My first sale at Zazzle

I guess I'm not the only geology geek out there. :)

Only $3.60, still a bit to go before I reach payout at $25, but nice to see that this is a possible sales channel. My Zazzle shop is almost empty, I think I'll try to create some more items. :)

My picture in a poptart ad

I've been starting to stumble across more and more of my shots on the net now, especially after google developed it's image search. This one I found after searching for my user name and "shutterstock". I wonder whether it was a regular subscription sale for 25 cents, or an EL for 28 dollars.

Sold a movie today

My first footage sale at Shutterstock, netting $8:

http://footage.shutterstock.com/video.html?id=1127365

I only have four clips at the time being. Time to go shoot some more!

A shutterstock best seller

I had luck with this picture; it was placed on the front page on Shutterstock when I uploaded it a year ago. This gave it so many downloads that it got a favorable search placement, that it has kept since. In one year it has earned me $35, from 100 downloads.

It sells reasonably well on several of the other microstock sites too, but nowhere near as well as on Shutterstock.


© Photographer: Gaja | Agency: Dreamstime.com

A fun request from a buyer

Dreamstime has a forum where buyers can make request for pictures they can't find in the database. Sometimes these requests lead to good ideas and fun sessions. Like this one; where the buyer wanted children laughing.

I hope it will get accepted, and that the buyer can use it, otherwise I'll just have to have fun with my kids another day too. Oh, the hardships of being a photographer... :lol:

My first sale at Alamy

I had a few pictures of a lovely little girl with hearing aid, and didn't want to sell it as RF. So I uploaded them to Alamy. They have had few views, and I didn't expect any sales before I could upload more pictures. But today, as my PicNiche-bar started updating, a sale popped up for Alamy: $71,17 for this picture:

It's going to be used in a textbook somewhere in the world.

The upload process on Alamy is tedious, but if I get more sales like this one, it will be worth it. :)

My first EL

This picture got me my first (hopefully not last) Enhanced license from Shutterstock.


© Photographer: Gaja | Agency: Dreamstime.com

28 dollars in one go made a nice impact on the total for February. :)

Children skiing - a niche?

I took this snapshot last winter, and it was rejected by most agencies due to technical issues. But in those few places it as accepted, it has sold relatively well. Scanstockphotos is usually a very low earner, but this picture has sold 4 times only in January.

Cross country skiing is a very popular winter activity even for small children in Scandinavia, and competitions and races are arranged regularly. A search on Shutterstock and Istock reveals no similar pictures to this one, and a simple search on picniche gives a rating of 8500. So I guess I'll be bringing my good camera and a few more props the next time we go skiing!

Getting regular payouts

The fun thing about doing microstock as a hobby, is that you earnings increase as you put out more pictures for sale. I'm starting to hope that I might be getting payouts every month this year.

My payouts stats:
February 2010: $242 (Dreamstime)
October 2010: 105.95 (Shutterstock) + $101.68 (Dreamstime)
January 2011: $117 (Istock)
February 2011: $106.53 (Shutterstock)

My current balance, and estimates for the next payout:
Dreamstime: $83.47. Estimated payouts March and August 2011 (average income per month: 20. Payout limit 100)
Shutterstock: $2.62. Estimated payouts June and November 2011 (average income per month: 20. Payout limit 100)
YayMicro: 20 Euro. Estimated payout June 2011 (average income per month: 2. Payout limit 30)
Fotolia: 13.9 Euro. Estimated payout August 2011 (average income per month: 5-10. Payout limit 50)

Veer: $64.05. Estimated payout 2012 (average income per month: 3. Payout limit 100)
Scanstockphoto: 21 Euro. Estimated payout 2012 (average income per month: 2-3. Payout limit 50)
Istock: $5.45. Estimated payout 2012 (average income per month: 5. Payout limit 100)

Bigstockphoto: $15.50. Estimated payout 2013 (average income per month: 1-2. Payout limit 50)
123RF: $17.51. Estimated payout 2013 (average income per month: 1-2. Payout limit 50)
Can Stock Photo : 12.35. Estimated payout 2015 (average income per month: 1. Payout limit 50)
Depositphotos: $11.38. Estimated payout 2020 (average income per month: 0-1. Payout limit 50)

If I upload a few more picture, I'm sure I can manage to get a payout from Shutterstock in April/May instead of June. The same goes for YayMicro. Scanstock and Veer are wild cards in this game. I got a surge in sales there in January. If that trend continues, I might get more payouts this spring.
Depositphotos started ok last summer, but has completely died this winter. They will probably die soon.

My English blog

I've been blogging in Norwegian for a couple of years, but since most of what I read and write on a day to day basis is in English, I'll try to translate a few of my blog entries too. Hopefully I will reach a larger audience when blogging in a world language, Norway, after all, has yet to reach 5 million inhabitants.

My biggest hobby is money. Not because I have so much of it, not because I spend so much of it, but because I  love finding obscure ways of making money!
 For the time being, I have a steady job and income, but that has only been true for the last year. Before that, I had a lot of different jobs, including internet based ones. And I still try to augment our family income from a couple of net based companies. I would like to share my experience in choosing the jobs that give a decent hourly wage, in front of those where you work hours for a few cents.

From time to time I also come across good deals and ways to save money. These I will of course share with you.