Hi & welcome back! NiltoMil is officially off and running again – I’m keywording, submitting, pushing images and then working on shooting some new today.  I’m going to be pushing some older images even though I know they won’t sell as well as I’d like simply because I want the momentum to begin NOW not in a month when I get new stuff edited.

I’m ready for 2010!  January will be a very poor month since I’m starting so late but February should show some recovery.

In the last 6 months when I was mainly gone:

• Shot weddings – and we have 4 other photographers who shot during that time as well.
• Sold my house/bought a new house – a fixer-upper.  We’ve been working on it almost everyday since Nov 20th for 12+ hours per day.
• Delved into the food styling/preparing/photo world.  I’ve read almost every post on Still Life With, Matt Bites, and many other foodie blogs.  I’ve devoured four entire food photography books including Rinder/Smith’s new book and Lou Manna’s classic.
• Redesigned our business brand
• Traveled to Maine, twice.  Traveled to NYC.

Now that I’m back my goal is to create an income that will pay my mortgage first, other bills later.  Our mortgage is $680.  This is an achievable goal that I do have to reach for. I’ll do a more extensive goals post in the next week or so but that’s the start of it.

Current BME: $575.46, July 2008

Let me quote myself.

I am not going to stick around and pretend to be something I’m not.  Too many people set goals and fail to reach them, yet still continue the journey unfazed.  I often share my experiences and ideas in hopes of helping you.  If I can’t help myself first, I can’t help you.

If I fail to reach both goals (10k images, $25k for the year) by 12/31/09, NiltoMil.com will close for good whether I continue to shoot microstock or not.

At this point in the year it is obvious that I will not reach 10k approved images OR $25,000 this year.

I am modifying what I wrote above.  I am not going to destroy or delete Nil. I am going to stop posting earnings, stop posting ideas until they are working better.  I AM going to keep Nil up for the archives and the posts that often get referenced.  I AM going to continue to put up posts of interest to me – whether that’s of interest to anyone else or not.  My journey will continue.

I need to help myself first.  I need to figure out the steps I should be taking to reach my goal  and when I do, I’ll be back full force with the full effort I can give Nil.  Until then, expect sporadic updates on what I’m doing, how stock is going and what I am trying to do to improve.

Total Earnings: $440.55

That’s a number I can live with.  Granted it doesn’t get me a lot closer to the “mil” portion of this goal but it also represents an increase over August of $13 and an increase over last Sept of $31.  I upload no new photos, keyworded nothing and submitted not a dang thing.  So an increase in my earnings with no new work is definitely motivating and exciting.

As always my fully detailed results are in my Google Spreadsheet here.

Well, the summer is almost over and I’m almost back to work.  September represents the next-to-last month of me not able to focus on microstock.  That being said I’m always happy if I make a few dollars anyways.

Specific results that are important:

Shutterstock finished +$74 from last month.  I would expect something more in the middle like $160 for October.

Dreamstime was way down but Fotolia was up.  I can’t wait to see what happens with Bigstock since the SS acquisition.

NO BMEs for the first time since I started tracking stats – that’s a little disappointing but gives me some new goals and motivations.  I’d like to have one month set EVERY BME just so I had a guideline to improve from.

Others reporting microstock income:

Microstock Diaries

jrtb

CJ Photography

Driftless Ramblings

PDTNC

MelastMohican

Pixels Away

Bankizdjec

Microstock Experiment

MyStockPhoto

Stock Illustrator

I’d like to address something – the time I spend on microstock.  I think some people who read this blog are slightly confused about me slaving away and getting nowhere.

In July, I added 15 new images to my sites.  That means I worked on it for under 1 hour in July.  I made $500 in July.

In June, I added 150 new images.  About 4 hours of work.  I also made $450.  I’ve now in 2 months made $950 on 5 hours of work.

In May, I added 160 new images.  About 4 more hours of work.  Made $400.

Grand total: $1400 while doing 9 hours of work.

