A Guide To Getting Started In Selling Microstock

There are two ways to make a full time income. Price your services high and select a few customers to cater your services to. Or price your services low and work for volume.

Increasingly people are looking at the low price high volume model, and seeing how lucrative it can really be. You can build apps (I would love to be a part of Angry Birds model), ebooks (think Kindle and Nook), or in the photography world, microstock.

How Does It Work?

If you want to sell microstock, the best place to start is with microstock agencies. There are a number of great agencies, and more are being created every day.

Dig Deeper: 65 Stock Photography Sties To Find And Sell Photography and a couple of new ones

Stockfresh

Pixmac

As you visit an agency, head to their photographers section, and find out what it takes to build an account. Each agency has their own set of guidelines. They want serious photographers only, so you will have to meet their requirements. They usually do that in two ways: [Read more…]

How To Compete With Stock Images

This post is Day 18 of 30 Ways In 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography. This series seeks to provide you with practical steps to get you from wherever you are today, to exactly where you want to be – this year! If your goal has always been to take your photography to a whole new level, hang on and start enjoying a new lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.

“I love to photograph food, products – things for commercial use. I would love to sell my work to companies for hanging on their walls of for them to include in company magazines, brochures, etc. But I’m finding more companies are turning to micro stock, and I’m having trouble getting my foot in the door. Is commercial photography still a viable business? Or should I shoot micro stock myself?” John

Great question.

I’m currently reading a book I Live In The Future & Here’s How It Works by Nick Bilton. I’m only about half way through it, but something Nick wrote in the first chapter has stuck with me, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it the past few days.

In it he speaks of the unraveling of Playboy Enterprises Inc. (I know, Playboy? You have to read the book to see how it fits in to a technology book.) Anyway, between 2004 and 2007, Playboy’s revenue was between $330 million and $340 million, and the company was turning a small profit or just breaking even. But in 2009, revenue slid to $240 million – a 30 percent plunge. The company’s stock slid from $25 to $5 a share. And its outlook isn’t encouraging. [Read more…]

Getty Images Announces A Call For Photographers

Getty Images has been scouring Flickr for over a year now looking for photographers that can add to their portfolio. Now they’re taking it to the next level, and are putting out a formal call for artists.

If you are interested in becoming a stock photographer, start by uploading 10 of your best images to the Flickr collection on Getty Images. Getty’s editors will be monitoring the uploads, looking for the right photographers to add to their contributor list. If you make the cut, your images will be a part of their collection.

getty images

Stock photography is a step up from microstock. With places like iStockPhoto, you make a few cents to a few dollars per image, depending on your portfolio status. With Getty Images, you stand to make substantially more. But keep in mind if they do accept your photos, you enter a contract with them as the exclusive seller of that image.

As with any type of photography, your best course of action is having several different ways of making money. If you’re photographing regularly for both micro stock and stock photography, the results could be rewarding.

See A Story, Take A Picture, Make Some Money – The Future Of Photo Journalism

With a global community, finding the right photograph to go along with a story is important. As a photographer, being able to sell your photographs at the right price is equally important.

If you love photojournalism, and love finding the story as it happens, check out Demotix. Demotix allows you to take photographs, showcase them to the media, and make money.

photojournalism

Demotix has connections to major media buyers all over the world. From newspapers, magazines, television and websites, if the media needs a photograph, Demotix has a connection.

One of the major concerns with all photographers is copyrights. With Demotix, you retain your copyright. They sell your image either with non-exclusive rights for anything between $50 and $3000 USD. Or for exclusive rights for the highest price possible. In all cases, they split the fee with you 50/50.

Demotix is still fairly small, with 8300 members in 110 countries. Which means it’s a great time to climb on board and find your niche in photojournalism.

Earning An Income With Your Photography – Passive versus Active

If any of you are fans of the Robert Kiyosaki series Rich Dad Poor Dad, or one of many other trainers out there who teach about earning income, you’ve probably heard the terms active income and 51passive income.

Active income is the revenue you  earn by physically doing something. Your income depends on you being there.

  • You show up for your job and you get paid by the hour.
  • You bring in a client and charge them for a photo shoot.
  • You shoot a wedding and have people order images from you.

Passive income is the revenue that comes from something you have in place that earns revenue whether you are there or not.

