123RF
Difficulty: 123RF is one of my best & easiest agencies to get approved images online. I have approximately 92% accepted here. Earnings are picking up as of May 2008 so I’m really excited about 123RF right now.

Notes: At least one reviewer at 123RF hates silhouettes as my entire batch of 8 silhouettes was rejected here. Will have to either a) resubmit with a note or b) not upload silhouettes.

Bigstockphoto
Difficulty: By far the easiest of my good income sources. GREAT sales for my images. Other than self-deleted images, I have a near-100% approval/accept rate at Bigstock. I’m definitely on the same page as their current reviewers.

Canstockphoto
Difficulty: Strangely difficult considering sales. I have stopped uploading to CanstockPhoto so I am not sure how the current reviews are going. My approval rate fluctuated here drastically and doesn’t seem to match what I’m getting in return. Considering the atrocious earnings (ONE sale in 3 months with 200+ approved images, 3 sales in 4 months with 500+ online), I was very disappointed in this. Bigstock & 123RF both make more money and have an easier time accepting images.

Crestock
Difficulty: Difficult. Difficult enough that my new stuff isn’t being accepted here either. I am giving up on Crestock for now.

Notes: One sale, 79 images online, 400 submitted? Yeah right. (Update: still 1 sale, 100 images online…no)

Dreamstime
Difficulty: Dreamstime is moderately difficult easy for me. Overall 57.9% (and improving) accept rate is higher than their submitter average (49%) but my latest submissions have been 85%+. I’m going to wait a few more before giving them a more current “difficulty” rating but overall I have had a lot of great batches and a few that just blew my rate totally.

Notes: Dreamstime makes me enough money these days to deal with their processes. I make quite a bit of my microstock income here and continue to grow with DT.

FeaturePics
Difficulty: My experience with FeaturePics is that it is extremely easy to get images approved here. I do not have enough sales data to say whether it’s worth it. (Update: one sale….very easy to submit to though - a complete catalog of your RF images so it’s great to have.)

Notes: Because FP offers multiple licenses (RF, RM, etc) and you price your own images, FeaturePics is *almost* more like a cart or storefront then a microstock agency or traditional agency. However, once more data is in, we’ll be able to decide how this is working out a lot better.

Fotolia
Difficulty: Wow was I wrong here. Mark them down as my second most difficult of the Big 6. Only IStock gives me more grief for rejections lately. Fotolia has a lot of open-ended rejection reasons and it’s hard to tell what they are rejecting for. After a long string of initial successes, I’m averaging a low 40%-50% there recently. Definitely the easiest of the “Big 6″ agencies to have my images approved at. These reviewers rarely give me a rejection I don’t understand or can’t live with. I’m pleased with the money I make per image and will continue to upload as much as possible here.

Notes: Fotolia has extensive statistics that I should learn more about and use. I also sell more EL here than anywhere else.

FotoMind
Difficulty: FotoMind is one of the easiest agencies to get new images approved at. They are a very new site and thus need your images badly. The more you upload now, the better off you will be if and when FotoMind takes off and becomes a much larger agency.

Notes: I’m happy so far and will continue to upload and hopefully make sales here. Update: sales are continuing to pick up and I’m very happy with FotoMind so far. Better results on earnings than Canstock, Crestock, FeaturePics, SnapVillage, MostPhotos all put together!

Istockphoto
Difficulty: Frustratingly difficult. Istock is the most difficult microstock agency to upload to by far (no FTP) and once I do get them uploaded, I have a terrible acceptance rate of around 35% and I have discontinued uploading to Istock until I have more time to focus on their silly submission procedure and figure out what they want as far as imagery.

Notes: I make decent but not spectacular money here. Istock has dipped below Dreamstime as my #2 agency for income and will continue to dip unless I start uploading more images. We shall see how that goes. Update: it’s getting worse. Look at the recent month’s income - IStock wasn’t in my top 4 for earnings.

Shutterstock
Difficulty: Shutterstock is moderately difficult to get images accepted to. Rejections are down lately and the more I shoot specifically for stock, the better my images seem to do. I am finding that it’s possible to “learn” what each agency wants - something I never imaged was a realistic goal for me unless I paid strict attention. Shutterstock is by ……………….FAR………………… my number one earner.

StockXpert
Difficulty: StockXpert is moderately difficult to get images accepted. Unfortunately the reviews tend to take a long time so I forget to check on the status of batches very frequently.

Notes: Income is picking up - I need to remember to finish my submissions here more often.

YayMicro
Difficulty: YayMicro is the new kid on the block. In fact they just opened for sales June 2nd! Almost every image I have submitted has been approved and apparently sales are very good (5 Euro for large image sales!). I love their website and highly recommend checking them out. Get in while the getting is this easy.