When I first noticed the StockFresh ad in the right column of my facebook I was intrigued and when I read that StockFresh was from the creator of StockXpert I got excited! StockXpert was my favourite microstock agency for quite some time. Then iStock bought it and let it sit stagnant for what felt like forever, and then finally, StockXpert closed. With StockXpert closing, iStock opened ThinkStock which is basically the StockXpert and iStock libraries under a different name and so far, for me at least, it hasn’t been very impressive.

When I first checked out StockFresh I was pretty impressed. The site’s front end actually looks a lot like StockXpert. It’s sleek design gives the same professional feel to it. Signing up was easy and submitting my application to be a contributor was also pretty simple. Unfortunately, at least so for now, that’s where the praise ends. I sent in my application on August 22^nd, the site does not say how long the submission but I have now been waiting just over three weeks. This is the longest I have ever had to wait to find out if I could submit to a microstock. To be fair, StockFresh is a new company and just ran an ad campaign on facebook. They probably got bombarded with applications. Well, I am going to send them a message via their contact form and see what happens. My only real concern is if they take this long to approve me as a contributor, how long will it take for StockFresh to review submissions?

iStock currently uses a tier system to give their more successful contributors raises. A contributor starts at zero downloads. Each time a file is downloaded their number goes up and they get a raises at different set amounts. These tiers are represented by canisters next to the contributors name. Downloads are accumulated throughout the life the contributors portfolio. This system, as of next year, is going in the garbage.

If you are new to iStock then there are a few things you should know. The first, is that iStock is one of the lowest paying microstock agencies out there in terms of royalty percentages. Despite this, contributors make a lot of on iStock simply because they make a lot of sales. Some people make a living off of iStock alone due to the shear volume of sales. The last thing is that iStock has always pushed its contributors to submit their work exclusively to iStock instead of to multiple agencies. In doing so, iStock has also put some very harsh limitations on non-exclusive members, both in pay and the amount of files a contributor can upload to iStock in a week.

The new terms, in my opinion, are a farce. Istock has dropped it’s pay for all except it’s most elite exclusive contributors, who will get a small raise. Almost everyone else is getting demoted. Personally, as a non-exclusive contributor I will be going from 20% commission to 15%. From what I can tell, most contributors, exclusive and non-exclusive, will be taking a 5% pay cut on regular sales and even more so for those exclusive contributors who have photos in the Vetta collection.

Speaking of iStock collections, Getty has announced a new collection coming to iStock called the Agency Collection. This is basically a few select iStock photos mingled in with a bunch of Getty, Jupiter and Punchstock photos. This collection will most likely take up the main iStock page once it is launched, the way the Vetta Collection does now. If this happens iStock contributors will have even less exposure and less sales if clients start buying from the Agency Collection. The kicker, in my opinion, is that this is only available to exclusive contributors and yet pays 20% commission on sales! This is less then Getty pays it’s contributors and less than iStock pays its exclusive contributor at the lowest pay rate. Getty is simply taking advantage of its contributors more because the sales are for larger amounts of money.

I keep hoping that I have read something wrong in the new terms, but I don’t think so. I can only say that as soon as my next payout has been reached I will be closing my account as I see no reason to gouge my royalties by having my portfolio on iStock.

Details:

URL: www.elance.com

Industry: Freelance Agency

What they are looking for: Freelancers, each contract has specific requirements

Pay: contract

Alexa rating: 806

Elance is a freelance mecca. It is a website used by freelancers and companies looking to hire freelancers for jobs. Elance is a great place for writers and photographers to find work. It is also a place where many other types of freelancers can find work as well.

To gain work through the Elance system, you have to bid on jobs. Elance works in a reverse auction fashion. Each time you want to bid on a job you need to use one or more “connects”. The amount of connects you need to use to bid on a job depend on how much the job pays. The higher the job’s pay range, the more connects are needed. The amount of connects you get each month depends on what kind of account you have. If you use up all your connects then you can buy more as needed.

Working with Elance

Each job is only posted for a limited amount of time. Bids are only accepted during this time. To apply to jobs you have to write a proposal. The person or company offering the job can read your proposal at any time. Once the time limit is done the job will hopefully be awarded to one of the freelancers. The reason I say hopefully is because so far I have written proposals for three contracts. One was awarded to another writer, the other two have yet to be awarded. Unfortunately this seems to be almost normal on Elance. It seems only 50% of contracts get awarded.

