Ok so the previous record for funniest rejection reason belonged to Dreamstime for an image that had people in it but no visible faces.  I wanted to stay safe and therefore uploaded the model releases for those subjects as I had releases for everyone in the photo.

Rejected: No model release needed.

Now that’s hilarious stuff.  I’m impressed with the high comedy of a rejection for adding an extra release to an image with those people in it.  However, today, all has been surpassed.  In fact, I’m not sure this one from Shutterstock can EVER be topped.

Not approved. Reason: Approved.

Now it only took me a minute or two to realize “OHHHHH I already submitted the same image!”  That’s so rare for me that I make this kind of mistake I was in shock!  I have a very good organizational system and so it never crossed my mind.  But Not Approved: Approved.  That one made me laugh a GREAT BIG laugh!

Ahhhh!  I love this business.  Thank you funny reviewer.

Hi & welcome back! NiltoMil is officially off and running again – I’m keywording, submitting, pushing images and then working on shooting some new today.  I’m going to be pushing some older images even though I know they won’t sell as well as I’d like simply because I want the momentum to begin NOW not in a month when I get new stuff edited.

I’m ready for 2010!  January will be a very poor month since I’m starting so late but February should show some recovery.

In the last 6 months when I was mainly gone:

• Shot weddings – and we have 4 other photographers who shot during that time as well.
• Sold my house/bought a new house – a fixer-upper.  We’ve been working on it almost everyday since Nov 20th for 12+ hours per day.
• Delved into the food styling/preparing/photo world.  I’ve read almost every post on Still Life With, Matt Bites, and many other foodie blogs.  I’ve devoured four entire food photography books including Rinder/Smith’s new book and Lou Manna’s classic.
• Redesigned our business brand
• Traveled to Maine, twice.  Traveled to NYC.

Now that I’m back my goal is to create an income that will pay my mortgage first, other bills later.  Our mortgage is $680.  This is an achievable goal that I do have to reach for. I’ll do a more extensive goals post in the next week or so but that’s the start of it.

Current BME: $575.46, July 2008

My upload strategy of late has been momentum.  I think if we upload consistently rather than doing Power Week then nothing, we’re going to be better with sales and have a better acceptance ratio.  So far that has proven to be true.  I am now almost a full week into this consistent strategy and what I’m finding is that sales on SS, DT and SXP are rising.  Fotolia always takes awhile and BSP/123RF don’t sell enough to notice trends yet.  This consistent approach is also good for my portfolio.  Let’s take a look at where I was/am as an update.

• Shutterstock 1/1 – 1441
• Shutterstock 6/7 – 2395




• Dreamstime 1/1 – 1570
• Dreamstime 6/7 – 2346




• Fotolia 1/1 – 646
• Fotolia 6/7 – 1696




• StockXpert 1/1 – 1365
• StockXpert 6/7 – 2758




• Bigstock 1/1 – 1540
• Bigstock 6/7 – 2857

5 full months of uploading has nearly doubled my gallery on many sites, +700 or 900 new images on many other sites.  However, I’m nowhere near where I need to be on images, sales or earnings to get what I want.  So this change, along with some other new things I will be doing, will hopefully get me closer to goal.

So from now on, I’m uploading 25 a day 5 days a week, every week.  I think 500 new approved images a month is going to have to be a “good enough” goal.  If I can manage that, by the end of this year I will have 3500 new images or over 5000 on every site (except IS of course!)

Another goal that will happen this month – I’m adding at least a couple batches to DeepMeta for Istock, submitting more to Fotolia and trying to create some images that may sell better than things I have now.  We need to improve out quality to keep up with the best in this business!

Total Earning: $555.49

So April was both a good month and a bad month, depending on your point of view.   The good news is that my earnings rose $5 even with a sizable drop from SS, IS, and FT.  Last month those three combined for $340 while this month just $289.  However, Dreamstime recovered up $13 and Canstock and Bigstock had a BME.

