Welcome to the October 2022 detailed monthly report focusing on my overall earnings for the month, including drone clips that have finally started selling!

If you missed out or would like to catch up on previous monthly-earnings reports, you can see them here.

Before we get started…

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October Highlights

• How to Make a Good Drone Video by Richard Brooks (Pond5 Blog)
• Best Microstock Agencies to Sell Video for Creators by Theo at the (Xpiks Blog)
• Comparing Earnings Stats since 2017 at Largest Microstock Agencies

Detailed Earnings Breakdown

Agency	Number of Images in port (images added Oct)	Net Revenue for Oct (US$)	Avg Return Per Download (US$)
Alamy	14,005 (192)	42	4
Arcangel (RM-exclusive)	1,845 (107)	46	46
Adobe Stock	3,919 (28)	123	1.40
Creative Market	1,624 (10)	1	1
DepositPhotos	7,534 (134)	13	0.33
Dreamstime	7,666 (158)	9	0.35
EyeEm	372 (8) – Partner Program only	3	0.60
Freekpik	576 (32)	19	0.07
Fine Art America	373 (0)	0	0
iStock (September 2022)	7,699 (13)	69	0.51
Robert Harding (Q2 2022 monthly average) – exclusive	391 (3)	24	8
Shutterstock Editorial	898 (0)	0	0
Shutterstock	11,108 (79)	120	0.45
Pond5	1,816 (0)	2	2
Photo4Me	376 (4)	0	0
SignElements	1,298 (5)	1	N/A
Wirestock	1,841 (2)	20	N/A
Total		473

Clip earnings

Agency	Number of clips in port (added Oct)	Net Revenue for Oct (US$)	Avg Return Per Download (US$)
Adobe Stock	604 (21)	12	6
Pond5	1,852 85)	0	0
iStock	396 (6)	9	3
OverflightStock – exclusive	85 (0)	0	0
Shutterstock	1,379 (23)	163	54
Wirestock	97 (0)	19	19
Total		203

Totals: $676 in Oct vs $600 in Sept

Drone footage has finally started selling!

Some six months after investing on a drone and uploading clips I’m happy to report four decent-priced drone clips have sold. Like buses, they all came at once.

A cherry on top was also that I gained my first-ever clip sale at Wirestock of all places (last one in the list below)!

Drone stills are selling regularly and have been doing so for many months

As for images, these drone aerials have been selling regularly since about June and some lunch money to report but should begin to pick up.

Now, onto a detailed breakdown for the major agencies.

Alamy: Slight improvement but still struggling

Alamy produced a poor month with many sales but poor overall returns due to them being so low-priced at only $4/image. Highest sale value was only $8 net and not even worth posting on here.

Adobe Stock: Strong month, finally

Really happy to see Adobe Stock pull in quite a strong month at total of $135 net, including one clip sale (shown above).

By far, my best-selling image was one captured in 2019 when I happily visited the UAE.

iStockPhoto: Very disappointing

I’ve pretty much given up on iStock. I keep feeding that beast and very little to show for it in return as volumes are pretty bad and historically low RPD. Might just forget about them until they prove me otherwise. Here were my best-sellers, nevertheless.

Shutterstock: Very very disappointing other than a lucky clip sale

Luck plays a big part in this business, no doubt. Late in the month, a buyer spotted one of my timelapse clips from three years ago captured at Lisbon’s hipster LX Factory, that had never sold and purchased an enhanced license for prices that I was not accustomed to.

Here’s a link to the timelapse.

Prior to these two nice sales, my month at Shutterstock was disappointing to say the least and I honestly thought I needed a miracle to break the $100 barrier. I even vented my frustration with a post where I compared my results during the past few years.

Towards the end of the month image sales picked up at SS:

One Sale + a RECORD 107-images accepted Images at Arcangel!

Super pleased to report my third month in a row with a sale over at Arcangel earning me net $46 for an image used in a French book. You can see here on the left the before and final version. Seems like a cool story about a “hostage”.

Accepted images in Oct – a record month!

Hey, that’s my pic !

Spotted the following 6 pics this month in use this month!

Hope you had a good month and until next time when I’ll hopefully be reporting more drone footage and book cover sales.

About Alex

I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal, on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage. 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. Oh and also recently purchased a DJI Mavic 2s drone and taking full advantage.

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