A lot of questions I get off this blog or in personal messages at Microstock Group are along the lines of “are you still making any money since you haven’t uploaded in a year?”  ”How passive is microstock really?”  ”I know I can make money with my photos but is being a commercial stock photographer still viable?”

Let me answer those questions with some of my own data.

Every image I submit anywhere goes to 123RF first.  It is my “testing ground” – misspellings, keyword errors, really bad issues I don’t pick up on, copyright, etc.  I send everything I’ve ever submitted through 123RF.com  So that means it’s easy to track all of my submissions thanks to their really great stats on uploads.

In 2008 I submitted 1650 new images.  For the year, I earned $216.40.
In 2009 I submitted 1350 new images.  For the year, I earned $298.19 (+88)
In 2010 I submitted 980 new images.  For the year, I earned $425.00 (+127)
In 2011 I submitted 100 new images.  For the year, I earned $587.78 (+162)

Those submission numbers should be consistent to the major agencies.  Let’s see how the income goes:

Shutterstock 2008: 2548.08
Shutterstock 2009: 2205.29
Shutterstock 2010: 2573.89
Shutterstock 2011: 3037.03

Nope.  Shutterstock actually dropped off quite a lot from 2008 to 2009 despite new content.  This past year was my best year ever despite uploading only 100 images.  Strange indeed!

Total income 2008: 4114.07
Total income 2009: 5530.43
Total income 2010: 6896.38
Total income 2011: 8958.12

So a few simple assumptions can be made there.  First, my images stayed fairly strong despite not uploading as much over time.  In fact, 2012 will be the first year I’ve uploaded MORE than the year before.  Second, microstock income is, indeed, passive income.  With the same images online in 2010 and 2011, I made more in 2011 while doing next to zero work.  All 100 of my 2011 uploads were done in January.  I did *not one second* of microstock uploading, editing, or keywording in 2011.  Everything was actually done in 2010 so I made $9,000 doing “nothing” in 2011.  That’s not “bad money.”

The bad news on this front is that $9000 for 3000+ images online is also not “good money.”   It means to be sustainable at this level, I’d need over 10,000 images online to make even $30,000 in one year.  That means the majority of my images are not selling well.  Why?

Well, a quick search of my Shutterstock portfolio can answer that.  360 of my 3300 images on Shutterstock are fractals.  These sell rarely for me.  If I sort by most popular, I can also see that my last few pages of popular (my non sellers) are fractals, duplicates or model images from our trip.  Our trip had its ups and downs but for the most part, was a giant waste of time.  A few of my not-so-popular models are also on my last few pages.   The vast majority of my non-sellers are in one of those few groups.  That means I need to avoid those going forward and my actual return per image would be much higher.  I used to submit 15-20 of one food.  Now I submit 5-8 total.  It makes a huge difference to sales when you can focus on the few microstock type images that sell.

Someone asked me why I continue to blog, shoot and hopefully begin uploading to microstock agencies again.  My SEO business for photographers has *really* taken off and I always have a waiting list.  My wedding photography business should do very well in Melbourne and I’ll have more clients, business and work to do than I’ll have time for as it is.  I think the answer is that microstock really is passive income.  I know that for every image I upload today, I’ll be setting myself up for more income later.  I know that for every mediocre image I submitted in the past, I can submit at least a few decent ones now to make up for it.

Next on my niltomil agenda is updating this website to be current.  I know I’m behind – sorry!  There really is just too much to do and not enough time.  I’m off to work now!