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Author Topic: Opinions On My Progress  (Read 6922 times)

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FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« on: June 30, 2013, 19:54 »
0
Hi,

As a relative newbie I was interested on people's opinions on how I am going compared to 'the norm'. If that wasnt too much to ask!

So as dot points:

- Been with Shutterstock, iStock, CanStock, 123RF, Alamy, DepositPhotos, Dreamstime and Fotolia for 3 months.

- I have between 180 and 240 images approved and online with all agencies. Shutterstock has lowest at 180 and Alamy the most.

- I had about a 60% approval rating and I have raised this to around 80% on all agencies. Alamy approve everything.

- I have 156 downloads with Shutterstock and by far the biggest with Fotolia next on 34. Only 11 on iStock

-Revenue wise its about $120 on Shutterstock, $45 on iStock and about $300 on all agencies. None with Alamy.

-I have 90% used images I had already and these are mostly travel images

My ShutterStock gallery is here:

http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?gallery_id=1500320

I have a rough aim to get to 2000 images and try to earn at least enough to replace my 5D2 a with a 3 etc.

Obviously this game is A LOT of work when it comes to prepping images. I am now moving into lots of skylines. Some I have shot recently and some odler. Removing logos and editing pretty time consuming. I havent gone into a total conceptual frame of mind yet mainly because im wanting to post what I already have. I have thousands more to go thru. Id estimate 1000 images possible worth of submission still.

How have others gone in this time frame. I feel im about average to be honest. iStock is high revenue and low downloads. Thing going some images exclusive with them might help

Cheers

Chris


steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2013, 20:02 »
0
I would say you are doing OK. Your images look clean and bright, nice subjects. It took me 5 months to get to $300 back in 2008 and I think it is tougher now. I've just been calculating my own earnings, and, apart from Shutterstock doing OK, the rest are down - maybe because of that Google image change that probably means a lot more people just take the image off the web and use it, but I think the smaller sites are struggling to maintain the earnings.

So, keep it up

Steve

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2013, 20:07 »
0
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I was on iStock around then but never took it super seriously. I think years of travelling and having images on my PC doing nothing sorted me out. Its certainly not an easy market but obviously pays off for some. Like all photography. I reckon corporate photography is the only way to make pretty easy money now.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2013, 20:10 »
0
Yes, I've just posted my earnings. Definitely enough to buy the 5D, but still not as good as I would like to see in June. We are entering a slower part of the year, so it is always good to get the money under my belt before I get into the vacation season!

Steve

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2013, 20:23 »
0
Ah I was wondering if things slow down or not. Guess its still worth uploading at same rate. Where do you post your progress reports?

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2013, 20:28 »
0
Mainly on my blog site - BackyardSilver.com, but I've just started a post on earnings on this site.

Steve

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2013, 20:36 »
0
Ah awesome thanks. There goes today's productivity at work:)

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2013, 20:37 »
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Its also worth mentioning that your book was the kick start I needed to take stock seriously. So many thanks fro writing.

« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2013, 20:39 »
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Its also worth mentioning that your book was the kick start I needed to take stock seriously. So many thanks fro writing.

YAY! :D

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2013, 21:02 »
0
Awesome presentation of your earnings. Im just maintaining this manually at present. When you are starting out last thing you want to do is dish out more cash. Dont mind later on but right now.

No Lightburner is a killer. I setup multiple FTP uploads with Filezilla (no upload limit as such) and find 1in 5 files mis transfers and has lines across it. Very frustrating. Easier manually uploading to 8 libraries. Must find another program or setting change.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2013, 21:28 »
0
Thanks for your kind comments about my book! Glad it inspired you!

I'm getting by without Lightburner. I found their new prices to high and unknown (in terms of how much I needed each month), and so I have been using Filezilla (which works fine for me) and also I'm trying Stockuploader and working with the developer to fix an issue where it runs slowly on my machine. More later on that.

I'm also putting a lot of effort into my Symbio site (link below) which I think will turn out to be a good move in the future.

Good luck and keep at it!

steve

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2013, 21:54 »
0
Ah brilliant an alternative. Once again you come thru with the goods. Thanks once again.

« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2013, 01:23 »
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You're doing way better than me. I've made almost 300 dollars on all agencies as well but it tooks me 6 months and I had a lot more downloads than yours. You seem to be getting bigger sales.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2013, 01:26 by morning.light »

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2013, 02:46 »
+1
Yeah I have 4 $30-40 photo sales that make up half. Most of course are the 0.25 Shutterstock sales. Oddly 3 of the 4 big sales came within one hour all on different sites. Whats the chances of that?!

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2013, 03:20 »
0
You're doing way better than me. I've made almost 300 dollars on all agencies as well but it tooks me 6 months and I had a lot more downloads than yours. You seem to be getting bigger sales.
I also noticed that. $45 for 11 sales for an indie on iStock is super good nowadays when it's really difficult for new files to get views far less sales, esp in the past six months. But of course, now the prices for Main collection files have been slashed. Time will tell if dls make up for it, I'm not holding my breath.

« Reply #15 on: July 01, 2013, 07:33 »
0
You're doing way better than me. I've made almost 300 dollars on all agencies as well but it tooks me 6 months and I had a lot more downloads than yours. You seem to be getting bigger sales.
I also noticed that. $45 for 11 sales for an indie on iStock is super good nowadays when it's really difficult for new files to get views far less sales, esp in the past six months. But of course, now the prices for Main collection files have been slashed. Time will tell if dls make up for it, I'm not holding my breath.

