18Brad G. Says:
Dear IL,
I’ve been looking into ways of supplementing my Social Security while I travel. I’m not much of a writer, but I take thousands of photographs on every trip I take. How do I sell my photos to a stock photo company, and can I make an income from that?
Global Intelligence Letter Editor Jeff D. Opdyke Says:
Hi Brad,
Let me tell you a bit about what’s known as microstock photography.
Through microstock, photographers sell images to buyers all over the world for everything from advertising to book covers to blog posts to travel brochures. The amount of money earned can range from a few cents per photo to $100 or more, depending on the buyer’s end use.
Microstock is all about volume sales. The more photos you have online, the greater the chance one or more will sell.
Getting started is as simple as building your profile for free at any of the many, many microstock websites that exist these days.
Some of the bigger ones are Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Alamy, iStockphoto, Dreamstime, and CanStockPhoto. But you can find many more through a Google search of “microstock agencies.”
Put some effort into thinking of descriptive keywords for your photos. Every site requires these—words to describe your image and which photo buyers will be searching. Aim for a minimum of 10.
Let’s say you’ve taken a shot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Include the obvious: Eiffel Tower, Paris, France. But also list words such as sightseeing, architecture, tourist attraction, romantic. You want to get your pictures in front of buyers, and keywords are, well, the key.
If you want to earn money through microstock, you need a large portfolio of several hundred to a few thousand pictures across multiple sites. If you upload say, 500 photos to four different sites, you’re leveraging your efforts because you will, in effect, have 2,000 photos online.
Keep your portfolio fresh and growing by uploading additional photos over time so that your income potential rises.
Many freelance opportunities require ongoing work, but with stock photography, you upload your photos just once, and without any added effort on your part, they can earn you a passive income over and over for years and years.
It’s one of the most accessible paths to a freelance income for a hobby photographer.
You can read my in-depth article on microstock photography, which appeared in the January 2021 issue of IL magazine, right here.
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