My gallery size stayed very near the same numbers as March as SS went up 27, DT 26 and SXP 72.  So that is mainly the bad news.

The good news is that April marks the first time *ever* I have had three $500 months in a row and both my 3 and 6 month averages are the highest they have ever been.  I haven’t beaten my overall BME yet in 2009 but it is reachable for May.  My 3 month average is up $35 from last month, my 6 month is up $25 and my 12 month is up $26.  While not amazing numbers they are all UP.

Two Best Month Ever’s – the previously mentioned Bigstock and the upcoming Canstockphoto.  Prior to Feb. 1, 2009 I had *total* made rougly $60.70 over FOUR years.  In the last 3 months, I have earned $93.70!  Yes, Canstock is back.  In fact, my 3 month average at Canstock is $22.43 which is my 5th best agency of 18.

As they are throughout the month and at the end of every month, detailed results are available here.

Others reporting microstock income:

Microstock Diaries

jrtb

CJ Photography

Driftless Ramblings

PDTNC

MelastMohican

Pixels Away

Bankizdjec

Microstock Experiment

MyStockPhoto

Did I miss any?  Comment below and I’ll add you for next month!

Don’t be surprised if the overall layout of NiltoMil changes soon – I’ve seen some really great looking sites and I think I know how I want to make this easier for me to post more content.  That would seem to be the goal so I will look into it.

* NOTE: I had to change Canstock stats after this post was release.  At 11:55pm last night I had a Canstock Medium FotoSearch sale for $26.40 which drastically changed some info and resulted in this being my 2nd best month ever.

March was up overall but not a BME.  Kind of sad given a Powerweek in the middle of the month should have spurred new heights but when 50%+ gets rejected you don’t get very far.

Detailed results are here.

So let’s see, Shutterstock still hasn’t gained the momentum I need simply because I’m not consistent enough.  I’m going to make myself cry if this keeps up!  Dreamstime was down $15-20 from my last few months.  Istock was in the right range.

The good news was the other big agencies: Fotolia was BME at $83.68, BSP also a BME at $31.50 and SXP a BME at $43.50.

Overall March earnings: $550.15

That’s good enough for second best month ever ($575.46 is overall BME).  I would be happier if SS was picking up momentum but in June I had $398.59 with 1247 images online and now $241.97 with 2143 online.  Sad!

Portfolio size average for my top 6 agencies is now 1903.  Fotolia’s 1599 brings that total down but SS, DT, 123, BSP and SXP are all now over 2000.

Coming soon: my first year back and what’s next for N2M.

Yes!  My goal was to hit $500 for only the third month ever (first since my BME last July) and I did it!

Full earnings spreadsheet is here.

With February’s income totaled, I have reached $508.89

BME: IStock, Fotolia, CanStock (DT $1.10 off)

Shutterstock went up $45 this month, a decent start but not where I want to be.  I expect Shutterstock to be well into the $300s for March.  I am starting to gain traction there again so I hope to regain my momentum.

Dreamstime nearly hit a  BME but failed by $1.10 to reach it.  It was my third month in four with basically $103.

IStock is the same old, same old.  Still 89 images but a new BME of $17.81 so whatever change they made to Best Match has helped me lately.  My last two months are my best two months in 4 years.

Fotolia did the expected and more than doubled this month due to my doubling of portfolio size.  Last month I went from 646 images online to 1350 and now at 1599 so a huge leap from Fotolia was expected and received.  Fotolia became just my third agency to start crossing the $50 barrier.

123RF and Bigstock did about usual.  No surprises.  I would like to see some growth though.  These two were earning $22-30 for me in June and same now but I’ve added nearly 800 new images!

StockXpert continues to improve.  my second $30+ in a row with only my EL month beating it (2nd BME).  I like the reviews there, I’m climing up their user charts and everything is starting to go well for me there.

