Sunday, November 23, 2008

Microstock Photography

My most popular shot at Shutterstock

Microstock!  Sell your images round the world royalty free. I think this is such a great potential opportunity. If you are into photography, (like me) you can have an outlet and make a wee bit of $ at the same time. Why not let your pictures sit on someone else's hard drive and have the potential to earn some play money for you.
I am on 4 sites and in order of sales, they are Shutterstock, iStock, Dreamstime and StockXpert There are many many sites out there and some folk are with dozens. Shutterstock and iStock do well because thousands of folk use them for stock photography, so there are more people looking for shots.
I have 152 images with Shutterstock. Here is my portfolio there. Some people have thousands of pictures and it is their full time livelihood and they do really well. I make about $50 a month at Shutterstock and I don't work at it at all. I earn about $45 from the other sites together but don't have nearly as many shots up for sale. Every now and then I upload some of which maybe half will get accepted. Stock sites are very tricky about quality and sometimes pictures are rejected for what seem like odd reasons...........don't take it personally. I don't, I just plug away when I can which is not very often.

My most popular shot at iStock, ........what is funny, is that this shot was rejected at Shutterstock. So upload to all sites, what one does not like, another might.

Illustrations are accepted, vectors, some take videos, and of course stock pictures which can be anything. There are great forums at each site and I learned a LOT by visiting and reading all I could. If you are interested you should read as much as you can. The pay is measly per picture but it is the VOLUME that counts. (hence Micro stock) Some pictures have been downloaded hundreds of times. (stockxpert pays you 1/2 of what the image sells for) I occasionally will come across one of mine in its new use and it is a thrill. It is a different mindset for sure, selling images for .25 each but for me the fun of getting my work out there and not having it languish inside my computer is worth it. It is a hobby for me,  I don't work at it consistently or with dedication. There are a few different licensing arrangements so some images can go for a LOT more.

Thought you might be interested:) If you have any questions about any of this, please leave me a comment. This picture of the Louvre is considered an editorial shot and is popular at all the sites. P.S. My mum and daughter are hidden in that  shot:)



16 comments:

Justgivemepeace said...

I've always wondered about this! That is so cool! You rock!

WW said...

What a great idea. I may need to look into this. Thans for the info.

tostoini said...

the photos of the girl with red shoes and black and white socks is really yours? I saw it used in an ad of a little advertisement agency here in Italy..it's really serendipitous, I found this post thru Etsy forum! :)

aliceinparis said...

Thanks Tostoini, How cool is that!! I never know where they will end up:)

tostoini said...

you’re welcome :)
I really like that photo so it was pretty odd to stumble on your blog thru etsy and reading it was one of your shots :)
congrats, it's really a lovely picture!

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice, this is really interesting and informative. Definitely something I am going to look into further at some point. Your shots are absolutely superb by the way!

Amydeanne said...

interesting post! I've thought about putting some out there, but wasn't sure where to go!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I found your blog through twittermoms! Thanks for the info on microstocks! Love your photography.

Kathy said...

Very interesting concept. Thank you for sharing

Anonymous said...

Great post. Thanks for the info.

Juliea said...

Wow! Thanks!! I could use the extra cash (now that I'm unemployed and doing the art thing full time) - and I have tons of photograhy just waiting for SOMETHING to be done with it. This is what I'm totally going to do.

Thanks again!
Juliea

Leah said...

I read about this aaaages ago and thought about it but I knew that my photography wasn't anywhere close to what they would be looking for!!

Now? Well, I'm not quite there yet but being on Etsy has really helped to ramp up my quality!

Great and inspiring thoughts!! Thanks so much! (oh and great photos you have, too! Wow!)

Michelle said...

Interesting - a good piece of advice! I think we may look into this for some of my daughter's many photos. A question though - do you have to get model releases to use photos (like your Louvre one) on these sites?

aliceinparis said...

Thanks everyone!
Michelle, the Louvre one is considered editorial,it can be used for a news story etc. The editorial type pictures are tricky, some might pass them and others won't. Other stock pictures with people do require a model release and you can download them from the stocksites.

Anonymous said...

i love the blogging world how you stumble onto someone's site..enjoyed your site today and wanted to thank you for this post so much great info. kt

Suzie Ridler said...

Fascinating! Thank you so much for letting me know about this opportunity for photographers. I will think about this possibility for my photography. I truly appreciate it and way to go getting your photographs out there!