Author Topic: Which agency to choose as my fourth to collaborate? (Read 5006 times)

aitor · « **on:** September 27, 2018, 13:09 »

Hello!

Actually I'm uploading to SS, Adobe and Pond5. Wich one do you think will be my fourth? What do you recomend me?

In the past, I uploaded to:

Istock and cancelled my account when they said that the images could be deleted and the commissions were lowered.
Dreamstime, no sales and a lot of problems.
Bigstockphoto, canstock, 123RF and Alamy: no sales, too much work.

That's my porftolio, I only sell about $7 a month in total with 1500 images and less than 50 videos:

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/aitorserra?language=en

Thank you for your comments

christopherj · « **Reply #1 on:** September 27, 2018, 14:39 »

Istock for sure, I still making more per photo there than at SS and I sell almost the same amount of photos.

Surprisingly Bigstock is doing okay for me. Dreamstime, 123RTF, Desposit photos, and pond5 have been almost non-existent.

aitor · « **Reply #2 on:** September 27, 2018, 16:17 »

Thank you for your reply, but the upload process still is so bad? and the commissions so low?

davidbautista · « **Reply #3 on:** September 29, 2018, 14:43 »

I would reconsider Bigstock and iStock.

Brasilnut · « **Reply #4 on:** September 29, 2018, 14:45 »

iStock...hesitantly...

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #5 on:** September 29, 2018, 21:34 »

I had a look at the first 10 or so pages of your SS portfolio of non-editorial images just to get an idea of how you could possibly only be selling $7 a month with 1,500 images - is that really what you meant? Did you mean $7 a day?

My suggestion is that you don't upload your current portfolio to more agencies. The two with the highest volume (currently) are SS and Adobe/Fotolia. If those outlets can't sell a decent volume of your work, then the others won't either.

I looked at a few for keywords and you seem to have covered the basics reasonably well.

I don't want this to sound rude - I'm just trying to be helpful if your goal is to increase your returns from your portfolio - but you need to change the sorts of images you upload as stock if you want to sell more. Once your volume is decent at the top sellers, uploading elsewhere to add a little to the monthly total will make a better return on your time spent uploading to additional sites.

Stock isn't just about being able to take quality images; you need to offer things designers can use in their ads, web sites, corporate reports, etc.

There are quite a few topics here about the differences between stock and artistic, portrait, event or other types of photography if you aren't sure what direction makes best sense for you.

Good luck.

rinderart · « **Reply #6 on:** October 01, 2018, 00:21 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on September 29, 2018, 21:34

I had a look at the first 10 or so pages of your SS portfolio of non-editorial images just to get an idea of how you could possibly only be selling $7 a month with 1,500 images - is that really what you meant? Did you mean $7 a day?

My suggestion is that you don't upload your current portfolio to more agencies. The two with the highest volume (currently) are SS and Adobe/Fotolia. If those outlets can't sell a decent volume of your work, then the others won't either.

I looked at a few for keywords and you seem to have covered the basics reasonably well.

I don't want this to sound rude - I'm just trying to be helpful if your goal is to increase your returns from your portfolio - but you need to change the sorts of images you upload as stock if you want to sell more. Once your volume is decent at the top sellers, uploading elsewhere to add a little to the monthly total will make a better return on your time spent uploading to additional sites.

Stock isn't just about being able to take quality images; you need to offer things designers can use in their ads, web sites, corporate reports, etc.

There are quite a few topics here about the differences between stock and artistic, portrait, event or other types of photography if you aren't sure what direction makes best sense for you.

Good luck.

Well said. said the same a few 100 Times.

aitor · « **Reply #7 on:** October 01, 2018, 01:27 »

Thank you very much Jo Ann Snover for your sincere comment, you are absolutely right in the world. Until now I was not clear about what I wanted to do in photography and I have been trying everything. I'm working hard but of course, not focused and that shows in the results. It's like I'm chopping stone with a toy hammer.

I'm going to try for a while to take stock-centered photos and see if it shows in sales before I get involved with another agency, thanks.

HappyBunny · « **Reply #8 on:** October 01, 2018, 02:41 »

I thought people photos are the big sellers. If you don't sell well on SS or Adobe it's a waste of time.

aitor · « **Reply #9 on:** October 01, 2018, 06:42 »

Yes, I have photos of people "fashion" style but they doesn't sell anything.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 01, 2018, 10:00 »

Quote from: HappyBunny on October 01, 2018, 02:41

I thought people photos are the big sellers. If you don't sell well on SS or Adobe it's a waste of time.

They are but the competition is intense and is where many of the "professionals" concentrate. I gave up shooting models as the return on investment wasn't enough at my level of ability.

pucko · « **Reply #11 on:** October 05, 2018, 06:32 »

Maybe you ask yourself who will buy this photos and for what. That's essential in that business I think, I'm sorry, maybe my answer hurt you, but when you start to try think in advance and you have target your selling will increase, I hope. Look at news and magazines what stock pictures they use.
I said because you are not bad, you just need better themes

aitor · « **Reply #12 on:** October 05, 2018, 06:36 »

Thank you! it does not bother me, I think it's the truth. I'm preparing photos with themes to see if I improve

Clair Voyant · « **Reply #13 on:** October 05, 2018, 11:07 »

Quote from: rinderart on October 01, 2018, 00:21

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on September 29, 2018, 21:34
I had a look at the first 10 or so pages of your SS portfolio of non-editorial images just to get an idea of how you could possibly only be selling $7 a month with 1,500 images - is that really what you meant? Did you mean $7 a day?

My suggestion is that you don't upload your current portfolio to more agencies. The two with the highest volume (currently) are SS and Adobe/Fotolia. If those outlets can't sell a decent volume of your work, then the others won't either.

I looked at a few for keywords and you seem to have covered the basics reasonably well.

I don't want this to sound rude - I'm just trying to be helpful if your goal is to increase your returns from your portfolio - but you need to change the sorts of images you upload as stock if you want to sell more. Once your volume is decent at the top sellers, uploading elsewhere to add a little to the monthly total will make a better return on your time spent uploading to additional sites.

Stock isn't just about being able to take quality images; you need to offer things designers can use in their ads, web sites, corporate reports, etc.

There are quite a few topics here about the differences between stock and artistic, portrait, event or other types of photography if you aren't sure what direction makes best sense for you.

Good luck.

Well said. said the same a few 100 Times.

I find it amazing how so many of todays stock photographers have no clue of what stock photography is.

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Author Topic: Which agency to choose as my fourth to collaborate? (Read 5006 times)

aitor

christopherj

aitor

davidbautista

Brasilnut

Jo Ann Snover

rinderart

aitor

HappyBunny

aitor

Pauws99

pucko

aitor

Clair Voyant

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