Hi everyone,

I joined the stock photography and illustrations market early this month (Oct/16)... I have 104 images on Shutterstock and similar numbers on GL, Adobe, and 123rf. I have absolutely no sales. The only excitement I've seen is 4 images featured in the GL collection and 2 image views on Adobe. Is this normal? When I read it seems that people are making sales. I'm wondering if its my images, keywording or maybe I just need to increase my portfolio? I'd love some advice. My shutterstock portfolio is here: https://www.shutterstock.com/g/RachelLerch

Thanks! Excited to join this community!

I'll let others speak about the actual images, but your keywording isn't doing you any favours. I clicked randomly on this image, because I couldn't see any relationship between the plain brown bags and the fancy coloured bows.
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-499928272/stock-photo-three-plain-paper-shopping-bags-with-simple-bows.html?src=S6Ciljj5htW0kJ0zyo8kJw-1-3
You have the keywords: cardboard, heart, christmas, decor, giving, old, retail, purchase, rope, sale, season, commercial, consumerism (and others) - some of these are totally irrelevant to the image and some are extremely marginal. You need to ask yourself - if someone wants a photo of 'rope', 'heart', 'retail' or 'season', is this the sort of image they want?

Its very early in your "career" no one really knows. I'm sure you will get sales and start to learn what works for you then you can build on that.

In addition to keywords, some of your subjects (a bench and a path through the woods, for example) have huge competition. Over 46,000 images for path woods forest; 64,000 for bench trees

You are overthinking the styling of some of your images and making them less useful, IMO, putting objects together that you wouldn't normally see or expect. Being unusual is not the big win you might expect.

Examples. You have a shot of eggs in the carton with yellow flowers over them. You've just cut out a huge portion of potential buyers by putting flowers over the egg carton. You aren't even draping cooking ingredients over the eggs, which I wouldn't recommend, but is at least something you might mix with eggs.

You have a shot of a tea cup on a wool scarf with a pinecone next to the cup. This doesn't make it a Christmas image (so nix those keywords) and tons of the many uses for tea cup images are now ruled out - who puts a pinecone next to their tea?

Simple, clear messages - less is more in stock images

Keep in mind that one never knows what image will become their best-seller. Some of your tree/forest photos may or may not ever sell, but just keep learning the technical stuff, then shoot, shoot some more, upload, and repeat, and strive to get better. Concentrate on the lighting, setup, styling, etc.

Just for reference, when I started uploading in 2005, I never started selling images until I had over 500 images in my portfolio. I was NOT a professional photographer, though, and was just learning about photography. I had experience with stock photography from a buyer's point of view, because in my regular job (graphic designer) I purchased it for many years, so I had a little bit of a concept of what might be useful, but I had to learn about my camera, lighting, etc. Someone with lots of photography experience already under their belt may only need 100 great images in order to start selling. No one here can predict how you will do.

Selling microstock today is SOOO much more competitive, so you will need to up your game compared to those who started when microstock was in the beginning stages. You already have gotten some good advice from others who posted before me. Don't be discouraged, just shoot, upload, repeat many times. The sales will come.

Hey thanks everyone, especially to those who threw in some encouragement with their advice! I am feeling discouraged. But at least I'm getting a high acceptance rate when I upload.

Thanks Gary for suggesting BS.... I uploaded there today.

I guess I thought that all of the straight shots of objects have already been done umpteen times and that I should make it interesting... but I'm hearing you guys say that straight object photography is the way to go? I haven't even started in on people shots because tbh the model releases put me off. 

So I'm liking all of this advice, and I really appreciate it. I did some more today.... but I think with the suggestions on these posts, I have a direction to go in.

Any more advice is still appreciated!

Rachel

Your photos needs to have more commercial value. There are tens of thousands of contributors submitting photos from their hikes and they just don't sell well in general. When you do your compositions, think about where your buyer would put the text...there's always text. If that is no room for it, your photos will get looked over.

Thanks guys - I'd also love some feedback on what I may be doing right and well at this point, so that I can do more of it.  Thanks for the constructive feedback.

Thanks PigsInSpace. I really appreciate it everyone. Will keep working on it! I like that on Adobe you can see how many views you've had - and I'm just starting to get some. So I'm encouraged.

Hey guys

So just to update - I started making sales! In the past month I've gotten 15 sales ... one third of them are from one image. All of the sales were on Adobe and SS. I'm thinking the other sites are not worth my time.

I have 190 active images in my port now. Is 15 sales at this point good? It's been one every other day or so. Mostly subscriptions but a few one offs.

Excited every time something sells! It's so satisfying that someone likes a photo that much.

Some people will tell you its terrible some OK. I would say don't worry about that if you are enjoying it try and improve and learn what works for you. You could give other sites that are easy to upload  a try sometimes people finda site that works for them. But I think for most SS and adobe are market leaders

Thanks for all the replies. So I'm happy with how things are going so far. I'm making a sale or two each day - love it when they are more than 25 cents commission .  I've downloaded Microstockr to track everything but they don't offer a connection to Adobe Stock? Or am I missing something?

I really am just enjoying this... its a platform for my creative work and if I can make a few dollars here and there, I'm happy about that... especially since I am no longer working full time but switched to freelance web design/photography etc.

Anyone else have some great tips and or just stories to share? How long have all of you been doing this and what are your average sales? Are you enjoying it?  I'm finding that I'm more successful when I think less and use more emotion and creativity... keeping in mind that images are for commercial use - but I think the emotional images... those that strike  chord... are the ones that will sell products. 

Oh and I'm now selling a range of my images, not just the one or two... very cool!

GiveMe5... I can understand that. I felt that way after years of wedding photography. After a break I started enjoying it again without the pressure. I am impressed with $100 a day! How big is your portfolio? How may images?

In line with the Pareto Principle, I earn 80% of my revenue from 20% of my images. In other words, most of my images either are either rarely licensed or have never been licensed. However, one trend is clear, newer quality content drives the sale of older quality content, especially from the top 20% earners. As for new mediocre content, it may pull the occasionally sale but old mediocre content will get forever lost in the search engine pits. Keep in mind that earnings do fluctuate as sites experiment with different search engine algorithms.

I wouldn't worry too much about sales until you have at least 1000 marketable images spread out in 2-3 high-tier stock sites. I now have 2400 images at Shutterstock and my sales only really took off after about 1200 images and a few editorial images I shot of some refugees at a train station in Budapest. Editors picked up on such images quickly and it continues to sell well until today.

This is a tough business and in my opinion it should be a stepping stone to something else (financially). I've moved onto selling my fine art images at physical galleries. I'm also moving onto licensing RM images to more boutique stock agencies which don't pay 25 cents but more like $25+ an image.

I started in Microstock because I wasn�t aware of any other way to monetize my photography. I put in the time and effort to learn how to make an image stand out, both technically and commercially. Despite what I feel are mediocre earnings, I�m grateful for my time submitting to Microstock sites, since I�ve received an education in the technical aspects of photograph simply by participating in that market. It�s like having a Bachelor�s in Photography without going to school. Best way to stay motivated is to keep learning from rejections and manage your expectations.

Brasilnut
www.arotenberg.photoshelter.com