This Microstock game can be quite lonely, so I’m always on the lookout for fellow bloggers/contributors to bounce ideas off. These fellow bloggers & respective blogs provide me with fresh perspective on what it takes to make it on this game, while at the same time keeping the pulse on the industry.

Some ideas that catch my attention at fellow blogs include:

• Which new agencies to submit and which to ditch;
• How well that certain contributor is performing at certain agencies month-on-month (if they do report their earnings);
• Which types of images are trending and why;
• Tips on technicals, post-processing and keywording;
• General news about what’s happening in the industry.

Preparing to soon release my earnings

As one of my goals for the year, I’ll be publishing my earnings soon, in detail. To be brutally honest, I’m waiting to start on a good month haha, so I’m hoping that perhaps February will be good as buyers will be all loved up on my pics? Speaking of Valentine’s, now would be a good time to submit those types of images, but I’m too busy with a back-log of images from Tuscany and Brazil.

One reason why I’m not releasing them just yet is that I’m on serious uploading mode using Stocksubmitter, which makes my life easier and keeps my sanity in check. I’m even close to reaching my limit of 250 images per agency for the month of January (on the Lite Package).

Big sale on Shutterstock today

Overall volumes at the top three agencies have been good, but most on the low-end subs category. So, it’s nice to welcome finally a decent sale.

Today, this cool shot of daredevils on hang gliders overlooking Rio de Janeiro came through. Funny how I uploaded it almost two years ago and didn’t really sell much (just a few subs and occasional ODD)…suddenly a buyer falls in love with it enough to use it on a major marketing campaign or major publication.

That’s the thing about travel images, they’re much more likely to make the big sales than studio shots and general composites, but will test your patience in the meantime.

Which blogs am I currently following?

Lots! Focusing on individual contributor blogs rather than the corporate ones, I’ve combined a list of some that I’m following.

I won’t give you them in any order of preference since that’s not fair since they cater to different styles (plus I don’t want to upset anybody), so I’ll go with alphabetical order. I’ll also give a brief description of what each of the blog caters to:

• Amos Stuck’s MyStockPhoto: Provides interesting news and reviews of different agencies and products;
• Glenn Nigel Photography: Reporting on his earnings since 2012!
• Marco Rubino’s Marco$tock: Marketing & advertisement executive and travel photographer, Marco, offers a 360 view of someone who’s relatively new to the industry, like myself;
• Michael Jay Fotograf Berlin: Useful to-the-point articles. I really appreciate his take on mobile stock photography;
• Steve Heap’s Backyardsilver : Experienced Master Steve gives a glimpse into his mindset with useful technicals, reviews of agencies and a breakdown of earnings each month (Backyard Gold!);
• Steve Boyko’s Confessions of a Train Geek: A train fanatic based in Saskatchewan, Steve’s got a true love for everything trains and has been writing about them since 2005. He submits those images to MS;
• Tim’s MicrostockMan: The ultimate reviewer of all sites and mediums (including vectors and footage), catering also to buyers with useful discount codes. Includes a and a four part beginner’s guide.
• HosiHo

Update: Thanks for the mention from Xpiks

I hope that I didn’t leave anybody out!

If you would kindly recommend any other blogs, please let me know in the comments section below and I’ll update this post accordingly.

Until next time…

Alex