At present, you will not surprise anyone with good image quality. Modern digital photographic equipment has become available to any consumer. And along with it, it became possible to replenish the wallet - earnings on photo stocks. Only a relative liability is able to bring from 500 to 1000 dollars a month.

Amateur photographers doubt the real realization of their work, which can become a source of income. Although in today's market non-professional work is highly valued. Unlike staged ones, they are lively and emotional.

It is important to know on which photo stock platforms and in which direction to start a career.

Amateur photos can become top

What is a "photostock"

Photostock is an online platform where a large amount of photos, vector images, videos, music files, 3D graphics are stored, which can be legally bought for personal use.

For example, to design a veterinary clinic, you need pictures of animals. They can be purchased at photo stocks for a small fee.

To find out how this payment settles on the author’s account, you need to understand the concepts of microstocks and photobanks.

In a technical sense (registration, uploading material, etc.), these platforms are no different. But there is a fundamental difference in the licensing issue. On photostocks and microstocks, uploaded photos can be downloaded by users countless times. Moreover, each download brings the author from 25 cents to 1 dollar.

The photo bank pays much more for the material, buying out the copyright. Thus, this image can be sold only 1 time.

Types of acquired licenses on photo platforms:

• Editorial - the material is used for informational purposes (low price);
• Rights-Ready - indication of the purpose and project of use;
• RoyaltyFree - the author himself limits the rights to exploit his material (assumes an inexpensive download);
• ExtendedRoyaltyFree - the widest possible rights for commercial use (uploading a photo is many times more expensive);
• RightManaged - the owner imposes a limit on competitors (costs hundreds of dollars);
• Exclusive Buyout - exclusive rights (the author removes material from all resources).

photo stock license

When searching for works on the site, customers use sorting by popularity, size, orientation (portrait/landscape) and keywords. When uploading images, consider the need for a relevant work title and description.

Overview of photobanks

The Internet space contains dozens of photo stocks and photo banks. The most popular and reliable photobanks for making money:

• Fotolia (Russian interface) - the income of the photographer will depend on the rating indicator on the official website. The photo is sold by the piece in the following proportions: 20-60% copyright, the rest goes to the site. Registration by passport or other identity card, without an exam.
• Dreamstime (English) - without a document and an exam, loyalty to the quality of the material, acceptance of RAW and vector formats. If the client purchases them, the author is paid up to two times more than for a JPG-format photo (the highest resolution).
• Depositphotos (Russian) – passing the exam and having an identity document. There is a system of bonuses and promotions for authors, because photo bank in the active process of promotion.

Shutterstock official site

You can also use the services of BigStockPhoto, CanStockPhoto, Crestock, Lori, Istockphoto.

How much can you earn on photo stocks

The peculiarity of making money with the help of photo stocks is that after working 1 time to create a photo, the photo begins to work for its owner, bringing passive profit.

For each image, several smaller sizes are generated. The download price depends on the size.

The main interest in images arises in the first six months after they are posted on the site, but sales may continue further. The most popular are downloaded up to 15,000 times.

Individual vector elements are in demand, not complete compositions. They are used in filling sites, in printing, etc.

Raster graphics and traditional drawings (watercolor, pencil, etc.) are a separate topic for sales. A big minus is filling out special forms for property.

It is most profitable to sell works for commercial purposes for the production of mouse pads, postcards, calendars, and more.

The client pays the photo bank, and the creator of the photo receives a percentage for each download. It can be 30-70%.

As a beginner, you can earn up to $80-100 per month. When replenishing the portfolio with several thousand pictures - up to $500-600.

The main benefit is passive income for multiple downloads

Example calculation. The portfolio contains 200 photographs. In 1 day, a quarter of them is downloaded from different sources - 50 pictures worth $ 0.25 each. Total $12.5 per day. Accordingly, per month - 375 dollars.

Advanced stockers create and promote their own sites for selling photos on the Internet without intermediaries.

Real examples of stock income

Let's name real examples:

• Mikhail Popov. Registration on 4 stocks. The first year - $ 366 net income, the second - over $ 2,000. There are about 500 shots in the arsenal.
• Vitaly Shcherbinin. 8 stocks, with 2000 images each. For almost 2 years, earnings amounted to $ 1255. Main profit from Shutterstock and Fotolia stocks.
• Steve Hip. First tryouts in 2008. In 2011 he published a book about interaction with a photobank. Portfolio on Shutterstock. For 2017, the profit was $32,732.
• Glen Nigel. Landscapes, architecture, animals are the main theme of his works. Income - $ 1000 per month.

Top photographers earn up to $1000 per month.

What do you need to earn

Required minimum:

• reflex camera (interchangeable lens) or digital camera (minimum 6 mpx), you can use a mobile device with a quality camera, taking into account the correct shooting;
• high-speed Internet for uploading large photos;
• registration on several portals (5-7);
• Proficiency in Photoshop for photo editing, drawings in Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator.

