Our relatively small rock in space has completed yet another cycle around the sun which means that it’s time to publish a comprehensive review of 2023, including detailed stats, while also providing a glimpse forward to 2024. Let’s get started!
See below the YouTube version of this report which I’ve painstakingly put together.
Check out my previous yearly-earnings reports
I’ve been publishing these comprehensive year-end reports for a while now. See my respective 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018 year-end reviews. I really enjoy putting them together as it’s always nice to look back at how I’ve done and find ways that I can somehow improve.
Am I rich yet?!
Nope, after doing this gig for 10 years and all the hard work I’m still not “getting rich” from this side-hustle, but I’m enjoying the photography journey nevertheless. Especially since I get to visit new places and meet great people.
Let’s Sum up 2023
You may recall that 2022 was the Year of the Drone but 2023 for me has been something a bit more special – the Year of Friendship! Sounds super corny I know and all but hear me out…one reason why I love this business is to meet like-minded people who also want to escape corporate-hell / dead-end jobs and try to create something for themselves creatively.
After all, this “job” can be lonely (which is also one of its benefits) so it’s great to have company once in a while…as well as do collaborations.
In 2023 I’ve been super fortunate to meet up in Lisbon with three great photographers who have in turn become good friends and we keep in touch regularly: By order of meeting them in 2023: Joel Hartz, Ruben Ramos, Dmitry Rukhlenko and Elijah Lovkoff. Hopefully next year will meet many more talented individuals!
Now, let’s move onto the report and first recap on my 2023 goals.
Goals for 2023
Around this time one year ago I brainstormed 10 quite achievable goals for 2023. So I’ll take this opportunity to recap on them provide a summary on whether I achieved them (or not) and what I could have done better. I encourage you to read towards the end of the report where I’ll also make 10 fresh goals for 2024.
How did I do on my ten 2023 goals?
Why realistic goal-setting is fundamental
Before getting started, I must reiterate that despite the unpredictability of the stock marketplace, goal-setting is important to focus the mind. Goals must be realistic, no point in having such a goal as uploading 50,000 images to microstock agencies, or 5,000 images to Arcangel or 5,000 clips in 2023 will just lead to burn-out, mediocrity (at best) and disappointment. Also, it must be something that you want to achieve in the first place otherwise you won’t put in much effort.
1. Goal 1 – 40 accepted book covers/month at Arcangel
Result: In 2022, I set myself, in hindsight, a quite achievable goal of just 10 accepted per month (easily achieving that) and quadrupled that goal to 40 in 2023. Safe to say that again I’ve EASILY achieved this goal, in fact, I’ve gone from strength to strength and my best month (November) I had 238 accepted, greatly aided by the cruise. Must have been the sunshine and salty air that inspired me.
My progress over at Arcangel has been quite impressive. In any given month in 2023 it was more than all accepted images in 2020…if this isn’t progress then I don’t know what is! The average for the year was a quite respectful of 136/month.
Even though I probably won’t be able to replicate the sheer volume of accepted in 2024, I’ll make up this deficit with better quality content – more on this later.
As for sales, I’ll discuss this later on.
2. Goal: Publish one TikTok video per week
Result: I started 2023 quite keen to publish lots of unique content on TikTok and even had the idea to create a niche of “Top 5” related to travel. I was encouraged that my first-ever video has so far received over 60,000 views.
However, as the months went by, I kept uploading to Tiktok but decided to shift the niche away from travel and more towards book covers where I’ve been publishing my top-20 of every month, as well as weekly top-10s for the week. I like publishing these on TikTok as the algos create them automatically and add cool music/transitions, which I can also share on my Instagram account for book covers.
Whether Tik-Tok is a viable social media to have actual monetary returns is yet to be seen. I’m not putting so much effort there so it’s natural that I’m not getting much traction. These days it’s so easy to be distracted so if I’m going to ever “make it” on TikTok I’ll have to develop a strategy and follow through for months/years.
I’ve been putting more effort in YouTube as you’ll read on.
3. Goal: Island-hopping in 2023
Result: Took me 11 months within the year but I’ve finally gone island-hopping. In fact I’m writing this draft post from the MSC Seaview in the middle of the Atlantic as we pass Fernando de Noronha in Northeastern Brazil!
I didn’t get to visit so many islands in 2023…not even the UK (which honestly I have no regrets) but still managed to visit Mallorca and the Canary Islands (Arrecife de Lanzarote) as two stops on the cruise. Really wanted to visit Malta in May, not just to shoot but also participate in a large poker tournament, but prices were outrageous…maybe next year!
