Anita's Illustration/Photography Blog

Decisions time

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:49:41 +0000

I've come to the decision to drop Dreamstime and Fotolia once I reach payout on both sites. I'm also going to stop uploading to them as well. The last straw with DT is they rejected a batch of 20 of my flag sets for being simple. Simple??? Hello! If you search for the flag of Belize that was NOT simple to do at all.

I also don't earn enough at both places to warrent me to waste my time uploading. And those two are part of the big 4? Yeah FT has awesome review times for vectors but still if I can't generate sales what am I doing it for. I just hope I can reach payout on both of them soon so I can be done with it.

If you're doing well with those sites good on ya but I'm not and I need to spend my time and energy creating images instead of uploading to places that don't work for me. Sorry.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Earnings page updated

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:18:01 +0000

This was my BME at Shutterstock with downloads per month and revenue for the month. I also got my first Enhanced License which was awesome! Sales have been going up there since June.

My top for agencies right now 1: Shutterstock 2: Dreamstime 3: Graphic Leftovers 4: Fotolia others like Cutcaster, 3d Studio, Canstock and Bigstock have yet to produce any sales for me. I'm giving Cutcaster until the first of the year to start producing or I'm cutting them loose. I just started at Canstock and Bigstock this month so I hope they start producing soon. I'm also still waiting to hear about my application to Stockfresh which has yet to be approved or denied since June 3. I would like a decision soon though kinda tough to wait around for nearly 3 months without being able to do anything.

Vector Stock, though still rejecting a lot of my images, have been steadily going up since April seeing steady increases in downloads.

Next month from what I've been hearing from people that have gone through September before say that sales are better then after the holiday and when the rest of the kids go back to school. We shall see what September brings. Hope September is a great month for all of you.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Blog comments are now disabled

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:05:15 +0000

Yep getting tired of getting spam in my inbox coming from here. Just wish they'd channel all the time they waste spamming into something a bit more constructive.

Not that I've gotten any normal comments from actual, human visitors ;) But sorry for the inconvenience nonetheless.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

What's been going on lately

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:32:59 +0000

Tons of things back to school being a major one. Barely any time to create or shoot until I get used to the kids' schedule.

I've started with two new agencies BigStock Photo and working on uploading to Canstock. I also might reupload to Cutcaster next week I'm not sure yet. I'm also waiting on approval/rejection of my application to Stock Fresh which I've been waiting on for over 2 months now. Hopefully I'll know more about that by the end of this month.

Shutterstock has also been rejecting a lot of images already for overly simple vector (I've been getting that one a lot) and too many on site. Most of us are on the fence if there's a new review policy that they haven't let the contributors know about. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.

Don't know what's going with Dreamstime but their reviewing has gotten quicker as well as processing of new files after upload. Maybe they fixed their uploading issues and boosted it a bit as far as speed. They've also upped the maximum weekly upload limit. Slowly trying to get 200 images on that site. Just wish their eps review was just as fast. Hate waiting weeks for the eps to be accepted when the buyers probably want the eps to begin with.

So for right now I'm with 10 agencies (1 pending which would make it 11) and that's enough for me. Hope all of you are doing well with your microstock activities. Sales have taken a slight dip being August but I'm sure it will pick up again in September.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Updated Earnings Page

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:59:10 +0000

Had my best month ever on Shutterstock with 194 downloads with 14 of them being on demand. Eight of those happened on the first of July. Saw an increase in sales at Vector Stock and Fotolia while Dreamstime was down and the rest pretty well much stayed the same. I'm hoping the other sites that are my low earners will pick up in sales. I also started with Big Stock this past week and am in the process of getting my entire portfolio on there. I'm also awaiting approval or rejection of my application at Stock Fresh that has been waiting to be reviewed since June. I'm hoping I don't have to wait too much longer for that.

I've also started to do more photographs to try to balance out my vector portfolio so I'm hoping the four that I've uploaded are accepted. This has been hard for me to do due to having inadequate lighting and equipment. So far I've only been able to to background textures and images that I isolate on white in photoshop. I'm hoping to move up with that as well.

It's also back to school time and this week will leave me absolutely no time (if only a few fleeting moments) to create any new images. I'm also hoping that I'll be able to update more often once I can get through this week and get my site's portfolio re-done as that's been long overdue. I think I'm going to just show my best/most popular images in vectors and photos so that should keep the site cleaner and not so cluttered like it is right now.

Here's to hoping August downloads and sales will keep going up and up.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Updated Earnings Page

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 06:31:51 +0000

Updated the Earnings page on the site. Not too bad of a month but I really could expect more from Dreamstime and Fotolia. Dismal sales there this month on both sites. While not a BME, I reached payout again from Shutterstock so yay.

Been mainly working on images to get Illustrator techniques down but that's an ongoing struggle especially with the pen tool. I'm managing just okay but would like to get that better in the next month or so. I'm also working on getting my ports to decent numbers across all sites. Vector Stock is being a pain in the *bleep* on accepting images as usual and they take forever to reject some of my best sellers on other sites. I'm hoping to reach payout with them eventually and when that happens it's buh-bye to them. I've seen several images on that site that are somewhat like I did that got rejected and yet they're approved. Don't know what the hell is up with that and it's always the same friggen reason as I posted before. It's aggravating.

I also signed up for a new site called Stock Fresh but have yet to get my application approved over there. Who knows when that's going to happen. I just don't like feeling like I'm dangling in the wind with that but we'll see what happens. Hopefully they'll get it all taken care of this month. I just hate waiting.

Not much else happening. I know I need to re-do the gallery on the site and I haven't kept up with it. Trying to find what direction to go with it. If I want all of my images on the site or only just a few of my best ones. I'm on the fence.

*Raises a glass* Here's to hoping July is better than June...well...after the holiday that is. Happy 4th July!!!

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Haven't blogged in awhile

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:23:34 +0000

Just hasn't been much to write about. Been in a mood of not creating anything and I haven't even started on the portfolio redesign yet. Too tired and ill at the moment to really accomplish anything of any usefullness at all. Only managed to do 7 images this week (3 photos, 4 vectors). Need a break from it but what sucks about that is that on Shutterstock if you don't regularly upload your downloads decrease and that's the only place I've ever gotten to payout on. The rest are still stuck in $3, $10, $20 and $30 which is annoying. I try to do my best but the downloads aren't coming fast enough.

I'm going to take the weekend off to reassess where I need to go with my images. I'm limited on my software and camera lens' so I can't do too much other than try to come up with something buyers want that I can create with what I've got.

So it'll probably be awhile before I post to the blog again.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Earnings page updated

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:23:56 +0000

It was BME for Shutterstock, Dreamstime and Fotolia. No payout this month from anywhere. I just hope that I can get consistent payouts eventually across all sites.

Not much else to tell aside from June is a new month and hopefully new creativity.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.