... just curious to see how many sports fans there are here.

I've spent the past few days updating my website. I tried to keep it easy, simple, and fast - take a look: http://www.strathdee.net

Any comments/suggestions/problems are welcomed.

I've been thinking a lot about Twitter lately, and how to best use it to drive traffic to my portfolio - the right approach might prove very profitable. Here's an easy way to get started: click.

It might be good to follow this Twitter group, too.

A pertinent point from an industry veteran:

The [traditional stock] industry has made the mistake of creating too many of the same images over and over again. This is because instead of nurturing the photographers who have vision to combine both art and commerce to produce unique images within the standard salable subjects, they let creative decisions be driven by previous sales results and creative research based all on the same sources. This has resulted in a glut of images that all look alike. I like to call them the image de jour...everyone runs out and shoots the same style and subject with the same look on the same day, it appears.

I believe that one reason that microstock had explosive growth aside from the price point was that users could find one-of-a-kind images. Now that the major production companies are putting the same old, same old but 'new' images into micro in great volumes, the same problem could arise there.


Go here to read more, or here to read other interviews.

I've been getting plenty of ODs and ELs on SS in the past six weeks - anyone else seeing this?

It's looking like a good time to upload to IS. I haven't uploaded anything there in quite a while - what's the current time between upload & approval for non-exclusives?

The IS Contributor Charts website has been revised to include two new columns:  DLs Last 90 Days and %Gain/Loss. This makes it very easy to see the effects of the latest best match change. Some familiar names here are among the biggest gainers. Click here to check it out.

Compared to what you were expecting, how much did you earn on SS this month?

Edit: Changed title and locked voting on 3-Feb-09.

A well-known contributor gets fed up and decides to do something about it:
http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54499

Edit: Changed subject of posting - sorry to mislead.

Given the lowered demand for imagery in the coming weeks, are you adapting your uploading strategy to suit?

 ... looks like most people are getting plenty of OD sales on SS - how did you fare this month?

I just received a promo offer from Vivozoom.
What's the word on these guys and their 'fresh approach'?

After looking at this poll, I suspect that the number of low-earners are skewing the results.

Let's see some real numbers, people!

People are going to jump all over me for saying it, but I think the recent Time Magazine front cover placement may actually be worth LESS than even the small microstock royalty!

Time could have easily gone to Flickr and asked just about anyone there for permission to use one of their baby photos (as you can imagine there are tons of them). Very few would have turned them down. From some of the 'I'm stoked' comments I've read on this and other forums, I'm certain there are people here too that would have given them the image for free.


So ... if an internationally-recognized and well-respected publication (Time and National Geographic are the only ones that come to mind) approached you to use one of your images on their cover in exchange only for a photo credit, would you accept?

Given the results of the recent poll about SS tier levels, I'm curious as to what people's ambitions are.

How do you see yourself fitting into this industry?

I just noticed that today's a record breaking day for this site: 873 people online (so far). Controversy sure makes traffic!

I've been thinking lately about uploading strategy. The initial exposure an image gets can play a large role in its long-term performance, and I'm curious about the uploading strategies people use in an attempt to maximize this.

I typically upload in batches of 10 images.
For fast turnaround sites (FT, StockXpert, 123) I upload on Saturday through Wednesday so that images will be entered into the database on weekdays.
For sites that hold images in a queue (DT, BigStock, CS) I upload on weekdays.
For SS I upload as soon as my current batch is approved on Friday through Wednesday so that images are entered into the database on Monday through Friday. It was pretty fast to get images on SS when they approved batches daily, but it's taking longer to build my portfolio now that inspection time has increased.
For IS I upload in batches of 5 as soon as a window opens.

Am I overthinking things?
What is your approach?

Huzzah ... I made gold level at IS today with this sale:



It took me longer to get here than I anticipated, but things
should start to get better now that I can upload 30 images/wk!

I was supposed to receive my SnapVillage royalty by Dec. 21, but it has yet to show up at PayPal.

