Yuri Arcurs a blog about selling your photos online

Hi! I didn’t quite understand… how does one become elligible for Yuri Arcurs Distribution Network keywording service? Just by signing in via some of the links provided, or by signing in via ALL the links provided (for instance, I have already established my account on some of them, but not all the major players), or by paying for the service?

Thank you

You don’t get eligible for the service before we have evaluated if it is cost-efficient for us to manage your production. If we estimate that you are capable of hitting a high return per image you will be invited to join. If you want to join or hear more about the service you are welcome to contact me directly. An official page will launch very soon however.

Hi Yuri,
I’m a big fan of you in istockphoto and I know that your small rectangle in Snapvillage is probably 10 times my total income in Istock. I wonder if you ever considered (or calculated) the possibility to cut the last 4 websites to save time for your staff (and possibly money for you) and to concentrate more on the first 5?

Hej Yuri,
I’m very interested in microstock photography. I am a photographer currently working exclusively with some stock agencies and do not see the income I expected (and think I deserve).
I currently have 2000+ images but had a few questions, would you might helping me? (That would be my first question)
2. Do you submit the same images to every stock agencies?
3. How do you decide where to submit each (if you don’t submit everything everywhere) ?
Thank you.
Victor.

To Victor: If you plan on non-exclusive then you need to spread out as much as possible. I do yes, submit the same images to different agencies. Only a few agencies offers exclusivity deals: Dreamstime, Fotolia and Istock. Non of these offers currently pay as much as non-exclusivity. Istock exclusivity will pay almost the same, but you have a upload limit.

TO Ibusca. God question! I would advice anyone without a big staff to do just that. Stick to top five (top six). However, if you have a big staff, the extra income is worth it. I get around 1000 USD per month form a small agency like Bigstock, even though they are very difficult to upload to. If I get an assistant working on this, and he/she does 100 uploads per day, then this will very fast pay half his/her salary.

THANK YOU for sharing all this info… This has saved me so much time looking these link up….

brian

Yuri, thank you !!!

I have done image inspecting for 2 microstock agencies you submit to as I still work for one currently. Your images are fabulous to inspect and I don’t remember ever rejecting any of them. Always fabulous composition and very sharp and clean..

The above graph is not valid anymore. I will update is as soon as I can. Istock and Fotolia are about tie in earnings now. Istock falls back because of their upload limit, low commission and lower starting prices.

Thanks for info…there exist a new microstock agency Pixmac (www.pixmac.com)

Yuri…you take great images and this is a great website. Thanks for the information. Very valuable!!

Two questions:
1. Any particular reason you don’t submit to Alamy? They seem to be a big player in micro and macro.
2. I’m assuming it would not be cost-effective for you to sell your images on your own ecommerce website.

Thanks…and keep up the great work!

You are a busy great photographer but you also have time to teach and speak and review.
You are really a GOOD person. I learned so much from you, thank you.

Thank you for all this,
I want to know why you have just 3650 photos in istock but in Shutterstock and Dreamstime you have more than 12000 files

HI Yuri,
I’ve been reading here today as I’m trying to make the decision whether or not to go exclusive at one of the big micro sites. This has been very helpful and the level of information you provide is fantastic. Thank you very much.

Looking at the late 2008 figures it still seems to me that you could make more money from going exclusive. For instance, if you went exclusive at iStock you would more than double your income from that site overnight (20% to 40% royalties + 10% extra for ELs). You currently don’t even get the preferrential treatment in Best Match that exclusives get – and I can see from the stats sites that the recent change in BM at iStock hurt your sales. Also by going exclusive you would increase from whatever paltry upload limit you have now as a non-exclusive to having 150 or 200 uploads a week which I assume you could fill easily. You could double your current portfolio on iStock in less than 6 months and be 10,000+ images within 12 months. With that in mind your iStock earnings in 12 months would be 4 to 6 (more than double $ per sale, triple portfolio size) times what you are earning now.
If you then take into account how you could simplify your overall process from 10 sites down to 1, and associated reductions in paperwork, man power etc. it further adds to the benefits.
Another benefit is that by uploading the same images or even similar images to a number of sites you are cannibalising your own sales. If a designer knows you upload to a number of sites they will go to the cheapest site they can and download your images there. If they are all at one site, a buyer knows they have to go there to get your images, and I suspect your buyers will follow you because of the style and quality of your images. Fair enough, you may lose a few along the way, but they will be more than made up for in other ways.
Obviously there are other concerns, you can’t just stop contributing to some of the sites you contribute to as they have tie in periods and you have talked about the difficulty uploading to iStock which I think can be overcome if you use some of the tools available like DeepMeta.
I should add that I contribute to iStock as an exclusive so I am somewhat biased and the value equation might be even better at one of the other sites but surely you can see the benefit of increasing your volume by 300-400% in a year.
Anyway, something to think about and I’m sure you’ve done the sums for yourself in the past and indeed it might be that the time for you to jump ship was earlier this year when your portfolio on other sites wasn’t so large.
Dave

