Welcome to the December 2021 detailed monthly report during these increasingly dystopian times. Anyway, let’s try to be optimistic.
This will be a quick post since I’ve published a more comprehensive year-end review packed with stats and goals for the new year for your viewing pleasure. Let’s get started!
December Highlights
The Brutally Honest Guy had a relatively quiet month and highlights include just one blog post, albeit a very useful one:
Recap of previous Earnings Reports
If you’re interested to see how I did in my November 2021 earnings,. In fact, you can see all my earnings going as far back to February 2019!
Golden Turd Nomination – November 2021
For the third month in a row, congrats to Shutterstock for “winning” the coveted Golden Turd of the Month Award, as voted by you, my dear public. Adobe Stock was voted a distant second…interesting:
No Turd of the Month award for December but better yet, you’ll soon be able to nominate the MEGA-Golden Turd of the YEAR Agency at the year-end report.
61 Accepted Images in Arcangel in December!
No sales to report in December but as mentioned many times before this is a long-term game and I’m in not in a huge hurry. Rather to keep focusing on uploading quality content.
Happy to report the following 61 images accepted this month (just 2 shy of a record):
Detailed Earnings
As always, starting first with stills:
| Agency | Number of Images in port | Net Revenue for Dec (US$) | Avg Return Per Download (US$) |
| 123RF (REMOVED MY PORT) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alamy | 12,994 | 33 | 2.06 |
| Arcangel (RM-exclusive) | 1,129 (61) | 0 | 0 |
| Adobe Stock | 3,554 | 55 | 1.20 |
| Bigstock (INSTRUCTED TO REMOVE MY PORT) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Creative Market | 1,524 | 3 | 3 |
| DepositPhotos | 6,656 | 14 | 0.38 |
| Dreamstime | 6,898 | 5 | 0.42 |
| EyeEm | 281 (Partner Program) | 0 | 0 |
| Fine Art America | 690 | 0 | 0 |
| iStock (November) | 7,008 | 72 | 0.50 |
| Robert Harding (Q3 2021 monthly average) – exclusive | 385 | 20 | 2 |
| Shutterstock Editorial (formally REX Features) | 857 | 0 | 0 |
| Shutterstock | 10,618 | 117 | 0.58 |
| Pond5 | 1,759 | 0 | 0 |
| Picfair (REMOVED MY PORT) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Photo4Me | 336 | 14 | 14 |
| SignElements | 1,215 | 7 | N/A |
| Wirestock | 1,577 | 4 | 0.60 |
| Total | 310 |
Moving swiftly onto clips…
| Agency | Number of clips in port (added Dec) | Net Revenue for Dec (US$) | Avg Return Per Download (US$) |
| Adobe Stock | 395 (0) | 92 | 31 |
| Dreamstime | 528 | 19 | 19 |
| Pond5 | 1,528 (0) | 0 | 0 |
| iStock | 202 (5) | 9 | 9 |
| Shutterstock | 1,162 (4) | 49 | 10 |
| Wirestock | 49 (2) | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 169 |
Totals: $480 in December vs $647 in November
Now, as usual, lets break it down with results for the major agencies…
Alamy: Another Poor month
Once again, unpredictable Alamy was predictably underwhelming in December (seems to be a trend) with only $33 net on 16 relatively small downloads, including many that were for only 4cents?!
Apparently you can opt out of these altogether by clicking on the “Novel Use” and disabling:
There’s a thread on the subject on the MSG Forum.
One only “large” sale
Only one significant sale to speak of earning me just over $21 for a model kitchen at a design show in Milan.
Adobe Stock: Strong month for clips, at least
After a few disappointing months at Adobe Stock, December was pretty decent mainly in terms of clips with three decently sized clips earning me $92, including one of my fat belly induced from years of corporate-slavehood! The rest were of regular sellers, especially this time of the year, of fireworks at Copacabana Beach in Rio (cancelled this year, again).
iStockPhoto: – continued disappointment…
Another quiet month at iStock with only $81 and again 50cents/download on average for images. Not much to discuss other than two assets.
Has taken just under a year but clips from the huge snowstorm to hit Spain in January 2021 have started to sell.
Shutterstock: Poor/Average new normal month
After a strong start to the month, sales at Shutterstock fizzled towards the mid and end of the month, especially on the image side with a somewhat disappointing $117 on an average of 58cents per download.
Starting with this shot of a very cute ice-cream stand in London, which earned me just over $20 (shot in 2017). These days I would probably clone out the person and logos, change the filters and upload as a book cover.
However, the month was pretty good for clips with the following of quite regular sellers:
Pond5: Where’s the Dancing Bear?!
Dreamstime clip sale!
Last and certainly not least, the leading Microstock agency in 2031 stepped up to the game with an impressive $19 clip sale of lambada dancers in front of the Lapa Aqueduct in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Finally sold after almost 4 years!
Hey, that’s my pic !
Spotted 7 of my pics here used in various publications…
Golden Nugget – December 2021
Until next time…
How did you do in December, please comment below!
About Alex
I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Madrid, Spain, on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage, when my current corporate job ends (soon!). I’ve devoted eight years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer. I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model.
I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer – Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography
Alexandre Rotenberg's Brutally Honest Guide to Stock Photography & Footage 
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