This is where I am reporting on the results of my microstock experiments. It will probably be quite boring unless you are into this sort of thing. To get an overview of my microstock stuff go to my microstock page, and to see how to start, go to my microstock how to start page.
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Some random images from FeaturePics.com |
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I started in July with Dreamstime (DT) and had only a few files up for sale and only a few sales until the end of November when I signed up with Shutterstock (SS) and started uploading more than single digits a month. Every month I made slightly more than the previous month but at this rate it will be a long time before I reach a payout.
After about a month on SS, I passed DT in income at around $20 (with about 40 images)(DT was practically dead in December).
I signed up for iStockphoto (IS).
SS was my top earner, but less than last month without the video sale. I pass 100 images on SS.
DT had a great month with an extended license (EL) sale.
Best Month Ever (BME) overall, with over 100$ in sales.
SS continues to be the best seller, hitting another payout with the most sales in a month so far.
DT wasn't too bad, but without the EL, it was a lot below last month. I pass 100 images on DT.
IS did fairly well with only 30 images by the end of the month.
Overall, another BME.
SS has another pretty good month just shy of a payout thanks to an EL sale. I pass 200 images on SS.
DT has a poor month, frustrating. However I did finally get a payout.
IS does quite well with over twice the income of DT and only 60 images by the end of the month.
I signed up for Featurepics (FP), and made a few sales - looks promising.
Overall, another BME.
SS went down in downloads and income even with another EL sale. Frustrating.
DT is rather poor, especially considering all of the new images.
IS really sells well, doubling DT's income with less than 1/4 the images.
FP Nothing.
Overall another BME, but barely.
SS is back in form with a BME there that is enough for a payout in a single month thanks to a video sale and passing the 500$ total mark moves me from 0.25 to 0.30 per sale (a 20 % raise makes a difference)
DT has another horrible month despite passing 200 images.
IS starts out strong, but then the tap just seems to shut off. less than 1/2 of the previous month (this appears to be due to a change in their search engine). However it was enough to get a payout.
FP Nothing.
Overall, despite strong sales at SS, this is the first month since I have started that the total isn't greater than the previous month.
SS continues to be my top earner with a one-month payout.I pass 300 images there.
DT is ok.
IS is even worse than the previous month. Frustrating.
FP A few sales.
Overall another BME thanks mainly to SS. I passed the 1K total sometime near the end of this month.
Shutterstock continues to be my best seller, with another payout each month. It also appears that perhaps they have tweaked the search slightly to not favor new images quite as much, although that could be just my imagination. I pass 400 images on SS.
Dreamstime Frustrates with really poor sales and lots of rejections,I did crawl up to another payout.
IS picked up nearly to where it was in June (but with over twice as many images) - another payout just after August.
FP one sale.
Overall, BME again.
SS had strong sales plus a video sale for the BME there by a lot.
DT finally had a good month beating IS.
IS dropped again for poor sales. I pass 100 images on IS.
FP one sale.
Overall, a BME by a wide margin.
SS falls a bit, primarily due to almost no uploads I think.
DT falls slightly, but not bad.
IS goes up for a decent month, but still behind DT.
FP Nothing.
I join StockXpert (SXP) and have a few sales with very few images.
Overall it falls a bit, but still above anything before September.
SS drops a lot, not even making payout for the first time since April. I suspect that not having holiday images coupled with very little uploading finally slowed things here.
DT falls down into fairly weak territory behind IS.
IS seems to perk up at the very end of the month. It appears a search engine tweak has turned the tap back on.
FP A few sales.
SXP a few sales.
Overall another drop, but still better than anything before September.
In general, sales were pretty good for the first half of the month, and then they went down (due to holidays most likely). I started toying with vectors, but didn't make a lot of progress.
SS sales dropped the least, or at least continued through the holidays somewhat, the overall monthly total was back up a little bit. I passed 500 images on SS.
DT started out ok, but pretty much stopped for the second half leaving a disappointing total. I passed 400 images on DT.
IS started out very strong, but also plummeted for the second half. I kept my 20 per week queue full and hopefully the new files will increase sales for the future.
FP only a few sales.
SXP, They finally reviewed my new uploads, but not until after the holiday slump, so only a few more sales than last month.
