Yes!  Things are definitely picking up here at N2M!  It feels great to be doing this job and working hard to make the income I’ve always wanted from it!

July and August were a time of transition.  If you remember, I made $790 and BME in March.  Since then, I’ve  moved out of my house, moved to Maine, restarted my wedding & portrait business AND tried to do stock full time.  Something had to give and as always it was stock.  It plummeted to the point where I made 600 then 500 and last month a very low $461.91.

This month is the exact opposite.  I skipped 500 and 600 on the way back up, though.  I plan to be WELL over $700 again this month, maybe even $800 and if luck and fate smile on me, I will reach $1k next month.  Momentum is building and I can feel my life shifting!

Shutterstock is already way over last month ($50+), 123RF is already ahead of last month, Dreamstime is WAY ahead of last month… It’s going to be a heck of a finish to August!

BRING IT ON September!

It’s nearly Monday – and I’m about to start back to work.  So many questions – what should I shoot, what’s going to make me the most money per hour, how much can I still make at microstock, when will my momentum get back to normal, and will I be able to do this!??

I think my biggest fear is trying my absolute best and still not ramping up stock enough to make a living at it.  I have all the time I need now to do it but I just need it to actually happen.  We’re about to see – and I have my thoughts/fears/doubts/hopes.

2010 is going to be my biggest year in microstock ever.  Even without extra effort.  I’m only $2100 away and I should make way more than that for the rest of the year.  It’s surprising to me that with very little extra uploading my income total is up for the 4th straight year.  That must mean something overall too.

Tomorrow will be my first micro shoot in over two months.  I hope I can still do this at the same level!  I haven’t setup a shoot in MONTHS!  I’m on pace for $576 for July as of today.  I plan to increase that and TRY to hit $700 for July if not a bit more.  August goal is to top $850 for the first time and September $1000.  That is the type of acceleration I need right now – and the type of results that will make me happy.

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…

So by now most of you know that Bigstock is no longer BigstockPhoto and 123RF has also redesigned.? I’m surprised for a few reasons:

* Shutterstock (who owns Bigstock now) said the redesign proves they want to move forward with BSP.? What’s the idea of that?? Just keep stock photo buyers happy?? I like it but I wish they’d let us submit to one place and distribute on both networks.? I have many images on BSP that aren’t on SS – I’d like them combined.

* Both 123RF and Bigstock went for the black/white/grey look.? Very simple, clean, easy designs. I’ll be honest – I like both.? But they look VERY similar now!

I’m glad stuff is where I’m used to finding it, somewhat.? Bigstock’s bulk tool seems to be gone, replaced with a much better one at a time engine.? Still wish it worked more like Canstock or even SS.? Submissions are so much easier at those places without the “delay” of javascript.? I don’t want smooth transitions – I want SPEED.

Bigstock listed a lot of new changes here.? I want to look at a few more closely.

• A new and enhanced search engine (interesting – will have to search my stuff later)
• Additional search engine optimizations for Google and others
• Improvements to the collection: checking metadata and enhancing the search algorithm

I’m interested to see how their changes play out.? I would love for BSP to kick it up a notch and remain a player, even growing.? We just saw IStock kill StockXpert and the contributor side of that pretty much sucked (told you I’d be honest!)? I would be grateful and glad to see Shutterstock market and push Bigstock for one-off downloads.

As far as 123RF, their official twitter (does Alex run this ship?) says “The redesign of 123RF is NOT the END, it’s only the beginning!”? I sure hope so!? I’d like to see the beginning of shorter wait times for reviews, less of the truly bad “poor lighting” rejects and of course more dollars and cents.? PS: Note to 123RF, fix the “Check FTP uploads” screen – it doesn’t scroll right.? It looks a right mess.

What do you think of the changes?? Good, bad, indifferent?

I’m looking for guest bloggers on a couple of topics.? I’ll keep this short.

- graphic designers, microstock buyers – what are you looking for, what’s the thought process, frustrations, etc.

- agency heads for interview style posts – bring your own agenda. Want to talk about DT keyword flags? Your new site?? Lemme know!

- iStock exclusivity – why, how, etc.? I know a lot of people, some very successful, use this method. Why don’t the rest?? Will we eventually?

- web gurus: how? can photographers market themselves on their own sites or do it better?? Hotlinking to our own images?? Are there solutions to do this entirely within our own branding?? And not cart-style like Photocart?

I’d love to have you!? I get: one exclusive? post to be posted here on N2M.? I reserve the right to edit and you reserve the right to remove the entire article if you don’t like my edit.? You get: link back to your own site, blog, portfolio, agency, etc. in the post.

Guest blogging is a great way to gain exposure and market yourself. As most of us bloggers? know Problogger loves guest blogging too.

