Author Topic: uploading to multiple sites or not? (Read 18491 times)

malamus · « **on:** September 20, 2009, 14:44 »

hi all, this is my first thread here, and I hope you can be of some help

I've started uploading to multiple micro stock sites rather than just the one, hoping to increase income. One site, that will remain anonymous, uses a subscription program, and as a result drives higher downloads, but less income per download.

My question is, (as many of you will have experience), will uploading the same images to rival sites damage my downloads revenue. ie. My images will be available cheeper else where.

What is your theory on this

Matt

MicrostockExp · « **Reply #1 on:** September 20, 2009, 14:54 »

I recommend uploading to several sites for a year to see which ones are working for you as it is difficult to predict. Then you can focus on the best one s trying to make images especially for them
Good luck
L

malamus · « **Reply #2 on:** September 20, 2009, 15:01 »

A thought I had was to upload to sites which give me a higher royalty, then 6months later or whenever, upload them to the sites which give less comission. Does this work for anyone?

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #3 on:** September 20, 2009, 15:03 »

I guess there are so many available photos that buyers won't bother to search for your pictures on another site. If your picture is not on a site, they'd buy another picture instead.

So I would suggest that you upload to multiple sites not to lose possible sales. Concentrate on major sites though, as the others are a waste of time most of the time.

cascoly · « **Reply #4 on:** September 22, 2009, 13:23 »

with a few exceptions, buyers search for particular images, not photographers; there's also little overlap in custmer bases - people satisfied with one subscription service dont need to check the other sites. so you're not competing with yourself as mch qas with the millions of other images available

so it's more helpful to have your images on as many sites as possible. yu then need t weigh that benefit agaisnt the cost of upl to each site to see which ones are worth your effort.

steve

stockastic · « **Reply #5 on:** September 22, 2009, 14:58 »

You will very likely find out that some of these sites are a waste of time, or aren't properly run, causing you to want to close your account. And in some cases that is a real pain, requring you to tediously delete your images one by one. Other sites won't remove your images for a period of up to 6 months after you request your account to be closed.

My advice is to check out the "close account" rules and procedures before starting with a site.

Pixart · « **Reply #6 on:** September 22, 2009, 18:57 »

Quote from: stockastic on September 22, 2009, 14:58

You will very likely find out that some of these sites are a waste of time, or aren't properly run, causing you to want to close your account. And in some cases that is a real pain, requring you to tediously delete your images one by one. Other sites won't remove your images for a period of up to 6 months after you request your account to be closed.

My advice is to check out the "close account" rules and procedures before starting with a site.

Exactly! My opinion: upload to the top 4 sites at the same time (SS, DT, IS, FT) and if you have time on your hands the rest. StockXpert has potential, but we are all holding our breath to see what the new owners plan to do with it. The other sites won't yeild much, you have to decide what your time is worth because they earn only a very small fraction of the top 4. (Like one year combined on "the rest" = 4 or 5 weeks on the "top 4").

loop · « **Reply #7 on:** September 22, 2009, 19:08 »

I'm happy uploading just to one microstock site: my RPI is very healthy and it comes with the to upload to other well known macro sites..

sharpshot · « **Reply #8 on:** September 23, 2009, 01:53 »

The more sites I upload to, the more money I make but I did wait until I was making regular payouts with the top 4 sites. The only one I regret so far is albumo but they paid me to upload and after 400 days I had my portfolio removed. Now I check smaller sites contact details and read some of the small print before uploading.

malamus · « **Reply #9 on:** September 24, 2009, 17:34 »

Thanks people, by multipul sites, I meant I'm quite new, was with IS for 6 months before also using SS, DT, FT. these are all the sites that im with. FT and DT are very slow tho, compaired to IS, whats the deal ith that? SS is doing nicely

studioportosabbia · « **Reply #10 on:** September 25, 2009, 18:19 »

My advice is uploading to multiple sites: some site reject files that become bestsellers on others. Some sites have unlimited uploads, other limit you to 5, 10 etc a day. There are also geographical benefits: people in Europe would prefer an European based agency, Americans pick and American etc etc. Too bad my Chinese is still very poor. I read somewhere that this is a booming market:)

Perry · « **Reply #11 on:** October 15, 2009, 11:09 »

Quote from: malamus on September 20, 2009, 15:01

A thought I had was to upload to sites which give me a higher royalty, then 6months later or whenever, upload them to the sites which give less comission.

