Make Money Selling Stock Photos

This is Part 4 of an 8-part series. OK – so now you have created themed collections of your photos and the keywords that describe them. Here comes the fun part – trying to figure out what kind of people will buy your photos based on your descriptions.

For example, let’s take my photographic collection based on the Southwest with an emphasis on New Mexico. My niche market for this body of work would be people who use photos of New Mexico and the Southwest on websites, advertisements, publications and blogs. Now let’s think of markets that fit this category:
- travel agencies that cater to Southwest travel
- regional publications such as New Mexico Magazine
- tourist centered businesses such as hotels, tours, restaurants (tourism is New Mexico’s second largest market)
- regional businesses, such as food, wine, and other products made locally
- web designers who design sites for regional businesses

I’ve come up with 5 distinct niche markets for this collection. To see View of the Southwest, go to http://www.dreamstime.com/view-of-the-southwest-by-laroach-rcollection6069-resi265856

Now do the same for each of your collections. If you can identify 3 to 5 markets for each group of photographs, you’re on your way.

Next in Part 5 we'll talk about how to find specific buyers within your markets.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

microstock photography

Labels: micro stock, niche market, selling stock photography

After you have grouped your photographs into themed-related collections, it’s time to describe each group in detail. This process is much like putting together a list of keywords for an image that you plan to upload. The difference with describing a collection as opposed to describing a single photograph is that you need to take the group as a whole into consideration when choosing keywords.

Use descriptive keywords, but also include keywords with a broader interpretation that may appeal to specific types of buyers. An example of this is my collection of Southwest images. I live in New Mexico, which is known as “The Land of Enchantment” and a scenic travel destination. And so I emphasized keywords that might appeal to someone in the tourist trade.

Here are my keywords for the collection entitled "View of the Southwest":
adobe, architecture, atmosphere, beautiful, brush, building, charactor, chile, chili, desert, desolate, destination, enchantment, food, gate, home, isolated, land, landscapes, newmexico, old, peppers, plants, prairie, quaint, rugged, sage, santa, santafe, scenic, scrub, serene, sky, southwest, southwestern, stark, style, tourism, tourist, town, travel, views, visit, vistas, warm, warmth, west, western, wild

To see my “View of the Southwest” collection, visit:
http://www.dreamstime.com/view-of-the-southwest-by-laroach-rcollection6069-resi265856

After you have assembled your keywords and entered them with your collection of images (assuming you are using a microstock agency that allows you to create collections, such as Dreamstime), you are now ready to begin the next step of finding your niche market and specific buyers for your photography.

To be continued in Part 4

Part 1
Part 2

microstock photography

Labels: micro stock, microstock agency, microstock photography, selling stock photography

There’s a saying in marketing circles that goes like this:
“If you market to everyone, you are marketing to no one.”

How does this relate to marketing your photos?

It means you need to narrow your marketing focus to 2 or 3 tightly themed niches rather than throwing out thousands of unrelated photographs into the world, hoping someone bites.

The first step in finding your niches is to group your photographs into themed collections. You probably already know what themes resonate throughout your portfolio. Themes can be based on subject matter, location or even on a color. My microstock agency (Dreamstime) makes it easy to create themed collections under its Designer’s section. Other agencies may not have this option. In that case you'll need to find a way to group your photos in order to market them to buyers.

Here are two of my collections:
Diesels - based on long-haul semi trucks
View of the Southwest - based on Southwest regional images

It’s a good idea to have at least ten related images in a collection in order to offer a selection to buyers. As you upload new images to your agency directory, remember to add accepted photographs to the collections you have created.

To learn more about Dreamstime collections visit: http://www.dreamstime.com/collections_list

See:
Part 1

Labels: micro stock, niche market, selling stock photography, stock photo submission

It’s time to get the word out! You can sit back and wait for buyers to stumble across your stock photos listed among the millions of images at your micro stock agency. Or you can find your own buyers and send them directly to your photographs.

So the question is: how do you connect with people who want and need to buy your photos? This is the very core philosophy behind marketing stock photos – in order to sell your images you must first identify your “niche market”. They are the people who want the specific type of images you create.

But finding your niche is only the first step. Buyers from your niche market must also NEED your images. Whether it’s for a business ad, local newspaper or personal blog, they must have an urgency and a reason for purchasing a stock image.

When you put these two elements together, you will have automatic sales. If you can make contact with the right person in your niche market, at the time that they have a need to purchase a photograph, your stock images will sell like hotcakes.

Here is a basic breakdown of how to connect with niche buyers:
1. group your images into collections
2. describe each collection
3. make a list of possible markets who would be interested in purchasing images from each collection
4. research each market to identify specific “leads”
5. create a spreadsheet or database and enter your lead info
6. contact your lead using social media, email or snail mail
7. systematically work down your list of leads, contacting each one

During the next seven blog posts, we’ll discuss in detail each step of this process.

Don’t miss out on this valuable information. It could earn you a ton of microstock sales! Bookmark this blog or subscribe to our RSS feed to receive every post in this mini-series: “Selling to Your Niche”.

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Labels: microstock agency, microstock photography, niche market