Overall a slight improvement on last month.
The new year started out a bit slowly, but quickly ramped up nicely. BME at a number of sites has lead to a BME overall by quite a bit. I think the work I put in in late November and December, the new camera, and the new pricing scheme at IS have all raised things a bit. Hopefully this happy trend will continue.
SS sales were fairly strong and steady with one EL and 2 video sales (at new reduced prices), BME for income and BME for number of downloads.
DT had sporadic but decent sales with one file reaching level 3 my average per sale was up. only a few $ short of a BME
IS had good sales and higher return due to new higher prices. All of the uploading over the last 2 months seems to be helping too, BME.
FP - one lonely sale
SXP - still very slow review times, but some of the December uploads are selling - BME (although still new)
Overall a BME by a nice margin.
February was a short month, although not as short as it usually is. In any case, things weren't as good as January.
SS BME in terms of number of sales, but with no "special" sales, it wasn't so great for $ (#3 overall).
DT had less sales than last month, and more of them were subscription, so rather disappointing (#4 overall).
IS was pretty good, but not as good as last month #3 overall.
SXP a little better than last month, BME, but lower return per image.
FP one sale, weak.
Overall, #2 return (beat previous #2).
I had high hopes for March, and it did ok, but not as well as I'd hoped. I participated in the "300-600 dl challenge" on SS having been in the middle of that range the previous month. I started out slowly and didn't really pick up steam until the last week. I submitted 100 images of which 78 were accepted there. I also kept the IS queue full. Perhaps the Easter week (and my no Easter images) contributed to the slow sales.
SS A strong finish saved this from being a disaster month here, #4 in DL,#5 for $. I passed 600 images online.
DT sales were sporadic, but BME for $, #2 for total DL. Passed 500 images online.
IS BME in $, tied for #2 in DL (by 1), my first IS EL, maybe all the painful uploading is finally paying off.
SXP BME for DL, but with 1/2 sub sales, the end result was a poor showing. Their reviews were very slow, so most of my new uploads were not reviewed.
FP first month in a while with 0 sales. lame
overall, #2 return with many new images uploaded.
April was a good month with BME overall as well as at each of my biggest 3 sites. I think the start of the month benefited from all of the "challenge" uploading from March. I also uploaded a fair amount this month which helps.
SS: A very strong start with regular uploading led to a strong finish. Week 3 downloads were a bit slower, but I still notched up a BME for DL and total $. One EL and one video sale helped put things over the top.
DT: sales were fairly strong, with a good number of higher $ sales, led to a BME for $, and tied for BME for DL. I had a fairly high acceptance rate, which was nice.
IS: BME in $ and DL, My return per image is falling slightly, but keeping the queue full is increasing my images enough to offset that.
SXP: #3 for DL and #2 for $, with over 300 images, this is pretty disappointing.
FP: 2 sales. better than nothing, but barely moving
overall, BME return with many new images uploaded.
I am looking forward to the price increase at SS and the new subscription model at IS to come into effect in May.
May saw a decrease from April's BME, but not as much as I feared at the midpoint. I managed to pass even 100 numbers of images accepted on all sites. The price increase at SS and the new subscription model at IS came into effect in May, the 10% increase for me at SS makes a difference, but I didn't get any subscription sales at IS.
SS: Much slower than April at the start, but a price increase helped, as well as 5 video sales. It ended up being only a few $ short of a BME. Passed 700 images accepted.
DT: sales were fairly strong at first, but then things slowed down somewhat. Passed 600 images online.
IS: My return per image continues to fall, but keeping the queue full is increasing my images nearly enough to offset that. The subscription program started at the end of the month, but I had no subscription sales. Passed 300 images accepted.
SXP: BME for DL and $. Over 400 images accepted, although the acceptance/rejection seems arbitrary and random by review batch, often nearly 100% acceptance or over 50% rejection.
FP: 2 sales. better than nothing, but barely moving with over 1000 images accepted.
Overall, a number 2 return with many new images uploaded - first I thought it was the start of the summer slump, but since things generally picked up at the end of the month, perhaps it was something else.
June sales were down a bit again, but still decent. Uploads were down a bit too.
