Author Topic: do you put up the same portfolio on all sites? (Read 6809 times)

noodle · « **on:** July 01, 2012, 08:27 »

Just wondering if most of you put up the same images straight across the board on all sites your on to maximize your sales - or do you hold back certain images from some sites for a reason i.e. their commissions are poor, their sales are low, rejection rates, etc. as a way of 'punishing them' or just beacause its not worth your time...

just curious about this...

steheap · « **Reply #1 on:** July 01, 2012, 09:16 »

I'm firmly in the "everything goes everywhere" camp. I use Lightburner (great service for this) and upload all my images to that site. They then redistribute to about 20 sites - for some reason Veer and Fotolia don't work from their system and so I also upload (FTP) directly to those sites. I used to downside for Shutterstock in the belief that people wanting a larger image would go and find it elsewhere, but I think that is unlikely, so I upload full sized files to all sites.

Finally, I upload most of the images (ignoring ones that have been rejected at more that one of the first set of sites) to Alamy and do the keywording etc. to get those ones online.

Steve

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 01, 2012, 09:58 »

I send RF images to all sites including Alamy. RF editorial images go to the micros that accept them but not Alamy (hardy ever do those due to the newsworthy requirement at SS). RM images to Alamy only.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #3 on:** July 01, 2012, 10:48 »

I have completely confused myself with uploads. Don't upload to many ... deleted a few non-sellers ... deleting "best sellers" from some ... delay uploading to some ... adjust similars for DT ...
Short answer "yes" with exceptions.

Deleted port from a few sites due to ethics, or lack thereof.

klsbear · « **Reply #4 on:** July 01, 2012, 11:44 »

I've only been shooting with the specific intent of creating stock photos for about 18 months. I'm uploading to 13 sites and giving them all a chance to prove themselves. Biggest reason for giving all to everyone right now is that I notice that what is a top seller on one site may be completely ignored by others so I don't want to edit who gets what. I still need a lot more images online to really determine if some of the sites are worth my time but I do plan to stop uploading to one or two in the next 6 - 12 months if things don't improve. I have de-activated the EL option on FT due to low commissions.

cthoman · « **Reply #5 on:** July 01, 2012, 11:55 »

I used to be in the everything for everywhere camp, but that changed when I opened my own site. Now, everything revolves around my site and other fair paying sites. Everybody else gets nothing new.

It's nice having some insulation from all the changes in micro. I'm a lot happier doing it this way and also a lot more confident about the future. But, results may vary.

lisafx · « **Reply #6 on:** July 01, 2012, 12:16 »

Unlike Cory (congrats BTW!), my own site isn't doing nearly well enough to count on the income yet. I still upload everything to everywhere. Only exception is that I occasionally participate in the DT contests and those have to be exclusive.

cthoman · « **Reply #7 on:** July 01, 2012, 12:53 »

Quote from: lisafx on July 01, 2012, 12:16

Unlike Cory (congrats BTW!), my own site isn't doing nearly well enough to count on the income yet. I still upload everything to everywhere. Only exception is that I occasionally participate in the DT contests and those have to be exclusive.

Thanks. I do still rely on the big agencies for a large chunk of my passive income. I just wasn't sure how reliable future growth was going to be at them, so I stopped even trying to grow at them.

It does bring up that chicken and egg question in my mind. Does an agency sell images well because they have customers or do they have customers because they have images to sell? I suppose it is probably a little bit of both.

Karimala · « **Reply #8 on:** July 01, 2012, 13:57 »

Depends on the image for me.

RF goes to all the micros I'm still willing to upload to, as well as Alamy. I also use them for POD products at Zazzle, Art of Business Cards, and RedBubble.

Most editorial goes to Alamy, but occasionally I will send SS and DT images if I think the subject is hot enough.

I also send my rejects and sub-par images to Alamy as RM, which has resulted in some of my highest paying sales. Just because an image isn't good enough for print as is, doesn't mean it isn't good for something. Buyers of these images typically cut out portions they want to add to an overall composition and they don't need a perfect shot for their purposes. One of these ugly shots has actually earned me more money than all the other shots from that day's shoot combined.

MikLav · « **Reply #9 on:** July 01, 2012, 15:05 »

In general I upload all photos everywhere - but acceptance is different, and low earners get less of my attention thus fewer of my photos.

Video goes to pond5 and shutterstock and fotolia. Tried istock but it takes too much effort and not worth it for me. Only pond5 makes notable sales - but my video portfolio is tiny with +/- 30 clips only.

Ed · « **Reply #10 on:** July 01, 2012, 15:34 »

Microstock Portfolio => Microstock sites
Trad Portfolio => Traditional Stock agencies
Fine Art => My Mom....(and occasionally peddled to art galleries).

modviz · « **Reply #11 on:** July 01, 2012, 22:11 »

I submit to all four agencies but I almost always vary the caption.
"A Dog in the Park", "A Dog Plays in the Park", "A Dog Romps in the Park", "A Dog exercises in the Park"....that kind of variation. The keywords almost always stay the same. I always load 123RF first because their details are simplistic. Title/Description and keywords. That's all. Then, using that information to carry on with DT, DP and SS. It streamlines the process.

ShadySue · « **Reply #12 on:** July 02, 2012, 06:46 »

Quote from: modviz on July 01, 2012, 22:11

I submit to all four agencies but I almost always vary the caption.
"A Dog in the Park", "A Dog Plays in the Park", "A Dog Romps in the Park", "A Dog exercises in the Park"....that kind of variation. The keywords almost always stay the same.

