June 2011

Not sure if anyone is really following this or not, but thought I'd go ahead and post an update on my adventure as an independent stock photographer. Since my last update in February, I've joined two new distribution websites - Veer and WarmPicture. Veer has been around for awhile and they have a nice offering of products, so I thought I'd try them out to see how well I can do there. WarmPicture is a new site created by another stock photographer who wanted to start a "contributor's collective" where the site is run by the members as a group and commission is 80% of each sale. A great idea - let's hope it gets off the ground!

So, let's take a look at my stats, site by site:

iStockphoto: Number of images online: 1,405. Still my number one site, but monthly income has been dropping steadily since January. It hovered about the same in March and April then plummeted by 50% last month! ugh! what a disaster. iStock seems to be playing around with their "best match" search alogorithm and my portfolio has taken a big hit from that it seems. or maybe I just suck, I don't know. I haven't uploaded much new stuff to iStock lately, but will continue to build there anyhow. I hope the income picks up, that's for sure! What I earned last month (May) was less than I used to earn there in just one week before they changed their commission structure.

Dreamstime: Number of images online: 262. Started a it slow in the beginning of the year, but sales have started to pick up there and I was even able to get my first payout from them last month! (minimum payout is $100, so that tells you abot what I made). I've started adding more photos again the end of last month so hope let's hope the sales keep building there!

Shutterstock: Number of images online: 207. I love this site. although May was slow month there, March and April were awesome and I got one payout already (minimum is $100) for sales through March and will be getting another one for the month of May. They pay monthly. I know a lot of photographers complain about the 25 cents per download for subscription sales, and it seems really low, but it's all about the numbers and volume. Those quarters add up quickly to dollars!

StockFresh: Number of images online: 225. I still really like the ease and look/feel of this site. Sadly I have had zero sales here but I know they are still a new site and even the "most popular" images only have about a dozen downloads so I'm still holding out hope. They haven't really done a major marketing campaign to bring in buyers, as far as I can tell. I hope it picks up in the next few months. I'll keep building my portfolio there in the meantime.

Fotolia: Number of images online: 172. I've made some sales there, not bad for being so new with such a small portfolio, but I have a long way to go before I can get a payout there. It's not the worst earner for me, but let's just say I've not even made $20 there yet.

Alamy: Number of images online: 69. I am not sure about this site. I've had no sales but have very few images online. It's a different way to upload images and not the most user-friendly for contributors. I'll keep trying as I think this could have a good return potential, but unless I can get a decent size portfolio here I may not be seeing much.

Veer: Number of images online: 50. It seems to take forever to get any images approved at Veer. I have heard good things about them so I just joined and made $7 the first month but nothing since. I'm still adding images but it takes about month to get them approved so it may be a long process to see any success here.

WarmPicture: Number of images online: 96. As mentioned above, this is a brand new site. I'm helping to build it (with images) along with other independent photographers so it's got a lot of promise. no sales yet, but it's even newer than StockFresh so I'm not going to complain.

Well that's the rundown where I'm at. I only started uploading more photos to all the sites about mid-May, so there was a few months there where I wasn't uploading at all, so it's no wonder my sales are not up as they should be. If I had more time to work on my photography business/hobby then I think I would be in a better position. But I do have a fulltime job not related to photography so if you're wondering why I haven't uploaded all 1,405 images that I have on iStock onto all these other sites, that is why. The most time consuming part is editing/adding the metadata (keywords, description, title). I had never done that before and just added it after I uploaded directly to the iStock site. I learned my lesson with that, though! once I get the metadata done it's pretty simple to upload to these sites. I may have mentioned that before, so sorry if I repeat. I didn't go back and re-read my old posts.

So, let's see how the summer does for me. My goal is to double my portfolios on each site with the exception of iStock, since it's already got most of my images. I hope to achieve this goal by the end of June or July at the latest. My time and other commitments may hamper that, but I'll give it go anyhow!

So now that January 2011 is over, thought I'd take a look back to see how I've fared so far as an Independent Microstock Photographer. Since the holidays are generally a slow time of year for me anyway, I am going to consider January 2011 as my first real month as an Indpendent. Right now I have portfolios at six sites, but really just five with a decent amount of images. Keep in mind that I still need to build my portfolios on the other sites, and with a full-time job (not photography-related) and family commitments, I don't have a lot of spare time. So, that being said, I think I'm not doing too bad.

