These are certainly the times where more than ever before our personal skills and talents are proving absolutely vital in the quest to earn a living. As people continue to lose their conventional jobs to the economic grind-down, many are now embracing their talents to make decent incomes – photography is one such talent through which thousands, if not millions around the world are earning very respectable incomes. Selling your photos may just be the thing for you regardless of whether you are a professional photographer or not. Provided that you are armed with a camera and knowledge of where to trade-in your work profitably, you may never have to think about a conventional 9 to 5 job anymore.
The photography industry is not new – it has however grown in leaps and bounds over the years, a fact that has necessitated the evolution of novel ways through which the selling of photos is done. Before we explore some of these new avenues, it is fitting that we begin by highlighting the ones that are currently in more use. The best starting point will however be an introduction of photography selling as a career.
1The Basics About Selling Your Photos
The most profitable photos to deal in are generally those that have commercial demand/appeal – regardless of the subject. Tourist-like photos and snapshots have no place here – what you shoot must appeal to highly critical persons including designers and art directors. If you are unsure about this description, you may want to gloss over the images available at sites like Comstock, Corbis, and Getty Images.
Some of the other prerequisites that you must always adhere to include, producing photos that are completely without digital noise, and photos that don’t bear third-party brands and images or company trademarks and logos. If you intend to use recognizable persons, especially models, as your subjects then you must always ensure that the model signs a model release form.
A career in stock photography certainly requires that your work is top-notch. To produce such photos you need some equipment including a small but effective home studio, a two minute reflector, a DIY light tent, and a flash diffuser. More reading on these can be done at DIYPhotography.
2About Selecting an Appropriate Photo Agency
Choosing the right agency to which you can sell your photos will involve some research on your part. Visit different websites and while doing so make an honest comparison of your work and what has been stocked there in terms of style and quality. Check to see the number of times that a given image has been downloaded and indeed the number of people who have visited the website. Most of these websites will have community forums – you can join them and proceed to make inquiries from other photographers in terms of their monthly sales etc. All these pointers should help you narrow down your choice of agency quite well.
You can sell your photos in more than one category – an aspect that you can and must use for your profitable advantage. All that you require is the using of appropriate keywords in their sale such that your targeted audiences will have an easy time finding them. This task is greatly eased through the use of an online key-wording tool for stock photographers.
3What Are Some of the Stock Agencies You Can Sell Your Photos to?
Some of the most recommended stock photography websites/agencies include the following:
- Dreamstime – The site is popular for its friendliness, quick image uploading, and fast approval times. Photographers get 50% of the image price.
- Fotolia – Here you set your own sale price and are assured of a commission more than 50%. They have very fast approval times and equally fast payment structures through PayPal.
- Bigstockphoto – Their approval is done in roughly three days. Each downloaded image earns you either 50c or $1.
- Shutter Stock – This is currently the leading agency/website for stock photography. It has a unique and profitable image download & payment structure that works to the advantage of both the customer and the photographer. Approval times are very fast.
- Other stock agencies/websites that you can opt to deal with include 123rf.com , Stockxpert, iStockPhoto , CanStockPhoto, Feature Pics, and PhotoStockPlus.
4Novel Approaches for Selling Your Photos
The fact that stock photography involves millions of people who are each trying to get their work sold, definitely tells you that the competition is cut-throat. The more entrepreneurial photographers have embraced new approaches that are now helping them be better than the rest in terms of service promotion, image selling, and overcoming competition.
Among these approaches is niche stock photography where, for example, a photographer produces images that are relevant to certain corporate and organizations that are based in a given area/region. Other photographers have gone further and created multiple revenue earning streams from their photos. Such streams include creating a website for the sale of commissioned photos that clients didn’t use, and another where self-commissioned shots and images can be sold. These stock sales are proving quite a valuable addition to their total incomes. The vital aspect of marketing is also being taken to a whole new level that is greatly augmenting the timeless and effective word-of-mouth approach – social networking forums including Twitter are now being used to give the effort a global outlook.
