I would say Fotolia, Shutterstock and 123rf not necessary in this order.

Hey desdemona, interesting to hear your experiences with DT exclusivity. Thanks for sharing, but sorry for the decline (seems not to be just DT, many agencies have declined lately).

I write about what I think are the best agencies to work with on my site https://www.microstockman.com which you may find useful.

But in a nutshell, I would say Shutterstock, Adobe/Fotolia, DepositPhotos, Alamy.

Personally, I wouldn't just try one as each persons portfolio has different success at different sites. If you have 3 hours a week I would spend 1 hour uploading to the first 3 I mentioned, and see which one begins showing the best results for your work.

Hope that helps.

Exclusivity only makes sense when you are close to the owners and there are 200 photographers on the site. You will benefit from personal pitches, incredible visibility and good placements.

At the sites for the masses, don't even consider exclusivity today. It's very expensive.

I've 8 agencies that give me just 10% of the revenue.

I hear you Steve and your results speaks for itself.

My biggest concern about submitting to smaller low-earning agencies is that they may struggling so much that they decide to have a garage sale on your images, and/or change their contributor terms and conditions to make it a worse deal for the contributor. What do you think?

Which one would be the best? One of the Big 4 mentioned here? What are the pros and cons of each of those 4 (upload process, treatment of contributors, earnings of recently uploaded images, ...)?

Your portfolio is an unknown, so it's hard to give more than general suggestions based on overall earnings, but if your time is limited, I'd start with SS and AS/FT. For both of these agencies you earn more royalties as your lifetime earnings build (at least until FT goes away) so you might as well get going.

For me, SS is a bit more than double AS/FT but both are solid earners

I wouldn't touch Deposit Photos under any circumstances (search for some of the threads here about their many shenanigans) but I know others put up with them. All agencies in the micro realm treat their contributors badly, so there's only the issues of scams, not paying or too many secret partner deals to look out for.

Once upon a time I'd have strongly recommended 123rf but I left them when sales dropped - unlike other agencies, when 123rf sales drop your royalty (eventually) drops as they do a 12-month average to figure your earnings tier. So their failure to sell (when you have a portfolio with good sales at other agencies and falling sales at 123rf after many years of decent sales, it's pretty obvious to me where the problem is) ends up costing the contributor in royalty rate. That was enough for me to leave them.

Alamy is a pain to upload to and sales are good when they happen but much less frequent (at least for me) than elsewhere. I'd save them for later once you've established portfolios elsewhere.

Some people have noted here that illustrations do well at CanStock - I wouldn't recommend them for photos as their sales were rubbish (I left as sales dropped in volume and were mostly 25 cent subs). Perhaps someone who currently sells illustrations there can comment?

Good luck - and don't wait to drop exclusivity at DT. I don't think they're going to magically bounce back

@Brightonl @enstoker: Yes, it seems incredibly ludicrous in retrospect, becoming and staying exclusive to DT. But the 2010-2014 earnings paid a good part of the house we bought a few years ago. It's not exactly a crystal castle, but not a cardboard box either ;-)
So no DT (or DT exclusivity) bashing to be expected from my side. It was great while it lasted, but the good times didn't last. Time to move on.

Yes, perhaps... But perhaps not. Official resident of what-might-have-been-land now.
Thank you for your kind compliment anyway. And for making the picture perfectly clear and a good thing then that I don't like Ferraris
I just tried and try to make the most of the limited time I have for all of this (4 to 5 hours a week, tops)
I had a SS and DT account in 2009, and after ZERO sales at SS in 6 months or so, and DT performing quite well, I decided to become exclusive there. I was not even accepted as a contributor at IS for that matter, rejected 3 or 4 times... Didn't have time or didn't bother about other agencies.
Reminds me of the Human League song "I'm only human, born to make mistakes" 

Those of us that go way Back and I don't mean 2012 realized in Late 2012 something was wrong.We called it "Who pulled the level" It was Nothing more than a feeling then, then slowly Became a reality.
 I made more in 2011 with Half the Images I Have now percentage wise. I've been with 39 Sites. some where great, There gone. some you knew right away, Losers. Im still with 9 presently. How you did only DT and made good enough Money to continue is beyond Most of us and there was a time when DT was way up there, They all were!!!... BUT Making Good Money is relative. I made in a day in 2008 what I nearly make now in a Month at SS alone.
Also..I don't think its so much about the site perse' some of course are dead losers .For me it's More about a sites customer Base and the images they carry or are attracted to to Push and believe me they Push certain people and work... SS pushes 25 cent folks. Why...simple they make a Lot more Money.They Love you guys.

