Welcome to my entertaining & hopefully useful May 2024 Brutally Honest Report, where as usual I’ll be discussing my earnings as well as AI news. Let’s get started!
Before getting started check out the latest offer at PhotoTag!
PhotoTag.Ai Special 60%-Off Any Subscriptions Offer
I’ve teamed up with PhotoTag.Ai, an AI-generating metadata program and for a limited-time only (until June 20th), you’ll be able to take advantage of 60% off ANY subscription using the code:
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If you would like try the software before committing, you’re allowed 10-free trials of any photo/video.
I’m not promoting them out of pure blind greed, I’m using Phototag on pretty much all of my images and videos.
Monthly highlights on the blog
A relatively quiet month on the blog with two blog posts. The first blog post on three reasons as to why I’m shooting all my aerial footage in vertical mode.
Secondly, ahead of Adobe Stock’s third annual $5 up front for yearly giveaway promotion, I’ve put together a blog post questioning whether I’m shooting myself in the foot by accepting all my images and go through some stats using Microstockr.
AI News – Chat GPT-4o
On more positive news, this month’s AI news is related to Open AI’s new Chat GPT-4o version featuing voice-recognition remniscint of the 2013 film “Her” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson.
Here are some of the cool features of this neat software.
Now back to reality with my monthly results results.
Detailed Monthly Earnings Breakdown
Image Earnings (US$)
| Agency | Number of Images in port (new images May) | Net Revenue May | Avg Return Per Image |
| Alamy | 16,134 (67) | 89 | 0.006 |
| Arcangel (RM-exclusive) | 4,319 (129) | 😦 | 😦 |
| Adobe Stock | 4,635 (37) | 101 | 0.02 |
| DepositPhotos | 8,339 (48) | 13 | 0.01 |
| Dreamstime | 9,224 (48) | 10 | 0.01 |
| Etsy | 8 (1) | 0 | 0 |
| Freekpik | 1,085 (75) | 7 | 0.06 |
| iStock Turds (Apr 2024) | 8,964 (79) | 59 | 0.006 |
| MotionArray | 219 (35) | 6 | 0.06 |
| Photo4me | 25 | ||
| Robert Harding (Q2 2024 monthly average) – RM/RF exclusive | 553 (9) | 10 | N/A |
| Shutterstock | 12,318 (43) | 96 | 0.02 |
| Wirestock | 3,066 (0) | 5 | N/A |
| Total | 421 |
Clip Earnings (US$)
| Agency | Number of clips in port (new clips May) | Net Revenue for May |
| Adobe Stock | 1,120 (38) | 7 |
| Dreamstime | 8 | |
| Pond5 | 2,686 (42) | 38 |
| iStock Turds (Apr 2024) | 857 (25) | 37 |
| Shutterstock | 2,023 (42) | 43 |
| Total | 133 |
Grand Total: $554
Thoughts on the month
Another month where I didn’t reach my super modest goal of just $1k, which for the size of my port shouldn’t be too much to expect. I feel like a helpless passenger stuck inside an airplane going through major turbulance and ready to drop 100s of metres at any given moment!
I’m sure you’ve been following me for a while (this blog has been active since 2016) and you’ve probably noticed that I’ve always been quite upbeat about almost everything. But I’m finding it increasingly difficult to find anything positive to say about this side-hustle. Even I dare say…book covers…there I’ve said it! That’s why I refuse to talk about Arcangel until I have sales…really no point to make silly reel highlights on accepted covers when I’m not getting regular returns.
Overall, the results are just underwhelming at least for my niche and this were a “real business”, let’s say a neighbourhood flower shop I would have probably closed long ago as I wouldn’t be able to even cover the most basic of costs.
Crunching some numbers
I’ve crunched some numbers since early 2019 when began reporting my earnings which are enough to make me want to quit this business altogether and just shoot for fun – in summary:
Let’s also keep in mind that $1 earned in 2019 is worth about 25% more than that same dollar earned in 2024 due to inflation.
Devoting less time to stock
Further to the above I’m not quitting but am devoting significantly less time to capturing stock. When I do shoot for micros (or even book-covers) it’s usually when I’m at a client gig, which I’m happy to say that I had a few this month, and I have some free time time to access to a location where I can pick up some easy shots, such as at a poker tournament or shooting standup paddle. Or at a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class where I’m shooting anyway for the friendly group where we beat each other up.
Or when I’m traveling anyway to a place I would have gone anyway, god-forbid I would actually spend any money to go somewhere to shoot purely for micros!!
Now let’s discuss individual agencies.
Alamy
A decent month at Alamy with $89 net from 14 sales.
Higlights include:
Adobe Stock
A decent month at Adobe Stock at a combined $108.
Highlights include $16 from this progress flag as June is Pride Month.
In other news, I’m willingly participating in their $5 upfront payment scheme but as mentioned earlier, I’m being more careful this time around and not selecting some of my images with more commercial value. To reiterate, I wrote about this strategy here.
Pond5
OK month with two nicely priced clip sales.
As for the clip on the left I wrote a few months back about shooting airplanes from a nice vantage point.
I’m carefully tracking my earnings from those sets and so far I’ve earned just over $50 in about a year. A little disappointing but a batch that is super strongly commercial that I expect to have a super long shelf life (probably continue to sell for another 10 years). In that meantime, I’m sure some of these airliners will go bust or merge so they should feature heavily in all sorts of media.
iStock (Turds)
Small uptick from disastrous March and pathetic April as May pulled in net $97 and good performance from clips (although average prices are really low) at $37.
Was quite surprised that some of my Cape Town aerials started selling right away, particularly the hyperlapse clip. Although, as I’ve come to expect from those iStock turds, the prices are pathetic.
Shutterstock
Nothing special on the photo side except for perhaps $12 earned from their AI Contributor Fund.
On the video side, not all heroes wear capes as a top-down video my brother playing with my niece on a beach in Portugal sold earning me $12.62. In total I earned a decent $43 from clips.
Photo4Me
Once-in-a-blue-moon agency, Photo4Me sold the print below earning me net $25.
Until next time!
So that’s it for a kinda downbeat earnings report.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post. How did you do this month? Reminder to take advantage of the limited-time only offer at PhotoTag.Ai using the code “HONEST60”
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.
I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and was also flying a DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly (although it crashed into Botafogo Bay on NYE – here is the story), which I’ve upgraded to a Mini 3 Pro and eventually an Air3 in 2024/2025.
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 
Quite interesting tool this Tag stuff. Needs a try. The only problem is in size of photos…they all require uploading. would appreciate some software that does in offline or – like Lightroom – just checking the license.
I admire your dedication and I have just checked my library of my photos on disks. Some 60.000
Sometimes I think that when money comes from other sources like portrait photoshoots I would hire someone to do the whole Shutterstock job for me 🙂
So far I have some 4000 and money comes now and then. Multiplying 400 by 105 would bring me 105 times money. Worth a try.
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