If you have any site sudjestions, things that you think would be nice to have here, things that are hard to navigate or otherwise make this a better place, please feel free to voice your opinion.

Having a few people upload their information would not be a valid statistical study.  There are thousands of photographers, and thousands of clients.  The few stats they you might see will tell you how those specific photographers are doing, but not much else.  As they say "mileage varies".

There are too many variables to why some photos sell and some don't.

For example:

- Each microstock site caters to different clients.  Some microstocks take 2 MP, but some don't take less than 6 MP.  Some want more shots for web sites, while others want shots for advertising clients.

- Some photographers try to "market" themselves.  Some participate on forums to get their names known.  Some have their own websites.  Some photographers do absolutely nothing.

- Some photographers really "work" their photos.  They try to use PhotoShop or PaintShopPro to squeeze the most out of a particular photo.  Some just upload what comes out of the camera.

- Some photographers have a great eye for "stock" photos.  Some don't.

So trying to compare yourself to another photographer is pretty useless (IMO).  You might be able to get a "feel" for things, but beyond that I believe that you just need to take the plunge, put the time in, and find your own niche.

Having a few people upload their information would not be a valid statistical study.� There are thousands of photographers, and thousands of clients.� The few stats they you might see will tell you how those specific photographers are doing, but not much else.� As they say "mileage varies".

There are too many variables to why some photos sell and some don't.

For example:

- Each microstock site caters to different clients.� Some microstocks take 2 MP, but some don't take less than 6 MP.� Some want more shots for web sites, while others want shots for advertising clients.

- Some photographers try to "market" themselves.� Some participate on forums to get their names known.� Some have their own websites.� Some photographers do absolutely nothing.

- Some photographers really "work" their photos.� They try to use PhotoShop or PaintShopPro to squeeze the most out of a particular photo.� Some just upload what comes out of the camera.

- Some photographers have a great eye for "stock" photos.� Some don't.

So trying to compare yourself to another photographer is pretty useless (IMO).� You might be able to get a "feel" for things, but beyond that I believe that you just need to take the plunge, put the time in, and find your own niche.

Dear Geopappas

I am not so much interested in how photographers are doing. And you are right, there are many variables why some photos sell and others not.

- Your point that all sites have different clients is true, but exactly that is interesting for statistical reasons. If we have 100 sample photos with different motives, we can see which motives sell the best on which page. Although certainly the statistic cannot be totally perfect, but we might see a trend

- Ok, some might market their name much better than others your are right, but I still think the most customers download a photo because they see it on microstock. 

- Your point that they work the photo and make it as good as possible is not really a point against a valid statistic, because we can see that photo and see that it is a very good perfectionized photo. So there should be more downloads which motivate us to perfectionize our own photos.

- That some have a great eye for stock photos won't make the statistic invalid. We see the picture. It fits the market so it should have good downloads.

Some people might gain from that and get a little bit more feeling on which motives they concentrate. And especially on which site they should upload.

Ther are now several websites. How do I know which sites are worthy to upload? You might get some tips from other photographers. But it would be a really nice overview to see that in actual photos. For me that is one of the most intersting points. Otherwise from my side it is just curiousity and natural interest in these statistics. Maybe it might be helpful for some to get a little help in their feeling what to upload especially for people who just started. On some websites there are photos which really don't sell at all. Upload those too, and some new photographers get an idea what not to upload and what to upload.

But interest is the main factor. Since leaf asked I told him my suggestion. I personally would love it to have such a statistic and that would be one reason for me to visit this website more often. If there are more people out there who are interested in such a thing the website would be more attractive for them. I guess there are! Or am I totally on the wrong track?

Hmm yeah the keyword, you might be right. It would be interesting how much impact they have.. I really cannot tell, probably you are right. In my opinion one of my best photos is a gull flying over a smashed block of Ice in the Arctic. It was a lucky shot.I do not get much downloads for it. Is the reason the keywords that it has not much downloads?

But interest is the main factor. Since leaf asked I told him my suggestion. I personally would love it to have such a statistic and that would be one reason for me to visit this website more often. If there are more people out there who are interested in such a thing the website would be more attractive for them. I guess there are! Or am I totally on the wrong track?

Freezingpcitures: I hope that you didn't think that I was attacking you personally.  If you got that impression, then let me apologize to you, that was not my intent.  I was just trying to respond to your post.  While I agree that some statistics might help, I'm not sure how much it would help.  I also don't know how many photographers would want to divulge this type of information.

This is what I do to obtain info:

- Go to each microstock site and take a look at the the top downloads.  This should give you an idea of what is selling.
- If you have specific photos in mind, for example a shot of a pumpkin, then go to each microstock site and search for that photo and see how they are selling.  Also check out what differentiates the top sellers from all the others.  For example, do photos of pumpkins alone sell more than photos of pumpkins with other objects around them.  Or do photos of pumpkins with people sell more than photos of pumpkins without people.
- Go to each microstock site and check out the top photographers.  Take a look at their images and get an idea for what their top selling images are.
- Take a look at what each microstock site is looking for.  Many times a microstock site will put up a list of specific photos that they need.

Hope this helps.

the problem is that you cannot look at the downloadnumbers on each page, which are for me really interesting.

Not sure what you mean by that.

Each site is sligthly different.

iStockphoto, Dreamstime, and BigStockPhoto all show the # of downloads.

Fotolia shows the # of views.

Shutterstock and 123RoyaltyFree don't show anything.