Accepted,First,Submission,True marketing Accepted at First Submission: A True Story From a Newbie

Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin-top:0in;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-para-margin-left:0in;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}I was luckyenough to get an approval message from Shutterstock after submitting my veryfirst batch of stock photos – 9 out of 10 were accepted. A photoof my lovely dog was not approved due to “limited commercial value.”In order to helpother newbies improve their chances of getting accepted on their first try, Ihave listed below the workflow steps that I followed.1. After initially signing up, I spent acouple of months getting familiar with the guidelines and rules ofShutterstock, and reading posts from the Critique forum as well as otherforums. This helped me to figure out the requested quality level and what kindsof photos are needed for stock buyers. I also was able to improve my skills(such as the isolation technique) by reading posts from the Tutorials threads.2. I carefullyselected 20 of my photos that I thought would meet the requirements for contentand quality. Many of these photos I had recently shot specifically for stock.At this point, I would ask myself one important question for each photo: doesthe photo have commercial value for photo buyers? If the answer was no, thiswas my own rejection phase.If you‘re havingproblems in finding 20 good quality shots at this point, it might be better tocontinue shooting and try again later.3. I criticallyreviewed all of these 20 and reduced the selection down to 14 photos.4. I then workedon these photos with photo editing software, always starting from original RAWmaterial.5. I checked allphotos in 100% – 200% view in order to track down noise, artifacts and otherdefects that might jeopardize the approval.6. I uploaded these photos to my own web site,including 100% crop, and linked this photo album to the Shutterstock Critiqueforum, asking others to analyze and critique. Please note, I later found abetter way to get my stock images critiqued by reading this thread: How to Post Images – Newbies PleaseRead.7. Based on thecritiques and recommendations received, I rejected four photos from the set andfinally ended up with a batch of 10 photos I felt pretty good about.8. Again, basedon the critiques and advice, I made some further adjustments to the final 10photos.9. I then madesure all 10 stock photos adhered to the 4 MP (MegaPixels) sizeminimum.10. Beforeuploading the photos, I made a separate MS Word file with a table showing eachphoto‘s ID, Title, Category and Keywords. I selected relevant keywords for eachphoto very carefully and according to the rules.[Editor‘snote: Improving Your Workflow: While this is a good idea, Shutterstockrecommends adding IPTC data into your images prior to upload as part of yournormal workflow procedure. As an example, in CS3, under ‘File Info,‘ theDescription IPTC field correlates with our Title/Caption field and the KeywordsIPTC field correlates with our own Keywords field. Once the CS3 Description& Keywords IPTC fields are populated with data, all you would need to do isto upload your images and then select the other appropriate options using ouronline interface. Incorporating this into your workflow will eventually saveyou time if an error occurs during upload or submission and you need toresubmit.]11. I then uploaded this first batch of 10photos to the Shutterstock server by using the FTP transfer (Filezilla workedwell).12. Afteruploading, I went to the submit page and copied the photo title and keywordsfrom my MSWord file mentioned in step 10. I also selected 1 – 2 categories foreach stock photo. Finally, I clicked the “Submit for review”button.[Editor‘snote: Please see #10 above note regarding Improving Your Workflow]SIGH – My hardwork was finally over!Just one daylater, I received an approval message from Shutterstock. I believe this was anexceptionally short review time. The approved photos showed up in my portfolioless than one day after my approval message.This 12-stepworkflow might sound complicated and difficult, but I think it is better tospend more time in this first round and try to make your best effort from thestart. This will certainly pay off later on.I would also liketo thank all the Shutterstock Submitter comments I received in the Critiqueforum. Now it‘s time for me to start building up my portfolio.Good luck to allthe other newbies!Youcan view Kallitu‘s gallery here.