The following are breakdowns of how each site did.

StockXPert (5.76%) – Overall it seems like it was a wise idea to join this site.  Sales are still the lowest of all the sites where I submit, but the percentage has grown from 1-2% of total to something a bit more meaningful.  This is also the easiest site to submit to, as I do not need to categorize my pictures.

Fotolia (7.52%) – I have noticed Fotolia becoming more erratic with their reviews.  Pictures that are rejected at both Shutterstock and IStockPhoto – whose rejections once I look at the shot I agree with – were accepted by Fotolia.  On the other hand, a good number of shots that are accepted by both are rejected for reasons I do not agree with – though it’s not worth the bother to resubmit.  Only a few sales late in the month prevented Fotolia from moving to last place, though their days solidly in third place appear to be over.

Dreamstime (10.34%) – It is not overly difficult to submit here – though a bit more difficult than Shutterstock – but I am pleased with the numbers.  I suspect that Dreamstime will solidly occupy the #3 slot for some time.  Their review system is a bit weird – and I’m not talking about the actual reviews.  Currently I just submit my shots there and look at the sales – I don’t really have an idea how many shots they accept/reject.

Shutterstock (37.85%) – For just the second time Shutterstock comes in second to IStockPhoto, though the race was very close.  Perhaps IStockPhoto’s new subscription element is hurting them, as I have noticed a dropoff in sales.  Still, as I mentioned above I saw the same results this year as I did next year, so I won’t really know if anything is up until next month.  Supposedly this month there will be a raise, so I expect May’s results to be higher.

IStockPhoto (38.53%) – In a narrow race IStockPhoto edges out Shutterstock.  This month they began a subscription plan, but I have yet to really see a difference in the pattern of sales.  Perhaps next month I will start to see more subscription downloads.  It does seem that IStockPhoto was less affected by the slowdown than Shutterstock, reflected in IStockPhoto being tops in sales for the month.

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The following are some details I noticed about each site this month.

StockXPert (2.95%) – I now have most of my portfolio submitted to this site.  They are they most paranoid site in terms of potential rights issues and as a result most of my best selling shots were not accepted.  As this is the easiest site to submit too, I will likely continue to submit here even though my sales are low.  Still, this site has improved somewhat from the last two months.

Dreamstime (6.41%) – This was a rather standard month on Dreamstime, which had respectable but not outstanding sales.  It is certainly worth the effort to submit here, though I don’t pay attention to which shots are accepted/rejected.

Fotolia (7.37%) – Fotolia started out the month quite strong and at the beginning of the month was close to Shutterstock in sales.  However, after the middle of the month sales slowed considerably and it came close to being overcome by Dreamstime.  Of the Microstock sites, I still think this is the least professional site among them.  Right now obviously new buyers are coming in at a faster rate than sellers (displayed by the fact that my sales increased without submitting).  However I suspect some day that will end and Fotolia will be one of the first ones to go.

IStockPhoto (40.82%) – For most of the month IStockPhoto was in the distant lead over Shutterstock.  However, as with most months, sales at IStockPhoto remained erratic while sales at Shutterstock were steady.  The reviews at this site are still the most helpful and I like the fact that resubmission is encouraged.  However I still disagree with those who go exclusive with IStockPhoto – as you can make a lot more by diversifying.

Shutterstock (42.45%) – There has only been one month so far where Shutterstock was not top in sales and this was not the month.  In some ways I was glad that I did not have time to submit much this month as they were plagued by a rogue reviewer that rejected the majority of shots as “No commercial value”.  A number of the most popular photographers there were hit with this and were more than a little upset.  I’ll see soon whether this has been fixed, as I plan to submit a number of the pictures I have posted here recently – and I find that a flip of a coin is more helpful in determining whether they will be accepted on Shutterstock (not so on IStockPhoto, where they are accepted as long as there are no technical issues).

In terms of new sites, I applied to Lucky Oliver and was rejected.  I don’t really care much though, as after reading about others’ experiences this is more of a circus than a web site to sell pictures.  Ironically the major flaw of this site is favoring photographers too much over buyers.  They seem nice, but I don’t want to waste my time if the sales aren’t worth it.

I was accepted at several new sites – 123RF and a few others.  Perhaps this month I will take the time to finally get my portfolio up there.  I also tried out a new tool called ProStockMaster – but I found it unusable.  If I had the time I would write my own tool, but for now I will manually submit my shots – which once you have a system isn’t too much work.

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Shutterstock (44.8%) – Last month, IStockPhoto took the lead for the first time.  I was curious if this trend would continue but this month but the answer was a resounding “no”.  IStockPhoto did regain a lot of ground at the end of the month, but Shutterstock easily came out ahead and came close to getting half of my total sales.  What is even more interesting is I did not submit any new shots until the very end of the month, which suggests that my sales increase was due to new buyers and not necessarily new shots.  In even better news, the forums on Shutterstock mention there may be a raise in May – so it seems likely that my earnings will continue to increase here.  The simple reality is, though they are not pleasant to deal with, this site does bring in the most money.

