New tool – projected monthly income calculator | Yuri Arcurs

New tool – projected monthly income calculator | Yuri Arcurs

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New Image Set

Last week I uploaded my ball of light photo series. To create these images, I used Photoshop along with an image that I shot earlier in the week. I had fun trying out a few new PS techniques. Hope you enjoy!


This image is available in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white. You can access these images HERE.

First iStock sale!

As of right now, I only have one image approved on iStock. And today it sold for $1.68 (after only being up for a few days)!!!

It's an image that you've seen many times on my blog:

Keyword - Epic Fail

So earlier this week, one of my images was rejected on a site (not going to say who) due to insufficient keywording. They told me that I should remove certain keywords - one being "otoscope."

.....The picture was of an otoscope. Don't you think that having that word as a keyword is pretty important?

I resubmitted it with the word left in. Maybe the reviewer didn't know what an otoscope was?

Anyways, I thought that was humorous.

Shutterstock Update

I was declined again. I had 6/10 approved. Only one more and I would've made it!

iSyndica Review

A few days ago, I finally tested out iSyndica. For those of you who are not familiar with this website, here is what they have to say about it:

"iSyndica eliminates the need for you to upload your files to several sites. You upload with us, we store it, we distribute it and we provide you with statistics. All in one place!"

They have different subscription levels, depending on how many uploads you do each month. Right now, I am testing out their free subscription, which gives me 100 credits per month.

How do these credits work? Well, each time iSyndica sends my image to a microstock agency, it costs me 1 credit. I happen to upload to 6 agencies, so I spend 6 credits for each image that I submit.

Another feature is the analysis section. There you will find charts and graphs of your microstock agencies and how well you are doing. You can see your revenue, projected earnings, and number of downloads for each agency.

Now here's my review:

I've uploaded to microstock agencies via HTTP, FTP, and Java and the iSyndica process is much faster than any of those other methods. As soon as my images upload to the website, they are sent to all of my stock agencies within a minute or two. Since I'm now utilizing IPTC data, this makes for fast, easy submissions. After the images are uploaded, I just go to each of my stock agencies, select my categories, and submit. Very easy.

Personally, I think the analysis tools are interesting, but the whole reason for me trying iSyndica was to help save me time in the uploading process. I currently use the PicNiche Firefox add-on to manage my current earnings, so whether it's through PicNiche or iSyndica, I have constant real-time access to my earnings.

The only downside I see to iSyndica is that it doesn't seem to work well with Shutterstock. Since I haven't been accepted yet, I really haven't had to deal with that. But I did a quick Google search and it seems that there are ways around it. I've yet to try that out, though.

So, to wrap it up, I think it's well worth it to test out iSyndica....especially if you are uploading to multiple agencies like myself. With their free subscription, you really have nothing to lose.

More info can be found at:

November Stats So Far

November is off to a great start. I've had 7 sales so far (compared to 11 for the entire month of October) and I've already earned 25% toward my monthly revenue goal. Fotolia is my #1 earner for this month, which is a bit surprising. Following closely behind is BigStockPhoto and Dreamstime. I'm hoping Stockxpert picks up, since they were my #1 agency last month.

I recently submitted a batch of images that includes a little of my Photoshop work, so as soon as they are approved, I will share them.

Finally, I'm waiting on my first batch of iStock images to be approved. And my Shutterstock application is pending, of course.

So far, so good!