Dreamstime started their online sales in 2004, by 2007 they had a portfolio of over 2 000 000 images and a contributor base of 26 000. Now they have more than 8 500 000 images in their portfolio. This speaks volumes for how popular they are with contributors. The reason for this is quite simple. They offer one of the highest commission percentages in the industry. Widely regarded as a top tier microstock agency, Dreamstime constantly aims to promote their brand and thus helping to drive the sales of contributors. They are also one of the few microstock agencies that allow photographers to sell the rights of an image, the price they put on this is roughly $800, of which the photographer gets a hefty cut.

I initially was not very impressed by my sales numbers from Dreamstime. I was seeing much better results from iStockphoto and Shutterstock. However, with a little perseverance I managed to build up my portfolio and started to see my sales steadily increase. The upload/submit process is not as streamlined as some of the other agencies, but it is not the worst either. One of the nice features of Dreamstime is that the more your images sell, the higher their sale value becomes. Dreamstime has everything going for it apart from a sales volume. My recent sales figures have started to rise significantly and I am excited to see if they will maintain their growth. I now consider Dreamstime to be one of my top four agencies and I recommend signing up with them.

Sign up with Dreamstime here