How NOT to make money at microstock
This is a primer for new microstock photographers. Sometimes you have to understand where you can’t make money to know where you can.
I reviewed for an agency for awhile and learned some things. Here are some observations from the inside.
How NOT to make money at microstock
1) Shoot temples, Buddhas, generic landscapes, farmland, flowers, fields, and did I mention Temples and Buddhas … oh and statues.
I’m sorry but these images are done. They’re done again. And then a few thousand more times. I don’t care what angle you stand at – …
Really great start!
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 …
Upload strategy and updates
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 …
The Big Mo…
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 …
Bigstock upload limits
Just so everyone’s on the same page, if you want a “review” of the changes, you’re going to want to read Lee later on.? If you want to hear my OPINION on them, keep reading.? And it isn’t pretty.
So Bigstock announced today that they are implementing upload limits. Let’s look at that.
New users with less than 15 total approved images are limited to 15 images in the Admin Approval Queue at a time
Users with an approval percentage of 50% or less are limited to 10 images in the Approval …
Powerweek v3 Results + Absense
Ok, I know Powerweek was over awhile ago and I haven’t written.? To be honest I needed time to think about my next steps.
Here’s what happened
I submitted 550 images in 4 days.? Easily enough to beat the 700 in 7 days mark.? The “fail” for Powerweek v3 was our image quality.? On day 4, we had a BUNCH of images reviewed across many sites.? And the results were absolutely terrible.? Not my editing, not my keywording – but I had 4000 trip images to sort through and many were unusable …
Powerweek, v3
What is a Powerweek?
Basically I’ve cleared my schedule for the next 7 days.? I will be doing *nothing* except microstock from Sunday March 8th through Saturday March 14th.? I will track the total number of images submitted to my top 10 agencies.
Why do it?
I think I can get 700 images up in one week and break 1000 for the month.? But it’s not been done.? As far as I know about, the record for NEW image uploads in one month to the top 10 agencies is 1035.? I would like …
Quick start for fractals
This is my “very quick start” to fractal generation.? Lately a lot of photographers/graphic designers have been creating fractals and I’m definitely one of those.? Half of my last 5 batches (125/250) have been fractals.
Video Tutorial here (no sound): http://niltomil.com/tutorials/frac/index.html
Here’s a quick example of what I do:
1) Start a new fractal.? Duplicate the triangle 4 times and move them out to evenly spaced spots around the center triangle.
2) Set all Linear 3d variations to a value of zero and all Linear to a value of one.
3) Now you can start …
Work work work
So far in 2009 I’ve done almost 8-10 hrs a day on some part of microstock or NiltoMil.? Whether blogging, editing, keywording or submitting I’ve definitely put in the hours.
So what’s the return?? So far, so good.? I’ve uploaded just over 100 new images to all 7 sites and had 70-95 accepted on each.? I also have 100 more edited images and will keyword them tomorrow morning.
I was a bit surprised by Shutterstock today.? I had a large jump in downloads but with that? many new images, on a Monday …
I’m pending…
My remaining agencies are now full-up pending.
123RF – 100 pending
BigstockPhoto – 100 pending
Dreamstime – 108 pending
Fotolia – 5 pending (haha!)
Istock – ok 0 pending
Shutterstock – 100 pending
StockXpert – 84 pending
So now the only thing to do is wait.? Wait and keep editing, keywording and readying more files.? Just as a bonus, I’ve created the wild horse image in 900x600px as a free download for personal use only.? If you use a larger desktop and want a larger wallpaper version leave me a comment and …
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