4. Goal: Devote more time to promote my Print on Demand ports
Result: This has been a complete fail. Nevertheless, I’ve been watching Steve Heap’s journey carefully as his print business is going from strength to strength over at Backyardsilver.
I really do want to push more on the POD side but distracted with everything else that’s going on (focus Alex, focus!). In fact, I would prefer to begin selling fine art prints directly to clients as a full-service, thus cutting out the middle-man. A friend in Portugal, Lucas Sancho, is having success doing this…check out his Instagram.
More on this later as I make fresh goals.
5. Goal: Upgrade my drone qualifications
Result: At the moment I’m all caught up with qualifications with all A1/A2/A3 qualifications. I’ve been in contact with the Portuguese aviation authority and they’ve mentioned that they’re working on specific drone qualifications related to higher-risk locations/scenarios. Hope the courses will be up next year.
6. Goal: Get some Drone Gigs
Result: This year has been poor with getting myself some drone gigs, having only done a few client shoots…including a Standup Yoga one that actually sold as stock in August as an editorial!
But then again I’m not really pushing so much in that department (particularly real estate that I don’t really enjoy and should quit altogether) and only have myself to blame for not marketing enough. Seems to be a common theme this year, doing too much spreading myself too thin and not focusing one task.
I keep repeating myself that trying to make stock a full-time job with full-time income is nearly impossible nowadays. I/we must diversify to work with clients and if possible to use some of the content to upload as stock as discussed in the following blog post:
7. Goal: Publish another 5 interviews with Stock-Wizards
Result: This goal has been easily reached as I managed to interview an impressive 9 stock-wizards, including
- Nash Mascro, Sales Director at Arcangel
- Doug Jensen, Stock Footage Expert – fresh insight after 2 years
- Dave Wall, Veteran Book Cover Photographer with 1,000+ Sales
- Jasmine Aurora, Book Cover Photographer & Designer
- Adam Melnyk, Drone Pilot
- Captain Tono Balaguer, Food Photographer & Fisherman
- Victor Torres, CEO of Addictive Stock
Really recommend you go through each and one of these interviews. There is no paywall, no ads…just pure unique content with valuable uncensored advice from each of these successful individuals in their own field.
8. Goal: Keep up to date with the latest developments relating to Artificial Intelligence machine-learning
Result: Sure, lots going on in that exciting/scary field. Published two blog posts on the subject this year, including a comprehensive analysis in May. Also reviewed thoroughly PhotoTag.Ai, a keywording tool that automatically keywords your images using AI…which I’m using now regularly within my workflow.
As well as Topaz which I’m using religiously on ALL my images for noise reduction / sharpening.
9. Goal: Publish at least one monthly earnings report on YouTube / TikTok
Result: Yes, finally! October was the month that I finally did it and have published reports for November and December respectively – see link to my YouTube channel.
From next year I’ll be publishing these every month, NO EXCUSES.
10. Goal: Just shoot for fun
Result: Honestly, I’m having a difficult time shooting for fun when my income is so depressed. I rather not be shooting at all if it’s not to make some sort of monetary return.
Perhaps when I reach a certain steady income (in the spirit of being brutal honest, it’s above an average of $1,500/month), then perhaps I may be able to relax and shoot without thinking about stock. Otherwise, to me it’s just automatic even when I’m going about my daily walks to think about stock and shoot for stock.
Perhaps I’m just hopelessly addicted…what to do to break this addiction…
Speaking of income, let’s compare now 2023 and 2022 for the major agencies.