Here's how it shakes down, in order of highest earner to lowest:

iStockphoto: My actual download count for January is practically equal to what I had in 2010 but, of course, the dollars are dramatically down since I went from 35% Gold level royalties to the new "Redeemed Credits (RC)" scheme at an Independent level of 16%. However, my largest online portfolio is still here at iStock with 1,385 files so that helps as well. And, yes, I'm continuing to upload to iStock.

Shutterstock: I wasn't too excited about the 25 cent royalties here but when I get a handful of those a day with only 163 approved photos in my portfolio so far, that's not too bad. I expect to add a lot more files this month. Based on my earnings so far, I should be getting a payout next month. Shutterstock pays out once a month and I have my minimum payout set to $100. Oh, and I also should note that 25 cents is not the only royalty amount - just for the subscription sales. I had several "On Demand" downloads that netted higher royalties.

Dreamstime: There's something about Dreamstime that I really like, despite the fact that I don't have very many sales there yet. I have 210 approved images online at Dreamstime right now and only 38 downloads since October. I know I need to build my portfolio there and figure out how to do more cross promotion. I think this site could be a good earner once I get established.

Fotolia: I haven't seem to caught on to Fotolia yet. I have 126 files in my portfolio here and only 6 sales (downloads) so far. I know I need to build my portfolio here and figure out what sells best here.

StockFresh: I really like this site. It's simple to work with and the buying process is straightforward as well. The problem is that it's a new site and they have not yet done any major marketing. So I have not had one sale here yet. I have 157 images online and I need to continue to build here as well, I know. I also noticed that on the entire site the file with the highest amount of downloads seems to have only 9 downloads. I think once they kick off with a marketing push the site will take off. It's built by the same people who built StockXpert who then sold StockXpert and started this new site. I'm told they know what they're doing. I guess time will tell!

Alamy: I only just got accepted here so haven't put any more images online other than the first 4 that I submitted for my application. This is considered more macrostock or middle tier, but it's still royalty free stock. The appeal here is not just the higher royalties but Alamy donates a large portion of their profits to medical research.

Summary

A few other things I want to point out. Some of my best selling files at iStock are my vector highway maps. I have not uploaded any vector files to any other sites yet. I want to do a full update of all my state maps first and then figure out which sites I want to branch out to. These are a lot of work and I want to be sure they will do well for me at other stock sites and that I get a good royalty for them.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that the upload process to these other sites, at least for photos, is a breeze! Being able to FTP the files then just go to the site to add categories and attach releases is great. Plus they all have a model release library so I dont have to upload a new release with every file. I can just select it from the library.

So there you have it, my January 2011 wrap up and status report as an Independent Stock Photographer. My goals for February are to double my portfolios at the new sites plus get at least 25 new images added to iStock.

Part Two

The long delayed continuation of my iStock story ... (continued from here)

The changes seemed to begin slowly at iStock. At first it was a series of price increases which slowed my ascent to the next "canister level" at iStock as buyers became more price conscious, downloading less. I saw the effect after the 2009 price increases, when they also announced the upcoming "premium collection" now known as the "Vetta collection." My quest for the "Diamond canister level" (25,000 total downloads) moved from an estimated December 2009 date up to April 2010. (This estimate was based on the estimator tool that iStock had on its website which would take into consideration your downloads and earnings to estimate your future earnings potential and "canister level" advancement).

I decided I needed to work harder if I wanted to really succeed at stock photography. I really enjoyed it and the extra income was a big help with my monthly bills. I was determined to build my photographic skillsets. I knew I needed to get more experience with models and with lighting. So, I began scheduling photoshoots with models I'd connected with on Model Mayhem along with friends and family members willing to model for me. It also helped tremendously to have a Photo-Buddy. My dear friend, charlybutcher, and I met through iStock. She had joined in 2008 and found me through the iStock community. (More on that another time). Together we did a lot of shooting and I added over 350 images to my iStock portfolio in 2009. That's a lot for me, since I have a full-time job (unrelated to photography and design) and am a single mom to two teenage boys. In 2009 I also attended 3 big photo events, all organized with fellow iStockers: The "Spring Fling" photoshoot in Phoenix, "Desert'lypse 4" minilypse event, and a smaller photoshoot with 3 other photographers and about a dozen models in Reno when I was there visiting family for Thanksgiving.

