Well, I have recently started submitting some of my work to a series of Stock Photography sites to be sold as stock. I am happy to finall…
Well, I have recently started submitting some of my work to a series of Stock Photography sites to be sold as stock. I am happy to finally be making money from old photos that have been laying around on my hard drive for ages. I feel like these photos are actually pulling their weight now! LOL Anyway, If you have any photos laying around that you would like to make some money from, well here are some of the best stock sites I have found and am signed up to. Shutterstock / 123 Royalty Free / Can Stock Photo / Dreamstime / IStockPhoto / Fotolia / Big Stock Photo Give it a go, You’ll be glad you did!
Hi All! Well I have finally got a little bit of time to write some of my experiences about another of my stock sites, Dreamstime...
Hi All! Well I have finally got a little bit of time to write some of my experiences about another of my stock sites, Dreamstime. Dreamstime is my 2nd most profitable sits so far, and is growing quite steadily. This site is very user friendly, and also a lot easier to get accepted to then some of the other sites, noticeably Shutterstock which took me several attempts to pass the initial review process. Dreamstime however I got accepted straight away, uploaded my photos and then once they were accepted, they started selling almost immediately. One annoying thing with this site, is the review time for uploaded photos. On Dreamstime this review time is about a week, by far the longest out of any of the sites that i currently are submitting to. This can get annoying, especially to begin with when you just want them accepted and to start selling, however after a while I don’t really notice anymore anyway. The submitting process for photos to Dreamstime is really quite simple, using either the website or FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to upload the photos, and then assigning keywords and categories for each photo. The process is quite streamlined and doesn’t take very long at all. Not quite as good as sites such as Shutterstock which is far and a way the simplest of the lot, but Dreamstime is not bad at all. I am hoping for my first payout from Dreamstime in the next month or so, which will be nice, until then i will just keep submitting, and watching my sales stats increase. If you would like to try for yourself, you can join here Dreamstime. Please read my other Stock Journal entries for more information from my experiences with Stock Photography. Regards Ryan
DREAMSTIME is a rewarding microstock agency to belong to. You can be assured of top sales, and if …
DREAMSTIME is a rewarding microstock agency to belong to. You can be assured of top sales, and if you decide to take a break for a while, nothing seems to stop you selling as long as your keywords are good enough. But the downside is the length of time it takes to get images approved or rejected. Added to this is a feature that gives an approximate ETA for approval, which seems to change backward and forward at will. The first time you get approved, you might expect anything from 2 to 4 weeks waiting for an approval, but do not despair, their is a solution. The answer is to upload as many images as you can via FTP and leave them sitting waiting for your keywording. By doing this you sneak into the queue. Because the images are given an upload number which regardless of how long it takes you to keyword, your place in the queue remains reserved. The answer is to upload 50 images, and then release them to the reviewers one at a time. Pretty soon you will see that you are getting the images reviewed in less than 24 hours. Not only that, by keeping your submissions down to a few at a time, your approval rating will rise, since you do not have reviewers looking at different perspectives of essentially the same image all the time. Have fun with DT.
SHUTTERSTOCK is possibly one of the most lucrative microstock agencies for photographers. ...
SHUTTERSTOCK is possibly one of the most lucrative microstock agencies for photographers. While their rate of payment is low, the sales you make well and truly make up the difference. Initially, you would be paid 25 cents per image until you reach $500 in sales, and after that your rate rises again. Rumours abound they are about to give photographers another pay rise. There are a few issues with dealing with Shutterstock. BAD: Takes most people 5 – 7 attempts to be accepted as a Shutterstock photographer. They are picky on any noise showing in the image. GOOD: Super fast approvals, generally within 24 hours. Great sales volume. A tip for once you join. Keep submitting small numbers of photos. Buyers seem to scroll through the newest images and that is how they buy. IF you take a break for a while your sales will plummet.
Regardless of whether you are a pro, who does weddings, real estate, or product photography, or an amateur, there is good money to be mad…
Regardless of whether you are a pro, who does weddings, real estate, or product photography, or an amateur, there is good money to be made from stock photography. The great thing about stock is it becomes a lazy income, selling while you sleep, with little effort required at all. Now a few photographers get on their high horse and claim that selling stock photos for a few cents spells the death of the industry, but that is way wrong. Nothing will ever replace macro photography, stock simply makes use of all those images that would otherwise sit on your computer for years unused and unsellable. People buy stock for different purposes. Many businesses buy stock for simple power point demos, brochures, images for their website, or to include in advertising. The amount of money you are paid depends on the circulation. For instance, at Dreamstime, the lowest might be 25 US cents, for a tiny image for a power point demo. Or, you might get $300 for someone wanting to use the photo for a newspaper advertisement. You might also sell the full rights of the image for $3000. There are heaps of tricks and tips. I would love to help anyone out with advice by replying to their questions. From my perspective, I have a small portfolio of about 200 images that makes me an easy $US500 each and every month. All this while I am sleeping, or out doing other stuff. Also, many of the stock agencies are subsidiaries of Getty, Jupiter and others. For many successful Getty Images photographers, stock was how they broke into the big time. I urge you to join the two huge US companies below to start your portfolio. Do not be disheartened if Shutterstock reject your first application to submit. Most of us had to try 5 or 6 times. Like I said, just get something on line and start making money. Every now and then I will give you tips. Here is the first: Keywords. People search by keywords. For instance they may type in “white van” when looking for a white van. So you need to think like a buyer. Also, they may be looking for a metaphor “success”, or “love” and you might be able to sell a picture of champagne being poured, or a wedding ring. BE CAREFUL People will sue if you show brand names. All your images must be altered in Photoshop and brand names and logos must be removed. Click on the links below and start making cash: DREAMSTIME SHUTTERSTOCK
Good keywording is essential to anyone that is attempting to sell anything – especially stock photos – on the internet. Imagine you ar…
Good keywording is essential to anyone that is attempting to sell anything – especially stock photos – on the internet. Imagine you are a designer who has a client who wants a brochure to advertise their IT Help Desk. So you have all the words but want some background image, or an inserted image to carry the message. You might be looking for a photo of a keyboard, maybe one that someone has manipulated and replaced the SHIFT key with the words “HELP DESK”. You might have an idea you would like a photo of someone working at a Help Desk. Alternatively, you might like something to give your client a competitive edge, like a bunch of bananas with one coloured red. So the keywords you might use should not just describe the image, they should describe a metaphor or a situation. The red banana might be described in keywords as: bizzare, different, variety, change, weird, odd, alert, danger etc. The best keywording assistance comes from a site called CANSTOCKPHOTO Now you will not earn stacks of money from this site, but using their keyword tool is well worth the effort of joining and becoming a contributor. I hope you are enjoying reading my blog.
