Thinking it time you started selling your photos as stock photography? Stock photography is big these days and everybody appears to be doing it, unfortunately though, most people are going about it the wrong way.
The very first thing you must do is decide where you want to end up ...
Are you wanting a fulltime business? Do you dream about throwing in the day job and becoming a fulltime photographer? Or do you just want a little extra cash from your hobby? Perhaps you'd be content to get a new lens once a year from your profits?
If you want the first option, you are looking at joining a very competitive industry and that is going to take major time, effort and you're going to have to invest real money to make it happen.
For stock photography you need to think about every aspect of your photography the quality of your work, the commercial potential of the subjects you shoot, how many pictures you have on file and how frequently you add to them. Quality, Content & Volume to be successful in stock photography you have to have each of those aspects absolutely covered.
If you happen to feel you may need to work on any of those areas, I'd counsel you take your time to work on them first. Take a short course to improve your photography technique, buy some stock photography books to find more commercial subjects, and then shoot constantly to build your volume.
Stock is competitive and certain to suck the joy right from your photography if you try and start selling your photos before you are ready.
If you aren't out for a major life-change though, you really have other more options.
A lot of part-time photographers place their pictures with the microstock libraries and hope to make a little bit of small change each year but I truly believe this is about the very worst of your choices.
Some of these stock photo sites are selling images for a dollar or less each, royalty free, so the photographers gets a few pennies for the sale, and the purchaser gets free usage of the image, for evermore. This doesn't worry a lot of newbies, but it has a big effect on the industry. If that does not concern you, it probably should.
If circumstances change and you decide one day to sell your pictures seriously, each $1 sale you make is going to make it that much tougher for you to make a living. And to rub salt into the wound, you won't be able to sell and of those pictures to top-end buyers, because you'll have no idea where they've been printed before or where they'd turn up next.
Sometimes you will find a better option for the hobbyist is to use your imagesimages as content instead of product, and publish them on your own simple photography sites promoting affiliate products. For most photographers this will lead directly to better returns without giving your images away for peanuts, and if you one day opt to get serious about selling your photos, they're still totally yours to sell.
The very first thing you must do is decide where you want to end up ...
Are you wanting a fulltime business? Do you dream about throwing in the day job and becoming a fulltime photographer? Or do you just want a little extra cash from your hobby? Perhaps you'd be content to get a new lens once a year from your profits?
If you want the first option, you are looking at joining a very competitive industry and that is going to take major time, effort and you're going to have to invest real money to make it happen.
For stock photography you need to think about every aspect of your photography the quality of your work, the commercial potential of the subjects you shoot, how many pictures you have on file and how frequently you add to them. Quality, Content & Volume to be successful in stock photography you have to have each of those aspects absolutely covered.
If you happen to feel you may need to work on any of those areas, I'd counsel you take your time to work on them first. Take a short course to improve your photography technique, buy some stock photography books to find more commercial subjects, and then shoot constantly to build your volume.
Stock is competitive and certain to suck the joy right from your photography if you try and start selling your photos before you are ready.
If you aren't out for a major life-change though, you really have other more options.
A lot of part-time photographers place their pictures with the microstock libraries and hope to make a little bit of small change each year but I truly believe this is about the very worst of your choices.
Some of these stock photo sites are selling images for a dollar or less each, royalty free, so the photographers gets a few pennies for the sale, and the purchaser gets free usage of the image, for evermore. This doesn't worry a lot of newbies, but it has a big effect on the industry. If that does not concern you, it probably should.
If circumstances change and you decide one day to sell your pictures seriously, each $1 sale you make is going to make it that much tougher for you to make a living. And to rub salt into the wound, you won't be able to sell and of those pictures to top-end buyers, because you'll have no idea where they've been printed before or where they'd turn up next.
Sometimes you will find a better option for the hobbyist is to use your imagesimages as content instead of product, and publish them on your own simple photography sites promoting affiliate products. For most photographers this will lead directly to better returns without giving your images away for peanuts, and if you one day opt to get serious about selling your photos, they're still totally yours to sell.
About the Author:
Brad Stephens contributes digital stock photographyto the GlobalEye library and publishes instant affiliatephoto web sites in his free time
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