Make Money Selling Stock Photos

Social Photo Talk just published a free white paper entitled: An Introduction to Twitter for Photographers. An easy read, this paper is a mini lesson in how to get started using Twitter to promote your photography.

Compiled by a photographer who has written over 23,000 tweets (WOW! - that's certainly a lot of twittering), it offers a basic how-to, ideas and a few resources on using Twitter for your photography business. You can download your copy at:
http://www.socialphototalk.com/free-report-twitter-for-photographers/

Also stop by Social Photo Talk and gain more inspiration on how to utilized social media marketing to grow your client base.

Here's a bright idea - a handy online tool to help you calculate your earnings from each of your stock agencies. The Stock Photography Income Calculator is hosted by a German site and is available in English, French as well as German. It generates amounts for Return Per Image, Return Per Download and Downloads Per Photo - all broken down by agency.

Give it a try at: http://www.alltageinesfotoproduzenten.de/stock-photography-income-calculator/

Hey all - you know I'm a big fan of Dreamstime and am also a contributing photographer. Yesterday the agency released some really big news. So here's the word from Dreamstime:

Dreamstime Debuts a New Format: Images in Poster and Canvas
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dreamstime, one of the world’s leading digital image stock photography agencies, has introduced a new service to deliver decorative display prints right to your door. The ultimate outlet for quality images (in all shapes and sizes, and for any creative purpose), Dreamstime photo-shoppers can now also purchase ready-made prints in poster and canvas format for home or office use.

From the platinum-selling agency that has revolutionized the industry during its five-year history, Dreamstime has elevated its services to offer images from its gallery of more than 6.5 million to enable purchasers to enjoy their photos in wall art form—a finished product ready to showcase.

“Most commonly, our images are used for creative project designs. This new service recognizes the value and artistry as a finished, ready-to-use display product,” introduced Serban Enache, Dreamstime’s CEO. “Our posters and canvases are unmatched when comparing pricing, quality, delivery speed and diversity. Dreamstime’s community library of images is unparalleled and this new offering will make us a leading ‘go-to’ vendor when searching for interesting and captivating wall hangings.”

In keeping with the agency’s commitment to low prices, the price point for each poster/canvas is significantly competitive (ranging anywhere in monetary value between $13.00 to $80.00 for a 20”X60” canvas—lower than most online retailers in the market). Costs include shipping and handling to the United States and Europe. Volume discounts are available.

In addition to its vast selection of images and services, another advantage to this new facet is ease of use. In one, easy step, Dreamstime users can access their desired photo, click the “order a print” tab and select the size and support type (poster or canvas). In a sophisticated, two-day production process (posters are printed on professionally glossy inkjet paper/canvasses are printed on polyester water and UV resistant canvas), the posters and canvases will be developed and shipped to the purchaser’s door.

All Dreamstime images are available in varying download sizes and resolutions to compliment and complete any design project. Dreamstime.com offers an unlimited assortment of imagery including photos, sketches, graphic art, illustrations and backgrounds in high quality re-print formats (such as non-compressed jpeg formats, RAW images and Vector formats) and are easily discovered via the use of Dreamfinder--an advanced search and tagging engine within the site.

With the most innovations in stock photography, Dreamstime has positioned itself as a cutting edge leader in the e-commerce photography industry. The poster/canvas service increases format availability of its images while being mutually advantageous to the Dreamstime contributors providing a new revenue channel increasing sales overall.

Dreamstime’s gallery remains new and fresh, updated by their more than 77,000 contributors; the engagement of Dreamstime users and contributors in new and dynamic ways has resulted in the traffic of more than 300,000 new visitors daily and nearly 10 million total unique visitors to the site.

For more information on Dreamstime, please visit: http://www.dreamstime.com/.

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Sounds great! Maybe this will entice Dreamstime to create a fine art photography section to encourage sale of wall art. I hope so - I would love to sell my more interesting work this way.

Want to become a Dreamstime photographer? Here's my referral link:
http://www.dreamstime.com/res265856. (Disclosure: When you click here you become part of my referral program at Dreamstime).

Yesterday I came across an interesting conversation via Twitter, debating whether or not microstock has "cheapened" the market for stock image sales. Here's the original post on Tony Blei's blog Black Star Rising: http://rising.blackstar.com/microstock-is-a-great-deal-for-buyers.html. From Tony's perspective, many photographers have sold out by going to the "darkside", selling their images for pennies through microstock. Read the comments at the bottom of his post - as this is where the conversation begins to get interesting. I'm not against the view of many "pros". They present several valid points.

In today's blog world the debate continued on Digital Photography Tips and Techniques: http://dptnt.com/2009/08/the-microstock-photography-debate/. This conversation takes another perspective that microstock is pretty much a natural progression of our times. The availabilty of good digital cameras allow lots of amateur photographers the ability to produce great images - and they want a market where they can sell their work. Therefore microstock agencies are a part of the equation that, most likely, would have happened anyway. Another point presented on this blog was the fact that the publishing industry is not in good financial shape these days, with many magazines looking for ways to cut costs. Of course, they will look for less expensive photography to keep their budgets in line. Microstock fulfils this need.

So here's my two cents on the debate. Many years ago I was a professional photography with a studio, RB 6x7 portrait camera, medium format cameras for weddings, tacky props for high school seniors, high overhead and thousands of paper proofs that cost a lot of money to produce. Yes, I enjoyed my profession but hated all the "stuff" I had to deal with - photographers-for-hire that didn't show up for weddings, battery packs dieing during a ceremony, high lab bills, blah, blah, blah . . .

I left the studio behind, became a marketing professional and once again enjoying my day job. But I still wanted an outlet to show and sell photography. Not to pay the bills - but to feel the same enjoyment I had thirty years ago as a young photographer when someone wanted to pay for my images. For me microstock is ideal - all electronic with no fuss or muss, I can work as little or as much as I want, plus I see some spending money coming in from "passive income". I'm sure this will not be a popular opinion with many professional photographers - and I completely see their point-of-view, having once been from that side of the tracks.

But damn - I love the idea of putting my images out there on a global stage with someone else selling the work, plus having the ability to develop my own market through social media. This was never even a possibility when I was a professional photographer.

So yes - the world has moved on. And it's your choice to embrace the new - or not. For me, microstock is the perfect outlet.