A “cool” camera is not a prerequisite

Knowledge of English will facilitate the task or an online translator will help.

How to make money on photobanks - step by step instructions

A step-by-step instruction on how to make money on photo banks and photo stocks will prompt further practical steps.

Photo selection

For starters, it's worth looking into stock reports, consumer demand, and key search terms. You can start filling a scarce niche, where there is little occupancy, but given your creative range.

• healthy lifestyle / sports;
• travel (architecture, sights);
• holidays;
• family;
• relationships;
• food, diet;
• profession;
• business (office, office equipment, business negotiations, etc.);
• individual objects on a plain or transparent background (stationery, groceries, medicines, etc.).

Customers of an online platform buy a product for business, therefore they aim at the commercial significance of the material, and not at a complex artistic concept.

The main thing is commercial significance, and a simple artistic design

Registration

Registration is actually an electronic conclusion of a contractual relationship between a user and a resource. It gives the right to legally sell your product (photos, drawings, videos, music files, etc.). Data is entered in English.

Shutterstock requires documents to be linked upon registration, others upon first withdrawal.

For the identification process, a scanned image of the passport and, of course, the international passport is required. In some cases, this may be a driver's license.

Image requirements:

• allowed format;
• agreement of models for pictures with people (Model Release);
• there should be no damage to the photo when increasing its size;
• lack of glare, blur (allowed if required by the composition);
• lighting should be of high quality (extra overexposure and shadow);
• lack of inscriptions and logos on the material (copyright).

There are certain download requirements. It is necessary to indicate in English not only the name and category of the photo, but also describe it (Description), as well as define keywords (Keywords), from 30 to 50 pieces. Keywords is the main parameter. The more photos a photo has, the more likely it is to be found in a search engine.

From the first photos there are certain upload requirements

Exam

The exam system exists only on Shutterstock (10 works) and Depositphotos (5). Photos must be of excellent quality (focus, lighting, exposure) with a variety of themes and subjects. With vector illustrations, it is easier to pass the control.

If 7 out of 10 exam papers are accepted on Shutterstock, registration will proceed with unlimited photo uploads. And the credited product is put up for sale. If only 6 are approved, the registration application is rejected.

Notification of acceptance or rejection with comments is sent to the specified e-mail. Fresh or revised footage can be resubmitted in a month.

Portfolio preparation

For a permanent income, you need a portfolio with 100-200 works, which is regularly updated.

The RoyaltyFree license gives you the right to post the same work on multiple platforms. It is important to replenish the portfolio with 5-10 photos daily.

Thus, earnings in photographs are real and depend on the regular filling of the portfolio and the number of partnerships with stocks.

The more photos in the portfolio, the better

The main reasons for failing an exam

An exam can fail for several reasons:

• Poor frame quality. Quality suffers from the presence of artifacts and noise. The reason is file compression and matrix sensitivity. You can protect against this by using the minimum camera sensitivity (ISO) when shooting and proper exposure so as not to add brightness. It is necessary to avoid excessive sharpness (by setting the Sharpen value). You can take pictures in RAW format. When converting, remove the sharpness to 0 and add pointwise in the right places (eyes, eyelashes, etc.) at the end of processing. You can lower the level of artifacts, glare and noise by reducing the image size to 4 megapixels.
• Lack of commercial value. Comparison with the demand rating on the site and topics. For selection, you need to send frames of different types and plots, creative, unique and original.

Exam can be taken multiple times

• Incorrectly selected keywords. For the exam, 7 keywords and a description are enough, but accurate, according to what the consumer scores in the search engine. After approval of frames, you need to add up to 50.
• No Model Release attached. This is the name of the resolution of the people whose face is in the picture. If there are children in the frame, permission must be from a parent or guardian. The document is not difficult to draw up, is not checked, does not oblige to anything, but is a guarantee that there will be no private claims. The form of the document can be downloaded on the photo bank. Required fields: names of the author (photographer name) and models (model name), addresses, phone numbers, date (shoot date), signatures (signature and witness/witness, friend). A scanned completed form in JPG format is uploaded along with the work.

Few stockers succumb to the exam phase. But they get 50-70% of their profits from cooperation with Shutterstock. Therefore, if you fail to pass the control the first time, you need to try repeatedly.

How to get money from photostock

Withdrawal of funds - earnings on drawings and photos - starts from $50. On Shutterstock - from $100.

You can use payment systems WebMoney, Moneybookers, PayPal. The first two, according to reviews, are the most convenient for translations. The PayPal system does not work in the spectrum of the CIS countries.

Foreign payment systems are used

The processing of the footage is best done in Adobe Photoshop. You can correct the exposure and color correction, put a white background, remove the shadow and assign titles with keywords (File -> File Info). To remove noise, the Imagenomic Noiseware Professional plug-in is used, which is installed separately in the program.

