Thinking it time you started selling your photos as stock photography? Stock photography is big these days and everybody appears to be doing it, unfortunately though, most people are going about it the wrong way.
The very first thing you must do is decide where you want to end up ...
Are you wanting a fulltime business? Do you dream about throwing in the day job and becoming a fulltime photographer? Or do you just want a little extra cash from your hobby? Perhaps you'd be content to get a new lens once a year from your profits?
If you want the first option, you are looking at joining a very competitive industry and that is going to take major time, effort and you're going to have to invest real money to make it happen.
For stock photography you want to consider all aspects of your photography the standard of your work, the commercial potential of the subjects you shoot, how many photos you have on file and how often you add to them. Quality, Content & Volume to achieve success in stock photography you need to have each of those aspects well and truly covered.
If you feel you could have work to do in any of those areas, I'd recommend you take some time to work on them first. Take a short course to fine-tune your technique, buy some stock photography books to find more saleable subjects, and then shoot like mad to build up your catalog.
Stock is competitive and sure to suck the joy right out of your photography if you try to start selling your photos before you're prepared.
If you aren't out for a major life-change though, you really have other more options.
Many serious amateur photographers place their photos with the subscription libraries and hope to make a bit of loose change every year but I honestly believe this is about the least likely to succeed of your options.
A number of these stock photo sites are selling photos for a greenback or less each, royalty free, so the photographers gets a few pennies for the sale, and the purchaser gets free usage of the image, for evermore. This doesn't worry lots of amateurs, but it has a huge impact on the industry. If that does not concern you, it probably should.
If circumstances change and you decide one day to sell your pictures seriously, each $1 sale you make is going to make it that much tougher for you to make a living. And to rub salt into the wound, you won't be able to sell and of those pictures to top-end buyers, because you'll have no idea where they've been printed before or where they'd turn up next.
Sometimes you will find a better option for the hobbyist is to use your imagesimages as content instead of product, and publish them on your own simple photography sites promoting affiliate products. For most photographers this will lead directly to better returns without giving your images away for peanuts, and if you one day opt to get serious about selling your photos, they're still totally yours to sell.
The very first thing you must do is decide where you want to end up ...
Are you wanting a fulltime business? Do you dream about throwing in the day job and becoming a fulltime photographer? Or do you just want a little extra cash from your hobby? Perhaps you'd be content to get a new lens once a year from your profits?
If you want the first option, you are looking at joining a very competitive industry and that is going to take major time, effort and you're going to have to invest real money to make it happen.
For stock photography you want to consider all aspects of your photography the standard of your work, the commercial potential of the subjects you shoot, how many photos you have on file and how often you add to them. Quality, Content & Volume to achieve success in stock photography you need to have each of those aspects well and truly covered.
If you feel you could have work to do in any of those areas, I'd recommend you take some time to work on them first. Take a short course to fine-tune your technique, buy some stock photography books to find more saleable subjects, and then shoot like mad to build up your catalog.
Stock is competitive and sure to suck the joy right out of your photography if you try to start selling your photos before you're prepared.
If you aren't out for a major life-change though, you really have other more options.
Many serious amateur photographers place their photos with the subscription libraries and hope to make a bit of loose change every year but I honestly believe this is about the least likely to succeed of your options.
A number of these stock photo sites are selling photos for a greenback or less each, royalty free, so the photographers gets a few pennies for the sale, and the purchaser gets free usage of the image, for evermore. This doesn't worry lots of amateurs, but it has a huge impact on the industry. If that does not concern you, it probably should.
If circumstances change and you decide one day to sell your pictures seriously, each $1 sale you make is going to make it that much tougher for you to make a living. And to rub salt into the wound, you won't be able to sell and of those pictures to top-end buyers, because you'll have no idea where they've been printed before or where they'd turn up next.
Sometimes you will find a better option for the hobbyist is to use your imagesimages as content instead of product, and publish them on your own simple photography sites promoting affiliate products. For most photographers this will lead directly to better returns without giving your images away for peanuts, and if you one day opt to get serious about selling your photos, they're still totally yours to sell.
About the Author:
Brad Stephens contributes digital stock photographyto the GlobalEye library and publishes instant affiliatephoto web sites in his free time
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