Author Topic: how to keep record of submitted photos and illustration (Read 1376 times)

mtr980 · « **on:** February 24, 2012, 07:23 »

how to keep record of photo submission and downloads/selling?

WaterView · « **Reply #1 on:** February 24, 2012, 21:36 »

EDITED 02-25-2012 = Removed all above because it was too complicated. (thanks qwerty (below))

Example of my records=

PICTURE OF FILE
hammock-nature-person-relaxing-J300-5421.jpg
*CS/02122012 #DP/ *YM/ SS/ ... (initials of each site, /=submitted, *=approved, #=rejected)
DP Focus

You can record basic submitted and rejected (without specific reasons) in picworkflow too.

Hope this helps.

As for keeping track of downloaded photos, I haven't explored too much. I did keep track of a few months from all sites and came up with a list of my best sellers. Very interesting information.
Might be neat to go over all your sites once a year and see what you come up with for overall best sellers as simply as you can so it doesn't take too long.
SS also has a darkroom function at http://submit.shutterstock.com/darkroom/gallery.mhtml where you can click on Total Purchases and have it arranged so it shows all top sellers.
Only site I know of that has it like that.

There are probably quicker methods but I'm still sort of new to stock and working out my own methods and what works for me like you will too.
Good luck.

I found it easier to group in one folder all my pictures and submission list for each month.
For example January pictures would be in Folder: "2012-1-Images" having in it all the pictures I took that month and a list of submissions for those pictures for each site for January.
On video it would be under movies, 2012-1-Footage, with it's own list for that month.

qwerty · « **Reply #2 on:** February 24, 2012, 23:07 »

wow that sounds complicated

i just have a spreadsheet where i track submissions and site earnings
I don't have time to track individual photo earnings.

mtr980 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 25, 2012, 13:11 »

WaterView,Thank you so much for your suggestion i will look into that and see how it goes.

Qwerty u mind sharing that format? really need one!!!

Thanks

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 25, 2012, 14:00 »

Quote from: qwerty on February 24, 2012, 23:07

wow that sounds complicated

i just have a spreadsheet where i track submissions and site earnings
I don't have time to track individual photo earnings.

+1

I just use Excel. I have one worksheet for submitted images with fields for dates of submission, decision and the result for each image, plus keep track of the titles, descriptions and keywords which I then copy into the image file in PS. Next time I have a similar image I can copy and paste all of that information from a previous one and add any needed modifications. In a second worksheet I have a sales summary by agency with totals for each month, year, etc. I have a third worksheet for sales by photo, which I tracked for the first few months, but once I had more than 50 or 100 images it was too much trouble to bother so now I only record submissions and total sales.

Dantheman · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2012, 14:01 »

Quote from: qwerty on February 24, 2012, 23:07

wow that sounds complicated

i just have a spreadsheet where i track submissions and site earnings
I don't have time to track individual photo earnings.

Also think that it sounds way to time consuming and complicated.

I usually have a folder where i save my photos which are ready to get keyworded. Then i usually keyword them with Prostockmaster.
After the images are finished i save them in smaller batches (with about 9 or 10 Photos) in new folders with the upload date.
I then Upload them at each agency (mostly with FTP). After uploading i have a spreadsheet on google docs where i mark at which agencys it was uploaded, so that i don't get confused.
I use google docs because i often upload from different PC's and it keeps the spreadsheet in sync (because it's an online office utility).

It's a lot less complicated than it sounds

But I'm sure i can also learn a bit, since i'm quite new at this.

Dantheman · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2012, 14:04 »

Quote from: sgoodwin4813 on February 25, 2012, 14:00

Quote from: qwerty on February 24, 2012, 23:07
wow that sounds complicated

i just have a spreadsheet where i track submissions and site earnings
I don't have time to track individual photo earnings.

+1

I just use Excel. I have one worksheet for submitted images with fields for dates of submission, decision and the result for each image, plus keep track of the titles, descriptions and keywords which I then copy into the image file in PS. Next time I have a similar image I can copy and paste all of that information from a previous one and add any needed modifications. In a second worksheet I have a sales summary by agency with totals for each month, year, etc. I have a third worksheet for sales by photo, which I tracked for the first few months, but once I had more than 50 or 100 images it was too much trouble to bother so now I only record submissions and total sales.

is the worksheet with the sales summary a lot of work?