SS: Good sales, plus some video subscription sales resulted in a BME for $ (barely) and #2 in DL.
DT: There were some strong sales runs, but some weak runs resulted in a drop.
IS: There was a big drop at IS in the middle of the month which resulted in another drop there.
SXP: Very weak sales at SXP, disappointing.
FP: 1 sale. better than nothing.
Overall, a number 4 return, perhaps this is the start of the summer slump.
July sales were mixed, but still decent. Uploads were down quite a bit too.
SS: decent sales, plus one video subscription sales resulted in a 5th best month. I pass 800 images.
DT: There were some strong sales runs leading to a BME in sales and $.
IS: One EL and sporadic sales produced a 3rd best month at IS, I pass 400 images online.
SXP: 3rd best month at SXP, but with all the new images it was disappointing.
FP: 2 sales. better than nothing.
123RF: a new site, without a lot of time or images I'll reserve judgement.
Overall, a number 4 return (beating last month), DT and IS managed to offset the drop at SS.
August sales were generally lower. I had relatively few uploads too.
SS: Lowest sales since last Nov in number, a few on demand sales and the higher return at least kept me over the payout for the month. Worst month this year.
DT: Not bad, the new pricing and levels seem to be a good thing. I pass 700 images online.
IS: Middle of the road sales at IS.
SXP: BME at SXP, I cancelled subscriptions mid month due to concerns over the Jupiter image licenses and prices. I pass 600 images for sale.
FP: 3 sales. I reached my first payout at FP.
123RF: I am still reserving judgement, but not a total waste of time.
Overall, the second worst month this year, and not too good. Mainly due to a big drop in SS.
Things started out pretty poorly, but I uploaded a fair amount in the second half of the month and I experienced a nice surge of downloads in the last week or so.
SS: A very slow start of the month, but a few OD and a video sale kept things looking ok until the surge at the end of the month brought things up (5th best).
DT: BME, but it seems to start and stop oddly, with a final sub surge at the end.
IS: Another BM change at IS seemed to bring sales to a halt, but a nice surge in the last week (another BM change?) resulted in a BME for return. I sold my first subscription there (a medium for 0.95).
SXP: BME in earnings at SXP, I had subscriptions turned off all month, and got 1 XXL sale.
FP: 4 sales? all in a row = BME (but still not much).
123RF: BME, but with a lot of new files. I am still reserving judgement, but not a total waste of time I hope.
Overall, the end of the month surge with strong showings by the top 3 as well as solid performances at the bottom resulted in a surprise BME by a narrow margin.
Things started out strongly, and I continued uploading throughout the month.
SS: Finally a month with decent sales throughout (lots of uploads at the end of Sept through this month). My first ELs since the price rise helped too. I passed 900 images online. BME by a lot for $, but tied for BME for sales.
DT: BME, with more higher level sales. It still seems to be inconsistent with days of no sales followed by a busy week. BME in $, tied for BME for sales. I pass 800 images online.
IS: BME, Sales were inconsistent here too, but many strong days and few 0 sales days resulted in the BME.
SXP: BME by a squeek. They had problems with a site update. I had subscription on all month, but there were some issues with Photos.com and Jupiter subs sales which were "fixed" with a drawn out buggy fix. BME for $, tied for sales (there are probably a few more sub sales that will be reported in Nov). I pass 700 images online.
FP: 2 sales.
123RF: BME, but with a lot of new files, the RPI went down a lot. I am still reserving judgement, but not a total waste of time I hope. I get 600 images online.
Overall, a very strong performance at SS with strong showings everywhere else resulted in a definitive BME.
Not a bad month, except for IS. I uploaded fairly regularly throughout.
SS: decent sales throughout the month and near the end I managed to move up to the next level (.36 per regular DL now). However I wasn't able to match last months fantastic levels either in DL totals or $ (only one video, no EL's) # 4 for $
DT: sales continue to be sporadic, but the return per sale is slowly inching up. A decent month.
IS: The BM change near the end of Oct and any subsequent changes hammered me. Sales dropped over 50% down to levels not seen since last year. IS came in behind DT and SXP for the first time in ages for DT and ever for SXP. In fact I made more money in my 3rd full month on IS with under 10% of the total images online.
