Average downloads per month Shutterstock - info

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

02/15/2007 06:38:56 AM · #1

I noticed this thread on Shutterstock, for those of you interested in seeing how many downloads per month some of SS's contributors are getting. A few of the portfolios are quite good (click on the poster's camera icon to see their gallery). It strikes me that the money earned per month is exceptionally low - as said before. $0.25 cents is poor income especially if the photo is reasonably good. From the thread mentioned, it does not even look like volume is making up for the ultra-low royalty free pricing.

spelling edit

Message edited by author 2007-02-15 06:51:07.

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

02/15/2007 06:52:12 AM · #2

It is about downloads PER DAY !!!

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

02/15/2007 08:40:36 AM · #3

Yes, OK then. But the point was that the respondents, of which some have great portfolios and others have amateur snaps, do not have that much income per month when it is all totaled up. Generally speaking, people don't talk about these figures. Therefore, I thought it an interesting insight for people thinking of submitting to the microstock agencies.

leaf

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

02/15/2007 08:43:59 AM · #4

yep, it is per day, and it is their personal best, not an average.

And yes people do talk about their total earnings per month, quite often actually. And yes the earnings ARE quite good.

If you upload snapshots you can't expect to earn a whole lot, but if you upload good stock, you can earn a lot.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

02/15/2007 08:58:49 AM · #5

Indeed, some of those galleries are rather poor. But even the good ones are not getting great income, from my observation. With a good gallery of several hundred an income of USD200-300 per month seems rather low to me. If you live in Europe, with the USD worth about as much as the paper it is printed on in terms of exchange rate, then it is even less.

One respondent, up to the time of my posting this, claimed to have a best of 830 downloads in one day. Perhaps one could extrapolate that out to an earnings of USD1500 per month. There are several hundred images in that portfolio.

Bear in mind that Shutterstock rewards contributors who upload regularly. For some reason, the SS search engine tends to favour newer images. If you're willing and able to upload images on a daily basis, so well and good. If not, then the SS business model is probably not for you.

ganders

Canon EOS-40D

02/15/2007 09:34:16 AM · #6

Originally posted by pineapple:

One respondent, up to the time of my posting this, claimed to have a best of 830 downloads in one day. Perhaps one could extrapolate that out to an earnings of USD1500 per month. There are several hundred images in that portfolio.

Well you could extrapolate that I suppose, but only if you make a seemingly arbitary assumption about how peak daily downloads relates to average daily downloads...

Perrush

Canon EF 300mm f/4.0L IS USM

02/15/2007 09:34:34 AM · #7

I have no problems talking about my income. I list them every month in my article (now) on page 14

//www.perrush.be/SYF_micro_E_14.html

The only problem I have with SS is that after 3 weeks or so downloads start to fall after you uploaded some new photos.

I prefer the model of IS because you can promote yur portfolio much better there.

Although SS only pays 0.25 a regular download, it is still my best earner each single month.