What is the best website for selling stock photography / image libraries??

gabrio-photography · Jul 20, 2010

hi there

this is photographer Gabrio, hello to everybody here... i have a question for photographers.... i had some of my photos, mostly reportage on fotolia for a while and just today i realized that their contract is very bad and it doesn't give us photographers good earnings, to make a long story short, i wasn't happy with the relationship with them and i closed my account there.

i have also my photos on photographers direct, but also that website didn't give so positive income in the long run, don't like that, then i found just recently http://www.alamy.com/ which seems to be better and they offer 60% for the photographer and 40% for them. more info > http://www.alamy.com/contributor/help/sell-images.asp - any of you use this???

so i would like to know in your opinion which is a good photography website / stock agency that is good for selling reportage photography. i have some good photos which i would like to sell since they're part of my archive but i am not happy when they offer me "only" 40% from the sale, which means that they do very little work and get lots of earnings, i don't care if they are archive photos which wouldn't be of much use of me, this is about making lots of cash off somebody's else work which i don't like.

bottom line, do you sell photos to stock agencies? if so which are the best ones and why? what is their share they pay you? share experiences if you want... appreciated.

regards

njw1224 · Jul 20, 2010

Well, you might as well get an answer from one of the most successful stock photographers out there (not me). Yuri Arcurs has an article on his site about listing with stock agencies and what ones to use. He definitely promotes listing your images with multiple agencies and not entering into exclusive agreements with any one agency. You'll make more money listing with twelve agencies than being exclusive with just one, even if the exclusive agreements do pay a bit more. Here's the article, agencies are listed in point #9 of the article: Microstock Agencies – An Overview for Beginners | Yuri Arcurs.

Scruggelgreen · Jul 20, 2010

Personally i sell on Bigstockphoto, Dreamstime, Fotolia, AND YayMicro. Of those i highly prefer the first two.

gabrio-photography · Jul 21, 2010

njw1224 said:
Well, you might as well get an answer from one of the most successful stock photographers out there (not me). Yuri Arcurs has an article on his site about listing with stock agencies and what ones to use. He definitely promotes listing your images with multiple agencies and not entering into exclusive agreements with any one agency. You'll make more money listing with twelve agencies than being exclusive with just one, even if the exclusive agreements do pay a bit more. Here's the article, agencies are listed in point #9 of the article: Microstock Agencies An Overview for Beginners | Yuri Arcurs.

actually another photographer gave me that link, that's a good one....thanks

smokinphoto · Jul 24, 2010

Stock photography is something that once it "clicks" you just can't stop. Once you get a few sales under your belt, you feel like your hard work finally has some worth and when the bug gets you, you will find that you start to see the world around you in just 2 ways, saleable or not stock worthy! Everywhere I go I look for abstract lines, people doing everyday things, items of interest, items that are "in fashion" or newsworthy. If I travel further afield, I shoot places, landmarks, airports, stations, buildings and strange and unique architecture.
If I suddenly get a rush of inspiration I will set up the studio and fire away, getting as many angles to my idea as I can, thinking of what editors or designers are after and how they could use the image. It is all very exciting stuff in the world of stock photography.

smokinphoto · Jul 24, 2010

Sell Stock Photography - Microstock Agencies

Shutterstock - One of the most popular sites to sell stock photography and definitely one of the better earners. Sign up, submit 10 of your absolute finest images for review and once accepted, off you go. Make sure the 10 images meet the criteria 100% before submitting, if not, you may have a 3 month wait to try again. Earn 25c per download, doesn't sound much but when you have 100+ a day it all adds up. Also your images get automatically uploaded to many other "sister" sites where you can earn up to $5 per download.
Now, with their extended licences program, you can earn $20 per photo sold...nice!
Dreamstime - A fast, up and coming site that has a great community and many regular buyers. They are sure to be one of the bigger players later so get all your work here too. Sell stock photography for 50c to $1 per download plus an extended licence program. Not as busy as Shutterstock yet but getting there...fast.
iStockphoto - Probably the largest and oldest of the micro sites who were bought out by Getty Images in February 2006. Quite strict on submissions with a tricky uploading system but the payments are up to $1 per regular download.
Big Stock Photo - Considered to be one of the "Big 5", Big Stock Photo is growing every day. Earn 50c - $1 per download.
Fotolia - For me personally, these are one of the most exciting agencies from which to sell stock photography at present. Payments are good (.37c - $1 plus per image sold) and rise with the number of sales you make or ranking that you reach. You can also set your own price for extended licences.