So the question remains, can a freelancer make decent money via Elance. The answer is maybe. It would take a good, if not great, writer who dedicates a lot of time to Elance. That writer would also have to have a reserve of money to live on until they start winning enough contracts to make a living. When you start out, you will have to take a lot of contracts at very low pay to build up good feedback. Even bidding at the website’s lowest allowed bid, you still may not win the contracts you bid on. Elance is a hard road but a living can be made here, it just takes the right kind of person. Personally, I am not giving up on it.

If you are just starting out with Elance I would recommend only trying the free account. You will get three connects a month and some information about jobs will be obscured to you but this will give you a good idea of how the website works and whether or not it will work for you.

]]> http://www.theonlinepaycheck.com/2009/10/12/elance/feed/ 1 http://www.theonlinepaycheck.com/2009/09/13/123rf/ http://www.theonlinepaycheck.com/2009/09/13/123rf/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:26:32 +0000 dgrwriting http://www.theonlinepaycheck.com/?p=96

Details:

URL: www.123rf.com

Industry: Microstock Agency

What they are looking for: Royalty Free Stock Photos and Royalty Free Illustrations

Pay: Commission

Alexa Rating: 3,163

123rf is a micostock agency. They currently feature 4.5 million photos and illustrations for download. 123rf is a great company to upload to. Their upload tool is very different when compared to most other microstock agencies. You use an FTP account or a web form, fill in the title and keywords if they are not in your IPTC data, and then that’s it. You can submit batches with just one click instead of submitting each photo individually. If a model release is needed, you go to the release page in the site, choose the appropriate document and check off all photos in your portfolio that it applies to. It’s simple and extremely fast once you get the hang of it. 123rf will also provide steady sales, making them a definite winner for any photographer or illustrator.

Submitting to 123rf

This site has no initial submission requirements making them an excellent site for those with a larger library and those just starting out in the microstock business. As I mentioned, uploading to 123rf is easy thanks to their FTP access. If you don’t want to use FTP they also have a web form but this is a very VERY slow option to use. All in all, this site is easy to use and worthwhile. If you are not submitting your microstock portfolio to them, then you should be!

Cool 123rf Features

• Great upload tools

• The site is smooth and easy to navigate for buyers and submitters.

• They have a great referral program (10% for referred photographers, 15% for referred buyers!)

• 123rf has a watermark tool, this allows you to move the watermark to any portion of the photo or illustration that you like.

• 123rf also has a blog that is full of awesome photography and Photoshop tutorials

If you have found this article to be helpful and plan on checking out 123rf, please consider using my referral link below. Thanks!

Details:

URL: www.imagecatalog.com

Industry: Microstock Agency

What are they looking for: Royalty Free Stock Photos and Royalty Free Illustrations

Pay: Commission

Alexa rating: 429,553

Image Catalog is a small microstock agency. They have a great interface that looks very much like the interface used by microstock giant Dreamstime. Image Catalog has a much smaller library than any of the big microstock agencies, but sales still come in for those who submit. Image Catalog can provide a fair amount of extra income depending on the size of your portfolio. I wouldn’t recommend putting this site above any of the large microstock agencies, but this would make a great addition to your uploading process. If those that run Image Catalog put a little more effort into their microstock agency, than it could grow to be a much larger business. Unfortunately the site remains mostly stagnant. The splash page and main page haven’t changed in months. It’s too bad, in my opinion, I had high hopes for this site. It is an alright money earner, but it could be so much more.

Submitting to Image Catalog

Uploading to Image Catalog is easy. They have a great flash uploader that is really easy to use or you can upload via their FTP access. You must upload three photos as your first submission. Once they are accepted you can upload more, there is no limit. Their sales statistic tools could be better, but they do work. Image Catalog also has a referral program that you can sign up for.

Cool Image Catalog Features

• Image Catalog is easy to upload to with their flash uploader and FTP access. This means that adding this microstock agency to your upload process won’t cost you much time.

• Image Catalog chooses some photos to be an Editors Choice. If your photo is chosen it will have some time featured on the main page.

• You can join the Image Catalog referral program to make a little extra money.

• They also have contents from time to time, but none have been announced in quite a while.