Time is money. You loose 6 months of sales with that method. I usually send my images to the sites with low sales monthly.

melastmohican · « **Reply #12 on:** October 15, 2009, 12:40 »

If you invest the number one advice you will hear is diversification. Same here if you upload to one agency and something goes wrong you loose everything otherwise others will compensate your loses. At the beginning I would stick to top 6 agencies which gives you best chance to see results and do not get discouraged quickly. Smaller or newer agencies often offer better rates and smoother work flow but no return. When you establish yourself in top 6 you can try some of these up and coming later.

PixelBitch · « **Reply #13 on:** October 15, 2009, 15:44 »

From the point of view of a long time stock photographer...

When RF came along us RM guys bitched and complained...then joined in. Now the same situation has arisen with Microstock biting into low end and some middle range RF sales.

The new strategy I follow is

RM only to Corbis and Getty

High end RF through a distributor like Blend or Tetra who place RF non exclusive everywhere...it's not really worth it to give one agency exclusivity with RF

Non similars and outakes to Micro, and low production value, low budget shoots also to Micro. Prices do not justify the same effort and investment as RM or high end RF. Never, ever become exclusive to one Micro site...it will cripple your career in my view. I know iStock offer a path to Getty...but that is what is making some of us long term Getty shooters look elsewhere...they load the site with similars from iStock Exclusive and Flickr, but castigate us regular shooters for even submitting more than one in a series.

Put what you have on every Micro site you can get accepted by and see what sales pattern emerges...I have up to 275 images on 11 of them...some are an ordeal to upload and submit to...others, like Veer MP and Shutterstock, are a dream.

So far almost 300 downloads on Shutterstock and sales on Dreamstime, iStock, Veer, Fotolia and 123rf....will give it until April and see who sells well or reasonably then start dumping a few.

I think to start making decent income from Micro a portfolio of 1000+ images and regular submissions are needed...I shoot good looking people in a clean and friendly manner...and it looks like they will sell OK. Have put a little thought into becoming a generic cube farm type big MS producer but would go insane.

Hope this helps people out there.

ljupco · « **Reply #14 on:** October 16, 2009, 02:23 »

My personal opinion is if you are really interested in doing this seriously, go ahead and upload to several sites, but if you are doing this as a hobby, save your time by uploading to only one site. You'll have more time for shooting and editing this way.

lisafx · « **Reply #15 on:** October 16, 2009, 09:07 »

Quote from: PixelBitch on October 15, 2009, 15:44

I think to start making decent income from Micro a portfolio of 1000+ images and regular submissions are needed...I shoot good looking people in a clean and friendly manner...and it looks like they will sell OK. Have put a little thought into becoming a generic cube farm type big MS producer but would go insane.

Very interesting post Pixelbitch (BTW, love your screen name - wish I had thought of it

) Thanks for sharing your perspective on the industry.

I especially can relate to what you said about "becoming a generic cube farm type big MS producer". Although I don't know what a "cube farm" is, I get the gist.

I feel the same way. At times I think I am missing the boat by not shooting the "Yuri style" of images, but OTOH he has pretty much cornered that market, and what sales slip through his fingers are already snapped up by his scores of imitators.

