One Year of Stock Photography!

I started to work with Stock agencies in January 2006. The year went pretty well and this is a review of 9 stock place where you can sell your work. The revenue per picture greatly depend on your portfolio content; mine was travel oriented and then I started to focus on stock images such as every day objects isolated on white background.

Also I'd like to emphasize that I believe Microstock and Regular Stock are two different markets with different customers. I would never sell my "better" (or I should say my "rarest") pictures with micro for just a quarter. I sell newly taken "microstock oriented" (i.e everyday object on white background) or travel shots that did not meet Alamy technical requirements (due to lower resolution). If you check my portfolio with Alamy and with any Micro Stock you'll see what I mean. I obviously prefer to sell a unique picture for a decent amount of money, but I also enjoy getting paid for my "not as rare" pictures.

More than 80% of my revenues came from 4 agencies:

1. Shutterstock - $5.30/picture/year – 22.7%
2. iStockPhoto - $5.20/picture/year – 22.3%
3. StockXpert - $4.95/picture/year – 21.4%
4. Alamy - $3.70/picture/year – 16%

I made actually a lot more money with Shutterstock alone because I have twice the number of pictures that I have on other sites (in part because they are the only micro accepting Editorial).

The remaining 20% came from another 5 agencies:

1. Fotolia - $1.43/picture/year – 6.1%
   
2. Dreamstime - $1.42/picture/year – 6.1%
   
3. 123rf - $0.69/picture/year – 3%
   
4. BigStockPhoto - $0.40/picture/year – 1.7%
   
5. LuckyOliver - $0.18/picture/year – 0.7%
   

The great thing about the RF model and Microstock is that you can keyword and edit your image once, and then upload it with batch ftp on all servers. Then for most of them you just need to add categories et voila! So submitting the same image to 8 different places does not really take much longer than just one.

In case you'd like to sign up to give it a try I'd appreciate if you'd use one of my referal link: you would still get paid the same but I would get a small commission on each sale... which means more money for us photographers and less for the Microstock companies!

• Shutterstock: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=58434
• Fotolia: http://www.fotolia.com/partner/103227
  
• Dreamstime: http://www.dreamstime.com/res106166
• BigStockPhoto: http://www.bigstockphoto.com/?refid=ITbDINSXMd

#1 - ShutterStock - RF - Subscription Model

Pros:

• Because of subscription model buyers buy pictures they might never use
• Fast review time
• Uncensored and friendly forums
• Best referral bonus
• Accept editorial shots
• Best Enhanced License program
• Model release management

Cons:

• Need to constantly upload to have pictures in the first search pages and get downloads
• 0 tolerance for noise or grain in picture
• No information on the photog (besides screen name); photog can’t be contacted directly

Top 3 Sellers:



#2 - IStockPhoto - RF

Pros:

• Top quality images only
• Grainy image ok (film scan ok)
• Tags attached to keywords for intelligent translation (unique feature)
• Very picky on keywords
• Buyer can contact photog directly

Cons:

• No direct ftp
• Limit to 20 upload per week
• Slow review time
• No photog referral bonus
• No editorial

Top 3 Sellers:



#3 - StockXpert - RF

Pros:

• Best payout/picture
• Great user interface, extremely simple to use
• Fast review times
• 1st payout after $50
• Can advertise own portfolio once a week

Cons:

• No editorial
• No photog referral bonus

Top 3 Sellers:



#4 - Alamy - RF & RM

Pros:

• RM and RF model
• High selling price, with 70% commission to photog
• Only High Resolution pictures - 16MP or more
  

Cons:

• No ftp, need to send CD or DVD with picture
• Slow review times
• No paypal

Top Seller:


#5 - Fotolia - RF

Pros:

• For each picture sold we know who is the buyer
• 10% referral bonus

Cons:

• Slow user interface
• User interface could be improved
• No editorial
• referral bonus for 365 days only
  

Top 3 Sellers:



#6 - Dreamstime - RF and Subscription

Pros:

• Great user interface
• Referral bonus
• Model release management
• Buyer can contact photog directly

Cons:

• minimum payout is $100

Top 3 Sellers:



#7 - 123RF - RF

Pros:

Cons:

Top 3 Sellers:



#8 - BigStockPhoto - RF

Pros:

• Minimum payout is $30
• Good support for photographers, emails answered quickly

Cons:

• Poor user interface

Top 3 Sellers:



#9 - LuckyOliver - RF
Pros:

• Inovative user interface, fun site

Cons:

• Not many sales so far

Top 3 Sellers: