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A dollar per year for each image


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I read that the expected rate of return for a good, relevant portfolio to be around 1 US dollar per photo per year - regardless of the agency or license scheme.  A portfolio of 1000 pictures should yield one thousands dollars. (Out of a thousand photos, one is lucky to sell 50 (5% of your portfolio) and it is likely that out of those 50, 10 (1% of your portfolio)  will generate the bulk of the revenues.  What do you think of this equation?

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From 2007 to 2012, I made more than $1 gross per image per year - about $2-3.  From 2013 to 2017, I was at about $1/image/yr, but the downward trend continues year over year.  It may be lower going forward.

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There are a lot of factors involved, but I'd say that these days $1 (gross) per image per year is a pretty good estimate for most contributors with "average" editorial collections. I did slightly better than that last year -- roughly $1.11 per image.

 

P.S. I don't have enough images with other agencies to accurately compare them with Alamy.

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15 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

I'm running at between $0.25-$0.30/image/yr NET (who cares about gross?? it's money in my pocket that's important).

 

Mark

 

That's true, but I think gross income is a more accurate indicator for "objective" measurement because the gross amounts are more consistent across the board -- i.e. NET income can vary a lot from contributor to contributor due the big difference between direct and distributor sales' commissions. Also, some contributors aren't even signed up for distribution. Their net income for the same number of images could look very different from the net of someone who makes a a lot of distributor sales.

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2 hours ago, Reimar said:

From 2007 to 2012, I made more than $1 gross per image per year - about $2-3.  From 2013 to 2017, I was at about $1/image/yr, but the downward trend continues year over year.  It may be lower going forward.

Good to hear. I guess a confirmation that your photos meet the expectation and needs of stock market buyers and I will check your portfolio in that perspective. 

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1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

There are a lot of factors involved, but I'd say that these days $1 per year (gross) per 1000 images is a pretty good estimate for most contributors with "average" editorial collections. I did slightly better than that last year -- roughly $1.11 per image.

 

P.S. I don't have enough images with other agencies to accurately compare them with Alamy.

My gross is almost exactly the same as John's, pretty consistently for the last few years

 

Alex

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At the end of the day, its buyers who have the last word on what is good and relevant here.  Since I started contributing here a month ago, shopping mall interiors and Venice sold the most and Steven Hawkins -none of that in my portfolio.   I suspect the 1 dollar figure is gross and I read it from photographers who sell through more than one agency. 

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1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

Mine is much less than that.

Mine is 0 at this point but I started loading recently.  Lets hope for the best.  I am glad to hear that some make decent sales as this entire business resides on trust. What happens to an image once loaded, we hope and pray that sales will occur and appear in our accounts.  i contributed to another stock agency for a while, until they merged with another distributor.  After that, the view counter stopped working.  If the view counter does not work, I doubt the sales one does and I stayed away from stock for many years as a result of that experience.  

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It's very difficult to judge. Images that you upload this year (unless they are Live News), may well not license for many months to come, so what figure do you base this on?! Tricky. 

 

Based on *last year's* licenses and volume online here at the end of the year, then a rough estimate for me would be ~60c per image (gross). 

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52 minutes ago, klod said:

Since I started contributing here a month ago, shopping mall interiors and Venice sold the most and Steven Hawkins -none of that in my portfolio.   I suspect the 1 dollar figure is gross and I read it from photographers who sell through more than one agency. 

 

You really can't make any generalizations based on a month. Some sales take longer than that just to be reported.

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3 minutes ago, fotoDogue said:

 

You really can't make any generalizations based on a month. Some sales take longer than that just to be reported.

Your right, unless one submits photos directly related to development in the news.  I see this an an investment in the future and will assess based on annual sales.   I know that sales can sometimes take months before they show up in one's account.  I am glad that some here confirmed that the 1$ per year per photo is not too far fetched. 

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The other thing that makes it difficult to accurately calculate is that you need to average portfolio size over the time span measured.  With an actively growing collection that then gets into a little guesswork.  Still, for what it's worth, I averaged about $1.22 per image (gross), $0.58 nett, over the last 12 months.  My only stock agency is Alamy, I haven't been doing it as long as many others - and the last quarter's figures show further improvement.