2023 v 2022 Earnings Detailed Breakdown (US$)
Starting off with images
| Agency | 2023 net earnings | 2022 net earnings | $Delta | Port size Dec 2023 | Port size Dec 2022 | Growth in assets | Growth % |
| Arcangel | 750* | 2,135 | (1,385) | 3,626 | 2,017 | 1,609 | 80% |
| Alamy | 988 | 496 | +529 | 15,863 | 14,282 | 1,581 | 11% |
| Adobe Stock | 889 | 730 | +159 | 4,509 | 4,037 | 472 | 12% |
| Shutterstock | 1,779 | 1,671 | +108 | 12,127 | 11,213 | 914 | 8% |
| iStock (up to Nov) | 939 | 798 | +141 | 8,808 | 7,879 | 929 | 12% |
| Total | 5,345 | 5,830 | (485) | 44,933 | 41,395 | 3,538 | 9% |
Note: Does not include results from Robert Harding, Shutterstock Editorial and the minnows
Clips
| Agency | 2023 net earnings | 2022 net earnings | $Delta | Port size Dec 2023 | Port size Dec 2022 | Growth in assets | Growth % |
| Adobe Stock | 164 | 46 | 118 | 1,043 | 665 | 378 | 57% |
| Shutterstock | 519 | 535 | (16) | 1,944 | 1,507 | 437 | 29% |
| Pond5 | 444 | 111 | 333 | 2,590 | 1,992 | 598 | 30% |
| IstockPhoto (up to Nov) | 82 | 51 | 31 | 822 | 483 | 339 | 70% |
| Total | 1,209 | 764 | 445 | 6,399 | 4,750 | 1,649 | 35% |
Let’s compare Average Return per Download
Starting with stills
| Agency | 2023 Avg RPD (US$) | 2022 Avg RPD (US$) | Variation |
| Alamy | 5.99 | 4.10 | +32% |
| Adobe Stock | 0.67 | 0.81 | -21% |
| Shutterstock | 0.52 | 0.48 | +7% |
| iStock | 0.45 (up to Nov) | 0.47 | -4% |
| Total Avg. | 0.66 | 0.59 | +11% |
This is positive as at least there’s a small improvement in average returns at the major agencies.
Now let’s take a look at clips
| Agency | 2023 Avg RPD (US$) | 2022 Avg RPD (US$) | Variation |
| Adobe Stock | 5.68 | 6.57 | -16% |
| Shutterstock | 7.69 | 11.40 | -32% |
| Pond5 | 24.66 | 22.20 | +10% |
| IstockPhoto | 1.46 (up to Nov) | 1.65 | -12% |
| Total Avg. | 9.87 | 10.45 | -6% |
Things looking more worrying in the clips department, particularly with Shutterstock which witnessed a steep drop of an average of 32% year-on-year! Those sub $5 clips are something that have become more and more common, unfortunately.
If we discount Pond5, which doesn’t produce that many sales anyway, the average drop for the year was on average 20% for clips for the remaining top-3 best-performing agencies. Ouch.
Let’s compare now Return per Image
This is a popular metric in microstock to measure, on average, how each individual image/video earns per year for a specific agency.
Starting with images at the micros:
| Agency | 2023 net earnings | Port size Dec 2023 | RPI |
| Alamy | 988 | 15,863 | $0.06 |
| Adobe Stock | 889 | 4,509 | $0.20 |
| Shutterstock | 1,779 | 12,127 | $0.15 |
| iStock (up to Nov) | 939 | 8,808 | $0.11 |
| Total | 4,595 | 41,307 | $0.11 |
Quite a huge variation in terms of average earned per image. As you can see as I have the most assets on Alamy (including many RM-exclusive), due to relatively low priced sales, it’s almost half the of 11cents/image.
Moving onto return per clips (RPC)…
| Agency | 2023 net earnings | Port size Dec 2023 | RPC |
| Adobe Stock | 164 | 1,043 | $0.16 |
| Shutterstock | 519 | 1,944 | $0.27 |
| Pond5 | 444 | 2,590 | $0.17 |
| IstockPhoto (up to Nov) | 82 | 822 | $0.10 |
| Total | 1,209 | 6,399 | $0.19 |
I’m super surprised that average return per clip is just under double that of images, I would have thought this would be much much more. I don’t know whether my clips are underperforming!
Grand Total Results 2023
| Images (all images agencies, excluding Arcangel) | $5,829 |
| Clips (all agencies) | $1,209 |
| Arcangel* | $750 |
| Print on Demand (Fine Art America + Photo4me) | $75 |
| Grand total | $7,863 |
Key yearly stats:
Best month: June at $1,126
Worst month: January at $277
Monthly average: $655
Thoughts on my yearly earnings
If we compare my 2023 results with 2022 you will see that my earnings were almost identical ($7,863 vs $7,948). This is depressing particularly since I’ve worked hard to increase my port size, on average, for micro photos (major agencies) at 9% and a whopping 35% for clips.
Microstock for me (perhaps for you as well) has become a sort of diabolical treadmill which is constantly speeding up and I’m having to run harder and faster to be able to keep up with the end-result being only slightly worse (when accounting for inflation*). At this rate I may not be able to keep up and I’ll fall of the treadmill.
*A note on inflation, which I’ve already mentioned many times…which has averaged a combined 12% in the United States for 2022 and 2023. Around the same in Europe. Therefore even if my income has become stable for the past two years, in actual reality I’ve lost around 10% in purchasing power due to inflation.
Now let’s look further out at how I’ve done historically.
