Hi,

I've been selling microstock photos for a while now and I've used the color labels to mark which photos have been edited, which need to be edited and which have already been uploaded and which ones have been rejected.

Things however are getting a little complicated as some agencies (plainpicture for example) require exclusivity and have a rather more complex approval process which means I need to specifically also tag images I've submitted (approved and rejected) to avoid mistakes.

There are not enough color labels to keep this and I can't use tags as they are used to tag the photos. What are my options? How are you managing your photos?

Thanks,
Guy

A bit off topic but I was wondering if anyone here sells prints on Facebook? I'm using places like Society6 but there's no integration which makes it really hard to promote myself (and track success)

Hi guys,

I've just been accepted to Plainpicture (plainpicture.com) and I want to slowly move my portfolio to them. I was wondering if anyone here is using them / whats the experience has been so far?

They require exclusivity and prevent you to sell similar images which worries me a little.

Thanks
Guy

http://www.mc-j.com/

One more question about the Alamy payment - my cleared balance got back to 0 (they promised to pay on July 3). However the money is not on my Paypal yet - does it take a while to appear on the Paypal?
Thank you

had the same problem, payment date now showing 3rd of August :/

I have 300 files only on shutter and make between 15 to 20 per months. You should consider uploading more and increase the quality of you think there are some lackness. Although i make amount for this tiny portfolio which I think is a positive thing, I am afraid to use my time uploading more and more and at the end I see no real prospects.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is my portfolio, always happy to get feedback - https://www.shutterstock.com/g/guyn (I know there's a duplicate there, was a bad upload in the process of deletion). I can't shot models (cost money and I'm not making nearly enough to justify it) I'll try setting up a small home studio later this year, but I doubt there's much I can do there that haven't been done before. I've also started experimenting with some editorials, but I live in Israel and there's limited audiance

Hi guys,
Just applied (and got accepted) to Cavan images, anyone here uses them? Any suggestions on which photos to upload initially? https://500px.com/guyn I assume regular microstock won't do me much good

So,
After having a very small collection of photos (<50) for about 3-4 years (generated 100$ during that time) I've decided to give microstock photography a real chance. I've started taking / uploading photos in September (5 months ago) adding 550 new photos so far (so a total portfolio of about 600 photos up to date).

Main earner is obviously Shutterstock which went from selling 4 photos in Aug to selling 42 photos in Jan. This means I'm making a littler over 10$ a month for the past 3 months (this month I've made a bit over 12$).

Other agencies I upload to are 123RF, BigStockPhoto, CanStockPhoto, DepositPhotos, Dreamstime and Fotolia. I've made about 6$ in the past 5 months in Fotolia and < 1$ in the rest of the agencies. Upload is done via StockSubmitter (mac which is quite limited).

I've also upload photos to Society6 and FineArtAmerica making one 7$ sale in Society6 over the time.

I'm quite happy with how SS is progressing, it's slow and not a lot of money but I can visibly see sales grow (and come in) every day. The rest of the microstock sites / prints are pretty much dead.

This means that at the moment I've got around 7% of my SS portfolio selling each month (by number of total photos sold vs total number of photos in portfolio). I'm not sure if this is a good measure?

It also means I'm making virtually no progress in all other sites. I'm wondering if there's anything better I can do there?

I have also just started iStock (using qhero) it's easier to upload now but the review process has been extremely slow in Jan and I've only got 80 photos or so in so far (1 sale).

SS portofolio for reference - shutterstock.com/g/guyn happy to share other portfolio links if relevant.

Thanks
G.N

dropped you a PM with my details, happy to get in touch

Hi guys,
Just out of curiosity does my approval success rate effects sales in any way (aka would contributors with higher success rate get better visibility etc?)

For products like mugs, pillows, etc you have no control over pricing and the margins are low. I've sold a few small things and that earned me a total of $5.

can you share your S6 profile? Can you look at my profile (link in original post) and give your opinion? I've sold nothing directly (a few prints were sold via friends) and I'm just wondering if there's something I need to do different / something that sells better?

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback - I'll straighten the photo though I'd really prefer if we come back to my original question
Is 100$ a month viable via microstock photography these days. If not, what (if any) are the alternatives.

If yes, what would you suggest I do to improve my performance ?

Cheers