It’s better to start with 1, maximum 3 photo stocks, but with active uploading of your work in order to get the result, and with it further incentive.

Despite the difficulty of passing the selection when registering on Shutterstock, you should start with it, because. the lion's share of the profits comes from there.

Think like a designer making a banner or designing a website, offices, like a journalist looking for a photo for an article.

Minimalism in composition - maximum interest. There is a principle: simpler means better.

Main principle: simpler is better

Joyful, bright and light photos attract buyers more than dark and gloomy ones.

You can earn on what is interesting to the customer, not the photographer. It is necessary to study the demand by the popularity rating of the photo. Abstraction, landscapes are less in demand.

Calendar holidays are the peak of sales of thematic works. Especially March 8, Mother's Day, New Year and Christmas, February 23, etc.

Searching for keywords is time-consuming, but profitable.

Familiarity with the rules is a must. An online translator will help you with language difficulties. Russian-language photo stocks are simple and easy to use, but foreign stocks bring more profit.

Pros and cons of making money on photo stocks

Advantages:

• passive, multiple income;
• own minimum financial investments;
• without looking for customers;
• sale in all corners of the planet;
• payments in dollars, independence from the economy in the country;
• earnings without a limit level;
• convenient schedule without reference to the place of work;

Flaws:

• passing an exam at registration;
• small profit at the beginning of a career, hence the lack of motivation;
• constant search for new ideas, daily uploading of photos to the site;
• long-term study of consumer demand;
• development of professional knowledge and skills.

As with anything, there are pros and cons

It is important to evaluate your strength and readiness for regular work in this area, which requires a certain amount of time and effort.

Conclusion

A hobby can always turn into a source of income. Beginners have a chance not to get lost. Passive income from previously done work - these are the main incentives for implementation on photo stocks. Choosing the right platforms, regularity, studying trends, self-education are the criteria for achieving the desired result.

When a photographer begins to think about increasing the income from his photography, then his eyes will certainly be fixed in the direction of stock photography. In my opinion, all photographers go through the stage of considering photo stocks as an additional or main income and trying to make money on them. The popularity of photo stocks among beginners is extremely high due to their attractive business model.

What attracts beginners to photostocks and photobanks?!

First of all, with its supposedly passive income model. It would seem, upload photos to the stock and sit, count the money. But is it?!

It has long been noticed that for successful earnings on a photo stock, you just need a huge portfolio of very high-quality photos, about several thousand. And all those successful income stories that you have already read before you got to my photoblog are silent about one essential fact: photos must be of commercial value.

Here it is highly desirable to understand what photo stocks are. There are two options for understanding its essence: selling your photos and someone else's business. Ask yourself a reasonable question: If any photo stock is a successful business of its owner, then what approach will this businessman follow?! Of course, he will sell what another business buys.

From here we can draw a simple and obvious conclusion: photo stocks need those photos that are in demand by some business. And so it can be argued that photo stocks simply do not need all your photos of cats, flowers, surrounding landscapes and girlfriend Lyudka. These photos have no commercial value, and it is not photo stocks that determine the demand for them, but a certain business and its customers. The better you understand this, the easier it will be for you to start working with stocks.

Welcome to the real world, Neo.

How much can you earn from photo stocks?

I'm afraid I will disappoint you, but the amount of your earnings is unlikely to be large. Most likely, it will be several tens of dollars per year. And this phenomenon has its own explanation.

What is your income from photo stocks? Of course, from the number of photographs sold. Relatively speaking, each photo costs a few cents (0.20 - 0.33 cents) and now, imagine the number of photos that you need to sell to earn a conditional one hundred dollars. This is approximately 500 photographs.

It would seem not so much, but these are 500 photographs in the face of fierce competition and an endlessly falling demand for them. Look at the following photo:

How many times have you seen pictures like this on websites?! Yes, they are everywhere. Please note that the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet is using foreign persons on its sites with might and main, and this can mean several things:

• Higher quality photos of foreign photographers
• More top models
• Photo stock clients have their own requirements and it is pointless to catch a wave of success with "our" faces

By the way, this photo has absolute commercial value. It will sell well as it can be used to illustrate almost any business. Ask yourself a simple question: Will I be able to take photos of this quality and content?! By the way, regarding the content, photostock inspectors may have questions about your photos. I have heard that some topics, like the photo of the call center above, are already so full of the same type of photos that the inspectors simply do not let such photos go for sale.

So. The first thing you should evaluate if you want to make money on a stock photo is the commercial component of your photos and the quality of their performance, relative to what is already on sale on the photo stock. Believe me, the more honest you are with yourself, the more time and effort you will save yourself.

And now, the funniest part. If you can ensure stock quality for your photos, then you'll already be a pretty professional photographer whose schedule will be full months offline. And it will be easier for you to make money offline than waiting for someone to buy a couple of your stock photos.

