Hi. I started stock last year, and looking to maximise my income. Has anyone here does POD. Is it worth it?

I do a bit of Amazon Merch, a little Amazon KDP (ebooks), and some Etsy selling mostly digital items.

Altogether, those made me about $2,900 US in 2023, which only made up about 2% of my total income for the year.  But that's mostly because I don't devote nearly as much attention to those avenues as I do stock.

So, it can be worth it if you channel appropriate energy into those businesses and hit the right niches.

I've tried Etsy. never sold anything on there

Do you upload your images on these pod sites?

I upload to fineartamerica and pictorem those photos that I think might look good in a canvas  in someone's living room or a mug, but I only make less than $50 a year.

So basically isn't worth the time. I have around 2000 files which I think will be good for prints.

I have about 1000 files in the various PODs, but sales are poor everywhere.

I noticed that almost all agencies (but especially FAA and Society6) always sell the same images, the ones that have been at the top of searches for 10 years.

And now there is also a lot of competition (I think due to videos on YouTube about passive income).

I think the best choice is to sell through your website (perhaps by printing in dropshipping) but it takes years and excellent marketing made up of quality content through blogs, social media, and paid ads.

I think there's competition everywhere. I do YouTube as well, still haven't reached the amount of subs to monetise the channel. It's really hard to grow it.

I tried to UK pod site, have there around 2500 files, haven't sold anything yet. Thinking maybe to try others, but not sure which one are the best to pick, so I don't waste my time with sites where aren't sales.

Quote from: Faustvasea on February 14, 2024, 01:40

I've tried Etsy. never sold anything on there
Do you upload your images on these pod sites?

Generally, no.  I make unique items for Etsy.  Occasionally, if an image becomes popular, I may upload a few to stock agencies to see what happens.

May ask, by unique items, you mean digital photos, or hand made stuff?

Quote from: Faustvasea on February 14, 2024, 08:24

May ask, by unique items, you mean digital photos, or hand made stuff?

All digital items.

Basically , images?

Quote from: Faustvasea on February 14, 2024, 08:52

Basically , images?

Yes. But I do image packages around themes. People seem to like "bundles".

That's smart. So basically x amount of images for x amount of money? Is it sustainable? I know you have to pay some fees as well. My store is closed as I got in debt - �12, neve made money, so a bit pointless spending money.

I make a lot more selling t-shirts than I do selling microstock.

Is pod or basically dropshiping? Slightly confused by your answer.

Quote from: Faustvasea on February 14, 2024, 09:06

So basically x amount of images for x amount of money? Is it sustainable? I know you have to pay some fees as well. My store is closed as I got in debt - �12, neve made money, so a bit pointless spending money.

I'm by no means earning a living off Etsy.  My primary income still is stock.  But it's good for a couple hundred dollars a month.  Sometimes less.  I really use it as a supplement for my Starbucks.  I don't put a lot of effort into it, but I found a few niches that seem to sell semi regularly.  And I test out new niches occasionally.

I price a bundle of 4 or 5 similar items for $8.  Since it's digital, it nets me about $6.75 after fees.

Yes, the fees are something you need to watch out for, so I tend to let non-selling items (after a reasonable amount of time) to go offline.  Items that sell regularly, I have set to auto-renew every 4 months. 

It's only 20� per listing per 4 months, but that can add up quickly and eat up your profits.

I do have some t-shirts and sweatshirts on my Etsy store, but I primarily sell those on Amazon Merch, which has zero fees, but is incredibly hard to get approved as a seller these days.

I have applied on amazon merchant too. Will see if I'll get approved. When people say t-shirt on amazon or etsy, is that physical items, or again images?

Quote from: Faustvasea on February 14, 2024, 10:39

I have applied on amazon merchant too. Will see if I'll get approved. When people say t-shirt on amazon or etsy, is that physical items, or again images?

Physical, shippable items on Etsy via Printify.

I've tried that as well. Didn't worked out. Probably I had wrong items. Don't know. Are you selling landscape images on them shirts?

Yes. FineArt America. See below its share of my last month's revenue

Thanks for that. May I ask, do you just upload photos on there and the rest the platform does for you?

Quote from: Faustvasea on February 14, 2024, 10:54

I've tried that as well. Didn't worked out. Probably I had wrong items. Don't know. Are you selling landscape images on them shirts?

My t-shirt images are 4500x5000 px @ 300 dpi.

T-shirt sales do work.  You just need to produce what's in demand.  That's the hard part.

Mind me asking for an example of what you are selling?  I will need to look into it as well.

I make more on fine art sales than on stock sites but that's a combination of POD sites such as Fine Art America (where many of my best-sellers have been selling for 10+ years), direct sales, and through art agents. I only have around 900 files on FAA and I spent years marketing them on social media. I've cut back on the marketing and sales have slowed but are still pretty good. I do better with agents who take a huge cut of my sales, so I make much less per sale, but they do the marketing for me and it adds up much faster than FAA. POD is a lot more work than stock and a different market. I also show my work in galleries in the NY tri-state area and make occasional sales that way.

Honestly, I made much more when I was doing photo assignments but between Covid and lingering health issues, I've switched my focus to photography I can do on my own time. Editorial assignments earned me okay but not a living wage, however, they helped me get commercial assignments for local businesses which earned me substantially more. If photography is your full time business, assignments can be the way to go.

But yes, I've found POD sites worthwhile but only in combination with other outlets. I also license stock directly but that took years of finding clients too and still requires a lot of contact.

There's no get rich quick answer and depending on what type of images you shoot, stock can be a better outlet than POD or vice-versa. With stock, you don't have to market, the agencies do it for you but they also take the lion's share of the profits. On POD sites I can earn $$$ from one sale, which is rare for a single stock photo license although that can happen too. This month I netted over $300 from a single license on Stockimo (the Alamy app that they are now discontinuing) but again that's rare - I usually get 2-3 $$$ licenses on Alamy in a year these days, it's the $$ licenses that add up.

You still need a lot of $$$ sales to make decent income from photo sales and the steady daily licenses from microstock also add up. You can try Fine Art America with 25 images on their no cost plan, or for only $30 you can upload an unlimited number. If you have 2,000 good images to sell, why not try it for a few years and see how it goes?

Redbubble is another outlet for merchandise like mugs and T-shirts (occasional prints). They now charge you if you don't sell enough - I've made enough sales there over the years with a very small portfolio so I'm not getting charged but I find my illustrations do better than my photographs though photo stickers sell. The markup on merchandise is small though so you have to sell a lot. And when I cut back on marketing myself sales slowed.

Good luck!