What I need to do in order to increase my earnings is actually work on microstock.  I do need to continue improving – I’m just really starting my second year of being a stock photographer.  I need to upload with momentum – that’s proven very successful.  But I’m not sitting here day after day churning out work that isn’t selling.  I’m just simply not putting in the time.

Why?

Our studio has 4 photographers, we’re currently hiring 2 more and we’re going to do between 40 and 50 weddings this year combined.  We’ll likely do another 150 portraits and next year will come close to 70 weddings/250 portraits.  Our wedding and portrait business has brought in over $100k each year for the last 2 and will do so this year and next as well.  I am also in the midst of building a studio management software for photographers that will track clients, billing, orders, calendaring, expenses/taxes, and task management.  It’s a huge project but one I love doing.

All that to say, don’t cry for me, Argentina.  I’m here, I’m going to continue working on micro when I can.  Right now I’m being torn in 3 directions and this one is the least of my issues.

This won’t be a huge surprise for anyone that follows my numbers at all anymore but March is going to be *huge* for me.  I  have done the work in February – not as much as possible but a decent amount of work.  I think I will be rewarded for it.  So many people want to doomsday and naysay on how stock is going but next month we’ll see if that’s true for me.

Why do I predict such a huge month?

• February is going to finish as my best month since July (BME).  I’m back to my max levels from before.
• According to 123RF, I submitted 450 new images in February (that would be 450 to all sites).
• My Shutterstock gallery is nearly 2000 now with 550 new since Dec 31st.  They are selling very well.
• BMEs on at least 4, maybe 5 stocks tomorrow.
• As summer comes, sales pick up naturally.  Add in the work from this month and the work I’ve done in Jan. and will do in March.  It’s coming together.
• Finally – I’m doing Powerweek v3 from March 8 through March 14th.  I will be posting about that more around the 3rd or so.

So overall March is looking like the month to beat for me.

I’ve felt challenged lately – many people have found the site.  A lot of them question my “insane” $1,000,000 goal.  I understand that.  I disagree with where I’ll end up, but I understand.  I think it’s doable or I wouldn’t bother trying.  Of COURSE it’s not doable from where I am today.  I get what needs to be done.  Keep watching!

So my link was posted on the PPA website, of which I’m not a member.  Makes it hard to reply to those posts.  Through the power of technology, however, I’ve managed to see a few of the posts and wanted to reply to them.

After all his work, his biggest month is less than $200.  Less than $400 for months of work.

I’m not sure where Jack got his data but I have a fairly accurate log of my work time and my earnings.  Between January 1 2008 and December 31 2008 I put in around 250 hours of stock (not including our trip which the images are mainly NOT online from  yet).  For that 250 hours, I made $4115 or roughly $16.50 per hour so far.  However, those images continue to sell.   By my math, those same images will have sold for about $7000 at the end of this year and $12000 in their lifetimes so $50 per hour of stock work.  I’ll also be the first to admit that of our 1500 images, a good half suck for stock.  I’m still learning this.

My biggest month is not $200.  It’s $575, nearly triple that.  Just clearing that up.

For the money spent on photo equipment, he can make much more delivering papers

My photo equipment is already bought and paid for by my wedding and portrait photography business.  I’m a full time wedding and portrait photographer who will REPORT pay taxes on a low six-figures to the IRS this year.  We took in a good deal more than that.  I’m not hurting and I’m not anyone’s delivery boy.  My current gear allows me to shoot photos and make money – that’s all it’s about.

Stock is not “send in whatever you shoot”….it takes photos of people that have signed stock releases.

I wonder if Jack has bothered to look at my gallery.  I have 1500+ photos up, and have releases for over 100 different models already.  I think he’s using me to rail against microstock, honestly.  I don’t think he knows ME from Adam.

So here’s the reality of making $1,000,000 in stock.  It’s been done.  It’s BEING done.  There are microstock photographers *today* making $1 mil and at least one who will make $1 mil THIS YEAR alone.  Is it possible?  Heck yes!

