I was going through my earnings over the past couple of days, and realized that I have grown the number of sites I upload to almost without thinking about it! I'm now up to 25 sites - chosen partly because of perceived earning ability, but also based on how easy they are to deal with. Now that the Thanksgiving turkey has settled in my stomach, I decided to write a blog post which summarizes what I think about each site, what my earnings experience has been, how easy they are to upload to and any quirks I have come across.

I've covered Veer, Zoonar, Deposit Photos, Most Photos, Panther, Yay Micro, Graphic Leftovers, Photodune, iSignStock, Stockfresh and Scanstockphoto. I did include my referral links where they were available, but if you just want to read my thoughts about each site, feel free to go directly to the site if you want. Here is the review: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2011/03/how-can-i-sell-my-photos-and-make-some-money/

My focus as a stock photographer is more on the travel/nature/still life end of the business, and so my earnings and experiences are based on those types of image, but I'd welcome thoughts from other similar contributors on stock sites that work for them.

Steve

I just noticed that Adobe Lightroom 3 is back on sale at Amazon - $149 instead of the normal $299. I use Lightroom every day to catalog, process, correct, keyword and export my images, so if you have thought about getting the latest version, here is an opportunity.http://www.backyardsilver.com/2011/08/sale-on-adobe-lightroom-3-at-amazon/ (which uses my referral link) or just search on Amazon if you prefer that.

Not sure how long this sale will last.

Steve

When I first started uploading to Dreamstime, I recall that the default setting for "Sell the rights - SR-EL" was set to "yes" and the price was $250. I think it has changed now to "no." However, my early images were offered for sale under this agreement, and today I received an email that one had sold and that I had 72 hours to remove the image from sale on other sites, remove from any personal web site or exhibition. Of course, earlier sales cannot be withdrawn. My payment was $125. This particular image (a similar one is here: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2011/07/sale-of-rights-to-an-image-dreamstime/) was only on 7 sites, and had only earned $27, and so a sale for $125 is OK, but it certainly made me think about going back through the old images on Dreamstime and changing this setting to $1000, say.

What do other contributors do with that SR-EL option?

Along the way, I wrote a "how to guide" to deleting single images from the web sites, as I had to search for instructions on each one. You can find that list here for future reference. I'll keep it updated and add new sites on my blog:

�   A key bit of information to search out before you start is when you uploaded the file to the stock sites!
�   Shutterstock: Go to �Stats: Status of Submitted Photos� and click on �Approved Photos� tab. Find the batch that contains the original uploaded image (it helps if you know the approx. date of upload.) Click on the �X� at the right hand edge of the image details to delete.
�   123RF: In the menus at the foot of the page, choose �History.� View stats for the month you uploaded the image, and then click on �View Images� for the range of dates to find the specific upload batch containing your image. Check the box �Delete this photo� and click �Save� at the foot of the page to complete the deletion.
�   Fotolia: Got to �My Files� and then the �Upload Files� tab. Find the image (sort by date to get to the approx. date of upload quickly.) Delete the file using the link at the far right of the row containing your image.
�   iStockPhoto: Click �My Account: Contributor Tools: My Uploads� from the bottom toolbar. Search for the image in the Keywords box. Click on the appropriate image to open up the details page for that photo. Click �Administration� in bottom right and then enter a reason for deactivation in the �Reason� box. Finally click �Deactivate File.�
�   Dreamstime: In Management Area, select �Online Files� and then filter the full list by entering keywords into the search box. On the particular image, click �Edit� and then �Disable� on the bottom row of the details page to delete the image.
�   CanStockPhoto: Click on �My Portfolio� to list all the files. Order by �Approved� to find the date of upload. Click �Edit� and then �Delete� followed by �Done.�
�   BigStockPhoto: You can�t delete an image on BigStock from their website. Contact support using the Contact form on �Contact Us� and give them the image ID and reason for deletion.
�   DepositPhotos: Click �Files: Online Files� from the contributors page, and find the image by moving to the appropriate upload date. You can enter a page number in the blank box to get there more quickly. Once the image has been found, click on �Deactivate.�
�   YayMicro: Click on �My Portfolio� under Photographer in the account Profile. Filter the portfolio by entering keywords in the search box. Click on the image in question, and then click the small �X� in the bottom left under the image.

I've been concentrating on building up links and traffic to my existing blog that runs on Wordpress software, and, although I do have a SmugMug Pro site, it is under a different URL and does not get the same amount of visibility. I was thinking of adding my own stock images to a section of my blog so that I can ride on the back of the existing SEO work I have done for that URL.

Anyone know of ways to add a "store" for digital downloads of your own images to an existing Wordpress blog? I have bought the Wordpress eStore plugin and that will let me sell digital downloads in a secure fashion, but I still need to create a searchable store and get all my images installed, priced and made available for license. If there is some plugin that already handles that function, that would save a lot of time.

I see a lot of people are getting involved with Ktools - can that be integrated into an existing web site structure?