SXP: BME by a long shot. Lots of sub and regular downloads plus one higher priced Photos.com pay per download put SXP above DT and IS for the first time. Some of the DL recorded in this month were from October.
FP: 3 sales including one full sized panoramic for a BME (better than 123RF).
123RF: BME, but just barely. I have gotten most of my 2008 back images up there. I have over 700 images online.
Overall, a strong performance everywhere but IS resulted in a #2 month.
Not a bad month over all, especially the first 2.5 weeks before the usual holiday slowdown. The image that seemed to sell the best, especially at SS was one of fireworks. I uploaded fairly regularly except for the last 10 days or so.
SS: not all that good a total number of DL (3rd worst for the year) - because things dropped off a lot after the 23rd, but settlement from an illegal use of image (calendar), higher return, as well as OD and a video sale made it the second best for $. I pass 1000 images online at SS.
DT: sales were quite strong for the first half of the month and continued sporadically to result in a BME for $, and a middling month for DL.
IS: It appears that they slowly fixed some of the BM problems, but not until the holiday slowdown was well into effect. I still almost equaled last month in the first half of this month. Lots of smaller sales this month for a slightly below average return compared to the rest of the year (which is much poorer return per image than last year.
SXP: #2 for return, not a bad month at all despite a drastic slowdown at the end.
FP: 1 sale at the end to keep from getting a goose egg.
123RF: slightly below previous months, sales seemed more sporadic.
Overall, a strong performance at DT and SS and some recovery at IS helped result in a #2 month.
Overall I submitted enough images to just about double my portfolio, and depending on acceptances I did about that everywhere. I also started uploading to 123 RF and quickly got most of my more recent photos submitted there. I didn't quite double my total income from 2007 to 2008, but it was close, with SS and DT the main sites falling short. As usual I had some breaks submitting images while I was out on adventures, but none of them were long enough to really drop earnings much, and at least DT continued to steadily increase as they raised prices and levels throughout the year.
My biggest disappointment this year was IS where I kept my upload queue full almost the entire year and greatly increased my number of images there (from 172 to 536). My RPI continued to fall but the new images generally kept the income heading upwards until a drastic BM change at the end of Oct that really crushed sales and dropped my income back to below where it was with less than 10% of the number of images. Hopefully they have gotten away from this latest change and earnings can rise back up more in line with my total number of images.
Not a bad month over all. I uploaded fairly regularly except for the last 10 days or so when I wasn't able to get to the internet easily.
SS: a really poor total number of DL (I have to go back to May 2007 for a lower month) - but the total return wasn't too bad because of the higher return, some video sales, on EL, and the OD sales.
DT: sales were quite strong resulting in a BME for $, and DL.
IS: It appears that some of the sales are coming back, but slowly - about average for last year.
SXP: #2 for return, not a bad month at all although a lot more of the sales were subscription.
FP: 1 sale.
123RF: Sales are picking up, BME for sales and $..
Overall, a strong performance at DT and ok at SS and some recovery at IS with no serious decreases helped result in a #2 month.
February is a short month, but I still got my second best total. This is mainly due to an EL at IS and DT.
SS: a lot more DL - but the total return was lower because almost all were Sub sales.
DT: sales were quite strong resulting in a BME for $, the one EL made a big difference. I pass 900 images.
IS: It wasn't a particularly good month except for one day with 8 sales including a big EL. The total was less than 1$ short of a BME.
SXP: Lower than the previous 3 months for return, with even more subscription sales, mainly at Jupiter.
FP: 1 sale.
123RF: Sales are slowly picking up, BME for sales and $. I pass 900 images.
Overall, a strong performance with ELs at DT and IS and ok at SS resulting in a #2 month.
Not bad, but down a bit from Feb without the ELs. 1.48X March 2008 sales.
SS: Less DL - but the total return was higher because of more higher value sales. I pass 1100 images online.
DT: sales were quite strong resulting in a number 2 for $. Especially good considering the previous month had an EL.
IS: It wasn't a particularly good month. RPI continues to drop here although it was the most sales in the last 5 months. I pass 600 images online.
