Just recently I did an independent survey to find out how much time it takes to submit images already uploaded to all the major microstock agencies: The time it takes to attach model release, categorize and so forth. The results are shown below and are quite surprising.
Shutterstock 14.70 seconds per file with MR.
Dreamstime 32.07 seconds per file with MR.
BigStock 37,95 seconds per file with MR.
iStock 437,09 seconds per file with MR.
Fotolia 67,25 seconds per file with MR.
123RF 8,89 seconds per file with MR.
StockXpert 11,90 seconds per file with MR.
Crestock 4,01 seconds per file with MR.
This survey was done by members of my crew as well as independent testers and was highly systematic (p < 0.015). I then compared the time it took to upload with the income:
The most cost-efficient (time spent uploading vs income) agency to upload to is Shutterstock, followed by StockXpert and Fotolia. The least cost-efficient is SnapVillage and iStock. This does not mean that you should not submit to these agencies, but just that you should take this into consideration if you have to do all the uploading yourself. This post is very related to this post done earlier.
RELATED READING: What should I shoot and what sells well
A super easy guide to successful microstock themes and concepts that you can start off with. If you are a traditional shooter and want to enter microstock, there are a few differences in what sells that you should be aware off. Microstock is filled with loads of imagery and literally millions of images, so if you don’t stand out you will be “lost in crowds” completely.
Interesting survey !
Thank you Oleg. Fotolia is well placed on the “cost-effiency” chart. 🙂
Very interesting. While showing which sites are a hassle (we all know it) it also gives some comfort by showing the produced income usually is higher. Nice to see it pays of, i’ll have to check out if the ratio is the same for me too 😉
hey there Yuri, i heard so much about you since i first got into stock photography (4 months ago), but i didn’t know who or what you look like (until now. lol). but that’s not why i’m writing here.
i want to know how you average it out, as it doesn’t say what size someone is UL-ing . some sites accept XS , while others like DT has a minimum requisite of 3 MP. so this would also affect UL-ing time, wouldn’t it?
p.s. your model is gorgeous! i am so jealous, already ! LOL
not sure if you are including photoshelter, if so, here ‘s what i just submitted 2 files of 4MP
.according to their prompt it says: file completed 7.3MB @14.7 kb/secs total time : 8mins 36secs.
Thank you Tan510. I am really looking for the time it takes to “manage images allready uploaded to all the major microstock agencies” and not uploading times. Thank you anyway.
I am looking for time quotes from people that do their online managing with some degree of effort and not just as fast as can be done. Time quotes on “if you where to do it the way the agency wanted you to do it” applying three categories where possible and not just one and so forth.
I might have to revise the quotes I put up on Istock. I seems my testers where spending un-proportionally long time there for some reason. But if one was really to do the IS uploading “correctly” in the meaning of “well disambiguated” it does seem to take some time.
I don’t have any info on Zymmetrical, Mostphotos and Scanstockphoto. Does anyone submit to these agencies on a regular basis?
Hey Yuri,
Just saw your post on MSG. Could you add http://www.cutcaster.com to the list? I’d like to see how we rank and I will post something on our blog, http://www.cutcaster.com/blog, to send our members over here to report on how fast our upload time is. I hope this helps you out with your findings and broadens your research. You can email me and let me know if you would like me to do this.
Best,
Really interesing survey!… I guess your team doesn’t work filling keywords all thay long… for me this survey mean that in 8 hours I can upload to istock 68 images in one day or 1,371 in a month, plenty for me. My asistant use to upload 150-300 images in a month to istock so she is doing something else 70% of the time =)
P.S. Waiting for the “yuri arcus distribution network”
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Hi Yuri,
I was wondering if there are new interesting Stock agencies to sell photographs.
Kind regards,
Richard
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