| Studying Sales History of Stock Photos | | | | Comparing Images |
| I spent some time studying the sales history of | | | | The next thing that strikes me is that comparing |
| my stock photos today. I have been keeping | | | | images can be very misleading. I think it might be |
| track of every sale since 2004, about the time I | | | | better to compare shoots. Generally, you get |
| started shooting RF imagery. Up until that point, | | | | more images from a given shoot, with Royalty |
| until I began shooting for Blend Images, I had | | | | Free than with Rights Managed. When I look at |
| limited my stock to Rights Managed images. | | | | shoots, my two best money-producing shoots |
| When I started shooting for Blend I began to also | | | | are royalty free. |
| handle the work of some associate | | | | Most of my Rights Managed images, until very |
| photographers and had to keep track of royalty | | | | recently, were pretty much one-off undertakings. |
| splits. At this point I have access to the sales | | | | That is, I came up with a single idea and executed |
| history of about 1200 Rights Managed images and | | | | it. I no longer work that way, but with the bulk of |
| about 6,000 Royalty Fee images. | | | | my sales history that is what I am dealing with. |
| Variations in Styles and Subject Matter | | | | Based on what I see in my sales history I think it |
| Even better, I believe, most of the images in my | | | | remains important to shoot for both RM and RF. |
| sales database were actually photographed by | | | | Concepts, Business Images, Lifestyle and |
| photographers who work with me. That means | | | | Conclusions |
| that my sales history covers a wide variety of | | | | The third conclusion I get from looking at the |
| styles and subject matter. There are images | | | | images is that, for me, everything seems to sell. |
| from a total of 14 different photographers. | | | | Concepts sell the best as far as individual images |
| Long Life Spans and Best Selling Images | | | | go, our business images tend to sell better than |
| When I study the sales history the first thing that | | | | our lifestyle, but a few of the lifestyle images do |
| strikes me is that my conceptual Rights Managed | | | | really, really well. |
| images have a surprisingly long life span. Over the | | | | Not only that, but my core of active |
| past six months three of my top twenty images, | | | | photographers are all doing equally well despite |
| in terms of earnings, were created over ten | | | | different approaches, subject matter, and styles. |
| years ago. | | | | Core Concepts and Supplemental Opportunities |
| My best selling image over the last six months is | | | | So what the heck do I do with this information? |
| a rights managed image that I created fifteen | | | | The best selling images of my group tend to |
| years ago! My best selling royalty free picture | | | | have long life spans; RM and RF both make |
| was created five years ago. My second and | | | | money and everything sells. I’ll let you know if |
| seventh best selling royalty free images were | | | | I every really figure out what to do with that |
| created a little over three years ago. | | | | information. |
| Even when I look at the top 100 images I am still | | | | But for now I will just keep going on my path, |
| struck by the number of images that exhibit a | | | | devising shoots with a core concept and |
| very long life. Of course, I suppose it could be | | | | supplemental opportunities, and do my best to |
| that I and my cohorts could just be getting | | | | create images that have impact, are relevant to |
| worse rather than better at our chosen | | | | the market, and are as timeless as possible. |
| profession…hope not! | | | | |