5. Microstock vs. Macrostock
5.1. Royalty on 1 download
When photographers complain about the price of RF images compared to those under a rights managed model, they forget that the usage of the images bought under these models is different in many cases.
RF images of $1 are mostly used on websites. If such an image would be sold under a rights managed license, it would certainly not make $100 either.
Let us be honest, most photos in the RF section are photos of ordinary objects. Mostly those kind of photos could have been taken by anyone. It's normal that such an image sells for much less than an extraordinary photo of a rare species taken somewhere on a deserted island.
Royalties are certainly higher under a rights managed model. But I feel that, if we compare prices between the RF-model and the RM-model, we need to compare the price of the extended licenses (and not of the basic license), with those of the RM licenses.
Yes, royalties will still be considerable higher in the RM-model, but not that dramatic as people often say ($0.20 versus $100).
5.2. Number of downloads
Although macro sites such as Alamy have a higher price per photo, the number of downloads at such sites are much lower to. Micros sites generate much more downloads and therefore the difference in earnings which photographers report is not so significant. Actually most who submit at both micro and macro sites state that the earning from both are almost the same.
I think if we would compare the earnings per photo per year of both the average amateur (leave out the big boys this time) micro and macrostock photographer, we could see some strange, unexpected results I guess. And then I mean that on a per photo basis microstockers wouldn't earn much less than macro photographers.
5.3. Kind of Photography
Of course all the above also depends on the kind of photography you do. Like I said before, if you shoot rare species or take very special pictures you probably earn more at RM-agencies. But if you shoot only stockphotos of ordinary objects, chances are that you won't do that well at the RM-agencies.
5.4. Related links
Photographers Direct and Alamy are the two macrostocks sites which are the most within reach of the average photographer.
Other sites like Corbis, Getty Images or Jupiter Images are more orientated towards professional photographers. It is fairly difficult to become a photographer for such a site.
Here is an interesting thread on the Alamy Forum.
In the first post an Alamy contributor states that 500 images on Microstock sites made him more money last month than the 7000 he has on Alamy.
You can say that an isolated case. But in the second post an other guy says that, based on his figures, 7000 images should yield $3300 a month. That's approximately $0.50/month/image. Now last month my portfolio yielded me a little more than $1/month/image. That's doubble the amount stated in that second post !!
Finally here and here you can find 2 threads (the first a little older, from 2005) on the dpreview forums which give some more insights in the earnings from alamy versus Microstock sites. Some photographers seem to make a decent amount from Alamy. But at the first glance, they don't make much more (if they do at all) on a $$/image/month base than I personally do on 5 Microstock sites.
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