September 7, 2010

Successful Stock Photo Submissions

The four key ingredients of successfully getting your photo submission approved by the stock agencies QC controllers are:

1. Technically good photographs

First, do not confuse this with having the most fancy camera you can buy, it’s NOT because you can simply get by with a cheap 6 Mega Pixel DSLR camera.

Taking good photos from a technical perspective is to 95% related to camera handling and photo editing and only 5% related to the camera you use.

Proof: Not many photographers come even close to Ansel Adams photographs despite he used a bulky old film camera compared to the technical marvels used today.

You need to make sure that you photos are correctly focused, use the right file format, is correctly exposed and doesn’t contain nasty color casts etc.

2. Commercially useful photos

The biggest mistake beginner stock photographers do is to first take images and then hope and pray someone will buy the images. BIG, BIG mistake.

It doesn’t matter how beautiful or artistic a photo is if it’s not commercially useful.

You must first find a good niche and then take and sell photos for that niche.

3. Legally correct photos

No one want’s trouble with the law and that is also true for stock agencies, publishers and photographers. You will have a hard time selling stock photos with big logos in them and images with no model release for commercials.

Be sure to know the law not only to stay out of trouble but also to sell much better.

4. Speed and accuracy of execution

Taking, preparing, submitting and getting image submissions approved is repetitive work and must be done in the right order. Messing up the order things are done will not only increase the risk for rejected submissions but will also cost valuable time and time is money as we all know.

To ensure you work effectively you need a checklist that ensure you make everything in the correct and most time effective way. Making sure you don’t forget to fix technical issues, avoid legal problems and only submit commercially useful photographs.

Download a free checklist from this link now.

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Start A Big Profit Microstock Photography Business

Maybe I’m confused (I hope I’m OK :-) but I decided to release my new special report “Start A Big Profit Microstock Photography Business – 12 Steps To Sell & Resell Your Images” for free.

16 pages of pure content.

No email address required, no jumping through hoops…

… just download the report from this link.

I need to know what you think about the report. Drop me a mail or make a comment below.

Over and out.

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Make Money Selling Micro Stock Photography

Do you have a hard disk full of images and would be happy to make money selling them? No problem, there are plenty of agencies selling micro stock photography and the list is growing longer every day. It’s fast and easy to get started at no cost and pretty much risk free. Upload your images to micro stock websites and they’ll sell your photographs and you get commission for every sale they make.

It’s like making money on autopilot, all you have to do is to take and submit images to the micro stock agency who do all the grunt work while you collect the money (and taking photos is your hobby right?.

The biggest sticking point people have with micro stock photography is that the images sell for only a few dollars and even less. Traditional stock agencies usually sell similar images for hundreds of dollars.

Stock image sold for $330

I sold this stock image for $330 at a traditional stock agency but only once. How many times could i have sold it if the price was $1?

So why would someone sell images through micro stock agencies for a few bucks if they could sell it for hundreds of dollars at a traditional stock agency?

There are more factors that price in the equation so let me explain…

You can calculate how much you earn through this formula:
Number of images sold x Average price = Total sales

So it’s not only the price you get per image but also the number of images sold that matters. And as you might guess, it’s way easier to sell a photo for 1 dollar than for 600 dollar. So in the end you might make much more money selling images for 1 dollar each than you would selling your images for 600 dollars.

OK, this sounds great but what kind of photos can I sell?

There’s a big difference between a good photo and a good marketable photo so that image of aunt Molly’s birthday might mean a lot to you but probably mean nothing for the rest of the world (sorry Molly). The same goes for sunsets and pets which also are very hard to sell.

The best way to find out what sells is to analyze the most popular images section you can find at most micro stock websites. You can also analyze images in magazines and websites. But in general… Photos that sell falls in two categories:

  1. Photos of people doing something
  2. Photos expressing a concept or a mood

Be extra careful if your image contains a recognizable face or building as you will need a signed model release. Also be careful if your image contains a subject protected by a copyright or trademark.

Here’s a couple of micro stock agencies to get your started:

So what are you waiting for?

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