Is it really possible to make money on photo stocks?

Now, I would like to tell you a little about the subscription system that exists on photo stocks, and how it will interfere with your earning. One way or another, all photo stocks offer a subscription, under which you can purchase a limited or unlimited number of photos for a certain amount per month or year. It would seem that it's okay, but look at the screenshots of photostock subscriptions:

All you have to do is divide the cost of a subscription by the number of photos in that subscription and then calculate your 30-50%. You will receive the amount that you can earn by selling one photo by subscription. Impressive?

What does this mean for a beginner?!

This means that the crowd of subscribers will buy photos at a big discount and you will earn less money from these sales. Of course, all those customers who buy photos in bulk will use subscriptions, because it costs them less. As I said, photo stocks are a business, and business is primarily interested in money, not your photos. I don't think you should expect any action from photo stocks aimed at increasing the direct income of photographers. There are many photographers, and photo stocks have less and less money.

I remember the epic threads on the stock photography forums when stock photography introduced this system. I understand and sympathize with stock photographers, but then the howl was up to the sky.

In addition, we should not forget that there are already photographers on photo stocks who have made a name for themselves and you will have to compete with them. For example: one of the most famous stock photographers, Dane Yuriy Arkus. On the Internet you can find his interview, a list of the photographic equipment used and the amount of his earnings. He uses professional models, he has several assistants, there is Hasselblad and yes, he is a millionaire and your competitor. Do you have everything that Arkus has and others like him? I doubt.

What conclusions can be drawn? I guess the following:

• Photostock policy is not aimed at generating income for photographers
• High competition from well-known and promoted photographers
• Competitors already have more opportunities, both in monetary and technical terms
• Prices for photographs are shifting in the direction of their reduction

Of course, you can object to me, they say, there are photographers who earn on stocks and earn quite a lot. Sure, but there aren't that many of these photographers, and most stock photographers do more than they actually do.

And therefore, when I read another success story about how an aspiring photographer managed to earn a lot of money by uploading a hundred photos to a photo stock, I tend to strongly doubt its veracity. There is only one way to be successful at stock photography, if you treat it like a full-time job. Hard and boring work.

Stock photography and where to start?!

Oh, it's quite easy. It is enough to take several hundred photos of a commercial theme, choose a description and keywords for them, and upload them to a photo stock. After that, it is sad to observe very weak or absent sales at all.

Let me share one interesting observation. A photographer, posting his photos on a photo stock, does not earn money here and now. He is simply lending money to his own business, looking forward to future success that may not be.

Before you start working with stocks, please take a piece of paper with a pen, sit down and start writing down all your potential expenses. It is necessary to take into account not only the cash costs for paying for the same models, but also the time losses for the search for these models. Add in equipment depreciation, electricity, the cost of photo retouching, and the cost of administering it all.

As a result, you will get a certain amount, which will mean how much you will credit your expected income from the photo stock. My friend, having done similar calculations, came to the conclusion that it is more profitable for him to photograph for documents. I can't say he was wrong.

And if after all, I have not convinced you of the futility of this lesson, then go for it. I sincerely hope you succeed.

*** Everything that is written refers to the microstock model. This is when one photo is sold many times, but for mere pennies.

Let's be honest: we all came to stocks to earn money. Of course, not only for him - also for the opportunity to receive this income, doing what is interesting to do, when it is convenient. But still, mostly - for earnings :) However, what is funny, almost no one is ready to talk about earnings openly.

There is so little information on the Internet on the topic of earning from stocks that it is very difficult to understand how much you can actually earn. This creates a number of problems.

TWO PROBLEMS

Problem one- deceived expectations. Someone once wrote somewhere that you can draw on stocks with your left heel and earn from $1000. And here comes the author, potentially strong, but not yet knowing it, puffs and puffs, gets his $ 50 for the first couple of months and scores on stocks, because he begins to feel like a complete loser. After all, someone draws with his left heel and earns a lot of money! And he gives all the best - and gets a penny. And if the author understood that $50 for the first couple of months is normal, then maybe he would not quit and even go for $1000.

Problem two- It is very difficult to plan the investment of time and effort when you do not know what you can count on. For someone, any extra dollar in the piggy bank is good, and then, of course, there is nothing to lose, but someone, in order to work for stocks, must leave with the main job, and here you already need to understand whether there will be money for food.

All of the above does not mean that I decided to start showing my income - I perfectly understand all those who hide their income, and I don’t plan to disclose specific numbers myself :) Not so much because it prohibits Shutterstock (if you wish, there are many ways to get around the ban), but due to the fact that I'm not ready for this level of frankness on the Internet.

But based on my own experience and on the experience of colleagues with whom I had a chance to discuss the topic of finance, I will try to talk about which numbers can be considered real, which ones are optimistic, and which ones are very difficult to achieve.

