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Author Topic: Which Microstock?  (Read 2983 times)

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« on: January 06, 2014, 11:27 »
+2
Ok, I am going to ask my first newb question here. I hope this is the right forum to place it in.

I am looking for a good microstock company to get started in. What would you recommend and why? I found this forum while reading through reviews of Canstockphotos. It seems that they have a good following considering their slow payouts. What company would you suggest to a newb and why?

Erich


Goofy

« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2014, 11:30 »
+1
try these first-

Canstock
123RF
Depositphotos
Fotolia
Dreamstime
Alamy
Envato
Veer

Test the waters -if you get in that try Shutter and iStock

Do not be come exclusive to any single company....

« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2014, 11:49 »
0
Thats my next question, Goofy. I was planning on submitting to several. Being new to this, I am not sure of the legalalities are to havingyour photos on more than one company. I am assuming that  you hold all rights to  your photos, but  then, as I said, I am new.

Thank you for the list.

Erich

timd35

« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2014, 11:52 »
+2
I am relatively new and I am cutting my teeth on the following

Canstock
123RF
Dreamstime
iStock

I just started putting some of my more artsy work up on Fine Art America as well

I am also testing the waters trying to sell direct using Symbiostock.

I would say good luck but more apprpriately "work hard"   ;D

-Tim

Goofy

« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2014, 11:53 »
+2
I recommend not to put all your eggs in one baskets- too much going on lately thus play it safe with all your images spread out....

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2014, 11:55 »
0
Normally, you can submit the same photos over multiple agencies unless you choose an exclusive deal (image-exclusive or artist-exclusive) and with the caveat that you should not submit images you have RF elsewhere as RM at Alamy.

Other than that, be very careful which agencies you choose.
Some sell cheap, so you make cents per sale.
Some offer very small percentages.
Some are not transparent over what percentage you get.
Some spread your photos over many partners and it can be difficult to keep track.
Some have a long 'takedown' period during which your photos are locked in.
Some muck you around, lie to you, and change the goalposts every other week.

Only you can decide your personal tolerance for all that cr*p.
Read the contracts very, very carefully, reading  between the lines.
Plus there are some which seem to treat the contributor with more respect, but don't sell much.
If your style fits  ::) ???, why not try Stocksy?

FWIW, 'portraits' aren't likely to be worth pursuing for stock.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2014, 12:07 by ShadySue »

« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2014, 11:58 »
+4
I would take a different approach. Go for the top four and in particular Shutterstock. Getting work accepted at Canstock really doesn't mean much as they are very lenient with acceptances. You'll learn much more if you can get accepted at Shutterstock and get work past inspection there. Once upon a time I'd have said the same for iStock but they now have effectively gutted inspections (in addition to how badly they pay and treat contributors).

If you really want to sell microstock you need to learn from the painful rejections. If you go for the easy agencies with low sales, you won't really learn much - in addition to not earning very much.

As far as checking out agencies:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=microstock+agency+reviews

cuppacoffee

« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2014, 12:03 »
+1
Make sure you take the time to see what is already being offered for sale on the top sites. If you can't upload "better" images or images with "better" keywords don't try it unless you just want to test the waters or boost your ego when/if your images are accepted. Landscapes are a dime (literally) a dozen and unless you can upload photos that are better than the thousands already on the sites you will be disappointed. I read a post on a microstock forum last week where a contributor was complaining that he/she has had a whole 50 images online for 3 months and why wasn't he/she getting sales. Not a get rich scheme these days.

« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2014, 14:43 »
0
I would go with Jo Anns approach. To get started, you should see how your images perform overall (season-wise, subjects, niches, specialties) and statisticly, its better to draw conclusions from greater samples. Thats why I would recommend sites with big traffic to start.

« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2014, 18:15 »
0
Thank you so much, Joy and Curvabezier. I mentioned CanStockPhotos only because that came up when I was looking for Stock reviews and this forum came up.

Yes, I have been looking at Shutterstock and would like to give them a try. I went on their site to look at the galleries. I like what they have. I appreciate your feed back. It is very helpful..

Thank you again,

Erich

« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2014, 19:28 »
+1
I suggest you aim high, and go for shutterstock.
because then you are serious.
And also, if you cannot produce quality content that can both be accepted and sell on shutterstock you will never earn much in the microstock world.

« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2014, 00:44 »
-1
I would recommend a slightly slower approach.  Start with Can stock to learn how to shoot, keyword, process and upload.  Work on getting your workflow steps down to an efficient process.

When you are able to get 100% acceptance at Canstock, not hard really, then take your skills to 123rf, dreams time and Shutter stock.  IMHO, you are just looking at frustration at SS unless you can get 100% at CS.  SS is much harder and will not take many that CS does but you will have better skills and a small portfolio to work with.

« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2014, 01:26 »
0
I started out with SS, after some time I contributed to other agencies as well. I'm pretty glad I did it that way.

« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2014, 03:54 »
+1
without in shutterstock, one won't really make money to continue this 'hobbies'..


and stock photos aren't about beautiful photos, it is more about 'useful' photos..same as illustrations..

« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2014, 04:27 »
+1
Dreamstime I think is a good one, no exam to get in, decent sales.


« Reply #15 on: January 07, 2014, 04:40 »
+3
There's no point in starting off with sites which hardly sell anything, it's a surefire way to lose interest. If you can get on Shutterstock then at least you have a reasonable chance of making some sales, even if you only get 25c for them, or whatever the starting rate is.

I get fewer than 40 sales a month from Canstock with about 4,000 files there, and I'm pretty good at this game, so how many photos do you think you would need to put there to get your first 25c sale?

« Reply #16 on: January 07, 2014, 13:15 »
0
Hmmmm.. Lots of great feed back. A few months ago I was looking at Shutterstock and Dreamstime. They diffenitely are something to  check into. Those who commented on trying out Shutterstock first, I can see your point. I see the others points as well. I have never been good at keywords. I write, alot, and like playing with words but keywords just seem to stump me. I do not know why.

Maybe go both routes? Get some into Canstock just to get it going and learn the "ropes" sort of speak and throw a few at Shutterstock as well. I understand the 10/7 of Shutterstock. I will look into both Dreamtime and Shutterstock for the bigs.

Thank you.

erich


« Reply #17 on: January 07, 2014, 20:30 »
+1
At some point you'll just have to do your own research and start figuring things out.  Asking for too many shortcuts from people who have invested a lot of time and effort learning the ins and out is just going to tick people off.

All the sites have FAQs and there are a couple of books on Amazon that explain everything about the industry for under $20.

« Reply #18 on: February 28, 2014, 02:56 »
+2
Dreamstime I think is a good one, no exam to get in, decent sales.

I have recently started my journey into stock photograpy with a little 31 photos batch, most of them from 2007 taken with a Nikon D50 with cheap glass. Recently upgraded to Nikon D7100 with a Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR II and Sigma 24-70 f/2.8. So hope to bring my quality up a bit.

My first impression:

Shutterstock: Did not get accepted as contributor on first try.
Dreamstime: Slaughtered 27 of 30 photos (removed one myself due to noticing it included brand name).
Fotolia: Only let me upload 13 images due to resolution, witch excluded some of my best pictures. Accepted 7 and and rejected 6
Bigstockphoto: Rejected 26 and accepted 5.
iStockphoto: Rejected 5 and accepted 26. All 5 rejections was due to possible trademarks, just a legal issue.

I was very excited to be accepted as a contributor on iStock, the only stock agency beside SS i was familiar with before starting my journey into stock photography. To get the first image accepted on iStock was a fantastic moment.
To get 26 out of 31 images accepted saved my day and it makes me rethink of I want to go for exclusive or not.

I got a really bad first impression of Dreamstime and Bigstock after being slaughtered for images that iStock and Fotolia accepted.

Waiting for the spring to get out more with my camera to grow my portfolio and hope to get some studio gear for next winter to do more isolated shots

« Reply #19 on: February 28, 2014, 07:17 »
+1
A few notes to think over:

It depends on your portfolio, but starting with stockphotography in 2014 has become difficult.
You need to learn a lot and need a lot of energy, enthusiasm and patience too. But the most you need is propably a stubborn persistence!

When a photographer starts to submit his images to any stockagency he/she has mostly not a realistic view on what agencies accept when it comes to technical quality. You need to learn to look at your images in a different way you did before. What friends and family think of your images doesn't make sense. Your impressions at this stage, good or bad, with an agency doesn't make sense either.

The reactions you've got from others on this forum are based on their personal experience with each agency and depends on the kind of portfolio a contributor has. Some do very well with a particular agency, for others it is disappointing. You can only find out for yourself over time, but you need to have at least 1000 images accepted with an agency, otherwise conclusions doesn't make sense.
So it is not possible to draw conclusions out of the submitting of 30 images. When you get one reviewer with a bad hair day everything gets rejected for example.

Getting 7 out of 13 (4 mp images from 2007 and not especially shoot for stock) accepted at Fotolia at a first try is a good result. You were lucky or your images are very good,  but getting 27 out of 30 rejected at Dreamstime is just a very bad result. Could have been a reviewer with a headache, but I doubt.
Istock seem to accept everything these days, so no conclusions either. Too early to decide to go exclusive or not with an agency, because you don't know if your images will get sales at all.



« Reply #20 on: February 28, 2014, 10:16 »
+1
Stock photography usually comes with a big learning curve.  Style, theme, sharpness, lighting and subject matter are all part of it.  If you've done your research well you would have seen what sells on some of the sites (if not try, Bestsellers), as it will give you an idea, as a general reference.  Not to imitate but to invoke your creativity in the right direction.

Then I would say, go for Shutterstock and Dreamstime to begin your microstock journey.  Once you've got in to both these, you should have your bar raised to the right spot for all other microstock. Then look around for other sites that may suit your work.  Microstock is tough to make money from these days - you need lots of patience and tons of content, so be ready for that!

Try to know which agencies to avoid too! For instance, I for one wish I had never signed up with Depositphotos - which I unfortunately did against my instinct and better judgement and am regretting it ever since their Shotshop dealings came out in the open..   


 

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