Sales Trends

posted on 29th of may, 2012

well I have read about how sales are going up and down and how you should grow your portfolio to make it more stable and that it is seasonal for some people.

We all probably know that and should acknowledge it, but I had a best month ever in April and this month is going to be the worst in last half year, I have not sold a photo for 6 days in a row now.

Although i know theory the lack of sales still keeps me up at night thinking what could i do to change it and have another BME again.
And photography is not even paying for my gear, I have a well paid day job, but there is some magic in micro-stock that makes every dollar count like a 100$

So to all of you out there who just had a worst month ever or have not sold a photo in a week or month remember to relax, think positive and keep shooting :)

Tags: bme sale sales trends wme

Comments (45)

	Posted by Inyrdreams on June 14, 2012 I have 147 images on here since march really, and have had 8 sales-5 in may! no idea why so few sales.. but it is frustrating and not sure exclusivity is helping me. still going to try a year however....
	Posted by Aprescindere on June 12, 2012 Good to know I'm not the only one!
	Posted by Fengai on June 11, 2012 New pictures have brought today! Upload a lot of new work!
	Posted by Chanevy on June 09, 2012 Sales are like the stock market. They go up, they go down. It's what they're supposed to do. All we can do is stay positive and keep doing are best. Thanks for the encouraging article.
	Posted by Hanbaoluan on June 09, 2012 Ha ha, you just a few days no sales, calculate what ah. I haven't a few months sales now, just ashamed!
	Posted by M4rio1979 on June 07, 2012 My last sale was two weeks ago...not good :(
	Posted by Giannit on June 06, 2012 I have no sale for so long time....
	Posted by Ewamewa2 on June 05, 2012 I must say that I am loosing my faith slowly...almost 3 weeks without a sale:(
	Posted by Fengai on June 04, 2012 I have 7 days, no sales and very little before that .. I have made a large purchase in May of 15 images were sold price of 6-10 dollars images 17224644 These fish have brought a lot of money in the month
	Posted by Baldas1950 on June 03, 2012 I think that, since in april the price of the images increased, it is not surprising that the number of sales is decreasing. We must look instead to the monthly income. In my case, it was very bad in April, but May was the best month in terms of revenue.
	Posted by Ewamewa2 on June 03, 2012 Nothing has happened regarding my regular sales since my last post, but I noticed a rapid increase of sales of free-images:(
	Posted by Angelaravaioli on June 01, 2012 For me it is still quite firm at terrifically 5/24/2012.
	Posted by Twindesign on June 01, 2012 I just had 2 sales for total of 15 credits. So I hope this will turn things around again!
	Posted by Angelaravaioli on June 01, 2012 June started, hopefully it goes better ...
	Posted by Meryll on June 01, 2012 I must say my May was 2nd best month here ever as for as sales and revenue too. I also experienced one 4-5 day period without sales.
	Posted by Twindesign on June 01, 2012 Today is day 6 with not a single sale. Not even a subscription. I hope this changes soon. I never had this before! I can understand 2-3 days but 6!? I think this might be an eye opener not to be exclusive anymore. Hope things change soon. :(
	Posted by Physi28 on May 31, 2012 then we still don't know what's going on..
	Posted by Zenonk on May 31, 2012 difference between level 0 and level 1 is only 2-3 credits depending on size, and all the subscription users do not see any difference I guess
	Posted by Physi28 on May 31, 2012 well, this seems a pretty suitable explanation for a decrease in sales, at least for me, that is if it really means that the buyers have to spend more cash now, having in mind the huge amount of competitors in microstock..
	Posted by Zenonk on May 31, 2012 images start with level 1 and go up faster, and if they are not sold for 24 months they go to level 0
	Posted by Maljalen on May 31, 2012 Read "News and announcements" from April 26: Levels update, by Achilles. What was before level 1, is now level 2 and so on. The price for new level 2 is the same as it was before for level 2 also, but it means the photo with less downloads is now more expensive. At least I understand it so.
	Posted by Physi28 on May 31, 2012 but it seems this happened in 2009?
	Posted by Zenonk on May 31, 2012 yes it has changed - http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_31236
	Posted by Physi28 on May 31, 2012 That's the thing Zenonk, it is not just an issue of three or four people or something which happens every year. And as Maljalen says, that´s something I was curious about: to know what's going on in other agencies? Maljalen, what do you mean with price change? was there any price change in D.T.? I have been traveling a lot lately so I am a little out of news?
	Posted by Maljalen on May 31, 2012 After price change everything changed drastic. Sales dropped, but only on DT. Elsewhere sales are still growing slowly for me, as usual.
	Posted by Zenonk on May 31, 2012 I did not expect to get that many comments for my blog. I got me bit worried to hear that it's not only my issue
	Posted by Physi28 on May 31, 2012 I agree with you Mvogel, but my portfolio is around 1200 images and the drop in sales has been coincident with the problems in march-april which D.T. experienced and then with a massive upload of images , around 120 in 2 or 3 weeks I made, so I find that much as I uploaded more images than ever, my sales went down more than ever too ;-) I wonder if there is a problem in D.T. which causes this abnormal behavior in many of us contributors sales? I contacted D.T. for this matter but got no answer (first time so far). enquiry number is: 31576494, I wish D.T. could make some statement about his situation.
	Posted by Angelaravaioli on May 31, 2012 Sometimes it seems that there is no everything is motionless
	Posted by Mvogel on May 30, 2012 Another thing to remember is that are 2 sides to selling an image. The seller and a buyer. When no one wants to buy yoru images one month is that strange or unusual pr is it just that no one wants your images that month? Many of us have very small portfolios so there is a limit to how many people want to purchase our images at any one time. I have been watching some of the contributors with larger portfolios and they get multiple sales per day most likely due to their larger portfolios. Even with the larger portfolios their number of sales per day is not as high as you would think and it varies from day to day. They also have days with no sales. In my mind right now I get X number of sales per month with a portfolio of 473 images. If I were to double the number of images in my portfolio I would expect at least a doubling of the number of sales which would put me right on par with some of the contributors I have been watching. There is no substition for hard work, i.e. expanding...(More)
	Posted by Rceeh on May 30, 2012 This discusion is so cool!