Stock Photos Sites?

[Mike K]

I have a fantasy about making a few bucks (maybe a few thousand) to pay for more photo gear

Has anyone tried selling photos on stock photo sites? Any thoughts on which ones would be more fruitful or which ones to avoid?

Let the abuse begin

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Using the search function on this forum will yield many, many, results of similar threads by people with similar pipe dreams.

Good luck!

 

[Overread]

As Bitter says this comes up fairly often as a subject.

However as a very short summary its generally not worth it and chances are if you print off and frame a few prints and go around local coffee/tea shops and ask them to put them on display for sale (normally commission charge per sale) or even attend a country fair you'll likely make more out of one or two proper sales that way (with proper pricing) than you will from stock.

Stock isn't going to make you much unless you have a lot of commercial viable images; there are whole studios setup to shoot for Stock and most don't make very much money at all. The very very few make a lot, but the average isn't making much and most who do make a decent amount have 1000s of stock images gathered over many years to put up for sale.

 

[KmH]

Sell photos online, sell stock photography | Yuri Arcurs

Microstock Agencies – An Overview for Beginners | Yuri Arcurs

What should I shoot and what sells well? | Yuri Arcurs

Legal ABC for stock photographers | Yuri Arcurs

The Big Boy's ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

http://contributors.gettyimages.com/article_public.aspx?article_id=2367

Corbis Contributor Gateway: Why Work With Corbis?

The stock photography business has changed dramatically over the last 10 years.

It is much harder today to make money with stock. I recommend concentrating on producing images that can be licensed for Rights-Managed use (RM) rather than the typical microstock Royalty-Free (RF) Licensing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_managed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royalty_free

 

[orljustin]

Has anyone tried selling photos on stock photo sites?

No. No one has ever tried selling photos on stock photo sites.

 

[RacePhoto]

Using the search function on this forum will yield many, many, results of similar threads by people with similar pipe dreams.

Good luck!

I wanted to quote that as a preface because it's not easy and if you read the other replies, I'd say they are accurate. There are Photo Factories producing images for Microstock. Recently some long time collections have been moved to iStock and ShutterStock, (these are over 50,000 photos each!) There are also individuals who make some money in their spare time. I wouldn't count on Stock or Microstock as a future income source, but I wouldn't count it out as entertaining, challenging and it does produce some returns.

I hardly try and I made $459 last year. I'll tell you right now, I only contribute to three sites, because after the top two Micro's it's a waste of time. (IMHO) Alamy makes more money for me than Microstock. So while I have a link below and would love to have the first person ever to use my ShutterStock link get One accepted photo and make a sale, I'll be honest. just getting accepted as an artist stops some people. I put up a challenge a few months ago, and not only did I get not one person to sign up, the obvious, no one passed the admissions test either. LOL

Seven referrals in four years, not one has ever gotten one photo accepted. The whole "sell those old files just sitting on your hard drive." Is glossing over, "just about every pixel needs to be perfect and only some shots are needed at this point." Pet pictures, flowers, things you see while you are out for a walk, probably won't be accepted and if they are, they won't sell. People, models, and good concept images, will sell. You'll need to get model releases for each shoot.

The best earning site for the majority of people is ShutterStock, they pay 25 cents a download until you reach $500 total. While that seems low, they are the place with the most sales and you will make the most money there, for MicroStock. Yes, you can get accepted at 100 other places, but they hardly sell anything, so why waste the time? Shutterstock :: Make money with your photos!

iStock (Getty) has been lowering commissions, and now has ported all independent members over to ThinkStockPhoto, where you get 28c a download. Less sales than SS and they have been pushing the iStock photos to the front of searches on TSP, so your pictures on IS will get sold on TSP for cheap subscription prices. With pretty much the same images, I sell six times more on SS than IS. And those ARE the big two! In IS I was averaging 65 cents a download for the last four years.

That leaves Alamy which doesn't fool around, you can upload virtually anything, (they judge the photo quality not the subject or their opinion of marketability, like Micro does) the commission is 60%. 10MP is the minimum size. SS takes 4MP and up, has critical review for Commercial Value, and in all is fair to users. I can't quote a percentage, because they have subscriptions and pay 25c a download, you get a raise to 33c at $500. $28 for an Extended License download. They do have some On Demand sales, where you'll get $1.88 to start with or single sales for $3.44. You can count most of your sales being for a quarter each... Shutterstock :: Make money with your photos! iStock pays 15%, has roughly the same review standards, you need to add your metadata through a proprietary system, with categories and Controlled Vocabulary. Their sales have been dropping, but it's a decent market place.

The rest? There are people with 1000 to 5000 images, making an average of $10 a month on "the rest". I think it's a waste of time. However, if you have 50 sites, with 1000 images and they all make $5 a month, that's $250? How many years and hours do you want to work for $250?

Bottom line, before you'll make any consistent return, you'll need about 500 accepted, good commercial images on MicroStock. For that you can probably make $100 to $200 a year, each of the two big sites. (wow, way to talk it up right?) But that's average. Some do better, some do worse.

Alamy is a whole different animal. Travel, pets, heck they will take your pet rock if the photo is exposed properly, well defined and clean. At which point I need to mention for all of the above. Getting accepted is just the first step. Making a sale is even more difficult. :er: If you have pretty travel photos, scenery or things that would work well for books and magazines, I'd say take a shot at Alamy. Their buyers are completely different from the MicroStock people.

Anyone who wants, PM or email me, I'll be happy to answer. I'm no expert and not a big seller, but I have been watching MicroStock for five years.

Oh yes and someone please, use my link and get accepted at ShutterStock. Just one making it through would be a real treat for 2012!