This post is a post I just finished writing on my microstock blog. It's a TON of info and since few people currently read the blog, I thought I'd share it here as well. I hope it's of interest!

Method: I uploaded the same 28 images to all of my sites. I timed the FTP (all were the same), the "processing" time on sites that have such a thing, and the actual time it took me with my current knowledge of each system to get through and submit them all for review.
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The first thing I learned after timing the FTP upload is that all sites were the same - they can accept our images as fast as we can push them. So about 21 mins for 28 images all around seemed to be almost dead-on for every agency.

123RF
Processing time on site: 3 mins.
Categories & Submission: 2 mins.
Total: 5 mins for submission and 26 minutes for 28 images, start to finish. Because there are no categories and I used IPTC data, there was really nothing to it. Adding the two model releases were very simple and would be simple even if I had all 28 images as MR.

BigStockPhoto
Total: “File uploading has been temporarity disabled to allow us to reduce the number of files waiting review in the Approval Queue.” Unfortunately due to a technical issue and backlog of files, BSP was not available to do this test. They are normally very quick and I am interested when they come back up to finish this.

CanstockPhoto
Processing time on site: 12 mins.
Categories & Submission: 4 mins.
Total: 16 mins. While it took 16 minutes to process these images, I thought about my affiliation with Canstock. As anyone who’s read this blog knows, I’m not fond of this site anymore. I like Duncan. I think he’s a nice guy. 16 minutes to process is 3 times as long as 123RF took and I make about 1/8th the money on the same images. This is officially my last upload to Canstock until I have minions uploading for me.

Crestock
Processing time on site: 11 mins.
Categories & Submission: 4 mins.
Total: 15 mins. The processing time was long at Crestock and I know my approval rate is going to be low compared to other sites. The process was EASY however and 4 mins to submit is fairly quick. I don’t mind the upload process here so if I can get fewer rejections and more sales, I’ll be entirely happy with 15 mins per 28 images or roughly 120 per hour.

Dreamstime
Processing time on site: instant!
Categories & Submission: 12 mins.
Total: 12 mins. Dreamstime was a fairly quick submission process to me. I dislike categorizing, especially on multiple sites because you need to learn what they each consider categories and there’s no way to embed categories. Otherwise it’s not bad. Considering how much income I’ll get from these 28 images compared to something like 123RF, spending 2.5x the time is worth it. My income on Dreamstime this month is going to be roughly 20x my 123RF income. So 3x the work is more than adequate although I’d love this to be a 3 minute upload of course.

FeaturePics
Processing time on site: instant!
Categories & Submission: 4 mins.
Total: 4 mins. If my current earnings weren’t $0.00, I’d say wow! Right now I’ll say it’s simple. It takes me 5 mins per 30 images to submit including a couple with MRs and all the smoke missing its IPTC data etc. This is a site that 50 of a single theme could easily be submitted in 10 mins or less. That’s extremely quick and I’m happy with FP so far this way.

Fotolia
Processing time on site: instant!
Categories & Submission: 9 mins.
Total: 9 mins. Given my batch of recent rejections, I was actually hoping Fotolia would be a touch quicker. I also HATE that I can’t figure out how to attach a model release if I forget it during submission. That basically means I have a rejected photo and I have to reupload it. It’s SOO infuriating when you WATCH yourself make a mistake and have no way to instantly fix it. Other than that, doing batches at Fotolia is fast. Doing a bunch of random stuff is MUCH more time consuming. I did smoke and textures and then a few random ones - the smoke & textures flew in no time. The random stuff took most of that 9 mins.

