Selling your photography or illustrations.
Ranked #1,353 in Business & Work, #61,609 overall
Earning Cash from Your Photos or Illustrations
Making money from your photography and illustrations isn't as difficult as it used to be. Thanks to new types of online businesses, it has become much more fun and lucrative. This lens is dedicated to providing you with two ways for you to earn some money via these new online businesses.
One company that helps you earn money from your photos or illustrations is called Zazzle. Zazzle creates stamps, posters, postcards, calendars; etc with the photographs or illustrations that you provide them with.
You receive a ten percent minimum commission if anyone buys your merchandise, and you can raise your commission to whatever you like. The higher the price, the greater the expectations from the buyer. For most people, twenty-five to thirty-five percent seems like a good number. But ultimately, the choice is yours. Zazzle makes their money exclusively from the specified commission that you selected for your images. As for the licensing, your photos and illustrations will be sold under a non-exclusive license. This means that you are free to sell your photos and illustrations on other websites.
One of Zazzle's major competitors is a company called CafePress, and they basically do the same thing as Zazzle. Unfortunately, Cafepress no longer offers free hosting of your images. Instead, you have to pay a fee for them to host your images; you also have to pay them a substantial percentage of your sales.
Another way to earn money from your photos or illustrations is through microstock agencies. There are a large number of companies that deal with this such as: iStockphoto, BigStockPhoto, Featurepics, and 123RF.
Out of all of these agencies, iStockphoto usually delivers the most sales. Unfortunately iStockphoto, Dreamstime, and Shutterstock are fairly picky about what they select. So if you're rejected by these four agencies you can try one of the smaller agencies like BigStockPhoto, 123RF, or CanStockPhoto.
Don't give up on iStockphoto, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime. Just keep trying and you will get there. You may also want to purchase a light tent for isolated images. Isolated images are photos of an object such as a cookie on a solid background color. Purchasing a light tent may help to improve your sales.
Keep your expectations in check when you start selling your images; there is a lot of competition to deal with. Some people may become quite wealthy from these agencies, but not everyone will. Do not be discouraged if your images fail to sell right away. Just keep at it, and you will succeed. At the very least you will have some extra side money.
The Big Agencies
Buy merchandise at Zazzle.
Search our database for stamps, posters, calendars more...2 points
Stock Photography: Search Royalty Free Images & Photos | iStockphoto.com
Search our royalty free images and photos or brows more...1 point
Royalty Free Stock Photos at Dreamstime.
Search our royalty free images and photos or brows more...1 point
Purchase Images at Alamy
Find Rights Managed or Royalty free images via thi more...0 points
Lesser Known Microstock Agencies
- Stock Photography Images at Can Stock Photo
- Affordable Royalty Free Stock Photography. Downloads for just $1.00, with thousands of images added weekly. Subscriptions available for just $35.95.
- BigStockPhoto - Stock Image and Photo Subscription
- BigStockPhoto - Stock Image and Photo Subscription
- 123 Royalty Free - Stock Image and Photo Subscription
- 123 Royalty Free - Stock Image and Photo Subscription
- Featurepics
- Another site for high quality royalty free stock photos or illustrations is called Featurepics. Featurepics is a little different however. This company allows the seller to set their own price for each image. Set the image price at ten dollars or just one; the choice is yours.
Blogs About Selling Your Images
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, Mac / Windows – $69.95 @bhphoto, Today only
- Pixamba develops and operates LightBurner (http://lightburner.com), a new free microstock content submission service for the contributing stock photographers. Pixamba is also a developer of ProStockMaster software (http://www.prostockmaster.com), ...
- Deposit Photos Hits 6m Images - Reports Growth in Editorial Images Demand
- They say: 'Having started accepting and selling images for editorial use, Depositphotos has become an alternative microstock agency for photographers working in the field of editorial photography who previously had no possibility to sell their images ...
- Best Deal of the Year!
- He has been selling his photos at microstock since 2006 an then he added a small blog activity to write about the experiences in the world of photographic microstock and related business. The blog has progressively grown in a microstock and stock ...
- US HOT STOCKS: Disney, Yahoo, Harley-Davidson Active In Late Trading
- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD, $7.13, +$0.21, +2.96%) has finally cleared the supplier headwinds that hurt performance in 2011, Longbow Research says as it boosts Advanced Micro's stock-investment rating to buy from neutral.
Helpful Book Topics
Microstock Forums
- Microstock Group - A meeting place for microstock photographers
- Microstock Group - A meeting place for microstock photographers.
- Talkmicro
- The Original Independent Microstock Forums.
Cameras and Accessories
What Microstock Agencies Want and Don't Need
1.) Isolated object (s) over a solid color.
2.) Business imagery.
3.) People (with a model release form).
4.) Illustrations.
5.) Animation or videos.
6.) Music.
What The Agencies Don't Need:
1.) Flower pictures.
2.) Photos of your pets.
3.) Images taken with a one mega-pixel camera.
4.) Pictures taken with poor lighting.
5.) Photos of people without model releases.
What is a model release form, you ask? A model release form is basically a piece of paper that a model signs, which then gives you permission to make money from the photo. Without a model release form, no microstock agency will take your photo. And if you do manage to somehow have the image accepted without a model release form then you can be sued by the people in the photo. So be careful.
