No one is going to buy a photo of a Watermelon when they were looking for an Apple.

This is not true look up at Dreamstime you can see for which keyword search of the buyer the image got actually downloaded. You will see many strange downloads for searched keywords even for keywords that are not in your picture at all. In the end it's all about to make your picture visible to the buyer!

You should use as many keywords as possible it is better if the keywords are accurate but everything that makes your images more visible to buyers does help and keywords do this task. If keyword spamming wouldn't work nobody would do it. But unfortunately it does help.
I would love to see the agencies limit the keywords to something like 20 or so but as long as they allow 50 you should use 50.

If you start today in Microstock and you wanna make 500,- a month I don't think it is possible with a few hundred images you need to be in the thousands. It's not all about sale-ability it's also about search rank in the agencies and with 300 million images at Shutterstock it's very hard to get a good search rank even with very good pictures.

iStock exclusivity was never a thing I did consider for myself as I was with other agencies before iStock even existed. But I don't think that is really that bad. I do think you get a huge bump in search results if you are exclusive.
People hate iStock for valid reasons but the other agencies are not better.
Someone announced a software a couple a weeks ago that can read out the keywords at iStock and put them into your files automatically I think it was in this forum try a search for it. I'm 100% sure I read about it so there is a solution for your problem.

thanks Leaf good idea with Fiverr

SS is loosing this game.  SS recognizes nothing!  SS doesn't sell new content. That's ridiculous, it can't last.

It did last for a long time but I have to agree with you for a serious life-style image buyer SS must feel like a garbage bin.

Quote from: 50% on April 19, 2020, 11:52

As Stocksubmitter now supports istock esp is it also possible to upload to Getty esp? It is general the same upload process and if possible how can I add a Getty esp account? I would like to upload to Getty as well to iStock depending on the foto series but I would love to use Stocksubmitter for that! thanks in advance!

It's almost impossible for an iStock contributor to be accepted to submit directly to Getty nowadays. You'd need to apply to Getty directly, and I've never read of an iStocker being accepted there in the past 2 or 3 years. Of course, it could be that those who were accepted are sworn to secrecy, so I only read of rejections.

If you are iStock exclusive, all your editorial files and a selection of your other files will be mirrored on Getty. Not so if indie. However, in that case you only get 20% of all sales rather than your exclusive iS percentage.

Hi thanks I did start with Getty before iStock was even invented so I can submit directly to Getty which I didn't for a long time but since Corona and serious loss of assignments I have more time on my side I do have access via esp to Getty as well as iStock

As Stocksubmitter now supports istock esp is it also possible to upload to Getty esp? It is general the same upload process and if possible how can I add a Getty esp account? I would like to upload to Getty as well to iStock depending on the foto series but I would love to use Stocksubmitter for that! thanks in advance!

the main problem with pretty much all agencies is that we don't get a fair split from the selling price and that is 50%!

Quote from: 50% on April 07, 2020, 14:48

They don't let you change the country it's a rip-off, I'm trapped in a Dollar-account from the very beginning though I lived my whole life in Germany. But if I could change to Germany I would earn Euros and therefore they would have to pay me more this is the reason they don't let change you the country because they are afraid to loose some money.

 Why did you set up a dollar account to begin with, if you�ve always lived in Germany? Why wouldn�t you have changed it to euros in the beginning? Just curious.

2004 was no choice it was just Dollars therefore US!

Quote from: 50% on March 29, 2020, 06:39

don't forget the Tiananmen Square massacre!

 

And don't forget the WWII.

Your move.

I assume you talk about Germany? Germany did well to overcome it's past. It is a complete different political system now. The criminals of WWII had been held accountable not only in the Nuremberg process but in many processes after war. Billions of reparation had been paid to the victims of WWII. Human rights are well protected in modern Germany. It is like in Spain where you have now a complete different political system that is not accountable for the crimes of the Franco regime.

It is very different in China it is not even the same political system when at a the time of the massacre it is even the same political clique that is still in power. None was ever held accountable for the crimes. Human rights are constantly broken in China.

But again hey good luck with your new friend China wish you well!

Historically, March is the strongest month by far. This year, after a good start, it's becoming a catastrophe.

SS looks like is going to have the worst month since November 2007!

yes indeed March was always the strongest month for me since 16 years and my portfolio is very diverse but this year it looks that it will end half of what I made in January, Corona will have it's impact your mileage may vary but in general there is no doubt that this business will be hit hard too!

looked at the site: unlimited downloads for 29.99 things are getting crazy I mean really crazy I'm certainly passing this one!