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

Ah June.  Smells of bbq, flowers and sales worth dog poop.

As always my chart (which was done on the 1st btw!) is here.  And for Lee who is self-proclaimed lazy, I’m posting a June chart:

The work … well … let’s see.  For the month I started strong and have had a terrible last two weeks.  I had some personal stuff come up that has interfered with “work.”  I would say for the month I did about 4 days of uploading at about 2  hrs a day so 8 hrs of work.  My income increased from last month by $47 and I earned a total of $455.02. I did no shooting for stock in June and added only about 160 new images to my galleries.  That’s consistent with the time I think I put in.  So my income increased slightly on very little work.  Eh.

Two BME’s – StockXpert continues to burn up the charts, continuing in 3rd on my charts behind only SS and DT.  CutCaster also earned $4.02 breaking the previous high of $3.19.  Heh.   Other notes: Canstock had another Fotosearch DL, the 5th one in 5 months.  I like that.  I have many non-earners that may get permanently removed very soon.

At the halfway point of the year I think it’s important to take a look at where I am.

I’m not shooting enough.
I’m not editing enough.
I’m not uploading enough.

That about sums it up – decent return for almost no work I’ve done but wow, ok.  I am done playing around now.

Total Earnings: $408.01

I knew this month was going to be bad about 1/3 of the way through when I was on my way to possibly a Worst Month Ever.  I didn’t quite get that far down as May finished just over $400 for my 4th worst month since I started tracking in detail.  I’m fairly certain it couldn’t get much worse so I’m looking for a REALLY huge bounceback month in June!

Onto the details.

One BME to report – StockXpert – at $44.50 was my BME.  I didn’t have a $30 Photos.com sale this time, like I did in November, so I’m pleased with that BME.

Canstock was also notable this month – fourth consecutive month over $10 and 3rd of 4 to have over $25.  Considering that in 4 months I have now more than doubled my previous 4 year earnings, I’m very pleased with Canstock.

Shutterstock had a worst month for the last 12.  My momentum was completely gone by the beginning of the month and sales were tanked.  Then we seemed to have some database/sales problem as EVERYONE’s early May tanked.  I’m very sure my new momentum uploading will rebound Shutterstock in a BIG way.  I wouldn’t be surprised for a very large jump here next month.

Dreamstime was also off – about $20-$25 off my average month.  Not good news as I have no idea what caused the drop.  Normally I have at least some explanation but not for this.  Just a seasonal dip perhaps as last May was very low.  I need to continue adding new images to DT as well though.

IStock – well I don’t know why I was at $17 and now I don’t know why I’m back to $4.  Either way if I don’t have more than 100 images online, my months are bound to vary from superb to suck.

Fotolia – after three good months on Fotolia, this month was so bad I had to double check my results and I’m STILL not sure it’s right.  Terrible month here.

123RF was near a BME but not quite.  Bigstock was SmallStock once again with terrible earnings.  Nothing at all on MostPhotos, Crestock, ImageCatalog, CutCaster, Vivo or YayMicro.  Don’t honestly know why I bother with most of those.

As they are throughout the month and at the end of every month, detailed results are available here.

Others reporting microstock income:

Microstock Diaries

jrtb

CJ Photography

Driftless Ramblings

PDTNC

MelastMohican

Pixels Away

Bankizdjec

Microstock Experiment

MyStockPhoto

Stock Illustrator

March was up overall but not a BME.  Kind of sad given a Powerweek in the middle of the month should have spurred new heights but when 50%+ gets rejected you don’t get very far.

Detailed results are here.

So let’s see, Shutterstock still hasn’t gained the momentum I need simply because I’m not consistent enough.  I’m going to make myself cry if this keeps up!  Dreamstime was down $15-20 from my last few months.  Istock was in the right range.

The good news was the other big agencies: Fotolia was BME at $83.68, BSP also a BME at $31.50 and SXP a BME at $43.50.

Overall March earnings: $550.15

That’s good enough for second best month ever ($575.46 is overall BME).  I would be happier if SS was picking up momentum but in June I had $398.59 with 1247 images online and now $241.97 with 2143 online.  Sad!

Portfolio size average for my top 6 agencies is now 1903.  Fotolia’s 1599 brings that total down but SS, DT, 123, BSP and SXP are all now over 2000.

Coming soon: my first year back and what’s next for N2M.

What is a Powerweek?

Basically I’ve cleared my schedule for the next 7 days.  I will be doing *nothing* except microstock from Sunday March 8th through Saturday March 14th.  I will track the total number of images submitted to my top 10 agencies.

Why do it?

I think I can get 700 images up in one week and break 1000 for the month.  But it’s not been done.  As far as I know about, the record for NEW image uploads in one month to the top 10 agencies is 1035.  I would like to break that mark one week!

What happened in Powerweek 1 and 2?

Powerweek 1 resulted in 400 new images in 4 days.  I quit 3 days short of goal because I simply ran out of images.  I believed it was easier to shoot 1000 new images than get them up to the agencies but that is incorrect.  To quote myself “The single most difficult and time consuming part of the microstock process is to shoot stock worthy images.” I learned that you need a backlog when you start.

Powerweek 2 resulted in about 400 new images in 3 days.  I quit before the halfway mark because I was simply going too fast to too many agencies.  I was submitting 200 images a day to 15 agencies.  My upload speed is decent but I waited too long to upload the first batch.  Do not upload 200 at a time.  The upload time kills you!

How will this time be different?

