Stock Photo Questions?

[czsmola]

Before anyone chews my head off I did try and search this but nothing useful came up... if you are able to find an old thread i would appreciate a link.

I have been looking at the stock photography pages as a way to possibly make some/little money but I am not sure if it is really worth my investment of time to be a contributor.

are some sites better then others and do you actually have a chance at making some money with out getting screwed over? Like when they say Royalty-free dose that mean that lets say a magazine would use my Photo and printed it a bazillion times i would only get like $0.30? Also if I upload it to the site do i retain the rights to that image? or dose it then become the property of that site?

I would like to see what personal experienc people have had with this.

I have no delusion that I would make my first Million by years end. But it would be nice to get something.


and if it is worth while what site should i be mostly looking at...

 

[391615]

my take on it as I looked at it a while ago, the top Five photos each month on a site may get between 100-500 hits. this is out of thousands of photos. I think each one was like $1.50 per photo, but there were so many photos with no hits at all. I'm thinking its a hard thing to get into. I guess though, it can't hurt just to put your photos on there, and see what happens. Most of the really creative ones go real well. you know the ones that show candles of 2008 burning out etc.

 

[federerphotography]

There are two types of 'stock' agencies.

Microstock and 'regular'.

Microstock is the kind that sells your images for a few bucks, doesn't really control useage, and gives you pennies. Do NOT do microstock - not only does it devalue your images, but it also devalues the industry as a whole. Some people swear by it, but those people are generally not professional photographers and they are happy to make 10 bucks a month on 1000 sales...

Normal stock sites, like Getty, Alamy, etc charge reasonable rates but require you to 'qualify' to get in. The qualifications are different based on the agency. At these places, you might sell an image for 100-1000 dollars and you'll get like 65% of the sale. But, obviously, you are less likely to make a sale at these places. With a good library, I have friends that make their full income with good agencies.

Some agencies have 'exclusive' rights rules, some don't. You'll have to do more reseason. A google search will turn up MORE than you can possible read.