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I'm at around $1.60 per image gross for last year and heading toward that this year, but take one lucky shot out of the equation and it's well under a buck. Arithmetic aside, the question I ask myself is how I can produce more lucky shots. What do these client folks want?

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2 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

That's true, but I think gross income is a more accurate indicator for "objective" measurement because the gross amounts are more consistent across the board -- i.e. NET income can vary a lot from contributor to contributor due the big difference between direct and distributor sales' commissions. Also, some contributors aren't even signed up for distribution. Their net income for the same number of images could look very different from the net of someone who makes a a lot of distributor sales.

 

But Isn't net the only sensible way to compare "return/image" from different agencies or licensing schemes though, as mentioned by the original post?

 

4 hours ago, klod said:

I read that the expected rate of return for a good, relevant portfolio to be around 1 US dollar per photo per year - regardless of the agency or license scheme

 

Quoting gross figures just gives an inflated impression of the return from stock photography and makes it sound more lucrative than it is. Or am I missing something?

 

Mark

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36 minutes ago, DDoug said:

I'm at around $1.60 per image gross for last year and heading toward that this year, but take one lucky shot out of the equation and it's well under a buck. Arithmetic aside, the question I ask myself is how I can produce more lucky shots. What do these client folks want?

Your doing good at $1,60 that's above the average.   Alamy provide us with detailed stats of what folks actually buy, what keywords they used. In terms of strategic information does not get better.  I checked the portfolio of some of the photographers who sold 1 million on this site and one thing I retain is to put more shots of the same thing than what I use to consider appropriate.   They also have longer and more detailed captions than most.  One thing I know its not necessarily the best shot that sells. Its the one that shows in the first few pages as editors do not spend hours looking. How to get to the top of the page is the million dollar secret.  The algorithm takes into consideration several factors. I heard that in addition to tags and caption,  regular submissions are one element as well as size of portfolio. 

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27 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

 

But Isn't net the only sensible way to compare "return/image" from different agencies or licensing schemes though, as mentioned by the original post?

 

 

Quoting gross figures just gives an inflated impression of the return from stock photography and makes it sound more lucrative than it is. Or am I missing something?

 

Mark

I would not buy equipment or incur expenses to produce stock photos.  I see it as a way to recycle thousands of photos on my drives. If you count the hours, cost of gear, etc, most would be in the red it think - unless you are one of the few members of the 100 000 or one million club.

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29 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

 

But Isn't net the only sensible way to compare "return/image" from different agencies or licensing schemes though, as mentioned by the original post?

 

Mark

 

From a subjective POV, net is the most sensible way to compare one's own revenues from different sources. However, there are fewer variables at work when quoting gross amounts, which make them better for more objective comparisons. That's the way it appears to me anyway.

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1 hour ago, losdemas said:

It's very difficult to judge. Images that you upload this year (unless they are Live News), may well not license for many months to come, so what figure do you base this on?! Tricky. 

 

Based on *last year's* licenses and volume online here at the end of the year, then a rough estimate for me would be ~60c per image (gross). 

Yes, tricky.  Volume seems to be a big part of the equation and the  more photos you have the longer you've been uploading,   Few photographers make a living just doing stock, but there are as I found out on some forums.  They claim the 1$ figure is the same with most agencies, even micro stock where prices are ridiculously low but volume compensates.

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9 hours ago, klod said:

I would not buy equipment or incur expenses to produce stock photos.  I see it as a way to recycle thousands of photos on my drives. If you count the hours, cost of gear, etc, most would be in the red it think - unless you are one of the few members of the 100 000 or one million club.

 

Sorry I should have been more precise. My net return from Alamy (i.e. gross sales value - Alamy and distributor commission) is $0.25-$0.30/image/yr.

I haven't deducted anything for my gear, travel, insurance or hours of effort etc.

 

Perhaps we should include them and then change this thread to what was your net loss per image. ;)

 

Mark

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9 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

From a subjective POV, net is the most sensible way to compare one's own revenues from different sources. However, there are fewer variables at work when quoting gross amounts, which make them better for more objective comparisons. That's the way it appears to me anyway.

 

As the OP asked about the return per image, I think the opposite is true. The different rates of commission simply add variability on top of the photographer's return.

 

Mark 

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