The only other real surprise this month was Canstock.  I have been dumping my portfolio on Canstock because of the new Fotosearch acquistion of CSP and so far so great!  My previous *FOUR YEAR* earnings were $61 on around 125 images and lately on 470 images.  I finished uploading my portfolio so I now have just over 2000 images there and this month made $26.55 which is HALF of my all-time earnings there!  It won’t make me rich but it’s a start for Canstock.  When Canstock finishes 5th on your list, you know something is weird!

Yaymicro, FotoMind, MostPhotos and most of my small and new sites (Image Catalog, CutCaster, Vivozoom) all were at $0 for the month.  When I do Powerweek I will NOT be uploading to those sites.

Microstock Diaries

jrtb

CJ Photography

Microstock Junction

Driftless Ramblings

PDTNC

MelastMohican

Pixels Away

Bankizdjec

Microstock Experiment

The most time consuming part of the uploading/pushing in microstock is categorizing images on certain microstock websites.  The worst offenders are Dreamstime, Bigstock, Fotolia, and Shutterstock.  Categorizing takes time and the more time you spend, the less you are earning per hour.

I use two methods to ensure I spend as little time on categories as possible.  The first is to know the categories on each site.  The second is to “type” categories rather than mouse to them.

Know Categories

The first thing you need is a list of categories on each site.  I’ve saved you a LOT of time and put together a canononical list of categories on these four sites.

Download the list here

It’s a printable word document (four pages) that lists every category and subcategory on each site.

Type Categories

Bigstock

Click the first category and close it.  Type the first letter of the main category until you reach the one you want.  Tab, then type the first letter of the sub category.  For instance, Objects > Over White = O Tab O.  People > Men = P Tab M.  When you’ve finished the first category press tab again to go to the second and repeat through all three categories.  When you get quick at this you should be able to do all three categories much faster than clicking directly on them.

Dreamstime

Dreamstime gives us a bit of a headache for a couple of reasons.  First, many categories start with the same letter.  Industry, IT&C, Illustrations…  So what we do to save time is click to open the first category, click the first letter of the main category then simply scroll and click the right subcategory.  Not as time-saving as the rest but effective nonetheless.  Unfortunately because the categories are “all in one” on Dreamstime, there’s no simpler way.

Fotolia

Simply put there is no fast way to categorize at Fotolia.  I *ABHOR* categorizing here.  I put it off for so long.  If you have been watching my charts you know that I made a real “job” of Fotolia last month and added over 1000 new images!  I simply had that many stored up from not doing them.  THE most important part of categorizing at Fotolia is knowing the categories.  Please refer to the chart often and make it as fast as possible.

Shutterstock

The terms of service at Shutterstock include categories and descriptions so I’ve included them on the list above.  They are the best to type other than Bigstock.  I do end up tabbing a LOT though – but for me it’s faster.  To type categories, open & close the first one as you did with Bigstock.  Now type the first letter until you get the category you want.   (ie. A = Abstract, AA = Animals/Wildlife, T=Technology, TH or TT = The Arts, TR or TTT = Transportation)  Note – Shutterstock includes “VECTORS” as a category on their list but this category doesn’t actually exist.  I included it because they did.

After the first category, press tab.  Now type the second category.  Press tab (space if you need to check the first box), tab (space if you need to check the second box), tab (type “I” for “I will include it now” for a model release, “E” for Editorial, no release needed) and then tab all the way to the next category on the next image.  Basically you can tab all the way through Shutterstock’s submission process and you should.  It takes you through the keywords of the second image, etc. but you will get back to categories and once you know how many tabs between each field you can easily just type your way through the form without ever once touching the mouse after the first two clicks to open and close the first category.  I can submit a batch of 50 Shutterstock in about 5 minutes or less.  I will time it soon.

Batch and Groups

I was reminded by Adelaide that one other speed tip on categories is to do bulk/recent whenever possible.  Bigstock lets you select “Import from previous image” so series’ are great there.  Dreamstime, Fotolia and IStock also allow you to do batch/bulk categories.   Using these tools will also speed up your categorization.  Thanks for the reminder!

Ok?  Conclusions?

