hello. been reading this forum for a while but this is my first time posting.

my question is that I've been a member of BS for months. but have yet to receive even a single download. got roughly 20 images up there that sell reasonably well at other sites. i haven't bothered with the site much because of what i thought was slow sales. turns out theres no sales for me and im serious not even one sale. anyone have any ideas as to whats gong on.

You need to upload more images

BigStock doesn't sell at the same volume as Shutterstock or iStock. The higher exposure and diversity you have, the more business you're going to attract. With 20 images, you don't have much exposure. I recently started re-uploading my portfolio to BigStock (I resigned about a year ago to become exclusive, then left my exclusivity). I started uploading on April 13th, currently only have 223 images online (am still working on uploading), and I've had 15 downloads. That isn't exceptional, but for BigStock, it's not bad.

I left about 40 photos with BS for a few months and I had a few sales. After uploading the rest of my portfolio, I make about the same with them as I do with FT. BS have more of my photos, as they are easier to upload to.

__________________
istock-Shutterstock-Bigstock-Mostphotos-Dreamstime-Stockxpert

wow i didn't realize the drastic difference. thanks for the help ill try that. but being I've been there over 6 months it still sounds like something is wrong.

It's all how you look at the numbers and statistics. I know folks like Andres are always jumping in on forums and saying that a decent portfolio will earn you $1 per image per month but I think a lot of folks don't understand - that's across multiple sites. A traditional number that used to be used (prior to microstock) was $1 per image per year. If you use that to judge for each site, (at least in my experience) you'll find that to be a more reasonable number - especially if you're one of the few that spreads yourself around to agencies that don't have as much exposure like Canstock or Gimmestock.

The only thing wrong is the size of your portfolio. ;-)

Microstock works as a volume business, and it's a two way street. They sell in volume and we have to produce in volume. With approximately 1 million images available to choose from, a mere 20 images will have a tough time being found by buyers.

A mistake too many folks make is parking just a few images on a site to test out the sales volume, and then compare the results to the top two sites: IS and SS. The only way to really determine whether a smaller site will be worthwhile is to upload your entire portfolio. At BSP, I earn about 15-25% of what I do at SS and IS individually on a portfolio of approximately 1000 images (depends on the month).

__________________
Photography by Karin Lau | SmugMug Pro Account | Shutterstock | Mostphotos | StockXPert | Dreamstime | iStock | 123RF | BigStock

I think the safest is to upload all your images to all available stock sites you can and adapt your workflow so that all new images go to all the sites. Sites will go up and down, go in and out of business, in and out of favor with customers. All of this we have no control of so why try to analyze each site to death? Just let 'em ride and keep shooting more. If it's a drag to upload to all the sites I think your workflow isn't what it should be. I also get as lazy as anyone so I'm always looking to skip a site or two so I can go read the paper or something. But when I get right down to it and upload I'm usually pleasantly surprised with new downloads from that site.

__________________
istockPhoto
Shutterstock
Dreamstime
Stockxpert
SnapVillage
Fotolia
BigStockP
FeaturePics
YayMicro
TheNextMicroWannaBe

Forgot to mention...the nice thing about BigStock is the payout level is 1/3 of what it is at iStock or Dreamstime. You can request your money when you hit $30.

My goal is to make a monthly payout at a smaller agency like Canstock. I know it's possible (at least that's what I keep telling myself). I figure if I can do that, I'm doing pretty good.

i just figured out the prob. i didnt select the licenses.

everyone throw rocks at the dumb kid!

yea im just starting on a few new sites but i figured id atleast give BS another shot. seemed to be a waste of time for me before my discovery.

just uploaded 100 images to LO. seriously cool that they dont limit you. and they were all accepted except two (horrid spelling on my part). and they actually give nice rejections. maybe they dont contribute as much to our wallets as other sites but its nice to see one company making it so easy.