May in Microstock off to good start!
Immediately after I published my previous post on April’s earnings. I went to check my email and found that I had a sale on Fotolia. It could be a good month! It was a XS but a sale none the less.
Allen
‘Photography’ Articles
Microstock April 2008 Update
April was a really busy month but I still got to do some shooting and uploading. Even got a couple more added to most of the sites. I got a good jump in my average portfolio size, but I’d really like to do something like Lee Torrens’ Shoot Daily and Contribute Nightly or Matt Antonino’s April 450 – monthly microstock goal . Both of which are very ambitious but not really an attainable goal for me right now.
Had an interesting experience with my best sale from last month. It was just a simple shot of some gravel I took while watching one of my boys baseball practice. That is what I’m working at getting better at, having the camera with me and seeing the opportunity to take a shot that is a good microstock shot. The shot is the picture to the right. Makes me think if you can get it past the review process, it may well sell on Microstock, within reason.
My average portfolio size is currently 52 up from 43 images. It looks like that will take a hit along with my total balance when Lucky Oliver goes away in May. I did sign up for 123RF last month but need to submit my first batch of images there too, probably use the same batch I use for ShutterStock.
I should point out that these numbers are my career TOTALS not just the totals for April. When I get some more consistent downloads and earnings I switch to monthly numbers.
| Sites | Portfolio Size | Downloads | Balance | Comments |
| Fotolia | 112 | 12 | $7.59 | Sold one |
| Lucky Oliver | 98 | 2 | $1.20 | Guess I’ll have to say Bye-Bye to my $1.20. |
| IStockPhoto | 34 | 5 | $4.56 | Good month here |
| Crestock | 9 | 0 | $0.00 | |
| ShutterStock | 0 | 0 | $0.00 | Got the notice that I can resubmit #5 but haven’t had time. |
| StockXpert | 0 | 0 | $0.00 | Need to get my second attempt together |
| Dreamstime | 8 | 0 | $0.00 | |
| Totals | Avg.52 | 19 | $13.35 | Hopefully I don’t see this number go backward with the loss of LO |
Here’s a couple other blogs I follow, hopefully someday my earnings will rival some of theirs:
Microstock Diaries: Microstock Results for April 2008
Nil to Mil: April Earnings and Portfolios
Pixels Away: Microstock Photography Earnings Report for April 2008
Allen
Microstock March 2008 Update
March was a pretty dry month for downloads, only got two from Fotolia. I was successful at getting a couple more pictures approved at most of the sites. I got some images approved on Dreamstime which is a new site for me. I’m really trying to focus on getting good images that will sell as microstock images. Everything I’ve been reading says you can’t really make any predictions until you get a portfolio of 100 images, so that’s my goal, especially for IStockPhoto.
My average portfolio size is currently 43 images, and that doesn’t include the sites I don’t have any images on yet.
| Sites | Portfolio Size | Downloads | Balance | Comments |
| Fotolia | 90 | 11 | $6.27 | Only site to get any downloads this month |
| Lucky Oliver | 92 | 2 | $1.20 | |
| IStockPhoto | 22 | 2 | $1.40 | |
| Crestock | 9 | 0 | $0.00 | |
| ShutterStock | 0 | 0 | $0.00 | Failed to get accepted four times |
| StockXpert | 0 | 0 | $0.00 | Need to get my second attempt together |
| Dreamstime | 7 | 0 | $0.00 | |
| Totals | Avg. 43 | 15 | $8.87 |
Allen
Getting approved at Shutterstock, or not
Well I finally got my email Welcome Back to Shutterstock, meaning it was time for attempt number four to get approved to what is widely considered the most profitable microstock web site. The selection of the first five photos was relatively easy, I was just going to use ones that had been approved previously. Counting my most recent fourth attempt the images have been approved 3/3, 3/4, 3/3, 3/4 and 4/4 time. Three of them have been approved every time and the other two have done well.
Three of the last five have been accepted at other microstock sites, here’s my favorite, it even has a favorable review on IStockPhoto. Unfortunately none of them were approved by Shutterstock.com so it will be another month before I can attempt again. Hopefully that will give me a chance to get some more photos that may get accepted.
My biggest problem appears to be ‘Poor Lighting’, which on some I can understand and control, but some of the outdoors one I think might be a little difficult to control. Over the next month I’d like to concentrate on getting some more marketable microstock photos which should hopefully assist in me getting approved at ShutterStock, to say nothing of getting more downloads at other sites.
Here’s a nice FAQ about ShutterStock which gives quite a bit of useful information.
Allen