Doubters don’t bother me much – it means the goal is that much more interesting to me.  My thought is that if I dedicated 2000 hours (full time, 40 hr week) to stock, I would have made between $45,000 and $70,000 last year.  How many first year businesses are that profitable?  How many can earn $50k one year and without working earn another $35,000 from the same work the following year?  At the *rate* I worked, 10x the workload would have earned me around $120,000 in 3 years with my image decline rate.  $120,000 for a full time job is fair.  I want to be BETTER than fair – but it’s in no way an impossible goal.

As far as writing this blog goes, that’s a different income level.  We have sponsors – I’ve received ThinkTank bags (3) and lens rentals of over $10,000 in value already.  We also have ongoing sponsors like Lookstat.  So keep in mind that the blog writing has added a ton of value to our business.

So just to clear up the record, I’m not a hobbyist.  I’m a full time photographer but not a full time microstock photographer.  For a stock business with little to no overhead (gear isn’t in my stock budget) I want to make $1,000,000 in stock whether that takes 3 years, 5 or 10.  I have a plan to get there and this isn’t a pipe-dream as others are already there and doing it.  I can’t reply on the PPA threads so if you want to continue this discussion, consider this blog open for business.  (BTW: Blown highlights look awful.  Just sayin’)

We reached a few portfolio milestones this month already and may reach a few more before the month is out.  This is the current list and what we hope to accomplish by the end of the month.

On 123RF we are at 1973 on our way to 2000.  We will definitely surpass this goal by 1/31/09.

At Bigstock we passed 1500 by a ton – 1878 out of 2000 as well and could easily hit this mark.

Dreamstime sits a bit lower with 1733/2000 but I have just over 100 pending.  Assuming a good final 9 days, we could make it close.

Fotolia will be our big surprise for the month.  We started the month with 646 images and may top 1500 before the month ends!  Go me!    I have pushed nearly 600 images into the queue there this month.  And yes, next month I plan to finish that up and do Istock a few times as well.

Istock is only 89/100 and close to reaching my *first* milestone.  Sad, I know.

Our Shutterstock gallery is just over 1500 images at 1635/2000.  I don’t know if we’ll get 365 more approved in just over a week.  I would like to hope so … we shall see.

StockXpert gallery size is 1651 passing the 1500 mark earlier this month and headed toward 2k as well.

So our average gallery is nearing 2000 images.  Not good enough but a start.  We’ve also decided to spend a good portion of February improving our image quality to a level that will SELL a lot better.  I’ll post some trials soon.

We’re seeing a huge increase in “new visitor” traffic since my Top 10 About the First 10 post so I figured now would be a good time to explain a little bit more about NiltoMil and what I’m doing with this site.

My goal at NiltoMil is to track my microstock progress from $0 through $1,000,000.  While a high goal, it is attainable and something others have accomplished.  As of January 1st, 2009 NiltoMil has earned $6839.46 and counting.  Along the way I post my observations, tips & tricks, some help for your own sites/blogs/shoots and other cool info I think the N2M readers would be interested in reading.  Each post is abbreviated on the front page.  Click the title or the “Read more” to see the entire post.

The way I track all of my portfolio and earnings information is on a Google Spreadsheet (click here).

The top row of buttons (starting with Home) contains the NiltoMil static pages.  I update these as often as I can remember and when things change.  They are the “permanent” parts of NiltoMil in that my Agencies, Income results and goals do not change but rather grow.

The second row of buttons (starting with Business) is a list of post categories.  All of the posts on NiltoMil are sorted into one or more categories and clicking any of these links takes you to all of the posts in that category.  There are also three or four “hidden” categories – stuff for my records but if you can find them, great!

The right side menu has a list of common tags – the larger the tag, the more often I post about that particular topic (obviously “microstock” is the largest tag).  If you’re interested in more posts about that topic, click the tag and you will see every post with that tag.  Archives, most popular posts (a new feature) and recent comments are also there.

Finally, our RSS feed is http://www.niltomil.com/feed If you would like to subscribe to NiltoMil use that link and you will be able to read us every time we update.  We have just over 100 subscribers currently!

