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Messages - bobkeenan
126
« on: May 16, 2010, 09:33 »
I have been doing this long enough now that I have seen this a few times, but it always bugs me.
I did a recent shoot and had about 50 images that I thought I would upload. I picked the 10 best and uploaded them to the big 4 and some others.
Shutterstock took all of them within a couple days and I had a few sales of of them withing a few days.
Same set at Fotolia took about 8 days to review. ALL were rejected?@#$%$#@ Most due to poor quality?
At Shutterstock I sell 1-6 images a day. Fotolia about 1 every couple of weeks.
Hmmmmm may be time to give up on this site. I will probably stick with them till I get my first payment and then pull out.
127
« on: April 18, 2010, 22:32 »
I don't mind the low pay outs. I have been doing it about a year now and have 150-500 images on all of the main sites. I make a steady $1-3/day. Don't laugh. But I get lots of practice doing what I like. I get lots of rejections that help me see what to do differently. I see what sells well and learn what I did right. I suspect after another year I will be making $3-6/day. That's a decent new lens every year. I am also building up a portfolio where I may try to sell my stuff on my own.
So its a nice way, with no risk, and no investment on my part to have lots of fun, get some advice, build a portfolio, and pocket a little money.
And occasionally when I get one of enhanced downloads for $28..... it totally makes my day : )
128
« on: March 15, 2010, 21:06 »
Call me dense.... but I cannot figure it out. I can see when and how many images sell. But... I cannot see which ones sold. How do I do that?
129
« on: March 08, 2010, 16:42 »
Just got my final payout. I closed down my account and I thought I deleted all of my images about 5 weeks ago. What I did was delete the all of the folders. About 2 weeks later I found that my images were still there.... did a little research.... found that I had to delete each image.....image by image..... I liked this site but it was one of the worst sites for uploading images for approval. And to have to delete the images one at a time..... I felt I was getting carpal tunnel syndrome.
That was about 2 weeks ago.
And now paid. None of photos seem to show up on thinkstock. But almost all of my istockphotos are on there now??? that was strange.
But I had given up on being paid so that was nice.
130
« on: February 16, 2010, 19:39 »
I have another Day job where I make a good income and pay lots of taxes.
Last year I went from a hobby of P&S cameras to DSLR's for the primary purpose of having fun and selling my stuff on microstock sites. I only got about $200 microstock income (but it's growing!!!), but I spent $$$ on a DSLR, Lens, Filters, Tripods, Flash etc.
I bet about 95% of my images are microstock related.
So I fill out my taxes for this year, using turbotax. I report the $200 income on top of my normal income and the software guides me to the Form C. This is where I put income, expenses, costs of goods sold. I start filling that out and I notice that my total return back to me increases by a few thousand dollars.
I have generally found that good information like this means that I am doing something wrong. Can I deduct my camera stuff in 2009?
You guys are probably not tax experts but I am sure that all most of you started out like this.
Any thoughts
131
« on: February 03, 2010, 16:59 »
I have photos at both Stockexpert and Istockphoto. I have a small balance at Stockexpert. Should I ask and get my one time payment. I only a few sales a week on Stockexpert.
Is there any reason to leave it there after 11 Feb?
If my stockexpert files get moved to Istock or thinkstock and they sell won't I still get the money from the sale from Istock? Or do stockexpert sales through thinkstock go back to stockexpert. And if I have closed the account..... I won't get the money?
132
« on: December 08, 2009, 13:03 »
Got it.... thanks. Just needed the reassurance.
133
« on: December 08, 2009, 09:17 »
Shutter stock is my best site. I am still starting up in this stuff but I always seem to have 1-6 sales a day on this site.... even if they are only 25 cents each. Sometimes I get no sales on a day but its becoming rarer. On friday I had my first BIG (for me) enhanced sale of $28 for a file. Whoopee!! But now on Sat, Sun, Mon and this AM my sales have been 0?  Is that a coincidence or is there any connection to my big sale??
134
« on: November 27, 2009, 10:01 »
Well... that explains it.
Hmmm. I find that they have one of the more labor intensive submitting processes too. I guess I try a few more times. But if I keep getting 98% rejections.... It may be time to move on. They had been pretty good for me in the past both in review times and sales.
135
« on: November 27, 2009, 01:20 »
 I have had about 5 uploads of a total of about 60 images that have been sitting there and not been reviewed since 1 Nov. Then all of a sudden they review ALL of them. Only one gets accepted and all the rest get rejected!! Each with the same rejection that they are not looking for that kind of image??? Same photos accepted and selling at other sites?? I have never had a problem like this with this site. Its weird. I wonder what is going on.
137
« on: November 20, 2009, 13:55 »
I have only be at this microstock stuff for about 10 months. I have anywhere from 100-500 photos at the different sites. I am not the best photographer but people are buying some of my stuff. I would guess that my annual sales would be around $1000. My goal is to get to $5-10K so I can get a Full frame camera and new lenses some day... and then keep my habit fed.
But here is the deal......
Fotolia is rejecting a most (98%) of my stuff. They did not do that in the past? The stuff that is being reject is being accepted at the other sites (Istock, shutterstock, Stockexpert, dreamstime) and some are selling well (by my standards) AND almost right away. But my sales at Fotolia are crawling to a standstill.
I had the impression that Fotolia was a site that was comparible to Istock and Shutterstock.
Are looking for something that the other sites are not looking for?
BTW Shutterstock is the best.... high approval rating for me.... fast reviews.... quick sales.
