This week I start a new feature – Tuesdays I will list fun, creative, interesting content that I found interesting from the week before.

• The picture above is new this week in my portfolio at Dreamstime.

• Have you seen the couture de jour features on lillyella? Every day she features a complete outfit (with shopping links!) including accessories – submitted by readers. Many of the items are handmade or indie artists as well. Fabulous for those of us who are fashion impaired!

• Trent at The Simple Dollar gives tips for handling all those extra garden veggies many people end up with around this time of year. There are some pretty typical ones on there – canning your extras, for example – but he also offers some other really fun ideas. What about having a harvest party? What a great idea! Or make your own salsa and give it away as Christmas presents … some creative and frugal ideas for you!

• I recently discovered the blog Simply Hue – I can’t remember how I stumbled upon it, but I have been following for a month or so now, and it is filled with lovely, inspiring finds! Last week she ran a series on inspiring designers, and a few weeks ago she ran a series on lovely photographers. Go visit!

• The White Hot Truth – a fascinating blog that I just discovered this week. Written by Danielle LaPorte – writer, blogger, spiritual diva, business guru. Very thought-provoking.

PS – don’t forget to go enter the photo giveaway at Akane Designs! Only three days left!

I have started contributing some images to iStockphoto and a few other microstock photography agencies.  For those of you who don’t know, the microstock industry sells images for a relatively low price ($1-$10 range, it varies).  The business model suggests that if you sell images at a low price, the amount of images that will sell will be significant … so it is possible (theoretically) to earn money based on many (low priced) sales of the same image over time.  The target market for microstock includes web designers, advertising agencies, independent bloggers … really anyone who might want a low-priced image for some purpose.  These are not “artsy” photographs, for the most part … they are generally used for more commercial purposes.

I decided to try it out for a few reasons.  I take pictures every day.  I love taking pictures, no matter what the subject.  I take pictures of lots of random stuff around my house, I use my light tent to set up still life shots, and I carry my camera with me all over town.  I am amassing quite a pile of images that are not really fine art type images (and if we are really being honest here, there are a lot that fall not in the “fine art” classification, not in the “commercial” classification, not even in the “snapshot” classification — but right square in the “crap” classification.  But that is not what we are discussing here.)  They are of things, items, stuff.  I started browsing the files at iStockphoto, and thought, “hey, I can do that!”  Plus I think that if I put some time and effort into taking photos today … I could potentially earn money on them for years to come.

So I submitted a few images to iStock and waited to see what would happen.

There are quite a few sites out there that are giving specific information about their experiences with microstock. I am probably a little too lazy to go into quite so much detail, but I thought I would tell you how things are going for me so far, and I will try to keep everyone up-to-date if you are interested.

So (as I said before I got sidetracked) I started with iStockphoto.  You have to go through their registration process, read their guidelines and answer a little quiz, and then submit 3 images for them to review.  If they think your images are of the appropriate type/quality, then you are accepted.  I was accepted with my first submission (I have heard that many people have to try more than once before they are accepted – so I was super excited! YAY!  See my head growing bigger?)  You then have to submit your images again for specific approval into their database.  They accepted 2 out of my first 3 … I had over sharpened the 3rd, so I fixed that, resubmitted, and that one was accepted too.  YAY me!  I have since submitted 2 more that were accepted, a couple that were flat out rejected (my head got a bit smaller) and some that have been rejected, but after I fix what they don’t like I can resubmit.  You can see all my files here.

So … then last week I had my first download!  YAY!!!! Someone bought an image!  I have no idea who, or what for … but it is exciting nonetheless!

So, with this good start, I decided to branch out to other microstock agencies.  Shutterstock – you have to go through their registration process, then submit 10 initial images.  They review your images, and if they like/accept 7 out of the 10, then you are good to go!  Ummm … yeah.  They only liked 1 of my images out of my first 10.  So now I have to wait 30 days before I can try again (head completely deflated back to normal now!)

I also tried Dreamstime.  At Dreamstime you just register and start uploading right away … but they still review and approve each image.  So I signed up and started submitting … and I am about a 50/50 acceptance rate.  Some that were approved at iStock were rejected here, but then they also accepted some that iStock didn’t want. (my Dreamstime portfolio is here)

I am interested to see how this hobby continues to develop … I will keep you posted!  Has anyone else tried selling via microstock?  What have your experiences been?