Selling photographs to photo stock websites

Do any of the TT photographers use any of the internet stock photography sites?

If so, which one(s) and what do you think of them?

I have started to use one called Dreamstime and am having mixed feelings about it. I think they sell pictures too cheaply and they often reject photos with the reason of "There are already many similar available on the site, please be more selective..."

Even though three that they refused had no (that's ZERO) similar pictures in all of the half million in total on the site?
To give them credit, I appealed against their decision and within 10 minutes the pictures had been "reconsidered" and accepted.

However, I feel there must be better alternatives out there.
MT

Randi Shepard is a photographer in Chicago who sells on a couple different stock photo sites. http://www.randishepard.com/ is her URL. She's in Munich pretty regularly and plays softball in the English Garden, she can probably tell you about her experiences if you contact her. She's sold a particular cow photo a bunch of times.

I can't answer your question from the point of view of the photographer, as I've only used these kind of sites as an end consumer. I've bought photos for use on websites and print media from istockphoto .

They have a user forum discussing royalties so that could be a place to start. Obviously istockphoto is great for me as it is as cheap as chips, even for hi-res images but that could mean it's not so good for you.

Some interesting opinions here:

http://www.pdngallery.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ulti...ic;f=5;t=001352

Thanks for the information, especially the link from benpanter. Some very true comments on there which match my own experiences and views.

MT

I use istockphoto.com but another popular one is:

http://www.shutterpoint.com/

Interesting business:

http://talks.blogs.com/phototalk/2004/04/i...kphotocom_.html

Scoopt.com is a site where you can upload your images and they will try to sell them to the media. I guess more useful if you've got pictures of some hot current event, rather than for general stock photos.

These guys seem to have good reviews: http://www.alamy.com/

They have far stricter limits on what they accept though, I'm not convinced I would be up to their standard.

Try www.dreamstime.com they sell for $1+ and give the photographer about 50%.

http://www.sodapix.com/ - another stock photo website. This one in German.

Thanks for the responses so far.

Faxman, I already use Dreamstime (see my original post) and I am not too happy with them at all, hence this discussion.

Alamy look good, but I would need to work on a few things before trying to join them:
They only accept files with a minimum size (each) of 48mb!!!
They insist on the original files being at least 6megapix - which is no problem, I have a 10mp digital SLR. But then you must use Genuine Fractals to interpolate up to 48mb in size.

Looks like a bit of a learning curve, but I may try.

That Sodapix also looks good, I will investigate this one further.

MT

Incase anyone is interested I found a pretty good microstock site... I have a REALLY small portfolio there but images have actually been sold. Check it out here: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=99253