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Author Topic: what is the best stock photo agency?  (Read 9103 times)

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« Reply #25 on: November 23, 2017, 14:18 »
+1
Lifestyle.

People doing something, families eating together, seniors exercising, business people doing business things.

The stock industry is not an art marketplace.

It is all about content that customers can use in their advertising.

how many insurances, pizzas or cars will your portraits sell? Can a medical doctor or lawyer use them to advertise his services?

If you do a shooting, you have to visualize the customer. Who are you shooting for? How will they use the image? Will it be in newspaper as a print ad? A banner on a website? A huge poster on a trade show?

Stock is not about you, it is all about the invisible customer.

So did you think of a customer when you took those pictures. Or where they just fun for yourself?

Gettyimages and all agencies have blogs where you can read what they need. Or even have a page with many articles and examples what their sales people are looking for, because this is what customers need.

But of course upload your portraits to all the non exclusive agencies and see what happens.

Who knows, maybe your face is just what someone needs and you get lots of buyers.


« Reply #26 on: November 23, 2017, 18:02 »
0
You are getting to the heart of the matter.

By the type of content that I put in EyeEm, what really is the best stock agency, EyeEm itself or another.

Answer that honestly still no one could tell me.

And once again, Stocksy? Artsy? Twenty20?

Honestly too, if it is real lifestyle that stock agencies seeks, then anyone can photograph themselves in their home, garden, park, city, etc. and thus does contain travel costs, stuff and staff and model releases.

Who agree with me?

« Reply #27 on: November 23, 2017, 19:27 »
+8
Yes. there are thousands of photographers who do just that. they take pictures with themselves and their friends and family.

there are sometimes three generations of family members living only from stock photography income, especially if you live in a country with overall lower daily life costs.

that is why the agencies receive over 1.2 million images every single week. In 3 years that might be 5 million images a week.

that is why it is so difficult to find customers.

Oversupply of content.

But....the majority of content is not very well done. It takes years of experience to find an image style that sells well and also years to build up a following of loyal customers.

That is why I said if you are really interested in making a reliable income from stock photography you have years of hard work ahead of you.

there is no magic secret and there is no shortcut. the successful photographers all have their personal little secret of what content sells best where. they might send mostly food to Shutterstock, people to eyeem and travel images to getty.

or mostly food to getty, flowers to eyeem and cats to dreamstime.

And they also have content that sells well everywhere. So when you look at peoples portfolios you really cannot tell what works best.

It also depends on who you are. A gardener can create a beautiful portfolio of thousands of excellent images about how to grow a garden, knows when to plant what and what kind of flowers are currently the trend. If I upload garden or flower pictures, it will not sell, because i dont understand the subject matter.

But the most important is to upload.

many people just get lost reading and thinking about stock, but never upload anything.

just upload 1500 files and let the customer decide the strategy for you. Its all up to them in the end.

hard work and and years of patience. No magic. No shortcut.

« Reply #28 on: November 24, 2017, 01:27 »
+2
Yes. there are thousands of photographers who do just that. they take pictures with themselves and their friends and family.

there are sometimes three generations of family members living only from stock photography income, especially if you live in a country with overall lower daily life costs.

that is why the agencies receive over 1.2 million images every single week. In 3 years that might be 5 million images a week.

that is why it is so difficult to find customers.

Oversupply of content.

But....the majority of content is not very well done. It takes years of experience to find an image style that sells well and also years to build up a following of loyal customers.

That is why I said if you are really interested in making a reliable income from stock photography you have years of hard work ahead of you.

there is no magic secret and there is no shortcut. the successful photographers all have their personal little secret of what content sells best where. they might send mostly food to Shutterstock, people to eyeem and travel images to getty.

or mostly food to getty, flowers to eyeem and cats to dreamstime.

And they also have content that sells well everywhere. So when you look at peoples portfolios you really cannot tell what works best.

It also depends on who you are. A gardener can create a beautiful portfolio of thousands of excellent images about how to grow a garden, knows when to plant what and what kind of flowers are currently the trend. If I upload garden or flower pictures, it will not sell, because i dont understand the subject matter.

But the most important is to upload.

many people just get lost reading and thinking about stock, but never upload anything.

just upload 1500 files and let the customer decide the strategy for you. Its all up to them in the end.

hard work and and years of patience. No magic. No shortcut.

Great advice cobalt!


 

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