July 2011 Earnings Breakdown

After almost record last month I did not expect much from current result. Still it was 4^th best month overall and 3^rd best on SS. DT bounced back from the bottom, it was best month for them this year. 123RF was on the other hand having 2nd worst month of this year. FT was also down and IS almost repeated result from last four months. SXP continues to disappoint and it was beaten by CSP. Veer and BS added few sales this month.

Jully 2011	July	July/June	RPD
SS	61.40%	96.50%	0.65
DT	12.11%	180.15%	0.69
123RF	9.64%	40.60%	0.59
FT	4.81%	67.92%	0.43
IS	4.77%	94.47%	1.03
CSP	3.14%		0.95
SXP	2.08%	89.29%	0.25
Veer	0.93%		0.93
BS	0.63%	95.00%	0.63
YM	0.33%		1.00
FP	0.17%		0.50
		90.95%	0.63

 

[caption id="attachment_880" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2011 July Microstock"][/caption]

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June 2011 earnings breakdown

With couple more dollars it would be the best month of this year thanks to strong performance from SS and 123RF. For the later one it was actually best month this year. These two delivered almost 80% of total revenue. Rest of the top 5 was around 15% and way below last month’s results. SXP is slowly falling into non-existence. ThinkStock earning are roughly 20% of what SXP used to be.

Comparing RPD we again see increase at SS and 123RF and drop on 4 other top agencies. Since on most of the sites I do not have enough volume to properly judge these numbers I can only talk about trend here. Also I am trying to get out from partner programs on IS which immediately caused huge jump in RPD there since subs from ThinkStock are no longer reported for them.

May 2011	May	May/Apr	RPD
SS	57.87%	132.17%	0.65
123RF	21.59%	134.67%	1.49
FT	6.44%	95.86%	0.50
DT	6.12%	71.68%	0.81
IS	4.59%	90.05%	1.01
SXP	2.11%	84.85%	0.25
CS	0.69%	300.0%	1.13
		97.58%	0.72

[caption id="attachment_870" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="June 2011 Microstock"][/caption]

May 2011 earnings breakdown

My total earning from all agencies went up 30% in comparison to April which I did not report here because of my trip to my homeland. It was quite a surprise to find out that it was also best month overall this year. It was mostly because unexpected extended licenses from Veer. It also shows how week are my sales at other agencies. It is so easy to grab second spot if there are extended licenses sold. SS was first as usual but it is quite interesting how others are trending. 123RF keeps going up every month and this one was actually best in current year. FT peaked in April and May was slightly worse but still way better than at the beginning of this year. DT also had best month this year. SXP is just so unpredictable. I am not even sure if they are able to count sales properly since every month when it is time to report they post and change result couple times. On other fronts I see almost no movements, I can sell a few photos a month or none.

 

May 2011	May	May/Apr	RPD
SS	42.72%	90.84%	0.53
Veer	16.81%	16300.00%	11.41
123RF	15.64%	165.17%	0.76
DT	8.33%	183.68%	0.86
FT	6.55%	88.61%	0.60
IS	4.97%	116.74%	1.30
SXP	2.43%	117.86%	0.25
CSP	1.19%	1350.00%	1.25
BS	0.74%	125.00%	0.63
MSP	0.38%	100.00%	065
CS	0.22%		0.25
		130.20%	0.71

 

[caption id="attachment_862" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Microstock 2011-05"][/caption]

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March 2011 earnings breakdown

Total earning went down 13% comparing to record breaking last month so I would say it is not bad at all. Usual leader SS also got less than in February but it is much better than at the beginning of this year. Most surprising are results from DT and FT. FT got 62% better results and DT 16% better. If I look back, last month, DT was 109% better than in previous month and FT was 50% better. It looks like both are growing. 123RF on the other hand is slowly declining. For a first time in many months it is not on a second place. When I look at further positions there is very little going on. IS is declining because of lower number of subscriptions sold on ThinkStock.  I still do not have many hopes about SXP and CSP with few sales per entire month. Conclusion is similar to the one I got month ago, stick to top agencies.

