Welcome to my entertaining & hopefully useful June 2024 Brutally Honest Report, where as usual I’ll be discussing my monthly earnings and industry news. Let’s get this journey started!

Finally a YouTube earnings report

After a few months where I had almost zero motivation to compile a YouTube earnings report due to my depressed results, I’ve gathered some willpower and published this month’s report which you may access below. Perhaps surpassing that psychologically important $1k mark was a motivating factor.

Industry News – Improve your Alamy Keywording Webinar featuring Clemency Wright

Happy to promote the following free keywording webinar, which I’ll also be attending, to shed some light on the mystery surrounding Alamy keywording.

I’ve contacted Clemency directly and she has the following to say about the upcoming free webinar and her services:

“Having worked behind the scenes in image libraries for 20+ years, I know how daunting the keywording process can seem for photographers. My aim is to demystify the Alamy keywording process and support photographers, including microstock photographers, through the provision of easy-to-use resources.

Not everyone can afford to outsource keywording, and that’s why I’ve created a three-tier system of service, starting with a Basic free plan. Doing your own keywording can be efficient and effective when you know how, and you have the right tools.”

Clemency Wright

Now let’s move onto my detailed earnings report.

Detailed Monthly Earnings Breakdown

Image Earnings (US$)

Agency	Number of Images in port (new images June)	Net Revenue June	Avg Return Per Download
Alamy	16,171 (37)	139	9.02
Arcangel (RM-exclusive)	4,376 (72)	500	250*
Adobe Stock	4,656 (31)	84 + 230 upfront payment	0.72
DepositPhotos	8,361 (22)	14	0.35
Dreamstime	9,253 (29)	7	0.44
Etsy	8 (0)	0	0
Freekpik	1,106 (21)	8	0.06
iStock Turds (May 2024)	9,026 (72)	49	0.43
MotionArray	229 (10)	6	0.16
Robert Harding (Q2 2024 monthly average) – RM/RF exclusive	559 (6)	10	N/A
Shutterstock	12,341 (33)	103	0.46
Wirestock	3,066 (0)	8	0.38
Total		1,168

*I’ve been asked not to disclose exact earnings so I’m using the historical average of $250net/image

Clip Earnings (US$)

Agency	Number of clips in port (new clips June)	Net Revenue for June
Adobe Stock	1,137 (17)	35 + 16 for upfront payment
Pond5	2,707 (21)	0
iStock Turds (May 2024)	889 (32)	20
Shutterstock	2,051 (28)	42
Total		113

Grand Total: $1,281

Thoughts on the month

As you can clearly see in my January to May earnings reports, these have been depressing months and I ranted about how frustrated and bitter this business is making me feel. This month, without counting the two book cover sales at Arcangel and the Adobe Stock upfront payments, it’s also been lacklustre $535, kinda like how England is playing currently at the Euros.

At this stage in my business and how much prices everywhere have increased during the past few years I really need to be banking at least $1k a month to make it any sort of worthwhile. I’m really pessmistic when it comes to micros.

Thinking 22 times about upgrades

The other day someone asked me whether I’d be upgrading to Nikon Z6III full-frame mirrorless camera and as much as I want to I have to ask myself whether with these results it’s worth the investment. Some may say that it’s a catch22 situation (need to invest more to earn more) but when it comes to earning from microstock, I’ll have to disagree as doubt new gear would make a significant difference in earnings.

New gear for client work, however

The only reason why I would consider this sort of upgrade would be to be able to provide better services on client shoots and at least I’m quite happy with this side of the business as I’m picking up quite regular client work which in one day pays almost as much as I earn in a month on here.

Anyway, let’s break down my results with the major agencies, starting with the best news first.

Arcangel

Happy to report two sales this month for the following thrillers with the original covers on the right on the slide. This brings my total for the year at 6.

I went to Foyles bookshop in Central London and spotted the above!

Designing considerations

As you can see above it’s encouraging that designers take only small portions of an image to create a composite. I get paid for the usage regardless and it doesn’t hurt my ego that my image hasn’t contributed to the main portion.

If you look closely, in the first case, just the seagulls were used and in the second, a portion of the stairs. The woman running on my original is sort of similar to the one used so it seems that the designer was looking for this type of woman and liked the stairs and decided to use it for the edge of the platform.

More sales please even if it’s just a tiny pixel somewhere!

Alamy

Two major sales at Alamy this month. Firstly, for the below that I captured in 2016 of an art exhibition by Huang Yong Ping while visiting Paris. The fact that it has only sold after 8 years is bittersweet since on one hand I’m encouraged that such old images do eventually sell but on the other hand, it’s frustrating that it takes so long. Makes me think whether I’ll need to wait until the 2030s to have a sale for images captured today…

If you’re wondering, the above license earned me net $41.02.

Secondly, a shot of a Barbie film poster in Portugal earned me $47.60. Who needs rare drone shots anyway!?

Adobe Stock

Encouraged that 46 images were selected by Adobe Stock on their $5 upfront payment scheme, as well as 2 clips for $8 each.

As for image sales, it’s been OK at $84. The following two images have sold regularly this month (as well as other months).

On the footage side, $35 earned with really low prices on most, including drone clips.

iStock (Turds)

In an almost identical scenario to Shitterstock (see next header), iStock Turds reported 12 video sales (mainly drone shots) but with a super low at an average of $1.50/each – really frustrating. See below for yourselves.

As for the stills, nothing special as the highest-earner was only $2.45, which isn’t even worth discussing.

Shutterstock

Another agency that is a shadow of its former self from from just a few years ago.

Just to illustrate how far the agency has fallen I’ve taken a 5-year comparison between May 2019 Shutterstock results and May 2019. I posted the following on the MSG Forum’s “Shutterstock is an Embarassment” thread.

May 2019
Portfolio size: 9,565
Images sold: 453
Earnings: 304
Average return per download: 67cents

May 2024
Portfolio size: 12,318
Images sold: 264
Earnings: 97
Average return per download: 38cents

Now let’s compare the metrics (May 2019 vs May 2024)
Portfolio size: +28%
Images sold: -42%
Earnings: -68%
Average return per download: -45%

In the spirit of the above, June was really a terrible month where I barely passed $100 in earnings for photos. Only one image worth discussing which earned me $12 that I captured whilst living in Milan in the late 2010s.

Most worrying are the prices for some of clips, including captured with the drone. Ouch!

Although to be fair, there was a decent sale towards the end of my month of a drone shot of my brother and niece on the beach in Portugal which earned me $33.14.

A week in London!

Lastly, I leave you with some images I captured in London during the past few days. It’s a wonderful city but not for me, just too busy and expensive (I did live there some 15 years of my life so that’s more than enough).

I won’t be back for a while as many other places I would like to visit. Nevertheless, the weather was good and I had a creative streak managing to capture some cool angles. Will therefore give you 12 of my fav images from the trip – 2 for each day!

Until next time!

That’s it for this report, hope you’ve had a great month.

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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 as soon as I can sell my used Air 2s.

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