Your Current Earnings Potential

What is your current earning potential? I have two ways of figuring this out. The first method is to go through each of the sites that I use and add together to most profitable month. This gives me what, on my best month, would be my earnings. As of right now, that comes out to $274.

The second method I have is my 24 month moving average. This is what I expect to make on a month by month basis. It is currently at $108.82. This last month I brought in $140. So, what is my earnings potential? It could be $274 a month. I should be getting at least $108 a month. Or you can look at it this way:

$274 x 12 months = $3288/year

$108.82 x 12 months = $1205.84/year

$140 x 12 months = $1680/year

I would much rather go with the higher figure but lets be real here. What are the chances of me hitting an all time high on every site in the same month? The second figure, which is what I should make according to my 24 month average, should be viewed as the number to beat. The last number is a progress report. Hopefully it will reflect a number as close to your best month as possible.

So Long StockXpert

Just when StockXpert was starting to produce good sales for me, they close shop. As of today, StockXpert is no longer accepting submissions. They will continue to sell images until the 11th of this month. After that, our images are supposed to be transferred to iStockPhoto. This is really depressing because last month I had my 2nd best sales month with the dollar wise, and my best month by number of sales. Also, not all images will be moved to iStockPhoto. That means a potential loss of 1343 products from the market for me.

This further eliminates competition in among the microstock agencies. This means a higher potential for 2 things. 1) higher prices for buyers. 2) lower commissions for contributers. My lowest commissions to date are $.25 an image. I cannot see how the agencies can think of lowering it even further, but I'm sure they will try. The little guy cannot do much about it so we can only hope that the big contributers Threated to pull there content if this downward spiral does not stop.

On the bright side, it will force us to really step up our game. iStockPhoto is very selective in what they accept. You have to produce high quality content to make in on their site. Time to work on composition and technique if you want to stay in the market.

From Disappointing December to Jumping January!

January was a real nice surprise.

• $140.77 made this the second most profitable month for me yet.
• The two extended license sales this month totaled a little less the $40.
• New highs in the 6, 12, and 24 month moving average.
• Hit the $3,000 life time earnings
• BigstockPhoto had its best month for me at $25.90.
• CanStockPhoto also hit a new high at $23.80

On the down side, I did notice the drop in Fotolia's commission. Well, at least overall we get a little bit more money but it still stings to know your hard work is not appreciated as much.

February should be interesting. With 3 fewer days, what will this month hold? Last year it held $119.68. In 2008 it was $91.32. We will see!