Anyone else having a SnapVillage payment problem?

A prime indicator of how productive a site is the ratio of downloads to uploads. A good site, for me, is one where I can achieve more downloads than uploads (i.e. DLs/ULs > 1.0).

Here are my numbers:
IS: 13.9:1
SS: 8.9
DT: 1.6
FT: 1.0
StockXpert: 0.3
CRE: 0.3
123: 0.2
BigStock: 0.2

IS is by far my most productive site. How do your numbers compare?

My rejection rate at SS has increased dramatically in my last few batches - anyone else seeing this, or is it just me?

I just visited Crestock and noticed this ... time to get my money!

After doing my daily upload to Snapvillage I took a short break to browse their library. I was delighted to see that our own illustrious penguin man - freezingpics - is very highly visible: he has second place in the 'snappiness' ratings, first place in the 'editor's picks' ratings, as well as two other images in that same elite grouping. Check it out by clicking here.

Way to go, Jan - keep up the great work!

Check it out: I've been selected as Crestock's 'Today's Best Image'!

Woohoo - I just got my first red flame on IS!

Check out Today's Best Image at Crestock.

Congrats, freezingpics, you're on quite a roll these days!

I recently began overhauling my SS portfolio, and one of the things I'm doing is appending stuff to the 'Description:' field. One of the words I'm adding is "Shutterstock', and their dictionary doesn't recognize it as a valid word, so it offers up this suggestion:

The word Shutterstock in the 'Description' field may be misspelled. Suggested alternate spellings are Shutterstock, Shutter-stock, Shittiest, Shortest, Headstock, Shortstop, Feedstock, Rootstock, Chattiest, Shadiest. If the spelling is correct, make no changes and click the Save button again.

Try it yourself, I'm not making this up!

I didn't know BigStock had a gallery like this until I read their email newsletter today. I was happy to see that hatman12 has an image in there (congrats, hatman!), and even happier to see that I have 4!


Kinda strange that they picked two similar images of mine to put in there, huh?

Go here to check out the gallery. I didn't see any other familiar names from this forum - my apologies if I inadvertently left anyone out.

Does the IS search engine look at Title and Description, or just at the Keword and Category fields?

Yee haw ... I just made silver level at FT! And just in time for fall sales, too.

It took longer than I thought it would, but I finally made it. I get a raise of 2 cents/credit, and my EL price more than doubles to $37.

I've recently resumed uploading to FT and have noticed a bug whereby the pricing isn't always correct.

It's correct for the first image (S=1 credit, M=2, L=3, XL=4, XXL=5, X=50), but then resets to S=1, M=2, L=2, XL=2, XXL=2, X=50 for the next one. Changing the answer for "Do you want to offer an Extended rf license with this image?" to "No" then back to "Yes" resets the prices to their correct values.

I've been experiencing a dramatic slowdown in review time at SS lately. My Friday submission wasn't approved until Sunday, and Sunday's submission is still in the queue. Very unusual.

Anyone else experiencing delays?

Seen this thread yet?

Seems like a fairly easy way to get a few sales. I'll bet there are plenty of people going after those hard-to-fill words.

My iStockRoyalties spreadsheet is forecasting a 12% sales drop for next month. Am I the only one?

Just thought I'd share a quick tip: When cropping/composing an image in photoshop, zoom in and out between thumbnail and preview sizes (that the microstock sites show) so that you can optimize the 'curb appeal' of your images.

SS is my leading source of income, and I've always been curious to determine the optimal days to upload (if there are any) so that my income may be maximized. I've read a few threads on this subject, but haven't seen anything other than anecdotes or common sense/straighforward reasoning behind any statements. So I decided to investigate how my SS sales varied by day of the week:


I uploaded as regularly as I could to minimize bias (i.e. I tried to upload equally on all days), and I ignored EL sales. My sample size is fairly small (only 122 days), but after fiddling with various data treatments I didn't see any dramatic changes, which leads me to believe that I may have something statistically significant (i.e. it's reliable and I can make predictions from it). I wish I was enough of a stats wiz to determine if this is an accurate statement.