Looking at the historical big picture
As you can see below, it’s depressing to see my total earnings pretty much stagnating since 2021 despite continuously adding more assets.
Let’s try to move the discussion onto something a bit more positive…
Yearly Recap – The Good
Drone opportunities
I’m close to reaching 100 hours of total flying time with my DJI Air 2s. Good news is that those images/clips are selling regularly, including four book covers captured from the drone!
In 2023, images and videos captured by drone performed well and should continue to sell - in fact I have drone content sales everyday.
Using Microstockr I’ve created a collection of drone content that has sold in 2023 and the database says that I’ve earned $774. I only track the larger agencies so there’s some loose change from the smaller agencies.
Revenue earned, as you know, is only a piece of the jigsaw puzzle since we also need to factor in the number of hours, which I estimate in the past year to be around 35 (15 flying and 20 post-processing). So, $774 divided by 35 is a respectful $22/hour.
Looking at my drone content sales for all agencies since the beginning I’ve earned over $3k easily been able to pay off the initial investment for the fly-more combo DJI Air 2s. I’m probably around $20/hour since the beginning which is vastly superior than my regular microstock hourly rate of just $10/hour gross.
Arcangel Book Covers
I can’t hide the fact that 2023 has been disappointing in terms of sales with only 3 compared to 2022 when I had 7 sales. However, I view 2023 as a consolidation year as I’ve managed to increase my offering by a whopping 1,609 images (80%) year-on-year. Not just quantity, as I really do feel that some of my content is compatible with the top-producers within my niche.
As you know I remain optimistic when it comes to Arcangel unlike the rest of the industry, but I’ll have to let results speak for themselves soon.
If you’re curious here are the three book covers that sold this year, all captured with the drone!
My first-ever Artificial Intelligence image sale
Perhaps the downfall of commercial photography is upon us but it doesn’t mean that we can’t make a little bit of money with our “creation”. I didn’t upload many Ai images as it’s something that I’m still watching closely from the sidelines. Nevertheless, one image that I did upload sold to a Swedish newspaper earning me $7 net. Strange fingers!
Published some popular free e-books
During the downtime when the light was bad and/or raining, I published a three free-download short e-books which have been downloaded in total over 5,000 times!
In return I received kind donations as well as nice messages, so thanks for those. Here’s a link to them if you haven’t yet downloaded them in PDF.
- Tips to achieve book cover success at Arcangel
- Tips to achieve drone photography success (one-year anniversary)
- Microstock photography workflow tips
Yearly Recap – The Bad
Pond5 disaster, again
Although my Pond5 results for 2023 were better than 2022, it was still a very poor year at only $443 on 2,590 assets. I’m sure that the acquisition by Shutterstock is a predominant factor and I won’t be surprised to read some “exciting news” on how it will longer be possible to set your own prices.
Alamy stagnation
Even though I increased my Alamy offering by 11% to 15,863 assets, I was hoping to achieve a best-ever year but October-November-December fell flat.
However, it was a best-ever year in terms of sales volume…which just means that the average prices have dropped by a fair bit.
The rise and rise of free-download agencies
As you may recall, about this time last year I began an experiment to upload 100 quality images to Pixabay and Pexels to perhaps earn some donations. However, after 9 months and over 73,000 downloads, the project was discontinued.
I must urge everybody reading this post to avoid uploading to those free-download sites like the plague. I’m also confident that they’re also contributing to drops in royalties at micros.
Yearly Recap – The Ugly
It’s goodbye to my DJI Air 2s – a Flyaway Story
After 90.8 hours of flying time covering a total distance of 830km, 550 times, I’ve had to say goodbye to DJI Air 2s on New Years Eve.
I’m still not sure exactly what happened as I’m digging through logs and opened a ticket with DJI but basically I was flying at Botafogo Bay in Rio de Janeiro at around 9:30pm. Not the first time I’ve flown there and I had authorization.
Nevertheless, after completing a hyperlapse and at 60% battery I was returning home manually from a distance of around 700 metres over the water when I suddenly experienced complete loss of control. On my “Find My Drone” option, this is the last still that the camera captured.
To add context, this was the route from beginning to end.
Now, if you’re also a drone pilot, you’ll know that a loss of signal is super common. There was also as lot of interference in the air as it was new years’ eve in Rio, so initially I wasn’t worried. I had 54% battery life, at 55 metres from the ground (well above any boat masts) and only 500 metres away and was returning at some 40 km/h, which was more than plenty to avoid disaster. Under normal circumstances in less than two minutes I could have had it in my hands.
Conditions were great for flying, about 25 degrees, almost no wind and dry. I also had visual line of sight at all times as was standing at a rooftop overlooking the bay.
