I believe that the Earnings Ratings in the Microstock Poll Results just show a short-term trend from one month to the next.  So, for example, if people make more money in October than September, it would show an up arrow.  And in January, probably everything will be down.

Hi,
I'm new to stock.  Started uploading in June.  Have a few images now at three different agencies.  Not really happy with all of them but at least the MicroStock Poll results shows each on the rise ... Dreamstime, Fotolia, and BigStock.  I'm considering another agency.  It looks like StockXpert is also on the rise.  Is that a reasonable way to decide which agency to choose next?  Or, should I be patient and see if sales start coming at the three current agencies?  At least I'm beginning to understand what is acceptable there.

Thanks,
Warren

Click on the "more poll results" at the bottom of that chart. You'll see that these figures are based on fewer than 125 votes, and there are no controls to ascertain whether everyone voting actually even has a portfolio at the site in question.

You should take those factors into account when deciding how much weight this poll carries in your decision-making.   

From the comments I have read on this board ... it seems that IS receives a lot of negative feedback?

How true my friend, how true!

I don't think anyone will deny that  iStock is a good earner.  In fact they are great - that is why there are lots of exclusives there.

But as you say, the proof is in the earnings and iStock - with it's very strict upload limits makes earning high earnings difficult for anyone who is doing this full time and not exclusive.  That is the reason i would guess Dreamstime is ahead of Istock in the polls, because people can get images online.

I would suspect that on a per image basis iStock would earn the most for most people, but on the overall it ends up somewhere betwen 2-5th place.  If you look at the two polls this is true.  In the earnings poll istock now sits in third place.  In the RPI poll iStock is in second place but has been in 1st place for quite a while.

In addition to the very strict upload limits, iStock has a very labor intensive upload process.  Uploading to shutterstock, stockxpert, 123RF, crestock... take all of a couple clicks - a few seconds.  Istock takes several minutes/photo.  If you only submit 10 photos it is not a big deal, but if you want to submit 50 or several hundred or thousand you will be at the grindstone a while.

Excellent points Leaf. This will only accelerate with time. I didn't get to PhotoExpo this year but it seems a lot of big production RF shooters are starting or will soon start to play in the micro field. These folks are not likely to qualify for exclusivity and will be relegated to the 15 or 20 a week club, while submitting hundreds elsewhere. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out in the long run. I see it as a major problem for iS.

Excellent points Leaf. This will only accelerate with time. I didn't get to PhotoExpo this year but it seems a lot of big production RF shooters are starting or will soon start to play in the micro field. These folks are not likely to qualify for exclusivity and will be relegated to the 15 or 20 a week club, while submitting hundreds elsewhere. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out in the long run. I see it as a major problem for iS.

yeah, I wonder how many more 'big shooters' are going to enter the microstock arena in the next few years.  According to the interview that Lee Torrens did of a few people at PhotoPlus it sounds like there is a lot more acceptance of the industry now than even a year ago.

Perhaps this is why getty wanted stockXpert.  They needed somewhere, where they could pick up non exclusives that have lots of images to upload, while keeping their fancy exclusive istock store running.

yeah, I wonder how many more 'big shooters' are going to enter the microstock arena in the next few years. 

Maybe a few less, if everyone would stop blogging about their month by month money stream and how to succeed in microstock, and all that.

Maybe IS is a good earner if you got enough good pictures accepted. It's not a place to learn microstock. Once you got some files that prove to be successful on many other sites you might try them on IS. Anyway it is slow and painful to build portfolio there while on other sites you might have better learning experience.

Maybe a few less, if everyone would stop blogging about their month by month money stream and how to succeed in microstock, and all that.

But some like to prey on the 'lemmings' out there who read all that crap and then go and view all the images in that persons portfolio thereby increasing the files popularity and putting it ahead of the 'lemmings' images in the search results which in turn decreases the 'lemmings' income.

The downside is that the 'lemmings' copy the bloggers/writers images, which in turn the blogger/writer then moans about in another blog/thread.

The upside is that the 'lemmings' start their own blogs/threads about the success of the original blogger/writer which again helps in the success of the original blogger/writer and helps to keep them ahead of the 'lemmings'.



 

If you have the same image at six sites that cost less than istock, what do you think the chances are of selling that image for a higher price point/higher profit? I am an istock exclusive contributor, but I also am a customer that purchases several hundred images a year. If I need to purchase an image I will do my initial search at istock, but if I find that the image I want is by a non-exclusive, I will do a quick google search to see where else they have accounts, and if I find the same image somewhere else for cheaper, I will download there. Several of you have lost out on sales of XL files at istock because I found your same images somewhere else and could purchase them for a fraction of the cost.

That's Istock's loss, not mine.
If I get 20% of an "L" on Istock or 50% of an "L" on DT does not make much of a difference...
Therefore higher price point does not automatically mean higher profit.
Now if Istock would start paying higher percentages....

It  depends on their level.  I get 2.50 on my level 5 images for a small size sale.

Actually I said XL which would pay out 2.50 at Dreamstime or max 4.20 at istock. But I see what you mean, not much difference really.

is it true also that SS images have trouble getting approved by IS, and vice versa?
that seems to be the consensus i get .
also, isn't it true that SS do better with vectors rather than photographs?
i haven't used SS yet, as i read so many of you complain about having to wait a month before resubmitting.
that's like waiting for the cows to come home to my barn