Best of luck Oliver !

MSG is THE place to find answers to your questions regarding the industry.

Welcome !

-Mark

I am proud to be surrounded by great company here on MSG

Dreamstime
    Sales    298 / 392
    Uploads    264 / 392

(301 image backlog to get up past their limits but will eventually get there)

iStockPhoto
    Sales    382 / 449
    Uploads    393 / 449

(500 image backlog since getting approved there at the end of April. With 15 per week and slow review times this is going to take some time. Thankfully SS is rocking for me right now)

Now back to uploading ...

-Mark

80/20 rule ...

20% of the photographers account for 80% of the image approvals ?

Mark

Good to hear as I am anxious to get my first OD at my new rate after getting my SS raise 

-Mark

Quote from: packerguy on November 25, 2009, 14:10
Congrats!  It is nice to jump up to $0.33 per sale.  I hit that milesone in September.

BTW, You will get an OD raise as well, $1.07 and $2.48.

With the rumors about regarding whether or not OD is staying or leaving I hope to be able to realize that raise in OD commissions as well.

-Mark

I received the following email:

"Congratulations! You have reached $500 or more in all time Shutterstock earnings and your Standard License payout rate has been increased to $0.33 per download.

Best Regards,

Shutterstock"

Going from .25 to .33 is huge percentage increase in the commission and will make a nice difference over time with strong  sales volume. The email made no mention of OD or EL sales. I believe in the past people had received raises on their on demand sales. Perhaps this is further evidence that ODs are going away or perhaps they just didn't  get mentioned in the email ...

-Mark

All MSG'ers & Newbies

Today I passed the $500 total sales milestone mark for my raise at Shutterstock.  

*Highlights and details of the 2 years in stock photography newbie experience leading to reach this milestone are posted on my blog here: http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

Learning, Practice, Patience and Persistence helped me prevail to get into SS after too many applications to count. It is possible ... even when you think it is not.

June of 2007 was my first full month at SS.

32% Raise achieved 18 months after approval at SS with a portfolio of 482 images

Continue to build momentum in 2009 with this month (Nov. 2009) as a new BME at SS and overall.

I would like to give my sincere thanks to MSG and all here that freely share their knowledge and advice so that we all can become better photographers and illustrators.

Lastly ... but primarily ... I would like to thank my beloved wife Stacey (suwanneeredhead) whom I first met when our paths crossed through our stock photography circles.

-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

My last Jupiter download was on Nov. 12th ...

-Mark

I had a couple more sales there yesterday and today. When 1.00 - 2.00 commissions are common there when they do come. Much better RPD for me there than say FT, or DT where my RPD is near .54 now ...

I am still speculating on a big marketing push or tie in to SS website within the next six months.

Uploading as fast as I can there ...

-Mark

 I just had my 5th sale at MP. My portfolio is at 911 images.

They pay 12.5 Euros. With the current strength of the Euro 1.49 to USD being paid in Euros is an added bonus. This currently works out to $18.62 for the sale in dollars before conversion ...

-Mark

The limits at iStock will make it very difficult to get any significant amount of images up to iStock in a hurry ...

Does any one think there is a chance that iStock might left the upload limit if they want to bring in the StockXpert contributors's images that aren't currently already on iStock ?



-Mark

My wife (Suwanneeredhead) just found one of her images on the cover of the book "101 Things You Gotta Do Before You're 12!"

Here photos is the snorkel one top center above the title.

Here's a link to the book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579908594

Congrats Stacey !

-Mark

Quote from: Lcjtripod on November 12, 2009, 18:10
October was the best of the last seven months on BigStock. So the answer is YES! (for me )

According to Tim (on BigStock forum) the big push has not even started yet .... and it will be a big push ... soon! The best is yet to come. So I hope a lot of the disenchanted leave and make more sales for me.

-Larry

I also had a BME of the last six months on a portfolio of over 300 images there. I continue to upload as fast as I possibly can there on the basis that it has yet to be determined how to handle the BigStock acquisition in the long run. I do believe that SS will find a way , in the long run, to make the logistics work when it comes to pushing traffic to BigStock for credit sales however this will likely be a huge undertaking if they choose to go that route ...

The have a lot to think about at SS regarding the BigStock acquisition ... but they also have lots of opportunity with it. Let's see if they can hold onto the ball now that they have it to run with.

-Mark

RPD at DT
2009 June  1.60 (BME for RPD)
2009 July   1.20
2009 Aug     .89
2009 Sep     .81
2009 Oct      .86 (BME for #of sales but well off BME for Revenue)
2009 Nov     .55 (10 days into the month)

Definite downward trend on RPD and definite trend for increasing number of sub sales 

Mark

Quote from: mwp1969 on October 23, 2009, 17:50
Somehow I missed this thread over the last two years ... It was only just a couple of months ago that I was at 50 approved images. Things have been picking up for me there lately. 