Now back to the loss of signal. It was nothing I had ever experienced and I made futile attempts to re-connect and RTH automatically without success. After about 20 minutes I knew it was game over as the battery would have died off.
I’m of course disappointed at what happened and going through logs trying to find out what exactly happened. I have two theories:
- Battery malfunction
The first most likely possibility was a faulty battery and imbalance in cell voltages which somehow was triggered with the loss of signal. Here’s some data from the logs.
That particular battery also had an imbalance deviation of 0.07 volts on Cell1.
I’m no expert when it comes to these things so perhaps someone can provide their thoughts. Also happy to send over the logs for further insight.
2. Brought down by the military
Another possibility is that the drone was “taken over” by a military authority. However, in almost all cases they simply trigger the drone to RTH (I’ve had this situation when flying in Portugal).
Prior to flying in that zone I had to give a local number to request authorization which was given. So far I have not received any news from that number.
So, I’ve reached a dead end…
…and opened up a ticket with DJI so they can give some further insight into the logs and any issues. – I’ll update this post as soon as I have news.
Memorial service held…
You’re welcome to donate to my fund to invest on a new drone!
JANUARY 3 DJI UPDATE
So, since the incident I’ve been in regular contact with DJI to try to ascertain the likely cause of the accident.
DJI have come back to me with the report and it reads as follows:
For your case CAS-XXXXX, we have finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:
- The aircraft worked under GPS mode. The home point: -22.9464726, -43.1632377 was in the altitude limited zone(60meters) but the pilot set a 100m RTH altitude;
- Flight Time T=11:41, Relative Height H=51.8m, Distance to Home Point D=572.3m, the flight record ended when the aircraft was flying forward when aircraft was out of the altitude limited zone;
- After the flight record ended, Failsafe RTH would be triggered, however, the aircraft was unable to return home due to the altitude limit(60m);
- The last recorded point: 44.0489086, 10.3418146.
According to the analysis, the incident was caused by the improper parameter setting. Please pay attention to the warning and flight environment during the flight.
DJI
So, from the above we can rule out battery issues and the issue was relatively simple of which I’m at fault, apparently.
I will try to explain this more in layman’s terms. Even though I was in a 60metre altitude-controlled zone, I had set the the Return to Home fail-safe at 100metres. My goal was to leave the 60m zone to try to go a bit higher to get the view towards Copacabana and set the RTH at the same height as my maximum height (100 metres). Will illustrate here my intentions:
Why did I set it to RTH?
I’m not sure. To be honest, as always, I never use the RTH feature to land, always do it manually, not just because it’s good practice but it’s also more fun. If I do ever lose signal, which has happened to me more times than I can count, the drone starts to come back within a few seconds using the RTH failsafe feature…then I just cancel and continue flying manually.
Overconfidence? Maybe.
That night, having visual light of sight at all times, I was confident that I would have no issues, having flown there a few times prior. But as mentioned above, even though it was 2 hours a bit until midnight there was a tremendous amount of radio-wave interference which was exponentially higher than previous flights.
I blame myself for this oversight which lead to this freak accident, more specifically, not setting the RTH lower than the maximum altitude allowed. The drone probably tried continuously to climb and was stopped (although it doesn’t explain why I couldn’t see the flashing lights right after I lost connection). Another theory is that it did a flyaway away from the 60m zone behind one of the hills and eventually lost battery. Who knows.
As always with these accidents, including major airline accidents (if you ever watch Air Traffic Investigators), it’s almost never just one mistake or factor that causes a crash but a series. In my case it was the following:
- Huge amount of radio-wave interference leading to loss of signal and eventual disconnection;
- Overconfidence that I would never lose signal. Having flown 550 times I have never lost signal for more than 15-20 seconds and have never disconnected completely from the drone. Perhaps the bad luck caught up to me;
- Flying at night which perhaps makes the signal worse;
- Flying at night which means no obstacle avoidance (not relevant but adds to the risk);
- Unfamiliarity with the RTH feature. I’ve researched on Google and this type of incident is extremely uncommon since most people not flying within a blue authorization zone. If someone asked me prior to the flight what would happen if I lost connection and it had to RTH to home I would have assumed that it would go back at the highest altitude allowed (60m).
Hey, DJI get your act together!
Even though this was a silly oversight I’m also blaming DJI for not having some sort of bypass failsafe for these occasions. There software knowing that I’m in a max 60metre zone should not allow me the option of a higher altitude. I have mentioned this to DJI to fix this bug. I’m probably not the first pilot to lose his/her drone this way and won’t be the last until they fix the issue.