If you have found this article helpful and plan on checking out Image Catalog please consider using my referral link below. It won’t cost you anything but it will help me out

URL: www.canstockphoto.com

Industry: Microstock Agency

What are they looking for: Royalty Free Stock Photos, Royalty Free Illustrations, and Royalty Free Footage

Pay: Commission

Alexa rating: 33,919

CanStockPhoto, recently purchased by the tradition stock agency Fotosearch, was the first microstock website I ever submitted to. CanStockPhoto has a quick and easy upload process with ftp access. These guys tend to sell a little of everything, but if you really want to reach payouts quickly then business images are the way to go. Business images obviously do well with every microstock agency, but they seem to sell a little better then everything else on CanStockPhoto in particular. Canstock probably won’t be your best selling agency but with a large enough portfolio, you can cash out at least once a month.

Submitting to CanStockPhoto

Getting in to CanStockPhoto is relatively easy. You need only to sign up and then submit three photos for review. Once those three are accepted you can upload up to twenty more. You won’t be able to upload more until those twenty are reviewed. Review times with CanStockPhoto can vary greatly, I’ve seen them take a few hours to look at my work but I’ve also seen it take as long a couple of weeks.

Cool CanStockPhoto Features

• CanStock has a variety of uploading tools so you can choose whichever one you like best.

• There is a photo/illustration request area in the CanStockPhoto forums. It’s not always that active but it can give you some great ideas for subjects to shoot that you may never have thought of.

• They are now owned by Fotosearch, and in turn Fotosearch is marketing the CanStockPhoto library to their clients. Sales have gone up ever since.

• CanStock has some great sales statistics tools on each member page.

• You can create galleries of similar shots, including shots from other members, boosting your chance of selling those photos.

Details:

URL: www.istock.com

Industry: Microstock Agency

What they are looking for: Royalty Free Stock Photos, Royalty Free Illustrations, and Royalty Free Footage, Royalty Free Audio

Pay: Commission

Alexa Rating: 370

iStock is the microstock industry leader. Some people make a living by only selling photographs on iStock. iStock also offer a large range of products, most recently adding RF audio files. Unfortunately, iStock does have some pretty serious problems. Their uploading process is complete garbage, they cap your uploads at a seriously low amount of files per week (except audio), and they are more picky in their review process than any other microstock agency. It’s not all doom and gloom with iStock though. Once you have your files accepted they go into a beautifully designed interface. The iStock, site from a buyers perspective, is gorgeous and that will help sell your work. iStock also has some great statistics tools built right into your profile page. All in all, if you can handle only being able to upload 15 shots a week and having to upload them one at a time, then iStock will treat you well.

Submitting to iStock

iStock is not an easy site to get accepted to in comparison to any of the other microstock agencies. You first have to sign-up, then go to Upload on the left and click the Apply button next to the type of content you wish to submit. Royalty free photography is what made iStock the powerhouse it is today. They now have over half a million photos and illustrations for sale. With that in mind, I’m going to talk about submitting as a photographer. The application for photographers consists of uploading three files for review. Make sure your photographs are noise free and very sharp focus. All three must pass the review process for you to get in. If you do not pass the first time, you can just change out whichever photos did not pass and try again.

Cool iStock Features

Here are some of the things that made iStock the number one microstock agency:

• iStock sells a lot of photos. No matter how frustrated I get uploading to iStock, I know in the end it will be worth it. They will make me money.

• Since iStock takes so many different types of media, you can create a very unique portfolio if you have the skills.

• The iStock Vetta program allows some of your photos to be sold at a much higher price.

• iStock has a great article base where you can learn tons of great tips about how to make money on the site. These tips translate easily to any microstock agency.

• iStock also has a very active forum, although it is heavily moderated.

Details:

URL: www.fotolia.com

Industry: Microstock Agency

What are they looking for: Royalty Free Stock Photos, Royalty Free Illustrations, and Royalty Free Footage

Pay: Commission

Alexa rating: 787

Fotolia is one of the big six microstock companies. They sell a huge amount of content. Fotolia has some pretty serious issues in my opinion. They have multiple upload tools, unfortunately most are pretty unreliable. Because of this, uploading a large amount of files can be quite frustrating. For each credit used to buy a file, the contributor will receive a 30% commission. Despite the low commission, Fotolia is a great money maker, due to the amount of sales you will make working with them.

