are limited to 50 images in the Approval Queue at a time

Users with higher than 92% approval percentage have no limit.
Images that are uploaded and deleted will also lower your rating. Deleted images count the same as declined images.

April Results

Sales continue to be flat for me. I'm including a lot more graphs this month to show how things have been going for me. I've noticed that as my downloads started averaging more then 110 a month, that is when the number of subscription sales increased. Even though I was selling more, I was not making more. More troubling is the fact that my download record for a month is 136 set in July 2008. This month I've started uploading to CanStockPhoto. Also, with my SnapVillage portfolio being move to the Veer Marketplace, I'm hoping to get some extra cash flow that way.

On a good not, I cleared $2000 for my lifetime earnings. It took me 18 months to make the first thousand dollars but only 10 months this time. My next goal is to make the next thousand in 8 months.





Monthly Sales

FInished uploading to Yaymicro

It took some time, but I finished uploading my portfolio to Yaymicro. We will see if anything comes from it. Thus far these past 6 months, sales have been relativily flat. I'm still moving my Fotolia exclusive images to non exclusive and on other sites. I'm doing about 5 to 10 a day depending on how much time that I have. I decieded to re-keyword each image. If they did not sell well on Fotolia, I figured that this may help them on the other sites. I'll be posting my April stats with my historic information next week.

Snapvillage is Coming to an End

I received my notice that SnapVillage will end their uploading on Friday, May 1. After that, you will have to wait until the transfer to the Veer Marketplace before uploading again. Thus far I’ve made $77 off of SnapVillage. I’m hoping this new website will provide a greater exposure for all of us. Currently I’m trying to get as many images in the upload queue as I can before they shut it down.

==========

Update!!!!
I wrote this article last week. As of Friday, April 24th the upload has been disabled.

First sale on Yaymicro!

Today I discovered that I made my first sale on Yaymicro. I had written this website off long ago, but decided to check my account today. I made 5 pounds (about $7.20). I decided to complete uploading my portfolio to it today when I discovered that the upload process is not as bad as it once was with this site. Site, with a minimum 30 pound payout and only 1 sale in over 6 months, I have a feeling that it will be a while.

I’m continuing to transfer my “Exclusive” images on Fotolia to non-exclusive and upload them to my other sites. This is a time consuming process, but since I have not be able to take any pictures latterly, at least I’m uploading.

Everything Old is New Again

With a tight schedule and bad weather, I've not been able to get to down town Indianapolis to take any photos this week. What I have been doing is going through my Fotolia account. I have now been selling stock for two years. In the early months, I had everything as exclusive photos on Fotolia. I'm now removing exclusivity from Fotolia and uploading those photos to the other agencies that I use. My statistics show, exclusivity does not pay. I'm hoping these photos find new life, and income, on my other sites.

No offense Fotolia. Just spreading the love around.

Long time, no see.

Well, it has been a few months since I’ve posted anything. Four 14 months I had to endure a very harsh working environment. With 60+ hours a week, I had little time for writing to a blog our enjoying my hobby. In February I had the opportunity to leave and go to work for myself. I’m hoping this allows me to enjoy my hobby and to also contribute more to this blog. Some of you may already know that I’m a Microsoft Certified Trainer. I am now the owner of MCTExpert.com. I also have as part of my business my stock photography. Hopefully, this will help boost my sales as well.

This weekend however, I am in North Chicago. OK, not very exciting. It still looks like winter up here. I did have an interesting experience in Waukegan. I used one of my favorite apps, Google Earth, to locate a harbor. I live in the middle of Indiana so a shore line is something that I do not get to see all that often. What was I thinking? After living here for a year as part of my service in the US Navy, I should have known better. Waukegan is not the most photogenic community. I choose a route that took me through less then friendly neighborhoods. When I finally got to the harbor, there were no boats in the water. I did take some images of the harbor entrance markers. I know, not very exciting. I’m beginning to experiment with a technique called High Dynamic Range. We will see what they look like in post processing.

Next week I’ll be in Fort Wayne, IN. I’m hoping to get an evening out in town to explore with my camera.