Let’s move onto further less-than-pleasant news.
Part-time Income for almost Full-Time Work
I estimate that in 2023 I invested an average of around 15 hours a week towards stock (photos + videos + book covers), which equates to a total of approximately 780 hours for the year. Not a full time-job hours but…certainly a lot of hours devoted to this side-hustle!
As you can see from my earnings above, even though I earned $7,863 net from this venture this year, this equates to just over $10.00/hour gross which clearly it’s not even close to enough to live on in developing countries, including Portugal let alone in the UK or the United States.
As of Dec 12, 2023, the average annual pay for a Livable in the United States is $61,362 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $29.50 an hour. This is the equivalent of $1,180/week or $5,113/month.
Source
Don’t even get me started on expenses, particularly to travel which erode my already low $10/hour. Therefore, that’s why I’ve started to meticulously track my expenses whenever I go on major trips. I try to shoot locally most of the time to cut down on expenses but I have been traveling further out in 2023 than previous years. Therefore, I would reduce my gross rate by about $2/hour to just $8/hour net.
See blog posts here to Spain in early 2023 and my latest transatlantic cruise where I discuss my expenses as examples of how I calculate my expenses.
Why not put in more hours to earn more?
It’s worth asking if I had put in a regular full-time 40 hours a week, would I have earned $18,000+ for the year (or more)? Certainly not, since shooting more doesn’t equate to earning more! Stock doesn’t work like a normal job.
Let’s now discuss “Passive Income”
You may noticed a flaw in my logic above in that I’m only mentioning revenue earned in the present and not accounting for potential future earnings. With other jobs you may not be building up to anything in the future, whereas with this gig at least there is the benefit of “passive income” since I can literally discontinue uploading today until forever and still earn for some years.
How much exactly is difficult to predict. I dare to estimate that my existing port would earn me some $30,000 more in its lifetime without me putting in literally any additional work, which is pretty cool (see below how I see things may pan out).
I’m known for my over-optimism so really trying to make this projection as accurate as I can.
The truth is that most of my content still has to go through its full life-cycle with some just beginning theirs, such as my latest book covers and premium aerial content. Everyday I’m planting seeds everyday that I hope one day will turn into beautiful trees with delicious fruit.
When “old” become “new” again
In addition, some of the content, particularly editorials, may soon have a “vintage” quality to them, thus reinvigorating its life cycle. For instance, the below now-historic image I took of Vladmir Putin at the London 2012 Olympics when the UK and Russia had warmer relations unlike today.
Or supposing a buyer in 10 years time, for whatever reason, may want a then-vintage image of the London skyline in 2016 (which has since changed considerably). A cityscape such as below that is real and not created by Artificial Intelligence that is!
I could go on all day to discuss “passive income” but I must move onto another topic. Nevertheless, I refer you to the following excellent article over at the xpiks blog, “How passive is income from microstock photography”
Is stock still worth it?
Therefore, I beg to ask if stock is still worth it as a side-hustle? The short answer is that financially NO WAY and I would not recommend anybody in 2024 start doing stock purely to earn money!! I’ve made this quite clear with the above with my own hourly rate but you’re free to proceed yourself if you wish, perhaps you have some untapped magical niche that you may wish to exploit.
However, it’s not all about money as I get out of this side-gig many benefits other than financial which makes it worthwhile for me. Sometimes I suffer from depression/anxiety and instead of polluting my body with harmful substances, stock forces me to leave the house on a regular basis to search for beauty and get regular exercise. Also, travel is good for the soul!
Brutal Honesty
However, I still need to cover my living expenses and at this rate of depressed revenue, unless there is a considerable improvement (which I doubt will occur, at least at micros), I’ll have no choice but to consider soon going back to a “corporate-slave” type work as I have done many times first in the Netherlands then Italy and then Spain.
This isn’t ideal for my physical and mental health but beggars can’t be choosers. It could be much worse and at least I’ll be able to carry on shooting on the side during the free time I’ll have left.
On this less-than-optimistic tone, here are some goals for 2024 which will hopefully put me on the right path to achieve some of my financial goals.
Fresh 10 Goals for 2024
Goal 1 – Quality book covers at Arcangel
Last two years I upped my goal to have 40 and then 60 images accepted each month, which I easily achieved. However, this year I’m ditching purely volume-driven goals altogether and instead focusing on uploading quality book covers.
