Mircostocks April Results

Alexandr Denisenko My Money - Free Image from Dreamstime



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I had a best ever month at Dreamstime; Shutterstock returned to normal after a couple months that included extended license downloads; Fotolia and 123RF were disappointing.

The results

Dreamstime Portfolio 546, New photos 31, Sales 28, Earnings $23.71
Shutterstock Portfolio 238, New photos 14, Sales 57, Earnings $15.88
Fotolia Portfolio 236, New photos 11, Sales 10, Earnings $ 4.06
123RF Portfolio 434, New photos 5, Sales 5, Earnings $ 2.08

Notes

BME at Dreamstime for earnings and downloads
Worst month at 123RF for a long time. First time in seven months to have less than 10 downloads
New referral at Dreamstime (though both referrals haven't started building a portfolio).
The month had the slowest start that I can remember. By the 6th April, I had only one download and my earnings were just 25 cents.

I hope the next month will be better. I intent to add more pictures and really want to add some people pictures. That's the month's main aim.

To do more people's shots, I've started a new blog called 100 strangers to friends.


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Getting Started in Microstocks - Dreamstime

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Dreamstime was the first microstock agency to accept my photos way back in October 2008. It has an active and inclusive community and many of the photographers with the agent are very loyal to it.

It was one of the easier microstocks to start with too and from reviewing the current literature it still is.

Many agencies require you to submit a set of photos i.e. Shutterstock, of which you must have 7 acceptable photos before they will start selling your photos. On Shutterstock, if you don't get accepted, you have to wait a month before submitting 10 more photos for review.

Dreamstime is different, after registering for free, you can start uploading photos for review. Even if they are rejected, you can still upload more.

Why join Dreamstime?

• Helpful online community, with active forums and blogs.
• Good exclusive offer for photographer short of time. You get 20 cents for each accepted file and 60% of the sale price (compared to only 30% for most images by non-exclusive photographers).
• Fair easy to build up a portfolio.
• Make money - Dreamstime is my second largest earner, for most photographer, it is in the top four.
• Helpful feedback on rejected images.

I've enjoyed being with Dreamstime. It's the community I'm most involved with as I've found the forums and blogs useful. If you haven't started yet with microstocks, I believe this is a great agency to start and sell photos. Whilst you might not make a lot of money, (some do, especially if you view it as a business) you will start making some money from photography and maybe cover the cost of it.

Good luck!!!

For a general overall of the main microstock agencies see my previous article Getting Started in Microstocks

March Microstocks Results

Make Money from Photography by Digitalphotonut - Dreamstime


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It's been an exciting month, with BME for both Fotolia and Shutterstock in revenue and the most downloads for Dreamstime and 123RF (Shutterstock matched it's best ever downloads for a month). The cherry on top of the cake was another extended license from Shutterstock.

The results.

Dreamstime - Portfolio 515, New Photos 27, Sales 25 at $17:03
Fotolia - Portfolio 225, New Photos 10, Sales ?? at $17:36
Shutterstock Portfolio 224, New Photos 19, Sales 64 at $46:50
123RF - Portfolio 429, New Photos 18, Sales 15 at $ 8:94

Overall income for the month $89:84

Notes

• BME revenue - Shutterstock, Fotolia
• BME for sales - Dreamstime and 123RF
• The first time that Fotolia has beaten Dreamstime
• 123RF - I had four editorial pictures accepted though they don't seen to be listed in the main portfolio. I guess they will have their own portfolio, though I'm not sure about this.
• 123RF - had a lot of pictures rejected, even ones accepted by Fotolia were rejected here.
• Fotolia - need to verify final result as I'm unable to log in at the moment.
• Extended License at Shutterstock - $28.


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It's done it again! Second Extended License.


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Celebration Time Again!


After waiting more than 15 months in the microstock game for my first extended licence, I've got my second one within a month and with the same image. It's on Shutterstock again - 28 sweet dollars!.

So far, this picture has earned me more than $80 on Shutterstock alone.

It certainly put a smile on my face yesterday. Enjoy your day too!

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Getting Started in Microstocks

Stock Image - Finance and China









If you have a DSLR camera, a passion for photography (and video) and an appetite for learning then microstocks could be for you. Treat it as an experiment and the very least it will do for you is to broaden your photographic horizons.