March 2011	March	Mar/Feb	RPD
SS	59.56%	83.61%	0.58
DT	10.27%	116.55%	0.63
FT	8.69%	162.28%	0.56
123RF	8.37%	83.43%	0.60
IS	4.53%	48.73%	0.94
SXP	2.86%	33.70%	0.25
CSP	2.31%	403.23%	1.25
BS	1.29%	140.00%	1.17
Veer	1.29%		3.50
YM	0.74%		1.00
CS	0.09%	125.00%	0.25
		87.12%

 

[caption id="attachment_840" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2011 March Microstock"][/caption]

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February 2011 earnings breakdown

My total earning from all agencies went up 53%, that great when you do not compare how each agency performed. Also comparing to January which was pretty bad start of the year means that it is only coming back to normal levels. SS as usual was number one with second best month ever. DT and FT rebound from very low results I have been observing for last couple months. 123RF is still slightly below average which is enough to score second place. IS is again showing its aspirations to claim fifth spot which was grabbed by SXP combined results from last 3 months showing as earned in February. Mentioned partner program on IS and SXP seems to be a total disaster. Not only they are always behind the schedule but also numbers are not looking too good. Accounting error again? Maybe they simple cannot provide volume of subscriptions comparable to SS. I opted out on IS and I will watch it only on SXP (no other option is possible). RPD is slightly up but again not as good as in couple last months of last year. What about others? I got nothing to say here. Everything below top 6 is just statistical error. I am uploading only to agencies that produce some result every month.

February 2011	February	Feb/Jan	RPD
SS	64.87%	182.58%	0.80
123RF	9.13%	74.43%	0.66
DT	8.02%	209.85%	0.70
SXP	7.73%		0.25
FT	4.88%	150.57%	0.60
IS	3.94%	73.66%	1.17
BS	0.84%	500.00%	0.63
CSP	0.52%	67.39%	0.52
CS	0.07%	7.69%	0.20
		153.54%	0.66

 

[caption id="attachment_830" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Microstock 2011 FEB"][/caption]

 

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January 2011 earnings breakdown

It looks like this year’s start was quite slow. All top 5 agencies results, besides 123RF, were below expectations. My total earning went down 25% from December. Unfortunately IS partner program result are always late so I might be missing half of earnings there. It’s interesting that IS got usually one of the highest RPD when only earning reported are from main site when I add lots of 25 cents subscriptions from ThinkStock RPD drops to one of the lowest. SXP failed to post results from November, I guess I have report them in February. We got huge mess here. I can only hope Veer would generate more to cover losses I got at SXP. I do not have many expectations for any other sites. Results are at most random to see any potential.

[caption id="attachment_822" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2011 JAN Microstock"][/caption]

January 2011	January	Jan/Dec	RPD
SS	55.15%	83.26%	0.46
123RF	19.05%	148.27%	0.81
IS	8.30%	65.72%	1.33
DT	5.93%	50.99%	0.60
FT	5.03%	101.26%	0.74
Veer	2.37%	433.33%	1.52
CS	1.36%	1040.00%	1.30
CUT	1.35%		1.29
CSP	1.20%	5.45%	0.58
BS	0.26%	25.00%	0.50
		74.97%

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Top 15 images

I have been submitting to microstock agencies for 32 months and still I am feeling like very serious hobbyist. Starting with my collection of landscape and travel shots I learned that it's not most profitable niche in microstock. Your images got buried in a pile million images from all over the world. Still my two best earners are representing this category:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="NYC"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mission San Francisco de Asis"][/caption]

Later I realized that microstock best images are actually model released photographs. I was not ready to throw money and hiring models so I decided to shoot me and my family.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Father having fun with his daughter on the beach. "][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Mother is feeding little girl"][/caption]

When you have infant at home your travel options are limited but still I was able to get some sales from the stuff I did before.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Lake Tahoe"][/caption]

Then your child start walking which again opens possibilities for exploring outdoors together.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Assisted walking"][/caption]

You cannot go very far so your are happy that old stuff still sells.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Hang gliding"][/caption]

You start visiting places like museums and aquariums.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Chrysaora fuscescens"][/caption]

It seems like my other subjects never got much traction. Still I am mostly selling my old collection of nature and travel shots.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Lake Shasta Caverns "][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="301" caption="Racetrack Playa"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Bodie, California"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Bixby Bridge"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Wrangell-St. Elias National Park"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Big Sur "][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="301" caption="Inca Trail"][/caption]

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2010 in microstock

Portfolio size.

