Microstock Progress into 2010

There were some delays in creating the mass of images for the later months of 2009 and beginning of 2010 that i wanted. Partly that was due to the divergence into 3D experimentation which involved a steep learning curve and ended with nothing concrete. At least nothing that would survive the review process on any site out there. I was working with another open source program called Blender (Blender.org).

Tough to master but i made some progress although for now it's on the back burner. If you want to try it out i suggest these tutorials by David Allen Ward who really is a great teacher and i found his videos on YouTube so informative and helpful: http://www.davidallenward.com

While on the subject of 3D work another site i have recently registered with is:

They also accept 2D illustrations and the upload was quick and easy.

Back to Inkscape though and as of a week away from the end of Jan 2010 i have about 35 images for sale across several sites. Woke up this morning to find $2.60 in the Graphicleftovers account from a single sale and i have only been there 2 weeks. A good start even if that does equate to just £1.61 at the current exchange rate it's not bad with only 29 files in that portfolio.

StockExpert

By sharp comparison to the above http://www.stockxpert.com has been a dream to use. The upload process seems a little odd to start with as the file goes into a 'briefcase' folder but now feels natural and i fly through the process. There has been a good approval ratio (so far) and only a couple of rejections.

1. Too many of the same file type already (not surprising as it was a picture of a seagull)

2. Resubmit after removing text. (Which i did and it was subsequently approved.)

The review time has been amazing. Maybe I've been lucky but a batch i uploaded once had already started to be approved before i had finished double checking/categorising the remainder. Super fast (in my experience.) I've had 3 sales there in December.. nothing for Jan but plenty of views and that's OK. I can live with that as we are talking about portfolio of 30 odd images.. not hundreds. Hopefully the sales will increase the more my portfolio grows over time.

Crestock Crisis?

What is up with Crestock? I have been with them for quite a while and have a handful of photos approved with a few sales amounting to $2.75. Since starting with illustrations i added those in a whole batch and it took 3 months to get them reviewed... yes! I did say "THREE MONTHS?!"

Actually they were all rejected and it's no good complaining about that really. If DT and SS want them but CS doesn't then I'm not overly concerned but i am guessing that if there is to be another casualty in the microstock market (after StockExpert) then it will be CS that's next for the chop!

Their forums are full of people (that post infrequently i might add) that are complaining bitterly about three things:

1. Review time is taking months

2. Payments are not being sent out

3. Support is not replying to contributors

The complaints are numerous and consistent and after my experience i have no reason to doubt them. They range from "i have 650 images waiting to be approved for 5 months" and "i have emailed support 5 times and they have not replied over the last 8 weeks", to "I requested a payout last October and i haven't had my money".

Crestock's website states:

"...Crestock features design and stock photography forums as well as a popular design & photography blog..."

That must be the forums that are full of complaints and a blog that hasn't been updated since 21 Oct 2009 then?!

You have a real feeling after looking into all these poor business practices that CS is slowly dying off, that they don't have enough staff and/or capital and so won't be around for much longer. I don't expect to see my $2.75 or see it increasing.

I certainly don't expect to upload anything there until their forums are full of happy, buzzing and contented contributors that are there to engage, promote and ask questions about microstock... instead of those that are frustrated, bitter and stating the other commonly typed wording on the forums: "CS, please delete my account immediately!".

Feb Earnings + Updates

February was a better month again and the earnings total beat January with a total of £7.45 ($11.29).

At long last a sale on Canstock. (Actually 4 sales). That's been a long time coming. A.R there is 80%.

A little slow on Dreamstime during Feb. AR now 71.4%

Another sale on GraphicLeftovers and one for Istock (which i tend to get every once and while. Not bad when you consider only 4 images online with Istock.)

I can't, currently, add Vectors (EPS) files to sites like Fotolia and Istock etc due to the fact that Inkscape can't retain blurs and transparencies when saving as EPS. Hopefully that will be resolved in a later release.

First sale on BigStock netted me approx £0.32p. AR still 100%.

Shutterstock downloads a little less than hoped but still an increase at 12D for the month.

Still no sales yet on, Yaymicro, 3DStudio, Picturenation, Alamy, FeaturePics (although plenty of views there) or any of the others.

So, Feb was certainly a best month ever (BME) and i am really hopeful that with some quality submissions and some creative thinking i will push into double figure earnings for March... watch this space.



By the way. I tidied up the chart. Hope it looks more intersting and visually clearer.

Other Microstock Agencies

A little posting on my experiences with other stock sites i haven't mentioned very much, if at all, to date.

Yaymicro:

A nice clean looking site. Haven't had any problems with them and their upload process is smooth and easy. No sales but after getting over 50 images approved i am starting to get more views. AR 100% so far.

3DStudio:

Sells 3D images as well as 2D, textures, stock illustrations and photos. Uploading has been fine and their method is for your image to become 'live' and viewable as soon as it's uploaded where it has the status of 'editorial only' until it is reviewed and, if good enough, will then go into the 'RF - can be used commercially' category.

No sales there yet but a massive amount of views (over 4000) so there is certainly a lot of activity there. AR 100% to date.

Featurepics:

A nice site. Friendly communications and a healthy number of views per image. No sales to date but 100% AR.