I’ve spent time on Flickr, which is great for learning photographic style and getting inspiration.

Microstocks are great for learning those softer technical skills that could help you earn some money from your photography like; why ISO is important, how to deal with noise, how to make isolated images and what kind of pictures sell.

You have a choice of agencies to start with but some require that you qualify for photographer status first before you can submit i.e. Shutterstock and 123RF.

I’d suggest that you first try Dreamstime and Fotolia because;

• You can summit photographs once you have registered.
• If your photographs get rejected, you will get feedback.
• You will learn from rejections and be in a better position to submit more photos.

Fotolia, despite not requiring you submit photographs for inspection before accepting you as a photographer, are very fussy over what they accept.

You can build up a portfolio and also understand which photos are the most suitable to use to gain qualified status at 123RF and Shutterstock.

Shutterstock is now considered to be the number one in microstocks. It certainly is in my experience but it’s also notoriously hard to get accepted. It took me three goes.

Here are some tips for submitting to Shutterstock (also for 123RF).

• Only submit photos that were taken at ISO 100 or less.
• Submitted photos should be different from one another.
• Use the Shutterstock forums to help. They have one specifically for critiquing new submitters.


And good luck. I’ve found that once you have been accepted by Shutterstock that they are fairly constistent with what they accept and reject. It’s now my favourite site.

There are other microstock agencies but these ones are in the top 6 and they provide some income and a lot of fun. Good luck in your microstock adventures and be careful - it's very addictive!



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February Round Up

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It's been a busy month, despite having no work, I haven't got as much done as I'd hope but I did a lot anyway. Including doing my first bungee jump, a 4 day trip to Macau, a 6 day trip to South Taiwan, more exercise and lots of reading.

Photography

The Extended License at Shutterstock is the obviously highlight and this has resulted in a Best Month Ever (BME). Shutterstock also brought in the most dollars. On the downside, I haven't produced many new pictures and didn't increase my portfolio size much, this despite having more time. I expected to increase my portfolio size easily but it didn't happened, partly I hampered by bad weather. Both trips had mostly bad weather, which isn't ideal for stock photography.


Dreamstime Total Portfolio 488 New Photos 18 Feb $10.65
Shutterstock Total Portfolio 205 New Photos 10 Feb $43.63
Fotolia Total Portfolio 215 New Photos 2 Feb $6.26
123RF Total Portfolio 411 New Photos 0 Feb $8.05

Total Earnings $68.59

Highlights

• Extended licence at Shutterstock
• BME - Shutterstock - $43.63
• Started taking 'people' pictures and got a friend involved in one photo session.


Other photography highlights of the month.

• I might have found a studio that I could use for photography.
• After seeing my flickr a/c, a woman with three shops and sells on-line wants me to make some designs for T-shirts aimed at teenage girls.

Writing

I've written some stuff and have gather the bulk on two subjects that could be made into a few articles. I've found a new topic, the health of teeth, that I'm interested in and if I make contact with some 'experts' it should be easy to get stuff published.

Generally though, I'm behind where I would like to be though.

I only contacted one editor. This was disappointing.

Chinese

I feel that my Chinese is progressing, it's going forward and I can understand more and more. My speaking is still clumsy though.
Started to learn characters again. This is something I'm good at. I don't know why, but I find learning characters enjoyable and easy, relative to speaking.

Comfort Challenges

I did the physical ones I set out to do. The bungee jump and getting my hair shaved were very easy (fighting but only take a short time to do). The ones I still need to do are 'contacting editors and Chinese from the streets (taking audio recordings of people on the street, reading local signs around were I live).



Click here to see The Bungee Jump

First Extended Licence - YEAH!

First Extended License.


To buy stock images from 25 cents an image







It's finally happened! After more than 15 months in the microstock game, I've got my first 'BIG' sale. Yeah! It's was on Shutterstock and I've got $28 for it. That's worth the same as 112 subscription downloads.

This has been my best selling picture to date. It's a number one on Shutterstock (55 downloads and counting), 123RF and Fotolia. It wasn't accepted at Dreamstime.

If you're a photographer start earning dollars for your pictures!!!

I don't know why this picture is so popular but it is. Perhaps, this is ideal stock and I should learn more from it. Perhaps, look to reproduce a similar image but with cars.



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