It is getting harder to get images accepted in every agency nowadays. All my top 5 agencies rejected much more images than before. Only Fotolia seems to have higher than average acceptance rate. I am sending exactly same images to all sites     and images are randomly accepted or rejected. Most of these agencies sit on millions of images so I expected they will keep rejecting more images to save on storage costs.

	2010	2009
Shutterstock	3555	2668	887	33.25%
123RoyaltyFree	6105	5297	808	15.25%
IStockPhoto	297	213	84	39.44%
Dreamstime	2250	1906	344	18.05%
Fotolia	1919	990	929	93.84%
StockXpert	2211	2201	10	0.45%
YAYMicro	4993	4970	23	0.46%
BigStockPhoto	1064	610	454	74.43%
CanStockPhoto	2638	2015	623	30.92%
Veer	982	522	460	88.12%
Crestock	502	467	35	7.49%
Cutcaster	1399	1399	0	0.00%
FeaturePics	4629	4629	0	0.00%
MostPhotos	2868	2868	0	0.00%

Earnings.

Overall, I earned 43% more than in previous year. Not every agency contributed to this result. Shutterstock continues to earn over 50% of my royalties. 123RF is balancing around 15% as it was before. I lost around 10% of income since Getty purchased StockXpert. Images transferred to ThinkStock earn only 2% in comparison to 12% before this change. Also Dreamstime went down from %14 to 8%. On a bright side Fotolia keeps generating errand 5% and IS gives additional 8%. Few smaller sites that did not give any results in 2009 start generating sales which are usually very weak but combined give around 9%. I am not feeling well about depending mostly on income from two agencies. Dreamstime high rejection rates and lower sales make me think that they might next one that is going to sink. I am hoping that somehow Fotolia, CanStockPhoto and Veer would continue to build up momentum. Another question is IStockPhoto. Obviously they start generating me some income but at the same time they drastically lowered contributors royalties so next year might be not as good as it looks now.

Downloads.

The only agency that provides me with some sort of volume is Shutterstock. Others from top 5 are roughly 2/3 of it combined.  Volume is one thing but more interesting factor is how much agency pays for each image sold. For me RPD is usually below $1. Ironically agencies which give better RPD do not generate enough sales. I started suspecting that RPD is inversely proportional to sales :-)

	Sales		RPD
SS	2820	56.18%	$0.60
123RF	563	11.22%	$0.96
IS	419	8.35%	$0.67
DT	325	6.47%	$0.78
FT	258	5.14%	$0.64
SXP	212	4.22%	$0.25
YM	205	4.08%	$0.75
Veer	109	2.17%	$0.73
CSP	47	0.94%	$1.15
BS	30	0.60%	$0.80
CS	25	0.50%	$0.35
FP	5	0.10%	$0.15
CUT	2	0.04%	$2.28
MSP	0	0.00%	$0.00

Goals for 2011.

1. Keep trying to improve results on Shutterstock


2. Make serious effort to increase portfolio size on IStockPhoto


3. Continue to upload to Veer


4. Continue to grow on Fotolia


5. Test if it is worth uploading to Dreamstime with growing rejections and declining sales


6. Verify if there is a sense uploading to 123RF. Right now portfolio is huge but sales are stagnant.


7. Keep trying more with video.

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December 2010 earnings breakdown

December is one of this "shorter" months, because people are just too busy with holidays all over the world so I expected lower than usual sales. It was just 96% of November results so I consider it pretty successful. As usual SS is over 50% of my earnings and 123RF would be second if I did not score one extended sale at CSP. All my other typical top 5 agencies continue to slide down with earnings. FT continue to have a hiccup, one month they do well next one it is very bad. DT barely made average result and IS was below expectations. Anything else is just a statistical error and makes me thinking about focusing only on my top 5 agencies. SXP got an accident this month, first they reported that they sold 10x more than in in the rest of the year this month, then they shut down the site and wiped out results to prevent people from cashing their money. Until now no results from November has been not posted.
[caption id="attachment_794" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2010 December Microstock"][/caption]

Reviewers were very busy with cleaning their backlogs which must be explanation of much higher then usual rejection rates across the board. RPD was up everywhere so it makes me think that it is inversely proportional to number of downloads :-)

