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

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