MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Newbie Discussion => Topic started by: tjevans on September 17, 2015, 10:36
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As someone who is considering submitting microstock, I have a couple of questions I hope someone could answer.
First, how large of a portfolio of "stock-worthy" images would you recommend before making your first submission?
Second, how do you make this cost-effective? I definitely don't plan to make stock my day job, but it doesn't seem that shooting photos purely for submission to stock agencies is a good use of money. I say that because it seems the best selling images are creative, and I would have to pay a model to make those shots. At the going rates for microstock, it would take quite a while to recover that expense.
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"I say that because it seems the best selling images are creative, and I would have to pay a model to make those shots."
You're not incorrect.
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I would start submitting straight away so you can judge whats needed/sells - it might be frustrating if you get thousands rejected! You are right to even make a small profit you have to minimise costs!
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I started with no portfolio at all.. I mean i had about 14000 images on the server, but they had been taken with higher ISO so had noise, or maybe they were just not really what i wanted to upload. So I made a decision to start from scratch 2 months ago.
I'm with 15 libraries and I'm making sales every 2 days now and my portfolio ranges from about 80 images to 200 depending on the agency.
My advise - start now, as Pauws99 says - as you go you will judge what works and what doesnt. What photos to send to which agency.. and if ou upload a batch of thousands say to Alamy - and they reject only one image... the....whole...batch...gets... rejected.... :'( ouch.
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Looking back at my own experience I would say, take ten pictures and submit to those agencies that you like, starting with the less picky ones to the pickiest, and see what happens. The first battle is to learn each stock sites' peculiarities and have your images accepted and stand out. Then hope they will sell. I started out with about 80 effective pictures between editorial and royalty-free but my portfolio in the various agencies I submitted varied between 18-89 when it was all said and done.
Hope that helps.