why don't you use the keyword tool at SS to see if you can improve your keywording
http://submit.shutterstock.com/darkroom/keywords/suggestions.mhtml

I never even knew that tool existed. Thank you so much for showing that to me as it looks fairly snazzy.

Just recieved my first licence sale on shutterstock and I was curious what they are for? How do they differ from the normal license and is it always a flat 28 bucks for the sale or does it go up just like the rest of the payouts with your raises?

Part of the reason why I'm curious also is the image that was used


My own opinion it wasn't that great of an image and was kind of a toss together shot in a matter of a few moments. What would someone pay that much money for?

I don't really want to be known as that guy :p but I will take the money if it presents itself.

Just hope that I don't walk into a job interview though as I'm going to be without a job soon (no not due to the pictures they are closing the whole center down) and they look at me and go "hey I know you."

Honestly I'm not sure what it would represent either. It's sold though, and so far has made me about 2-3 downloads per day. I know that's not huge but still money for very little effort. It's not the only one I have like this either. Overall out of about 4-5 pictures I've made about 40-50 bucks for displaying some overweight fat male nipples. This one was actually created in as a continuation of the other one I did with no props but rather a dude just standing grabbing his nipples.
I have no idea why they sell, who buys them, or what they are used for. I've actually tried to find them and the only thing I Can find so far of the santa one is people snagging it from the shutterstock site and using it on forums, blogs and such.

Though I think as someone else brought up is these are niche images I guess. If you look around at most stock sites there are not many of them at all. Only thing I can think of. I'll tell you this though I plan to keep doing them as long as they keep making a little money.

My whole port though isn't a commercial dream by any means. Honestly looking at it compared to many of you guys it kind of sucks I would say, but it seems to do alright. If you are curious you can take a peek here http://www.shutterstock.com/portfolio/search.mhtml?gallery_landing=1&gallery_id=225835&page=1&safesearch=1&sort_method=newest . The editorial images kind of suck for sales I admit, but the rest seems to ok.

If you take that same port and spread it among the top four micros' plus 123rf and bigstock what would you expect for earnings of this, and what would you think the top earning images would be, again ignoring the editorial.

Also feel free to give any criticism if you like.

If at work depending on location they might not like the image so open at own risk. It is more humor then anything but still depending upon the workplace they might not like it.

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/225835/121680412/stock-photo-fat-man-playing-a-naughty-santa-claus-wearing-his-hat-while-being-topless-and-grabbing-his-nipples-121680412.jpg

This image has already been accepted but I'm curious as to what your opinions are on this image quality of image and how worthy it is for stock and what kind of sales you would expect out of an image like this? Would you even submit something like this for stock?

Have some christmas pictures that I have edited and keyworded was just a little slow with getting them up and online. Should I go ahead and upload these images now or should I just can them and instead upload them for next year?
I'm curious how this would do with image sales, will they actually sell during the year or would it be best to have them setup and fresh "new" uploads during the next christmas season?

Is it me or is there something else going on? So far it's more or less a strike out session with them. Not just that I get denied but rather I do not hear anything back at all unless I follow up with them and this is from the time I put the initial application in up till even a month or two later nothing on their end. Even if I follow up with them I still never get a denied or rejected just a "we will check on that" or a "no news yet".

If this was just a single event or two I would be more understanding but at this point I'm a little frusted and wonder what other peoples experience with this are to see if this is just how it works with them or is there something else?  I have been approved for one event and denied for one event. The rest go into some black hole someplace.

What I really don't understand is one some of these events I've spoken to the promo person and they said all is fine, all I need is to have an editor say I'm good and then I'll be on the list. Everytime a message was sent there was a nice quick prompt reply and this is for multiple emails. I send the info to shutterstock and next thing I know is they say "still waiting for a reply" weeks later, yet I had replies within hours usually.

Sorry just a bit of frustration at this as I like the idea behind the program and would love to use it, but it seems as this point it's not even worth the effort and I would rather try make it work, but if this is par for the course I don't know if I can.

If you are taking an editorial image though and putting a limit to how it can be used (editorial only) even if it is sold on a micro site isn't that still a rights managed image though as you are dictating how the image is able to be used?