Does it make sense writing all this info? What do you use it for?

qwerty · « **Reply #7 on:** February 25, 2012, 16:26 »

Quote from: mtr980 on February 25, 2012, 13:11

WaterView,Thank you so much for your suggestion i will look into that and see how it goes.

Qwerty u mind sharing that format? really need one!!!

Thanks

Gannet77 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 25, 2012, 17:39 »

Well, being iStock exclusive makes it all much simpler I suppose - but I just store the RAW files in folders named for the date taken, then process and store .psd files in a subfolder under that, and finally the .JPGs in another subfolder. I always use the filename generated by the camera (except for film scans or other stuff of course), and never change it.

I use DeepMeta for uploading; it saves all the stats, and if I ever need to find a file again it has the original path and filename uploaded, so even if I've deleted it from the disk I can usually track it down in my archives.

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 26, 2012, 09:51 »

Quote from: Dantheman on February 25, 2012, 14:04

Quote from: sgoodwin4813 on February 25, 2012, 14:00
Quote from: qwerty on February 24, 2012, 23:07
wow that sounds complicated

i just have a spreadsheet where i track submissions and site earnings
I don't have time to track individual photo earnings.

+1

I just use Excel. I have one worksheet for submitted images with fields for dates of submission, decision and the result for each image, plus keep track of the titles, descriptions and keywords which I then copy into the image file in PS. Next time I have a similar image I can copy and paste all of that information from a previous one and add any needed modifications. In a second worksheet I have a sales summary by agency with totals for each month, year, etc. I have a third worksheet for sales by photo, which I tracked for the first few months, but once I had more than 50 or 100 images it was too much trouble to bother so now I only record submissions and total sales.

is the worksheet with the sales summary a lot of work?
Does it make sense writing all this info? What do you use it for?

It's not a lot of work once you have it set up if you have a rudimentary understanding of Excel. It automatically makes totals, and I can see what percentage is coming from each site. I use it to track trends and just for my own information. I also use it to keep track of which images have been sent where and the rejection reasons - sometimes I resubmit them later if an agency changes their reviewing. It's also useful when submitting to a new agency to know which from the past were successful. If you're only at a couple of agencies and don't care about monthly totals it may not be worth it, but if you like to see trends over time or keep track of submission to a lot of agencies then it is great. And definitely use DeepMeta for iStock - it's free and works great.

LesHoward · « **Reply #10 on:** February 26, 2012, 14:08 »

I manage all my images in one large catalog in Lightroom.

I've defined a special set of 'workflow keywords' that are flagged as non-exportable. eg. ISP-ACCEPTED is assigned to any photo accepted at iStock, SSK-REJECTETED would be a photo rejected at Shutterstock. I have many more such keywords such as SELECTED, DEVELOPED, KEYWORDED, etc. All are defined in uppercase so I can glance at the keywords (in the right panel of the Library module) and immediately see what's been done for any image. The accept, reject and resubmit keywords are assigned in batches when I get the notifications.

Using those workflow keywords, I can define Special Collections to answer questions. For example, I can create a special collection in just a few seconds that will show me all the files that were accepted at iStock and rejected at Shutterstock - or vice versa. Or, show me all the files that have been developed but not keyworded. Or Show me everything developed and keyworded that has not yet been uploaded anywhere. I can define the special collection in about the same amount of time it takes to ask the question. And best of all, when I change one of those keywords, which is quite often, the file is automatically and immediately added to or deleted from special collections as appropriate - it's always up to date. Some of those special collections are permanent and others are deleted as soon as the question has been answered. Note that you can also use Filters on keywords to accomplish some simple searches but I prefer using special collections.

I don't try to keep track of downloads or financial data. For a start, LR has no features that would support it. But mainly, the microstock agencies have no consistent way of reporting the data so you would have to do it all by hand which would be a painful exercise if you had more than just a few sales. I don't think that data is particularly useful in a file by file basis. The totals are more important and they're much easier to deal with manually using spreadsheets.

digitalexpressionimages · « **Reply #11 on:** February 28, 2012, 13:17 »

I created a database in FileMakerPro. Point the importer to a folder it automatically imports thumbnails of all the pics along with pertinent data like name, date etc. Then I have a list of the agencies I'm now submitting to. Click a checkbox beside the agency name it was submitted to and then there's another button for accepted or rejected that I click once it's been reviewed.

I don't want it more complicated than that. Helps me keep it straight who's gotten particular shots and who hasn't yet.