I've been using Lightroom for several months now and I think I've finally come up with something that works for me.  Firstly, I do not track stats in general.  I let the various agencies do that for me.

I don't keep track of which micro agencies accept/reject the image because there are too many and it's too big of a hassle for the amount of money micro pays.

My method is always evolving.  I too started with Excel, but quickly outgrew it.  I found it tedious to keep up with.  Lightroom is definitely not the perfect solution, but I don't want to buy and learn more new software.

NativeLight... thanks for the info on Lightroom.... I'm eyeing it up, but really want to hear how those that have it like it.....

Couple points...  I know what you mean about the hassle tracking those stats..... but frankly,  I've seen some agencies get sloppy with record keeping, so I do track all my sales and check/balance them against the site.  In short,  I don't trust them.
   The only reason I track rejects is...   most of the time, it's for bogus reasons...  I resub to other agencies and....  And for those pix that weren't rejected for a legitimate technical reason,   I even resub it back to the one that rejected it with a high 90-some percent success rate.   Just goes to show, too many rejections are based on what way the wind is blowing... LOL

That is my problem too... just out of pure numbers of pix... the excel is starting to become cumbersome and I can see where I do have to do something soon as I daily increase my porfolio on-line....
I appreciate your comments on the Lightroom, been asking here a couple times about it, you have been the first to respond.  Thanks!!  =tom

Same here.  I wrote a spreadsheet in excel...
I have a master list that has every file I upload.. it columns out for every site that I am on.  It tracks the name of the photo on that site, when I uploaded it and that site's file number on it...  it also tracks total quantitiy of how many times it has sold on each site.  I also use a color coding for quick reference on every pix sold... also what pix may be exclusive to some sites.
   It also gives me directory information on what hard drive (I'm currently using 6 of them), prime directory and sub-directories where that pic is located for easy access and...  gives me file size data. 
    I also have worksheets pushed out from the master on every individual site.. listing each pic sold, date sold and  $$ sold for... those worksheets calc out the total sales per pic and total per site..  it also tracks payouts for me and gives me a running total for all business I ever had with each site....
    In the case of Fotolia.... it also lists who the buyer was.. name and email or website for each pic sold.

    It also tracks rejections and the reason why..   all of this is done on one spreadsheet...  with the click of a mouse, I know everything that has transpired with every photo I own/sell.

However.... now that I'm approaching  1K  pictures out there... it's getting kind of bulky...   I suppose I can do a few modifications and throw in a couple macros and speed the thing up..

or................   I might just spring for something like  Lightroom....  but I don't want to invest in that (or anything else) until I get some good first-hand positive reccomendations on it.     =tom


....or maybe I should get into the spreadsheet business.... 

I yanked all my stuff off USPS last April...  after almost a year I only had 3 or 4 sales, but something nuts like 40-50 thousand views...  somehow that just didn't seem right...... =tom


         

I don't think SS favors new contributors, it is just that all their images are new and the search is heavily biased towards new images.

I would agree with you Sharpshot...to a degree.  I just came from checking my sales for today at SS..    Low and behold, another EL... this on a picture that I uploaded on 4/17/07... and never sold before.  I still get the views and I'm still selling stuff well over a year,  year and a half old. Still selling pix out of my very first batch at SS.  I don't feel like I'm being edged out..
       SS  continues to be my #2 money makers... if this keeps up, it will gain back 1st from  IS  this month. 
   On the other hand, with SS  I continue to only upload a few pix at a time, twice or so a week. ...   who knows if that really is a factor..... does it make a difference, is it keeping me 'fresh'?? don't know    =tom

And now for something completely different.

off topic a bit

.......  I believe the next line was   
     " ...a naked man  playing the piano."

at least that's what it was when I sat in my living room watching episodes of Monty Python on me tele..... when I lived in Bedford, England 1971-72..
  Yeah, I was one of those bloody yanks...   "over paid, over sexed and.. over here"
  I loved England.  Made a lot of great friends there!! I've always wanted to go back... but for now, I satisfy myself with google earth... LOL =tom

MIZ, dude..   personally,  beyond the critical eye of photogs here... I don't think the average person on the street would even imagine the first set of images was fake....  They looked pretty good... the second batch... really good....   heck,  it's micro stock,  it ain't heading to the Louvre...  LOL
   Nice work!   =tom

and now back to our regular programming.

One of the things that attracted me to this forum was the fact that everyone... for the most part... acted like family here.  Yeah there is the occassional heavy discussion,  same as you find in a family. But in the end, most of the folks here go out of their way to help and encourage each other. 
  This is the only forum I participate in. The only one.  I appreciate Leaf's efforts to keep it ...'a family'.
   
  =tom

Ichiro,

Such items would be subject to import taxes of 60%, including handling and shipping fees, and warranty would not be valid here. 
Regards,
Adelaide

Whoa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  and I think I have it bad with taxes in New Jersey......  that's legalized extortion...  wow!    =tom

I guess each is free to his own thoughts, and i can just be glad that is another old timer that is staying out of our playing field - it is probably to our benefit that most people think we are earning $100/month on thousands of images. 

Yeah, you got that right, leaf!!   It's amazing.... but when all is said and done... as long as we are happy, that's all that matters!  And I'm still having fun!    -tom

I began to earn more at IS than SS when my IS portfolio reached about 1/4 of my SS portfolio size. I make about 10% more on IS than SS these days - a number that's only slowly increasing despite my hard effort.

Same here.  My IS $ sales have surpassed my earnings at SS. However in pure quantity of pix sold, it's still SS.  Too, my  folio on IS is much smaller than that on SS.  My rejection rate is about equal on both, but I am much more selective about what I send to IS.

...and I'm a long, long way from 100K downloads a year.... Looooooog way. Fact is that will never happen in my lifetime.  =tom

BigStock has never been a top seller for me...  just always slow and steady.  Dollar-wise, IS it tops,  volume-wise, of course, SS.
Except for the low sales... I like BigStock.  =tom

May/June  2006