As a stock photographer who sells images through iStockphoto and Getty Images I often get asked – do stock photos keep selling? Once you have shot and uploaded your image, will it continue to generate an income for you over time? The theory is that your images could continue selling forever, but is that the reality?

I have never been one to spend hours analyzing sales data – I prefer to get on with developing and shooting a new theme. But to help answer this question for other photographers I analyzed the last 100 downloads I have had on iStock. That analysis shows that of my last 100 downloads, a significant proportion were from several years ago.

Images uploaded in 2010 continue to be my best sellers

The graph shows that 26 of my last 100 downloads were from files which were uploaded in 2010. If you add in a further 22 which were uploaded in 2011 – that makes a total of 48 of my last 100 downloads which were uploaded 4 to 5 years ago. I was surprised by this. I hadn’t realized what a significant proportion of my downloads were coming from older files. And I certainly hadn’t appreciated that approximately half of my current stock photo income was being generated by files which are 4-5 years old.

Presenting the same data in a pie graph you can see the percentages from when the files were uploaded.

Last 100 downloads by date they were uploaded

It is interesting to see how this compares to the relative percentage of files uploaded by year. I have over 7500 images available on iStockphoto. This pie chart shows the percentage of those uploads per year.

Total uploads by year

When looking at both pie charts you can see that 26% of my latest downloads came from files uploaded in 2010 – while only 17% of my total files were uploaded in that year.

Keeping in mind that this is only one photographers experience and is using a small sample size, what can we conclude from this? And what does it mean?

• Files do continue to sell for several years. Don’t think that sales of an individual file will drop off within 1-2 years. Keep shooting and uploading quality images. They will keep producing income for several years.
• As you upload files today, you are building an asset which will generate income for you in the future. Don’t get discouraged if your files don’t get downloaded immediately. Keep building your asset.
• Current downloads are broadly reflective of the upload quantities in previous years. Keep up a steady pattern of shooting and uploading.
• There is only a small ‘recency’ effect. Some people believe that new files get better placement in the best match algorithm and so sell disproportionately well. This data doesn’t support that argument.

In wrapping up this post, keep in mind this is only one person’s experience and is a very small sample size. Do stock photos keep selling? Based on this analysis, they do. I didn’t realize that nearly 50% of my current stock photography income was coming from images shot 4-5 years ago.

Thanks for reading, do stock photos keep selling? For more information about stock photography please see these posts – Why Stock Photographers Should Crash Their Cars, Starting in Stock Photography, Simple Stock Concepts, and Inside a Stock Photography Shoot.