Dreamstime
Dreamstime are one of the top tier microstock agencies and are working hard to stay at the top. They’re creative and entrepreneurial, developing original technology and business models. Their commission for photographers is 50%, among the highest in the market, and certainly the highest of the top tier microstock agencies.
Dreamstime Background
Dreamstime began life as a royalty free CD store in 2000, but came onto the Alexa radar in 2004 when they became ‘community enabled’. They’ve innovated in line with their close competitors to remain at the top of the market. Despite relatively slower sales, their success in generating high earnings for contributors is largely due to their high commission rate.
Details
| Web Address | www.dreamstime.com |
| Google Pagerank | 6 |
| Google Backlinks | 8,560 |
| Alexa Rank | 1,941 |
| Image Stats | 1,272,506 |
| Minimum Image Size | 3 MegaPixels |
| Vectors | Yes |
| Footage | No |
| Licenses | Royalty Free. Extended Licenses: Increase Max Copies; Web Usage; Print Usage; Sell the Rights. |
| Compensation | 50% – 80% of sale price |
| Pricing | Dependent on photo sales quantity: $0.74 – $5.92 |
| Payment Methods | PayPal, Moneybookers, Payoneer, Check |
| Payout Threshold | $100 |
| Referral Program | 10% of purchases and 10% of contributor sales |
| Application Process | No application, just upload |
| Exclusivity | 10% extra per exclusive photo, plus $0.20 bonus for approved photos of exclusive artists |
| Upload Methods | HTML Form and FTP |
| IPTC Data | Yes |
| Currencies | US Dollar |
| Languages | English |
| Headquarters | Brentwood, USA (with operational headquarters in Bucharest, Romania) |
Cool Features
- $5 Instant referral bonus – place the Dreamstime banners on your website and let them know. They’ll inspect your website and credit your account with a $5 instant bonus.
- In-the-News editorial photos – submit photos of current events to be presented within the In-the-News section
- Keymentors – suggest batches of 10 or more keywords on images other than your own and receive $0.02 for each accepted batch.
- Keymasters – pay $0.20 and have your image professionally keyworded for you! Or apply to become a keymaster and earn that $0.20.
- Sell the rights – Dreamstime allows you to set a buyout price for your images, allowing buyers to gain exclusive rights to a photo
- Upload capacity – Dreamstime’s default upload limit, set at 100 per day at the time of writing, is reduced down to half or a quarter if your approval rate drops. FTP access is also withdrawn at low levels. This protects Dreamstime from deliberate time-wasters and those who need to focus more on their photographer than contributing, allowing other contributors to have their submissions reviewed sooner.
Performance
Dreamstime fluctuates around position four in terms of traffic of microstock agencies. They have a high payout per image which makes up for lower sales compared to other microstock agencies. Community is evident on the Dreamstime website and in their forums.
Verdict
Dreamstime are definately in the top tier of microstock agencies with most microstockers reporting them amonge their top four earners. They’re also viewed as the most contributor-friendly microstock agency, paying high commissions and considering contributors a priority in their decision making. While they may lack the turnover of Shutterstock and the bleeding edge innovation of iStockphoto, they have a solid system and produce great results.
State of the Microstock Nation series:
Posted June 10th, 2007 by Lee Torrens
Topics: Dreamstime, Microstock, Reviews
The only two microstock agencies that have worked for me are iStockphoto and Shutterstock. The rest barely make me anything.
I prefer Shutterstock because they are the most friendly sites. CresStock staffs are rude as well.
oh forgot to say. thanks for the best reviews and summaries of most of the famous stock photo sites. Very nice details tables and best i’ve ever seen.
I love dreamstime… i get a lot of money from there…i think dreamstime is a fair microstock agencie because they give 50% of sale price, the other less than 50%…
How many images you need to have at least in stock in order to start making money? I just started Dreamstime a month ago. I am the contributor to Photospin and I make some money but not too much, as I just started 2 months ago and just building up my portfolio, so far almost 100 images in my portfolio. Dreamstime has more commercial requirements, whereas photospin is more receptive to different off the wall images.
Hi Cat, the quantity of images you need depends on how much you want to make, but both quality and commercial appeal have more influence on how well you do with Dreamstime or any stock photo agency.
Though it’s also worth noting that as the size of your portfolio grows there are ‘increasing returns’ through greater exposure across the site and higher search result placement. Even so, those who focus more on quality and relevance (commercial appeal) always do better than those who just focus on quantity.
Good luck!
-Lee