Lots of us dream to being a Getty Images photographer. Glam assignments, wicked pay rates, and being paid good money and being recogni…
Lots of us dream to being a Getty Images photographer. Glam assignments, wicked pay rates, and being paid good money and being recognised as a world class photographer. Well, here is the shortcut. Getty Images own ISTOCKPHOTO ‘target=’_blank Istock is their microstock division. Istock say on their website “Our relationship with Getty Images also means that our top exclusive photographers are able to upload photos to the Getty Images collection. With their massive reach and your images, you’ll be growing your audience by leaps and bounds. The deal is you must have sold 250 photos with Istock to join this program. From just 46 images I sold 308. So it is pretty simple. Check them out. Istock is regarded as the leader of microstock since it was probably the first company to go large scale. Some of their photographers earn well over $US10,000 a month.
123RF is a microstock agency owned by the huge InMagine corporation. They are specialists in owning …
123RF is a microstock agency owned by the huge InMagine corporation. They are specialists in owning a suite of smaller agencies and collectively harvesting the talent to InMagine. One of the great things they do is sell via CDs. In this way the photographer is directly rewarded according to the volume of sales they make. You only need to be part of 1 InMagine agency to be part of the action. Now the sales are not huge. I have 215 photos on the site and last month made a measly $US46.45 in sales. But you need to spread your portfolio. I chose 123RF because the uploads are so damn quick. My plan is to have around 5000 images online across the agencies in a few years. So based on the sales by volume, 5000 photos on 123RF would make me about $US8,000 a month. Now getting motivated to take 5,000 photos is another thing … lol.
Selling images where you can see the brandname of something, or being able to identify people can be tricky. Some companies protect th…
Selling images where you can see the brandname of something, or being able to identify people can be tricky. Some companies protect their copyright with a passion, and will sue anyone who uses their logo in a commercial situation. The same goes for taking photos of people in the crowd. While in Australia you can legally take and sell photos of unidentified people, because you cannot copyright your own image, it gets a bit tricky when the image is sold overseas. One of the dramas with the internet is that different courts around the world view things different ways. For instance, a High Court decision in favour of Australian Joe Gutnik v Dow Jones ruled that the place of publishment is the place of viewing. So Gutnik sued USA company Dow Jones in Australia. SO HOW CAN YOU LEGALLY SELL STOCK THAT SHOWS COPYRIGHTED LOGOS OR FACES OF PEOPLE? One way is to sell the images as “editorial stock”. A new Scandinavian company called YayMicro is about to lead the way. Did you know that 40% of all stock photos are sold for editorial purposes? You can make a lot of money from this. Press the link at the end of this story and join the brand new site. They are eagerly looking for photographers. YAYMICRO
The USA is the biggest consumer of stock photography by far. Right now, the economy is feeling the pinch of a credit squeeze, and high oi…
The USA is the biggest consumer of stock photography by far. Right now, the economy is feeling the pinch of a credit squeeze, and high oil prices. And while that all means that budgets allocated for marketing will probably diminish, it also means those with their thinking caps on will probably survive, and do pretty good. Your normal old stock photo of a smiling family in front of a lap top just ain’t gonna cut it in the new economy. My suggestion is to look for the business analysts who provide research and predictions for what are the challenges over the next period. For instance, the razor gangs will be out in business cutting the slack. So most businesses will undertake a business process review to see which parts of their business they can off load. There is a world wide shortage of doctors. Nurses will get more responsibility to perhaps even write prescriptions for drugs. High oil prices are driving research and development into alternative energy. The aging population in western cultures is having an affect as people with poor management skills are losing their employees to better bosses. Think outside the square. What image could you produce that could be used over and over again to provide a narrative. These images may be used in newspaper advertising, or they may simply end up in an Executive level PowerPoint demo.
My first sale on the 1st march 2009 at dreamstime.com. This image is not on Redbubble as Dreamstime want total exclusivity.
My first sale on the 1st march 2009 at dreamstime.com. This image is not on Redbubble as Dreamstime want total exclusivity.
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