Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Stock Photography
How much I made with Stock Photography. By Peter Albrektsen.
The world of stock photography is exciting, yet a bit scary. I guess my biggest worry is that with the over saturation of good photos, will the price be driven down even more. Every week on my favourite site, around 40,000 new photos are added! The total is now well over two million! Surely this will drive the price down even more.
I have worked hard as a photographer in the past year, but for all my hard work, it has only added up to hundreds of dollars. I guess the root to greater earnings is to take only the type of shots that sell, and stay away from more "artistic" photography.
Here is my summary of the various stock photography companies I have worked with.
1. shutterstock.com: My favourite website due to the simple uploading structure, and the fact that it can store model releases. However, I have noticed lately that they have become a lot more strict in the photos they accept. I have earned about $2000 on this website.
2. istockphoto.com: Everything is wonderful about this site, but....I am not crazy about the time consuming keyword structure, and the fact that you can not store model releases. I have earned about $1000 on this site.
3. dreamstime.com: Wonderful site, but I don't like the fact that adding information to the photo is such a time consuming process. I don't understand why the description line must have five or more words for example. I have earned about $350 here.
4. fotolia.com: Great and simple site with a fast key wording system. But lower traffic has resulted in much lower sales. I have only earned about $200 on this site.
5. bigstockphoto.com: An ok site, but for sure, the weakest of the bunch. A very poor, complicated and time consuming key wording and description process. Sometimes I wonder why I continue to send my pictures here, but I guess it is just barely worth it. My tiny earnings here have only come to about $150.
So there you have it. I will keep on plugging away because overall, I like the idea and the system of Royalty free microstock site. But if only all my hard work could earn me just a bit more $$$,......sigh.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention that this was all in the span of a year, give or take a couple months.
The world of stock photography is exciting, yet a bit scary. I guess my biggest worry is that with the over saturation of good photos, will the price be driven down even more. Every week on my favourite site, around 40,000 new photos are added! The total is now well over two million! Surely this will drive the price down even more.
I have worked hard as a photographer in the past year, but for all my hard work, it has only added up to hundreds of dollars. I guess the root to greater earnings is to take only the type of shots that sell, and stay away from more "artistic" photography.
Here is my summary of the various stock photography companies I have worked with.
1. shutterstock.com: My favourite website due to the simple uploading structure, and the fact that it can store model releases. However, I have noticed lately that they have become a lot more strict in the photos they accept. I have earned about $2000 on this website.
2. istockphoto.com: Everything is wonderful about this site, but....I am not crazy about the time consuming keyword structure, and the fact that you can not store model releases. I have earned about $1000 on this site.
3. dreamstime.com: Wonderful site, but I don't like the fact that adding information to the photo is such a time consuming process. I don't understand why the description line must have five or more words for example. I have earned about $350 here.
4. fotolia.com: Great and simple site with a fast key wording system. But lower traffic has resulted in much lower sales. I have only earned about $200 on this site.
5. bigstockphoto.com: An ok site, but for sure, the weakest of the bunch. A very poor, complicated and time consuming key wording and description process. Sometimes I wonder why I continue to send my pictures here, but I guess it is just barely worth it. My tiny earnings here have only come to about $150.
So there you have it. I will keep on plugging away because overall, I like the idea and the system of Royalty free microstock site. But if only all my hard work could earn me just a bit more $$$,......sigh.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention that this was all in the span of a year, give or take a couple months.
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