I feel microstock is changing right under our feet.  Gone are the days everyone rushed to post their earnings at midnight on the 1st of the month.  Gone are the days when there were 2-3 micro blogs.  Now everyone has one but we are all saying basically the same noise.  This site said this, that one did that. Nothing about how bloggers are striving to improve their own situation, nothing about the daily struggle or the mission.

I’m going to get back to core here – I’ll still be posting the news I see fit but I really want to get to a place where I’m making real progress on my goals. So what is my current situation and goal?

Currently I’m landing between $550 and $800 a month on micro.  It’s an improvement over my last postings but not as much of one as I’d like.  As I said last post I’m moving forward, shooting & submitting – and it has to help.

I think I’ll awaken a sleeping giant in Shutterstock.  I would expect my numbers to more than double in July and maybe triple.  I think I can make as much on SS in one month as I make now with ALL my sites.  I’m submitting to iStock and Alamy whether they take my stuff or not.  I’m going to be less focused on rejection and more focused on creation.

Next post (in 2 days) will talk about my ‘life reboot’ I keep mentioning in passing.  Things are changing…

Let me quote myself.

I am not going to stick around and pretend to be something I?m not.? Too many people set goals and fail to reach them, yet still continue the journey unfazed.? I often share my experiences and ideas in hopes of helping you.? If I can?t help myself first, I can?t help you.

If I fail to reach both goals (10k images, $25k for the year) by 12/31/09, NiltoMil.com will close for good whether I continue to shoot microstock or not.

At this point in the year it is obvious that I will not reach 10k approved images OR $25,000 this year.

I am modifying what I wrote above.? I am not going to destroy or delete Nil. I am going to stop posting earnings, stop posting ideas until they are working better.? I AM going to keep Nil up for the archives and the posts that often get referenced.? I AM going to continue to put up posts of interest to me – whether that’s of interest to anyone else or not.? My journey will continue.

I need to help myself first.? I need to figure out the steps I should be taking to reach my goal? and when I do, I’ll be back full force with the full effort I can give Nil.? Until then, expect sporadic updates on what I’m doing, how stock is going and what I am trying to do to improve.

I learned a huge lesson in the last 3 months. That lesson:

“Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort.” – Charles Givens

What I mean to say, exactly, is that stock is a momentum game. The more quality images you upload, the more people visit your gallery and thus the more sales you have overall. The first bit of starting requires a harder push than later on but you must start and (here’s the lesson of the day) KEEP GOING.

I’ve watched the downloads of several major contributors this month and last. They nearly always are consistently uploading. Image totals go up here and there and the contributors continue to be successful. Another thing I did was watch a few contributors with totals near mine. Some went up, some did not.? For the most part these type of users make up the majority of active contributors – those who are basically spinning their wheels.? The last group needs no monitoring.? They are the contributors who submit a few times, don’t make $10,000 and go away never to be heard from again.

I’m concerned only with the group that uses momentum in its favor.? This group uploads consistently, 50-200 images? a week almost every week.? This group also seems to make most of the money in microstock.

So what is it that keeps the momentum going?? What keeps a contributor going?? I think they are obsessed.? One of my favorite quotes ever is by John Irving.? He said the secret to business was “You’ve got to GET obsessed and STAY obsessed.”? Many start there – how do? you continue your obsession?? What makes you enjoy the business?

Recently I was away for a few months, reconsidering what I wanted to do in microstock.? Over the summer last year I lost my momentum and it really hurt my sales and my mood.? I have in the last few weeks been kicking it back into gear.? It’s time to run again.? I am obsessed with microstock again.? I want to learn, move forward, WIN.? I want to hit goals, hit higher ones and hit ones so high I have to reset them all.? I am officially OBSESSED with microstock and it’s time to get back to good.? I’m not going to let summer stop me this time.? I am shooting again, editing again, uploading again – with more consistency and less “flurry.”? Powerweeks work against me – that’s figured out.? Moving forward in a consistent manner is the goal.? We shall see!

Thanks for reading – I really appreciate all of you guys.? Leave me a comment and I’ll stop by to see what you’ve been working on too!

Here’s a hint: no matter how good of a photographer you are today, you’ll either be better in three years or you won’t be a microstock photographer any longer.? Standards improve so fast, so much that if you aren’t constantly learning a “new trick” you are going to get? surpassed extremely quickly in image quality, control of light, etc.

We have made it a priority for the last year to improve our work.? I think it has improved a thousandfold and I’m still learning.? One way to do that is by using video tutorials to learn new skills.? Youtube is great for old NBA videos but it’s surprisingly good for instructional video as well.

Try these:

http://www.youtube.com/user/prophotolife 26 episodes of photo goodness

http://www.youtube.com/user/PhotoGavin

and there are incredibly numerous Photoshop Tutorials:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=photoshop+tutorial&search_type=&aq=f

And that’s that! Go learn. No photo because of the vid.

The Internet isn?t as organized as say the NFL or Miss America. To know who?s ?winning? requires some amount of research into a few things:

1) on what are blogs ranked?

2) how do you track that stuff?

3) who?s winning?

4) how much do we care?

?

This is Part 4 ? How much do we care?

