MicrostockGroup

this is for you who are successful.
we have so many new sites and i , as an almost one year contributor in a few month to come, am just about feeling that it is almost non-productive for me to belong to say 15 sites when only 4 sites are giving me sales . i admit i need to have a larger portfolio, i just made 200 last month, and this is pittance compared to even many newbies.
so, i now feel that instead of wasting my time uploading to the other 11 sites, that could be better spent in producing new images to get my portfolio larger with the 4 sites that are giving me regular sales since 2009.
what's your own experience in this?

I submit actively to nine sites, and have a significant number of images on four more.  Seven bring me regular payouts; the other two are sufficiently easy to submit to that I keep at it, hoping against hope they'll justify the effort one day.  The main thing is to streamline and automate your upload process.  Once you've done that, the incremental effort for a new site won't feel so daunting.  The exception of course is iStock, but they've always been exceptional.

"how many sites do you feel is practical"

I dont think there is really a good way to answer this question. I dont mind submitting to new sites that might have bad or zero sales because as long as the upload process isnt too tedious you just never know when they are going to blow up and start rejecting all your photos.

I actively submit to around 15 sites, about half of those I actually get regular sales.

I am on 10 sites, but only 7 of them are making any significant money - the Big 6 plus Bigstock.   

I have account at 14 sites. Used to upload everywhere but after couple months without results I usually stop so now I actively work with 7.

I wish you'd stop copying everything I do   

hey awesome ppl. so from your averages here, 4 may be  perharps too little.
if lisa and co has 10, then perharps i should at least go for somewhere in between
plus streamlining my ULs so i can  spend more time creating more images to increase my still too tiny portfolio. cheers all good to see ya !

Ever considered to be ghostwriter for Eminem? ;-)

The number of sites to handle doesn't depend on the upload if they have FTP, since Filezilla schedules all. It depends on the time spent on the site to submit/categorize/attach MRF.

You can easily submit to 20 if they have a very good site programming quality (especially MRF attach) and no categories, like: CanStockPhoto (the best), MostPhotos, YAYmicro, Featurepics, 123RF.
On the other hand if all sites were high-maintenance like Fotolia or dead slow/clumsy like Zymmetrical, you could only handle 3.

The decision table has 9 fields. Obviously, the top rights are the ones not to add and the bottom lefts are a must to add.

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.	Easy upload	Medium upload	Clumsy upload
Low Yield	YAY FP MP CanStockPhoto	CC1	Vivo
Medium Yield	123RF	StockXpert,BigStock	Zymm1,IS,FT
High Yield	SS2	DT	.

---

₁ Should normally be one position to the left if they didn't have this obnoxious IFRAMES or scrollable windows that make you click and scroll all the time to get anything done. I get FSS (Finger Strain Syndrome) from it.

₂ If you feed the beast with a specific strategy.

Credit where credit is due, dude 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzxF-M2erx8&amp;feature=related" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzxF-M2erx8&amp;feature=related</a>

Why drop a free backup?! I use it to verify my IPTC data too before starting the real uploads.

hey that's a good reason to upload to some of these non selling sites 
FD always looking for a silver lining, you optimist ! 

I am currently a member of 21 lucky sites...and about 10 of them make money (at lest more then 1 sale a year) with about 5 bringing in good sales.