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.
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:
- Photos of people doing something
- 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?