Looking at the chart, it appears that sales on Mon, Tue, and Wed are equal (about 17% of the weekly total). Sales on Thu jump to over 19%, then rebound to just under 16% on Fri. Total weekend sales are almost equal to Fri sales. Thu is the most volatile day, while Fri and Sun are the most consistent.

So what does this mean? It depends on how often you upload. If you do it once a week, then you should probably pick Sat so that your images are approved and catalogued for Monday. Tue is also a good candidate to hit the high Thu peak. Avoid posting on Thu and Fri, and possibly Wed as well.

As for me, I'll now post to SS only four days per week: Sat to Tue. It'll be interesting to model the effect this has in another 122 days ...

Hurray - 50 submitted and 50 accepted: my first 100% acceptance at StockXpert!

And still yet to see a zero DL day there, too ... thanks, StockXpert!

Congratulations, hatman12 - I just saw this shot of yours featured in the SS New Artists lightbox.

I was very surprised to have 3 images refused at IS today - one for using brand names in my keywords (the brand names were part of the CV), one for being oversharpened, and one for having too much noise reduction. The keywords were a direct copy of those used on one of my approved images, and all three images were composites made using components used numerous times at IS without a hitch. I don't normally appeal the reviewer's decision, but will for these three.

Putting the three together, I suspect that IS has either a new reviewer, or new standards. Anyone else experiencing strange rejections at IS?

I'm approaching my 100th day shooting stock, and was thinking about cleaning up my portfolios by removing images that haven't sold.

How many of you do this, and how often do you do it?
Are there any advantages/disadvantages to doing it?

The renowned penguinman has the leadoff image in the latest DT blog. Check it out:
http://www.dreamstime.com/global-warming_blog_art28

Congratulations, Freezingpics!

Here's a technique I use to quickly goose the appeal of a shot:

• Flatten the image, then duplicate the Background layer 3 times.
• Select "Screen" as the blending mode for the top layer.
• Select "Multiply" as the blending mode for the next layer.
• Turn off the Background layer, then merge the 3 new layers together.
• Turn on the Background layer, then adjust the top layer's opacity so that highlights are slightly blown or not blown at all - whichever looks best to you.
• Flatten the image.

The overall effect is that the image becomes brighter and more saturated. I sometimes vary the technique by using "Multiply" on top of "Screen" to darken the image, and/or by setting the blending mode of the merged layer to "Overlay".

Give it a try!

Does anyone use the iStock spreadsheet? Despite the fact that it's been about dead-on since I started using it (only a few months ago), I'm a bit suspicious of its accuracy.

It took me 3 months to get to 500 sales, and the spreadsheet has me passing the 2500 mark in another 3. It's forecasting my upcoming months to go extremely well (10,000+ sales in my first year), which makes me think it's a bit too optimistic.

What is your experience with it?


[Edit]: It can be downloaded here. The iStock forum thread is here.

I'm wondering what the breakdown is with people who use this site in terms of using microstock for F/T or P/T income.

I'm very new to this industry (started 50 days ago) and it appears that one can have a comfortable and stress-free lifestyle by doing this, so I jumped right in.

I rely on microstock for 100% of my income. Although it's quite meager right now, it is by far the most enjoyable and easiest money I've earned in quite a while.

How about you?

It's taken me 50 days, 15 of which I abandoned DT and didn't bother posting there, but I'm nearing the point of earning $100 monthly from it on a 400 image portfolio.

I'm not too pleased with these numbers, and I'm curious as to how they compare with the norm for DT - worse, about average, or better than expected.

What are your numbers?

So ... who here uses Flickr?

Hi, everyone,

... just a short note to introduce myself - I've been lurking for a few weeks now and thought it was time that I joined up.

A bit about myself: I'm a commercial photographer based in Vancouver, Canada. I began shooting stock just over a month ago, am really enjoying it, and am learning plenty to boot. Can't ask for much more than that!


~Stephen