2009 was a good year for me as a photographer. I learned a lot and made many new friends in the process. But then, at the end of 2009, iStock dropped the bomb about not only raising prices, but making a major change to the royalty structure and "canister levels." I was within a few months of moving up to the "Diamond" level and this change was going to double the requirement! That meant it would be years before I would reach that level. I was completely deflated and felt udderly betrayed. I had worked so hard for so long and this felt like not only a slap across the face, but like the rug was pulled right out from underneath me. This announcement caused a huge uproar in the iStock community. so much so that iStock came back with some changes and concessions, allowing "grandfathering" to the next level. While still not the best of news, at least I knew that I would be able to move up to the next level based on the current goalposts and not the doubled amount.

I was still recovering from that blow and trying to move forward as best I could, concentrating again on building my skills and my portfolio. And then came the now-infamous September 2009 announcement abuot the new royalty structure. Wow. As a contributor with both vectors and photographs in my portfolio, I was going to be knocked down to the bottom the levels of the royalty plan. All that hard work and effort gone in one fell swoop.

That is when I began to seriously consider my alternatives. The iStock I had grown to love, the community and spirit that I was so proud to be a part of quickly deteriorated from there. Sure, there had been issues up until then, but this pretty much sealed the fate. I knew then that this was all about business and iStock really didn't care what my goalposts had been moved to. They only cared about one thing - their bottom line.

So, I did some research, looked around at other microstock agencies, chatted with other independent microstock photographers and got a lot great advice. Ultimately I knew the decision was mine and mine alone. Yes, I could completely boycott iStock and quit completely, but I did have an established portfolio there and didn't think pulling out of there completely was my best choice. In September 2010, two months before I was set to get the "diamond" canister and two months before that diamond canister would no longer have any relationship whatsoever to the royalty amount I received for my work, I decided to cancel my exclusive relationship with iStock.

During the required 30-day waiting period, I signed up with the other "Big 4" microstock agencies: Shutterstock, Dreamstime, and Fotolia. And also one new stock agency, StockFresh, which was built by the people who created StockExpert and recommended to me. Once my 30 days were up, I was ready for my new portfolios to go live at these other agencies. I was now an Independent Microstock Photographer.

So that's the long, drawn out story, I'll continue to add updates as I progress. I know it's been several months now, and perhaps some of you are curious about how I've done in my first few months - I'll save that for another blog post.

On September 19, 2010 I clicked the link that would dramatically change my six year relationship with iStockphoto.com. I made the decision to end my exclusive status with iStockphoto and become an independent stock photographer/artist. Once you click the the "cancel exclusivity" button you still have to wait 30 days before it is actually effective - a 30-day "waiting" period.

So, let me back up a little. In March of 2004 I stumbled upon iStockphoto, "the designer's dirty little secret," while looking for some stock photos for a website I was creating for a client. I bought a few credits, got some photos and finished my design. But something about iStockphoto.com brought me back. As I had been looking for specific photos, I noticed that iStock's library did not have every image I had been looking for, and at the bottom of their main page was a small paragraph that read
"Becoming a Contributing Artist: iStockphoto members are a part of an international community of artists creating a huge database of royalty-free content. Our artists earn between 20 - 25% royalties on their image sales."

So I thought that maybe, just maybe I could shoot a few images myself. Afterall, I had this great little Canon EOS (35mm SLR - FILM!) camera that I had been playing around with and a digital Canon powershot that I had "borrowed" from my boyfriend. I sort of became a woman obsessed. Okay, not "sort of" - I was obsessed! Canon had recently come out with the "Digital Rebel" DSLR that was almost affordable for me (a single mom, so this would be a splurge on myself which I rarely do!) I couldn't get the idea out of my head. So, I got out a credit card and ordered myself a Canon Digital Rebel camera kit. It took me about a week after the camera arrived to actually tell anyone about it. I was actually embarassed about spending that much money on myself! (If you're a single parent living paycheck to paycheck, you can probably relate).

I became even more obsessed. I had no lighting equipment and just the kit lens that came with the camera, so I experimented with all sorts of Do-It-Yourself options. Once I felt I had some decent photos I applied to become an iStock contributor. To apply you have to read through the training manual and then take a test. I passed the test and uploaded my three sample images: a flower, a clarinet and a cactus bloom. They accepted me! I guess I wasn't too bad afterall.