ITLR it is probably better for each of us to develop our own style that finds its own market, rather than mimicking someone else and picking up the crumbs from their table.

traveler1116 · « **Reply #16 on:** October 16, 2009, 09:31 »

Be careful if you upload to Bigstock you cannot take your images off for 90 days and if you upload to Dreamstime you cannot take your images off for 6 months (180 days!) no matter how they change from when you uploaded there. For example if DT lowers their commission from 50% to 30% for a vast majority of your sales you cannot take your images down, this does happen too. Hopefully Bigstock will change their policy because SS bought them and doesn't have this holding images hostage policy. DT will not change and do not care if their policies have significantly changed from when the images were uploaded. This is something to consider if you ever decide to go exclusive with IS or want to leave MS for any reason. My feeling is that if you upload to SS then you should upload to 123RF and IS also and maybe Bigstock (90 days doesnt seem like so long compared to 180). Also DT has subscription sales for 35 cents (less than at SS for me, not sure about you) and Fotolia has them for 31 cents and both sites get nowhere near the volume.

craiguglinica · « **Reply #17 on:** October 16, 2009, 12:58 »

Hey Traveler1116,
Do you think it is wast of time adding to stockxpert(StockXpert). My feeling is they will be out of picture soon and by the looks of it soon.

sharpshot · « **Reply #18 on:** October 16, 2009, 14:24 »

My sales with StockXpert are as good as they have ever been. I can't see a reason to stop uploading there. The worst case scenario is that they close and I have wasted about 5 minutes a week uploading. Crestock concerns me more, they are taking longer and longer to pay out. Why isn't there more forum speculation about them?

ibogdan · « **Reply #19 on:** October 16, 2009, 17:52 »

Seems like nobody cares about Crestock like they (Crestock team) don't care about us. After a while, I stopped uploading there, they have weird random rejections (a lot, on good images), very few sales and a very low commission. Lately I've read on their forum, there are a lot of photographers and illustrators waiting weeks even months for their requested money. Is there anybody uploading on Crestock anymore?

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #20 on:** October 16, 2009, 18:49 »

Quote from: lisafx on October 16, 2009, 09:07

Quote from: PixelBitch on October 15, 2009, 15:44

I think to start making decent income from Micro a portfolio of 1000+ images and regular submissions are needed...I shoot good looking people in a clean and friendly manner...and it looks like they will sell OK. Have put a little thought into becoming a generic cube farm type big MS producer but would go insane.

Very interesting post Pixelbitch (BTW, love your screen name - wish I had thought of it ) Thanks for sharing your perspective on the industry.

I especially can relate to what you said about "becoming a generic cube farm type big MS producer". Although I don't know what a "cube farm" is, I get the gist.

I feel the same way. At times I think I am missing the boat by not shooting the "Yuri style" of images, but OTOH he has pretty much cornered that market, and what sales slip through his fingers are already snapped up by his scores of imitators.

ITLR it is probably better for each of us to develop our own style that finds its own market, rather than mimicking someone else and picking up the crumbs from their table.

I too relate to what y'all are saying. Though I am in the little fish category, I am learning pretty fast. I came to microstock as more of a landscape,wildlife,nature photographer. I read all the posts about that stuff not selling. I started shooting products (isolations) and a few people images (family). It wasn't much fun. Then, my nature stuff started to sell better'n the isolations. I'm back to doing what I like. It seems that taking better pictures is much easier when you enjoy what you are doing.

Also, by submitting to multiple sites, rejections at one are selling well at others. The reviewers create a bit of variety in my portfolio. This fish is growing.

craiguglinica · « **Reply #21 on:** October 16, 2009, 19:56 »

Thanks for the report on StockXpert. I guess I will try to keep plugging along there also. I think something funny is going to happen with them. And it is funny that StockXpert site is almost identical to Stock.xchng. Being so new to the game I should just shut up and back to work. Thanks

PixelBitch · « **Reply #22 on:** October 16, 2009, 23:35 »

The most important thing is not to lose yourself in producing lots of images...you are right to say that doing what you love is important...and if you do that then it will grow. I've tried both approaches and am a lot happier not overproducing. BTW...when I said cube farm I meant like being stuck in an office cubicle doing the same repetitive tasks day after day...which is what some contributors work looks like...amazing consistency...thousands of images yet they all look the same save a different model in them here and there.

Quote from: WarrenPrice on October 16, 2009, 18:49

Quote from: lisafx on October 16, 2009, 09:07
Quote from: PixelBitch on October 15, 2009, 15:44

I think to start making decent income from Micro a portfolio of 1000+ images and regular submissions are needed...I shoot good looking people in a clean and friendly manner...and it looks like they will sell OK. Have put a little thought into becoming a generic cube farm type big MS producer but would go insane.

