End of Year Goal

Ok.....so I finally get around to it.

The target.

Goal, aim, milestone.....stake in the ground. As you will.

As aspiring microstockers, there needs to be a goal we set for ourselves. The reason for the goal may differ, but the common aim is for it to stretch us more than we would typically like, yet not so much that it is unachievable.

As far as microstocking goals go, I think there are two key indicators that can be used - Earnings, and Number of approved photos. The former is the ultimate indicator of success, but can be subject to seasonal variation in demand, price policy changes at the major sites and changing credit/subscription ratios of downloads. The latter doesn't indicate the profitability of your portfolio - a large number of photos in a niche market may not yield good return - but does provide a stable, consistent measure of effort.

Current achievement:

Below are my current portfolio sizes across the various MS sites:

• iStockPhoto: 36
• ShutterStock: 40
• Dreamstime: 61
• BigStockPhoto: 80
  
• Fotolia: 74
  
• 123rf: 89
  

On average, that comes to around 60 photos / site. My earnings last month were $11, and the average over the last 6 months has been $9.50.

Goal:

To hope to progress further, more quickly....I aim to achieve the following by 1st of January 2010:

Approved photos:

• iStockPhoto: 50
• ShutterStock: 55
• Average across all sites: 75

Earnings:

• Sep 09 - Dec 09: At least one month with $30 sales
• Jul 09 - Dec 09: Average of $20 / month

As an additional goal, I also aim to upload at least 3 videos to iStockVideo (and thus pass the test to become a regular contributor). Given my new Nikon D90...I owe it to myself.

.....

So there you have it.
My goals to achieve by 1st of January 2010.

What are yours?