Selling pictures online has become serious business in the last few years digital SLRs keep getting cheaper and the photographs they produce keep getting better. It seems like everybody in the world must own a camera by now. Given the ongoing financial crises of the previous couple of years, it's no surprise that more and more camera owners are looking to sell photography online for some extra money.
For pro photographers attempting to make a living selling photography online all this extra competition from the hobbyists has made life pretty difficult. Masses of sites have appeared offering photographers the facility to give their work away for nothing more than small change and the excitement of making a sale. The market has been deluged by cheap pictures and many photography buyers have come to view stock photography as just another commodity to be sourced at the lowest possible cost.
It isn't all bad news though. In lots of ways we've now come the full circle, and a growing number of photography buyers are showing a renewed interest in features aside from price alone. For the smart photographer, this offers a way to stand proud of the crowd and define a niche of their own.
Specialised Content:
There is such a thing as too much choice, and specialist photo buyers had enough of the large stock libraries with millions of photographs. Lots of the photo buyers we talk to are constantly looking for new collections that focus on their interests, and will happily search 4-5 specialist libraries instead of one mega collection.
Most stock photography articles will tell you to start by applying to the 4-5 largest stock libraries for the maximum exposure but that is only half of the story. Those sites might get the most exposure, but that doesn't always mean you will get a share of it.
Instead of joining millions of other photographers at the 'big-four ' stock libraries, you will do miles better to find 3-4 boutique stock libraries that you can submit to. Pick one photography stock agency as your most important internet foothold and use the others to repost your content (photographic and written) and add substance to your Internet footprint.
Original Content:
If you look around, you'll find a lot of 'experts ' who'll tell you the swiftest way to earn money with microstock is to observe the images that sell best on the major libraries, and copy them. It's possible this may work for some time, but you just need to see the masses of ordinary pictures of popular subjects to see why buyers are done with it.
Miles better that you adopt a Client-centric approach and think about your end user, who they may be and what they really need the stock photographs for so you can then set about making pictures they can use.
The best thing about this approach is, you can still check the major libraries to see what's selling, but then, instead of simply duplicating what you see, you can identify the themes and concepts that the buyers need associated with the subjects, and from there create something fresh and new that you know your buyers will need..
Personal Service:
In an industry where the buyers were always racing to meet impossible deadlines, immediate downloads must have looked a God-send for some time.
As one of the few stock photography libraries that did not offer instant downloads, we definitely felt the pressure when we started. We soon realized though the photo buyer's top priority was to 'find the image ' and as long as a reliable delivery followed, 'instant ' was not really a problem.
In reality, photography buyers are creative people who enjoy interacting with other creative people. These days we are still finding plenty of top-end photography buyers who are happy to take a little more time and experience the 'photo research ' journey, dealing directly with the photographers, so long as it's pro and efficient.
So however and wherever you opt to sell stock photos, ensure you make yourself available to photography buyers. They'll appreciate it and once the link is made, they'll come back to you time and time again.
Value Your Work & Your Time
When you approach stock photography on this basis, you are really positioning yourself as a top-end provider, which helps you stand out from the masses even farther.
Without going into the whole rights-managed vs royalty-free argument, there are millions of photographers on the internet nowadays queueing up to give their work away for peanuts, so it you follow the crowd you will be facing great competition for the smallest of returns.
In comparison, the rights-managed market is much less competitive and pays significantly more, so if you have the top quality , original content, then it makes perfect sense to carve out your own niche there as an alternative. Specialist photographers have always thrived and in the current market place it's more important than ever that you concentrate on doing a few things exceptionally well to sell photography online.
When you specialise your work interests, you narrow your market and you're able to actually start to know your clients. This in turn enables you to understand their needs and create the high quality original content which will make you stand out from the crowd. And if you then back every sales lead with exceptional personal service, you'll soon build a Client list that will come to rely on you as a creative partner they would like to do business with.
For pro photographers attempting to make a living selling photography online all this extra competition from the hobbyists has made life pretty difficult. Masses of sites have appeared offering photographers the facility to give their work away for nothing more than small change and the excitement of making a sale. The market has been deluged by cheap pictures and many photography buyers have come to view stock photography as just another commodity to be sourced at the lowest possible cost.
It isn't all bad news though. In lots of ways we've now come the full circle, and a growing number of photography buyers are showing a renewed interest in features aside from price alone. For the smart photographer, this offers a way to stand proud of the crowd and define a niche of their own.
Specialised Content:
There is such a thing as too much choice, and specialist photo buyers had enough of the large stock libraries with millions of photographs. Lots of the photo buyers we talk to are constantly looking for new collections that focus on their interests, and will happily search 4-5 specialist libraries instead of one mega collection.
Most stock photography articles will tell you to start by applying to the 4-5 largest stock libraries for the maximum exposure but that is only half of the story. Those sites might get the most exposure, but that doesn't always mean you will get a share of it.
Instead of joining millions of other photographers at the 'big-four ' stock libraries, you will do miles better to find 3-4 boutique stock libraries that you can submit to. Pick one photography stock agency as your most important internet foothold and use the others to repost your content (photographic and written) and add substance to your Internet footprint.
Original Content:
If you look around, you'll find a lot of 'experts ' who'll tell you the swiftest way to earn money with microstock is to observe the images that sell best on the major libraries, and copy them. It's possible this may work for some time, but you just need to see the masses of ordinary pictures of popular subjects to see why buyers are done with it.
Miles better that you adopt a Client-centric approach and think about your end user, who they may be and what they really need the stock photographs for so you can then set about making pictures they can use.
The best thing about this approach is, you can still check the major libraries to see what's selling, but then, instead of simply duplicating what you see, you can identify the themes and concepts that the buyers need associated with the subjects, and from there create something fresh and new that you know your buyers will need..
Personal Service:
In an industry where the buyers were always racing to meet impossible deadlines, immediate downloads must have looked a God-send for some time.
As one of the few stock photography libraries that did not offer instant downloads, we definitely felt the pressure when we started. We soon realized though the photo buyer's top priority was to 'find the image ' and as long as a reliable delivery followed, 'instant ' was not really a problem.
In reality, photography buyers are creative people who enjoy interacting with other creative people. These days we are still finding plenty of top-end photography buyers who are happy to take a little more time and experience the 'photo research ' journey, dealing directly with the photographers, so long as it's pro and efficient.
So however and wherever you opt to sell stock photos, ensure you make yourself available to photography buyers. They'll appreciate it and once the link is made, they'll come back to you time and time again.
Value Your Work & Your Time
When you approach stock photography on this basis, you are really positioning yourself as a top-end provider, which helps you stand out from the masses even farther.
Without going into the whole rights-managed vs royalty-free argument, there are millions of photographers on the internet nowadays queueing up to give their work away for peanuts, so it you follow the crowd you will be facing great competition for the smallest of returns.
In comparison, the rights-managed market is much less competitive and pays significantly more, so if you have the top quality , original content, then it makes perfect sense to carve out your own niche there as an alternative. Specialist photographers have always thrived and in the current market place it's more important than ever that you concentrate on doing a few things exceptionally well to sell photography online.
When you specialise your work interests, you narrow your market and you're able to actually start to know your clients. This in turn enables you to understand their needs and create the high quality original content which will make you stand out from the crowd. And if you then back every sales lead with exceptional personal service, you'll soon build a Client list that will come to rely on you as a creative partner they would like to do business with.
About the Author:
Matt Brading recommends selling photographs online using a co-operative photo stock agency, such as GlobalEye Images. You can find out more and download a free stock photography business kit. Matt also sells his digital stock photography through OzImages, the original direct-contact stock photo library.
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