Now I'm not sure about this next point.  Should I just track overall royalties and downloads, or should I track each sale on each site?  I'd prefer the latter, but I'm not sure how complicated it's going to be to implement.Any thoughts?

Tracking each individual sales is vers cool indeed as it allows you to analyse very precisely your portfolio. I've done it and it's just fun to create nice tables and charts, see sales statistics for a single photo throughout all sites, how it evolves with time etc.

However, I'm not sure that this information is really useful as it is very difficult to conclude anything with the figures you get: there are too many variables to take into account and too many variations. I would say that it's probably as efficient to analyse your sales just by looking at overall earnings and having a regular look at your statistics pages on each agencies.

For me, it's more for the fun and because "I can do it" 

Moreover, I've created quite complex scripts to automate almost everything: this is quite a  lot of coding and many hours of work indeed.

I don't know your skills in programming, but you have to automate most things, otherwise it would be a nightmare to track each individual sales.

Not sure exactly about the programming for this, but the database linkup is probably object oriented programming along the lines of C++, VB, SQL, JAVA, etc..., (API provides the data, the database language uses it to do something), which can have quite a steep learning curve at first, they are not user friendly like HTML, at all, and do not "think" the same way, though all object orientated languages "think" similar (an if-then-else is an if-then-else, a for-do is a for-do, with minor syntax differences).  Just determining how things are organized and linking apps together can be a quite a task.  The site API, just to get the info, is not even half the battle.  Sans a Linux based computer, Ctl-Alt-Del becomes your enemy and savior on many occasions.  I'm not trying to scare you away, by all means go for it, it is a great learning experience, and a very useful and marketable skill, but expect massive amounts of frustration at first.  If I had to time to work on it I'd probably create some apps (probably will at some point once the collection becomes big enough to warrant automation) for my spreadsheet, but I know it would be a lot of work.  I have a few years in school of object orientated programming experience (PASCAL, C++, JAVA, VB) and am fluent in VB, needing it for both school years ago and now for my professional career (not as needed, but I can do things coworkers can't because I can program).  Best way to learn VB programming (non-compiled code that is used in most Microsoft products and compatible with a good % of others (can access the ODBC)) and get your feet wet is to start small with some basic macros in Excel to automate some spreadsheet functions, the errors aren't as big, the help files are OK.  I wouldn't start by jumping into linking a spreadsheet into API interfaces.

I keep a 2 page primary database (not including any graphs or charts)

The first is a month by month site tracker.  The key numbers are the acceptance rate, average photo/day (start #, and end# aren't as useful), and the monthly earnings, the two together can give the $/photo for the month for each site.  Plus I track an overall portfolio performance assuming all sales across all sites on one ideal site, and all submitted photos are accepted at the ideal site. 

Page two is an individual photo breakdown, where I list every photo and keep a running total of the total sales for it at each site, and an overall total.  I don't think that tracking sales monthly per photo is a useful thing to do.  It is (will be) nice to sort the list by totals and see just how much my biggest earners have made, and eventually spot content trends across the different sites.

Your point above about Ctl-Alt-Delete, I don't have to worry about that, I'm on a mac.     I'm sure though that being on a Mac will make programming way harder, but thems the breaks!

Getting stuck in infinite loops or infinite waits tends to be a major programming hassle, especially if you miss a # here or period there.  On a Windows PC, Ctl-Atl-Del is the out (usually, though I've seen the blue screen of death more times that I can count and have had to pull the plug and/or pull the battery to get out a few times).  Linux is the programmers friend, you just close the window, you cannot crash a Linux system (that I am aware of, I've never done it, though I don't have a ton on Linux experience).  After being used to Windows and their various products through the years, the 100% stability and complete uncrashablility of Linux is a dream.  It was quite a contrast that I had ME on the home PC at the same time I was learning C++ on Linux at school, after tons of problems with ME I finally reached a higher up in Microsoft support, who told me ME is the worst OS they ever released.  XP is actually fairly stable, though it is crashable.  I think they finally decided to close the backdoor on it (to the best of my knowledge it hasn't been found yet), all previous MS OS's had a backdoor for MS to access your computer at any time (also a reason they got slower as they aged), it is a long process to close it, but it can be done.  My computer got several times faster after I closed the backdoor to 2000, though it is a very long and tedious process, about 20 pages of steps.

Bought a Mac 18 months ago and... It's crashed twice.  TWICE!  It's amazing!  And both times it crashed I was forcing it to process loads of video AND photos and I think I was playing Sim City at the same time!

That'll do it.  Run a graphically intense game, at the same time as some video, at the same time PS is downsampling a 5+ shot HDR and just about any consumer PC would freak out, now matter how much CPU horsepower, RAM, or video memory you have.  Mmmm...Simcity, almost always have Civ4 running in the background in my computer right now, I guess PS would get a lot faster if I would close the program between playing sessions.

For instance, I'd love to be able to program a website, as a subscription model, that people could use to track all their uploads to different websites, all in one place.  Perhaps additional functionality like sending pictures to various sites and even requesting payouts.  I don't know how it would work, but that would be a site I would subscribe to!

Technically it's not that complicated to do, but it would pose a huge security risk.

Yes, many things have risk, but giving over all your agency passwords with no possibility of proving who made an unauthorised change to your account is another thing.

I happily give over my credit card at a bar. If I don't recognise a particular charge, the bank will do a chargeback and I'll get my money back. There's no way I would ever give my microstock account details over to a third party.

It's not about avoiding risk or not avoiding risk. It's about managing risk.

Good luck with that. Let us all know when you have something we can share.

Also, fewer people have a problem putting their passwords into an application than on a website. At least it's possible to monitor the traffic to see if information (login credentials) are sent anywhere suspicious.

Of course it does.  But then so is giving our credit card over the bar when we're on holiday - but we all do that.  Life is all about risks.

And sometimes the sh*t hits the fan, like that day of infamy in 2005 when my Visa was copied in a prestigious mall in the Philippines. When I got home months later, about 10,000$ was gone. Visa didn't want to repay since it was more than 3 months ago.

Pardon me now, but I walk around with cash. Thousands of it in my ripped jeans. I just got allergic and paranoid about plastic and online transactions. It took me 1,5 year before I finally took that Paypal.

By the way, you tend to downplay it but the scripts on your site are just fantastic. As a php-contributor to CPG with karma 5, I can really appreciate the great job you did, both the implementation and the creative idea behind it.

By the way, you tend to downplay it but the scripts on your site are just fantastic. As a php-contributor to CPG with karma 5, I can really appreciate the great job you did, both the implementation and the creative idea behind it.

Ummmm, that would be iWeb.  It's an application that comes with a Mac and it's just drag and drop.  I'd love to be able to program something like that.

There's a thread here somewhere about microstockwatcher - look that up - that guy's about 1 year ahead of you

That guy quit, after having enough sales:

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

As of 1 January 2008, we regrettably can no longer provide support for or sell MicroStock Watcher. 

We sincerely thank all those who expressed interest in the project, and -- more importantly -- those of you who purchased a copy.  If you are interested in taking over the project, please email marc {at} bedouinventures {dot} com.

I'm always worried about those sites that ask $$, like CushyStock... then abandon the project and leave you there with less $$ and an outdated database.

Yeah, that's what I want to do, but I don't have a database program at the moment.  I need to upgrade to Leopart OS before I can buy Bento, which is the program I will proberbly spring for.  I don't think you can get MS Access on Mac, but I always found it a little clunky anyway.  Apparently Bento is much more streamlined in it's workflow.