I and My work can be replaced in 2 weeks if that, I have no delusions of Grandeur.

Thats what being publicly Traded did to the taste level and even sloppier  reviewing and now the theft Issues which NO ONE  is gonna talk about.Many here think they got it figured out. Don't believe it.

Sorry for replying to old topic but you are sending all agencies and earning $300 a year? I apologize if I got it wrong, English is not my native language.

Quote from: steheap on December 20, 2017, 11:13

But it costs nothing in terms of my time to put them there and it is still $300 a year or more.
Steve

I'm sure he meant that from his lowest 8 agencies he gets $300, which is 10% of his total micro income.

Hello, just a small update for the interested and curious.
Finally made the leap about a year ago and dropped DT exclusivity. Just about time in retrospect since sales continue to drop and drop fast over at DT.
Started uploading to SS, AS, IS, P5 and 123RF, about 150 new uploads a month, and counting.
1) Quite rapidly ran into the IS corporate culture which I can only describe as nitpicky, rude, uncivilized and highly unprofessional - to boldy go where unprofessionality has never gone before as a matter of fact. Not to mention the tedious upload process. After having received another disgraceful mail from their end, I terminated my account within the blink of an eye.
2) SS: lots and steady stream of downloads, but royalties per image somewhat low. Steady and decent earner nonetheless. Fair reviews.
3) AS: top seller. Steady income and downloads, fair prices. Fair reviews, though illustrations tend to get far easier approved than pictures. The recent change allowing uploads of editorial images is also great.
4) 123RF: well, kind of steady sales, but nothing much when compared to SS and AS. Reviews: to submit is to be accepted. The only thing they refuse seem to be pictures of European castles ;-)
5) Pond5: accept about everything, only pictures with dollar bills they do not want ;-) But the site doesn't work for me at all. Virtually no sales.

So after 1 year of uploading - with all the new excitement of starting all over again - I have ports of about 1600-1800 images at those new sites.
Downloads: SS: 1933 - AS: 1243 - 123RF: 223 - P5: just 3
All in all it feels like I have made the right decision when looking at the AS and SS sales.
Happy camper.

Quote from: desdemona on November 05, 2019, 04:24

Hello, just a small update for the interested and curious.
Finally made the leap about a year ago and dropped DT exclusivity. Just about time in retrospect since sales continue to drop and drop fast over at DT.
Started uploading to SS, AS, IS, P5 and 123RF, about 150 new uploads a month, and counting.
1) Quite rapidly ran into the IS corporate culture which I can only describe as nitpicky, rude, uncivilized and highly unprofessional - to boldy go where unprofessionality has never gone before as a matter of fact. Not to mention the tedious upload process. After having received another disgraceful mail from their end, I terminated my account within the blink of an eye.
2) SS: lots and steady stream of downloads, but royalties per image somewhat low. Steady and decent earner nonetheless. Fair reviews.
3) AS: top seller. Steady income and downloads, fair prices. Fair reviews, though illustrations tend to get far easier approved than pictures. The recent change allowing uploads of editorial images is also great.
4) 123RF: well, kind of steady sales, but nothing much when compared to SS and AS. Reviews: to submit is to be accepted. The only thing they refuse seem to be pictures of European castles ;-)
5) Pond5: accept about everything, only pictures with dollar bills they do not want ;-) But the site doesn't work for me at all. Virtually no sales.

So after 1 year of uploading - with all the new excitement of starting all over again - I have ports of about 1600-1800 images at those new sites.
Downloads: SS: 1933 - AS: 1243 - 123RF: 223 - P5: just 3
All in all it feels like I have made the right decision when looking at the AS and SS sales.
Happy camper.

You should try Alamy they produce reasoanble sales and often for higher values.  Just avoid distributor sales.

They also have an archive submission route if you have old photos you can scan and they are often very popular

Good point and I'd add, stop wasting your time on P5 for images, they are a video agency. With 5 times more downloads and I'll guess even more than that in money, I don't know why anyone bothers with 123RF anymore?

You must have some good works desdemona to get that many downloads, that fast. Nice going.

1) Quite rapidly ran into the IS corporate culture which I can only describe as nitpicky, rude, uncivilized and highly unprofessional - to boldy go where unprofessionality has never gone before as a matter of fact.

Just curious, care to elaborate?