FotoMind
Processing time on site: 1 minute!
Categories & Submission: 7 mins.
Total: 8 mins. FotoMind’s total is superquick especially when you consider two things: 1) they are getting new servers next week which should make the site move even quicker. 2) I messed up somehow. My IPTC data was not on title for many of these images and I kept making a mistake of not removing the & keyword here so I had to resubmit the images some times 2-3 times. I probably could have done the entire submission in 6 total minutes so that is very close to my 123RF time, which is fastest so far. I’m very happy with the FotoMind upload procedure. I also read something about we can categorize after acceptance? I’m not sure how this works but if true, once FotoMind rejects more images, you could save SO MUCH TIME by categorizing only those that were accepted. I’m amazed that other sites don’t let you do this. (Chris if you want to comment, I know you’re going to read this - let me know what I’m meaning here…I know there’s something like this.)

Istock
Start to finish on Image Manager: 29 mins.
Total: 29 mins. Ok, I’m going to share some honesty here. I’m happy with 29 minutes for IStock. I honestly would have guessed it taking at least 45 if not 60. AND I think I can get faster. I’m not used to using their system so I’m guessing 28 images could be done in 20 mins. Given that I make a lot of income with them, I am actually going back on my word here and resuming Istock uploads effective today. I will get myself a nice long queue going to submit 20 at a time. I don’t hate Image Manager .5 as much as I did the last one.

LuckyOliver
Processing time on site: instant!
Categories & Submission: 4 mins.
Total: 4 mins. Blazing quickness! The only reason this wasn’t 100% FASTER even was the same issue with the smoke’s IPTC data. It must be incorrect as multiple sites have now had issues with it. If the IPTC data was correct, this would have taken ONE MINUTE to do all 28 images. LO’s speed is very very VERY hard to beat.

Shutterstock
Processing time on site: instant!
Categories & Submission: 4 mins.
Total: 4 mins. Considering sales, considering everything else - Shutterstock is definitely one of the best “per hour” moneymakers on microstock. BY FAR.

StockXpert
Processing time on site: 1 min.
Categories & Submission: 5 mins.
Total: 6 mins. I think. I’m still learning StockXpert’s site - I have 3 images that weren’t reviewed in my last batch. No clue why. I just “submitted” the 28 images, I think? I have had sales there now so I did something right once. IF I just did it correctly, same series and similar images are SUPER easy and StockXpert and different images are much more difficult.

I will be tracking my acceptance rates at these sites as well for this batch so you’ll know if I uploaded 28 to SS and all get rejected but I sell 10 of them next month at Dreamstime, what we actually make per hour including rejects.

Most important stuff I learned:

- REALLY check IPTC data before uploading. I must’ve given myself an extra hour of work all total in fixing my mistakes.
- Istock isn’t as bad as I remember.
- Depending on rejections and income in the future, Crestock may not be the site for me.

Final Times for 28 images:
Lucky Oliver - 4 mins.
Shutterstock - 4 mins.
FeaturePics - 4 mins.
123RF - 5 mins.
StockXpert - 6 mins.
FotoMind - 8 mins.
Fotolia - 9 mins.
Dreamstime - 12 mins.
Crestock - 15 mins.
Canstock - 16 mins.
Istock - 29 mins.
Bigstock - pending

Looks like the same thing I just went through when I uploaded a batch of 10 new images to about 13 sites today Bigstockphoto and Alamy were the only ones I didn't upload them to yet.

I always tend to make a few mistakes here and there. I need to work on that, and I really should try and spell check them before saving the IPTC data. Firefox helps, after they are uploaded and when you are categorizing them the typos will have a red underline beneath the words.

Great writeup for new ones...keep up the good work, Mantonino

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s e l l p h o t o s . t k

Top Sellers • Shutterstock • Fotolia • Dreamstime • BigStock • StockXpert • FeaturePics • MostPhotos •

Excellent information! Something everyone should really start thinking about when joining the smaller sites.

The main factor in my decision to leave FeaturePics was when I calculated the time I spent on the site processing by how much I expect to earn per hour. I discovered that while I earned $55 in two years, I'd actually lost another $150 in time spent uploading...and that was if I was earning the bare minimum of $10 per hour. And that time didn't even include the time spent FTPing, shooting the photo, or post processing. Ever since then, I've been leaving the dud sites, like Canstock and Crestock, where there is a combination of slow processing times and low sales and/or a high sub sales ratio. The sites have to make it worth my time, because those five minutes here and five minutes there and no sales add up to a lot of losses.

