Please share your experience with iStock alternates

[msf]

Hello, I was hoping that some of you could share your experience with iStock alternatives.

Please dont make any comments about how microstock is evil, how its ruining the economy, etc. There seems to be 2 choices. Go with the larger sites and possibly make $100 off of 1 image in a year, or go with a micro site and have a greater chance of making $100 off of 100-500 downloads in a year. The odds are with the latter.

I did some searching, but most of the threads I found were years old, and many things could have changed since then.

In my searches, I found the following. Shutterstock, StockXpert, dreamstime, bigstock photo, fotolia, etc.

I am a member of istock, but im getting rather annoyed with them. At first they would turn down the occasional picture for noise issues, etc. Which is understandable. But now they are turning down the majority of what I send them, for having to many key words, for being over filtered *no filters were used*, and for no reason at all, saying they dont need the image at this time. Its not like im sending them scenery or flower pictures. They are business photos and buzzwords.

So what agencies have you all used that you find have a good customer base and a good pay out scheme? Please, microstock sites only.

 

[msf]

Does anyone have any experience with these companies?

 

[Rhys]

No personal experience but it's a neat place to put scenic photos that you take yourself, for yourself but that you wouldn't normally bother trying to sell.

 

[msf]

No personal experience but it's a neat place to put scenic photos that you take yourself, for yourself but that you wouldn't normally bother trying to sell.

I think your scenic photo's would have to be pretty unique just to get accepted since that is one of the things they dont have a need for. Same goes for flowers, pets, etc. And I could be mistaken, but I dont think istock has much of a demand for those types of images as well, it would take ages to get enough to cash out.

 

[cdanddvdpublisher]

I think your scenic photo's would have to be pretty unique just to get accepted since that is one of the things they dont have a need for. Same goes for flowers, pets, etc. And I could be mistaken, but I dont think istock has much of a demand for those types of images as well, it would take ages to get enough to cash out.

I've got stuff up at iStock, Dreamstime, Shutterstock and a few others. The above is spot on: the site's focus on marketable images - fruits and vegetables, people in various settings and some backgrounds as well.

My first bit is advice is this: look at your goals and see whether or not you can benefit from a commitment to working with microstock agencies or if you should be looking at selling your work on your own.

The next bit is to browse through some of the sites, take a closer look at which images they have that sell the most and browse through some of the top sellers' portfolios; that will give you a really strong sense of whether your shots are what they are looking for.