Selling Stock Photography

Selling stock photography can be an ideal way to start a photography home business.

Entry requirements are not overly restrictive and equipment is limited to a digital camera, a computer and photo processing software such as Photoshop. The process of selling your images through microstock photography sites is fairly simple. These are the steps to take.

• Research the best microstock photography sites online There are a number of sites but you will want to start with a couple of the most popular sites. Below this section we list the some of the better sites to start with.
• Submit your pictures Some sites have minimum requirements when you start an account with them such as submitting a minimum number of images for review. However to start selling stock photography you should have built up a decent volume of good images - the only way to make money in stock photography is by uploading a large quantity of images that are in demand by the market. Your pictures will be reviewed by humans and accepted or rejected by the stock photography site.
• Find out what type of images are in demand Consider whether the type of photographs you are taking are likely to be purchased by potential customers. Photographs that have clear value as an idea or concept are the most popular images on stock photography sites. A number of microstock sites have a "Most Downloaded" or "Most Viewed" facility where you can see which images have sold best. This will help you determine the type of photos you should be submitting to optimize your earning potential. Find out more about submitting the right images at Selling Photographs Online.
• Payment Technically the stock photography sites are not buying your images, they are licensing them for specific use. The photographers always retain full copyright to their images and can sell the same photo over and over again to additional clients and sites. This is the big advantage of stock photography - once you have a good image that has been accepted by multiple sites you will earn money from that one picture time and time again. Microstock agencies pay the photographer anything from between $0.20 to over $20 per file download depending on the size and rating of the image purchased by the client. This seems very little but keep in mind that with a large number of in-demand images on multiple sites it all adds up.

• Dreamstime A user-friendly site since 2000 that requires you to submit your work for review before accepting you as a contributor. Once you have been accepted you can receive between 30 and 60 percent royalty fees for each of your images purchased. Dreamstime claims to have the highest royalties in the industry. A full explanation of their requirements and payments is available at www.dreamstime.com
• iStockPhoto A big microstock agency that pay the photographer a royalty rate of 20% for each file download and up to 40% for Exclusive contributors. This works out approximately to payments of $0.30 for an XSmall image to $7.50 for an XXXLarge image download. You need to join as a member and you are required to submit 3 samples of your work. There is an online manual that explains the whole process in detail.
• Fotolia One of the fastest microstock sites to approve submissions. You are required to complete a quick online training session before submitting your images for review. Royalty fees range from 25% to 63% based on your ranking. Ranking is determined by the total number of files sold and so improves over time.
• Bigstockphoto This fast growing site pays 50 cents for every 1 credit the customer spends on your image which translates to up to $3.00 per download. You can increase your earnings substantially by signing up for their Special Licensing program which is clearly detailed on their site.
• Shutterstock This is a subscription based stock photo agency which allows the customer to donwload up to 25 images per day during the subscription period. This business model encourages downloads and increases the number of downloads your image is likely to get. They pay between $0.25 to $28.00 commission per image download.

Find out more about submitting in-demand images and using the right keywords to maximize your downloads when selling stock photography at Selling Photographs Online

Find answers to frequently asked questions about Selling Stock Photos.

Find out more about Making Money with Photography.

All about Starting a Photography Business.

How to find Freelance Photography Work is clearly outlined in this guide to freelance photography.

Selling stock photography can be the first step to a profitable
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