WHAT AFFECTS EARNINGS

The main factors that affect the amount of earnings from stocks:

• How well does the author understand stock specifics
• How good are the pictures he draws?
• How well does he choose the subject?
• How many pictures does/upload per month and how regular are the uploads
• Does it work well with keywords and descriptions
• And, finally, does he promote his work anywhere in social networks (this is effective, of course, only if there is a base of followers)

The ideal picture looks like this: a person knows what topics are in trend, knows how to draw them, quickly understands what is needed on stocks (rather “elements” for design than ready-made densely drawn pictures), learns to make various similariae, makes several hundred pictures a month , supplies them all with different descriptions and high-quality keys, promotes himself in his social networks, where he has already gained a base of loyal followers.

I have never met such people, so I can only fantasize about the level of income, but I am sure that such a person will be able to get $2,000 a month from Shutterstock in a year. This is a very good figure for a very short period of time on stocks, and this almost never happens (at least I have not heard of such a thing).

$500 PER MONTH

When I came to the stocks, I set myself the goal of reaching a stable $500 per month in the first year. More precisely, it was not even a goal, but a dream, because all the factors listed above were in a deep minus for me (there was no understanding of the market, no knowledge of an illustrator, no ability to choose a topic and, in general, an understanding that one should choose a topic - that is, I started not only from scratch, but from a trip to the store for this sheet). But the dream came true earlier than planned - 10 months after the start of work.

Here I must say that I worked a lot, loaded regularly, tried to select keywords, that is, I had two of the six factors listed above “in the black”. And due to this close work, over time, she began to learn to think about topics and, learning on and, raised the level of pictures.

I know examples of reaching this amount in a shorter time, but only in cases where the author initially had more of these very factors than I had.

This is logical and understandable - if a person comes to stocks with knowledge of an illustrator, with experience in design, for example, logos, with an understanding of what good design is and how it differs from bad, he can reach $500 earlier than in a year. I think that a realistically achievable bar for such a person is $ 500 for five to six months, provided that he uploads at least 150 high-quality images per month (better - more) and does it regularly, not forgetting about.

WHERE IS THE CEILING?

I think that the "average ceiling" - that is, the amount of earnings that most people are happy to reach, and which at the same time is real enough to write it down in goals, and not in dreams, is $ 3000 - 4000 per month (from all stocks, not only from Shutter, but only from Shutter, such a figure is more difficult to achieve) for a couple of years of work. Absolutely ceiling-ceiling is, according to my feelings, $ 10,000 - 12,000 (this is the amount that I would call very, very difficult to achieve). But only a few know how to get there, and I'm not sure that with the current competition this is possible alone, without a team. Correct me if I'm wrong :)

Considering all of the above, the optimistic stock income plan looks like this: $500 per month in the first six months, $1,000 per month in a year, stable $2,000 per month in the second or third year, and $3,000-4,000 in another year.

Again, this is an optimistic plan.

In reality, beginners without design knowledge, but with a desire to learn and develop, draw enough pictures and upload them regularly, that is, work very hard on themselves and their portfolio, are more likely to reach $500 per month in the first year and $1000 in the second. This is a realistic plan, but, again, it requires regular and intensive work.

And you need to take into account that there are kickbacks and that the amount will not increase from $500 to $1000 in the 13th month of work :))

Therefore, for those who have a permanent, but extremely boring job, I would advise them not to quit, but to start working with wastewater in parallel - at least at night, at least in the morning, at least during lunch breaks - or to have a fat enough financial cushion so that they can live on reserves for a year and a half.

I don't believe in conspiracy theories and I don't think that Shutterstock has some kind of evil plan to "wet" specific authors, to prevent them from crawling out to the level of the desired income, so if your income does not start to grow or it has stopped, it's up to you and in your pictures. The good news is that, knowing this, you can start working on mistakes: better, do better work, try new styles.

By the way, pretty soon I will have a special workshop dedicated to just the same search for topics and effective reproduction of pictures :) The workshop has passed and is available as a video course.

Well, a favorite topic about the fact that it used to be easier to crawl out to a good level of income, but now it’s completely impossible.

I know people who have started this year and are quite confidently creeping into an optimistic schedule. I also know those who started at the same time as me (two years ago), but never made it to $500 a month. Therefore, the point is still in the skills and desire to develop a particular person.

Yes, I'm sure it was easier to start a few years ago, simply because the stock base was much thinner and there were fewer quality content authors. And it felt like most people back then treated stock as a hobby, so those who treated it as a business could be sure that it would quickly crawl up to the top. Now the ratio of those who come to stocks with a plan and goals and those who come just to draw and earn a pretty penny is changing.

But this does not mean that it's too late to try and that the studios will conquer the world :) It just means that you need to take into account the real situation and turn on your head before you sit down to draw.

How do you like the figures voiced in the article - do you like or disappoint? What were you guided by when you came to stocks?

