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Messages - cshack

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76
General - Top Sites / Only 30 days in the stock business
« on: April 04, 2008, 20:18 »
Not that it matters much but I just have to vent a little. 

Ive been a portrait/wedding photographer for a little over 30+ years.  Until the past few weeks I never gave this business of microstock a second thought.  A few weeks back I decided to give it a try.  Heres my experience so far;

First I signed up at Shutterstock and iStock because I found the information here about the big 6.  I was rejected by SS and accepted by IS.  I began uploading to IS as soon as I was accepted.  At first my acceptance rate at IS was about 35%.  ( I will admit I have a lot to learn about this business)  Last week I was up for review at Shutterstock and got in.  Since then I have been submitting to the following sites:

(Ranked by personal success rate)

Shutterstock
Fotolia
Dreamstime
123rf
Stockxpert
BigStock
Crestock
iStock
CanStockPhoto
LuckyOliver


As a newbie I wanted to share my experience so far.  First and foremost, Shutterstock is by far number #1 for me.   After only one week of uploading its taken off like a rocket.  I say this because Ive only been uploading there for a week and my at SS sales blow the others away by about 300%.  I have about an 80% approval rate at SS as well. Second place goes to Fotolia.  While my numbers are small there I have been very pleased so far.  Third place has to go to Dreamstime and fourth would be 123RF.  Fifth place goes to Stockxpert.  The rest arent worth the trouble right now.

Without boring you with anymore details I want to say this.  iStock is a JOKE for me.  Rejection after rejection and because of that, poor sales.  They are by far the slowest to approve or reject as well.  I still have images sitting in the Q from 2 weeks ago.  The strange thing is every image that sells on SS and the other sites were rejected by IS.  IS is also very inconsistent with approvals and rejections.  What gets approved today will be rejected tomorrow.  I also think the CEO of IS has a brain malfunction with his business model.  Only accepting 15 images per every 168 hours is just dumb.  Why would any business put a restriction on the incoming product.  If they stay on the same track for much longer, SS is going to pull way out in front and own the market even more than they do now.  Ive read all the reasons IS does what they do and why.  But I still dont see the logic in it.

In closing Ill say to anyone just starting out, stay away from CanStockPhoto and LuckyOliver.  CanStockPhoto is very slow and sales are unseen.  LuckyOliver is too busy trying to be funny.  Sales there are basically nonexistent.  I only say this because youre better off taking great images for the big 6 rather than wasting your time with the others for now.  I know lots of you love IS and I can understand why.  But for me they dont measure up.  Maybe I got in too late.  Nevertheless, they are very low on my list. 

I wish everyone here huge success no matter where youve found your gold.  I just had to tell my story.  I mean no harm if anyone has taken offence to anything Ive said.

77
Dreamstime.com / Rejected model release
« on: April 03, 2008, 16:45 »
Today out of the blue DT rejected my model release that I've been using for a good while.  The strange thing is the same release is attached to about 15 accepted files on DT.  I sent a nasty email about being consistant. (No reply as of yet) My sales are about 10% of that at ST so if they kick my out I really don't care.  They have done this in the past on images.  Accept one then reject another from a series for a really off the wall reason.  Then I re-submit it a few days later and they accept it.  I'm going to give up on them for a while if not for ever.

78
Crestock.com / Re: What is your acceptance rate at Crestock ?
« on: March 31, 2008, 12:21 »
I just started uploading to Crestock myself.  They approved about 80% of what I uploaded.  However, they went back after approving 3 of the images and rejected them.  They are silhouettes of teen agers in action with a dropped shadows.  They don't seem to have any idea of what sells either.  The images the rejected are a few of my best sellers on other sites.  My uploads will stop for a while until they get their act together.  To get rejected after being approved is BS.....just like the sales on Crestock. >:(

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