1 EL for sure

gillian vann

  • *Gillian*
« Reply #16 on: July 02, 2013, 05:16 »
0
i think you're doing really well! i've got just under 400 images on SS and only just starting cracking $100/month last month, after a year at it. I was pretty happy with myself too, lol.  your work is lovely, keep going!


FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #17 on: July 02, 2013, 19:38 »
0
Thanks everyone. Certainly will keep pushing. So much to learn with this industry. Got to be more conceptual and work out timing of images too. For example kids and Christmas images going up in September.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #18 on: July 02, 2013, 20:59 »
0
I sold my first christmas image today, funnily enough:


Happy holidays to you all!

Steve

PS - the first time I submitted this to SS, they rejected for no property release for the artwork! Luckily an appeal got it passed that step.

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #19 on: July 02, 2013, 21:31 »
0
Ha nice one! yeah i find the reasons odd. I tend to just move on and not worry about it as your book suggests:) On SS I got a 'Modern Buildings / Architecture Modern architecture / buildings can be copyrighted like any other artwork.' So i took a photo of a public bridge that looks modern. So what. Tempted to just resubmit. Its not property managed either.

« Reply #20 on: July 07, 2013, 01:10 »
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Hi FiledImage

I am a newbie too. Much greener than you though. I am constantly humbled by the beautiful work I see through this forum and the kind and honest sharing of info.

Your portfolio is beautiful and I look forward to remembering to check back and see how you develop.

You asked for progress reports from other newbies. Here is mine:

- about three months for me - just casually seeing where things may go.  Lots of breaks and just fiddling around between family demands.
- only really uploaded to Shutterstock so far but a few on Dreamstime (but only a few downloads of my Ss best seller)
- I currently have 120 images on Shutterstock and about 200 downloads there. A princely grand total $100 (one EL).
- most of my uploads are from my existing library which, like you, I have built up over some years. I can't use most of it because of the lack of model releases and I have lots of images of kids. Wish I had shot more raw though but in the old days megabytes where expensive and CF cards hard to buy in  parts of the world I once lived in
- about a 5050 acceptance success rate but need to go back and get rid of trademarks etc of the failed ones. Assessors are tough but I accept that
- mostly outdoor stuff for me as I am not good at working the light and I am blessed to live in a good climate
- am discovering editorials may be a way to go as I have a large library of that sort of stuff. Def the editorials are accepted way easier than the commercial in terms of lighting!

I found immediate failure with IStock so gave up. I need to maybe revisit and look at others like alamy.

My portfolio is here:

newbielink:http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?gallery_id=1450556 [nonactive]

I will keep on plugging away. I think I am happy with where I am in terms of what I have learnt so far.  I like how an image stands on its own merits in this industry and one doesn't need to sell oneself with it. Yes, agree, it is lots of work initially but I am getting more efficient and should move away from single uploads.

Sounds like I should read the book you mention. Love this forum too and need to learn more about the way of the stock world. Thanks for your feedback and good luck.

Eka


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #21 on: July 07, 2013, 05:16 »
0
I found immediate failure with IStock so gave up. I need to maybe revisit and look at others like alamy.
Depending on the reason for failure, it may be worth trying again. Things are changing re what they accept, though I suspect a Plot of some sort.

gillian vann

  • *Gillian*
« Reply #22 on: July 07, 2013, 05:55 »
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Thanks everyone. Certainly will keep pushing. So much to learn with this industry. Got to be more conceptual and work out timing of images too. For example kids and Christmas images going up in September.
last year was my first real Christmas and I got caught out by uploading a bit late with some stuff - although I did take note of advice here and shoot one series of xmas stuff at the beach in Sept, which sold very well. Curiously, I am still selling xmas images at least once a week, which surprises me as it's aussie beach/summer xmas, not cliched northern hemisphere xmas.

I find it hard to make winter images as i'm usually too cold to be bothered with photography. That's the curse of being a wussy tropical Australian. :) I'm going to NZ in September and I'm planning on taking a bauble so i can make some winter xmas images, so I can have both type of images in my port. (that's the plan, although it may fall apart as there are many great wine regions in NZ too)

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #23 on: July 09, 2013, 08:27 »
0
Ekrawrecker and Gillian. You have some great portfolios. Way more conceptual than me. Ekra, your sales stats are pretty good. Thats like 2 sales for every image. Im about 1 to 1.

Really interesting seeing how this odd industry is working out for others. Thanks for the info

FiledIMAGE

  • Freelance Photgrapher based in Melbourne Australia

« Reply #24 on: July 10, 2013, 20:56 »
0
Do you guys sometimes have a really bad stretch of approvals. Ive been  getting my approvals up to 80% lately. Submitted maybe 30 images and got 10 approved with Shutterstock. Ouch. I admit some a re a bit borderline for various reasons. Some are plain right crazy fine stock images. Is this just down to one approver having a bad day. Might resubmit some later on.

On a better note im having my best week. Just a month ago I was getting 20 downloads a week. Thats now gone to $40 and im getting one big sale ($30 sale) a week seemingly.

Its amazing how sales make you want to try harder and bad approvals in one batch hurt so bad


 

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