Microstock Agencies Evaluation

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My personal assessment of the main microstock agencies is based on 11 specific criteria, with particular relevance to all those aspects that characterize the experience of the contributor in his relationship with the agency. Each criterion yields a rating from 1 to 10 and the average of all the criteria yields to my personal evaluation of the agency.

The following table shows each of the 11 criteria in detail:

Criterion

Description
Agency Reputation
 It is based on the index of Alexa Traffic Rank and assigns a score from 1 to 10 depending on the value of the index
Admission Test
 If an admission test is required to become contributor, this index is based on the difficulty level of the test itself
Uploading Process
 Higher scores to the easier uploading processes (eg. possibility of uploading via FTP
On-site Submission The agency gets a high mark in the case in which the submission is limited to a mere validation of the files and gets gradually lower marks when the submission complexity increases (eg. when it needs to include categories for each file, which is a time-consuming activity)
Severity of the Reviewers The greater the severity of the reviewers of the files, the lower the rating of the agency
Time for Review Completion The longer it takes for the review of the files, the lower the rating of the agency
Level of Earnings The higher the earnings granted, the higher the rating of the agency
Referral/Affiliate Program Policies High marks in the presence of a referral program with interesting commissions
Mode of Payment and Minimum Threshold High marks for agencies with the most convenient mode of payment (eg. Paypal, automatically at the end of the month) and with the lower minimum thresholds
Frequency of Downloads Vote from 1 to 10 for the agency’s ability to generate frequent downloads, calculated on the monthly average weighted for the number of images online at the agency
Statistics and Services for the Authors Vote from 1 to 10 based on the presence of tools and services for contributors (eg. apps, forums, contests, etc.), as well as other useful tools for the usability of the statistics

By clicking on this link you can see the practical application of these criteria in the evaluation of the main agencies.

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Expert in Marketing and Communication in a major company of the Italian FMCG market, traveler by vocation, passionate photographer, contributor at all major international microstock agencies, founder of Marcor$tock, a blog focused on Microstock Market and Digital Photography.