[caption id="attachment_795" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2010 December Microstock Trend"][/caption]


Dec Dec/Nov RPD
SS 52.00% 92.94% 0.58
CSP 17.29% 14066.67% 3.52
123RF 10.08% 111.51% 0.72
DT 9.14% 94.69% 0.77
IS 5.21% 41.31% 0.91
FT 3.90% 53.04% 0.58
YM 1.02% 2.50
Veer 0.43% 13.04% 1.05
BS 0.82% 57.14% 2.00
CS 0.10% 50.00% 0.25
Total 96.57%


November 2010 earnings breakdown

After records in October I was expecting worse result next month. It was not that bad overall. Actually it was 6th best month this year and second in this half of the year. Previous month was very bad for FT and it looks like they recovered in November. Everybody in top 5 made around their average so SS have only 56% of total earning. SXP keeps getting less than it was before but Veer returns are now almost at the same level so I hope it will replace it in future.
[caption id="attachment_781" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Microstock November 2010"][/caption]
Portfolio size increased mostly on Veer, SS and FT. DT keeps rejecting most of my submitted images. RPD went down almost on every single site except IS but I have not got Thinkstock results yet. After adding plenty of subs from there IS RPD would drop dramatically. Also I have had a single extended license anywhere.
[caption id="attachment_782" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2010 Microstock Trend"][/caption]

Nov Nov/Oct RPD
SS 56.14% 56.31% 0.52
DT 9.68% 90.82% 0.74
123RF 9.07% 50.28% 0.48
IS 8.75% 105.40% 1.42
FT 7.37% 208.97% 0.58
SXP 3.91% 111.76% 0.25
Veer 3.31% 115.00% 2.01
BS 1.44% 140.00% 0.88
CS 0.21% 100.00% 0.25
CSP 0.12% 7.89% 0.30
Total 66.74%


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October 2010 earnings breakdown

It was best month ever since I started my adventure with microstock 2.5 years ago. It was BME for SS and totally but mostly because my best earning agency scored 67% of royalties. I am also happy with results form 123RF and DT, both earning more than average. For others I do not have anything positive to report. FT clearly got worst results this year while SXP never recovered to previous levels after acquisition. Thanks to their poor performance they both were passed by IS.

Oct Oct/Sep RPD
SS 67.37% 206.15% 0.80
123RF 12.19% 203.86% 0.54
DT 7.20% 102.82% 0.81
IS 4.36% 86.77% 0.98
FT 2.38% 42.35% 0.61
SXP 2.36% 100.00% 0.25
Veer 1.94% 20.00% 3.50
CSP 1.06% 100.00% 1.27
BS 0.69% 166.67% 0.83
CUT 0.29% #DIV/0! 1.06
CS 0.14% 14.29% 0.25
Total 133.02%


Portfolio size increase is much slower now. Most of the sites reject much more images recently but still it is less than at the peak which was this summer. Surprisingly Veer accepted largest number of images this month so maybe I can see some sales there. At the moment I see most growth on 123RF and FT. Number of downloads has grown on many sites but still I got 5 times more from SS than any other site. I am also obesrving increase of numbers from SXP and IS but this means mostly 25 cents subs from ThinkStock. Return per Download (RPD) usually is better on the sites which are low earners for me. In other words I sell mostly subs. Extended licenses are extremely rare and so far I got them only on SS, CSP and 123RF.



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September 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall it was third best month this year. I do not know if it is possible to beat results from the beginning of the year during last quarter. SS result are almost identical for last 3 months, far from April's best performance. 123RF revenue keeps declining for 4th month. DT has 2nd best result and 4th month of slow increase. FT was able to rebound strongly after August disaster. IS without ThinkStock results is on the same levels as before. SXP growing slowly for last 4 months since they started posting results again. Veer posted earnings from Dash For Cash program which were good enough to give them second place this month. YM posted some earning too, maybe they will do better during holiday season. All others are not worth mentioning.
[caption id="attachment_743" align="aligncenter" width="654" caption="SEP 2010 Microstock"][/caption]


Sep Sep/Aug
SS 44.41% 100.96%
Veer 13.22% 384.62%
DT 9.52% 119.75%
123RF 8.13% 78.52%
FT 7.65% 245.28%
YM 5.89% 1559.00%
IS 4.65% 55.15%
SXP 3.21% 113.33%
CSP 1.43% 253.33%
BS 0.57% 75.00%
CS 1.32% 1400.00%
121.52%


It looks like I hit a bottom in June. For last 3 months earnings has been growing slowly. Hopefully last quarter will be at least as good as first one.
[caption id="attachment_744" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="SEP 2010 Microstock Trend"][/caption]

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Image spotting

It looks like one of my images from Fotolia was used on French job board ad for kindergarten teacher :-) That's what I can guess from Google Translation of this page.

