Just check the poll results on the right. Higher up the list, the more sales people get on average. Pond5 might be an exception for you, as most of their sales are from footage... but Shutterstock and Adobe would make sense to try. Maybe 123RF and Dreamstime as well.

And is it problematic to sell the same image on one macrostock site while also selling it on a microstock site?

It depends on the licensing conditions...midstock/macrostock agencies may want exclusivity. If not exclusive you cannot legally license RM at midstock/macro and RF at micros.

BTW - Most of my work is landscape, I dont expect to to be a big seller, its probably not that commercial.

It depends on how unique they are, if you can provide a link with a sample that would be helpful for me/us to judge better on their marketability.

whose good, whose bad?

Some images are better suited to some agencies so difficult to say exactly. I have lists of microstock/midstock agencies on my blog but won't dare say who's good or bad, just how much they give in commission and types of images that they specialise in (more relevant to Midstock 'boutiques'). It appears that Adobe Stock is up and coming so i'd probably focus your energies on them, along with Shutterstock and Alamy (editorial) - that's what I'm doing.

Good luck, it's tough out there and applaud you for your enthusiasm, remember it's a marathon not a sprint!

It depends on how unique they are, if you can provide a link with a sample that would be helpful for me/us to judge better on their marketability.

Here you go

newbielink:https://www.flickr.com/photos/mushroomgod/ [nonactive]

I would say though - this is the work I personally like doing. I have a backlog of sunny days/sunset/more general shots that have never seen the light of day.

Good luck, it's tough out there and applaud you for your enthusiasm, remember it's a marathon not a sprint!

Im pretty pessimistic about the whole thing. I don't expect to make much of anything, and Ill be happy with some beer money! but at the same time, seems like a potential missed opportunity not to upload them to a few places just to see what happens

They are very good pics. They don't have an obvious market for MS to me...but as I said before put em up for sale and find out ...if they don't all you've lost is a bit of time. Some might sell as wall art on the likes of FAA.

Yeah, totally agree. I think the stuff that I dont post probably has much more potential, but at the same time is quite generic (is that good/bad, I dunno).

The more "arty" stuff has more potential in places like FAA...Well, thats what I suspect anyway.

I have another avenue that I think does give me some good potential to earn money though stock and thats CGI. Most of the CG work I see on stock sites I could do better in my sleep. But thats a hard sell currently as work in that area (its my day job) keeps me busy enough already. And not sure I could find the time to do stuff outside of it.

These are very nice. If I were you I'd head more down the art/print and RM route. And establish yourself as a brand. You have a unique style.

I wouldn't put them in micro. I don't think they would sell in quantity so find a good macro site to work with where the higher price will make up for the low sales volume. A buyer who connects with your style will be willing to pay more money. As in hundreds of dollars. I just licensed a cityscape image for $400 and the business had no problem paying it.

Plus, if you're offering these images in micro and as prints, you'll be competing against yourself. Buyers price shop. If you have an 8x10 print listed somewhere for $50 and the buyer finds the image on micro for $5 and can print it at Walgreens for $2, why would they buy your print for $50? Answer is they won't and you'll get 50 cents instead of $25.

I was surprised at how many print buyers price shop. I was also surprised at how many interior designers use micro. They buy an image for a couple dollars, mark it up a few hundred dollars, and use it to sell a print to their client. And you get a few cents. When I pulled my landscape/cityscape stuff from micro I had quite a few buyers contact me directly asking me what happened to the image on the micro site and that they urgently needed it for a client project. When I started asking questions about what they planned to use the image for I was disgusted with the answers. Big money being made of which I had been getting peanuts.

My landscape/cityscape stuff I now only sell as RM and prints. Stuff like food, tech, and snapshots I leave in micro.

You have talent. Best of fortune to you.

"They buy an image for a couple dollars, mark it up a few hundred dollars, and use it to sell a print to their client."

Obviously against the license agreement though, yes?

But pretty much unpoliceable - unfindoutable unless in Paulie's exact circumstances.

Hi all, cheers again for all the good feedback - with regards to MS, I think im sold on the idea of uploading some of my more commercial work - Most of which is pretty generic and would fall into editorial.



With regards to my personal work (as per my link) I think you're righ - MS is probably a non starter. this quote though....

Look into Arcangel images as some of your images could be covers of books, also Trevillion seems interesting.

....has me thinking. Both of those examples are right up my street I think, and personally (assuming I can get in with them) I think my arty/landscape work would sit well on their sites. If anyone knows any other agencies who are similar Id love to hear them!.

And again, cheers for the help!

Great pictures. Looks like they belong on somewhere like Stocksy or the higher priced RF agencies - keep an eye out for when they're recruiting.