I am watching monthly microstock earning results being posted in Microstock Diaries and Microstock Experiment. It gives me a reference for my own efforts. After two months in microstock photography my portfolio is still too small to make any statistically significant conclusions. Nevertheless, I am posting my numbers below. Hopefully, they may be of some interest for somebody just starting or thinking about it.

My iStock portfolio is performing quite well and according to my expectations. The results from all remaining agencies are disappointing: 3 or 4 sales on DT, FT and BSP, and nothing on 123rf and LO despite much bigger portfolio. Some pictures which are selling on iStock were rejected by DT and FT.

My third 10 picture initial submisison to ShutterStock was just rejected with the same result as a month ago: 5/10. I submitted pictures which were accepted by iStock. I also included 5 pictures which passed in the last submission to ShutterStock and 4 of them were trashed this time. A dominant rejection reason: "Poor or uneven lighting, or shadows. White balance may be incorrect", and only in one case - noise. And something new - "Limited commercial value". See you next month!

My second submission to StockXpert also failed. The same reason as before: "At the moment we are not looking for pictures as the ones you uploaded". I selected my best selling pictures from iStock.

Well, the results from iStock are encouraging enough to keep me going.

Related posts:

• Microstock Photography Earnings for
  July 2008, June 2008, May 2008, April 2008, March 2008, February 2008 and January 2008
• Building Microstock Portfolio and Polaroid Transfers Experiment - First Month
• Microstock Photography Speedlinking - Tips, Tricks and Advice
• Microstock Photography - Just Starting