MicrostockGroup

More and more people are reporting sales.  Yesterday a photographer reported in the forums that they sold two photos that brought in $5000.

72% of the first quarter sales were RM.

The information is in their forum.  You have to be an approved photo submitter in order to participate in the forum so I can't link it.     

They also have recently released a Q1 sales report in the forum which has some good information in it.

Perhaps I should go back and add to my small portfolio there. I uploaded last fall (and it was a very slow process to disambiguate the keywords, but they did a good job with available meanings) but thought I'd wait to add to it as it didn't appear anyone was making sales at that time.

They certainly seem to have folks actively working to drum up business, which is promising indeed.

Only you yourself can decide what your whotos are worth and where they should go. Microstock is merely a different business model that fills a need for lower budget users.  It is a volume game for the photographer. A hot photo may be downloaded 800 times and earn you $800 in this volume game over time. The same photo, if offered as Licensed and Rights managed, can earn you $1500 or more for one sale.

Please note that it is not proper business practice to ffer micro as Licensed on rights managed sites. It is unfortunate that some of the Rights Managed sites do not spell this out implicitly - they are so afraid to use the "M" word (microstock). I do believe Photoshelter has taken steps to clarify their kanguage since of of their contributors had photos listed as RM that were already selling on a half dozen RF micro sites.

Licensed is there for a reason, so that usage of an image can be tracked. Once it is out in the market as RF, it is up for grabs. That is why this "exclusive buyout" that Dreamstime offers is quite the joke, although it does happen. A buyer would be stupid to do an exclusive buy on an image that has already been DL'd 250 times.

If you are interested in earnings potential for an image, the price calculator at Alamy.com is open to use without logging in. Do a search on a subject you shoot. Pick any image as long as it is "L" not RF. Then use their price calculator on it. Choose different criteria when doing this, for instance, choose one use as "Front Cover" and another price as Inside Page. It will help give you an understanding of how RM pricing works. BTW, on Alamy,  the quality of the image you select won't matter. So don't worry if the image you select is trashy (unfortunately there is a lot of garbage on Alamy Alamy does not edit content, only technical quality)

I do micro mainly for my illustrations - but most of my photos go RM. I have 150+ RM on Photoshelter but just in a holding pattern there to see where things go with it.

The guy who sold the 2 for $5K on PSC is a seasoned pro already having a track record with major magazines.  Just wanted to discourage any rush of upload mania there because there will be disappointment in watching every day for sales. It does not happen that way in the RM world. It is not unusal for an image to be considered by a buyer for weeks, and if it does not fit in the final product, there is a chance of the image being returned.

Some of the above cited is why FeaturePics will ultimately fail - they don't knw how to market properly for RM, and many of the contributors there that are offering images for $10 or $14 as RM (what a joke), haven't a clue as to what it is all about. Offering RM, a bulk of their (FeatPics) income should be generated from it. But they have no idea as to how to manage RM models and do not actively market such content. One of the reasons I quit FP.

As for the higher end buyers - they are out there. And only on rare occasions do they go micro.

Just wanted to highlight this point.

Last week I made a good rights managed sale to a designer.  He downloaded the comp from an agency this time last year.  It took his client a year to decide that they wanted to go ahead with the campaign.

Photoshelter is extremely promising; they have great people in their team and they are doing an amazing jobs in finding new customers and promoting the site.

Just uploaded 200 over night   They had more than 100,000 approved images last month and already more than 16000 photographers...

And more and more "shady" characters are coming on here and registering and talking up a site that has actually sold SFA from my perspective.

Separating the hype from reality is almost a full-time job for some of us

Forgive me for supporting and talking up a site that is giving 70% back to its photographers.   

D'yknow that's what someone who is working for them would come back with but I kinda have you spotted already.

Sorry fella, that sorta unsupported hype might work on some but not on this guy.

what does this mean(Scottish Football Association?)
You speak of SS-Newbie or IS-woohay-threads?

It is actually only 40% if you include the 30% taxes that they will withhold from non-US photographers if they are not registered with the US tax authority. This is totally ridiculous.

Wow Reviews are fast 

Submitted multiple small batches Friday, first one has been reviewed, 2 pictures are Editor Choice, sweet!

totally agree.I haven't joined with them yet but it is disappointing to hear that.