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

You're a smart cookie. I need to start thinking this way as well, and cut loose Canstock and Crestock - at least stop submitting new stuff to them. Somewhere in the back of my mind, however...I feel that if only I just submit more and more content to them, the sales will increase to push me past the next payout. I don't know what's wrong with me.

No complaints about any of the other sites, though. Featurepics is slow, but does way better for me than Canstock and Crestock combined. Since most of my stock stuff is done during multi-tasking, or free time...it's not a big deal to me. All these little sites do add up to many extra hours per month, however.

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s e l l p h o t o s . t k

Top Sellers • Shutterstock • Fotolia • Dreamstime • BigStock • StockXpert • FeaturePics • MostPhotos •

Well...there is some truth in that. On sites where there are fewer photos and contributors (aka competition), there is a higher chance that your images will be found and therefore sell. But it only really works if you have a gignormous portfolio with top notch images. When I gave CSP a second chance and uploaded 700 new photos, my sales did increase, but it still wasn't enough to make it worth my time.

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

I'm a bit of an analytical guy - duh - so what I see is that I have 2 ways of looking at a site like CSP:

1) ROI - it fails miserably. I have had 73 images up there for the better part of 4 years and made $51? If it took me 2 hrs to get them all done (pre IPTC for me), I made $25 per hour over 4 years on those images. If I'd paid a minion $7 per hour to do the job, I'd have made a whole $10. WOW. Buy me a coke & burger and I'm done. For 73 images! I had about 140 up at SS making $70+ per month for the same 4 years.

2) Hobby - if I think of CSP as "fun" or "on the side" of my microstock job, I can upload all day and who cares? If i make money, great. If not, I was just tooling around the net anyways. Let's put it this way - somewhere in the back of my brain, I think "I can write three more forum posts and send an email to a friend or I can make money, albeit slowly, by uploading these already processed, already IPTC'd images to CSP."

Depends how you look at it really.

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Nil to Mil - my microstock blog

I agree about FP but I find crestock is as fast as any of the sites to upload to and has better sales than LO. I have seen lots of full page adverts for them in photoshop magazines. The sub sales are annoying but I don't see them as a dud site because they spend lots on advertising and have loyal buyers. Upload all your portfolio there and you will probably earn more than LO each month.

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istock-Shutterstock-Yay micro-Mostphotos-Dreamstime-Stockxpert

OK maybe someone can help me find my way. I must be doing something wrong. Upoaded 28 images to SXP last night, ftp into the folder "images" on their site. Looked this morning, they are all still in that folder. Looked on my account and I don't see any way to edit or check the images for ITPC data or submit.

What am I doing wrong?

Not on the list above, PantherMedia. ftp'ed images last night, still not showing. Isn't that the site that approves and then we have to check data, afterwards?

Looks like I'm going to have to make notes, where to find uploads on each site. Each one of them is different and some are a maze to find uploads to verify for approval.

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StockXpert takes a minute to get used to for sure. They get dumped to what's called a "briefcase" To find them, login and then click My Account/My Images At the top is SXP Briefcase. You can transfer them to a folder from there then go edit them in the folder. Hope that helps!

As far as Panther, I don't use it right now but I'm going to next month. Having a list of *exactly* how to submit on each site is definitely on my to do list as I think it would be helpful if not just to me, to all the noobies.

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Nil to Mil - my microstock blog

on sxp - did you put them in the new images folder? if u don't, they will just sit there. its a new thing they just started a few weeks ago

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s e l l p h o t o s . t k

Top Sellers • Shutterstock • Fotolia • Dreamstime • BigStock • StockXpert • FeaturePics • MostPhotos •