Selling Stock Photos Online - Good or Bad?

[djmorgan]

The customers who use stock photos are, advertising agencies, printers, web designers, publishers, craft, writers etc. flowers and macros sell but in the minority, what sells in the majority are posed shots with models at say a dentist, shopping centre, market, home, etc. then food shots.

most stock agencies allow you to view their offerings so would be a good idea to go and have a look at whats on offer, http://www.istockphoto.com/browse/latest/ also don't assume just because you take a photo it will be on sale, most inspectors are brutal photographers and agencies only want the best of your work, this means rarely getting anything accepted higher than ISO 100, and size is also a factor. And key wording your images is also an important factor

My sole reason for getting into stock was to see if I was a good enough photographer to get my images accepted, and then to see if anybody would like them enough to pay money for them, in both accounts I am now satisfied, the money I don't need, but I do get a buzz knowing there are publications, books and magazines that have my photos in them.

David

[ddt0725]

The customers who use stock photos are, advertising agencies, printers, web designers, publishers, craft, writers etc. flowers and macros sell but in the minority, what sells in the majority are posed shots with models at say a dentist, shopping centre, market, home, etc. then food shots.

most stock agencies allow you to view their offerings so would be a good idea to go and have a look at whats on offer, http://www.istockphoto.com/browse/latest/ also don't assume just because you take a photo it will be on sale, most inspectors are brutal photographers and agencies only want the best of your work, this means rarely getting anything accepted higher than ISO 100, and size is also a factor. And key wording your images is also an important factor

My sole reason for getting into stock was to see if I was a good enough photographer to get my images accepted, and then to see if anybody would like them enough to pay money for them, in both accounts I am now satisfied, the money I don't need, but I do get a buzz knowing there are publications, books and magazines that have my photos in them.

David

From what I have seen, vector files seem to be very popular amongst sellers, not sure how much they sell of them.

I would think that with today's craze being with texture overlays and backgrounds that those would do well. I have seen some really nice ones for sale. I get mine free though so maybe that is the route most people would take before buying.

Wouldn't pet photos do well for calendars and such? Like my purebred cocker or say Steve's blue eyed white cat or his dogs or Dave's blue merle Australian shepherd for a few examples? I know I would buy a wall calendar with their photo on it along with a number of pet photos in our pet thread in a heartbeat!

Is it better to submit to various publishers directly after reading up on their guidelines?

[DavidEccleston]

I'd gladly sell you a calendar of Zuni pictures! Perhaps you're on to something though. Our themed threads (Pets, Landscapes, Nature), and even our assignments are all potential calendar making material. I'm not sure how you can get them printed somewhere reputable, and still be cheap enough to sell a boatload of them though.

I ordered calendars from Vistaprint once, and they were quite nice, but not as cheap as you'd find in the mall stalls. The mall stalls don't get made somewhere reputable though. One year our calendar had a week in August where ever day was labeled Tuesday (true, I swear!), and the year before that there was something else screwed up, like 3 Wednesdays in a row.

[djmorgan]

Anything will sell, what you need is consistency and volume, I have 1 image (see attached) that has sold over 300 times in 18 months, I don't know why or in what context it could possibly be used, but it sells and to different buyers, the same image on another site doesn't sell! if you could figure out the stock industry you would make a fortune.



Uploading to multiple sites is a lot of work, i had a smallish portfolio with 9 agencies for over a year made some sales but then I became eligible to be 'exclusive' with a single agencies which meant more money per image sold but I can only have my images with that agency so had to pull the others, being exclusive has given me more money and less work than dealing with multiple agencies.

If you Google search you will find a number of forums devoted to discussing stock agencies, I would recommend you read some of these, at the end of the day the industry leader in Microstock is iStockPhoto.com getting in requires image approval as does ongoing uploads.

Yes, pets, flowers, bees, whales and birds are all good niche markets together with anything else you could think of, this is where key wording your image becomes important as the majority of buyer use a search engine to find images, after all nobody is going to scan through a million images to find something they like

Big agencies will 'manage' your images and they market their services to buyers, these are agencies like Getty (recently sold), Alamy and a few others scattered throughout the Americas and Europe, sales take a long time but you get hundreds of dollars rather than cents from microstock, but you need to be very good to get into the bigger agencies and competition is top draw.

Vectors, art, icons, audio and video are all acceptable to agencies for sale, I'm not that talented so can't give you any direction in those areas, I'm tone deaf, and have 8 thumbs.

Link to forum dealing in stock agencies http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?action=forum


David

[ddt0725]

I'd gladly sell you a calendar of Zuni pictures! Perhaps you're on to something though. Our themed threads (Pets, Landscapes, Nature), and even our assignments are all potential calendar making material. I'm not sure how you can get them printed somewhere reputable, and still be cheap enough to sell a boatload of them though.

I ordered calendars from Vistaprint once, and they were quite nice, but not as cheap as you'd find in the mall stalls. The mall stalls don't get made somewhere reputable though. One year our calendar had a week in August where ever day was labeled Tuesday (true, I swear!), and the year before that there was something else screwed up, like 3 Wednesdays in a row.

LOL! What I wouldn't have done for a calendar stuck on Saturday when I was working!

I do have a book (a tad outdated), the 2011 Photographer's Market ...Where and how to sell your photographs. It has some very interesting info in it. I just never moved forward with any of it at the time because my photos were surely lacking even more then than they are now.

[IndianaPhotog]

I find i-stock to have the best selection when we need to buy an image, which is rare now, we get our own images as needed, but they have always had a good selection and prices are good. i-stock pays you more % if you make them the exclusive on the image, or you can sell the image on many sites. I am not an expert about this at all, these are just some thoughts. Good luck.

[Sheiky]

I'm particulairly interested in how stock photography affects your copyright. Since you don't have any influence on potential buyers you are never sure what happens with your photos right?
If you would be exclusively bound to one service would that mean that the rights of your photos would be exclusively for the selling and buying parties?

[Sheiky]

Thanks! I was aware of the limited use license and I guess these licenses differ from service to service. My biggest question was in the exclusivity. I guess I was mistaken by thinking that you more or less give away your rights on your photo there by giving one service exclusive rights.

I know some photographers that use services like Zenfolio and have options to buy the full rights for a photo(sometimes for as little as 50 bucks). I guess you could choose if you want to have this option in stock-services? I think big companies like Ikea for example would want exclusive rights for an image they would like to sell on canvas. This would mean you as the photographer would sell all your rights and you could not even print one for yourself anymore.