  • You own a rental house and the renters pay you month after month.
  • You have investments, stocks, dividends, or retirement funds paying you every month.
  • You write a book and receive royalty checks year after year.
  • You own a stock image that makes money month after month.

Chances are up until now you’ve received the majority of your revenue from active sources. Most people do.

But think for a moment how much easier life would be if you could have both working for you all the time.

Active Income
You are a wedding photographer. You photograph 35 weddings per year. You spend over 40 hours catering to each individual client’s needs (including initial consultations, marketing, booking, shooting the event, production, and delivery).

[Read more…]

65 Stock Photography Sites To Find And Sell Photography

Looking for stock photos, stock video, or stock graphics to go into your marketing and advertising? Or looking for a great resource to begin selling your photography to stock houses? Check out this list for a variety of resources, both general and specific.

Stock Photography – Commercial/Fee Based

123 Royalty Free
AbsolutVision
AgeFotostock
Agodia
BigStockPhoto
CanStockPhoto

photospin

[Read more…]

How To Make Money As A Stock Photographer

I’m always amazed when I head out to the forums to find photographers complaining about stock photography, and the fact there is no money to be made in that industry?

It’s justphotographers not true.

As a matter of fact, it is an incredible way to make money, and I’m seeing huge potential over the coming years in this field.

Last fall I touched on this in my Trends In Stock Photography and today I read more about it in Microstock Photography Is Getting Big.

By far, iStockPhoto is advancing as the leader in the stock photography industry. In February 2006, Getty Images purchased iStockPhoto for $50 million. In 2006, iStockPhoto had revenues of about $23 million. Fast forward to 2008, revenues jumped to $150 million, with projections for this year being around $200 million. Huge growth! And huge potential for us photographers!

If you’re thinking, “How can I ever make money with just a few cents per image sold?”, think again. iStockPhoto obviously has the desire to make money through sales of images, but it also looks for ways for building deeper relationships with great photographers too. Which is why they’ve just announced their newest division, Vetta Collection, which is comprised of images that meet a higher quality. They cost more for the end user (starting at $20 per image compared to the $1 per image for the standard images) – and provide more income for the photographer as well.

So, can you really make money as a stock photographer? Let’s take a quick look.

[Read more…]

How to Target 5 Magazine Clients For Your Photography This Week

You love traveling. You love photographing. And you’d love to combine the two to make your income. magazine

A lot of people are doing this every day. They are getting paid $100, $200, even $500 per image that is included in a publication. And if you could sell 10 or more photographs per month – you’re well on your way to a six figure income.

Is it hard to find companies willing to pay these prices for one photograph? Not at all. It’s just a matter of finding the right magazines willing to pay the right price. There are thousands of magazines in publication today, and they all need photography. Add in websites, online publications, and internal commercial communications, and you have a ton of opportunity available to you.

Step #1 Identify your interests

We would all love to be an award winning photographer with National Geographic magazine. But the possibility of starting [Read more…]

Trend In Stock Photography

I’ve been noticing a trend lately on the stock sites.

Shutterstock just announced a new subscription plan with higher payouts – meaning as a photographer you can ultimately earn more money for each time your photograph is downloaded. shutterstock payout [And it’s not just Shutterstock that’s raising their payouts.]

According to their latest newsletter, their payout fees have gone up anywhere from 3.25 to 7.5 times over previous numbers, ultimately paying you even more for your images.

As you earn more with these stock sites, you make more for each download. For a large file once you reach the $10k plus level, you would receive $2.85 per download. Imagine how quickly that would add up if you have a following of people that like your photography, and you continually add a few photographs each month!

I know people go back and forth with the benefits of putting images onto stock sites. I always look at it for future growth. With just a little bit of work each month, your potential is huge. Just like any other business endeavor, you have to work the system.

Want to learn more about earning a healthy income from stock photography? My stock photography program was created especially for you. I’ll show you exactly how to build up your portfolio, and create an income that will continually come in month after month.

Photography Stock Images – How to Get Inspired – 15

Photography in Stock Images – Love photographing stock but need some new ideas? Visit one of the dozens of stock photography websites. These sites have millions of images. Just type in the search tool and your off. They’ll show you what’s hot – what’s not – and it’s sure to create a spark to your fire. Take one hour, check out the popular images and write down four ideas that you can incorporate into your next shoot. Tunnel vision is hard to break, but there is a quick solution. Get Inspired!