My Microstock Sales - an overview

[bobkeenan]

I have been doing microstock for over 3 years now.  I am making enough to help pay for my insatiable camera equipment appetite without doing too much work and mostly doing stuff that I totally enjoy.

I love reading about how other microstockers are doing.   So I thought.... maybe someone.... especially if they are new to microstocking,  may be interested in my sales and what typically sells.

So I wrote another blog post about it.   And you can read it here  ( http://www.bobkeenanphoto.com/my-microstock-sales/ )  if you are interested.

[BrianWJH]

Thanks Bob for sharing an interesting post of your experience, hope you reach your target.
All the best.

[louoates]

I quit uploading to microstock about two years ago after being in it for six years. It was fun and fairly profitable but I decided to spend my time on my landscape and other fine art work. What most photographers don't understand is that the relatively low commission rate (.25 to $2.00 on average per sale) actually turns out to be really good on a per hour of work basis.

I've spent zero time on microstock over the last two years but but I'm still making several hundreds of dollars per month from an average of about 700 images across five sites. I haven't seen much reduction in volume sold either. Whatever key words I used long ago are still working rather well. So I'm just sitting here collecting money every month. I have no idea how much longer this income stream will continue with no new input. But I'm lazy enough to want to find out.

The key to microstock is to understand that the low commission rate, over time, converts to quit a tidy sum over time.

[bobkeenan]

That's a good point and I should have mentioned that.  Unless the microstock agency goes out of business,  I suspect that I will keep earning money on my existing images.   I have noticed that if I regularly add images that the sales continue to increase.   I think its more than just an increase in total portfolio.   I think the search rankings they use tend to show more recent images first.

[Robert Roaldi]

Thank you. I was always interested in the often polarized discussions about microstock on web forums. I hadn't read anything in a while now, not on the forums I read anyway. It's interesting to read about a practical real-world approach.

[bobkeenan]

Thanks.  Yea microstock has ruined the market for macrostock and or commercial or business photography.   I was talking to a friend who did that work in the 70-80's.  He was lamenting that he used to get many hundreds of dollars for photos of stuff that you can now get on microstock sites for a fraction of that cost.   But it's here to stay...... But prices on microstock are bound to drop or at least the percentage of commission.