IStockPhoto (37.16%) IStockPhoto had a month similar to last month, but this month came behind Shutterstock in sales.  Based on these sales I suspect going exclusive with them in the future would be a very poor choice.  I must admit though it is a pain submitting images here, as they now check that the keywords match the image exactly and their opinions often differ from mine.  Still, their reviews were quite fair this month and several good images – including two for which I just sold large prints – were accepted by IStockPhoto but rejected by Shutterstock for not being of commercial value.

Fotolia (8.73%) This month was slightly better than my previous month.  Reviews here seem to be getting very unpredictable.  On one hand, images are reviewed very quickly – usually within 24 hours of submitting.  On the other hand, image rejection sometimes seems to be random.  A recent batch of shots there was massacred, though Shutterstock and IStockPhoto accepted most of them.  After working with other sites, Fotolia seems to be poorly managed.  They have gone through a number of bumps, including a disastrous upgrade early last year, and my sales have never fully recovered.  Still, it is currently third in my earnings and worthwhile to submit shots to.

Dreamstime (7.12%) This was a rather quiet month for Dreamstime.  I submitted a large batch of photos at the end of the month but they have yet to be reviewed.  Sales are not very common here, but the commissions tend to be larger than sites like Fotolia.  Then again, my portfolio on this site is much younger and smaller than Fotolia’s.

StockXPert (2.20%) A slight gain from last month has me not ready to ditch this site yet.  I currently do not have my best selling Dubai pictures on here, so I will add them and see what happens.  I suspect that eventually sales here will be similar to Fotolia and Dreamstime.  This is also the easiest site for which to submit images.

In March I hope to take more shots.  I already have a number of insect and spider shots awaiting, though admittedly they tend not to do very well.  All sites, except Fotolia, generally accept them.  Usually for each shot I get a handful of downloads over time.  Very often when one image gets downloaded, all of my other shots of the same insect also get downloaded.  So for instance I’ll either get no woodlouse downloads (most days), or every woodlouse image will be downloaded.  On IStockPhoto, sales are much slower, though some of my better ones like the ladybug eating an aphid have received a number of downloads.

I’m also thinking of submitting to other agencies.  LuckyOliver is mentioned often, though I have seen vastly different reports of sales.  I will probably do some investigation to see if there are other sites worth submitting to.  All in all I was very pleased with my sales this month and that will definitely have an impact on future equipment purchases.

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The following are more detailed result from this month and my opinions of the different sites.

IStockPhoto (47.5%) – I had my best month ever at IStockPhoto in January and my pictures are really beginning to take off. Perhaps in the future I may go exclusive with them but right now I would only make about 20% more going exclusive and given the fact that IStockPhoto is still less than 50% of my sales this doesn’t make sense. This was the first month that IStockPhoto was my top producer. Of all the different stock sites this one is probably my favorite as they are the most cordial and consistent with their reviews. It can be difficult to get pictures accepted, but when I look at the rejected pictures based on their reviews the rejections tend to make sense.

Shutterstock (36.1%) – Shutterstock had a decent month for me in January, though it was not a record month. However, this was the first month that Shutterstock did not take first place. They were the first microstock that I started submitting to and I have by far more pictures there than elsewhere. Although my sales are decent there I’m not particularly fond of them. Whenever I’ve had to deal with them directly they have been very rude and they do not seem to care about their photographers. Also, their reviewers are wildly inconsistent. Whenever I submit a large number of pictures I will pray for a decent reviewer. Some reviewers are very accepting while others reject everything – even those that were accepted at much tougher sites like IStockPhoto – with the rejections not making sense.

Fotolia (8.0%) – Fotolia still seems to be recovering from a massive blunder several months ago when they upgraded to a new version of their software. My sales have been slowly picking up there though and at the beginning of the month I wondered whether they would beat Shutterstock. Fotolia has become much tougher with their picture selections – however they have the fastest review turnarounds. Their reviews seem for the most part to be fair. They are now a bit tougher in acceptances than Shutterstock, but not as tough as IStockPhoto.

Dreamstime (7.2%) – Dreamstime is one of the newer sites I have applied to and it was only this month that I submitted most of my photos. This is a nice start and I suspect that Dreamstime will be a stable, though not top, earner. Of all the sites they have some of the most helpful blogs on their main page and they have very interesting photo contests, though I don’t take part because the images tend to sell better on IStockPhoto and Shutterstock (their contests require the images to be exclusive to them).

StockXPert (1.1%) – I am currently quite disappointed in this site, even though I just joined. They seem to be paranoid about taking any shot that has the tiniest potential for copyright – so they reject pretty much any building. A number of other photos that have done fine on other sites and which even IStockPhoto didn’t have a problem with were rejected. Still, I have a large enough number of pictures there that the sales should be higher. I will likely submit some more this month and fix up the image groups to see if I get more downloads. If I don’t, then I’ll probably stop bothering with this site.

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