Like everyone else, I bought a camera for entertainment, without thinking about making money. Then I began to study specialized sites, courses, visit photopleiners. Gradually, praise from friends, and even strangers, began to be heard more often. The skill grew and then I thought: why not make money on what is good at it? Do you have a similar situation? I didn’t plan to shoot weddings: hassle, fuss is not mine. I wanted something calm and with a perspective on the future. I started looking and found out that there are photo stocks for making money, especially for people like us.

What are photo stocks

Photo stock is a platform with a large database of high-quality photos that you can legally buy to use for your own purposes.

How is the process going? The designer needs a photo of a girl in a dress for a banner. He goes to a photo stock, selects a suitable image and buys it for a nominal fee (I’ll tell you why it’s so cheap and why it’s profitable for us below). For each download, the author of the picture receives deductions.

Benefits of making money on photo stocks

5 main advantages:

1. Passive income - you sleep, your photos are sold;
2. Low entry threshold - you don't need large investments to start earning. A camera and basic skills are enough;
3. Income depends only on you, there is no ceiling. It can be $30 or $3000 per month;
4. Create your own work schedule
5. Not tied to a place.

The article will be biased if I do not mention the cons:

1. Long wait for the first money. While the volume of your portfolio will be small, you should not count on tangible income. Start from at least 300 photos. Calculate how much you can shoot so much, and with high quality. For those who want to cut down the dough - pass by;
2. The second minus follows from the first - the loss of motivation. First you have to work without seeing results. Not getting a quick result, many quit.

Before you start earning, ask yourself the question, can you?

Photo stock rating

The first 3 I think are the best for selling photos on the Internet for beginners.

How to work on photo stocks

I'll tell you on the example of the Shutterstock photo stock, the process is similar to others. The sequence is as follows:

1. Register;
2. Pass the exam - to do this, upload your top 10 photos for moderators to check. I will say right away that I did not succeed in passing the exam the first time, but I did not give up, I replaced the rejected frames and passed the second time;
3. Fill out the tax form Form W-8BEN - relevant for overseas stocks. You should not be afraid, you indicate that you are not a US citizen and the 30% tax will not be removed from you;
4. Upload photos;
5. Keep track of income statistics.

What will you be paid for? For each download of a photo, $ 0.25 is charged. It seems that this is minuscule, but the trick of making money on photo stocks is that photos can be downloaded an unlimited number of times. Imagine you have 200 photos in your portfolio. Suppose that 25% downloads per day - 50. 50 times multiply by 0.25 = $ 12.5 per day. In a month it turns out $375. Okay, do you agree?

Photo stocks for beginners

What are your thoughts now? Register on 9 microstocks and receive income from several sources at once. So? Here is the first mistake! At first, especially for beginners, such a step leads to the fact that you dissipate your strength and, as a result, do not get the expected result. Then the motivation will disappear and you will quit this business.

How to make money on photo stocks correctly? Narrow the goal to a minimum and direct all energy to one point. Choose 1-3 stocks and upload, actively upload photos there. By putting all your efforts to one point, you will quickly get the result, and with it the motivation to work further!

Have you heard about the Pareto rule? It says that 20% of effort gives 80% of results. So, of all the services above, 60-70% of the profit comes from Shutterstock. First, gain a foothold on it, get the first profit, experience, and then you will scale to the rest.

The most important advice you read above. Here I will tell you how to earn more:

1. Pay attention to keywords - most of the works are found by them;
2. Do not build a composition, shoot simple things - remember that photo stocks buy material for further work. The simpler, the better;
3. Read the rules before you start. An interpreter will help on English-language resources;
4. Think not like a photographer, but like a designer or journalist who is looking for material for a banner or article;
5. Light, bright, sunny photos are bought up better than gloomy and dark ones;
6. Popular topics are medicine, office, workers. Worse in demand are flora and fauna, landscapes, abstraction;
7. Prepare stories for the holidays. March 8, February 23, mother's day - on such days, sales of thematic photos soar to the limit;
8. Russian photo stocks are easy to learn, but the main income comes from foreign ones.

Understand one more thing, uploading a photo once a month and waiting for money to pour in is stupid. Photo stocks are not for everyone. This is hard work that requires regularity. If you still want to make money by selling your photos, then go for it!

Earnings on photo banks and photo stocks

Photobanks and microstocks: passive income or business?!

With the increasing availability of powerful digital photographic equipment, obtaining high-quality images is no longer the preserve of professionals. At the same time, the demand for such products did not decrease at all, although the growth of competition could not but affect prices. A year ago, in Sri Lanka, I met a guy who earned about $1,000 a month on photo stocks on a relative liability. Recently I decided to delve into the topic and at the same time write a detailed review in the direction.

So, what opportunities for making money on the Internet does an amateur photographer have and what does he have in common with an investor who receives passive income in the financial market, read about this in this article.