[caption id="attachment_736" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Ouest France"][/caption]

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August 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall slightly worse than previous month, maybe 5% less. Top 3 are staying on the same positions. SS is first, also slightly worse than in July. 123RF is below this year's average while DT keeps basically same level for last 3 months. IS after few month of growth starts sliding down. FT got worst month this year. SXP came back from dead, still weak but soon might be better than FT. So far ThinkStock experiment is not very optimistic. SXP produces 1/3 of what it used to do before Getty acquired them. Finally all others combined are less then SXP. On the side note, Veer results are shown but it is effect of using free credits given to me in promotion. I purchased my own photos :-)
[caption id="attachment_724" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="AUG 2010 Microstock"][/caption]

Aug Aug/Jul
SS 55.23% 97.24%
123RF 13.00% 73.32%
DT 9.98% 102.78%
IS 7.27% 83.10%
Veer 4.31%
FT 3.92% 56.54%
SXP 3.56% 157.89%
BS 0.95% 200.00%
CSP 0.71% 63.83%
FP 0.47%
YM 0.47%
CS 0.12% 20.00%
95.83%

[caption id="attachment_725" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="AUG 2010 Microstock Trend"][/caption]

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July 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall worst month of the year. SS recovered a little from disaster last month but average performance of others was not good enough to make better numbers. For a second month SXP got results from ThinkStock and it way below it used to be before IStock acquired it. I guess it is a middle of summer slow down.


Jul Jul/Jun
SS 55.31% 138.68%
123RF 17.26% 49.43%
DT 9.46% 104.06%
IS 6.91% 57.76%
FT 6.74% 129.41%
SXP 2.19% 316.67%
CSP 1.08% 391.67%
BS 0.46% 18.18%
CS 0.58% 500.00%
95.52%


[caption id="attachment_692" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="JUL 2010 Microstock"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_693" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="JUL 2010 Microstock Trend"][/caption]

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June 2010 earnings breakdown

It was bad month overall. I got almost 30% less than in May which was also worse than previous month. Hopefully it is just summer slowdown, otherwise trend does not look good.

Individually SS made worst result this year and could be worse than 123RF. 123RF on the other hand made the second best result this year. I guess January record will be hard to beat. Others, DT and FT are pretty stagnant. I would call their results average, one month they are slightly above next one a little below their own median. Positive surprise in recent months are results from IS. They actually beat FT and grab 4th place this month. I am talking only about results without third parties which are published later. After adding these results they may be third this month. On positive side we got SXP which finally transferred my images to ThinkStock and started posting earning. I have to wait couple days to see how I am doing there. BS got BME which is so low that it was sufficient for 6th place.

June Jun/May
SS 39.54% 62.34%
123RF 34.62% 248.07%
DT 9.01% 82.56%
IS 8.08% 79.15%
FT 5.17% 98.52%
BS 2.52%
SXP 0.69%
CSP 0.27% 40.00%
CS 0.11% 100.00%
Total 89.04%



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May 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall worst month this year but it hard to achieve record level from previous months. SS continues to dominate with 58% of my earnings. 123RF stopped downhill trend and earned more than last month. I hope it will keep growing now. DT is climbing slightly every month. FT is third but it is oscillating around average, one month it is above, next below. No signs that it would change in future. This month was so weak that even IS scored more. I should stop writing right here cause everybody else is just random. No earning from BS this month but I got sales from FP after nothing for months. YM actually earned more than FT but from third-party sales and I have no idea how many images were sold.

