Quote from: rubyroo on December 16, 2011, 12:12

Agreeing with Luis here.

Surely iStock's 7c commission is the lowest in the industry.  Correct me if I'm wrong here.  I haven't seen anything as low as that from any other agency.

Nah Dreamstime has 300,000 images for free, that's the lowest.  I was just glancing at some of them, one guy has a free file there that got 1,700 DLs (which is 200 more than his entire portfolio sold) and the very similar one in his port has 5 downloads.  I would imagine he's given away a few sales for $0.00.

First bit of advice... easiest and fastest doesn't matter. 

It's all about ROI... Return On Investment.  I'd say Graphic Leftovers is easiest... simply use their web-based uploading window, upload a bunch at once, and no follow-up needed.  I think the team there is great, but most days, I have no sales.  They're a site to watch, though, so I keep uploading despite the low ROI at the moment.

Here's a better way to answer the question that might help you... who is fastest/easiest AND who delivers ROI.

I'll rate the sites that matter on a scale of 1 to 10... 10 being fast and easy, and high revenue... 1 being painful upload process, and pitiful sales...

Shutterstock:  Uploading - 5, ROI - 10

Fotolia: Uploading - 5, ROI - 9

iStock: Uploading - 1, ROI - 5

Dreamstime: Uploading - 5, ROI - 7

Bigstock : (I'm in the Bridge to Bigstock program, so I can't recall what they're like, but I'd say ROI is 4.)

123RF: Uploading - 7, ROI - 6

CanStock: Uploading - 6, ROI - 5

Veer: Uploading - 2, ROI - 2

I conducted an experiment after reading some negative comments about ShutterStock to see if it was worth my time to contribute: I uploaded 10 images. 4 were rejected for very vague reasons (they claim to make these reasons clear so that newcomers can learn from their mistakes, but no such luck). In addition, they make submitters wait an entire month before they can submit another 10 photos. This makes absolutely no sense and totally justifies all the negative things I�ve read about the site. So a month later, I submitted the exact same 10 photos. This time, 5 were rejected and 3 of the accepted ones had been rejected the first time! This proves that they have no set standards and whether you get accepted or not depends entirely on which reviewer you get and his/her mood on that day. This, plus the total arrogance of their sign-up processs (seriously, my credit card number???) and other requirements that NO other sites have (no spaces in file names, what are we, back in the nineties???) make shutterstock the worst stock site on the internet. shutterstock (it doesn't deserve capitalization) is a completely dishonest and arrogant company and doesn't deserve to make one penny from someone else's hard work. They'll certainly never make a penny from any of mine.

Wow, where to begin?

they make submitters wait an entire month before they can submit another 10 photos. This makes absolutely no sense and totally justifies all the negative things I�ve read about the site.

SS gets a lot of new contributors trying to sign up everyday.  Most simply don't have what it takes.  The 30-day period makes sure that rejected contributors can't simply try again every single day.  SS would get nothing done if that happened.  The hope is that the applicants will review their skills, figure out why they got rejected, get educated about what SS really wants, and be very careful about what they submit again.  30 days is appropriate to take all those steps.

So a month later, I submitted the exact same 10 photos. This time, 5 were rejected and 3 of the accepted ones had been rejected the first time! This proves that they have no set standards and whether you get accepted or not depends entirely on which reviewer you get and his/her mood on that day.

News flash?  People are subjective and everyone is different.  What would you have SS do?  Hire robots to review images?  These people aren't grading tests with answers that are right or wrong.  They do their best, and they don't always agree.  Again, what better process would you suggest?



This, plus the total arrogance of their sign-up processs (seriously, my credit card number???) and other requirements that NO other sites have (no spaces in file names, what are we, back in the nineties???) make shutterstock the worst stock site on the internet.

When you're one of the best sites, with tons of customers and contributors, you earn the right to ask for things the way you want them.  Credit card number helps make sure you're a real person, and serious about wanting to be a contributor.  

shutterstock (it doesn't deserve capitalization) is a completely dishonest and arrogant company and doesn't deserve to make one penny from someone else's hard work. They'll certainly never make a penny from any of mine.

I'm glad to help make SHUTTERSTOCK (deserves every cap) a LOT of money.  They treat me very fairly, and the relationship has been very lucrative for both of us.

