Illustration Info
Passive Income and Microstock Earnings for March 2012
It seemed like all the agencies I participate at did pretty well this month. The result was that it was my best earning month in a year. Clipartof passed Shutterstock for the second time and was my top earner.
My own site, MyStockVectors.com, was my 4th best earner this month. Dreamstime just barely edged it out. I created a few new series of images at my site and ended the month with over 5800 images.
New characters from the Armored Animals series.
Other than that, there is not too much to report. Canstock had a solid month and I did some custom work through Drawshop’s interface (which seemed to work fairly well). Feel free to add a comment below or post a link to how your March went.
Toon Vectors A New Stock Art Site
What is Toon Vectors?
Toon Vectors is a new stock art site focusing on vector images. The site pays a generous royalty to artists of at least 70%. Images cost $19.99 for the standard license and $99.99 for an extended license. Here’s a little bit more about them from their FAQ:
Toon Vectors is an online collection of royalty-free stock vector graphics and clip art available for download at affordable prices. Toon Vectors is based in Austin, Texas and was launched in early 2012 by Chris Thoman, a software and web developer.
In a marketplace of oversized stock agencies that have become increasingly greedy and hostile to the interests of the actual content creators that make everything possible, our goal is to provide a smaller, more intimate venue for artists and illustrators to sell their creative works. We believe that the original artists, and not the middlemen, should receive the largest share of the profits from their own hard work.
Who runs it?
You may have noticed the site owner’s name above and thought that it sounded familiar. There’s a reason for that. The site was created by my brother, Chris Thoman. While I’m not an employee there or have any special affiliation with the site, I do know the owner pretty well.
How are the Sales?
It’s a brand new site (still has its new car smell), so I can’t give a review on how the sales will be. That said, I am excited about the potential of it.
Can I Sign Up?
Yes and no. Currently, the contributor side is unfinished, but you can contact Toon Vectors to get signed up for when the submission features go live.
Well, that’s all I have to say. It’s nice to have another fair paying agency out there, so go check it out!
Passive Income and Microstock Earnings for February 2012
February is always an interesting month because it’s usually a couple days shorter than the other months. Sometimes those extra days make a difference and sometimes they don’t. This year it didn’t seem to be a big factor for my earnings. I was still hovering right around the $2K mark (which seems to be about average after I eliminated iStock.
Things of note this month:
Clipartof continued to push Shutterstock for my top agency. Veer leapfrogged several agencies to end up as my number three earner. They seem to do that every so often, so I’m not going to read too much into it.
My own site was a bit sluggish in the sales department in February, but I completed a lot of new and great (at least I think) illustrations. I also got my Affiliate Program up and running. I’d like to get more of an ad campaign going and get the word out. If only it was as easy as buying a few Adwords ads. I guess if it was, then everyone would be doing it.
I hope everyone had a great February!
MyStockVectors.com Has an Affiliate Program
My stock art site, MyStockVectors.com, has just rolled out its Affiliate Program.
Here are the details:
You can earn 20% from purchases of customers that you refer. Our Afilliate Program makes it easy to promote by providing a variety of banners and text links that you can add to your website.
The affiliate program is free to join and only requires a minimum payout of a dollar. We payout once a month on the first of the month through Paypal, so you should get a payout every month as long as you refer at least one sale a month.
Sign up today and you can be making money promoting yetis, dogs with sombreros, vomiting peanuts and other characters in no time at all.
Passive Income and Microstock Earnings for January 2012
January is in the books. It was a solid month, but down from January 2011.
Shutterstock was my number one site again with 28% of total earnings. Clipartof was my second best earner, but they were kind of slow this month. Hopefully, things pick up there in February.
I had a good month at my own site, mystockvectors.com. It was my number three earner at 12% of my total earnings. I added 600 images there, so that might have helped.
Overall, I’m excited about this year. I think I have a good game plan for increasing my revenue. Hopefully, it works out. Anyway, one month down in 2012. Only eleven more to go.
New Year’s Resolutions for 2012
It’s 2012! I hope you had a great 2011. This is the time of year when I review my goals from last year and see how I did. Here we go…
Earn $3000 in a month with my stock art/passive income.
Well, this one kind of got squashed. I ended up leaving some good paying agencies like iStock, Fotolia and Vectorstock because I have been trying to focus on and support the better paying agencies. My income took a hit because of that, so I failed on this one.
Make $500 in a month at myStockVectors.com.
I was close on this one, but never achieved it. My traffic has been growing lately, so hopefully it will translate into sales.
Increase my freelance earnings by 15%.
Hmm… I guess I forgot this one was on here. I didn’t see a huge surge in freelance work. I may have to adjust my prices if I’m going to make this one happen.
Learn and submit 3D illustration files.
I worked on this one, but didn’t get very far. It was a little more work than I wanted to put into it to learn the programs. I may revisit it at some point, but there’s not much time left after freelance work and stock image work gets done.
Get to 4000 stock art files.
OK. I did this one. So, I’m not a complete failure. I had 4300 images at the end of the year.
Well, that wasn’t a very good job with my goals. Oh well, let’s get on with the new goals (some of them are the same as the old ones):
Double my stock portfolio (8000 images).
Increase freelance earnings by 15%.
Make $500 in a month at myStockVectors.com.
There they are! My new goals for 2012 are ready. Barring any end of the world shenanigans, I hope to work hard to accomplish them.
Cartoon Greek God Character
I thought it was time to update my site with a new image. I chose this Design File of a cartoon little Greek guy in a variety of poses.
You can purchase this file or see a larger version here.
Passive Income and Microstock Earnings for November 2011
November was the worst month of year as far as earnings. I guess ditching iStock, Fotolia and others finally caught up with me. Clipartof had another solid month, but nowhere near where it was last month. Other than that, not too much to report.
I guess I’ll have to reevaluate my position about limiting the agencies I upload to for next year. I haven’t uploaded to Dreamstime or Shutterstock at all this year. They’ve had pretty stable earnings, but obviously aren’t growing. I’m still holding out hope that my own site makes up the difference at some point. I guess only time will tell though.
Passive Income and Microstock Earnings for October 2011
There’s a new sheriff in town and its name is Clipartof. Clipartof was my number one earner this month at 30% of my passive income. I hope this trend continues too. I’ve sacrificed a lot of agencies (and income) this year in an effort to clean up my house, so it’s nice to see some of that starting to pay off.
Speaking of sacrifices, this was my first month without iStock. That income will be missed, but I think it was the right thing to do. That said, I was actually fairly surprised that my income was as good as it was. Still nowhere near where it was, but with Clipartof stepping up, I’m optimistic about the future.
Hopefully, some of that optimistic future lies with my own site, myStockVectors.com. I had a fairly solid month there. I can’t say my 50% off sale brought in a ton of business, but it definitely attracted some past customers to take advantage of the sale. Repeat business. Yay!
The only other news this month was about Drawshop. After a solid month last month, their site spent most of this one offline. So, they ended up with zero sales for the month. Oh well. There’s always next month.
Feel free to share how your October was below.
MyStockVectors.com 50% Off Sale!
My stock art and clip art site, mystockvectors.com, is having a sale of 50% for the month of October. It’s a sale to celebrate the site being open for one year. So, happy birthday mystockvectors.com.
Just use the coupon code “COUPON” at checkout to receive your discount.