Yuri,
thank you very much for all the information, your site is great and your tools specially keywords are wonderful, the only thing I have a suggestion with is the color you use, white letter over black background makes it hard and tiring to read long sentences like the one Dave posted.
regards
Rafael

Interesting, I think others results may vary though. My income distribution looks a little different but generally your top earners are also my top earners. For instance, Bigstockphoto makes about 20% of what iStock makes for me, and for you it seems to only make a fraction of that relative to the income of your top earners. Dreamstime is about 50% of what Istock generates, Fotolia and Shutterstock are about the same for me, each about 65% the monthly revenue I get from Istock. I am also on some small non-microstock agencies that do as well as my top microstock earners for me. I imagine Yuri may have some other revenue sources not included here that would make him think twice about going exclusive as well.

Thanks for this Information. It is a nice topic and I hope we can see many new great Photos in 2009 of you.

This is a great web sight would love get involved !!

Please send me more info. Thanks Margot Pohl

Hi Yuri
Thanks for all the info, very interesting. I was wondering about going exclusive once I reach 250 @ istock, but this makes you think. In the meantime I’ve joined Shuttertock and Dreamstime. But my internet time is limited so will probably stay with istock once I can go exclusive. Keep well. Heidi

all this is sounding very strange to me, am from Nigeria to be precise and i am a student, i was wondering is theri are chases for african’s.

Hi Yuri,
Is it best to add the keywords to your images via the microstocks uploading page or is it better to add all the data to the IPTC of each photo when you are editing your images?

Thanks
Paul

HI Yuri! Im seriously amazed by your website, photos and helpfulness. I’m pretty new on the stock websites (only 2 months) but since then I spend most of my time by taking pictures, analysing them and reading articles about it.
I read your recommendation about Canon lenses, however I’m using Nikon. Could you please also tell me/us which lenses do you recommend? I really dont want to waste my money on cheap and useless lenses as I rather wait a couple of month more and spend my money on a quality product.

Thanks a lot and keep up the excellent work!

Hi Yuri.
This must be the place to start. Or restart in my case.
Thanks for sharing all your knowledge so openheartedly.
I enjoyed the event last night very much, and hope to see you again soon.

Now back to shooting!

Kind regards, Jesper Elgaard.

hey hey yuri! great tips for begginers like me!!
i’m a newbie brazilian illustrator and i’ve also started a blog showing off my earnings and uploads daily
cheers and keep up the success!!!

Great website providing a continuos source of inspiration and knowledge for Stock Photographers. Keep up the good work! Alex

Lots to look at on your site and to read……so I am looking forward to my adventure on your site……I am very happy that I find you…
Kind regards
Doug Jansen
Sydney AUSTRALIA

woooooops meant to say That I found you!!!
DJ

Hello Yari,

I was wondering, you are the biggest seller for stock photos, why don’t you start your own stock photo site under your name. I have no idea on how is jugging my photos at these sites. Some times I have to wait for days at a time for noting. I would rather go to your site, if you do what I say and post photos there. You would make a killing…Trust me.

Thanks…..I love your work.

Dude, its so awesome that you take the time to post so much helpful information here and interact with us. Of course, I too love your work, and am totally pulling a Pavlov (drooling) over your studio! I would sell my liver for a space like that. All white like heaven itself! The light situation has to be awesome! I wish you were in San Diego, I would kill (exaggeration) to be on your team! Anywho, keep it up man. You’re awesome to do all of this, and very much appreciated.

Thanks for the great info and chart. Although, I have found that Stockxpert has been nothing but a headache for me.

Hi Yuri!
Thanks for all of your post, Your awsome! One thing that I didn’t understand while reading all of the terms for these differnt Microstock site is, Can we use the same foto’s for all of these site?
I know with Getty they have all rights to each Photo and all simillars.
your knowledge is very appreciated.

Hi Yuri,
Just one question for you as a member of my CN on Istock.
I just became a member on dreamstime and saw that they want jpeg containing keywords.
On istock they want the keywords after uploading,but here its diverend.
Do you know a way to put keywords in a jpeg-file?
Thanks anyway from Holland