I’ve made many changes in the last few months to my microstock direction.? I went from mostly models over white and travel images to food.? It’s been a HUGE leap but one I think will be very successful after the results I’ve seen thusfar.? Now that I am back to work I’ve also eliminated and added some agencies.? Some non-producers are gone and others with a somewhat plausible future have been added.? I thought with all the change it would be a good time to post exactly what I’m doing now.

123RF 4.7% of income, best month was January 2010.

Bigstock 4.2% of income, best month was August 2009.

Canstock 2.8% of income, best month was April 2009.

Dreamstime 17.4% of income, best month was July 2009.

Fotolia 7.3% of income, best month was March 2009.

IStockPhoto 4.6% of income, best month was February 2009.

MostPhotos 0.06% of income, best month was December 2008.

Shutterstock 51% of income, best month was June 2008.

DepositPhotos – NEW

3dStudio – NEW

GraphicLeftovers – NEW

Despite the three NEW agencies I’ve already let a few go.? ImageCatalog and StockRiot closed, killing themselves.? I closed my own account at Zymmetrical, Fotomind and Crestock.? Those 5 had a combined earnings of less than .01% of my total so I was not sad to see any of the 5 go.

I am also letting go of 4 other agencies very soon if I don’t see a reason to keep them.? They are: Cutcaster, Veer, Vivozoom, and Yaymicro.? I’ve heard reports that Veer may be moving so I’ll stick with that.? I told Vivo I’d do the same and I will give John at CutCaster a little longer and see how things go.? These 4 sites have *totalled* under $50 for me in the 12+ months I’ve been with them. $4 a month combined doesn’t cut it.

My own earnings are picking up. Last month was the 3rd straight month of improvement and this month blows them away.? This month is shaping up to be in my top 3 months all-time and with a boost could be BME.? Shutterstock has not recovered my momentum at all but Dreamstime has rebounded a bit, Fotolia is almost where I need it to be and 123RF is having another solid (but not bme) month.? I have been *trying* to upload to Istock.? I know everyone gets on my case for my small portfolio but I have to say – it’s the rejections, not my efforts, now!

I feel I have a long ways to go and a lot of potential earnings still on the table.? Shutterstock is almost $250 from my BME still, DT is $50 and Fotolia is $50.? Add that to a few extras from the new sites and just to get back some momentum I could increase earnings $350-400 easily.? That would get me past my goal of paying my mortgage with stock and close to my $1k goal.

So that’s where I am. Did I miss anything worth submitting to? If I did post it in the comments and I’ll sign up using your referral link.? Don’t give me junk though!? Only link to sites that are 2% or more of your income.? These long LONG long LONG tail sites are time-wasters.

(I’m especially interested in hearing about PantherMedia, Lori.ru, StockPhotopro and Scanstock if you use them.)

After noticing the lack of roast beef sandwiches on Dreamstime and confirming with iStock the same, I decided to do a sandwich shoot.? I thought it would be my first “easy food” shoot.? I mean..how hard can it be to style a sandwich? 8 toothpicks and 2 frustrating hours later I can honestly say it’s WAY harder than it would appear.

The second part of my foodie weekend was a birthday party / dinner party.? We combined an adult-based dinner party for the family with our 14 year old’s birthday party to come up with a menu of: pizza bites (slice in between each and every pepperoni) and tomato skewer appetizers, one huge tossed salad and saute of chicken and broccoli over penne as the main course.? We followed that with birthday cake of course!? Since we technically had my birthday to celebrate as well and 15 guests, we made two cakes.

Here are some quick images I shot this weekend – not the best of the best but at least a few I have already edited.? I’ll post the recipe for the chicken and broccoli on my MattAntonino.com site later today.

Shutterstock announced recently that it now has 10 MILLION images for sale.

“In a typical week, Shutterstock adds 80,000 new images ? a rate of nearly eight images every minute”

I wonder what this means for our future.? Will Shutterstock eventually stop carrying images that are 3+ yrs old and have never sold?? How can the collection be refined to provide better results and better images without growing so large any search result inevitably looks like the pages & pages & pages found on Google?

Alamy has grown so big it has basically swallowed itself.? Zazzle offers almost 30M products for sale yet very few ever sell.? Where is the balance between having these huge collections and having absolutely unfindable material?

I’m interested in what Shutterstock will do about the size of the gallery.

Another thing Shutterstock announced was “Shutterstock has delivered over 125 million image downloads to customers since its founding in 2003.”

Let’s do a little math (numbers should be close but obviously are not internal or “accurate”).? That amounts to 6 full years.? 20 million image downloads a year = 1.6M a month = 60,000 a day everyday for 6 years.

Over 12,000 sales I have averaged .40 per download.? Assuming this is fairly close to their own numbers (12k isn’t a small sample) then Shutterstock has paid out $5,000,000 to contributors over 6 years.

