Find several sites more! People use one or more sites for a variety of reasons, some who buy from one site may have never heard of some other site... so as long as you're happy with the price, the royalty cut and the number of sales (and some other considerations which might crop up form time to time) you get at site X, Y or Z; then there's no reason why you shouldn't upload there.

Since the agencys pay and charges very different, I wonder if it is a bad thing to have the same image on many different sites? As a customer it would be possible to get the image you want cheaper if you go to right site.

Yes, it can be a bad thing depending on the image. Perhaps something rare/unique or possibly borderline illegal (such as shooting where commercial photography is prohibited), it's better to limit where you want to license such images. Ideally keep them on Alamy as RM, for example.

Otherwise, for the vast majority of images, customers don't seem to search around that much. Difficult to have concrete evidence but I just had a commercial sale on Alamy yesterday for $110 gross and that same file is available for subs on micros, go figure.

Master Steve and I have written about this phenomenon of whether customers shop around quite a few times on our respective blogs.

I believe people use the stock site they prefer (and know) and very very rarely would anyone try to find the same image on a cheaper site. If they were worried about cost, they would start out on a stock site that has lower prices and stay on that site.

I have looked through my microstock sites and found that those who sell for me are;

Dreamstime not often but at a good price,
Shutterstock the best site for me (I will avoid BigStock because they belong to Shutterstock so I think I will compete with myself and sell at a lower price on BigStock)

I listened to you and started to uploaded to some more sites and chosed..
Depositphoto and 123RF lets see what happens. Hope they are good choices.

I would love to have something on Alamy but I worry about my ability to upload regularly. How often did you submit anything to them?
I would not think about upload anything that I have on a microstock site. It has to bee unique and making quality takes time. Probably more time then I have. Preferabel for me would be illustrations. Any suggestions?

Adobe Stock for sure. They're climbing month by month, I'd love to see them be top this time next year.

I would not think about upload anything that I have on a microstock site. It has to bee unique and making quality takes time.

I would suggest to upload all your editorials on Alamy.

I would suggest to upload all your editorials on Alamy.

Good advice

Adobe owns Fotolia, but there are two sites. If you are already a Fotolia contributor, then there's no need to upload to Adobe Stock directly - everything is already there, assuming you've linked your accounts.

If you aren't submitting to Adobe Stock/Fotolia you should - it's doing much better than anywhere other than Shutterstock.

Alamy is not consistent (at least not for me) but when sales happen, they can be for very decent royalties. I'd definitely consider adding them to your roster (uploading is a bigger pain than many agencies though, even with their new system)

I'll add that while I'm not a big fan of Getty/iStock they are holding up and doing business. They have eliminated some of the cheap subs like Thinkstock. They have a major connection and name in the market.

As far as the OPs question, everyone must answer for their own work, how much they put into images, what are they and personal view of where they want to be in Microstock. If someone wants to feed the parasite agencies and take scraps from the bottom feeding low paying sales, fine. I don't and I won't.

As things are now, I don't see a future is doing all kinds of extra work, uploading to low paying sites, and I don't see a return for scuffling for scraps and a pittance, on the little sites. If $35 a year makes your life, much better and improved, then do that everything everywhere plan. Make that about 50 sites!

My personal answer is the top three and Alamy. Exceptions of course are for video where there are some sites like Pond5 and videoblocks. Maybe others. I really don't do video, but I make plenty of Editorial uploads. Adobe takes files that SS doesn't. I can spread what I do around, some multiple places, some only on one or two.

"I'd rather sit for nothing, than work for nothing." Uncle Ed Klinger   

Quote from: Verdi on August 26, 2018, 14:54

Adobe stock is the same as Fotolia I think???

Adobe owns Fotolia, but there are two sites. If you are already a Fotolia contributor, then there's no need to upload to Adobe Stock directly - everything is already there, assuming you've linked your accounts.

If you aren't submitting to Adobe Stock/Fotolia you should - it's doing much better than anywhere other than Shutterstock. I'd leave Dreamstime alone, only because sales there are dismal these days. Likewise, I'd give 123rf a miss because their sales have fallen off badly.

Alamy is not consistent (at least not for me) but when sales happen, they can be for very decent royalties. I'd definitely consider adding them to your roster (uploading is a bigger pain than many agencies though, even with their new system)

DT died, the only reason to even bring up their name is that I'm still stuck halfway between payouts. lol. I don't think I've sold anything there all year.