Hi PowerDroid,

 I agree that is why I posted my earnings as apposed to percentages. Percentages are very vague and of not much use to anyone but the person posting them. I would love it if people started posting their image count along with their returns from the month much more helpful, great observation. If you ever want to share numbers just let me know.

Best,
Jonathan

Hi PowerDroid,

 I agree that is why I posted my earnings as apposed to percentages. Percentages are very vague and of not much use to anyone but the person posting them. I would love it if people started posting their image count along with their returns from the month much more helpful, great observation.

Absolutely; the stats are meaningless without at least how many images you have with each agency and how long they've been there - which would probably be far too complicated to work out and illustrate.

 I agree that is why I posted my earnings as apposed to percentages. Percentages are very vague and of not much use to anyone but the person posting them. I would love it if people started posting their image count along with their returns from the month much more helpful, great observation. If you ever want to share numbers just let me know.

Powerdroid and Jonathon __ Firstly it is considered by most people to be boastful and inappropriate to keep banging on about how much money you are making. Secondly, I have no particular interest in knowing how much money you or anyone else is making. All that matters to me is how much my portfolio earns.

The point of providing percentages, which seems to have gone over your heads, is to illustrate how the greater market is developing __ and that's very important to those of us that do this for a living. By sharing our percentages we are continually assessing the performance of the various agencies, not each other.

Most of us that provide this info have been doing microstock for some years and therefore tend to have similar sized portfolios at each. It is particularly helpful to have this information if you are considering exclusivity with one agency or another and also whether it is worth your time to upload to a new agency or not. If your own sales at a particular agency are doing well or badly then it is useful to know whether the issue is shared by others.

My RPI is crappy due to the many crappy images accepted at the beginning of my microstock "career". If there was an easy way to calculate RPI for images less than 3 years old, I would be happy to provide it.

Quote from: gostwyck on April 03, 2010, 14:07

Firstly it is considered by most people to be boastful and inappropriate to keep banging on about how much money you are making.

Thank you for the lesson in manners.  But I've never frequented this or any other forum expecting to find people minding their p's and q's and taken offense when someone violates the laws of decorum.  I visit forums to find interesting information.  And when people share their revenue numbers -- I don't care what Miss Manners would say about it -- I find it enlightening and often inspiring.  You might turn up your nose at a thread called "How much money did you make last month is microstock?" but I bet you would read it.

Quote from: gostwyck on April 03, 2010, 14:07

Secondly, I have no particular interest in knowing how much money you or anyone else is making.

And I have no particular interest in the mating habits of wombats, but I am thrilled those pages are out there for the people who DO care about such things.  I just don't care to frequent them, but I'm happy the info is there for those who enjoy it.

And while I don't find much interest in whether someone made 35% at SS last month or 12% at BS, you make a good case for the people who do care about those stats.  Frankly, I think Leaf's ranking system does a better job of that type of thing, but to each his own.

oooh wombat porn sites, I think they would be catering to a rather select audience

Here mine: +19% compared to last month

FT: 68.4%  (RPI 0.57$)
IS: 19.0%  (RPI 0.27$)
SS:  5.2%  (RPI 0.05$)
DT:  7.0%  (RPI 0.08$)
123:  0.4% (RPI 0.03$) (am new there and just recently started uploading there)

Overall not bad, I think, especially considering that I have not been uploading to some agency in more than 3 to 6 months.

I stopped reporting because I did get tired of negative comments either saying something about my progress and how I should do x or do y or give up because they started the same time as me and were doing better.  Well yippyF-ingkieyay for you.   I also stopped reporting because NOBODY would stop talking about iStock.  I don't really submit to iStock and I was sick of hearing how much better my life would be if I assimilated.  TBH I don't really give a flying isuck if they take my images.  Yes, I'd make more money and yes, that's the point but when 95% of your job stress comes from one thing and you can successfully avoid that one thing you may want to do that.

Add that to starting to joining sites I have no interest in reporting on - so my numbers aren't accurate - it just doesn't make sense to report 80% of my sites.

So at least in my case, increased earnings from various sources I didn't wish to disclose + negative commenters + [email protected] means I stopped reporting for the most part.  I am usually a few months behind.  Right now I've reported Feb but not March.  March was a BME by a LOT.  But why bother reporting that so someone can go see what I'm doing and do more of it.

I hate to say it but the fewer microstock photographers there are, the better my sales will be.  It's actually kind of idiotic to post things that make people want to do this job more.

@mantonino humm that's too bad that you stop reporting when your numbers are picking up.... Are you still going to blog about microstock or  leave NiltoMil as it is?

TBH I don't really give a flying isuck if they take my images.  Yes, I'd make more money and yes, that's the point but when 95% of your job stress comes from one thing and you can successfully avoid that one thing you may want to do that.

Sorry if you've taken any of the comments personally.  You started a blog called Nil to Mil with the stated goal of reaching a million dollars in microstock.  Many people watched your progress with keen interest and naturally found it odd that you would turn a blind eye to, what is for most successful microstockers, the top agency for earning potential.  Yes, it is probably the cause of most of our stress -- their upload process is painful and acceptance ratios can be brutal -- but to give up on them for these reasons is like saying it's difficult to get Wal Mart to sell your widgets so you've convinced yourself to be happy selling them in mom and pop shops or on street corners.  You can't get to "Mil" that way.  But if you're doing this for enjoyment and not to maximize your income, then you're right, do what you enjoy.  Who needs extra stress these days?

BTW...

I hate to say it but the fewer microstock photographers there are, the better my sales will be.  It's actually kind of idiotic to post things that make people want to do this job more.

If this is how you feel, you might want to change the tagline of your blog: "NiltoMil is a microstock blog for photographers looking to make money with their photos and learn more about the stock photography industry."   Maybe something like "Please don't do what I do... we don't need more competition!"