And as for what microstock agencies want and don't want, keep in mind that there are always allowances. When an agency says they don't want pictures of flowers, they're referring to normal flowers. If you find some type of bizarre flower in Tanzania or somewhere, then it may be accepted. A rose isolated on a white background might be accepted as well. Basically, the picture of the flower has to be both perfect and unique. Good luck.
Purchase Lighting Equipment
Build Your Own Light Tent
- Tutorial: Building Your Own Cheap Light Tent - EyeFetch.com
- EyeFetch.com: Tutorial for building a cheap home-made light tent for photography.
- Light Box / Light Tent Photo Gallery by Bill Huber at pbase.com
- Pbase.com: Bill Huber's website on how to build a light tent.
- Cheap 1$ Light tent / Light box : SoDoItYourself.com
- Sodoityourself.com: Ever wanted to do product shots but don't have the bucks to spend on a proper light tent? Why not build one yourself.
My Take on The Xsi
- Canon Xsi Review
- Photography enthusiasts are always looking for a great deal when it comes to digital single-lens reflex cameras. And the new Canon Xsi should impress just about everyone. Even the professionals may be surprised at how powerful this so-called "entry-level camera" really is.
The Canon 5D Mark II
Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
Amazon Price: $2,329.99 (as of 02/17/2012)
While the Canon 5d Mark II is much more expensive than lower end dslrs, the improvement in optics more than makes up for the hefty price tag. With a larger sensor size, more megapixels, improved iso, video, and better weather proofing this camera is simply a must. Especially if you're a die-hard Canon user.
Software for Illustrations and Photography
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe PhotoShop CS3 for Windows. Does NOT include more...0 points
Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0
Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 software combines pow more...0 points
Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
New Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is the ideal cho more...0 points
![Adobe Illustrator 9.0 [Old Version]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ohRpj9lhL._SL75_.jpg)
Newer is not Always Better
![Adobe Illustrator 9.0 [Old Version]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RB3YBQBXL._SL160_.jpg)
Adobe Illustrator 9.0 [Old Version]
Amazon Price: $299.99 (as of 02/17/2012)
You might think that the newest version of Illustrator is the best version. However, in the case of microstock illustrations, you would be mistaken. Almost all of the microstock agencies require you to make your eps or ai files compatible with Illustrator 8.
So keep this in mind if you buy Illustrator. Personally, I bought Illustrator 9 for my vector images. It's all you really need, and it can be upgraded to Illustrator CS2. So remember newer is not always better. It's also a lot cheaper.
Keywords
It's important that you use as many quality keywords as possible. But don't spam your keywords. In other words, make sure each keyword is relevant to the image. If you spam your keywords, then you may be banned. More than likely though, your image will simply be difficult to find. I usually try to use between fifteen and thirty keywords, which is a fairly good number. Keywords don't guarantee a sale, but they may help. Use them wisely.
Interesting Fact
- Source.
- The pioneer of microstock photography was Bruce Livingstone when he created iStockPhoto, originally a free stock photo site that quickly became an industry phenomenon.
- An iStockphoto Super Star.
- This person has sold over three hundred thousand images on iStockphoto alone. It's a very impressive achievement, and it proves that you can make a living at microstock photography. But it will require a lot of hard work. As for the money, in four years this woman has made at least seventy five thousand dollars.
That's at twenty five cents each. However, more than likely she has sold many images for much more than that. So this individual has probably made more than a hundred thousand dollars in a span of four years with over eight thousand photos.
List Your Gallery
Feel free to create a link to your gallery here.
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Colorful psychedelic and abstract gifts3 points
Artful Animalz
Welcome to a delightful menagerie of pet-inspired graphics more...3 points
FUNauticals
Welcome to a boatload of fun, fresh, sporty & classic more...3 points
http://www.zazzle.com/sunrisern*
Photographic artwork, mostly garden & nature, more...2 points
Justbyjulie Carnival of Colour
Welcome to my Carnival Of Colour.This gallery is d more...1 point
Justbyjulie Brides
Your first stop for individual and unique wedding more...1 point
Justbyjulie
Hi
Here you will find a range of different products more...1 point
http://www.zazzle.com/a_phoenix*
Products from photographs, abstract art and humor.1 point
The Vintage Vamp
At The Vintage Vamp we obtain high quality images more...1 point
Shop Around: Home: Zazzle.com Store
animal, humor, fantasy, you name it!1 point
Other Work I've Done
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wayfarer
May 25, 2009 @ 10:18 am | delete
- Very informative lens from one who knows the biz. The software info and the wants/don't want info is especially helpful for a beginner. Well done!
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May 19, 2009 @ 5:41 pm | delete
- nice lens
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pchanger
May 16, 2009 @ 10:03 am | delete
- Thanks for the insight
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Magins
May 16, 2009 @ 7:44 am | delete
- thanks for this lens, Very helpful
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morris27
May 16, 2009 @ 2:04 am | delete
- Very Nice Lens..., 5*, Morris
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by Jrtmedia
I'm a freelancer who sells photography and illustrations, writes articles; etc. With time, who knows what else I'll do. Business Website: Microstock... more »
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