Quote from: Herg on December 12, 2011, 01:15

Dec is looking to be the worst month if it carries on like this.

Same here. At my current pace, this month will be my worst month at istock since June 2007, which is the month that I joined the site.

It will also knock istock down to 5th overall on my monthly earnings list. Pretty amazing considering that it wasn't very long ago that istock held the #2 spot, and was even occasionally #1 a few years back.

Helix7, just wondering if you see the same trends on your own website that sells your images.  How have your sales been lately?  Does the wave go up and down with the rest of the agencies? 

Quote from: PixelsAway on December 05, 2011, 08:19

Jun  - 2
Jul   - 4
Aug -  4
Sep - 17    (starting 9/20)
Oct - 18
Nov - 12    (last 11/24)
Dec -  2

Same I find constant EL every months.

Wait, what?  Constant ELs?  You missed the point.

Look at PixelAway's numbers.  Clearly there was something very wonderful happening in Sept, Oct and Nov.  My numbers look a lot like his.  There was something crazy happening with ELs for about a sixty day period covering those three months, and a bunch of us experienced it and no one has apparently figured out what it was.

My own assumption, because I haven't heard a better theory, is that it had something to do with the big push SS gave to its single image purchase offer starting in September. 

Any other thoughts.

(P.S... this morning I woke up to see 2 ELs for the day already... maybe the mad rush is continuing after all?)

We're all talking about shooting and submitting these topics in a way that will get them accepted, as if that's the big hurdle to success.  The real objective shouldn't be submitting stuff that will get accepted, but stuff that will SELL.

DT, and others who discourage the ongoing flood of the same-old subject matter, are actually doing you a favor by saying they don't want these.  Take it as a sign that you should be broadening your horizons.  Yes, a case could be made that some designer somewhere hasn't quite found the perfect purple-hued butterfly shot at the precise angle he needs.  But there is ONE of that guy.  You're toiling away on that butterfly shot, agonizing over whether it will be accepted, and you'll end up with around 30 cents (even less after taxes) for your trouble.

We should all listen to DT and give them different stuff.

Looking at how the different agencies perform for me, there are clear division points.

SS, FT, IS, DT are clear top tier agencies, just by looking at my sales and nothing else.

BigStock, 123, DP, CanStockPhoto are grouped together in a pretty clear second tier.

GL is doing well and on the rise, and could get into the second tier sometime soon.  The rest are just also-rans and I think they'll forever be bottom feeders.

Update on my earlier post... 11 downloads so far this morning.   They don't seem to have hit all at once, and the subject matter suggests they're not from the same buyer.  I'm wondering if GL launched an advertising campaign this morning?

Every so often I see the same thing... an image selling for 1 credit when I'm Emerald and just about everything I sell is at 2 credits.  I understand this is how it is under the new Fotolia rules... if it hasn't sold in a period of time, its price it put back at 1 credit.  But once it sells for 1 credit, that means it has recently sold, and shouldn't it go back up to 2 credits? 

3dstudiomax, adobe photoshop, and poser, but I thought you said you only did photos, did I miss something there in your reply?

Yes, my port is primarily photos.  I had heard of Blender before but didn't really know what it was.  I clicked the link you provided and it appears to primarily be a 3D program.  I know more about illustrations than 3D (which is to say a little is more than nothing) but do 3D programs also do vectors?

Almost identical to Sept 2011, except the extra day put me over the edge for a new BME.

Up 120% vs Oct 2011.

My Big 4 are all posting solid gains every month... in this order here's how they placed in October...

1: SS thanks to a mad rush of ELs (still looking for an explanation for the sudden rush of these.  Any ideas?)
2. FT
3. DT and IS almost identical to the dollar


And the rest?  I almost don't care, since all together the second and third tier players accounted for less than 15% of my earnings.  123RF earnings are growing nicely.  The CanStockPhoto big "Distribution Regular" $19.80 sales are nowhere to be seen these days, so it's down.  Everyone else seems to be treading water.

I'm seeing a typical Monday, maybe even down a bit from the last few Mondays.  The first few weeks in Oct were very strong for me, thanks a great deal to the still-unexplained EL rush at SS.  That has slowed down quite a bit, and I'll probably end October about 5% down from Sept (but still about 100% over Oct 2010).