An update of how i am doing!

Heya fellow stock photographers and illustrators!

So i thought i would post an update on how i am progressing. The last month has been extremely interesting indeed. It has been interesting for many reasons. Firstly those of you may be aware of my first payout, it was not from fotolia, shutterstock, dreamstime or istock....IT WAS FROM DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM!? Now you may not realise why that is strange. It is strange as this site has only been around for little over a year now. I have a payout due to their promotion programme and the fact that someone baught 40 of my images. It seems so strange to me that the site i put the least effort into provides me the most revenue....Oh well cant complain!

Fotolia- as you may know this is may favourite site, it is clear, easy to upload, rejections seem to be fair-ish and the forums are great. They help a lot and they are very friendly. So for my fotolian update:

1. This time last month i had exactly 100 images in my portfolio and that was wonderful, such a milestone for an ameteur like myself. However over the first two weeks of my easter holiday i just uploaded so many and now my portfolio is exactly 241 images!!!! My acceptance rate skyrocketed, i seemed to upload batches of 25 and ALL, yes ALL were accepted. It made me so happy!
2. From previous posts i have shown you some of my illustrations. My first one sold on fotolia:

           Not only that they sold as a vector license....!

Shutterstock- so shutterstock seem to be loving my new submissions, before i was averaging 32 sales per month, but this month I HAVE SO FAR 62 sales and counting.

THIS HAS BEEN MY BME!

Lastly guys a favour- please can you all follow me on twitter, i am trying to get some more portfolio exposure and more traffic to my site. I have had some positive feedback so far, and people seem to find it useful.

Thanks for reading

Jonny

Submitting to Fotolia- A tutorial

Heya guys,

One of the most important factors of a micro stock site, i have come to know, is the submission process. They have massive variation between agencies. Some take ages such as iStock and some are ridiculously quick such as shutterstock. Fotolia is exactly in the middle in my opinion. It is not particularly quick but it isn't too time consuming either, and it certainly is easy!

I Would like to give you a quick tutorial about how, to upload to fotolia. If you haven't yet signed up then this may just sway you as you will see it is easy. I will show you in a step-by-step manner:

Uploading to fotolia- step-by-step guide


You find the upload page by clicking on one of the upload options in fotolias main "files" page. See the screen-grab, it is circled in red. There are three upload options, FTP, HTML, and flash. I would go for flash as it is the most user friendly and is very quick.

Once you have clicked the "upload files with flash" link it will take you to a page where you can actually upload the files. To add files into the flash uploader you must click the "browse" button which is has a blue ring. This will then open a dialogue box which is just like the explorer on a PC. You can select as many pictures as you want.

Once done you must click upload which has a yellow ring in the screen grab below. This will then load the image into fotolia.

The next step is to ad meta data to the image. You can add it manually to the image or embed it into the image file itself. If done it will show up automatically. To get to edit this information you must click the blue arrow next to the pending image ringed in green below. The next screen-grab shows this- i will be submitting this image soon.

The data you have to fill in is:

1. Title
2. Keywords
3. Categories- one actual and one conceptual
4. Model releases
5. Contract/Price
6. Agree to terms

Then just click submit, and it will await a review from the all-knowing fotolia judges. The screen grab below shows this:

Thanks for looking. I will be continuing to do this periodically for other sites, giving reviews and informing you guys on my progress. So please check back.

Jonnya/Rasmusrok1--> Jonny!

Illustrations and stock - a video!

HI

It's been a while since i have posted here and that is because i have been busy; with work and with illustrating. I have a programme called adobe illustrator and it is with this i have been making some simple VECTOR CARTOONS. They are fun and easy to make.

I have made 10 at the moment and all have been accepted on fotolia. I just hope they sell. I think it may be true for many stock websites but illustrations are much easier to get accepted as there is just so much less of them. I mean i hardly ever get 10/10 accepted but here i am, an absolute beginner at illustrator getting 100% acceptance rate. It sure makes me want to do more. I HOPE THEY SELL!

Here are some examples in a wicked little video! Thanks for looking:



Much apreciated....please leave a comment or follow me!