Start with these and as you progress and become involved in the forum activity, you will no doubt learn of all the other agencies out there as well as some of the larger companies.

c.cloudwalker · Jul 24, 2010

A few months ago someone posted an article about the most successful macro/micro stock photog. Whoever actually read the article to the end would have realized that 1/ the guy had a crew of 10-12 photogs working/shooting for him (which would have some sort of impact on each photos' earnings) and 2/ it didn't matter because he had not yet turned a profit :lmao:

Earnings at serious stock agencies have been going down. The likelyhood of making any money from selling shots for $0.25 to to $0.50 a piece is to be seriously doubted. Except for the selling site that is.

But good luck to you.

Bitter Jeweler · Oct 7, 2011

STOP SPAMMING THE FORUM!

dnavarrojr · Oct 7, 2011

I have been doing Microstock for almost 5 years now and if I were just getting in to it today, I wouldn't (but that's just me). The advent of lower-priced DSLRs has caused a massive flood of images and agencies are dropping commissions like crazy in an effort to drive prices down. For the average photographer, you can expect to sell about 12% of your portfolio at an average sale price of 35 cents per image (subscription). If you are lucky and submit a very popular image, it can earn you about $20 to $30 a month for a short period (2 to 4 months). But that is extremely rare these days.

Couple that with "higher standards" on most sites which result in a very high amount of rejections and it becomes an extremely frustrating experience, especially for people new to the game. If you're doing it in an effort to supplement your income, I personally don't think it's worth the effort. If you're doing it for "a few extra bucks to take the wife and/or kids out now and again", then it may be worth your time. The key is being patient and not taking rejection personally. The reviewers at most sites are flawed human beings and make mistakes. So you'll get rejections that make zero sense. You have to be calm and move on to the next image, or re-submit addressing the rejection.

Also, most sites have high amounts you have to hit before they pay out. Typically $50 to $100 and when you are first starting out, it can take MONTHS before you earn that much. There's a couple of low-earning sites with $50 payouts that I've never reached even after being on them for years. Which brings up another issue... Each site appears to cater to different buyers. I have nearly the exact same portfolio on 4 very popular sites with high sales volumes. My best sellers on each of those sites are different. So a popular item on one site may not be on another.

They key is patience... patience... patience. Don't expect to start making money immediately, and don't expect to make lots of money, ever. As someone else mentioned, Yuri has more images online that anyone with a huge staff to help him, but he barely turns a profit and he has to submit thousands of images a month to keep up. The "salad days" of Microstock are over, so don't be lured by false hopes of big payouts. If you're just now starting, you missed those days. But if you're just looking for a few extra bucks now and again for a few nights out a month or minor gear upgrades, it may still be worth your time.

mavrik · Oct 8, 2011

^ What he said.

I've been doing microstock (and midstock) nearly since the beginning (I'm Shutterstock member #136) and I can tell you if you're just getting started, there's very little point unless you're living in a 3rd world country where prices are VERY low and any money helps.

Lee and I have even mainly quit blogging about the industry because, truth told, it's nearly dead. Not sure what the next step is going to be, but the game is closer to over than ever.

If you're going to push forward, I can suggest searching for microstock forums and blogs to get a very in depth look at what you're getting into. I submit to all the major agencies although I'd say beyond the top 7 (Shutterstock, iStock, Fotolia, Dreamstime, Bigstock and 123RF, Alamy) it's probably not worth it. You will spend more time uploading than you ever make back, especially at small tier sites like Canstock, Cutcaster, MostPhotos, YayMicro, etc.

There IS still money to be made on CafePress and Zazzle but even that is running out.