Thanks for that comment. Shutterfly is one of the sites where it seems the focus is on selling prints etc., incorporating your photos. There are several like that.

The purely sales agencies such as Shutterstock (the Largest), iStock, Getty, Alamy provide a front for Royalty Free sales. Basically the purchaser can use the picture for any purpose for ever.

There are also agencies that market "rights managed" services and by restricting the use to one medium, format etc. they will make more money.

Lastly you can just set up your own web site (Squarespace is common) or a managed web site (Smugmug). With these you do your own promotion and marketing and set your own licence terms.

The problem with the agencies such as Shutterstock is that creators' rewards are so low. The most I have received for an individual photo is $2US. Typical sales are 25c.

You need to sell a huge amount to make any money.

On the customer side, what is the incentive to pay for a photo if you can get something as useful at no cost. For businesses, it is a risk question.

Have I the right to use the photo? If I take this one, what happens if every other business uses the same one?

Many people enter microstock because they have already thousands of photos in their library and want to monetise what they have.

The real microstock winners are photo-factories (Check out Yuri Arcurs).

I have come to Steemit to see whether there is more value for my photos if I make blogs and comment than what straight microstock will provide.