Nowadays I’m finding it relatively easy to have images accepted and it’s all merit to me because a person just starting out at Arcangel may struggle. In other words, even though they’re accepting more of my images it doesn’t mean they’re cutting me slack as they’re super picky and on some speculative batches it’s literally 100% rejections.
Arcangel work in a funny way that they may see an unique image and take a chance that it may sell one day. Those make up the majority of my portfolio. For next year, I want to focus on images that WILL sell. Again it’s super unpredictable but I want to give myself the best shot possible.
To illustrate some examples of some of my best of the best of the best captured images in 2023, here are what I believe are some of my “most likely to sell” – those that stand out from the thumbnails. These have the magic ingredients of “quality, saleability, and relevance” as Nash Mascaro advised.
So, I’ll want to produce more of those next year and less of the more ordinary-looking book covers. I rather have 10 amazing images than 100 good ones or 1000 mediocre ones.
Silhouette of young woman with hands up next to a brightly lit curtain 
Man surfing next to large waves and strong currents in Portugal 
Aerial drone top-down view of a roundabout at night 
Lion emblem medallion on red doorway with vignette 
Silhouette of a young woman sitting on a bench looking at her smartphone at golden hour in Lisbon, Portugal 
Although it’s more difficult to quantify the goals, in the end the number of sales will speak for themselves and I’m cautiously optimistically predicting that in 2024 I’ll have at least 12 sales which would earn me around $3,000 net. Now watch me wipe the egg of my face this time next year.
Goal 2 – Keep publishing those monthly YouTube Earnings Reports
After a slightly awkward start, I finally got the ball rolling in October with my first-ever YouTube Earnings Report. Better late than never! I appreciate all the support I’m getting to going live and will promise to keep improving technically and the information contained…will also make it entertaining!
I even invested on new gear including this influencer light! But where’s the influencer? 😀
Goal 4 – Devote more time to promote my prints
As shown with my current Print on Demand results at only $75 for the whole year, I’m keen to start promoting my limited-edition prints directly to clients as a full-service business thus providing a more personable service. I’ll also avoid all the hefty fees that Print on Demand sites charge. More details soon as I’ll be ironing out details. Meanwhile, here are some that I’ve shortlisted that would make for great prints (get in touch if you’re interested).
Goal 5a – Upgrade my drone qualifications
Although I already have my A1/A2/A3 drone qualifications under the “Open Category”, which is valid throughout the European Union, I would like to keep studying up and eventually obtain a STS qualification to obtain clearance to fly under the “Specific Categories”.
These include higher risk scenarios such as: flying beyond visual line of sight, at night and in urban areas. These qualifications, when they do eventually become available, can be useful when pitching for new gigs.
Goal 5b – Upgrade my DJI Air 2s drone!
While we’re on the topic of drones, now that I’ve “crashed” my DJI Air 2s, I really have no choice but to upgrade. After almost 100 hours I was already feeling its limitations particularly when it comes to the focal length which only shoots at 24mm. Also the battery life, at around 15-minutes of flying time on average can be limiting.
Therefore, I’m eyeing the Air3 which has another lens that shoots at 70mm which would be another string to my bow. It also has improved battery life and full anti-collision sensors. Here’s a first-flight review.
Goal 5c – Learn about drone mapping
I’ve touched upon this a few times already on earnings report but with everything else that has been going on I got distracted.
I’m interested in learning about further ways that I may be able to monetize my/future drone and one such possibility is pitching to clients that require drone mapping. Drone mapping (also called aerial surveying) is the process of taking pictures from the air and using software to digitally “stitch” them together into a 3D map of a worksite.
This type of niche work is apparently in huge demand by construction companies as well as surveyors, architecture firms, city planners, private/public security firms, etc. More detail on here “how drone mapping is used“.
There is nothing artistic about this type of work and it’s purely technical. Obviously my relatively amateurish DJI Air 2s cannot carry out this type of detailed work so next year I’ll research how I can pick up some qualifications in this field and the costs associated with investing in a more powerful drone and the software that is required to render these huge files.
Perhaps it will be a goal in 2025 to begin to pitch to clients for this type of work, let’s see!
Goal 6 – Upload my dad’s 70s/80s/early 90s travel footage
In the spirit of scanning and uploading my dad’s old travel images from the 60s, 70s and 80s, which I wrote about here on the May Earnings Report, I hope to do the same for video.
There are dozens of VHS tapes at my dad’s place with quite cool unique content that can be used for stock, particularly for documentaries and educational purposes.
However, as always, there’s a huge technical gap on how I will go about this and who to hire to carry out this service but it’s my goal for next year to successfully upload some of the footage. He shot literally tens of hours of quite cool travel stuff with a Super8 which I’m confident would sell well as stock.