What are microstocks and photobanks

I have been blogging for over 6 years now. During this time, I regularly publish reports on the results of my investments. Now the public investment portfolio is more than 1,000,000 rubles.

Especially for readers, I developed the Lazy Investor Course, in which I showed you step by step how to put your personal finances in order and effectively invest your savings in dozens of assets. I recommend that every reader go through at least the first week of training (it's free).

This time we will take a closer look at the so-called microstocks and photobanks. In its most general form, these are online platforms for the sale and purchase of graphic and multimedia content: photos, vector and raster drawings, and sometimes videos. But the absolute majority of the material is presented in the form of photos and photo collages. Surprisingly, it is not so easy to find a clear explanation of the differences between microstock and photobank on the Internet. Meanwhile, there is a difference and it is very fundamental.

Microstock allows you to upload an image to the storage once, sell the image any number of times, regardless of what other resources it is located on. Unlimited rights to this image remain with the author. The photobank also allows you to purchase an exclusive license for an image, and from now on, any attempt by the author to put the image up for sale again will be a violation of the license.

Of course, this difference greatly affects the prices. You can sell your images at least a thousand times through stocks, but from each download your earnings will be a symbolic amount - often less than $ 1. If your masterpiece is appreciated by the photo bank, you can get a decent jackpot, up to thousands of dollars, but once. By making a paid download of an image, the buyer acquires not the image itself, but a license for the right to use it.

There are several types of licenses accepted in photostocks and photobanks:

• Editorial - a cheap license to use an image for informational purposes;
• Rights-Ready - the buyer indicates for what purpose and in what project the image for which the license is purchased will be used;
• RoyaltyFree - all rights remain with the author, who prescribes restrictions on the right to use the work, the cheapest download;
• ExtendedRoyaltyFree - extended rights to use works for commercial purposes, downloading costs several times more;
• RightManaged - the owner of such a license can impose restrictions on the rights to use the image by competitors, the license price is hundreds of dollars;
• Exclusive Buyout - exclusive rights to use the image. From now on, the author is obliged to remove it from other resources, if it is available there.

The uniqueness of making money on photo stocks lies in the fact that potentially this type of business is able to generate passive income, i.e. you can call it an investment. All you need to get started is a SLR or "system" camera, 1-2 good lenses and plenty of time. Even with numerous failures, when the moderators reject the uploaded works, and the demand for those put up for sale does not live up to expectations, you still have photographic equipment that can be used to hone your skills, compile a family archive, or, in extreme cases, be sold.

To successfully sell their work, the stocker must be, as they say, in a trend. Flowers, sunsets and kitties don't sell well. It is enough to get acquainted with popular topics, the list of which you will see on any stock. Everything related to business and the so-called life style is in demand: success, active recreation, stories full of movement and motivation for action.

It is also true that from year to year the requirements for image quality are becoming more stringent. What could be successfully sold even 3 years ago, now with a high probability will be rejected by the moderators as not meeting the minimum quality requirements. You can be a brilliant photographer in terms of realizing an artistic idea, but if the camera is lathering, if the image is noisy and with various color aberrations, creativity will not save you.

The task of the beginner is first of all to pass the “exam”, i.e. upload examples of your work to the site to assess their compliance with the basic level. Before you send your work, you need to properly consider them in full size. This is how they are viewed by the moderators of the drains.

What you need to pay attention to:

• focus (general image detail);
• "shake" - blur due to camera movement;
• noises;
• lighting (are there any problems with exposure);
• detail in dark and light areas;
• excessive noise reduction processing;
• whether EXIF ​​protocol data (information about shooting conditions) is read in the editor;
• the absence of logos or trademarks in the frame.

Perhaps the least problems with fixing the so-called. "softness" of the image, when the detail is slightly below what is theoretically possible at a given resolution. Alternatively, you can lower the resolution and this disadvantage will be almost invisible. You need to be prepared for the fact that everyone has different requirements, and if your work does not cause complaints on one stock, then they can be “wrapped” on another. It's all about quality. But no one canceled the correspondence of the composition to traditional canons. For example, a diagonal composition is visually much more attractive than a flat one, and back focus in portrait photography is generally unacceptable. In addition, you need skills in working with graphic editors, preferably Photoshop. A well-edited photo sells much better than the original.

But perhaps the most difficult thing to predict is the amount of labor that will have to be invested month after month before real returns begin from it. For many beginners, this moment turns out to be an insurmountable obstacle and a blow to pride. If we look at the statistics posted by successful photo stockers, we can see that they:

• work not with 1-2 drains, but with 5 or more;
• the first year they work practically only on the formation of a portfolio;
• persistently advertise their portfolio on thematic resources.