Submission to Fotolia

Fotolia is great for submitters, despite their upload tools. Once your files are uploaded, the remainder of the upload process is pretty effortless. If you want to sell an extended license you will need to specify that for each file during the upload process. Like Dreamstime, Fotolia is not overly picky when reviewing photos and is also fairly consistent in its review process. Fotolia is a wicked company to work with. If you are going to jump into the microstock game, then make sure Fotolia is near the top of your upload list.

Cool Fotolia Features

• The more sales you make with Fotolia, the higher your commission will be. Fotolia has eight different sales levels. You start at level one, you will reach level two after making 100 sales.

• Fotolia has 12 different versions of their website in ten different languages making sure your files get a lot of exposure.

Details:

URL: http://submit.shutterstock.com

Industry: Microstock Agency

What are they looking for: Royalty Free Stock Photos, Editorial Stock Photos, Royalty Free Illustrations and Royalty Free Video Footage

Pay: Commission

Alexa rating: 1,306

Shutterstock is one of the top microstock websites you can submit to. The majority of the money that you’ll make with Shutterstock is by selling your work through their subscription service. The commission for these sales is pretty low, but you will sell your content often enough to make up for it. Shutterstock has more recently started selling individual photos as well. This system is new for them, but is catching on quickly. The most profitable sale is their Extended Liscense (or EL) sale, worth 28 bucks a pop for photos. You won’t sell an EL often, but regardless, they’ll make you smile.

Submitting to Shutterstock

In my experience, Shutterstock has one of the most difficult initial review processes for new submitters, surpassed only by Istock. To get accepted to Shutterstock you must initially upload ten images for review. Seven or more images must pass the review process for you to be allowed to become a member of Shutterstock. If you do not pass the review process, none of your images will be accepted and you will be asked to wait 30 days before trying again. During this time you may still visit the Shutterstock submitters forums to seek assistance and advise. To help ensure that you pass on your first attempt, choose only your best works and make sure that they are all unique. Don’t use the same subject matter unless the photos is drastically different, also don’t use the same model if you can help it. Once you’ve passed the review stage, then you can upload sets of the same person or place. Shutterstock is also extremely picky when it comes to jpg noise. Make sure any noise is fixed in post production before submitting.

Cool Shutterstock Features

Here is a small list of things that make Shutterstock a money maker for submitters

• Once you’ve become a member, there is no upload limit. You can upload as man images or as much video footage as you like. My only suggestion is to submit them in small batches. The reviewers seems to get unhappy when they receive huge batches at once. If I have 20 photos to upload for a day, I will upload them in two batches of ten. I find I get a better approval rating doing this, as stupid as it sounds.

• Shutterstock submitter forums is the best photography community I have ever found. They are a wealth of information. It is worth becoming a member just to be able to read and be a part of these forums.

• Shutterstock is quick to review your material and start selling it. Some sites can take weeks just to look at your work. Shutterstock is normally quick to processes submitted works, unless hugely burdened.

Like most microstock agencies, Shutterstock has a referral program. If you have found this article helpul and plan on looking into Shutterstock, please consider using my referral link below:

Submit Photos to Shutterstock and make $$$!

Red Gage is one of my favourite online publishing sites. I don’t make a lot of money from Red Gage but they have a very sleek site with a very active community. Like Triond or Buskisa, Red Gage is a pay-per-click website. Red Gage posts their current and average pay rate per thousand views on each users account page so you will always know how much money you will make.

Submitting to Red Gage

Red Gage is one of the easiest online publishing sites to upload to that I have come across. Once you create an account you only need to hit the upload button, fill in four fields and “voila!” your content has been uploaded. The nice thing about Red Gage that you can upload all types of content and get great exposure on all of them. This is a great tool for writers and photographers. Like I said, you won’t make a lot of money, but it’s just another resource for you to explore.

Here’s a few reasons why Red Gage is worth your time and effort:

Uploading is quick and easy.
Red Gage has a daily, weekly and monthly draw giving away pre-paid Visas for $25, $50, and $200. Entries are based on your activity on Red Gage.
Red Gage also has a competition where they have daily, weekly, and monthly prices based on the amount of page views you receive, the amount of times you backlink Red Gage, or the amount of new members you refer to Red Gage.
Another great thing about Red Gage is that you retain the right to republish your work. This means you can republish work you submit to Red Gage on other sites like Triond, Bukisa, Hub Pages or many others.
Red Gage also features content on their main page, if your piece gets featured, Red Gage will give you a bonus, usually around five bucks.