Jonny

First sales and payout at depositphotos.com

Hi all,

So i have just had my first payout on depositphotos! I have just transferred $53.30 to my paypal account. Of course that wasn't just from sales, the referral programme, affiliate programme, promotion programme all played a part.

But i have had 36 sales some of which are below:

Anyway guys i seem to be selling well on depositphotos so i will continue to upload! Please check back for more sales information on depositphotos and other sites

A quick review on www.depositphotos.com

Hello again,


Last month i joined depositphotos, i was a bit unsire about it from what i have read on the internet and also i was a bit unclear about some aspects of it. I thought i would write a quick review for you guys so you can have it from an amateur's perspective like myself.


So if i am honest the only reason I uploaded to depositphotos was because of the promotion programme that they have been running for the last year. The program was that for every image you had accepted they would give you $0.20 for up to 500 images. That means that if you upload 250 then you have $50.00 just like that and so you can cash out... marvellous.


I took that opportunity as i though that it was free money to be made. So as of late I have uploaded 148 images and so earned a total of $29.60, that is without a sale. FANTASTIC!!


Here is a link to my depositphotos portfolio 


However don't be fooled into joining for that reason now, because the promotion programme will be finishing soon and no new people can take part. It is such a shame it is finishing as i have not reached enough to cash-out yet
. 
Acceptance Ratio


The acceptance ratio is fair in my opinion and i have got more accepted there than anywhere else. That is for definite. I have only been uploading photographs and it is already my largest portfolio. It is nice to have "not so good" photographs accepted, especially just their acceptance has earned me some money
.
Submit Procedure


The submit procedure is great actually, there are far fewer fields to fill in than other stock sites and so it is much quicker. BUT more importantly there is a brilliant auto-fill feature if you want to upload similar images. You can upload using the web, flash or FTP- standard really.
They respond within about 2 days which i am happy with.


Sales


Ha! sales, oh sales, i have had, in 2 months a grand total of...wait for it...zero sales. It is a little disappointing but hey it is early and i am hopeful!


Commission


It is between 40% and 60%, which is much better that fotolia's 25%


End Notes


Now that the promotion programme is over i would not recommend it as a stock site as i think the time uploading would not be worth it in terms of actual sales. So if you are new to this as i am then keep uploading to other stock sites.

First stock photography "set"

Hello again,

Thanks to those who have visited this blog and continue to do so. I apreciate the views. Ok so i have been having exams recently so i have not submitted too many photos recently however i would like to tell you of a trick. As stock is a numbers game as so many people have previously told me, i have discovered sets of images.

A set is a group of images which are similar but have significant differences in their concept.


So i will show you my first set, oh and on fotolia the first image in the set/series has had a sale. It is a simple set with a hand writing various things, a tick, a cross, a mind map, equations etc. Simple but hopefully successful. We shall see...

Image	Full size Link
	Image
	Image
	Image

This is just three of the ten image series that was accepted at fotolia. But, just by some simple editing i have made ten sellable images out of one and a bit of PS. 

Enjoy,

Oh and please follow me. I am yet to have followers. Thanks

Quick Note on Forums

Hi All

As I woke up this morning and checked my stock sites (as i do daily) i realised exactly how important forums are in this game. The forum on fotolia is particularly good. Here you can get advice, have rejected images critiqued, and just chat. People seem so friendly also.

I will give you an example. When i first signed up to fotolia i had no idea and i would still have no images accepted if it was not for the forum and the members continually helping me out. Members such as:

• Princess Zelda
• Michael Spring
• Warren Miller

Have helped me so much, as have many more (too many to name).

So i will advise you all; dont take the forums for granted, they are invaluable especially if you are just starting off.

Jonny

The beginning

Hi guys

My name is Jonny. I am a student in the university of birmingham and i am beginning to write this blog on my progress in the world of photography. I have recently (within the last year) become interested in photography and graphic design. It has been an interesting learning curve and i am now interested in stock photography and selling products on the internet.
I use the stock site:

Fotolia --------------> My portfolio

I will be posting regular information about my stock career, including review, revenues and portfolio progress.

So far i have a CLEAR BEST SELLER:

I know it isnt technically perfect, but as you can see a simple idea and a decent isolation can be sold. It has been sold 4 times and is therefore my best seller.

My next post will be on the beginning of depositphotos.com

Jonny