I ran across a link a week or so ago on RedGage, that lead to an article about selling stock photography to earn money. The person recommended taking photos of "nothing" and selling them as textures- things like dirt, or grass, or the carpet. Something that can be a high quality background image.
He listed several sites, and I finally looked into 3 of them last night. I immediatly ruled one out- it wanted my credit card information to verify address. There are ways to do that which do not include my credit card info, please and thank you.
One site seems good, though. It pays depending on how many people buy the image. If 2000 people download it, you get a set fee 2000 times. If it's even just $.10, that's $200. They claim they have members making over $500 a month. I don't know if that would be possible for me, but for doing something I love, it's worth a shot.
The other site made it sound like it pays a flat rate per photo, but it wasn't entirely clear. I only signed all the way up for one site:
http://www.dreamstime.com/
You earn 50-80% of the sale fee on each sale you make of your photos. The photos start as low as $.20 each, but go up from there. I haven't had much time to really look the site over. I don't know if I set the sale price, or if they do. I don't know how they decide between 50 & 80%.
So, here's my question- does anyone here sell their photos to stock places? What places do you like? Do you make a decent amount at it? What types of photos do you take?
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Comments: 36
I have no idea..but I would like to know as well. So, I will be reading this thread.
I have never done this, but I too am interested in the responses.
Funny, I just discovered this one for a blog I was working on and thought hey...why not? I'll be back to check this post to see what others say.
I'm really hoping someone here knows about it, and can help guide me through it. I'd love to earn a little bit of extra money this way, while indulging my love of taking photos.
I've thought about it... but haven't gone beyond the thinking part yet.
I don't now enough about it to help you :-( You know as much as I know now!
I've never heard of selling stock photos before
I'll be watching this thread to learn more. I do know that a company I used to work at, we would buy stock photo cd's & they would be expensive.
The sites sell individual photos, but they also have programs to buy credits at $100 for credits, etc. I know they can add up to a lot, because they're used for ads and what not.
Priscilla --- the days of expensive stock photography CDs are OVER! Most graphic designers know about stock photography sites now, so we can buy our images for as little as $1, all the way up to purchasing exclusive rights for an ad campaign for thousands of dollars. This way of doing business has revolutionized how people buy and sell stock photography. There will always be people trying to SELL the expensive CDs, but hardly anyone left around that buys them anymore!
I would LOVE to sell some of my stuff. I joined a site a while ago, but never followed through. In fact, I haven't even visited there in months.
some info I looked up on selling stock photos:
No digital noise, please...
Most agencies rank each photo based on it's overall quality and potential for salability. Make sure your photos are clear, crisp, nicely composed, well lit and most importantly free of digital noise caused by high iso, underexposure, long exposures and over-processing.
- No snapshots or tourist-like photos, please...
Do not ever think that you'll earn lots of money by selling your snapshots or tourist-like photos. This is not a get rich quick scheme. Your photos must be commercially in demand and highly usable for art directors or designers. You can take a look at the most popular files once you've signed up to an agency to get an idea of what is selling. You can also review other professional sites like GettyImages, Corbis, and Comstock to get some inspirations.
I found this as well:
FOTOLIA
Fotolia is the newest micro-stock photo agency and really has a lot of earning potential.For each photograph sold, the photographer receives a commission based on the type of license sold to the customer. Fotolia currently has a local presence in 5 major countries: USA, France, Spain, Germany, and UK. Biy mid 2006 they plan to be in all English speaking countries and all major European countries. For more info about their commision structure, please visit http://www.fotolia.com
This was one of the sites listed that I hadn't looked at yet.
Dreamstime has been online since 2000 as a Royalty-Free stock photography website, selling CD imagery. The concept has been redesigned, upgraded and adapted to the market's need, evolving into a powerful and active community in March 2004. Your commission is .50 for each photo downloaded, but I believe your commision would increase as more people donwload your photos. Please visit their site to check the detail of their royalty figure.
May'09 Earnings: $832.25 (1131 photos online
I am finding all of this information in this site: http://www.dphotojournal.com/sell-photos-online/
There is a ton of info...but I'm tired of copy/pasting it
. Can you post the same photo on multiple stock photography websites?
Yes, you can..unless if you choose for being exclusive with Dreamstime or any other agencies that offer exclusivity. Then, you MUST only submit your photos to that agency.
3. What type of photography seems to be the most profitable?
Shoot what you like.. But keep in mind that your photos must be commercially in demand. While some photographers say that people photos always sell really good, my best sellers have always been landscape/travel photographs.
4. Are you selling the same photos at multiple agencies?
Yes, I am.. as I'm not being exclusive to any agency and I'm selling all my photos as Royalty Free.
Great information- Thank you for looking it up!
I like that website as it shows what he has earned each month, for the past few years.
Yeah, I was reading up on that. He makes a really decent amount each month. $3k a month for 12 months is $36000 a year on photography alone. I have my doubts I'll be anywhere near as good as he is, but I have some good photos that would at least get me started.
Excellent post, Priscilla offering some great info. Thanks Heather! This could really add up it seems...
I don't sell my images, but I can from a designer's stand point give you the websites I WOULD sell images to (the ones I use to buy photos from for my designs...) I use the following stock photography sites:
www.istockphoto.com (my opinion is this is the best in the world)
www.dreamstime.com (my 2nd favorite)
www.bigstockphoto.com (my 3rd fave)
I buy from these all the time and have THOUGHT about selling through them a lot, but with my 3 preschoolers at home I just haven't had the time to start a new venture with anything. I would trust the three sites above implicity because I have done business with them myself. Just make sure the photos you are taking are as high of resolution as you can take. Some people need low resolution for websites and stuff, but a lot of the designers buying from those sites use the images in print and those images have to be high resolution. Hope this helps a little bit.
By the way, people buy lots of different kinds of images. Yes, textures can be used as backgrounds. Also blue sky pics, grass pics, but you have to find a way that your pics stick out from the other thousand blue sky pics. Anyway... take pictures of anything that could be used in a print ad or on a book cover, or in a brochure... you never know what image a designer is looking for to complete their vision!
If you take pictures of objects (like a paper clip) take it on a white background so we can crop out the background when we use it...
Okay... i'm shutting up now...
it sounds interesting...I sure need a way to make some bigger bucks...I need more sites that pay as gather does!
I belong to some ( though I forget which) and haven't sold anything ( which is why they were so easily forgotten)
I might add the modeling contract rule gets me a lot....my photos at the park and such often catch a human being in the frame and it gets rejected...even if there's no possible way to identify the face....ugh.....lots of hoops to jump through....I'm frustrated a bit by all the sites....It might show a little ;)
Good luck with your endeavor, Heather.
Never heard of it ~ I would love to see how it works for you.