Microstock photo: how to make money on your own photos
There are such sites - photobanks (microstock), which are essentially a service for selling your photos under a Royalty-Free (RF) license for a certain percentage of sales. The photographer remains 20-60% of the sale, depending on the photobank and a number of other conditions. However, in most microstocks there is also an option to sell under other licenses up to the sale of rights to a photo. The RF license implies that the author (copyright holder) retains all rights to the photo, and the buyer has the right to use it for the design of advertising, the website, his presentation, and interior decoration, but he has no right to sell this image. Thus, it turns out that one photo can be sold many times and sold at several microstocks simultaneously. Now the top photos are sold 5-10 thousand times and thus brought the authors up to several thousand dollars each.
The money received is easily transferred to Moneybookers or Paypal , and from there - anywhere.
The cost of photos in microstock photobanks is small (usually from $ 0.2 to $ 10), and the quantity and quality increases every year, which gives them the opportunity to compete with the “traditional” stock photo banks, where only professional photos are sold.
Placing your photos in a photo bank is free, but you need to take an exam on many resources (send examples of your photos). Photobanks love conceptual images that can potentially be used in advertising or, for example, as an illustration of an article on a news site.
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It cannot be said that the earnings from the sale of amateur photographs in microstocks are serious, but if a person still photographs, then this is a good way to recoup the purchase of new lenses and other photo accessories. Some even live on the income from photo banks, but, as a rule, they are already professionals. My own experience shows that on average one photo brings ~ 0.5 $ / month and so far this figure is even growing, despite the fact that I post new photos very rarely. Links to examples of my work I placed at the end of the article.
Here is a list of the main photobanks:
One of the largest and most profitable photobanks. It belongs to the famous photo agency - Getty Images . The highest quality requirements for photos, but the prices for photos are a little higher.
Very nice photo bank. Holds ~ 10% of the market, not very demanding on the quality of photos. Ideal to try your hand as a photographer or illustrator.
Holds ~ 10% of the market. Not demanding on quality, but strangely picky about the plot. No exam. A good option to start.
Holds ~ 10% of the market. To register you need to have an open account in moneybookers (done in 5 minutes). Takes just everything, but there is an exam in 10 photos. I do not know anyone who did not pass it. There is an interesting option that allows you to make your work free to download in low (Web) resolution.
At the moment - the leader in profitability (50%). Very difficult exam. It sells photos not by the piece as the others, but only by subscription (in bulk).
Microstock owned by a large photo agency Jupiterimages .
The remaining photobanks (there are 10 of them) make sense only if there is a portfolio of more than 1000 images. In addition to photos, photobanks usually take (and sell even better than photos) raster drawings, vector drawings and 3D rendering, video sequences.
The rules for all banks are almost the same:
The money received is easily transferred to Moneybookers or Paypal , and from there - anywhere.
The cost of photos in microstock photobanks is small (usually from $ 0.2 to $ 10), and the quantity and quality increases every year, which gives them the opportunity to compete with the “traditional” stock photo banks, where only professional photos are sold.
Placing your photos in a photo bank is free, but you need to take an exam on many resources (send examples of your photos). Photobanks love conceptual images that can potentially be used in advertising or, for example, as an illustration of an article on a news site.
')
It cannot be said that the earnings from the sale of amateur photographs in microstocks are serious, but if a person still photographs, then this is a good way to recoup the purchase of new lenses and other photo accessories. Some even live on the income from photo banks, but, as a rule, they are already professionals. My own experience shows that on average one photo brings ~ 0.5 $ / month and so far this figure is even growing, despite the fact that I post new photos very rarely. Links to examples of my work I placed at the end of the article.
Here is a list of the main photobanks:
Istockphoto
http://www.istockphoto.com/One of the largest and most profitable photobanks. It belongs to the famous photo agency - Getty Images . The highest quality requirements for photos, but the prices for photos are a little higher.
Dreamstime
www.dreamstime.comVery nice photo bank. Holds ~ 10% of the market, not very demanding on the quality of photos. Ideal to try your hand as a photographer or illustrator.
Fotolia
www.fotolia.comHolds ~ 10% of the market. Not demanding on quality, but strangely picky about the plot. No exam. A good option to start.
123RF
www.123rf.comHolds ~ 10% of the market. To register you need to have an open account in moneybookers (done in 5 minutes). Takes just everything, but there is an exam in 10 photos. I do not know anyone who did not pass it. There is an interesting option that allows you to make your work free to download in low (Web) resolution.
Shutterstock
www.shutterstock.comAt the moment - the leader in profitability (50%). Very difficult exam. It sells photos not by the piece as the others, but only by subscription (in bulk).
Stockexpert
www.stockxpert.comMicrostock owned by a large photo agency Jupiterimages .
The remaining photobanks (there are 10 of them) make sense only if there is a portfolio of more than 1000 images. In addition to photos, photobanks usually take (and sell even better than photos) raster drawings, vector drawings and 3D rendering, video sequences.
The rules for all banks are almost the same:
- The photo should be sharp, without noise, normally cropped and meaningful.
- For each photo you need to write 10-20 (and preferably 50) keywords, a title and a short description. (For the selection of keywords, you can use the service www.microstock.ru/cgi-bin/keywords.cgi ).
- The photo should not be:
- recognizable faces (without a “release model” - a special document which, if desired, is done in 5 minutes), if the face of the model is not visible or it is illegible, then such a photo can be sold without permission from the model
- logos or "patented designs"
- scenes of violence
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/23458/
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