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OK, after doing a little research, it looks like FTP is probably the best way to upload bulk to multiple stock photo sites. You’ll still have to upload to each site separately though. Your FTP client can save all the login details so that you don’t have to manually sign in each time, which could speed things up.
I’ve assembled a list of links to instructions for each site below:
- Lightstock: https://www.lightstock.com/partner_faqs#footage9 (No FTP support yet, coming “soon”. Maybe email them about it?)
- Adobe Stock: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/user-guide.html/stock/contributor/help/uploading-content.ug.html
- Shutterstock: https://support.submit.shutterstock.com/s/article/How-do-I-upload-content-via-FTPS?language=en_US
- Dreamstime: https://www.dreamstime.com/ftp_instructions (Warning, the header image is indecent. 🙁 )
- DepositPhotos: https://depositphotos.com/faq/article/360010106174.html
- 123RF: https://www.123rf.com/guidebook/c03s12.htm
I personally use and recommend WinSCP for an FTP client, and like it a lot. Another one that I haven’t used, but that is made specifically for stock photos is Xpiks.
It looks like there are websites set up specifically to help with this sort of thing too, such as: http://www.microstockbridge.com (I haven’t used them, so don’t take this as a recommendation). It looks like they have a LR plugin that will send to all the different sites at once.
If anyone else here has more experience with this stuff, I hope they’ll chime in. I don’t sell any stock photos, so all of this is just from some quick internet research. Hope it helps!
PS: Always use FTPS if you can, (rather than just “plain” FTP). The “S” stands for “secure”, because FTP is not secure by default, and will transmit your password in plaintext which is a very, very bad idea. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you’re better off uploading through the website rather than FTP if they don’t offer the secure FTPS option.