Approximately 1/2 of 1% of the gallery is downloaded on a typical day.? We know it’s not that spread out but that’s the amazing potential we have in microstock.

I wanted to document a bit of how we prepare for a new stock shoot.? Unfortunately I’m not shooting hot models a la Chase Jarvis so I’m not going to be live demo’ing anytime soon!

Our thought process on a new photo shoot works something like this:

1. Overall concept/theme/ingredient
2. Specific recipe
3. Lighting/angles/technicals
4. Shop
5. Shoot Day

1. Overall concept/theme/ingredient

We shoot two days a week – Friday and Sunday. If we shoot more that’s fantastic.? If not, oh well.? We plan those two days to have one breakfast or lunch type shoot (Friday) and one dinner/dessert (Sunday).? It’s easier to spend a long time cooking/shooting on Sundays for us and dinner/dessert usually seems to take longer than breakfast/lunch.

I follow some really great foodies on Twitter/Facebook/blogs.? One thing I always look for is a recipe that a) will taste great and b) will LOOK great.? As a bonus I often look to see if I can find a healthy version so nobody gains 10 pounds per recipe I shoot.

2. Specific Recipe

So Friday we need to create a lunch. I bookmarked a delicious looking recipe two weeks ago and decided quickly I’d try that this week.? The recipe will be 3 Cheese Chicken Cacciatore Manicotti.? That was easy.? We also need to figure out dinner for Sunday.? I wanted to find something not as “fancy” as cacciatore manicotti so we looked at several recipe sites, some cookbooks and finally decided on something the Biggest Loser Cookbook called “Mom’s New Beef Stew.”? That fits my requirements: tastes great, looks super yummy and bonus: it’s fairly healthy at 275 cals per serving.

Some weeks I will decide on a recipe by ingredient.? Take Kahlua for instance.? We have leftover Kahlua from the chocolate mousse we made a week ago.? This Chocolate Truffle Pie also uses Kahlua.? If we don’t make that Sunday for dessert I’m certain we’ll make it next week.? Using ingredients you have on hand greatly reduces wastes and product going bad/old.

3. Lighting/angles/technicals

After printing the recipe and making a shopping list we write on the back of the recipe some ideas for the shoot.? Mostly this is just note-form.? Here are some examples from our banana split shoot:

• Yellow/orange
• high key
• OJ – don’t think milk will work
• Balance the color
• Angles: will be propped up?
• Spoonful

Generally meaningless until you get in the shoot.? We did end up using a yellow napkin and orange juice – it balanced the color very well.? We did some shots near the end of the shoot with a spoonful of split in front of the dish.? We tried but didn’t use milk because it did, in fact, look bad.? We ended up propping the bowl with a small bottle cap for a few shots.

4. Shop

Shopping day is Thursday.? That dictates our Friday shoot – if we need something super-fresh we may have to pick that up Friday morning before the shoot.? Sunday’s shopping is done except fresh on Thursday as well.? WE have a local Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings year-round so we do our fresh shopping for Sunday then.

With our recipe and our ideas already in place shopping day is generally pretty straightforward.? Pick the best items you can find.

5. Shoot Day

Well, shoots are shoots.? The only thing we try and do specifically at each shoot is pre-organize our ideas so we don’t cut up the food before we’re done with it.? The further into a shoot we get the more we “mess” the dish and the more we feel free to cut, chop, move, adjust, add to, take from, etc.? We want to get those setup shots first, the meat of the shoot, then start playing with the outer edge of the shoot – closeups, eating, some unusual stuff just to see how it works, etc.? Get the bulk of work done when the food is as fresh and perfect as possible.? Once you get that THEN experiment.

Wrap Up

So that’s the way a typical shoot has been going for us.? We are pro photographers but very amateur food photographers. The combination is sometimes an interesting one.? I can figure out how to light something I’ve never shot before but I may not know how to drizzle syrup “correctly” yet.? We continue to read foodie sites, blogs, watch food stylist tutorials on Youtube and read food photo books.? Many many ways to learn in 2010!

Hope you enjoyed the post!? It’s great to be back and thank you for all the comments and well-wishes recently.

I’ve started to push images and get reviews.? I was pending this morning but a lot of batches were reviewed and now I’m starting to go live everywhere.? I can’t wait to see how the food images sell!

Our shooting has started off very well too – I want to get ahead a little. We have now completed 6 food shoots in the last 9 days – about 200 new photos to submit now.

We need to plan our dishes for this week – we’ve done a lot of desserts so I think it’ll be great to get a few lunches and maybe an entree out this week.

What are your favorite foods?? What foods do you really LOVE to cook?? And eat?? I’m really interested in the types of things you enjoy.