Author Topic: First month in (Read 7616 times)

raphoto · « **on:** May 23, 2017, 14:13 »

Hi everyone!

So I recently decided to give this Microstock business a try and after 1 month I've had... mixed results.

With a portfolio of (give or take) 300 images I've had decent sales on Shutterstock, iStock, Adobe and even a few sales on Bigstock.

However I also uploaded the same images to: Alamy, Pond5, Depositphotos, 123RF, Dreamstime, Zoonar and Canstock and the grand total sales from these last 7 websites was: $ZERO

Is it even worth uploading to these sites where I haven't sold a single thing? Or am I doing something wrong?

Pauws99 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 23, 2017, 14:52 »

Some people's work can suit some of the smaller sites. I would say consider your own experience and also what else you would be spending them time on. e.g would you be earning more producing more work or uploading to a site that may not earn any $. Alamy in particular tends to be a different market and I think people who do well there tend to tailor their work to suit it.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #2 on:** May 23, 2017, 15:04 »

A month? After a week you should have been able to pay off your car. I'd quit.

dpimborough · « **Reply #3 on:** May 23, 2017, 15:18 »

Quote from: raphoto on May 23, 2017, 14:13

Hi everyone!

So I recently decided to give this Microstock business a try and after 1 month I've had... mixed results.

With a portfolio of (give or take) 300 images I've had decent sales on Shutterstock, iStock, Adobe and even a few sales on Bigstock.

However I also uploaded the same images to: Alamy, Pond5, Depositphotos, 123RF, Dreamstime, Zoonar and Canstock and the grand total sales from these last 7 websites was: $ZERO

Is it even worth uploading to these sites where I haven't sold a single thing? Or am I doing something wrong?

No it's not worth uploading anything to those sites you stay well clear of them you are much better off selling through SS/iStock/Adobe

I mean you could make like $30 to $50 per month with 300 images on SS/iStock/Adobe

raphoto · « **Reply #4 on:** May 23, 2017, 15:31 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on May 23, 2017, 15:04

A month? After a week you should have been able to pay off your car. I'd quit.

Thanks for your concern but my car's already paid off.

I'm not complaining that I didn't make any money or anything, in fact I'm pretty happy with the sales I've made on the first 4 sites I mentioned.

My question was just intended to see what everyone else's experience is with the websites where I haven't seen any sales to decide whether or not it's worth investing the time and effort to upload to them or just stick to the sites I'm more successful with.

HappyBunny · « **Reply #5 on:** May 23, 2017, 15:34 »

In my opinion they are not worth it.

raphoto · « **Reply #6 on:** May 23, 2017, 15:36 »

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #7 on:** May 23, 2017, 18:06 »

Depending on what's in your portfolio, I'd suggest you give Alamy a little longer. They don't sell in high volume, but the sales value is typically higher and so it can be worthwhile.

I wouldn't trust DepositPhotos with my work. I left CanStock, 123rf and BigStock because of low sales and dropping royalty rates. I have a small subset of work at Pond5, but I don't upload there any more as sales for photos are at best occasional. I have a portfolio at Dreamstime but they're circling the drain and I no longer upload (as they don't reduce the royalty rate when sales tank, I'm willing to let the existing work hang out).

My last 5 sales at Alamy netted about $95 a month (those are from April & May) - that's a reasonable low-end site to have for me. The only issue you'll face is that sales take a massively long time to clear, so you need to be patient...

JetCityImage · « **Reply #8 on:** May 23, 2017, 18:45 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on May 23, 2017, 15:04

A month? After a week you should have been able to pay off your car. I'd quit.

</sarcasm mode: on>

raphoto · « **Reply #9 on:** May 24, 2017, 01:37 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on May 23, 2017, 18:06

Depending on what's in your portfolio, I'd suggest you give Alamy a little longer. They don't sell in high volume, but the sales value is typically higher and so it can be worthwhile.

I wouldn't trust DepositPhotos with my work. I left CanStock, 123rf and BigStock because of low sales and dropping royalty rates. I have a small subset of work at Pond5, but I don't upload there any more as sales for photos are at best occasional. I have a portfolio at Dreamstime but they're circling the drain and I no longer upload (as they don't reduce the royalty rate when sales tank, I'm willing to let the existing work hang out).

My last 5 sales at Alamy netted about $95 a month (those are from April & May) - that's a reasonable low-end site to have for me. The only issue you'll face is that sales take a massively long time to clear, so you need to be patient...

Thanks Jo Ann, this is just the kind of reply I needed.

I'll do as you said and give Alamy some more time then. I might leave my current portfolio up at the lower end sites for now and see if I net any sales but I might stop uploading new images.

Mind if I ask you why you wouldn't trust Depositphotos with your images?

a and n · « **Reply #10 on:** May 24, 2017, 08:38 »

They're just a really shady company. Use the search engine on this site and look up posts on Depositphotos. They contribute to the mantra of selling your work for pennies.
I also wouldn't submit to Istock. Have you seen how much they pay per image? Sometime $0.04. It's ridiculous.

jonbull · « **Reply #11 on:** May 24, 2017, 08:45 »

still these useless image companies accept new contributor with 140 million file already and 1 million file added every week? that's a good idea when all professions trying to produce good content will give up, only part time photographer shooting friend and cat will fill their need 100%

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #12 on:** May 24, 2017, 16:45 »

Quote from: raphoto on May 24, 2017, 01:37

[Mind if I ask you why you wouldn't trust Depositphotos with your images?

They have a long history of saying one thing and doing another and pursuing shady deals of one sort or another. One of the biggest was in providing content to a web site for ShotShop where work was sold for high-ish prices but the DepositPhotos contributor was paid a subscription. That was bad enough, but they included portfolios that had opted out of partner sales, trying to justify it saying it wasn't a partnership but an API deal.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/depositphotos/the-german-shotshop-reseller-of-depositphotos/

When they first started, the fact that the company had previously been a file sharing site didn't inspire confidence. Then I received email asking me to upload my portfolio and offering a "deal". When I asked about that, the return email said I would get preferred search position and wouldn't have to start at the lowest rank. That seemed truly awful on two levels. 1. The buyer wants the best search results, not some loaded dice, and 2. you can't actually follow through on that promise with more than one person - what happens to my preferred placement when the next newbie is offered preferred placement too.

That combination of shady and stupid really turned me off, and every time I thought about changing my mind, there'd be another report of a problem (typically found here) and so I never ended up joining.