May May/Apr
SS 58.62% 78.38%
123RF 12.90% 108.89%
DT 10.09% 169.51%
YM 5.75% #DIV/0!
IS 5.62% 61.72%
FT 4.85% 47.53%
FP 1.44% #DIV/0!
CSP 0.63% 10.64%
CS 0.11% 16.67%
Total 92.41%






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April 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall better than month ago but far from BME. Good news is that SS made new record and dominated results this month. Second time this year I got BME form SS which is really good start. Let's look at other top 5 guys. 123RF came second. Great result in comparison to last year but after BME in January it cannot repeat its success and it is going slightly down every month. Still much better than others. Fotolia grows, slowly but steadily. It is enough be be third. Surprising result form CSP due to one Fotosearch Medium Regular sales. It happened after a month of no activity. DT is really down. Something is going on there, I got unusually high rejection rates and almost no growth in sales. IS on the other hand seems to grow. It is still 1/15th of what SS does but it is way better that last year. I wish ThinkStock result were posted faster cause it is now almost half of normal IS sales.


Apr Apr/mar
SS 63.91% 135.89%
123RF 10.12% 76.13%
FT 8.71% 159.99%
CSP 5.10% 4700.00%
DT 5.09% 50.32%
IS 5.08% 84.18%
BS 1.45% 80.00%
CS 0.54% 120.00%
108.13%


[caption id="attachment_618" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="April 2010 Microstock"][/caption]

Let's look at 2010 trends:
[caption id="attachment_619" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="April 2010 Microstock Trends"][/caption]

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March 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall it was 14% less than previous month in which I got two BMEs established. First think you may noticed is no data from StockXpert. They are gone. Images are left in void. No time-line is given on when images are going to be transferred to Getty's new site ThinkStock. We got new top 5 now. IS takes missing spot which means that 10% of my income has gone and is going to be replaced by site that generates 3%. On a bright side, 123RF and DT seem to be growing slowly so maybe over time they would compensate for a loss of SXP. FT is dormant and IS is low as usual. Surprise on this month chart was created by YAY. They accumulated all third-party sales from last year and put it as one big sale on a random picture. Very bad, no information which images were sold or how many times. All others are dead or barely alive.


Mar Mar/Feb
SS 52.24% 79.69%
123RF 14.77% 93.05%
DT 11.22% 206.50%
YM 8.96%
FT 6.05% 132.54%
IS 3.99% 66.89%
BS 2.01% 111.11%[ad#adsense-1]
CS 0.50%
Veer 0.14%
CSP 0.12% 10.71%
Total 96.67%


[caption id="attachment_584" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Microstock 2010-03"][/caption]

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My first customer refund

It hasn't happened to me so far in almost two years of selling images on internet. Maybe some agencies would not even bother notifying contributors, but I got this email this morning from Dreamstime:

Dear Mariusz,

Due to reasons which are beyond our control, we are sorry to let you know that [some $$$] have been removed from your earnings as result of a refund for file IDs 5327340.

Possible refund reasons:
- Accidental download;
- Credit card fraud with mandatory refund issued at request to real card holder;
- Duplicate download;
- Incorrect size/format/license purchased;
- License update;
- Performance issues (misspellings in texts, quality);


Due to the high volume of daily transactions, we cannot provide additional clarification on the refund performed. Measures are always taken for the licenses to be withdrawn and images deleted. Any subsequent unlicensed usage is liable to legal action and penalties.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

I understand that my images were not good enough or not popular enough in the past so maybe that's why it did not happen before. Agency admits they cannot protect my images from stealing. I wonder if somebody steals Sony TV from a store it would ask Sony to give them money back. Normal stores at least got some security to prevent such loss. Microstock agency does not care, they ask contributor to cover their loss. If it was fraud store should take the hit.

Now let's thing about refunding money for digital media download. I am sorry but image download is not a software download. You can somehow deactivate software if you issue refund. You cannot do that with digital image. If somebody downloads a file accidentally it will not be returned when money is refunded. I wonder how enforceable is requirement to delete image if you got refund? There are no tools to track image usage on internet. Unless somebody gets caught with thousands of images acquired this way it is not worth any legal actions. Also because we contributors cover losses agency does not have any incentive to make any actions. All similar reasons are just perfect excuse for stealing image. All downloads should be final. I am sorry but we are not
talking about accidentally spending $100 per image it's usually close to $1.

Have you seen this image somewhere?


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