Bankable: Money in Microstock

Posted on 8/16/2007 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (4)

Traditional stock photographers argue that it's impossible to make money selling at microstock prices. But microstock photographer Erik Reis is happy with his results.

Reis is a telecommunication technician who discovered microstock in 2005 and submitted a few files. Early results were encouraging enough that in 2006, he began to aggressively produce to give this "new line of business a chance." To date, his images have been downloaded over 35,000 times. He receives an average of about $.50 per download. The best-selling of his 1338 images on StockXpert has been downloaded 696 times. To view Reis' portfolio go to: http://www.stockxpert.com/browse.phtml?f=profile&l=ikophotos

Close to 1,000 of his 1338 images were produced in the last year. On average, the sites he works with accept five or six variations of each situation, but often, he also tries to explore the same concept in several different ways. About half his images were shot in the studio and the rest on location. All his models have been family or friends, compensated with a few pictures, but he has some projects in mind that require paid models. Reis is also looking to move his studio to another location with more space.

About 94% of the images he has posted have sold at least once. However, he acknowledges that only about 10% are good sellers.

As is the case with the majority of the more than 70,000 microstock photographers, he has chosen to put the same images on many different sites. Currently, his two best-selling sites -- Shutterstock and StockXpert -- produce an equal amount of income and together, generate about 60% of his total stock income.

There are two interesting notes about this statistic.

First, iStockphoto is not one of his top producing sites. We have been led to believe that if you're in microstock, you have to be on iStockphoto. But many photographers say that iStock is not their leading revenue producer. In addition, the sites that pay better per download, like StockXpert or iStockphoto, don't necessarily generate more revenue for the photographer because they may not license rights to as many images.

The other sites where Reis' images can be found are: Fotolia, Dreamstime, iStockphoto, 123rf, BigStockPhoto, CanstockPhoto, ScanStockPhoto, CreStock, Lucky Oliver, FeaturePics and Album.

But why he wasn't trying to market some of his images at traditional RF prices through companies like Alamy.com? "They don't have an upload system on their Web site," Reis says, "and its boring to save the files on a CD and send by mail."  He may try selling some exclusive images on the Macro market, but believes, "it's more lucrative selling a lot more at a lower price than a few downloads at higher prices."


Copyright © 2007 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.  

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