MicrostockGroup

Thats like asking a woman her age!!

I have only been doing it for 2 months so not much.  Still waiting on my first payout from all sites.

yeah, i guess i would agree with CJphoto, people are generally somewhat reserved about giving out their earnings.

I would be willing to offer however that I am recieving over a payout from dreamstime and istock/month and a healthier payout from shutterstock/month.

However, despite getting regular checks every month it is still not that much considering what is possible, and what the top earners make.  I am still hoping to get there someday.

One submitter I have talked to a fair bit is earning over $5000/month on the micro sites. 

No no, I'm not Japanese, I'm Canadian with an Italian background.  I just love baseball and I think Ichiro is amazing.

I think you could plan on a total amount across all the micros of between $4.00 - $12.00 / image / year depending on your images.

so if you want to make $10,000 / year you will need between 833 - 2500 images.

canadian eh?  where abouts?  I grew up in saskatcheawn.

Leaf, I"m in the Toronto area.  I've never really left this area so its all I really know in terms of lifestyle.  I've seen the Eastern Canada and I might make a go for the western side soon.  Probably for the 2010 Olympics.

Should I be worried that I haven't gotten any downloads so far?

I have about 15 pictures and 30 in queue on Bigstock, 10 on Fotolia and I'm slowly building up.  I'm not sure if its time to become worried or how much I have to wait for?  As well, I want to apply to Shutterstock now that my collection is large enough (and I don't want to be banned for 3 months), so any suggestions?

Thanks

Good things take time.  As your portoflio builds up, the sales will start climbing.  I only get a few sales a month with a larger portfolio (about 70).  You should also try dreamtime as it is one of my top 2 earners (top this month so far).

I was lucky and got past the shutterstock entry test first time despite the fact it was the first site I joined.  I just picked by best shots.  I think once you have a few shots on say bigstock, fotolia and Dreamtime, you should be able to work out what they accept (note: shutterstock is a bit harder than those three but you should be able to tell which are the better of the photos that have been submitted).  shutterstock also have a critic forum which might help you choose your best.

A comment about IStockPhoto.  Everyone complains about it because they are starting to be a pain to work with.  But everyone is still submitting and doing it.  Why, because they are still one of the top producers.  Basically they make us money and so we are willing to put up with it, even though we hate it.  

As for what makes money every site caters to slightly different customers but to get a good idea just go to IStockPhoto and do searches on different subjects and sort by downloads.  You will see what sells well.  If there are a lot of images with high downloads than you know that category tends to sell well.

The reason I asked about your name was because I lived in Japan for a few years.  Great place.  Unfortunately I wasn't into photography at the time so I didn't get any pictures.

Mark

Congrats. The first sale is always fun.

Mark

when in the name of god you build a portfolio of 1700 pics:-)
I took all my pics about 200 down from Bigstock was not worth it.
I had a fight with one of the admins over a photo accepted on IS,DT,FT and making good money.
He was telling me the hotel room was copyrighted,I just get upset and close the account.
Not so wise after I uploded 200 pics but I am not sorry.
L