LookStat – Microstock Analytics

Ellen Boughn has a great post on her blog about where in the stock photography landscape (the high end or the low end) you should operate. I think this quote sums it up:

You can take the high road or the low. Depending on your work, I suggest traveling both.

I think Ellen’s thesis that middle of the market is a tough place to be makes a lot of sense. I also agree that it’s possible to operate in both the high end and the low end of the market. Jim Collins talks about escaping the ‘tyranny of  OR’ in his book, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

Instead of being oppressed by the “Tyranny of the OR,” highly visionary companies liberate themselves with the “Genius of the AND”–the ability to embrace both extremes of a number of dimensions at the same time. Instead of choosing between A OR B, they figure out a way to have both A AND B.

You should follow @ellenboughn or subscribe to her blog if you don’t already. Also, I think we should all strive to have our cake and eat it too.

Happy New Year everyone! We’ve been crunching through millions of microstock transactions and over the next few weeks will be sharing some of our findings. Here is an annual summary of earnings, downloads and earnings per download from 2002 to 2009.

Earnings and Downloads from 2002 – 2009

I think some of the key takeaways from this chart are:

• Strong growth in total earnings and downloads overall
• Rapid expansion in Earnings per Download
• Significantly slower rate of growth in Downloads from 2008-2009
• I can’t wait to see what will happen in 2010!

Your opinion of microstock will determine how you interpret this data. On the one hand, it is true that the heady growth rates of the early years are no longer present today. On the other hand, this is somewhat normal and expected as an industry expands. Also, from a business perspective, the fact that you can raise prices and move more units, especially during a downturn, is very impressive. Regardless of your point of view, 2010 is going to be a fascinating year.

I’d love to hear your perspectives and predictions in the comments. We’ll be diving into more data shortly, so stay tuned.