Re: Depositphotos

I joined depositphotos in December as it seemed like a worthwhile place to add my micro portfolio, since they said I could upload it all at once via FTP and I thought they said they'd take care of categories.
The FTP isn't working, so I have uploaded about 40 files so far the slow way. I looked today when I added another 5 images (the max I can add at once) and see that I have one photo with two views and one sale, one photo with no views and one sale, and one other photo with one view, all the rest have 0 views - worse even than what I see on iS ( I uploaded most of these in late December and was waiting for the FTP issue to be resolved so they've been online for nearly a month)

Wondering your thoughts on whether I should bother - just put up my photos and hope for some pocket change eventually - or not? The upload process seems pretty easy, but seeing no views on my photos and reading about things like $200 refunds isn't encouraging.

Re: 123rf

123RF invited me to join them years ago via twitter and I didn't bother at the time. Would that be a better choice if I want to expand to another micro now that I've dropped Fotolia?

Or should I just stick with SS, DT and iS?

My port is mostly travel, some concepts, and a lot of abstract backgrounds.

Currently, 123RF is my 3rd best earner out of the 20 companies that I belong too thus worth it in my eyes...

Agreed on 123rf; they're my 2nd best earner by a wide margin.  I've had reasonable success with Deposit.  I'd also consider Envato/PhotoDune; they're close behind Deposit and well ahead of the other small fry.

Except that they introduced a toxic redeemed credits scheme, I'd heartily endorse 123rf. I haven't uploaded there since they announced that (so late 2012 some time) and I still make payout every month with what I uploaded before, so even at 45% (that's what I dropped to) versus 50% it's not bad. Their stuff is cheap and there are lots of subs though, so they're not without other flaws.

I still hold out hope that they may undo some of their contributor-unfriendly changes, but as a new contributor, your rates will truly suck for a while until you build up sales to lift your percentage

PhotoDune is a slow and steady earner (more regular than CanStock which has comatose periods with occasional lifts from Fotosearch sales at higher rates). PD had a reputation for rock-bottom royalties, but they run from $2.97 for an XXL to 33 cents for XS - no subscriptions.

I was once expanding to all kinds of revenue providers.
I have stopped that and now I only contribute to SS, DT, and FT and a local agency.

The reasons were:
1.. Cost benifit. When the outcome is too low, its not worth the  trouble. Its better to keep the files on the HD.
2.. I wanted to try to not spread my content everywhere, and not compete with myself.
3.. If an agency began to smell foul, I m out of there. I wont be stepped on by middlemen. And it has to be decent.
4.. Im lenient with 50/ 50 agencies and new starters.
5.. I dont buy pop smart advertising and hype, Im into practical and results.

Both based their moderate success levels on undercutting the industrie even more.
While 123rf is moneywise worth it, DP isn't their prices are a joke and so is the money from them.
In the beginning you put as much keywords in your files and you submit to as much Agencies as possible. After a while you realize less is more for keywords as well as for agencies.

Thanks so much for all the input - I appreciate your all taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences.

The only micros I upload to regularly now are SS, DT and iS, which are all fairly steady for me.

Since I have a lot of travel that sells regularly on all 3 of the micros I'm with, and I also have some older travel work shot with my D70 back in 2006-2007 but of timeless places such as Venice, the Roman Forum, the old town in Edinburgh, some of which have sat around on Alamy doing nothing and others still on backup hard drives, I figure I can upload a substantial number of them both to the micros I'm with now and 123rf and see how it goes. 

I do a lot of textures/backgrounds and these seem to sell quite well on the micros, so I figure adding to a couple more sites probably won't bring down the sales on other sites, since, given the low prices on all the micros I doubt people waste their time shopping around and probably just purchase photos from whichever site they have a credit pack with.

I've spent the better part of the last few months (still an ongoing effort) reorganizing all of my photos from 2006-2014 into one huge Lightroom catalog with all the photos stored on a 4TB hard drive (and backed up redundantly elsewhere), so uploading to new sites should be painless via FTP. I'm not uploading anything else to DP til I get an answer from them as to why my FTP login isn't working - it won't let me put in my password & I've emailed them about it). I'll probably apply to 123rf in February once I complete my re-organization.

Despite my small port at DT, for example, I do much better than the poll results here show, so I figure it's worth trying out a couple new sites to see if my work is a good fit. Fotolia, on the other hand, despite its high rank here, was always a poor seller for me, so while the ranking is helpful, I figure I need to experiment a little for myself and your advice has helped me decide where to experiment.

Thanks again for all the advice. I want to make the most of my catalog while microstock is still viable and figure adding a couple of midddle tier sites to the mix could be worthwhile. Even if it just pays for a few new lenses or a trip to shoot more stock, it's worth a shot.