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It was a pretty good month (my 7th best month ever). A little bit over September, but down from August. With two months left in the year, I’m on track to have my best year with stock art.

Shutterstock led the way this month with 27%. I had a bunch of ELs early in the month that really bumped up my income. Clipartof was my second best earner at 23%. MyStockVectors, my own site, was third at 18%. I had my best month ever there setting traffic and earning records. Dreamstime, GL, Canstock, and Veer followed up with around 10%-4% each. The rest of the agencies were pretty low earners this month, so not much to talk about there.

That’s it for October. Hopefully, November is a good earner.

It was a good month for earnings. It was my second best month of the year. Clipartof was once again my top agency followed by Shutterstock in second place. GL made a surprise appearance in third, and my own site came in 6th (just behind Can Stock and Dreamstime).

I ended up making good on my threat from last month, and deleted my images at 123RF. It’s strange. Every time I delete a good earning agency, another agency has a record month to take its place. This month GL did that when I left 123RF. It may just be coincidence, but it does make me think.

Well, that is all I’ve got this month. The fall months are usually some of the best of the year, so I hope to see some good earnings.

July was up from June, but it wasn’t anywhere near some of the better months this year. Clipartof was my top seller again at 27% of total earnings. Shutterstock was second at 18%, and my own site was a distant 3rd at 10%. Dreamstime, 123RF, GL and Can Stock followed closely behind at 7-9%. Sales at Toon Vectors picked up this month and they were my 8th best earner at 4% of the total.

On sort of a side note, I’m starting to get concerned about 123RF. Sales have really picked up there. Normally, I would say that is a good thing, but the RPD (royalty per download) is so low there. I don’t really want to eliminate the earnings I get there, but I’m wondering if it is a good idea to remain there for the long term picture. I guess it is one of those unanswerable questions. Do sales there undercut sales I might get at better paying sites?

I’m thinking they do. My reasoning behind that is the quick rise of 123RF. They seem to be doing well with their SEO, and search engine traffic also seems to be the big way that some of the smaller sites like Clipartof, Toon Vectors and my own site get their sales. So, it makes me think that it is hurting my best paying sites the most.

Well, that’s all I’ve got about last month. Feel free to post your thoughts.

I was going over my statistics for first half of the year, and I noticed some interesting things. So, I thought I’d try something new on the blog. No, I’m not talking about writing more than one post in a month, although that is something different. I’m talking about sharing some stats. Besides, I know how much artists love math.

Anyway, I was filling in the stats for my top seven agencies. Why seven? Well, these are the agencies that typically earn me over $100 a month, so that seems like as good a bar as any to judge them all by. My over 100 bucks micro sites include: Clipartof, Shutterstock, MyStockVectors, Dreamstime, 123RF, Can Stock Photo and GL Stock Images. Now that I’ve introduced all the players, it’s time for the stats. Hooray, stats!

Top Earners (% of Total Earnings)

For all of you that love decimals, I apologize that I rounded the numbers.

1. ClipArtof  (25%)
2. Shutterstock  (21%)
3. MyStockVectors  (11%)
4. Dreamstime  (10%)
5. 123RF  (8%)
6. Can Stock  (7%)
7. GL  (6%)

You’ll notice that these sites represent about 90% of my micro income, so the rest of the sites don’t contribute a huge amount to my overall total. You may also notice that my own site came in 3rd in total earnings. I know! I’m pretty proud of myself too.

[pauses to do happy dance]

OK, I’m back. Where were we? Oh yeah, earnings. So, how much did I earn? I’m not telling. I will say that my best month at Clipartof came in at around $900, and my worst month at GL was around $70. Hopefully, that is enough to satisfy your curiosity. If not, you can probably dig through some of my old post on this site. Next up, download stats.

Most Downloads (% of Total Downloads)

Again, I rounded. I’m just not that into decimals.

1. Shutterstock  (52%)
2. 123RF  (17%)
3. Dreamstime  (11%)
4. Can Stock  (6%)
5. ClipArtof  (5%)
6. GL  (3%)
7. MyStockVectors  (1%)

OK, this is where things got interesting for me. I knew Shutterstock had a lot of downloads, but I didn’t realize that it was over half of them. The other big surprise was that 123RF was my second most downloaded site. Also, you can see that some of my better earners have some of the lowest download totals. That’s because they sell less, but pay more. This brings me to my next stat, RPD (Royalty per Download).

RPD (Average Royalty per Download)

Here are the decimals. I hope it was worth the wait.

1. MyStockVectors ($16.28)
2. ClipArtof  ($8.55)
3. GL ($4.11)
4. Can Stock ($1.92)
5. Dreamstime ($1.77)
6. 123RF ($0.78)
7. Shutterstock ($0.67)

Again, everything shuffles around, but there definitely seems to be a correlation between low royalties and higher download numbers (not necessarily better earnings though). I would assume price and subscription models have something to do with that.

Speaking of subs and lower prices, I’m surprised at how much 123RF is starting to look like a mini Shutterstock. I guess that is a good thing if you love Shutterstock because it looks like it has a little brother. For me, I found it a little disturbing. Knowing that the majority of my sales (nearly 70%) net me about 70 cents, makes me a little queasy. Especially since I’ve been trying to increase the value of my work by concentrating my efforts at better paying agencies.

Well, that’s it. You made it through it, and there were even decimals. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

June started out pretty fast, but dropped off at the end of the month. Overall, it was still a decent month, but not as good as the last couple months. It was better than June 2011 but not quite as good as June 2010.

Clipartof was my best earner again. Shutterstock was a close second. I had a single sale at Shuttestock that I received $120 for, so that helped bump up the earnings there. My own site, MyStockVectors, was a distant third, but it was still about $100 over fourth place Dreamstime.

Speaking of my own site, I’m still plugging away on my goal of 8000 images by the end of the year. I’m over 6800 images now, so I’m getting a lot closer. With half the year left, I should definitely reach 8000.

My only other news is that I pulled the plug on Stockfresh. I liked the fact that they paid 50%, but sales were so few and most sales netted under a dollar. Maybe, they will grow into something more profitable, but I just didn’t really see a great future there.

Great month! I’m back, or at least I was this month. It was my 2nd best earning month ever. Hopefully, the trend continues. Here’s the breakdown:

Clipartof led the way again with 32% of my earnings. Shutterstock was a distant second with 15%, and my own site was a close third at 14%. GL snuck into 4th which I’m not sure if they have ever been that high on the list. They just beat out Dreamstime, 123RF and Canstock. Finally, I sold a couple more files on Toon Vectors, so it’s nice to see them getting some sales.

Aside from my earnings, the stock companies seemed to be throwing a lot of money around this month. Shutterstock announced an IPO, Fotolia sold part of their company and Getty is possibly up for sale. I’m not sure what any of that means, but I’m sure somebody (other than me) will make a ton of money off of it all.