I've been a RM photographer since the 80's with TIB. I stopped submitting to them when I disagreed with the direction they were taking under the Getty brand. A few years ago I was dropped by them because I did not sign the new contract. By that time I only had 50 images with them. I have been admitted back to Getty under the Photographer's Choice brand which charges $50/image to be in! I have not submitted any images even though I would get 10 free placement images.

I spent last year submitting to another much smaller image exclusive RM agency with limited return on investment with 2300 accepted images. I'm averaging around $100/month profit from them.

I have recently signed up with Alamy, Inmagine and Agefotostock. I only have 270 images on Alamy, 200 on Inmagine and 138 on Agefotostock.

I have many other images that no agency has.

A trip I did last year can be seen on my site plus a bunch of other images that are and are not with any agency. On the following link, non of the images are with any agency yet.

Do you guys think I should upload these images to the Macro sites above or would you think I would be more successful going the microstock route?

http://goo.gl/NbmpA

thanks,

Don

IMHO you have nothing to lose, looking at your numbers. Better make a late switch then never. You are a very good Photographer and I think after some adjustments to the market you will be able to make a decent and stable income.

The Microstock market is not as evil as many from the RM side may think and the adjustments you will have to make are nothing really serious (change a bit the style to what sells in Micro, use other lights and concepts...and...ready!).

Give it a try!

Try for Stocksy ?

That's exactly what I thought. IMHO, those images will not sell enough times on the micros to give you a worthwhile income. May as well put them elsewhere and give them some time, I believe you will earn more that way.

Thank you all for the kind words and suggestions. Decisions, decisions! iStockphoto exclusive, many microstock sites, or Stocksy. Sounds like everyone is on the same page as far as moving to Micro, but then again this is a Micro forum.

Like I said in my first post I have 2300 images on a RM site. If anyone would be so kind to check it out and let me know where you think the best place for them would be. I'd like to be a bit stealthy here so the url is  http://goo.gl/dzcrC   if you search for pg_4254 you'll see all of my images there.

thanks again!

Don

Lots of great stuff there.  Is that the set you are only making $100/month from???  If so you could be doing a LOT better.  They should easily make over $1.00 per image per month as non-exclusive microstock.

$100 a month!!!

I agree - a great set of images. I can't say about Stocksy (not had a response to my request to join yet), but I take a lot of travel and landscape images and I'm very open about how much I earn from the portfolio of 5000 images on the various stock sites on my blog. I submit to about 20, including Alamy, and have built the earnings up to $2000 a month from my portfolio. I am sure you could do well with yours!

Steve

Edit: And of course you could join our growing group of networked artist sites using the Symbiostock theme on Wordpress. My site is in the signature page below and there are tons of posts about it in the forum!

Yes that is correct. $100/month 

You said you were making $100/month profit....what is your gross vs. your expenses?  Perhaps your expenses are too high as well?

I gave up on RM entirely about 1 1/2 yrs ago.  I was with Index for about 15 years and used to do well there but it was on the decline about the time Photolibrary bought them out.  That decline continued through PL's purchase by Getty.  I stayed with Getty House for about a year and got out once I realized how restrictive their policies were.

I became exclusive with iStock last July and was doing progressively better through November.  Since that time I'm managing to do progressively worse month to month in spite of continuing to build my portfolio, which admittedly is rather small at this point.

If you join iStock with the intention of becoming exclusive you need to wait until you hit 250 DL's before you can apply for exclusivity.  If you decide to give micro a try I would upload to other micro sites in addition to iStock for that period of time in which you cannot be exclusive at iStock.  That will give you a chance to test the waters, so to speak. 

You have some images in RM, might as well keep them there until you see how micro works out for you.  You have a nice portfolio but nature doesn't sell as well as lifestyle and business, for example. 

Are you doing any self-marketing?  Calendar companies, for example.  If not, give it a try as you should do well in that market, although it is very competitive.

I guess what I'm trying to say in my rambling is give micro a try but keep your options open with RM in the meantime.

Yes, T-Light, understood. Tnx.

Miwin, yes, that is the problem right not, my profit/loss is backwards! I am earning $100/month from SuperStock, not making $100 profit on the business! I need to change this back the other way before I need to get a "real" job after 35 years of being an independent photographer!

I also have shot some skiing as is here. Again these are not with any agency yet. Just trying to figure out where to put them.

http://www.landwehrle.com/sites/DonLandwehrlePhotography/Sports/index.html

My entry to my main website is http://www.landwehrle.com

Thanks, click_click

The images on my site are lo-res, so soft appearing when on a large monitor.

At $2k/month from Alamy with 5k images it sounds like I'd be better off with Micro as the consensus seems to run $1 to $3/image/month.

Try Fine Art America ..... those pictures are exactly what they sell most.... and they sell very  good.

Thanks, saw that as well as http://www.redbubble.com

If I go this route these would be in addition to any stock photo site(s) that I would go with.

Thanks PW,

I had to re-read your post a couple of times... I kept getting caught up on your comment

"The problem I've found with macro is only my totally unique images or highly conceptual images sell."

My bad  , I kept reading it as MICRO, not macro.  Makes sense once I correctly read what you wrote!

So your vote is go exclusive with iStock? Another person suggested that also.

Gost... LOL, I did not say that and neither did you. It just appeared that another contributor is iStock exclusive and I made an assumption that he would vote for iStock exclusivity. My bad on the assumption.

Oh, and thanks for clarifying that about how you feel. I am curious about how everyone feels going exclusive iStock vs. going a bunch of different Micros.

True, good point.

So then is it worthwhile to sign with iStock given the abysmal contributor percentage?