Earnings from stock photography in August 2022

A dull month indeed! I guess it could be the summer doldrums, but my total earnings of $2425 is the lowest August since 2016. Last August was an unusual month in that we had the second tranche of Adobe stock purchases of files for their free collection, but even so, this is not a great result.

I just noticed that in 2021, each month following was a pretty poor performer – I’m hoping that is not going to be the case this year!

Files per agency

Not much change here. I added most of my new files in July, but there were some Alaska images added in early August.

What went wrong?

It was a really quiet month to be honest. I watch the daily sales using Microstockr, and in the second week I don’t think any day reached $50. That is my normal test for a good week – getting in the $60 or $70 a day range. I had a few good days later in the month, but it seemed like most of the buyers were on vacation (which they probably were!).

Then iStock came in with July sales at a low of $314 which is the lowest since early 2017. I had been seeing upper $400s, and so this was quite a setback. But I think the main thing that killed the totals this month was the almost complete absence of any print sales from either Fine Art America or Pictorem. After spending a lot of time on social media (Twitter mainly), this is a bit disappointing, but I know it is the summer low point…

I did sell one print on Society 6, but that only netted about $34 or so. The other sites all seemed quiet as well although Shutterstock did come in with $588 this month but Adobe was down at $572. First time SS has beat Adobe for a few months.

Highlights from sales in August 2022

It would be interesting to keep a record of the total value of sales where the income to me is more than $10. It is often those sales that make all the difference to a month – I will have a look at that as a special project, but so far for August, that total is $385 from 14 downloads. Last month it was $555 for 22 downloads although that does include iStock. I’ll work back through the months and see what that shows.

The highest seller was an unusual shot in Rome of the Domus Aurea – perhaps the sort of thing that Alamy is best for:

This one sold for $60 net. Pretty close behind was one of my very old shots of a bottle of opioid tablets – back in the news again with settlements with some of the larger pharmacy chains:

This one sold for $55 on Shutterstock. That makes me think that a series that composite these sort of images on the logos of the main pharmacy chains in the USA might be a good subject for stock imagery! A free idea for you all!

Then this one sold on SS for $52:

I’m not sure what someone will do with this one – it is a small beach only reachable by sea off the coast of Kauai, and I think it was used in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. But it isn’t among my best photos! Still, the buyer knows best!

Then another old favorite that sold for $35 on SS:

This one has earned at least $1900 so far – definitely worth getting up early for sunrise in DC!

I only made $81 from videos in August – a fireworks one on Pond5 for $31, a cruise ship video of a couple (guess who) strolling on the deck and an opioid one. Nothing very much of note there.

But an up-and-coming subject perhaps? My Alaska shots sold for a total of $15 in August! I think that trip is running at a loss so far!

Here’s hoping that people open their wallets in September and buy some stock imagery!