The last question is how high you want to go. This isn?t as difficult as it seems. There are 5 levels of bloggers according to Technorati and they are ranked according to Authority like this:

A List Blogs ? 500+ Authority
B List Blogs ? 100-499 Authority
C List Blogs ? 10-99 Authority
D List Blogs ? 3-9 Authority
E List Blogs ? 0-2 Authority

Just for the record, that?ll probably change soon. The #1 blog has an authority of 29,213 as of today. To qualify for the top 100, you need Authority of 2451.

Where do YOU need to be for your market? A quick search shows that our Picture Infinity Blog is the #1 blog for Syracuse Wedding Photographer with an Authority of 5. This will be different everywhere. If you search Los Angeles wedding photographer, you need a 60 to be fourth place. First place is Jessica Claire with a 527 Authority.

For most markets, using your blog as a means of advertising means being a C List Blogger. D list works sometimes. C a lot more frequently. Being a B List blogger means you?re ?usually? tops in your market.

SEO & Technorati, Part 1
SEO & Technorati, Part 2
SEO & Technorati, Part 3
SEO & Technorati, Part 4

The Internet isn?t as organized as say the NFL or Miss America. To know who?s ?winning? requires some amount of research into a few things:

1) on what are blogs ranked?

2) how do you track that stuff?

3) who?s winning?

4) how much do we care?

?

This is Part 3 ? Who?s Winning?

The ?Who?s Winning? of blogs can be summarized very easily: multiple bloggers using one portal and a ?newspaper? type interface. They are winning and easily. For your own blog, as a small business or solo photographer, winning isn?t as important as ?beating your direct competition.? You?re not in competition with Huffington Post or Gizmodo.

What good does it do? Technorati Authority is based on a similar concept as Google?s Pagerank ? how many incoming links go to this and how relevant are those links? This was easy in the past. I?d collect a list of links from each of you, we?d all post them, boom, instant Authority, rank and Pagerank. Good all around. Google now PENALIZES against ?excessive link exchanges? ? which really has no definition other than ?if you have to create a link directory for it, it?s probably excessive.?

Who?s winning your market? Do a couple of searches on Technorati and see what you find. After you do an initial search (results will be in ?Posts?) click ?Blogs? to get results for which blogs hold high rankings in your particular set of keywords. See, it can function like Google too ? but with the added knowledge of WHY someone is ranked so well.

SEO & Technorati, Part 1
SEO & Technorati, Part 2
SEO & Technorati, Part 3
SEO & Technorati, Part 4

The Internet isn?t as organized as say the NFL or Miss America. To know who?s ?winning? requires some amount of research into a few things:

1) on what are blogs ranked?

2) how do you track that stuff?

3) who?s winning?

4) how much do we care?

This is Part 2 ? How do we track it?

To track your blog on Technorati, you will want to claim your blog. You can do that by clicking the Blogs tab and then at the bottom of the page inserting your blog URL and following the steps from there. The important thing as far as having a Technorati account is simply having a way to monitor your progress and your current authority.

Once you have claimed your blog and logged into Technorati you will see the blogs you have claimed on the right under ?My Blogs.? Click ?manage my blogs? Here you can edit your settings (mainly description and tags). You can also grab the code to add faves but faves are a Technorati-only thing and do not help your Authority or ranking.

On the other tabs in Manage My Blog you may also change your Bio, Photos and such.

SEO & Technorati, Part 1
SEO & Technorati, Part 2
SEO & Technorati, Part 3
SEO & Technorati, Part 4

The Internet isn?t as organized as say the NFL or Miss America. To know who?s ?winning? requires some amount of research into a few things:

1) on what are blogs ranked?

2) how do you track that stuff?

3) who?s winning?

4) how much do we care?

?

This is Part 1 ? On what are blogs ranked?

The current standard for ranking blogs is Technorati (http://www.technorati.com). As of June 2008, Technorati indexes 112.8 million blogs. Technorati is THE ranking system for blogs. So let?s check it out. Technorati measures a blog on:

#1 ? Technorati authority

#2 ? Technorati rank

Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months.
Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top.

If you click on a technorati link for a blog you find out both.

http://www.technorati.com/blogs/niltomil.com

You can see that NiltoMil.com has an Authority: 8 and Rank: 709,835. The lowest ranked blogs, those with no authority, are 4,704,172.

Blogs can be ranked on Google but you have to take into consideration keywords then and your results will vary. For ?microstock blog? NiltoMil is ranked #4. For ?microstock blogger? though, we are #1. You can use Google to determine a lot about your rating in that system but Technorati gives you an exact placement.

SEO & Technorati, Part 1
SEO & Technorati, Part 2
SEO & Technorati, Part 3
SEO & Technorati, Part 4

As valuable as I hope the information I provide may be, I would occasionally like to bring in others to do some blogging as well.? Share some information with the rest of us.? I’m not an expert in everything and unfortunately a one-person blog can never provide the level of expertise of a group.? So I’m inviting self-nominations and recommendations for guest bloggers.? If you have a topic you’d like to write about, especially one I’m self-proclaimed uneducated on, please let me know!? Topics that may fly would include: IStock (I may have a guest for this), macrostock, large image catalog management (over 7k submissions), etc.

Your post will include a link back to your own blog if you have one or the portfolio of your choice if you choose.

Just in case you’re on the fence, here’s a link you should read about guest blogging.? Also, if anyone is looking for a guest blogger, I’m happy to share whatever I can.