ScandinavianStockPhoto:

I haven't had any problems here but i think their site needs a little fine tuning. It looks a bit simple and lacks character. Their FAQ only contains 5 questions/answers and views per image are few and far between. I will continue to upload images though as it's an easy process. AR currently 100%.

StockphotoPro:

All i can say about SPP is that i submitted my initial 10 images (to be accepted as a contributor) upon registering on the 27th Jan this year and its now 14th March and they are still pending review. Doesn't inspire confidence.

The site looks and feels ok although there are pages such as 'my images' in the 'quick links' menu that are extremely slow to load for some reason. We are talking minutes. (In fact i timed it at 3mins 31secs for the page to load.) Perhaps it doesn't like Firefox but as other pages are generally ok i am assuming for now it's down to the site and not my imac or browser choice.
I'll post an update if/when my images are ever approved/rejected.

ShutterFarm:

I have views on SF although no sales to date but my main problem with them is that their system doesn't automatically read meta data therefore i have to manually type in title, description and keywords (up to 20 max). This is very annoying and time consuming as well as leaving open the possibility of making a typing mistake. This happened recently and for the life of me i couldn't figure out how to edit the title (where the error was) so emailed SF via their online form to find out how to do so. I also asked when they would support automated EXIF/IPTC data retrieval. That was a good week ago and no reply from them as yet.
I'll continue to upload for now but they are currently way down the list of priority sites to add to.

ImageStoreUK:

Having problems with this site. Getting logged out every time i try to edit an image (after submitting and getting an initial four sample illustrations approved.) I think their site is a bit 'wonky' but i have emailed them for advice/suggestions. Could be a firefox and/or camino problem. I'll update when i know more.

WorkingTitleImages:

Got approved as a contributor after submitting initial 3 sample images and although i have tried to upload the bulk of my portfolio i am unable to do so due to an error page popping up. The site is still in BETA stage and obviously has some teething problems and i know from an email received at the end of Jan that their official site launch could be delayed.
I have tried to contact them using their 'contact us' link but that too gives an error message of 'email not sent' so it seems their site has a way to go before it's up and running properly. I'll up date if the situation changes.

MostPhotos:

I nicely laid out site. No problems uploading but i feel more of a photo community rather than a site that's going to bring in a great deal of sales. It's good to see comments on your images and fun to leave feedback or click 'like' on other peoples images you admire and enjoy viewing. Having said all that there are sales to be had and as it's an easy site to use and navigate i suspect i will continue to add my illustrations there. I'll let you know if i ever get sale.

That's it for now... there are a few others i am registered with but I'll save those for another post. :-)

Earnings Report March 2010

Well, March was pretty good and better than Feb. 

I had slightly less downloads on Shutterstock than i would have hoped for considering the larger portfolio size in comparison to the previous month but still had the most ever downloads of 13. 


I was very surprised to get a large sale on Canstock via fotosearch which netted me $19.80 (aprox £13.25) as well as my first sale at Scandinavian Stock Photo which sold for 3 Euros (my commission being 1 Euro/90p/$1.37).


Sadly no sales at Graphic Leftovers this month or any other site not shown below but i am currently uploading (finally) jpeg illustrations to Fotolia and Istock and getting views there as well as working on more images to get my portfolio to that all important 100 file milestone as quickly as possible.

First sales at Fotolia & 123RF

Had the first sales in the last couple of days at Fotolia and 123RF. Been a long time coming at 123RF.

I do dislike Fotolia's credit system though. It's overly confusing. Why they just can't use pounds or dollars is anyones guess.

Apparently a credit is equal to 75p ($1.15) and now my balance after one sales states 0.216. ugh how unhelpful.

If i am correct then, if that means cents and you round it down, i am about 13.5 pence better off today?! OR is that 0.216 of a CREDIT? Which would mean 21% of 75p = 15.5p? hmmmm either way... what should i buy first though? A motorboat or go straight for the villa in Spain. Decisions, decisions!

The one sale at 123RF gave me 0.36 (a sub sale) so i am 23 pence better off. That clinches it.. looks like I will go for the motorboat after all! ;-)

Mid month update

Not much has happened lately. I have come to a crawl as far as uploads and haven't added anything new to the sites during April as yet.

I think 3D is going to take me longer to master than i had thought and 2D via inkscape is slow and also never really gives me the images that are in my head as i would expect. Lack of experience there i suspect in graphic design perhaps.

More approvals on StockphotoPro although there site is down for maintenance for a few hours at the moment (21st April - 13.20pm GMT). No views last time i looked there tho.

More rejections at iStock but can't complain as the look and feel of their approved images are way off the simple designs i put together. I feel i am going to have to up my game and create nothing less than 'stunning' to get my approval rating looking more healthy there.

This month so far a little slow on sales and i don't see myself beating last months total if things continue at this rate. I am certainly re-thinking my approach and dusting off the Canan camera with a view to getting out there in this lovely sunshine. I just have to motivate myself to get up at 4am to get that perfect shot! ;-)

April Earnings Report

Well, as expected, April's total wasn't very impressive. Without uploading any new material for the whole of the month i didn't even come close to the previous months figure.

I have spent the time looking closer at the Photomatix program and playing with the camera settings with a view to creating some decent HDR photos. A work in progress.....