I have only just joined FT and, having read these forums, opted out from day one. Yet I have just found my meagre but complete portfolio on DPC.

It's late now but I shall be emailing them in the morning.

Wow!  Only my second post and I start a multi-page argument thread, which ends up with a critique of my images, criticism of my keywording skills and a resignation from the forum

Thanks (I think) for all the comments.

I started this thread to help me as well as any other new starts that might be thinking of going down this route.  I'm pretty thick skinned and have plenty of 'frequent forum miles' under my belt.  I sincerely hope this hasn't put any others off.

Lets just answer a few key points.

Why is my keywording questionable?  Well that's because I'm new at it and (badly) cut and pasted the words from one image to another and didn't edit them very well!   Thanks for pointing that little flaw out to everyone though  
I'm still learning but hey that's what forums are for aren't they?

Why do I have the same words repeated in the title, description and URL?  I don't know, its probably something I'm doing wrong somewhere but please refer to my previous answer

There have been some sweeping assumptions and statements made about the quality of my images.  Primarily about the ones that no one has seen.  I'm not going to suggest that I'm at National Geographic standards but to automatically assume that everywhere I have been, someone else has already been there and taken a better photograph is a little presumptuous me thinks.  If every budding travel photographer thought the same then the magazines would soon find it more difficult filling their pages.  Equally I am willing to hold my work up in comparison to others and let the buyers decide.  Please don't judge my entire library of images on the basis of the 20-30 I have managed to get uploaded.

I would like to thank those that have contributed honest, encouraging comments in this thread.  At the end of the day I have several thousand images earning me nothing at all on my HDD.  If I can upload them and earn a few dollars then that seems like a positive outcome.

I have to get back to earning a crust now and will comment further this evening  .

Firstly I will say that I have read many many posts on this and other sites and have come into this industry with my eyes open.  In other words I don't expect to be a millionaire and retire next year on my earnings from microstock

What I am hoping for is a moderate regular income, dribbling each month, into the future i.e. a bit of a retirement pension of sorts.

I'm 54 and have been travelling and taking photos for decades and have many thousands of images on my hard drives.  Many of these, a future images, are from remote Land Rover expeditions to more remote locations.  Unfortunately many good images  were taken a few years ago on lower megapixel cameras and won't pass muster.  In the last few years I have been specifically trying to produce images that would interest others rather than just for my own album.  At the same time I have been developing my photography business with the aim of leaving the mundane day job and going full time pro.

I signed up for several agencies last year but only started uploading a few weeks ago.  I have now been accepted by several and, using the same images, have uploaded content as follows:

Shutterstock - 17 active, 10 pending (50% acceptance although some of these were newbie commercial/editorial errors on my part which won't happen again)
Alamy - 18 active, 5 pending (100% acceptance)
Dreamstime - 13 Active, 23 pending (100% acceptance)
Bigstock - 11 active, 10 pending (42% acceptance )
Fotolia - 13 active, 17 pending (100% acceptance)
Depositphotos - 0 active, 25 pending (n/a)
123rf - 1 active, 14 approved, 23 pending (88% acceptance)
Canstock - 0 active, 36 pending (n/a)
iStock - application process has been down for several days.  3 images now uploaded (Yesterday) for review/acceptance.

I have found some of the reviews to be very contrary and way off base in some cases.  In addition there are complete inconsistencies both within and between agencies.  However, reading various posts on here I can see that that is the norm.

I am trying to process and upload 5 - 10 images per day until my HDDs are exhausted and then I shall start shooting some specific stock shots (white background etc.), in my small studio, as regularly as I can. 

I surprised myself with just how excited I was to earn my first 25c , after just a few days,and have since gone on to quadruple that turnover and now have a whole dollar .  These were all on SS with 2 images (1x1 and 1x3).

So, to my question; if I want to earn say $5000 per year, how many images will I need to have online?  Can I, realistically expect a steady dribble year in, year out if I stop uploading regularly?

It's a long post (sorry about that) but hopefully answers to this post will help other newbies in managing their expectations

Cheers
Ralph

Thanks for all the comments.
I can't do anything until the glitch in their system is sorted but once I hear from them I shall give it a go.
Reading the various forum posts it would seem that all the agencies have there turn at being the bad boy, best earner, or waste of time at some point or other.

The main thing I need to do is get some images uploaded to each of them so that I can make a judgement myself.

Fortunately I'm not looking to retire on my earnings

Hi all.  This is my first post so, please, be gently.
I am pretty new to the whole stock photography scene having only been a contributor for a week or so.
In the time I have signed up for most of the top sites SS, Alamy, DT, Bigstock, 123rf, FT and DepositPhotos.  I have even made my first 75c worth of sales (woohoo ).
I have tried to sign up at IStock but each time I click on the 'Continue to application' button it redirects me back to the beginning of the training material .
I sent an email to the contact address two days ago  but have no response (except the automated acknowledgement).

However I have read through some of the threads on this board and I'm beginning to wonder if its worth bothering.  I appreciate that forums often reflect the negatives rather than the positives but there does seem to be a LOT of negative recently about iStock.
They are still shown as the second highest earner on the right.  Is this the case?
Should I persevere?

Cheers
Ralph