So I just admitted to “failing” by not completing Powerweek v1 or v2.  In truth I’m not sure how much 800 images in 2 weeks is failing but I have learned.

1) I’m only uploading to 10 agencies for the next 7 days. I will have a backlog of images to go to the others later if necessary.

2) I’m uploading batches of 50, not 200. 50×10 = 500 total images per upload.  That should take 1/6th of my previous batch time.  I’ll make up for the smaller batches overnights when I do 100 at the end of the day.  That should allow me to do 200 per day if I can edit that quickly.

3) I have my backlog! I have 3200 images to edit now.  I will not run out.

4) My processes are better. I edit faster, keyword smarter and don’t waste my time on borderline images.

5) Need. I have to get through as many images as possible to earn as much as possible so that we can schedule our next trip.  The more we make the better, of course.  I like money.

So, wish me luck and see you in 8 days!

Yes!  My goal was to hit $500 for only the third month ever (first since my BME last July) and I did it!

Full earnings spreadsheet is here.

With February’s income totaled, I have reached $508.89

BME: IStock, Fotolia, CanStock (DT $1.10 off)

Shutterstock went up $45 this month, a decent start but not where I want to be.  I expect Shutterstock to be well into the $300s for March.  I am starting to gain traction there again so I hope to regain my momentum.

Dreamstime nearly hit a  BME but failed by $1.10 to reach it.  It was my third month in four with basically $103.

IStock is the same old, same old.  Still 89 images but a new BME of $17.81 so whatever change they made to Best Match has helped me lately.  My last two months are my best two months in 4 years.

Fotolia did the expected and more than doubled this month due to my doubling of portfolio size.  Last month I went from 646 images online to 1350 and now at 1599 so a huge leap from Fotolia was expected and received.  Fotolia became just my third agency to start crossing the $50 barrier.

123RF and Bigstock did about usual.  No surprises.  I would like to see some growth though.  These two were earning $22-30 for me in June and same now but I’ve added nearly 800 new images!

StockXpert continues to improve.  my second $30+ in a row with only my EL month beating it (2nd BME).  I like the reviews there, I’m climing up their user charts and everything is starting to go well for me there.

The only other real surprise this month was Canstock.  I have been dumping my portfolio on Canstock because of the new Fotosearch acquistion of CSP and so far so great!  My previous *FOUR YEAR* earnings were $61 on around 125 images and lately on 470 images.  I finished uploading my portfolio so I now have just over 2000 images there and this month made $26.55 which is HALF of my all-time earnings there!  It won’t make me rich but it’s a start for Canstock.  When Canstock finishes 5th on your list, you know something is weird!

Yaymicro, FotoMind, MostPhotos and most of my small and new sites (Image Catalog, CutCaster, Vivozoom) all were at $0 for the month.  When I do Powerweek I will NOT be uploading to those sites.

Microstock Diaries

jrtb

CJ Photography

Microstock Junction

Driftless Ramblings

PDTNC

MelastMohican

Pixels Away

Bankizdjec

Microstock Experiment

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!

January – blessed January!  How do I love thee?

It was absolutely fantastic to get back to uploading with any sense of regularity.  I only uploaded about 200 new images during our busy bridal show/booking month but 200 is more than enough to get me back on track!

As always, our spreadsheet of microstock earnings is here.

The January numbers were great!  In fact, this was our best month since I stopped uploading last July (other than the ridiculous ELs from SS in Nov (3 of them!)  The final total for all this excitement was 424.82

To put that in perspective for us, Shutterstock was actually down a few dollars.  We had SIX BMEs – Dreamstime, IStock, FeaturePics, Crestock, ImageCatalog and SnapVillage.  Also, StockXpert would have been a BME but we had an EL in Nov.  Our old BME was $19.10 though and so this month’s $30 would have destroyed that!

IStock – no clue.  No new images but it was almost TWICE my BME.  I’ve had almost that many images online for FOUR YEARS and never gone up over $10 really.  $17 was a huge leap.  There’s some speculation that it was a result of all their Best Match changes.  We’ll see if it continues (plus I’m going to be uploading to IStock this month like mad so we’ll see if that helps!)

FeaturePics had a … slightly insane month!  I actually repriced all of my images to $10 from $2 before.  I only had 2 sales but those 2 sales resulted in $15.75, or 61% of my all-time FeaturePics earnings.  It was TRIPLE my prior BME.  I’m going to be working on some ideas to push my FeaturePics gallery around the next 6 months so we’ll see if I can’t keep getting a few sales there each month at the new price.

Check out my Fotolia gallery size increase on the spreadsheet – from 465 last April to 646 as of Dec 31st to 1350 as of tonight!  I over doubled my Fotolia gallery in one month!  The power of the push, I guess.  I worked hard on Fotolia (while watching TV) so we’ll hope that pays off over this month and beyond.

Other interesting bits – I passed 2,000 images on FotoMind and MostPhotos and will pass it on a bunch of other sites this month.  Gotta keep pushing!  You’ll note there are *new* agencies on the list – more on that in a future post…

My BME total is $575.46 and I’ll state for the record now that I hope February can beat that.  I’m only $150 away so I think I can make that up without much problem.  I wouldn’t be surprised to go well over $600.  I have a big month ahead – some news coming soon on our next stock photo trip as well!

Other sites reporting earnings:

Microstock Diaries

jrtb

CJ Photography

Microstock Junction

Driftless Ramblings

PDTNC

MelastMohican

Pixels Away

Bankizdjec

Microstock Experiment

Any I’m missing?  This list is getting rather comprehensive!