Overall 15550
7 Day     9180

Online Files: 119
Sales:            71

-Mark

Finally able to commit the time to categorize quite a few files that have been sitting halfway at Fotolia ...

Overall 15500
7 Day 9680           

Online Files    170   (Here's my significant change over last report)
Sales:             74

Mark

Leaf,

Previously I've only been using Yay's webform to upload since it was very easy. I however, for file management purposes, want to use Cushy to manage my file data as well as be the tool for uploading like I do for many of the other sites I submit to ... SS, FT, DT etc. (all of which I can get Cushy to work for ... )

I believe the problem is either one of two things:

#1 Operator error on my part on entering settings into "Edit Agency Data" in Cushy (most likely the case)

or

#2 Its just not possible to get Cushy to work with Yay yet ...

If anyone has gotten Cushy to work with Yay I'd appreciate hearing about it.
Until then I'll keep using the webform or other FTP method.

Thanks.

Mark

Has anyone been able to upload to YayMicro using Cushy Stock ? I realize YaY is already a pretty simple upload with its web form however it would help keep track of things to be able to run uploads through Cushy's management interface ...

Thanks.

Mark

I see there haven't been any updates to this thread since the pricing changes at FP. Who is still getting sales there with the new pricing levels ?

I just had a sale of an image at FP. It is one that had previously sold at much higher pricing the first time. This time I got a $2.50 commission    

-Mark

Strong October across top 5

#1 SS
(close to BME)

#2 IS  
(close to BME)

#3 DT
(BME for # of Sales  but RPD is almost 1/2 of prior BME month ... lots of subscription sales  )

#4 FT
(Strong portfolio growth and growing sales)

#5 BigStock
(Nice RPDs here)

-Mark

Quote from: suwanneeredhead on October 31, 2009, 00:35
I just made a sale, a golf green with a golf cart in Florida...

Congrats Stacey ! With the recent strength of the Euro against the dollar Most Photos sales will be even more valuable.

I however have almost forgotten what a sale there looks like at MP    I'm curious what your payout amounth for your sale was ... ?  Its been over a year since I last had a sale and the currency rates have changed quite alot since my last sale there.

Mark

Shot past my 400th approval today ... I had been trying to kick it up a few notches here lately and looks like I'm headed in the right direction with 100+ approvals in this last six weeks.

-Mark

Quote from: melastmohican on October 29, 2009, 03:39
Can we once and for all say that there is no proof for agencies claims that it is beneficial for contributors. Stick it somewhere on the top of this forum so there will be no questions asked again? Maybe there are lawyers here who come up with class action suit against agencies that are laying to contributors about it?

Especially after 123rf's statement: "What are the benefits of donating? Expect a huge increase in your portfolio exposure! Increase your sales, (oh yea), as much as 40% to 2800%!! Sell higher resolution images!" since no one has been able to come up with any proof after various tests ...

I would love to be wrong and have my sales explode ... but I won't hold my breath

-Mark

No signs of traffic increase at 123rf after testing "donate" feature for a couple of periods of a few days only on about 30 images. Several images were downloaded 4-8 times. Now that I've taken them off the program only time will tell if there is any additional exposure to them or my portfolio.

Traffic has been quite slow there so it was worth a shot.  I make more at MostPhotos at midstock prices even with their slow sales than I do at 123rf so it was worth a try to try and stimulate sales there.

123rf has a very easy upload process and they have a pretty good approval to upload ratio so I will continue to upload to their site. 


-Mark

To answer the question regarding donating through our website ... I have donated prints and images to charities for silent auctions and such in the past for the advertising value.  Trying 123rf's donate feature is merely an experiement to attempt to confirm some of the claims on their website:

"What are the benefits of donating? Expect a huge increase in your portfolio exposure! Increase your sales, (oh yea), as much as 40% to 2800%!! Sell higher resolution images!"

Jury is still out ... Only time will tell.

Somehow I missed this thread over the last two years ... It was only just a couple of months ago that I was at 50 approved images. Things have been picking up for me there lately. 

Overall 15550
7 Day     9180

Online Files: 119
Sales:            71

-Mark

Quote from: WarrenPrice on October 21, 2009, 18:40
Mark,
were you able to see/realize any results from the Fav Program?

Warren,

The FAV program is definitely worth using. I would say it is mostly responsible for most of the sales that I do have ... It definitely gives added exposure to certain images. Also the great thing about it is that the larger your portfolio is ... the more "FAV" images you can have at one time. I frequently change them all the time when I want to add emphasis to something that is perhaps seasonal or holiday related.

I hope this helps.

-Mark