So that’s it.  I type my way through almost every set of categories I possibly can.  I have a cheat sheet to know what those categories are and I spend as little time doing the boring humdrum work of stock as possible.

Hope the sheet and the tips help!

January – blessed January!  How do I love thee?

It was absolutely fantastic to get back to uploading with any sense of regularity.  I only uploaded about 200 new images during our busy bridal show/booking month but 200 is more than enough to get me back on track!

As always, our spreadsheet of microstock earnings is here.

The January numbers were great!  In fact, this was our best month since I stopped uploading last July (other than the ridiculous ELs from SS in Nov (3 of them!)  The final total for all this excitement was 424.82

To put that in perspective for us, Shutterstock was actually down a few dollars.  We had SIX BMEs – Dreamstime, IStock, FeaturePics, Crestock, ImageCatalog and SnapVillage.  Also, StockXpert would have been a BME but we had an EL in Nov.  Our old BME was $19.10 though and so this month’s $30 would have destroyed that!

IStock – no clue.  No new images but it was almost TWICE my BME.  I’ve had almost that many images online for FOUR YEARS and never gone up over $10 really.  $17 was a huge leap.  There’s some speculation that it was a result of all their Best Match changes.  We’ll see if it continues (plus I’m going to be uploading to IStock this month like mad so we’ll see if that helps!)

FeaturePics had a … slightly insane month!  I actually repriced all of my images to $10 from $2 before.  I only had 2 sales but those 2 sales resulted in $15.75, or 61% of my all-time FeaturePics earnings.  It was TRIPLE my prior BME.  I’m going to be working on some ideas to push my FeaturePics gallery around the next 6 months so we’ll see if I can’t keep getting a few sales there each month at the new price.

Check out my Fotolia gallery size increase on the spreadsheet – from 465 last April to 646 as of Dec 31st to 1350 as of tonight!  I over doubled my Fotolia gallery in one month!  The power of the push, I guess.  I worked hard on Fotolia (while watching TV) so we’ll hope that pays off over this month and beyond.

Other interesting bits – I passed 2,000 images on FotoMind and MostPhotos and will pass it on a bunch of other sites this month.  Gotta keep pushing!  You’ll note there are *new* agencies on the list – more on that in a future post…

My BME total is $575.46 and I’ll state for the record now that I hope February can beat that.  I’m only $150 away so I think I can make that up without much problem.  I wouldn’t be surprised to go well over $600.  I have a big month ahead – some news coming soon on our next stock photo trip as well!

Other sites reporting earnings:

Microstock Diaries

jrtb

CJ Photography

Microstock Junction

Driftless Ramblings

PDTNC

MelastMohican

Pixels Away

Bankizdjec

Microstock Experiment

Any I’m missing?  This list is getting rather comprehensive!

All in one place and organized by microstock agency, I present to you the canonical list of rejection reasons microstock agencies use to kick your photos (not vectors or videos)  to the curb.

There are two quick notes on this:

1) It’s incomplete – IStock and StockXpert refused to give me a list.  The 123RF list was given to me by Alex and should be fairly complete.  The Bigstock list is fully done.  I believe I caught every Fotolia and Shutterstock reason.  The other lists are created from my own rejections, a bit of research, and some help from an anonymous reviewer.  Vivozoom provided a list as well.

So feel free to contribute to the list, help me make changes, edit things I added if they’ve changed since I last received a particular rejection.  Whatever – it’s interactive and incomplete.  Thanks to the commentators who’ve helped me improve this list!

2) As mentioned above, this is for PHOTOS only.  I am not including the list for vectors or video because a) they weren’t given to me and b) I don’t submit many of those file types so I have way less experience there.

123RF

• Poor Lighting/Composition
• Minimal commercial value
• Potential copyright issue
• Visible branding/logo
• Similar image accepted
• Keywords in English Only
• Bad composition
• Bad focus
• Enlargement has been done and it’s not tolerable.
• Looks like a snapshot.