SXP: Lower than the previous 4 months for return, with even more subscription sales. I pass 1000 images online.
FP: 2 small sales.
123RF: Number 2 month for sales and $.
Overall, a strong performance at DT and SS and ok at the others resulting in a #3 month.
Not bad considering I spent most of my time out and about and not uploading pics, but down a bit more for the lowest month of the year.
SS: Less DL - a lot less DL 100 less than any month this or last year - but the total return wasn't a total disaster because of on EL and decent OD sales.
DT: sales weren't bad resulting in a number 3 for $.
IS: It wasn't a particularly good month except for week three when BM 2.0 went live. This gave me false hopes.
SXP: decent return, with even more subscription sales. I pass 1000 images online.
FP: a goose egg.
123RF: worst month of the year for $, but not by much.
Overall, poor performance at SS and a decent performance at DT, SXP, and IS and ok at the others resulting in about a #7 month.
May had a lot of weekends and a few holidays which probably didn't help. In addition I didn't upload a lot of images. The trend continues down a bit more for the lowest month of the year, big drops at SS and DT but a nice jump at IS for a BME there.
SS: Less DL - a lot less DL I have to go back to 2006 with less than 100 images for a month with less total downloads. A few OD and a video sale kept it from a complete disaster. Still, pretty sad and SS dropped into number 2 position for a full month for the first time.
DT: sales numbers were ok, but the return per sale dropped a lot for a disappointing showing. (too many sub and extra small sales) lowest month of the year for $.
IS: BM 2.0 seems to be allowing my files to be found, this was by far my BME for $ here, and IS was number one for the month for the first time.
SXP: Almost my worst month of the year. Lots of sub sales.
FP: One sale - just puttering along.
123RF: 3rd best month of the year for $, but almost second.
Overall, poor performance at SS, DT, SXP, and BME at IS resulted in a number 8 month.
June was a good month, My BME. Mainly due to a lot of ELs at SS and a BME at IS
SS: not a lot of DL - but more ELs than ever before. This put my monthly results at #1 for the year and #2 ever.
DT: sales were 2cd worst for year.
IS: BME for $ and sales here, nice.
SXP: worst month of the year for $ and sales.
FP: nada.
123RF: 2cd best month of the year for $ but close to 3 and 4.
Overall, good high end sales at SS, and a BME at IS resulted in a BME.
July showed a big drop from June's BME. IS seems back to normal and SS continues to have less sales than it used too.
SS: not a lot of DL - levels this year are more like bad months in 2007 than 2008, luckily higher $ sales do happen.
DT: pushed last month out of the second worst for year slot - poor.
IS: back to ok - #4 for year.
SXP: #2 for the year for $ and sales.
FP: nada again.
123RF: down a lot for $ and dl - worst month of the year.
Overall, poor to mediocre performances everywhere resulted in my worst month for the year so far
Another drop to a new worst month of the year - still better than August 2008. DT announced lowering commissions, and FP lowered theirs too - a sad and worrying trend.
SS: The most DL in 4 months, but not a lot of higher $ sales so $ totals were poor.
DT: Poor sales and low RPD mean the worst month of the year. A few last minute sales saved it from being really really horrible though
IS: Just slightly worse than last month, with a lot more sales. #2 in sales and #5 in $.
SXP: Worst month of the year for $ and sales.
FP: one sale.
123RF: tied for 3rd in dl and second to worst in sales.
Unfortunately I passed last month for a new worst month of the year. The trend seems to be lower returns per downloads with more sub and smaller sized sales.
It seems like the summer slump is over.
SS: 5th best of the year (or 5th worst), but more in the upper tier with one EL.
DT: Back up to 4th best for year. They have changed the commisions a bit there, but it is too early to tell how much it will hurt.
IS: BME for $, tied for sales - ahead of SS for most of the month, one EL. I pass 700 images here. Some images that have been dead for months are starting to sell again.
SXP: BME for $ and sales.
FP: nothing.
123RF: Worst month for $, #4 for downloads - lots of subs. I hit 1100 images here.
With 2 BME and good performance by SS and DT this is my 3rd best month just a bit behind Sept 2008. The 2 ELs helped a lot.
