Although a long time macro stock guy, I'm new to this micro business and just wanted to share a few observations and see what experiences fellow newbies are having.

First uploads were in late September, now have several hundred nice enough people images on 15 sites. From looking around the sites I would say that my portfolio has a narrow focus compared to most...many contributors have still life, landscapes, backgrounds as well as people.

Shutterstock...they are wiping the floor with everyone else for sales, both subs and On Demand. 62 percent of images have made a sale...some several dozen times. 614 images to date, 999 downloads in 10 weeks.

Dreamstime...second place...only a few cents ahead of iStock but 4 times as many images.

iStock...3rd place...only 144 in port so far...second highest average sale. Thank the Lord for DeepMeta as their upload system is arduous.

Veer...4th place...slow but the highest average sale...high hopes for them as their site is great

Fotolia...5th place...a disappointment for me, do not come through yet as they seem to for others...can't get the hang of their categories and the keyword priority system is a pain...would be further ahead financially had I not bought the Starbucks lattes I needed to keep myself awake while submitting.

123rf...6th place not far behind Fotolia...same number of sales but a little less money.

BigStock...lacklustre...others swear by this site...I swear at it.

CanStock...only joined 3 weeks ago and a few sales already...most people seem disappointed by them but they seem off to a reasonable start for me.

No sales at all yet on others but am persisting...will give it 6 months and see where to keep uploading.

What are other artists finding? What strategies do you follow? Is it better to focus on one area or spread your wings to other types of images?

I'll look into Stockxpert...thanks for the pointer...the reason I've not done so yet is the uncertainty now Getty own Jupiter...a few people seem to be concerned for the future of StockXpert.

stockxpert? will certainly do better than 123rf, bs or canstock combined. sometimes will even beat ds or fotolia.

i don't think any particular category excels. i see so many people images with 0 downloads across the board and i wonder why. i think you just need to do the category really well. a good picture sells a thousands times.

I'll look into Stockxpert...thanks for the pointer...the reason I've not done so yet is the uncertainty now Getty own Jupiter...a few people seem to be concerned for the future of StockXpert.

Yeah, things are a little uncertain over there right now. But the doom-and-gloom vibe has been around for a few months now and despite the negativity, sales are still rocking. I'm still uploading regularly and StockXpert is pretty consistently in my top 3 or 4 sites for sales each month.

Thanks for the heads up...I've read the comments on Crestock for a few weeks now and deleted my pending images a while back...this morning's news about the new Getty sub site does not seem like it makes uploading to StockXpert worth the trouble...just got approved this morning.

It's looking doom and gloomy for Crestock too - getting my payouts once every 3 months instead of once a month is a huge red flag.  I'm glad they're not a major part of my income. 

If stockxpert goes that will be a huge loss.  Getty would be foolish to lose them, as the most popular free site, http://sxc.hu points right to it as "premium search results" when designers are trying to find a certain image.  Brand identity/awareness is well established with the stockxpert/xchange brands.  Never met another designer who wasn't already familiar with them.

Thanks ap...much appreciated. I just did the first upload to them today through iSyndica...very fast to submit once the images are there...I have quite a queue waiting with their 25 a day limit.

Guess it's worth a try...you seem to do well with them...fingers crossed Getty don't kill them.

You are in California also...where abouts? I'm in the Bay Area.

it must be difficult to decide what to do with StockXpert, but i'm still getting ppd from them (even today). so far this month, they account for 12% of sales equaling ft+dt+cs+123 combined. i think everyone's port does differently, but i've been really lucky with them. 

also, their uploading is super fast, no need for categories.

This is a great part of the world to be...we are over the other side in San Rafael...beats . out of south London any day

i'm in the east bay!

 love the way downtown san rafael has evolved into a cool little town. the mill valley film fest is fab.