Bigstock

• Artifact Problems: Noise/Grain/Chromatic or other artifacts due to low light, blue or purple fringing, high ISO, over-sharpening or post processing techniques.
• Blurry: Image is not very crisp or is blurred when viewed at full size.
• Dull, lifeless color: Colors are dull or lackluster.
• Exposure problem:  Image is too dark or too light, not properly exposed.
• Hard shadows:  Caused by on-camera flash. Try not to use flash, use more fill light instead. Flash often creates hard ugly shadows, thanks
• Jagged edges: Isolation has jagged edges, anti-aliasing problems, or background is not clean.
• Low interest subject:  Probably little demand/selling potential for this image. Try for more marketable shots.
• Not newsworthy enough for Editorial Use:  Images submitted as Editorial need to be news, or current events, or commentary worthy. This image does not appear newsworthy enough.
• Poor composition/Cropped subject: Chopping off part of subject makes photo harder to use generally
• Potential copyright / trademark / privacy issue with photo (could be: copyrighted art, visible logo, license plate number, etc)
• Recognizable person without Model Release…
• Similarity: Image too similar to others already submitted. Try selecting only a few of your very best shots for submission of this subject.
• Snapshot composition: This image is more of a snapshot than a marketable stock image. Overall problems can include poor lighting, poor composition, non-interesting subject matter, etc.
• Subject not evident enough – hard to tell what the subject of the photo is
• Too Sexually Explicit:  Can’t accept fully exposed breasts, buttocks or genitals. Or image may be too overtly sexually suggestive.
• Upload problem: Please re-upload this image, there appears to have been a problem with the original upload, thanks.
• We have enough of this subject already…sorry.

Dreamstime

• The image contains elements that might be protected by copyright/trademark (logos, brands, specific buildings etc.), can identify a property/product (letters, numbers), or could raise usage problems, therefore it doesn’t qualify as a RF stock image.
• Poor color: this image has a low color profile and needs improvement in order to increase its sales potential.
• Poor lighting setup, poor contrast or incorrect exposure.
• This is a very well covered subject in our data base or the subject of your image is too specific. We are looking for images that exceed the technical quality and creativity of the images already online.
• The image includes recognizable humans. It cannot be accepted without a model release signed by your subject(s). If the people within your photo are not the main subject but their faces are visible, then you also need a MR for each person whose face is visible.
• Distorted pixels due to poor sensor performance, image was interpolated, poorly scanned, upsampled or JPG was not saved at the highest quality.
• This image is overfiltered. Its use for the potential designers is limited because of this, therefore the image is disqualified as a RF stock-oriented image.
• Image is out of focus or too much of the subject is out of focus (DOF too shallow or DOF not justified) / Image is shaken. Use a faster speed or a tripod.
• Witness’s print name missing
• Model Release document is incomplete.
• Lack of composition.
• Model’s signature missing.
• We have reviewed your file and this is not quite what we’re looking for.

Fotolia

• Quality of the photograph – Your photograph did not reach our desired level of aesthetic quality.
• Type of photograph – Your photographic work is excellent but does not meet the needs of the Fotolia customer base.
• Technical problems – The image contains one or more technical problems:
  • Blurry or out of focus
  • Over/Under exposure
  • Framing problem
  • Over or under saturated colors
  • Problems with contrast
  • Noise or Pixelation
  • Quality of routing
  • Interpolation problem
• Model/Property Release – However we discovered a problem (legal problem, lack of signature, wrong file format, or it was illegible) with the model/property release that you submitted.
• Overabundant Category – Fotolia has received an overabundant amount of high quality images similar to this photo and does not have need of more photos like it.
• Non conformity – The photographs in the Fotolia database are intended for sale to multiple buyers. Your photograph while attractive does not meet a level of neutrality for our buyers.
• Similar Photograph – the same or similar photograph was already submitted to Fotolia.