On news that SS has acquired Bigstockphoto I sign up there, but only upload a few files by the end of the month and don't have any sales.
Middling - #5 for the year, so a bit disappointing
SS: #2 for downloads but 4th worst of the year for $ with very little higher priced downloads and lots of regular sub sales.
DT: Down to 5th best for year. The return per sale was up a bit but the number of sales down.
IS: down to 4th for $, it seemed sort of off and on.
SXP: #2 for $ behind last month's BME.
FP: nothing.
123RF: #2 for $, #1 for downloads - lots of subs.
BSP: 1 sale - still getting started there
Somewhat disappointing as last Oct was my best month of 2008, but still ok.
Poor - #3 worst for the year, so disappointing.
SS: #4 for downloads and $ with an EL and a fair number of OD sales, especially at the end of the month. I pass 1300 images.
DT: Down to worst for the year for $ and #. The return per sale and the number of sales were both way down.
IS: down to 3rd worst for $ and 6th worst (or best) for #, it seemed sort of off and on, but mostly off for the end of the month.
SXP: #3 worst for $ and lowest for DL (I suppose that means less subs). They finally pulled the plug on photos.com sales, which cut the subs revenue a lot. Also the owners are now funneling other traffic to IS, not SXP.
FP: one sale.
123RF: #6 for $, tied for #3 for downloads - lots of subs. It also seemed to dry up at the end. I pass 1200 images.
BSP: 3 sales - still getting started there
SS was the one bright spot, but still disappointing as last Nov was my third best month of 2008, and I did worse this year but still ok.
So far ranking the sites return for me would put SS on top by a wide margin, then IS, DT, much lower SXP, 123RF and finally FP in the basement.
As far as ease of uploading I'd say FP, 123RF, SS, DT, SXP, and IS in the basement.
Sales go up, sales go down, sales go up more. In general, as I've gotten more images uploaded for sale at more sites, I've made more money. However there is some variability in this, and the increase has not been linear. There is some seasonality to this business, with a bit of a summer slump (somewhat offset for me by a lot of uploading in 2007 and perhaps more summery images) and a December slump for the holidays. Weekends generally are slower, but on any given day, you could get some decent sales, especially with the sporadic nature of EL and Video sales.
SS continues to be my best seller, but almost no uploads from early Sept to late Nov 2007 seems to have hurt things by November. They continue to have fairly predictable and quick reviews. The increase to .33 per download plus the occasional video and EL sales there help.
DT is all over the board. I often get multiple downloads one day, then a few days with nothing. They continue to reject a lot for "we have enough of these" or "not quite what we are looking for" with a queue of up to a week. Unfortunately the acceptance percentage might make a difference in where images come up in a search. Their search seems to come up with the fewest completely bogus returns though. Price increases there might be helping, although the new subscription might counteract it.
IS seems to be very search dependent (I suppose they all are, but they seem to make the biggest changes in the search algorithms.) Their upload process and limits are a pain, but fighting through it does seem to get more than I expect accepted, although it can take over a week, and there are plenty of rejections that I just shrug off. They are the hardest for me to predict. At first they seemed to get almost all the sales from just a few star images. Their low low percentage to photographers (20%) is frustrating. They seem to be leading the pack in raising prices though, unfortunately that is barely noticeable on the small end. If they didn't have the massive site traffic and high sales numbers they do, I think few photographers would put up with them. Someone described them as an "abusive spouse", which often sums up my feelings. They seem to be gradually shifting more and more to favor their exclusive contributors by doing things like lowering the upload limits for independents and rejecting for keywords only for independents. They also review much more quickly for exclusives and base the best match at least partly by downloads per time, which gives the exclusive images a one week head start.
FP sales are pretty weak, especially since I have the largest number of my images up there. I think it is only going to generate many sales if you send them there yourself with links. Uploading is quick and easy with 100% acceptance as long as the file isn't corrupted and the model release is attached.
SXP has had some reviewing issues that seem to go in batches (one harsh reviewer? - ie 50% of one review batch will be rejected for soft focus), I have heard that it takes a while for images to really start selling there, so hopefully things will pick up more. They have integrated into some Jupiter offerings, which could greatly increase sales. It shows promise though, and others report it in the top few sites.
