Hello everyone! Just introducing myself, I am based in Ireland and have up to now only dabbled in mocrostock.  Now I got a lot of valuable points from the posts here so I thought I would do somthing other than 'lurk'.

I have been posting little more than a few dozen images to micro sites. I have done lots of travel but plan to do more tabletop business images. Not to sure about my keywording and am still a little baffeled by catogories I'm supposed to put images in. I know if I wanted to get anywhere I would need several thousand images, but up to now I was just testing the water, so to speak. I have just concentrated on the two sites below.

Fotolia https://eu.fotolia.com/p/201429566
Dreamstime  http://www.dreamstime.com/portfolio.php?clientun=mullan101&page=1&sortcriteria=6

Over the year I made about 40 to 50 sales from each site. I still have to 'crack' Shutterstock which could be interesting. Thanks for taking a look - any feedback would be most appreciated.

Robert

I photographed a model in several different locations, my question is: do I need a singed model release for each setting or will one singed release do for all the pictures taken that day? Of courses I will attach a copy to each image submitted. He is the only person in the picture.

I plan to make my initial submission to Shutterstock quite soon Jo Ann - I believe the are the best for regular sales. Getting accepted is quite hard if I understand correctly. They are really strict on sharpness, noise and lighting as well as composition and of course commercial interest to buyers. I do want my first 10 images to be more varied than just travel anyway. Thanks for the tip!

I have sold lots on Alamy over the years, $40,000 between the years 2004 - 2008. I stopped submitting when my RPI dwindled under the tsunami of images that Alamy accepted. As well, I was really busy with weddings - so the decision to concentrate on those and forget about Alamy was a 'no brainer' during that period. I miss stock and would love to enter the Microstock arena but am I too late? This is a real 'how long is a piece of string' type of question as so much would depend on the quality, type and quantity of what I can produce. A lot of my wedding colleagues would rubbish microstock " selling your pictures for pence" etc as they have know idea just how high the standards are. As I see it anyone entering Microstock would need a varied portfolio of several thousand images, all with crystal clear concepts and of, or very near, the standards of top advertising togs. As well, lifestyle shots would need art direction, styling et all! Then with all that, how does one get traction? How do you get on the first couple of pages of the most popular searches? Would have been a lot easier 5 or 6 years ago - what about now? Might be easier to sing at Carnegie Hall!