Steve

Shutterstock was always famous for delivering a bump in downloads when a new set of images had been uploaded and approved, which was mainly put down to the option for Buyers to sort images by "most recent" as well as "most popular." I could usually rely on getting a flurry of downloads on my new photos each time I uploaded something new.

Over the past month or two, that pattern seems to have disappeared, at least for me. I am still getting sales of my good popular images, and earnings are about where they were, but new images seem to just vanish into the black hole of their database.

I uploaded a couple of unusual images of carpenter ants, which I thought would be interesting at this time of year, but zero interest in them.

Anyone else notice this on Shutterstock, or is it just my images that are losing their interest!

Steve

There may be a few people out there who want a copy of Adobe Lightroom, but don't yet have it (I suppose!). I noticed that Amazon have a one day sale on Lightroom 3 for $119 instead of the more normal $199.



Steve

I'm having trouble pasting the link - for some reason, the post won't allow the full link. Here is one that works: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2011/05/adobe-lightroom-on-sale-at-amazon/

I've been building up my collection of photographs of the main government buildings in Washington DC (like these - http://www.backyardimage.com/Americas/Washington/9534652_yLUKg#1242530388_XLouf) and have been uploading to the main sites. Most of them are accepted without any issues, but BigStockPhoto has rejected each one stating that I need to submit and keyword/categorize them as Editorial. I was aware of the copyright restrictions on the Korean Memorial, but the basic buildings such as the Lincoln Memorial, Capitol building - those must be old enough to be outside any architectural design restrictions, surely.

Anyone know of a change in the law about government buildings or why BigStock is now taking this line?

Steve

I received the following from VIP Brands in Paris:

"Dear Steve,

VIP manages the rights to the Grand Arche de la D�fense. This structure is covered by a copyright and any  use of any images of this structure requires approval and must bear the copyright and incurs royalties.

Could you please contact us about your images of this structure.

We have seen several on the web and most notably those on Shutterstock.

With kind regards

Ivanka

Ivanka Hahnenberger
General Manager
VIP Brands
www.vip-licence.com"

I only have one image on Shutterstock with this location although there are probably more on the other sites. Anyone else been contacted by the company? I guess I should just offer to take the image off the various stock sites?

Steve
http://www.BackyardSilver.com

I've used PSM for a long time on an XP machine but have upgraded myself to a new PC with Windows 7. I installed PSM and got it working with my database, and I had normal success in uploading images to the various sites. Then I either upgraded Java or perhaps PSM (lost in my memory now), but I have had problems with it closing with no warning and no error messages part way through the second image. Before I start tearing my computer to pieces to try to find the cause, is anyone else having issues with PSM and Windows 7?

Their support has been great, but no solution so far - hence the widened search for potential problems.

Steve

This is slightly off the topic of stock sites, but is perhaps an interesting way to monetize some of our images. I recently spent a week in Warsaw, and had many walks around the old town with my camera. Of course those images are now on-line at the main stock sites, but I thought it might be interesting to create a short Photographer's Guide to Warsaw with a street walking guide and images that you are likely to see. The plan is that I would sell it as an e-book for downloading and printing prior to a visit. Getting it high up on Google wasn't hard (not much competition!), but it made me think that perhaps other members of this group would be interested in creating such books and we collaboratively sell them.

I have created a web site (to be on www.e-photoguide.com once the internet changes take effect). It is presently under an old domain of mine http://www.backyardbengal.com. The actual Photography guide itself is linked from the main site to my blog, and there is an example file (the first 3 pages) available on the site as well.

There are two possible business models - one which works as the site does now - the link goes to the owner of the guide and they sell it, or a second more complex version would require the addition of a shopping cart, contracts etc. and I operate the site making payments to the authors in much the same way as a stock site does.

I'd be interested in any thoughts on the format of the guide itself to photographers like yourselves, and whether you think there is a market to create and sell these guides. This is obviously a market where we could do much more together as I can't do more than a handful of guides on my own.

Steve

A little while ago, I put small versions of my stock photos on Flickr to see if it would generate some interest in the photos and lead to more sales. I'm not sure if it has, but I have been approached by a company called Schmap to "donate" one of my pictures to the Schmap Washington DC Guide in return for a Photographer attribution.

Here is the link to the image they want to use: http://www.schmap.com/shortlist/p=46106336N03/c=SO2005701


Anyone aware of Schmap and their approach to using photographs?

Steve

 I recently (3 days ago) uploaded small versions of all my stock photos onto a Flikr pro account. I put a small copyright watermark along the bottom of each, but that would be easily removed if someone really wanted to - however, all they could download is an 800 pixel wide image. I put some generic words in my profile to say that I was a keen photographer and that my images were on Shutterstock, iStock etc. - no direct links to any portfolios.

I saw a lot of initial views of the photos, but today, a real sleeper file (http://www.flickr.com/photos/backyardimage/4235218883/#) was viewed on Flikr and then purchased on Shutterstock.

Does the group have any views on whether this sort of activity is beneficial to sales or just allows unscrupulous buyers to pick up small images for free?

Steve