More signs of the Economic Recovery

Things are looking good for the Stock portfolio. Thanks to an extended license sale at BigStockPhoto, I now have new highs on my 6 month and 24 month moving average. This is the first time the metric for the 6 month moving average has hit a new high since July of 2008. This is showing me that there is a pick up in purchasing of my images over the last few months. The 24 month has been rising over the past 10 months since I've been keeping track of it. That is expected because it was looking at data from my first few months of selling stock. After July of 2011, which is 24 months after my most profitable month to date, I expect it to meander a bit while the data from the first part of the recession works its way out of the formula.

3,500 Sales and More Signs of a Recovery

Today I past 3,500 images sold. I have various milestones that I created nearly 3 years ago when I started to sell stock. This was one of them. I also keep track of some monetary statistics. One of them is my 12 month moving average. The last time that I set a new high for this metric was December of 2008. After over a year, I now have set a new bench mark for this metric of over $110 per month and rising. If you recall, December of 2008 was about when the recession was really starting to show. The graph of my 12 month average pretty much went flat. Now that the economy is recovering. I'm watching this line slowly rising.

I also keep tabs on my 3, 6, and 24 month averages. The advantage of watching these metrics is that it allows me to see how I'm doing in the market over a period of time that helps to balance out seasonal variances. I can also reasonable determine what my income should be in the future.

$3,000 Lifetime Earnings Reached

Yesterday I finally hit the $3,000 mark for my lifetime stock photo earnings. My goal to go from $2,000 to $3,000 was 275 days. I did it this time in 271 days. I hit this mark 9.7% faster then the previous thousand dollars. It was looking like it was going to be a close call, but thanks to a big extended license sale at CanStockPhoto, I hit this milestone early.

Here is my progress.

Goal	Days	Annual Income
$0 - $1,000	455 Days	$802
$1,000 - $2,000	300 Days	$1217
$2,000 - $3,000	271 Days	$1327

Where to go from here? My goal to hit $4,000 is in 250 days. Hopefully I will reach this well before October 1st. To reach this goal I will have to average $4.00 a day. I know, not much but I cannot compete with the photographers who have studios and enough money to shoot half naked 20 somethings. I'm hoping that with my improved equipment and increased travel opportunities coming in the near future, I'll be able to hit this mark early. Also, My fine art site, www.SnapBySnap.com is up and running and I'm already booking clients to photograph their private events. We will see how that effects the income in the future.

December 2009 Earnings

I have not posted my earnings in a while. Earnings have actually been rising over the past few months. Here is a break down of the monthly totals since I have been doing micro stock.

Month 2007 2008 2009

Jan. 130.36 69.35

Feb. 110.42 119.68

Mar. 124.11 118.32

Apr. 0 90.92 102.87

May 3.50 102.94 102.00

Jun. 6.65 117.66 94.50

Jul. 11.75 161.70 111.69

Aug. 22.92 85.82 96.38

Sep. 35.05 94.00 119.96

Oct. 65.22 117.76 133.20

Nov. 66.01 101.51 129.02

Dec. 72.83 91.31 94.81

I am without a doubt seeing an increase in sales. Hopefully this will counter the effects of the subscription sales and keep the bottom line rising. One of the metrics that I keep an eye on is how I did compared to last year. Even thought I did better the last 5 months of the year then the previous year, I still was down $30 from 2008. Again, I'm hoping with these increased sales and the economy moving on, this just a small bump in the road.

Moving Beyond Stock

Before Christmas my wife and I decided that after a few years of working on developing my skills and technique, it was time to take the next step. Instead of relying on others to judge my images and advertise for me (along with several hundred thousand others) I now have my own image site. It took about two weeks to find a .com that what available.

Introducing www.SnapBySnap.com.

This is my personal fine art photography site. With my new equipment and many opportunities to travel coming up, I decided that the stock sites will have to wait for my best images. My best photographs will take up residence on SnapBySnap. As the stock photography industry has evolved, professional photographers have adjusted by sending to the micro stock sites their left overs. I'm just doing it the other way around.