Goal 7 – Reduce regular commercial Microstock Photos!
That’s right, my goal is to produce less microstock photos, particularly commercial! In fact, the less the better!
My efforts for the next year will be devoted almost exclusively for book covers and drone footage. Sure, I may produce some aerial panos (such as below) using my drone but for terrestrial photos I don’t really see much point anymore plus it’s not something I enjoy doing anymore.
I will, however, upload some special editorials/news to Alamy as Rights-Managed exclusive and Shutterstock Editorial which can sell for greater sums than regular microstock.
Goal 8 – Publish a monthly “newsletter” related to Artificial Intelligence regulations and how they relate to licensing stock photography & footage
Might as well put my legal background to use with a fun and informative monthly newsreel related to regulatory developments in the world of Artificial Intelligence and licensing of photos/videos.
Perhaps I’ll also create a segment within the YouTube monthly report where I’ll discuss Ai legal developments where I may highlight threats/opportunities within the fast-changing arena, such as one that was recently published by Robert Harding on Linkedin titled “Navigating the Ethical Challenges of Generative AI Imagery“.
Goal 9 – Go on another cruise!
I really enjoyed the transatlantic cruise which has proved both good value for money and a great stock opportunity as discussed below.
Therefore, I’m eyeing taking another cruise…perhaps to northern Europe to also visit the Fjorns in Norway!
Or perhaps one in the Mediterranean…
…or perhaps an epic 4-month long worldwide journey!
Goal 10 – Don’t go back to a corporate day job!
I really want this side-hustle to work and have modest financial goals in mind of around $1,500/month net purely from stock which I’m only slightly above 1/3 of the way there, on average. The fact that I live in Portugal helps as it’s not a super expensive place to live.
If I fail to reach these modest financial goals I may just have to bite the bullet and take on another sacrifice which is working for someone else in a desk-job. Paid well but highly stressful.
Let’s see how things will pan out in 2024.
On that melancholic note, Happy New Year!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this special report.
How did you do this year? Did you reach your goals and what would be some of your goals for next year? Please share below!
About Alex
I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal (currently in Rio), 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 I was flying my DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly until it crashed in Botafogo Bay so I’m eyeing a replacement soon!.
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 
This was an awesome read. Can you make a living in Portugal with 500 dollars a month which you make on average from stock photos, or you are also having additional sources of income? This is now the minimum net wage in Romania, and this money is barely enough here for living in a big city.
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Nope, $500 won’t get me very far in Portugal. Prices have risen significantly since 2021 and the average rent in Lisbon is about 600 euros for a 1 bedroom. So perhaps the goal is to pay for my rent!
Minimum wage in Portugal is 800 euros which is also barely enough to live in a large city.
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I think you’ve worked out the percentage growth of the number of images in your agencies incorrectly. The percentage should be calculated from the before year’s numbers not the later year’s. So if they’ve gone from, say 1000 to 1500 then they’ve increased by 50% i.e. the 500 increase as a percentage of 1000, not 1500.
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Ok! Will take a look, thanks 🙂
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Fixed it 🙂 thanks for pointing it out, that’s what I get for drafting at 3am!
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Good yearly review. We all have differing experiences in stock. I left my job in 2020 and rely solely on my stock income, and I plan on doing so for years to come (although the start to 2024 has been brutal). I look forward to your future updates.
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What a fantastic article, Alex. Full of intriguing information, interesting stories, pathos (the loss of the drone) and all the updates on last year’s goals and your plans for 2024. Makes my report look like a diary entry! One of the best of the year!
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You’d have got almost as much by going exclusive on Pond5 and saved yourself a lot of work. $444 + 50% = $666.
Isn’t it a waste of time for you uploading video clips to Adobe and iStock?
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Could be!
iStock certainly is a waste of time but I have earned $633 from AS on clips alone.
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Thanks for your reply Alexandre but now I’m confused – one of us must be mistaken! Your video figures say that you made a net $164 in 2023 on Adobe. That’s why I thought it might be more worthwhile just to go exclusive on Pond5. This is what I did so I’m very keen to learn from your experience. Obviously if you actually made $633 in 2023 then that changes things!
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I’ve earned $633 all-time from videos at AS.
I would have considered exclusivity with Pond5 prior to Shutterstock purchasing them but not now…there’s nothing stopping management at Shutterstock one day changing rules with “Exciting News” over at Pond5.
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Yes, that’s true. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one day they scrapped the higher exclusive rate. But then one could also go non-exclusive at that point.
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