My Stock Experience So Far ....
Well, stock photography. A good money maker, or a waste of time??
So far for me (about 2 months so far) it has been good, a good learning experience with the added benefit of making a little pocket money.
When I decided to go ahead and upload my photos to sell as stock, I did some research looked at different sites, and decided to go ahead and upload to a few different sites:
Shutterstock
123 Royalty Free
Can Stock Photo
Dreamstime
IStockPhoto
Fotolia
Big Stock Photo
I figured that the more sites i was signed up to, and that were displaying my images, then the more people would see them, and then hopefully buy them.
Things started off fairly slow, with one or two sales per week for the first few weeks. Now however in the last 2 days i have had about 15 sales, which has just encouraged me to go out, take more photos, upload them and give people even more of my photos to download!
The whole stock thing works great for me at the moment, as I am still a Photography student for another year, and this helps to fill in my spare time, and gets me out taking more pictures, something that i love doing. So really it can only be a good thing!
The money is only trickling in at the moment, however it is at least trickling, and that for me is the exciting part. I believe that if i consistently add more photos to these sites, and increase my skill and expertise also, then this will end up being quite a substantial money earner for me. And hey, who doesn’t want to earn money from their hobby??
So far, just top give you an idea, a couple of my highest selling images are:
Anyway, I know a few people are selling stock already, and i know of a few who are interested, so I wanted to keep you all up to date with what I’m doing!
JimFilmer
Thankyou for sharing Ryan. Have you found one, or a couple of sites better than the others, both in ease of dealing with and the number of sales being made?
Ryan Carter replied
No worries Jim, Thanks for having a read, so farShutterstock and Dreamstime have been the best for me, and both are tow of the easiest to use. Shutterstock pays one of the lowest commissions, but i have had by far the most downloads from this site.
I think some time in the near future i may do some Journals listing the good and bad parts of each site from my experiences which may help some people out.
Hans Goepel
Thankyou for sharing Ryan. I’m not much of a Photographer but I love to give this a go maybe it will pay for the Petrol. If not I still will have a grate time hoping thanks again cheers Hans and a Marry Christmas.
Kory Trapane
Thanks, Ryan. You’ve inspired me to give it a try. I’ve been wanting to do this for a couple of years now, but didn’t think I was ready. What does it hurt to try? I’m sure I still have a lot to learn. Keep the progress updates coming!
Ryan Carter replied
I will Kory, Its actually quite addictive too, I always seem to be checking to see what has sold! LOL
If you want to give them ago, it would be great if you could use my links above and that way i will get a referral commission also (wont affect you at all). All the best with it and keep us all informed too!
DavidMark
Thanks for sharing your stock experience, Ryan. I can see why those two images would sell as stock, they are simple subjects, well lit, well composed, and high quality. I think capturing stock shots takes a special approach, something I’m sure you’ve studied as part of your course. Good luck with future sales, I’m sure you’ll go far.
Hope your studies are going well.
Dave.
Matt Botwood
Have you tried sites like Alamy as well as microstock sites. The returns from single sales are much larger (hundreds of $ per usage per images).
Alan Coote
Thank you so much for this information. I shall investigate not so much for the money as the thrill of others valuing something I have created.
Ryan Carter replied
Well it definately gives you that! I love to check the sites to see what has been sold, and its always a thrill when anything is sold, its also quite inspiring for me to take more photos, and the spare bit of money is not a bad thing! All the best!
Peter Hill
thanks a bunch for sharing this information – it saves us who are interested in this field sooo much research time. Much appreciated!
Diane Schuster
Thanks for the info, Ryan. I haven’t uploaded to stock sites, mainly because I love landscape photography and I was lead to believe that mostly still shots of food etc. are what sell on these sites, is that what you have found? Dee
Ryan Carter replied
Diane, that is what i thought when i first started uploading to these stock sites, but i have found that some of my best selling images are landscapes, and other ‘non-studio’ type shots. All i could suggest is to give it a go and see, but i think you will find that landscape type pics can be used commercially for a lot of things, especially if they have a ‘conceptual’ type feel to them. Go to the stock sites and have a look around at what is on there and you will see what is popular and selling.
Diane Schuster
Thanks Ryan, I will! Dee
ImagesbyKelly
Don’t forget FeaturePics (www.featurepics.com). I do very well on there and you set your own prices. Just don’t offer the same images that you have on the other microsites if you are asking more money for them on FeaturePics.
I have been selling stock images for a few years now and do very well. It is a great way to make some extra money and see some of your work published as well. Keep shooting and uploading frequently.
Kevin Bergen
Ryan, what a great service to write this journal piece! My hat’s off to you. I have been at iStockphoto for about 3 yrs or so, and with a small portfolio that I haven’t added to much for over a year, I still get a small stream of around $15/mo or so. I was really on fire when I started, checking sales every day, shooting whatever would hold still for me (I really do get compulsive about new endeavors), but that phase died down and my passion is now more about artistic stuff. I’m thinking of doing more stock so I can afford to buy the equipment I need to satisfy my art photography compulsion now. :P Here you can see my iStock page. Thanks again!
Stephen Mitchell
Looking at the links you have given for us to get to these websites, one would assume you make money from referrals. Is this true, and how much of your money is made from referrals?
Ryan Carter replied
Sites vary as to what commission, if any, I get, its small though like a 1% commission on a photo sold and the like, which amounts to not much when photos sell for 25cents each! lol. It doesn’t alter your earnings in any way though, so no worries there! But it makes me an extra few $ a month. I’m at the stage where every little bit counts!
Shaun Lowe
As a non exclusive contributor the base royalty made per image is 20%. When you reach exclusive level and opt into the exclusivity program it goes up by 5%. You get an additional 5% at the 2500, 10000 and 25000 download marks… topping out at 40%.