What is you opinion on this topic. It doesn-t matter if you have a big team, small team or it's only you, the photographer.

My own view is that I will never earn back in $ the time I spent uploading images to any of the agencies that appear below Veer on the list to the right of this screen. I only ever upload to them these days if I really am twiddling my thumbs, hungover or down with flu.

edit: the only exception being Stocksy. They're too young to have found their rightful place in the list - but that will change.

Which are the best ones? I think experimenting is the only way to find that out.

If you want to be part of a grand effort to reduce prices to dust,  upload all your photos to every site you can find - large or small -  and let them compete on nothing but price.   If any of the small new sites actually start to develop significant market share and pull customers from the big sites, the big boys will just cut their prices to match.  Round and round we go, and  in a couple of years it will all be over.

And then you'll learn what 'professionals' do

If you have a ready to upload portfolio with at least 1000 photos, upload to 20 sites. But if you are at the beginning, spend your time to produce more and upload them to big 5-6 sites.

Some may say that while you are already uploading to 5, you can also upload to 20 with a little extra effort. This may be true. But don't forget it may take years for you to reach your first pay out from low earners with a small portfolio.

Hey guys,
what is the downside of uploading to 20 sites instead of just uploading to the top tiers?

• Time spent uploading isn't time you can spend creating content.
• That could be wasted time if a site doesn't perform for you.
• You could be undercutting yourself. It used to be said that buyers didn't shop around, but now we more and more hear that they do, and with tools like Google Reverse Image Search, it's easy to find the same image on other sites.
• The more sites an image is on, the more difficult it could be to chase up infringements.
• More hassle when it comes to filling in your tax form

OTOH, your images might match with the buyers at one of the smaller sites, and you wouldn't know unless you tried.

I say the answer is somewhere in the middle. I agree with ACS that if you are just starting out it is better to concentrate on the top 4 or 5 agencies.  If you have a large portfolio, it's worthwhile to expand the list to the well performing low earners. 

AFAIK there aren't 20 sites that provide enough income to be worthwhile uploading to.  I'm at 13 and some of those are pretty much a waste of time.  At least IMO. 

With 7k images I don't think it's unreasonable to expect at least a payout a month per site, and some of them are performing way under that. 

.

If you are an illustrator you need to test some of the other sites. For me Shutterstock is the only Big 4 agency in my top 4.
For what it is worth I have 12 sites with a better RPD than any of the Big 4. I can't really view these downloads as "cannibalizing" my sales from the big 4.

And @ embermike, I am an illustrator too, what sites do you guys upload to, I recently found a new site: "toonvectors"

I'm not looking for a bunch of new ones, I just uploaded to give them a try, I am interested in well performing illustrator sites the two before you were talking about

I started out very enthusiastic and uploaded to a lot of different sites. Now I am deleting my port everywhere but the top 5. it's just too much hassle for so little return.

ShadySue's comments about chasing up infringements is a good one. at least if you have the image on only one or two sites, you feel more in control.

Because you are competing with yourself, based on price and supporting the parasites that drive down prices, and pay you almost nothing. This dilutes the sales and makes the best agencies weaker. That, and I feel that for the returns, it's a waste of time and energy. Take the best earners, if your personal high point is ten, then fine, you like working long hours for $100 a year? Better might be, four, that's a nice diverse group, with a proven track record. {opinion}

But if you want numbers, add the five top agencies on the right and then the next 16 (all the rest that have numbers) and see how much the  bottom 16 earn, added together.

Lets see bottom 16 = 57. Hey look, SS does that by themselves? Top five = 146 is almost triple.  HOLY COW!

So why did you want to work and upload to the top 21 sites?

That and with less sites, you might have better control over who's selling what and where things are being partnered from.

Personally? Top Two and Alamy because of what Alamy handles in the way of Editorial. But some people are on 50 sites and quite happy.

Hey guys,
what is the downside of uploading to 20 sites instead of just uploading to the top tiers?

Because you are competing with yourself, based on price and supporting the parasites that drive down prices, and pay you almost nothing. This dilutes the sales and makes the best agencies weaker. That, and I feel that for the returns, it's a waste of time and energy. Take the best earners, if your personal high point is ten, then fine, you like working long hours for $100 a year? Better might be, four, that's a nice diverse group, with a proven track record. {opinion}

But if you want numbers, add the five top agencies on the right and then the next 16 (all the rest that have numbers) and see how much the  bottom 16 earn, added together.

Lets see bottom 16 = 57. Hey look, SS does that by themselves? Top five = 146 is almost triple.  HOLY COW!

So why did you want to work and upload to the top 21 sites?

That and with less sites, you might have better control over who's selling what and where things are being partnered from.

Personally? Top Two and Alamy because of what Alamy handles in the way of Editorial. But some people are on 50 sites and quite happy.

Quote from: sweetgirll on September 23, 2013, 12:49

Hey guys,
what is the downside of uploading to 20 sites instead of just uploading to the top tiers?

If your future is anything like my present at Shutterstock, then you may want to prepare for it. I'm just saying.