MicrostockGroup

To which stock agency do you submit your work to first?  Do you use a particular site to ‘vet’ an image you’re not sure about prior to sending it to your favourite/most profitable agency?

I make images specifically for stock and submit them to all agencies simultaneously.

I send them to all of the ones that accept FTP submissions at the same time.  Usually iStock gets them last just because I can't send them by FTP, but there's only a delay of a day or so.  If I'm in a hurry I'll upload to Shutterstock first simply because they are usually first to review them and I'm almost guaranteed immediate sales depending on the image. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to only send to one site and then decide to send to others only if they are accepted at the first site.  So many of the sites accept and sell different types of images.  I have stuff that sells like hotcakes at Shutterstock but then gets very few sales at iStock, and vice versa. I just choose to chance the rejection. That's just my opinion though...

Shutterstock every time, as they make the most money for me, so they might as well have them first.  I am not going to send them to the lower paying sites first.

That's what I do as well.

I submit to iStock first just because I started there three years ago, even though they have the most cumbersome upload process. Even worse than Alamy. If they reject it a vague reason,  I'll upload it somewhere else. If there is a technical issue, like logos I'll fix it and upload again. Then I FTP large batches to SS and DT and so on... No reason I couldn't start with one of the other agencies but in my experience IS has been the toughest so if it gets through them it usually gets through the others.

SS cause I  make the most money there and uploading there is rather easy.

First, I upload to all sites within the same hour or so, so order isn't real important.

Having said that, I upload to CS first, as someone else said, I use their keyword helper. It's a fast easy way to grab keywords. Then I upload to sS since they spellcheck my keywords and description.

The rest is in the order I am use to so I don't forget one.

To all the newbies out there such as myself:

#1 I am approved on BigStockphoto, Dreamstime and now Fotolia
#2 BigStock was my first site and I fight its shutting-down uploads every weekend since I joined back in September.
#3 Dreamstime was my second site for which I received approval as a contributor and I have never had a problem submitting to them on the weekends, however, I am facing a 10 images per day limit there ...
#4 Fotolia I just received approval for and I have not had any problem with uploads being shut-down as of yet. I am also finding that their approval time seems to be pretty quick so I may switch to them for first trys. Also Descriptions are not required there so the process seems to go quicker adding only categories and keywords

So ... to sum up

If on the weekend:
#1 Dreamstime (if my 24 hour limit of 10 images hasn't been met)
#2 Fotolia
#3 BigStock

Weekdays:
#1 BigStock
#2 Dreamstime
#3 Fotolia (I am still new here so I am evaluating whether any restrictions will be put in place after a couple of weeks similar to what happend at DT)

#4 IS (I'm on my 4th application ...)
#5 SS (I will be able to submit appication #2 here in a week or so)
#6 123rf (1st application still pending)

Me too. After a shoot I normally ftp everything to FT, DT, BS, CS, SX, AL and then upload 20 images at a time to SS. Once they are approved - upload again.

When I can be bothered, I upload to IS.

Shutterstock first, Istock last, the others in between ;-) SY

SS and StockXpert because they're easy, quick, (and SS finds spelling mistakes so I can correct them before uploading to all).  If the file's accepted one or both places, I upload to the rest.  If not I rotate exclusive rights to DT, LO, FT.  I also put aside some shots and only upload them to one of the exclusive-option sites. 

I can't remember why, but on Filezilla, I go in reverse alphabetical order, so StockXpert & SS gets uploaded first

Now maybe if I join Zymm...