Comments on: A Possible New Source of Income

By: Arty Allsorts

Arty Allsorts — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:29:39 +0000

I have just stumbled through some personal finance blog links and ended up here As I’m on iStock (and 7 other microstock sites!), this post caught my eye. Microstock is not an easy way to make lots of money. There can be quite a steep learning curve until you start to ’see’ your photos the way the site reviewers do and the rejections are pretty hard to take at first. However, for those who persevere and build a portfolio, the income will flow and it will continue to flow even if you stop uploading for a while (although it will reduce if you don’t upload for ages).

I have referral links on my blog at http://artyallsorts.blogspot.com but I’m not here just to drop referral links – if you want more info or some help putting together your first submissions, just leave a comment and I’ll try to help you out.

Microstock was my stumbling way of trying to earn some extra money from my hobby. I’m getting there but got distracted this year. Now I need to get motivated and back on track and your blog has helped a little this evening. Thank you for all your hard work in sharing this info. I look forward to reading more. best wishes, Helen

By: Marek

Marek — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:13:18 +0000

How to make $$$ without doing very much …

What a funny title. Certainly, it doesn’t apply to making money from microstock at least in my case. It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of learning. Nothing easy.

I started submitting pictures to microstock in November of 2007 and I am writing about my experiences including earnings and actual payments in Pixels Away blog:
http://www.pixelsaway.com/C911796005/index.html

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:07:18 +0000

I tried at fotolia and they rejected every one of my photos and said one was blurry (it wasn’t). Maybe I will try some of the other ones, too. It is disappointing when they come back right away and reject you. I gave up for awhile but I don’t have a lot of extra time either. The thing I like after reading istockphoto though, is that they accept illustrations, too. Thanks for telling us about this!

By: stj

stj — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:50:59 +0000

Yeah, I agree with thebaglady. At least sites like 123rf reivew fast and accept a wider scope. That way, as a beginner you wont feel frustrated that your work is not out there.

By: thebaglady

thebaglady — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:47:23 +0000

You should try some of the smaller microstock agencies. They’re less strict about the photos they accept since they have a smaller collection. There are a dozen or so out there. Right now i have 1 photo accepted at 123rf, and fotolia rejected my submits. Oh well, we’ll take more pics on our next trip.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:28:04 +0000

Great tip. I just bought a new SLR camera and perhaps can make it a money earner for me. Wow. I was going to just take pics for my blog, but now a whole new world of possibilities is opening up.

By: JLR

JLR — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:27:14 +0000

I just recently got interested in microstock also. I signed up to bigstockphoto.com. I was considering iStock but BSP gives slightly higher commissions so I wanted to try them first. You may find the following blogs useful as you explore this new industry/area/interest.

http://www.microstockdiaries.com/
http://microstockphoto.blogspot.com/

By: Mar

Mar — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:49 +0000

Tricia, did they say why the photos weren’t good enough or offer advice/suggestions on what they want?

By: Tricia

Tricia — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:24:18 +0000

Well, that was quick. My photos were not good enough

That’s okay, we’ll try again later.

By: Budget Mama

Budget Mama — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:17:16 +0000

I love istock. I know a few web designers and they also use istock. I haven’t used them in quite sometime though, but they are the number one source I would go to.

Good luck on getting approved!!!