Another year, another dollar…or is it dime? Welcome to the January 2022 detailed monthly report during these increasingly dystopian times.
January Highlights
The Brutally Honest Guy had a quiet month, mainly hibernating until the start of spring. Nevertheless, still produced some useful content:
Recap of previous Earnings Reports
If you’re interested to see how I did in my December 2021 earnings. In fact, you can see all my earnings going as far back to February 2019, when ironically I earned more on fewer assets.
Or take a trip to the future and see where the future takes us with a earnings report 9 years from now…
MEGA GOLDEN TURD Nomination for 2021
As voted by you, the MEGA GOLDEN TURD for 2021 was:
Let’s try to focus on the positive this year!
This year I’ve chosen to take a more optimistic approach and will include a poll, at the end of the post, on the GOLDEN CASH-COW agency of the month.
Record 78 Accepted Images in Arcangel in January!
No sales to report in January 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 a new record month with 78 accepted!
7 Years of Bad Luck on the way
Quickly getting away from microstock monotomy, I’ve invested on some fake blood (EUR 6.50) and a mirror purchased in Ikea (EUR 1.00)…
Here is the final result, which is still under review by Arcangel and super confident that it will be accepted….at this stage I’ve (almost) figured out what they’re looking for…
Let’s move swiftly onto detailed earnings for all agencies I submit images to…
Detailed Earnings
As always, starting first with stills:
| Agency | Number of Images in port (images added Jan) | Net Revenue for Jan (US$) | Avg Return Per Download (US$) |
| Alamy | 13,170 (176) | 39 | 4 |
| Arcangel (RM-exclusive) | 1,261 (78) | 0 | 0 |
| Adobe Stock | 3,595 (41) | 43 | 0.86 |
| Creative Market | 1,534 (10) | 3 | 3 |
| DepositPhotos | 6,769 (123) | 7 | 0.35 |
| Dreamstime | 7,002 (104) | 8 | 0.44 |
| EyeEm | 299 (17 – Partner Program only) | 0 | 0 |
| Fine Art America | 690 (0) | 0 | 0 |
| iStock (December 2021) | 7,139 (131) | 60 | 0.40 |
| Robert Harding (Q3 2021 monthly average) – exclusive | 385 (0) | 20 | 2 |
| Shutterstock Editorial (formally REX Features) | 867 (10) | 0 | 0 |
| Shutterstock | 10,680 (42) | 132 | 0.41 |
| Pond5 | 1,759 (0) | 0 | 0 |
| Photo4Me | 345 (9) | 0 | 0 |
| SignElements | 1,215 (0) | 2 | N/A |
| Wirestock | 1,747 (170) | 14 | 1.6 |
| Total | 328 |
Clips
| Agency | Number of clips in port (added Jan) | Net Revenue for Jan (US$) | Avg Return Per Download (US$) |
| Adobe Stock | 402 (7) | 0 | 0 |
| Pond5 | 1,587 (49) | 0 | 0 |
| iStock | 211 (9) | 16 | 8 |
| Shutterstock | 1,172 (10) | 53 | 9 |
| Wirestock | 77 (28) | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 69 |
Totals: $397 in January 2022 vs $480 in December
Thoughts on earning $397 this month
Just glad I still have a day-job…at least for the time being…
Now, as usual, lets break it down with results for the major agencies…
Alamy: Another Another Another Poor month
Once again, unpredictable Alamy was predictably underwhelming in January (seems to be a trend) with only $39 net on 10 relatively small downloads.
One of the better sales was captured at Dubai Mall a few years ago, which in hindsight was probably a stupid decision due to privacy issues in an Islamic country that could have landed me in hot water.
Adobe Stock: continued disappointment…
Don’t know what is going on as past few months have been absolutely terrible at Adobe Stock, both in volumes in average net earnings. In January, no sales were above $3. Result is the lowest that I can remember at only $43 and no clip sales. Strange!
No major sales to report.
iStockPhoto: continued disappointment…
Another quiet month at iStock with only $76 and again 40cents/download on average for images.
Only meaningful sale was a steady gimbal footage that I shot a few years ago on a nice sunny day in Portugal which earned me $14.
Shutterstock: Poor start to the year
It was such a pitiful month that the only real highlight earnings-wise was Shutterstock at a very new normal average of $132 / 41cents/download for images and $54 earned on 6 clips, including a Christmas-themed one which is strange for this time of the year.
Pond5: Where’s the fking Dancing Bear, again?!
Hey, that’s my pic !
Spotted 8 of my pics here used in various publications…
Golden Cash Cow – January 2022
Taking a more positive approach this year, please vote below on your Golden Cash Cow agency for January!
Happy to be back in travel mode!
My day-job office in Madrid shut down because of the Covid cases so the first thing I did was go back to Portugal. Happy to be back on the road traveling again…this time in Algarve, known for its sunny mild winters…
Here’s a view to my new office….
Until next time…
How did you do in January, 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.
Most recently I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images.
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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