Very interesting post Pixelbitch (BTW, love your screen name - wish I had thought of it ) Thanks for sharing your perspective on the industry.

I especially can relate to what you said about "becoming a generic cube farm type big MS producer". Although I don't know what a "cube farm" is, I get the gist.

I feel the same way. At times I think I am missing the boat by not shooting the "Yuri style" of images, but OTOH he has pretty much cornered that market, and what sales slip through his fingers are already snapped up by his scores of imitators.

ITLR it is probably better for each of us to develop our own style that finds its own market, rather than mimicking someone else and picking up the crumbs from their table.

I too relate to what y'all are saying. Though I am in the little fish category, I am learning pretty fast. I came to microstock as more of a landscape,wildlife,nature photographer. I read all the posts about that stuff not selling. I started shooting products (isolations) and a few people images (family). It wasn't much fun. Then, my nature stuff started to sell better'n the isolations. I'm back to doing what I like. It seems that taking better pictures is much easier when you enjoy what you are doing.

Also, by submitting to multiple sites, rejections at one are selling well at others. The reviewers create a bit of variety in my portfolio. This fish is growing.

traveler1116 · « **Reply #23 on:** October 17, 2009, 09:12 »

Quote from: sharpshot on October 16, 2009, 14:24

My sales with StockXpert are as good as they have ever been. I can't see a reason to stop uploading there. The worst case scenario is that they close and I have wasted about 5 minutes a week uploading. Crestock concerns me more, they are taking longer and longer to pay out. Why isn't there more forum speculation about them?

I got my one payment from them after having two images picked to be free wallpaper images (I only said yes to one), but now that image is all of the internet being given away for free and used by tons of people in their blog, needless to say I will not give anymore images away for free ever again. They were a fairly responsive company when it came to my questions but that doesn't seem to be most peoples experience. They sell subs for 25 cents too, so I'm fine being done with them.
StockXpert hasn't gone down yet but I have also stopped uploading to them because I don't see them as being worth the effort as soon as photos.com and jupiter images are gone. Who knows what will happen in the near future but it won't be better than it is now and likely will be worse. I'd be worried that for a newbie uploading to StockXpert you may never reach a payout if things change drastically, but if you have a good port and lots of images go for it, you can always delete them very fast (about 500 times faster than DT and there are no stupid 6 month lockins).

lisafx · « **Reply #24 on:** October 17, 2009, 11:54 »

Quote from: PixelBitch on October 16, 2009, 23:35

The most important thing is not to lose yourself in producing lots of images...you are right to say that doing what you love is important...and if you do that then it will grow. I've tried both approaches and am a lot happier not overproducing. BTW...when I said cube farm I meant like being stuck in an office cubicle doing the same repetitive tasks day after day...which is what some contributors work looks like...amazing consistency...thousands of images yet they all look the same save a different model in them here and there.

Ah - I never heard that expression. But you are right - I would be bored to the point of scratching my eyes out if I had to look at essentially the same images day in day out by the hundreds or thousands. Never had any desire to do factory work and that includes running an image factory.

Quote from: WarrenPrice on October 16, 2009, 18:49

I came to microstock as more of a landscape,wildlife,nature photographer. I read all the posts about that stuff not selling. I started shooting products (isolations) and a few people images (family). It wasn't much fun. Then, my nature stuff started to sell better'n the isolations. I'm back to doing what I like. It seems that taking better pictures is much easier when you enjoy what you are doing.

^^ So true! (emphasis added by me)

It's good news for you that the images you enjoy taking are outselling the ones you forced yourself to take. Sounds like you will be a lot happier

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Author Topic: uploading to multiple sites or not? (Read 18491 times)

malamus

MicrostockExp

malamus

microstockphoto.co.uk

cascoly

stockastic

Pixart

loop

sharpshot

malamus

studioportosabbia

Perry

melastmohican

PixelBitch

ljupco

lisafx

traveler1116

craiguglinica

sharpshot

ibogdan

WarrenPrice

craiguglinica

PixelBitch

traveler1116

lisafx

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