Thanks for being a reader – whether an old one or new.  We appreciate all of the support, comments and help we get!  If you’d like more information, please check our About NiltoMil page.

(chart taken from StockXpert top portfolios)

Figuring out where I rank on stock sites is a curiosity more than a necessity.  I don’t need to know – my goal is $1,000,000 regardless of whether Yuri or Lise has made $55,000,000 or what Lumaxart is doing.  However, it’s interesting to compare progress and see where we’re at and where we reach in what time periods.

Here are the tracking tools I’m aware of:

Istock Charts

Bigstock Gallery Size Listing

StockXpert Gallery Size Listing

(Araminta Studios has a great listing but it’s currently offline.)

As far as my own rankings are concerned, I only  have rough estimates of past results and all of today’s current data.  These rankings are for GALLERY SIZE only.

IStock – last time I looked, I was roughly 7900th.  Today I’m 7213th.

Bigstock – last time I looked, I was on page 9 ranked roughly 420th.   Today I’m ranked 267th and on page 6.

StockXpert – last time I looked, I was roughly 750th.  Today I’m ranked 338th.

So it looks like there are roughly 350ish photographers with  larger galleries than I have online.

What would it take to make progress?

On IStock, just 100 new images would raise my ranking from 7213 to 4480.
Also on Istock, just 300 new images would raise my ranking from 7213 to 2375.
Real progress would be 369 new images and top 2000.

On Bigstock, just 130 images raises me to page 5 and rank #240. 
On Bigstock, just 750 images would raise our ranking from 267th to 144th.
Real progress would be 1360 new images, bringing us in the top 100.

On StockXpert, just 100 images would raise us from 338 to 295th.
On StockXpert, just 620 images would raise us from 338 to 200th.
Real progress would be 1738 images and would take us from 338 to 100th.

3000 new accepted images (my goal for 2/28/09) would give us the following rankings:

Istock (140 new images max) – 3180th.
Bigstock (3000 new images) – 43rd.
StockXpert (3000 new images) – 60th.

So that Istock one may be a bit of a reach – but top 100 on the other sites?  Totally doable.  Where do you rank?  Post below and you’ll always have it to look back on – and compare to!

© Tomas Marek, Dreamstime.com

While NiltoMil covers a wide variety of topics from SEO on Technorati to shooting with models, the main point of its existence is to document our progress from $0 to $1,000,000.  As such, the end of the year is a good time for 2008 wrap up and goal setting for next year.

As of December 31st, our total earnings will be just a shade over $6,500.  While a decent amount of money, we will not get to $1,000,000 with years like that.  Obviously there’s  a need to greatly increase our number of salable images quickly.

Goals in microstock may be measured by many different statistics:  RPI, earnings, download rates, sell through, approval percent, size of your portfolio, etc.  For NiltoMil, we’ll focus on the obvious two: portfolio size and earnings.

My goal for 2009 portfolio size is to have more than 10,000 accepted images by 12/31/09 on most of my sites (Istock will be an exception of course, Fotolia may be as well).  Shutterstock, 123RF, Bigstock, Dreamstime, MostPhotos and StockXpert should *definitely* hit this goal for me to be successful.

My goal for 2009 earnings is to earn $25,000 in stock photography for the year. While not “huge” by any definition, this would be around $2000 a month for the year and would represent the figure that would continue our journey in a positive direction.

So here’s a reason to continue reading NiltoMil.  I am not going to stick around and pretend to be something I’m not.  Too many people set goals and fail to reach them, yet still continue the journey unfazed.  I often share my experiences and ideas in hopes of helping you.  If I can’t help myself first, I can’t help you.

If I fail to reach both goals by 12/31/09, NiltoMil.com will close for good whether I continue to shoot microstock or not.

So wish me luck!  I wish you luck in 2009 in reaching all of your goals.  (Luck wishing appreciated by clicking “Comment” below)

Track our progress at the NiltoMil Spreadsheet