How much can you earn on photo stocks

Time is money and not everyone has a lot of it. Meanwhile, there is an alternative for talented photographers. These are not stocks, but online photo galleries. At one time, 35.ru was considered the most prestigious Russian-language resource. On it, one could freely get acquainted with the works of such recognized masters as Valtteri Mulkahainen, Igor Torgachkin, Rarindra Prakarsa, Ben Marar. Unfortunately, now the site functions as a social network and requires registration with Facebook.

However, through search queries it is available. Here is a link to the works of TOP-100 photographers of 2016 on this resource: 35photo.ru/rating/best2016. Most of the works are available for purchase both digitally with a "Personal Use Only" license and as high quality prints. Prices are usually specified by the author. Prices range from hundreds of rubles to thousands of dollars. Needless to say, you will never find works of such a professional level in any of the stocks. The best photographers from all over the world gather here, using exclusive, sometimes piece equipment.

Real examples of passive income on stocks

So how much can you earn on photo stocks? Interesting statistics are provided by amateur photographer Mikhail Popov (mikhailpopov.com). Having registered on 4 stocks, during the first year he earned $366, but in the second year he earned more than $2000. Revenue from Shutterstock accounted for 81.5% of the total. Nearly 500 images were put up for sale. As the photographer admits, there were moments when I wanted to quit everything. Photographer Vitaly Shcherbina tells even more about his earnings “from scratch” (his blog, unfortunately, is no longer available). For 1 year and 8 months, 1255$ was received on 8 stocks with which he cooperates, while for each (!) stock, on average, 2000 photos were uploaded. However, Shcherbina works with an entry-level Canon 600D SLR camera and a set of lenses that do not pretend to be professional. The distribution of income between all these stocks turned out to be as follows:

The average price of 1 download is $0.58, so you can only take a number here. The popularity of the resource plays a major role. Shatterstock is the undisputed market leader. But he is also a leader in terms of the level of the "bar" that must be overcome in order to start work. You need to upload 10 photos for evaluation, and if at least 7 of them are not found suitable, you will not be registered as an author.

Stock Opportunities

In addition to photos, many stocks allow you to sell vector images. The main demand is not for finished compositions, but for elements used to compose original layouts in print design and website design. Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw are the graphic stoker's main arsenal. A separate topic is selling through drawing stocks. They can be made both in raster form using a graphics tablet, and in the traditional way, i.e. pencil, watercolor, oil. To confirm your authorship, you will have to fill out a special form - a release on property. The job is not for the faint of heart. For example, here is what a completed release form for Shutterstock looks like:

In addition to textual information, you will also have to provide a thumbnail of the image itself. Imagine now that you have hundreds of drawings. Some stockers work with their own team. In this regard, the experience of stocker-illustrator Microvector is indicative. The total income of the team is about 11 thousand dollars a month, and there are 5-7 permanent performers. The format of the work is vector images. Payment to the performer for the finished work is 20-25 dollars, for a "similar", i.e. small modification, 10-12 dollars. The income of the head himself is a little less than half of the total amount of earnings. The benefits of teamwork are clear:

• an already promoted author sells more effectively than a beginner;
• the manager is focused on studying demand and promoting work;
• the performer does not waste time on competent design and uploading of images.

We can say that there is a synergistic effect here: the performance of the team is greater than the sum of the individual performances of its members. Once again, Shutterstosk is the main source of revenue, followed by iStock and Fotolia. Interview with Microvector can be read here fotostoki.ru/articles/interview/interview-microvekctor.html

Speaking of earnings, it is impossible not to touch on the topic of withdrawing funds. For example, Shutterstock does this automatically every month. The withdrawal method is selected during registration: PayPal or MoneyBookers. There is also a minimum amount. The first three months the money will not be withdrawn. This is argued by the fact that there are crooks trying to sell other people's work. The administration undertakes to find them as soon as possible and expel them from the site. It is highly recommended that you complete Form W-8BEN or you will be liable for US income tax of 30%. It will be automatically deducted when withdrawing the earned amount. The process of filling out the form will not cause difficulties: this process is automated and uses registration data.

Advantages and disadvantages of making money on photo stocks

Advantages	Flaws
Possible passive income	Requires professional knowledge
No risk of capital loss	Not everyone succeeds
Does not require large one-time costs	The first 1-2 years of work without tangible returns
Flexible timing	Large labor costs
Combination of work and creativity	For professionals, not always adequate earnings

For those who are interested in passive (in the future) earnings, stocks may be an interesting option. But unlike classical investing, you will have to invest a lot of your own time in the beginning. There is some analogy with classical business in this. But, unlike a business, what has already been achieved will remain with you, it will not depreciate, it will not go under the hammer or to pay off debts. Your portfolio will work for you 7 days a week and 24 hours a day.

If among the readers of the blog there are stockers and just not indifferent, write your feedback about this way of earning money in the comments. I do not rule out that this year I will experiment with photo stocks. Subscribe to blog updates.

All profit!