I recently decided to give microstock a try, just for the heck of it - not expecting make any money. I got approved by Shutterstock and IStock, and put about 20 photos on those sites, along with Dreamstime and StockXpert.

In the first couple of days, to my surprise I sold a few.  After that, nothing - things went totally dead.

I'm guessing that people on the 'subscription' plans make frequent passes through the recently uploaded images and grab a few that catch their eye, just so they feel they're getting their money's worth.  And after my photos slid off the "recent" pages, they vanished into the vast cloud of millions of images enjoying eternal rest.

Am I right?

 Yeah pretty much.. You will maybe get lucky and get a few that are downloaded alot in the first few days to get the most popular area, but the rest will slide away and only get the random downloads.. Istock is not as bad as SS for the newest first search but they all depend on how many dl's you get, to reach into the other searches..

On most sites newly-approved images enjoy a relatively brief period in the limelight, towards the top of the default search-order, although how this is actually achieved varies somewhat between them.

If the image 'takes off' and gathers at few early sales then it will normally remain favoured within the search order for as long as it does so (relative to the sales of other images in the same subject).

It's not easy though. An image will need to be amongst the very best in it's subject matter to remain in the top couple of pages for a sustained period. It will need to be within the top 50-100 examples in a search that might bring up thousands of results.

Most images by most contributors will fall by the wayside fairly quickly __ you'll likely find that 80% of your earnings will be due to 10% of your portfolio. If only we knew which 10% that was going to be then we could all save a lot of time.

One point worth mentioning is that getting the right keywords is essential to an image's long term success.  A good image with bad keywords may sell early on because clients are looking at new images in a category.  After that it's about showing up in searches, and that's where the right keywords make all the difference.

Microstock is a brilliant business plan. Here's how it works.

The sites make a big dealing about how it's tough to get accepted.  "Send us 10 of your very best images" and maybe we'll approve you. Pathetic wannabes - like myself - upload some highly polished jewels and are rewarded with an email saying "congratulations".  After a couple of weeks, we've made $2. 

On the other side of the equation, the 'subscription' model has people committed to buying images they don't need.  A few of your recently uploaded  photos, sitting on the "new upload" page, are grabbed by the subscribers and they feel like they're getting something.

Now the really brilliant part of the plan - the $100 payout minimum.  We do the math and realize that by the time we get to $100, we'll have been dead for 40 years - so we give up.  The stock site has now acquired our best photos for nothing, and even made a buck or two.

Or maybe we look at the recent keyword searches and spend another 8 hours producing "smiling young people", "grunge background" and "happy business team".  Good images - but Yuri Acurs has 999 just like them, sitting in front of yours...  wait another 2 weeks.... and compute that by the time this pays off, the Sun will have gone nova.   The stock site has now acquired another bunch of images for nothing, to add to the "5 million images" it uses to attract new subscribers...

Go ahead, cut me to ribbons. I'm only half joking here.

I recently decided to give microstock a try, just for the heck of it - not expecting make any money. I got approved by Shutterstock and IStock, and put about 20 photos on those sites, along with Dreamstime and StockXpert.

As surprising as it might seem people sometimes find that they need more than "about 20 photos" to make a living at this.

I started out by saying I'm "not expecting to make any money."   Much less a "living".

As Henry Ford used to say "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."

jim_h..
seriously, to update on what you said.

the analogy of 5 million would be the most accurate.
this is like going to the turf accountant (if you're in UK), or playing the 6/49lotto
if you're canadian. we are 5 million and counting, all waiting to hit the jackpot.
but only a handful will walk away laughing to the bank;
the rest of us walk away with a great big hole in our  wallet, and overdraft in our bank account.

p.s.
btw, i actually have an image (an empty wallet) in my portfolio. check it out !

Microstock is a brilliant business plan. Here's how it works.

The sites make a big dealing about how it's tough to get accepted.  "Send us 10 of your very best images" and maybe we'll approve you. Pathetic wannabes - like myself - upload some highly polished jewels and are rewarded with an email saying "congratulations".  After a couple of weeks, we've made $2. 

On the other side of the equation, the 'subscription' model has people committed to buying images they don't need.  A few of your recently uploaded  photos, sitting on the "new upload" page, are grabbed by the subscribers and they feel like they're getting something.

Now the really brilliant part of the plan - the $100 payout minimum.  We do the math and realize that by the time we get to $100, we'll have been dead for 40 years - so we give up.  The stock site has now acquired our best photos for nothing, and even made a buck or two.

Many truths here, for sure there will be many images online that the photographer never got a cent for. So many give up before they get a pay out. The agencies are still smiling though.

I live in Minneapolis, near the gigantic Mall of America, which lets me observe retail trends first-hand.  Over the years I've seen a pattern.

A new store attracts customers with a unique combination of merchandise and display - stuff you don't see elsewhere. After a year or so, they start "focussing" on the 80% of stuff that's making the big money.  After 3 years they're indistinguishable from 6 other stores in the mall. Then they're gone.

The same think will happen to stock.

The same think will happen to stock.

After all these brilliant expert posts and insights from your (anonymous) side, wouldn't it be time you showed some of your portfolio like we do, plain mortals? Where is the meat?