Agencies often frame the contractual changes as “exciting news” announcements which are somehow beneficial to contributors in the long-run. Leading agencies are finding increasingly clever ways to reduce contributor royalties. Among the top-results, contributors also now face more competition from improved quality for certain niches In 2009, Shutterstock boasted just over 11 million images, while in 2022 their collection has bloated to 135 million, thus potentially making it more difficult for buyers to find your images (among frankly, millions of spammy and junky content). The catalysts for such a drastic drop are numerous and complex, but mainly come down to three key factors:Īn oversupply of images now available, far outstripping the demand. Therefore, few contributors would be able to earn a full-time income unless they happen to live in ultra-low-cost locations, such as Thailand where many Microstockers are actually living. If a similar survey was carried out today the average results would likely be closer to 15%, at an industry average of just $1.00 / image / year (not taking best-sellers into account). Determining factors for the steep earnings drop Unsurprisingly, many of those contributors were full-time Microstockers and actually earning a living. The average revenue for the year prior for each of those contributors was $10,077, which corresponds to $8.72 / image / year. To illustrate just how drastically different the industry was, in 2009, Tyler Olson conducted a Microstock survey of 244 contributors with an average portfolio of 1,156 images spread out at multiple agencies.

I started somewhat late in 2013 and managed to just about take advantage of the tail-end of some of the better days. With hindsight, if you had the vision to start at its infancy or shortly after, you’d expect to earn considerably more even on lower-quality content. Other contributors reporting their earningsīefore we even begin to talk about the present-day, it’s important to highlight that if you’re getting started now, you’d going into an already 20-year-old mature industry.Determining factors for the steep earnings drop.In this statistics-heavy post, I’ll be digging deep into case-studies of microstock contributors, starting from their first uploads, and provide you with useful tips/resources to get you well on your way to earning from your content! If you’re new to the Microstock universe and looking to monetize your images, one of the first questions you may ask is: “how much can you make, especially after your first year?” If you’re curious to know, read on!

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