Business Start Up
HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM PHOTOGRAPHY AND SELL STOCK IMAGES THROUGH PHOTO STOCKS


Selling digital photos on photo stocks is a new business idea for generating income in the field of residual (passive) income. The main advantage of this type of business is to make a profit, regardless of the activity of your work. One digital photo can be sold continuously, even for little money. Thus, 90% of the work of a photographer dedicated to making money on a photo stock is invested in the growth of permanent income. This fact makes this business highly efficient and attractive. But what is especially striking in making money on photographies is that with such business advantages, the entry threshold for investment is minimal. You need to spend only $ 700 to buy a good DSLR digital camera and start making steady money right now. About, how to organize your business on a photo stock and what pitfalls may arise is described below. We live in a progressive time and should be able to make money in the same progressive way.
BEFORE MAKING MONEY, YOU SHOULD FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE PHOTO MARKET
On photo stocks, you can buy a photograph, no worse in quality, for a few dollars, in which there is only one drawback – not uniqueness. That is, one digital photo can have several owners, which in turn provides photographers with the opportunity to create residual income (generating money without active intervention). Who is constantly looking for and buying photos on photo stocks today? On photo stocks, you can buy a photograph, no worse in quality, for a few dollars, in which there is only one drawback – not uniqueness. That is, one digital photo can have several owners, which in turn provides photographers with the opportunity to create residual income (generating money without active intervention). Who is constantly looking for and buying photos on photo stocks today?
- Large publishers.
- Small and medium print or internet publishers.
- Advertising companies.
- Printing centers.
- Website owners.
In a word, all industries that are related to their activities with digital graphics. How attractive are photo stocks for buyers? According to official data, back in 2007, the net earnings of the largest participants in the photo stock market amounted to:
- iStock – $ 72 million
- Shutterstock – over $ 10 million
- Fotolia – less than $ 10 million;
- Dreamstime – less than $ 10 million;
The average percentage that photo stocks take for themselves (Acceptance ratio) from each transaction is 40%. It is not difficult to calculate what the annual turnover of money goes through each photo selling service and how much the photographers earned in total.
EARN SLOWLY EARLY STUDYING THE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS
Not all photos you post will be top selling. Moreover, most of them may not be of interest to buyers at all. But here you need to think globally and rationally. Moreover, over time, you will gain experience and learn to anticipate trends. You will be able to determine the value at first glance and predict the popularity of a picture among buyers with just a glance at its idea, setting and quality. It will be difficult for people with an artistic photo hobby to make money in this craft. You need to do what is sold. How to understand and distinguish what is sold on photo stocks and what is not? There are several useful tools for this. One of the simplest but very important tools is the ranking of top sales photos. Each photo stock provides information on the top 100 best-selling photos. Learn from the best. Analyze their topics. This can be: business, money, agriculture, construction, food. Consider seasonality when analyzing top-selling images. Holidays can significantly affect and slightly distort the true data. For example, if you analyze a top before March 8th, there may be many flowers, and before Easter there are generally Easter eggs. Pay attention to the background. Photographs with white backgrounds are very popular with sales because they are easy to edit. Analyzing the top 100 popular shots, you will notice that for a successful seller you do not need to conquer the peaks of mountains and oceans in order to take a top-selling shot.
For example, a sliced piece of raw meat with herbs on a kitchen board may be more popular than the beautiful scenery of nature. Make the right conclusions. More difficult, but no less important tool provided by these services is the statistics of image search requests. The statistics system provides information about the popularity of words that are entered into the search bar. But your personal experience should be the main tool for you. If you know how to work well in Photoshop or Coral, you can also sell beautiful illustrations and stylish vector drawings along with photos. This will be a big plus for you and your income. There are many free materials on the Internet to help you learn these most popular graphics programs. Become a professional photo stocker and earn up to $ 10,000 per month on autopilot. which enter into the search bar. But your personal experience should be the main tool for you. If you know how to work well in Photoshop or Coral, you can also sell beautiful illustrations and stylish vector drawings along with photos.