123RF is easy to upload to and fairly benign in reviewing (although random and not well explained in their rejections). They have the option of "faving" 5 percent of your portfolio, which if done judiciously could greatly increase views and sales. I am slowly getting my back catalog uploaded there, and hopefully will start seeing the return on that effort.
sales have been enough to pay for all of my camera equipment and then some, so that is nice. Luckily I am not relying on this as my main source of income though, as I'd be hurting.
The things a submitter can control include what images are uploaded, when they are uploaded, and the keywords etc. The things that can't really be controlled are how the sites rig their search engines. This can make a huge difference, but there isn't much you can do about it other than try to include keywords, descriptions, and titles that might get your pictures found.
There has been a lot of discussion about when to upload to get favorable reviews and maximise sales, for instance having an image first show up on SS search Monday would allow the greater traffic all week a chance to download it before it gets buried by new images. These early sales might keep it from getting lost in the "most popular" search and keeps sales steady. Holiday images would need to be available as early as 3 or 4 months before hand, but a Christmas tree probably won't get a lot of action in January. Depending on how the searches work, uploading at the wrong time could make a difference.
It also might be worth stretching a batch over a few weeks rather than sending one huge pile and then letting it wait for a while before sending another. This is probably a good idea if you only have a few images for a few months on a site like SS. Doing a few every few weeks would be better. A number of small batches spreads the risk of getting a reviewer that either is feeling strict or has a poorly calibrated monitor or whatever from rejecting the entire batch. It happens from time to time, and would be particularly painful if it was a big batch. Of course sometimes you get a reviewer that seems to like all your stuff and the entire batch gets accepted, which would be great with a big batch.
I have been looking at return per photo per month, which is probably the best way to track how things are going. The numbers aren't super accurate because the number of images is changing, and I used the total at the end of the month for my calculations so this is a low estimate, but not wildly off, especially as the number of images increases. One EL or video sale, or a good month when I had relatively few files up skews the high numbers up a lot.
SS High 1.06 low .13 around .2 but falling
DT high .51 low .047 seems to be settling in around .09 +-.04
IS high 1.19 low .15 still bouncing around, but maybe around about .18
FP high .017 low 0 - its way down there, but i also have over 1000 images there.
SXP high 0.19 low 0.02, but about .04 so far.
I imagine these numbers are much higher for photographers that have more stockworthy images.
I have heard other people talk of $1 per image per month, which I suppose across the sites might be valid, especially with more stock oriented images. I heard that the old school macrostock returns were $1 per photo per year, but I have also heard per month for that. In any case, with that kind of return, someone could make a decent living even in an american city with a portfolio of a few thousand images, and in places with a much lower cost of living, it could be even easier to do well. I myself haven't seen that kind of return, however between rejections, upload limits, and frustration, I don't have all that many images on a lot of sites.
What really matters is how the images perform over time. If sales continue and even increase on sites like DT and IS where it seems to take a while for images to get found, then the lifetime earnings per image would be worth it. If not, then not. Microstock is more like "loose" nickel slot machines with fairly frequent but small sales versus the much larger jackpots on the high roller macrostock machines that happen only once in a while.
I found an outdated article on the web from 2006 or early 2007 maybe, it listed total sales and total images for Getty of $ 807 million with 90 million images = $8.96 per image per year total. I don't know what percentage the photographers got from that, but probably 50% or less, so some $4.50 per image per year or less for the photographers.
A similar analysis of the Corbis numbers were $ 251 million from 100 M images = $2.51/image/year.
Fotolia (a microstock) mentioned <$10M for 2.2M images = < $4.54/image/year ~50%? for photog
DT reported <$10M for >1M images = <<$10/image/year ~50% for photog
SS reported >$10M for >1M images = ? $10/image/year ~30%??? for photog
It would be nice to see some more concrete numbers, but this gives a general idea. I strongly suspect that there is a very uneven distribution of earnings though, with top images making orders of magnitude more than the bottom images (with little to no sales).
If you are interested in seeing my portfolios, here are some links...
Pancaketom's portfolio on Dreamstime
Pancaketom's portfolio on Shutterstock
my istock portfolio
my photos for sale on FeaturePics