138
« on: October 14, 2009, 18:22 »
I just had a bunch of photos rejected at Bigstock. Funny thing though..... the same photos got accepted at shutterstock and are already generating sales ? And didn't Shutterstock just buy bigstock??? I wonder if they are cross referencing photos and not accepting at one if another has it???
139
« on: October 08, 2009, 13:09 »
I have only been doing this microstock stuff for about 7 months. I am on all the big 6. I have anywhere from 90 to 400 images on each. Of course the 90 is iStockphoto.
My images are just ok but I hope I am getting better. I have sold about $300 worth of images in total but have met only one minimum payout on Shutterstock... just got $75 Wooooo Hooooo!!!
I get much better acceptance and sales by a factor of 4 more at shutterstock. But I am looking at istockphoto as a challenge and the chance to earn more money per image as I get better.
But figuring out what is acceptable is tough. On one recent batch of uploads I had nearly every image accepted here. While on shutterstock and others I had mostly rejects.
The most recent batch was totally rejected (rejection blues) by istock. But most of those photos were accepted at shutterstock and already selling pretty well by my standards.
It used to really bug me but as long as my photos are accepted somewhere and sell then I get over it.
But it would be nice to figure out so I could increase my acceptance rate.
140
« on: September 30, 2009, 18:30 »
I have had a 50D for about 4 months. Compared to the XS... I love it. I am still a beginner at microstock. In fact I finally just got to the minimum payout on shutterstock and will get paid in two weeks... Yea!!!
Most of my stuff is shot at ISO100 and I really don't notice much noise much of my stuff is accepted. Interestingly enough this last weekend I decided to take a bunch of hand held shots at the morning market. I had to push the ISO to 400. I have never done that before for microstock. In post processing I did see what I considered to be an unacceptable level of noise in the shadows. But I have Noise Ninja. I cleaned them up (a little of a pain). And almost all got accepted at almost all of the big 6.
I would love to have a full frame camera but $$$. I am interested in the 7D. At first there were some good reports of low noise at high iso. Now I am hearing some mixed reports of higher noise and some banding issues..... so it will be interesting to see what the professional reviews (I like dpreview) say.
In the meantime the 50D is doing good enough for my microstock
141
« on: September 17, 2009, 19:22 »
I have been doing microstock for about 6 months. So I am just a beginning photographer. I have anywhere from 50 - 300 photos on the big 6 sites. But I probably only make about $1 a day. I think my top photo has about 30 downloads between all of the sites but over about 4 months. But today an interesting thing happened. I took a photo of some red and green peppers at the farmers market. It got approved 3 days ago. And today there were 4 downloads. That never happened before. So is that just a coincidence or could this one be a good money earner? http://bobbyk.smugmug.com/Other/stock-1/9668450_TDKKz/1/652720010_5iqFj
142
« on: July 08, 2009, 16:52 »
Yes.... the comments here were good feedback and they were a little ego bruising. But I went back to the photos and did a little work on them (contrast, color, clone clean up) AND.... they look much better. I think the key comment was that for commercial purposes the customers want images of things as they ought to be not as they are. Since Istockphoto only takes 15 at a time I can apply that to the remaining 10 images. Note that the other nice thing is that there are 5 other big sites. Lots of those same photos got selected AND today some sold. So I am not a total failure in life as the fotolia rejection made me feel but I just need some more work. 
143
« on: July 06, 2009, 22:07 »
Thanks for the advice..... I will use it.
Bob Keenan
144
« on: July 06, 2009, 20:46 »
145
« on: July 06, 2009, 15:13 »
I have been at this for about 5 months now and have 100-400 photos on each major site. Fotolia's acceptance rate for me overall is about 25% but except for the last month or two was improving to closer to 50%.
I had not uploaded anything in the last few weeks and then uploaded 25 new photos. NONE were accepted. The common reason was "did not reach our desired level of aesthetic quality."
A 100 % rejection has not happened on any of my submittals for any sites.
So something has changed and I am pretty sure that my skills have not gone down the tube.
146
« on: June 16, 2009, 15:00 »
Another version of my earnings graph against number of pictures - not such a nice shape, but it works for me so far ...
Thanks for sharing the info. That gives me hope for my future. By the way... I checked out your portfolio. It looks like you have a unique little niche market with that stuff. How come I did not think of that? Doesn't the sound of chalk on a board drive you crazy though !!!!
147
« on: June 16, 2009, 09:16 »
Maybe this should go into the newbie section but it is in reference to the big 6 as well. I have only been at this for about 4 months and am all of the big 6 sites. All my images are posted as non-exclusive. Except I put a few into Fotolia just to see what would happen yesterday. But I have some questions.
1. Is there a best site for exclusive listings?
2. Any decision criteria where you would say.... this one needs to be exclusive.... and this one not.
3. Wouldn't it be easy to take a few shots of a good image but at a different angle, crop, lighting and then put an exclusive shot in that family of shots into each site that offers exclusivity.
Any other thoughts on exclusive photos?
148
« on: June 16, 2009, 09:08 »
From most of these posts, I can tell I have a LONG way to go. after about 4 months I have anywhere from 60 to 300 images on each of the big six and my TOTAL sales is just now approaching $100. But if I extrapolate my growth in sales caused by added images and getting better (I think...hope), I believe that I can go from my current level of $1-2/day to aobut $10/day. But it may take another 12 months to get there. But at that level it should take care of some of my photo gear habit.
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