Half of 2024 is over, so I thought I'd add to other forum users posting about their sales.
Things aren't as good as they used to be, but I feel I'm at a "new normal" and will use these stats as a new baseline to judge my performance moving forward.
In no particular order, without being too specific, here are my musings about my main 6 agencies...
Adobe Stock: 8,457 assets
Top dog for regular daily sales. Unfortunately, those regular sales are generally for small commissions. Plenty of $2.80s and $4.20s. If I get over $8, I'm happy. If I get any single sale over $20, I'm ecstatic. My new baseline here is between $30 - $100 for a weekday, and in the teens to twenties for a weekend day.
ShutterStock: 9,455 assets
I get regular sales here, but not nearly at the levels as Adobe Stock. However, the sales on SS average larger commission amounts than AS. I could make $400 in a single day, then days of much lower amounts, some for only a couple dollars, others for $0. If I make $30 - $50 in a day, I'm happy, but I generally expect lower amounts and am pleasantly surprised if I get closer to $100. Using June as a recent example, I had 7 days more than $100 and 8 days lower than $20, which is a typical for a low to below average summer month here.
Pond5: 14,155 assets
Earlier this year, I raised my prices across the board to $99/HD and $199/4K. I think that did well for me. I can generally expect a sales report every weekday, but I do get the rare weekday dud. Weekends are generally $0. Prices that my clips sell at are rarely at the price point I set (which is why I decided to make all my prices the same across the board), but they are generally for decent amounts. Again, using June as an example, I only had 1 sale for less than $30, and most were in the ballpark of $50 - $100, but regularly get prices above $100 (my commissions are 40% of these amounts, of course).
StoryBlocks: 6,300 assets
This agency basically remains consistent, albeit on a slightly downward trend. This is despite adding new material here regularly. I mostly only submit HD versions of my clips to protect my 4K sales elsewhere, but I'm not sure of that really matters anymore. I averaged about $90/day the first half of the year (for comparison, I averaged $100/day for the first half of 2023).
MotionArray: 1,450 assets
Similar to SB, despite adding new material (mostly HD down-converted videos), I remain consistent. Averaging about $20 per weekday, and $10 per weekend day, but my portfolio is much smaller here due to their painful submission process. I mostly use MA as a way to pay my monthly health insurance premiums, so that's how I justify keeping my portfolio here fresh.
iStock: 5,206 assets
iStock remains very consistent from month to month, only varying a couple hundred bucks either way. Although I won't know June's stats until later this month, I can expect around 350 downloads per month. But as you know, many of those are for very low commission amounts--the lowest among all agencies. There are some higher priced sales mixed in, which still makes submitting here worth it for me. Like my two subscription-only agencies above, I mostly submit HD material here. But again, I'm not sure if that really matters anymore.
I do have portfolios on other agencies, but those numbers are so low, I don't feel it's worth it to review. While I keep my portfolios active to squeeze a few hundred more dollars out of them per month, I no longer submit new material.
I recently was invited to FilmPac, and have about 400 active clips there, but only time will tell if this new effort will pay off. But since they add the metadata, it really isn't much work to take on this new outlet. However, they have to request new submissions depending on customer needs, so I can't just willy-nilly add clips whenever I want.
My best year ever in the stock business was 2018 when I averaged over $500 per day across all agencies. I doubt I'll hit those numbers again ever, but I do hope to continue earning a livable wage monthly for as long as I can, as stock is my main source of income (and has been since 2020).
August 18, 2009, 22:00
