I’ve been doing some analysis of my portfolio to try to work out if the earnings have risen because of the number of images online, or if other factors are coming into play. The answers are fascinating! Although there is a lot of doom and gloom in the stock industry, with the common view that earnings are falling faster than you can put images online, the key point from my analysis is that the earnings per image is actually increasing...
A question that I am often asked is how you can find out where your images are being used online. I use the Google Images search to do that – and here are the steps: 1. Although Google Image Search works with any size of image, it takes quite a time to upload the full size JPEG to their server for the search. It is much quicker if you make smaller copies (800 pixels wide and lower JPEG quality) of...
Another pretty good month – even though the Thanksgiving holiday in the US depressed sales in the final week (especially on iStock). Overall sales again beat the $1000 barrier to come in at $1068. Not as good as last month’s $1300, but there were not at many big ticket sales. Veer was $31 instead of $135, Alamy $30 rather than $85 and CanStock slumped from $72 to a measly $11. Isignstock maintained its good record – down a bit from...
As you progress with your portfolio and your efficiency in managing large numbers of images improves, it is natural to look at other stock sites to increase your revenue. There are many, many online sites out there, so how do you decide which one to try? This post is an update on the various sites that I currently upload to – it covers the ease of uploading, potential revenue and any problems I have seen. By the way – if...
One of the interesting challenges in stock photography is to identify the next set of photos to take. When the weather is pleasant, exterior shots can be taken, but on cold rainy days, what better than to relax with a nice glass of wine? This came from a misguided attempt to produce one of those shots where the edges of the glass are light and the center is dark to highlight the wine. I was balancing a piece of velvet...
Another great month! I have now easily beaten the $1200 barrier and ended the month with sales of $1262.67, beating last months record by a cool $200. Most of the sites did well, with Shutterstock setting its own record with $451 and iStock maintaining a steady performance of over $200 in the past 3 months. Back in May, I was averaging $100 on that site, which shows what the Photo+ program has done (coupled with steady uploading each month.) I...
I noticed this week that the image submission form on Dreamstime now has two new checkboxes in the “Rights Management” area at the foot of the page. I have recommended not clicking on the “Sell Rights” checkbox as that requires you to remove all copies of the sold image from every other location – hard to do, and it may lose valuable future revenue. However, the two new options should be checked. These permit the sale of enhanced licenses for...
There are many scenic steam railways around the country, but getting a good image of a train is a matter of being in the right place at the right time as the land surrounding the line is usually private. The Western Maryland Railroad has solved that by offering Photographer’s days three times a year – fall, winter and spring – where the focus is on allowing still and video photographers to get the best image possible. I went along to...
Readers of my eBook, Getting Started in Stock, have probably started by uploading images to the top 4-6 sites, and are slowly getting their work processes honed to perfection! The obvious question is – which site shall I upload to next? This is a difficult decision, because the effort involved in uploading may not be justified by less than stellar earnings. I still have images on Crestock that have earned a grand total of $26 – after 3 years! I...
Shutterstock has developed a capability for contributors to group their images into a set (very similar to collections in Lightroom) in a new area called “Catalog Manager”. It is available from the main contributors page. Once you are in catalog manager, you can filter your images by a keyword, and then drag the selected images to the “sets” area and name it with an english name. This allows you to then point potential buyers, friends, or just readers of your...
