Microstock Statistics :: iStockphoto Top 500 Contributors

I recently revisited the istockcharts website in hopes of gaining a bit more insight into the world of Microstock.  Looking at the top 500 contributors, in terms of downloads, I was able to sermize a few things about iStock and the industry in general.   Please note that 64 contributors were "xxx" out at istockcharts and the reliability of the data may not be exactly accurate, but interesting data all the same.

I found it very interesting to take a look at the data in excel and sort, average, and develop stats for this list.  Some observations:

• Of the top 500 contributors at iStockphoto, they joined on average in May 2005, with the first contributors joining in Feb 2002 and the last contributor in the top 500 joining in May 2008
• On average they have 2,275 files online the max being 16,289  while the min is 151
• The total files combined for all these contributors was 991,990 and represents 16.8% of all the files currently on iStock.  
• What's interesting is that although they only represent 16.8% of the number of files they account for over 40% of the downloads (or 32,001,000).
• So the Top 500 in iStock (or top 436 in this case due to some accounts having no information) they only represent 1.5% of the contributors, but account for over 40% of the downloads!!

Some graphs and visual stuff to compliment the observations:

Total Number of Downloads for the Top 500 Contributors at iStockphoto

 

Number of Files Online Vs. Total Number of Downloads

So, it seems that I'm a very small fish in a very big pond!!

Microstock Photography - Return on Investment (ROI)

Over a year and a half ago I registered at a few microstock sites to see how I'd do with it, but it very quickly faded from my daily routine - either from lack of results, rejection, or just life getting in the way of one of my many ideas.

I had about 50 images at StockXpert, but they've since closed (moved to Veer) and the $1.00 I made will never be recovered.

I have far fewer images at iStockPhoto and Dreamstime, with combined sales of $6.50. I think the payout threshold is $50 or $100, so at this rate I'll be lucky to be paid out before I'm 65. To be fair, I only have 3 approved photos at each site so the return hasn't been too bad considering such a low number.

I've decided to give it another go, with mixed feelings. Part of me thinks that spending such a lot of time for such little return is a waste of time. Part of me just wants to experiment with this avenue of sales and see if it's really for me. At the moment I'm way behind on my Return of Investment (ROI) with the amount of time I've spent on Microstock in the past and the time I've recently put in. We'll see how this goes and maybe I'll be able to show some interesting graphs and reports down the road like Lee Torrens over at MicrostockDiaries does.

Future post....an update on my progress in 2010!!