Overall sales development

As I had reported in my October microstock sales report, I had a big jump in my earnings, almost doubling the prior earnings. The November numbers are looking a bit lower but appear to confirm the major trend.

The chart above clearly shows that November numbers already are far higher than what I used to see in the other three quarters of the year. It beats September by about 20%, and you have to consider that as usual the iStock partner program numbers will be added later. This will be interesting to find out: The iStock PP had almost tripled in October. Even at the “normal” rates I was seeing before, November will be the second best month in the last two years but if PP numbers are similar than October, I will get close to that month’ result again.

How November Numbers got that high

If we look at the daily sales numbers, you will easily see two huge days in November making a big impact on overall sales: On Nov 13, I had a large sale at Stocksy United for $50. In addition, a series of images sold at Dreamstime for more than $25.

The other big day, November 26, is showing three Enhanced Licenses at Shutterstock. Besides these extraordinary days, all other days look quite low but actually I have had another large license at Shutterstock and an Extended License on Fotolia. Finally, I have had a day with five downloads on Pond5 which is not covered by StockPerformer and therefore not included in the charts.

All in all it is remarkable that those “single big events” are making a huge difference to the monthly total. But the longer I am offering my images at different places, the more regular those “single big events” are coming. So it might be a matter of time and volume until I see those big sales every week or even more often while the masses of small sales are providing a certain base level of royalties.

Discovering new agencies

After settling in with the upload processes at the agencies I have used to distribute my images so far, I have decided it might be time to check out other places. I have started uploading my files to mostphotos.com recently, a Swedish agency offering 50% of the royalties, even for subscription downloads. I didn’t figure out all the details yet and will publish a separate article about them soon.

I am planning to add a few more agencies when the time allows. The main criteria for me is the perspective to reach a payout at least once a year. I am curious to find out which agencies are selling enough (or have a low payout minimum) to allow that. Any suggestions will be welcome.