Would you care to share why? I'm intrigued!

modviz · « **Reply #13 on:** July 02, 2012, 12:01 »

I find a slight variation in the title tends to get less successful images
found on the "also-ran" sites even though all four agencies share the
same keywords. Is that something new? Often an image ignored on SS
will be picked up by DP, DT or 123RF and I attributed that to my
variations with the title....keeping in mind that the title still maintains
the main discriptive component/theme of the image. My thought was
you're working with the same image but you're giving it a slightly
wider spread by varying the adjectives/verbs etc. in the title.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #14 on:** July 02, 2012, 12:03 »

Quote from: Karimala on July 01, 2012, 13:57

Depends on the image for me.

RF goes to all the micros I'm still willing to upload to, as well as Alamy. I also use them for POD products at Zazzle, Art of Business Cards, and RedBubble.

Most editorial goes to Alamy, but occasionally I will send SS and DT images if I think the subject is hot enough.

I also send my rejects and sub-par images to Alamy as RM, which has resulted in some of my highest paying sales. Just because an image isn't good enough for print as is, doesn't mean it isn't good for something. Buyers of these images typically cut out portions they want to add to an overall composition and they don't need a perfect shot for their purposes. One of these ugly shots has actually earned me more money than all the other shots from that day's shoot combined.

Shhh you are telling secrets. Alamy is horrid and terrible and time consuming, people have to enter keywords with though and weight them. They don't credit us fast enough and you have to have $250 in sales to cash out. Nope, people, please don't come to Alamy.

Don't tell everyone that rejects get accepted and sell there, for more! We'll have a flood of good images that were rejected by Micro sites.

Do I put all the same images on all the sites?

Lets see... NO

SS and IS seem to have different ideas of what's good, so they automatically decide that some things are on one and some on the other. Since I only sell on two agencies now, that's about the size of it. RF = Microstock

Alamy gets all the RM Editorial, and RM travel photos - I have a smattering of RF Editorial on SS. IS flatly refuses anything pro sports, probably because they run Getty one of the top three world sports image agencies for newspapers. They would be silly to take competition from IS and invite me in. Just business.

Video goes to Pond 5 (might have something on SS?)
Audio goes to IS (want to go exclusive there for audio, looks promising)
Illustrations all on SS (because they take raster illustrations)
I don't do vectors, that would take skill, creativity and talent.

That covers it. Limited agencies and hitting the hot ones, not wasting time or energy on the rest.

Carl · « **Reply #15 on:** July 03, 2012, 07:47 »

I submit the same photos to various sites, but the rejections are typically very different among them, so although there is some overlap, my portfolio can vary. One site will have photos that the other won't, one site accepts more "similars" than another site, etc.

cascoly · « **Reply #16 on:** July 03, 2012, 17:09 »

Quote from: csproductions on July 03, 2012, 07:47

I submit the same photos to various sites, but the rejections are typically very different among them, so although there is some overlap, my portfolio can vary. One site will have photos that the other won't, one site accepts more "similars" than another site, etc.

my experience exactly - rather than trying to guess what each site might take today, i just submit everything that each site accepts [eg, obviusly, no editorial to those who dont take them; or, recently, no PD to SS]

Mantis · « **Reply #17 on:** July 03, 2012, 18:25 »

Quote from: cascoly on July 03, 2012, 17:09

Quote from: csproductions on July 03, 2012, 07:47
I submit the same photos to various sites, but the rejections are typically very different among them, so although there is some overlap, my portfolio can vary. One site will have photos that the other won't, one site accepts more "similars" than another site, etc.

my experience exactly - rather than trying to guess what each site might take today, i just submit everything that each site accepts [eg, obviusly, no editorial to those who dont take them; or, recently, no PD to SS]

Right. I have about 2800 images I've created but the range across sites is about 2100 on istock and 2800 on Alamy and 9 other in betweens, 2250, 2500, 2700 etc.

Paulo M. F. Pires · « **Reply #18 on:** July 04, 2012, 05:34 »

Has planned since 2010, everything goes everywhere, with the unique exception:

- None Editorial Content for PM ( until they understand the meaning of such type of content.

I've stopped a bit on uploading ( working in another content type ), and when I start uploading will be a bit more selective.

rubyroo · « **Reply #19 on:** July 04, 2012, 05:45 »

I send the same images to all, although it took me a good six months or so way back at the start to weigh up the idiosyncracies of each agency and please all the reviewers.

These days I get very few rejections, and if I do, they usually come from Fotolia.

ShadySue · « **Reply #20 on:** July 04, 2012, 05:46 »

Quote from: modviz on July 02, 2012, 12:01

I find a slight variation in the title tends to get less successful images
found on the "also-ran" sites even though all four agencies share the
same keywords. Is that something new? Often an image ignored on SS
will be picked up by DP, DT or 123RF and I attributed that to my
variations with the title....keeping in mind that the title still maintains
the main discriptive component/theme of the image. My thought was
you're working with the same image but you're giving it a slightly
wider spread by varying the adjectives/verbs etc. in the title.

Thanks for the reply.

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Author Topic: do you put up the same portfolio on all sites? (Read 6809 times)

noodle

steheap

sgoodwin4813

WarrenPrice

klsbear

cthoman

lisafx

cthoman

Karimala

MikLav

Ed

modviz

ShadySue

modviz

RacePhoto

Carl

cascoly

Mantis

Paulo M. F. Pires

rubyroo

ShadySue

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