Top 20 19 Microstock Agencies

The BEST Sellers

1. Shutterstock

Shutterstock offers something most of the other agencies do not ? fast sales, early income. Shutterstock has *no* exclusivity program currently. High pay, high sales, commissions vary by user.

2. Istockphoto

The Godfather of microstock, IstockPhoto is one of the most difficult agencies to have images approved at and seems to give large bonuses to exclusive photographers such as larger upload queue, faster reviews, and higher search engine placement. High pay, medium sales, commissions vary for exclusive vs. non-exclusive and for photographer level.

3. Dreamstime

Images have to ?season in? before they will make you the most money but once that happens you will find fantastic returns from Dreamstime. Image approvals are probably easiest here of the BEST sellers group. Dreamstime offers per-image or photographer exclusivity. High pay, high sales, commissions vary by Image Level.

4. Fotolia

Fotolia has very strict, sometimes difficult to understand acceptance criteria for images. They also offer per-image exclusivity. Fotolia?s income potential is very high although they recently reduced this for newer photographers by making it harder to push through some of their ?contributor levels.? Medium pay, medium sales, commissions vary by photographer level.

The NEXT best

5. 123RF

We have over 92% approval rate at 123RF and although it does not sell like the top 4, sales beat almost every other agency each month. Medium pay, low sales, commissions vary by image size.

6. BigstockPhoto

BigstockPhoto is a ?fair reviewer? agency ? it?s difficult to argue with their rejections and is thus a great site to learn from. The income varies dramatically ? one month being a new high and the very next month half the income and then right back up one month later. High pay, low sales, commissions vary by size.

This agency has one of the simplest upload procedures but limits of 50 per day transfer. The two combine to make growing your gallery fast but not amazingly so. Medium pay, medium sales, commissions vary by size.

7. StockXpert

StockXpert is one of those sites that varies too much month to month.? Their new arrangement with Photos.com makes it so that one Photos.com sale changes your stats by a lot.? Fortunately, it’s a good thing.? UNfortunately, when you don’t make those sales, you don’t make as much here as I’d like to make.? Medium pay, medium sales, comissions vary wildly.

The NOT best

1. FeaturePics ? set your own pricing, 70% commissions, few sales.
2. FotoMind ? high payout threshold, few sales, could still grow.
3. MostPhotos ? high payout (12.50? per sale), few sales, easy upload.
4. SnapVillage ? very few sales. A newer agency.
5. YayMicro ? very few sales. A newer agency.
6. Zymmetrical ? very few sales. Difficult approvals. A newer agency.
7. Crestock ? difficult approvals, very few sales.
8. CanstockPhoto ? very few sales, one of the older agencies, low commissions.
9. ImageCatalog
10. CutCaster
11. PantherMedia
12. Moodboard
13. ?

I was going to list a top 20 but microstock is not a place to joke around with how many agencies you can *possibly* join. Here are some thoughts ? unless you opt for exclusivity with Istock, Dreamstime or Fotolia, you should be on the top 4 sites. There?s no (good) reason to avoid them. Accept the rejections that come and learn from them. The next three sites are great to learn on, grow on and get some sales under your belt. If you?re ?worried? about rejection, start there. They are fewer and easier to take. Bigstock has professional, superb reviewers and if you get rejected there it was probably for a good reason.

The rest of the sites on the list are sites to mainly avoid. If you *have* to keep adding sites, #8-12 are the best places to start. Moodboard is almost not microstock (it?s midstock). Your time would be better served getting ONE sale on Alamy then a year?s worth of sales on all of the sites #8-19 combined.