What You Need to Know About Selling Stock Photos
photo by evgenyatamanenko via iStock
Stock photography has been around for years. And just like YouTube, a lot of photographers wonder if stock photography is something that they needed to start doing years ago in order to make any real money doing it.
Nicole Glass, a YouTube photographer who participates in stock photography, answered this question in a video that she published at the beginning of the year.
While I highly recommend that you watch her entire video, as it has some great resources about how to get started in stock photography, I’m going to summarize some of her most important stock photography tips here.
It Isn’t Going to Actually Be Passive Income
photo by filmstudio via iStock
A lot of photographers who do stock photography in 2021 make the mistake of referring to it as “passive income.” The hard truth about it is that it isn’t passive, especially when you are first getting started.
In order to become successful at stock photography, you not only need to find a niche that you can operate within, but you need to find the time to actually take photos, as well as the time to process photos. Once you have photos, you then need to create your keywords for your photos, captions for your photos, and upload them.
Even if you’ve been doing stock photography for years, it still isn’t passive income because a large part of this process (taking photos, editing photos, uploading photos) has to be done on a continuous basis.
Even if your portfolio is already filled with thousands of images and videos, in order to really stay relevant, you have to keep adding to it.
Videos Will Make You Way More Money
photo by mixetto via iStock
Another facet of stock photography that a lot of photographers don’t talk about is the fact that videos are worth so much more than still images.
As Nicole points out in her video, she was making a few hundred dollars a month on her portfolio which contained thousands of images. But, when she started to add videos to that portfolio, she could easily bring in over $1,000 a month.
That’s a huge difference!
You could argue why this is. For instance, stock photography has been around for far longer than stock videography, so perhaps the stock photography industry is just more flooded with talent. Or, on the other hand, maybe marketing teams are recognizing that videos are far more likely to get someone’s attention.
But, the important thing to remember is that you should have a portfolio filled with both still images and videos in order to appeal to the widest audience.
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You Won’t Be Able to Work Off Of Just One Site
photo by lechatnoir via iStock
Another common misconception about stock photography is that you can get started on just one stock photography website.
This really isn’t recommended. For starters, different stock photography websites are geared towards different clients. So, if your images and videos don’t appeal to that exact audience, you may pivot away from the niche you had chosen for yourself prematurely.
Another reason why you shouldn’t rely on the income of just one website is that the rules of that website could change at any time. Stock photography websites are known for trying to make as much money off of your work as possible. If you are only putting your work on one website, and that website makes an unfavorable change, you won’t be able to rely on the income from the other websites.
Your Photos Need to Be Newsworthy
photo by ArtistGNDphotography via iStock
Want to know which parts of the stock photography industry are the most inundated with photos...the generic ones. Nobody needs more Christmas images just like nobody needs more pictures of young women doing yoga.
If you try to take the same images that everyone else has already taken, you’re going to find yourself in a lot more competition with other photographers.
In order to combat this issue, you can create newsworthy photos.
In a way, you will need to act as a fortune teller. Think about how well stock photographers who took images of people in masks did when they posted those images in February of 2020.
Of course, it will be easier for you to create newsworthy stock photos if you live in a major city. For instance, if you live in Washington D.C., you could take photos at rallies and other political events.
But, if you don’t live in a major city, don’t be discouraged from trying to keep your photos newsworthy. It will just be a lot more important for you to start reading the news on a daily basis so that you can figure out what is happening in your country.
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