Heres a concept. How about Getting a Book together of your best commercial work, Having ZED cards made. 4 on the front and one on the back with your info/website and send it to Potential commercial Clients. Just Like Models and actors have to do. I still shoot for some clients I've had for 30+ years. This is what you have to do, stock in any form is residual Income. always has been except for the Ones who Made it a profession. If ya want it, Ya gotta go for it. No other way I know of.

I think Getty is still the Gorilla in this realm although not 800 pounds anymore. Just a pale shadow of what it was. With many thousand images you have a chance to make a decent income instead of the few hundred needed only 3 or 4 years ago. So the decline of the leader in macro has been ultra fast. Blend, Cultura, Image Source,.... might be a good option if you are into model shoots......Alamy you need to have tens of thousands to make any significant income and at the actual growth rate I would say that in a few years you will need to have more than 100.000 images to make a significant income with them......Corbis is facing difficulties and I wouldn't be surprised if any of the big players (Getty,Adobe or Shutter) will swallow them up no so far in the future. They have a great archive collection that might interest those agencies.

I might sound very negative but the time to enter a macro mid or micro agency is a tough goal nowadays......I think focusing in a unique style use social media to promote and attract direct clients will be a much better proposition financially than to waste efforts in any agency if you are starting now.

Photoshelter could be more user friendly but I have buyers willing to contact me directly, pay me via PayPal and I email them a file or a download link.  I've made more this year selling stock direct than from all the sites I'm on combined. I've also earned much more from Alamy this year than in the past and a bit from other small traditionally-priced agencies. My microstock income has increased too, but I think that direct licensing and traditionally priced agencies are the way to go.

Small boutique agencies are probably best. I'm with Alamy but their RPI isn't great.

I'd work on getting into places like Stocksy, Trevallion, and places like that. I'd also suggest licensing traditionally-priced images on your own. I'm happy with Photoshelter, despite any shortcomings in their customer interface, they bring in high-end editorial clients, I've licensed images to Smithsonian Magazine, Coastal Living, and many other advertisers and magazines who were searching Photoshelter and found my work, my images there are also found through google searches. 

I'd also suggest getting Photographer's Market - a good way to find direct clients to license your work to - and of course for assignments which pay better than stock, if that interests you.

How much is Photo Shelter to join? I was looking at their site but couldn't find anything specific. I am really looking for a new home for my underwater stuff.

Quote from: wordplanet on November 07, 2015, 21:17

Photoshelter could be more user friendly but I have buyers willing to contact me directly, pay me via PayPal and I email them a file or a download link.  I've made more this year selling stock direct than from all the sites I'm on combined. I've also earned much more from Alamy this year than in the past and a bit from other small traditionally-priced agencies. My microstock income has increased too, but I think that direct licensing and traditionally priced agencies are the way to go.

Small boutique agencies are probably best. I'm with Alamy but their RPI isn't great.

I'd work on getting into places like Stocksy, Trevallion, and places like that. I'd also suggest licensing traditionally-priced images on your own. I'm happy with Photoshelter, despite any shortcomings in their customer interface, they bring in high-end editorial clients, I've licensed images to Smithsonian Magazine, Coastal Living, and many other advertisers and magazines who were searching Photoshelter and found my work, my images there are also found through google searches. 

I'd also suggest getting Photographer's Market - a good way to find direct clients to license your work to - and of course for assignments which pay better than stock, if that interests you.

How much is Photo Shelter to join? I was looking at their site but couldn't find anything specific. I am really looking for a new home for my underwater stuff.

It starts at $10 per month for the basic plan. http://www.photoshelter.com/tour/all-features/

I'd also suggest checking out Photodeck. I use both. They both offer trials. Neither do marketing. Photoshelter does have a buyer search but they don't promote it. I think it's leftover from back in the day when they tried to start a stock agency.

How do you apply to Getty?
I applied once when they had a "contest" and they sent me a congratulatory email asking me to join iStock. Is there any other way than those contests?