You can easily make money selling your own photos. This is called stock photography.
8 explanation about Stock Photography
1. What is stock photography?
Selling photos is called stock photography and it’s very simple. As a photographer you offer your photos on a website of a stock agent. This agent then places your photos in his database, which is accessible to the agent’s customers.
2. Buying and selling photos over the internet
The selling price of a photo is determined by various things. These matters affect the selling price and thus the earnings for the photographer. As a photographer you will receive a percentage of the proceeds and this can amount to 10 euros per photo sold.
The price of a photo depends on the things below.
- the resolution of the photo
- the license for use
- the exclusivity of the photo
- the type of customer purchasing
3. When can you start selling photos?
Every photographer can register for free and without obligation at the various stock sites. However, almost all stock sites have an admission inspection before you can sell photos. These inspections are usually very strict, so be very critical when uploading your first series of photos. If you have passed the admission check, you can start uploading your photos for sale. You can often use the photos that you used for the admission inspection here again. These photos are also always inspected before they are published online.
4. Start with stock photography
The databases of stock sites contain millions of photos. To make these photos findable for customers, the photos must be supplemented with additional information. In exceptional cases, this information is entered by the stock site, but in most cases the photographer has to fill in this information himself. By including this extra information directly in the EXIF information of a photo, a lot of time can be saved if the photos are offered on different stock sites.
Some things that need to be filled in are:
- title
- description
- keywords
- categories
- release forms
5. Referencing buyers and sellers
Almost every stock site has the option to refer buyers and sellers to your own portfolio. This is also referred to as a ‘referral program’ or ‘affiliation’. In this way you can generate extra income as a photographer by registering new customers or photographers at the stock site. As a thank you for registering a new photographer or client, the intermediary photographer will receive a small fee.
Watch the video on How to make money with photography
6. Stock photography and the tax authorities
If you are going to sell photos, you also have to arrange a number of things regarding taxes. Don’t let this put you off though, it’s all pretty simple.
7. Track and analyze sales
If you are registered with multiple stock agencies, it can be difficult to keep track of your sales.
- The first is an excel sheet that I put together myself. This sheet gives you the option to enter turnover per agency, after which it shows various graphs. You can use this sheet without obligation and convert it to your own taste.
- Download the App for iOS devices and Android devices. You have a main screen with all stock sites where you are registered. If you then click on a stock site, you will get an overview of the latest sales.
8. Find your photos
If you have sold a photo through a stock site, it is always nice to see where it is used. Previously it was not easy to track down the sold photo, but Google made this a lot easier.
Making money is not easy, if you are a photographer it is a plus for you because you can sell photo’s online market, and also you can make it as a business. If you want to increase your photography revenue talk to the best ‘seo malaysia’ so that they can help you to outrank your competitors.