IStock

• The execution of isolation contains stray areas that are either too feathered or rough.
• This file contains artifacting when viewed at full size. This technical issue is commonly created by the quality settings in-camera, in post-processing or in RAWsettings. Artifacting may be the result of other factors such as excessive level adjustments.
• We found the overall composition of this file’s lighting could be improved. Technical aspects that can affect the overall quality of lighting are: flat/dull colors, blown-out highlights, harsh reflection, shadows or lens flares. These can all limit the usefulness of a file.
• In review of this file, we found the lighting underexposed
• We found this file over filtered from its original appearance/quality.
• This file contains artifacting when viewed at full size (probably due to oversharpening). This technical issue is commonly created by the quality settings in-camera or in post-processing.
• The keywords used for this file do not appear to be fully relevant to the subject.
• Your file contains stray/hot/dead pixels or sensor spots.
  • Sensor spots: Commonly caused from dust on the sensor of your camera. These darker areas usually show up in lighter areas of the file such as skies.
  • Hot Pixels: Dead pixels on your camera’s sensor. Sometimes caused by extreme temperatures, and may become permanent.

Thanks to Tim for the IStock list!

Shutterstock

• Focus–Your image is not in focus or focus is not located where we feel it works best.
• Composition–Limited commercial value due to framing, cropping, and/or composition.
• Poor Lighting–Poor or uneven lighting, or shadows. White balance may be incorrect.
• Lighting Problems–Purple fringe, blown highlights or lenses flare.
• Noise–Noise, film grain, over-sharpening, or artifacts at full size.
• Glitch–There was a technical problem with your upload. Please resubmit.
• Trademark–Contains potential trademark or copyright infringement–not editorial.
• Overuse–Overuse of noise reduction software.
• Keywords–Your keywords must directly relate to the image (relevancy). Please edit your keyword choices and resubmit.
• Editing–Your illustration has rough edges.
• Limited Commercial Value–We do not need this image at this time
• Similar Submissions–Too many of the same subject.

StockXpert

• Image contains too much noise/grain/pixilation
• Some keywords are not relevant to the image.
• Image requires a model release.
• Please improve isolation/editing.
• Thank you, but we have too many like this.
• Poor Lighting.
• Image requires a property release.
• Thank you but we are not interested in this subject matter or situation.
• Poor isolation – elements of the background are not acceptable.
• Cropping should be improved.
• Image contains too much dust.

VivoZoom

• Focus issue
• Overfiltering/Sharpening/Upsizing
• Over/Under exposed
• Digital Noise/Jagged lines/Pixelation
• Image content not required
• Lighting issue
• Composition/Cropping issue
• Copyright/Trademark issue
• Provenance
  • Model release missing or insufficient
  • Property release missing or insufficient
  • Sample text needs to be removed
  • Text copyright issues
  • Supply original image used to create illustration
  • Release on original artwork missing or insufficient

We reached a few portfolio milestones this month already and may reach a few more before the month is out.  This is the current list and what we hope to accomplish by the end of the month.

On 123RF we are at 1973 on our way to 2000.  We will definitely surpass this goal by 1/31/09.

At Bigstock we passed 1500 by a ton – 1878 out of 2000 as well and could easily hit this mark.

Dreamstime sits a bit lower with 1733/2000 but I have just over 100 pending.  Assuming a good final 9 days, we could make it close.

Fotolia will be our big surprise for the month.  We started the month with 646 images and may top 1500 before the month ends!  Go me!    I have pushed nearly 600 images into the queue there this month.  And yes, next month I plan to finish that up and do Istock a few times as well.

Istock is only 89/100 and close to reaching my *first* milestone.  Sad, I know.

Our Shutterstock gallery is just over 1500 images at 1635/2000.  I don’t know if we’ll get 365 more approved in just over a week.  I would like to hope so … we shall see.

StockXpert gallery size is 1651 passing the 1500 mark earlier this month and headed toward 2k as well.

So our average gallery is nearing 2000 images.  Not good enough but a start.  We’ve also decided to spend a good portion of February improving our image quality to a level that will SELL a lot better.  I’ll post some trials soon.