This will be a big plus for you and your income. There are many free materials on the Internet to help you learn these most popular graphics programs. Become a professional photo stocker and earn up to $ 10,000 per month on autopilot. which enter into the search bar. But your personal experience should be the main tool for you. If you know how to work well in Photoshop or Coral, you can also sell beautiful illustrations and stylish vector drawings along with photos. This will be a big plus for you and your income. There are many free materials on the Internet to help you learn these most popular graphics programs. Become a professional photo stocker and earn up to $ 10,000 per month on autopilot.
STATISTICS ON PHOTO STOCKERS EARNINGS AND PHOTOS SOLD
- Most of the works were sold:
- Vector graphics – 43%.
- Photos – 34% (in 2005 it was 89%).
- Illustrations – 23%.
- The most popular keywords in search queries are:
- Social Media.
- Icon.
- Green.
- Infographik.
- Macro.
- App.
- Cats.
- Dogs.
- Retro.
- Vintage.
- Hipster.
- Tattoo.
- Rating of primary colors of images by popularity:
- Yellow.
- Blue.
- Red.
- Aqua.
As you can see, you have enough tools to learn and increase your chances of continually increasing profits. Constantly replenish your portfolio with new and in-demand photographs. Then the rate of your profit will grow in proportion to the rate of increase in the number of pictures.
THESE TIPS WILL HELP YOU PREPARE YOUR PHOTOS FOR SALES.
- Adhere to the commercial value of the photo posing. Remember, you are producing the raw materials for the design. Look at your photos through the eyes of a buyer, for example from an advertising agency. After all, most photographs are taken by amateur photographers, and clients need pictures for their effective work. They will be sold much more efficiently, although you will also have to invest your soul in them.
- The quality of the image should be excellent. Preview all your photos before posting at 100% scale. Sometimes it happens that at first glance the picture looks great: harmonious colors, correctly exposed light and shadows, clear details, interesting composition, but noise is visible at 100% scale. All photo stocks are very demanding on noise. After all, most buyers use images for printing. And it’s not a secret for anyone that even the best printer will not be able to reproduce colors as we see them on the screen.
- Save photos without compression, in maximum quality.
- Fill in the description for the photo as much as possible. Most buyers will find your photos through the search engine. Therefore, correctly write a description that matches the image so as not to violate the rules of the system. Don’t forget about keywords. Many users create the same error. In the description of the photo there is only a title for 10-15 characters. It is not attractive at all and it diminishes your professional reputation as a writer.
These tips will seem trivial, but if you stick to them, you get a guarantee that 90% of creative work will be approved by the administrators.
INVEST IN GOOD EQUIPMENT TO MAKE GOOD MONEY
CONTINUOUSLY STUDY PHOTOGRAPHY TO EARN MORE
- High-quality exposure:
- aperture;
- ISO (light sensitivity);
- shutter speed;
- metering mode.
- Adaptation to various light sources.
- Correct exposure of white balance.
- How to avoid reflections, chromatic aberrations and lens effects.
By penetrating deeper and deeper into the knowledge associated with the photography business, you will gain more and more experience. As a professional, you will be able to assess the quality of the photographer’s work at a glance. You will be able to distinguish where the photo is overexposed and where it is underexposed or unbalanced exposure. Highlight and eliminate such shortcomings as:
- harsh shadows;
- blown out glare;
- uneven or too bright lighting;
- flat colors;
- bright areas are completely lost;
- poor exposure and shadows;
- hard shadows;
- shades from piece lighting of light;
- purple edging;
- low contrast.
In a word, it is never too late for everyone to learn in everything. Don’t be afraid of these strange terms. Appetite comes with eating. Once you start earning your first income, you will have a great desire to learn more and more information about the craft of the photographer.
WITHDRAWAL OF EARNED MONEY FROM PHOTO STOCKS

