Although I find it slightly frustrating when the estimated review time is 167 hours, at the end of the day, I don't mind if my images sell there. To be honest I don't even mind if I get rejected for artifacts or non stock worthy if the images that get accepted sell.

I must admit I was amazed that my images were reviewed so quickly on StockXpert, and that 67 out of 69 were accepted in my first 10 days or so there based on what I'd read previously, now i just need to achieve some sales and I'll be happy.

As far as I'm concerned the most important thing is how many sales I make. Not enough on any site, but that's down to me, not the sites.

Finally I do get frustrated when what I consider my boring images sell and what I consider my really nice ones don't, but I can't really argue with the buyers.

That's why I wear the dark glasses and the hat. I'm not trying to look cool, I'm in disguise

I was really surprised. I uploaded some images midnight UK time friday night, and they were up and accepted by 7am when I got up saturday morning.

Well done, at my present rate I should hit that landmark by the year 2020.

One advantage to not having many downloads on Fotolia and still being a relative newbie, is that I still look at who is downloading my images. Although you obviously can't be 100% certain on all images, but it looks like the majority (if not all)  of my downloads are coming from Europe. From my understanding of the market, that seems rather strange, as I would expect the majority to come from the US.

Could it be that Fotolia is concentrating their marketing on the newer and expanding european market. I could be talking complete rubbbish, but I'm sure someone will tell me if I am 

It seems to me looking through these threads that StockXpert are being very selective in what they are looking for. I got rejected for the same reason, and told to look at the most poular images. Which is fair enough, and I'm not complaining.

However what would seem to make sense to me is a good definitve description of what they are looking for. Whether it be technically perfect images taken with a Hasslebland with 45mb leaf back or No animals, flowers or household items isolated on white. There seems to be a lot of people saying they won't be bothering uploading to the site. At least if they had a better idea of what to upload, and what not to bother with, it should lead to happier potential suppliers. Also it may save the reviewers a lot of time looking at images that don't stand a chance of getting accepted.

Still early days for me, and I only have one site with more than 100 photos on line. However a 33% increase in total photos on all sites this month has seen an increase of 78% in income without any el's so hopefully things are going in the right direction.

On income alone my stats are

SS        44%
IS         30%
BigStock      10%
DT        10%
FT         5%
123       1%

I was rejected by StockXpert this month with "these are not the kind of photo's we are presently looking for" so I suppose I'll try them again.

If they did come back online, they're off again now.

As I only just joined last month I only have a small portfolio with them, however I had a steady trickle of downloads, that suddenly stopped on Friday. I wondered if anyone else had experienced the same.

The images  I had accepted on 24th February are still not showing in my portfolio or searches. I went into their forum, and there was a thread about a similar issue. When I tried to reply on the forum I just got a blank page, so I couldnt add my concerns.

I must say I am really not impressed at all.

I am fairly new to this, and have only joined most of these sites this year. Stockxpert, I'm still waiting to be reviewed, since the 16th Feb, and not a word yet.

Of the other sites Fotolia and Dreamstime are lagging way behind the others, Big stock is similar in numbers of downloads, but as they pay more they get a big thumbs up from me.

I'm pretty new to this, and freely admit that I am in awe of some of the portfolio's I see online, but I'm working on it.

Shutterstock     61%
BS                     17%
FT                      14%
IStock                5%
DT                      2%
123RF                1%

To be fair the top 3 I was with from the beginning of the month, whilst the others I have only started submitting during Feb.

I use the F1.4 50mm, a bit more expensive than the 1.8, but considerably sturdier and a slightly better image quality. I bought mine second hand for not much more than a new 1.8, and I should imagine with Canon only recently bringing out the new L glass, you may be able to pick it up for a reasonable price.

If I want to get closer, I use extension rings.

I don't think I can access that specific url, strange as that may sound. When I click on the link, or manually type it in I automatically get diverted to fotolia.co.uk

Is there a way round this?


Paul

I'm logging in via fotolia.co.uk, when I click on the link in Microstock Monitor it automatically takes me to that specific url, so I don't know if that is part of the issue.

It's most probably me doing something stupid, but if it is I don't know what yet.


Paul

Thanks Michael,

although I'm fairly new to this microstock business it seems this is a great way to keep track of all that lovely money I might earn if I get better. I have signed up to Stockxpert from your links, so hopefully that will prove fruitfull for you.

I have a question though, I can't get access to my fotolia stats, the box comes up as wrong login? I have checked that I havn't entered my login details incorrectly, and have logged in manually from the fotolia home page to ensure I havn't been banned or something. The other sites are fine. Am I the only one encountering this problem?

Paul