How can I sell Microstock Pictures

Stock Photos are well known as an easy way for art directors to buy high quality pictures for less than the cost of comissioning them - until recently when the Microstock model of stock photography appeared. There are two forms of Microstock - a standard agency type agreement where the photographer gets either a percentage of the sales figure or a straight download fee per picture for a subscription-based agency.

The main difference as far as the client is concerned is PRICE - where traditional stock libraries/agencies charged $100 or much more per picture, a Microstock agency charges from $ 1 per photo. Or less for a subscription based company where you can download up to 75 photos per day (a practice that has lead to ripped off photo-compilations being sold on Ebay and other online auctions !)
Both of the Major Stock Agencies - (Getty and Corbis) are now heavily into the Microstock business.As both agencies have commisioned many photographers they will probably use those photos as a foundation for their Microstock business.

A number of photographers claim to be making hundreds of Dollars a day mostly from subscription-based services and in the case of people pictures that's both possible and likely.

In fact I would advise any would be photographer to specialise in people photos to be really successful.

Microstock from the clients point of view is a great asset - especilally if the client is a media based organisation and uses hundreds of photos a week - or even per day in the case of TV.

To suceed in Microstock try to find yourself a niche subject area that no-one else is handling. Look though your own pictures and then go on to one of the major microstock companies and make an image search for those subjects.

Frankly the standards in many Microstock companies are currently very low and many companies are offering poor quality subjects that are not really good enough for commercial reproduction.
The alternative is to try your own online sales through a purpose built site - an example of this is my own site at http://www.digifotostock.com
This way you get all the download fees and set your own prices - and you can STILL offer pictures to Microstock companies too (on a non-exclusive basis)

Why is Keywording so important ?
The answer is how people search for pictures.
Most search engines look for specific words and variants of those words - the actual word the customer is searching for is shown first and then variants and phrases containing those keywords.
The picture at the top of this lens is of the Great Wall of China - here are some of the relevant keywords for that picture :
China,Asia,Great Wall of China,Wall,building,barrier,tourism,Asia,Orient,Oriental,Fortress,Empire,Mongol,Mongol Hordes,Civilization,Architecture,Empire,Tourists,Beijing,wall,stone

Well you probably get the idea - but most stock photographers just put a simple caption and if the client doesn't type that caption into the search then the picture isn't shown ! (even though it might be the best picture ...)

There are keywording programs available - and keywording services in India and the Orient that are very reasonably priced -Keywording services
http://www.keywording.com
http://www.abouttheimage.com
http://www.a2zkeywording.com
http://www.jaincotech.com
http://www.keywordcompiler.com
http://www.keedup.com
http://www.africamediaonline.com
http://www.keywordingindia.com
http://www.onasiadigital.com
http://www.careydam.com
http://www.adnetinfosystems.com/
http://www.keywords-to-go.com/
http://www.keywordcompiler.com/

Keyword Compiler have a software program that will do keywording for you.
At $29 for a single user it's a bargain - that's less than the cost of putting out 50
images for keywording ...

Here are some ground rules for getting photos keyworded -
Never send money in advance (unless its by Paypal)
Send pictures on a cd or dvd - NEVER ORIGINAL transparencies !
Only send a sample selection first (20 pictures or so) to see how good a job they do.
Make sure you get your cd/dvd back..
I would be wary about using services in Korea as you may run into copyright problems.
Check Google and Ephotozine for opinions before you sign up with a keywording service.

An excellent revenue source is Widgetbucks.com
The make great Widgets specially for your website and you get paid well for real clients ..
Why not check it out - its easy to use - .