Quote from: mike123 on May 01, 2026, 20:13
I can imagine I'd generate more licensing sales with a built-in checkout system, but I'm not convinced it would make a significant difference at the price points I work with ( I don't offer licenses below 100 Euro).

Thanks! This is very interesting.
I'd imagine that at this price point and beyond, customers prefer direct contact rather than an automated checkout (on standalone photographers' websites).

Quote from: bigshottheory on April 29, 2026, 09:33
Hi everyone,

I'm working on a direct-licensing website/admin system for stock photographers and footage contributors, and I'd appreciate honest feedback from people who have tried selling direct.

The idea is not to replace marketplaces like Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Pond5 or Alamy. It is more of a second channel: a contributor-owned site where selected collections can be licensed directly, with your own brand, pricing, SEO, checkout, license PDFs, download delivery, analytics and metadata workflow.

I'm especially interested in the practical objections. Uploading and metadata work is already time-consuming, so the admin is built around shoots/production folders, AI metadata generation, visual filters, separate microstock metadata and export workflows.

Another reason I'm exploring this is the rise of generative content on large platforms. Some brands and agencies may become more careful about using footage or images unless they can clearly see that the asset is real, properly licensed, and comes from a known creator or production source.

Demo:
https://bigshottheory.com/demo

Admin demo:
https://bigshottheory.com/demo/admin

I'd love feedback on what would make a direct licensing system worth testing, and what would stop you from using one.

Your platform looks very nice!

Would be interesting to know what the monthly fees are for photographers, what the storage limits are, and whether the platform acts as a Merchant of Record (handling all taxes and compliance internationally).

Because without a Merchant of Record setup, the main problem, apart from marketing budget, when selling direct is taxes. If you sell $5 photos and have hundreds of sales a month to different countries and states worldwide, all your profit can end up going to an accountant who has to account for each sale across multiple jurisdictions. Unless you are in the US and only selling to US customers, it quickly becomes unmanageable (or maybe you have your own solution to this, since you are located in Europe :-)

I would 100% use it if it were free and only took a percentage when sales occur (as traditional stock agencies do), but I doubt that's realistic to hope for 🙂

Quote from: mike123 on May 01, 2026, 09:41

Quote from: BeautyStockUK on April 30, 2026, 19:32
It is great if selling educational ebooks to photographers works for you (and it would be interesting to know, although you are also quite secretive about actual success numbers there - all seems to be in theory), but it cannot be applied to selling photos.

Just to add my 2 cents here: I do occasionally sell licenses directly through my standalone website (and also through social media), so I don't agree it's a waste of time. BUT: your potential clients have to be able to find your work through search engines (or stumble upon a viral post if it's on social media) - so you need to have a well ranking website and your work needs to stand out from the crowd. I won't give any exact numbers, but for example in April I made more from licensing directly to customers than through hundreds of downloads on Adobe. I wish every month was like this, but it's not (yet)  .

So selling directly can work, if you can get the traffic to your website and your work isn't the same stuff everyone else is also selling.

Thanks, that is very encouraging. I assume they contacted you via a contact form or email, and that you have a standard photographer's website with a portfolio and contact details, which most of us have.

Or is it that you're running an online store with your photos listed and an "add to cart" setup? That's what was being suggested here, and that is what would take a great deal of time to build, without much if any hope that it would work.

This is what has been suggested here:

"Payhip may not have the direct traffic that places such as Etsy, Amazon, and eBay have, but it does have lots of marketing and promotional tools to help you. I use it in conjunction with social media promotion. Its tools include:

- creating coupons
- running sales
- cross selling between products
- adding discounts
- creating mailing lists
- analytics dashboard"

And if you cannot sell photography this way, then you should go and read AM24's article again [link to her website]. And stop asking silly questions [here goes another link to her website].

Quote from: LizC on May 01, 2026, 16:33
I agree with what Mike said, and the kind of backlash AM24 received is uncalled for. This thread is about selling directly and she brought attention to a platform that provides the tools to do just that.

I think this is exactly the problem. There's a difference between people who read AM24 for entertainment or friendly chat and those who actually try to implement what she's saying, or at least ask whether it really works, even for her, because there's no evidence of that.

Payhip (being a wonderful tool) does provide a way to sell digital products, yes. But it does not provide any real functionality to sell photography. You have to upload files one by one, there's no keyword search, no watermarking, no proper way to manage images, you cannot even change a price for multiple products at once (I did actually go and wasted much of my time to discover all of this after all the rosy posts here). There's no print integration either, so you can't even sell prints properly. That's not a small limitation, that's the core of what photographers need.

So it ends up being unworkable advice in practice, unless the idea is to sell ebooks to other photographers. And even that is questionable.

What bothered me was not her mentioning a tool. It was the claim that "it all worked well for her" with no explanation, no numbers, no proof. When I asked what that actually means, the response was just a link to an article on her own site and a suggestion that I must have failed at SWOT analysis . That's not an answer, that's deflection.

The backlash didn't come from her sharing a platform. It came after she was asked simple, reasonable questions about results and instead of answering, she avoided it and started getting offended that she has to answer anything at all, when all she wants is to post these fantasy posts filled with multiple links to her website every time.

Your target audience is other photographers, so your advice unfortunately is impossible to implement. I don't sell books to other photographers, I sell photography.

Social media, "portfolio promotion" and standalone websites will only waste my time, because stock photography is mostly about selling to businesses, not to consumers or hobbyists.

It is great if selling educational ebooks to photographers works for you (and it would be interesting to know, although you are also quite secretive about actual success numbers there - all seems to be in theory), but it cannot be applied to selling photos.

It might intersect with selling fine art prints, but in that case payhip is not the right platform for selling prints.

I apologise if I interrupted, and if everyone and your friends are very interested in how to sell ebooks (which, again, I would be grateful to hear actual numbers about), but unfortunately it has nothing to do with "Sites and Tools for Selling Direct" in the context of photography.

Quote from: AM24 on April 30, 2026, 19:08
I am sorry, you are so aggressive, I am not sure what you are trying to do. Or promote? My book sales largely come via social media - my main target audience are food bloggers. I come here because I have a lot of friends here and like to offer help if I can or just chat. To show them whenever I can how to increase their sales. They are not my target audience. Yes, I have an official website that links to Payhip. But building up Payhip to its own website, is my way of directing traffic to my eBooks specifically. As opposed to my books listed on Amazon.

I know that you don't know me or you wouldn't have said that. I wish you peace 

Well, as you see, I am, in contrast, not promoting anything here.

It is your answers that are passive-aggressive.
I asked exactly that, what are your actual sales? You just shoved a link to some article on your website again.

You are just giving a false impression that stock photography (this is a stock photography forum) can be sold on a standalone website, and you keep "presenting tools for it" without any evidence.

So, by taking your kind advice, I would be mislead into building online shops and wasting time on posting on social media instead of actually doing what works in stock photography: working with stock agencies and producing a large volume of material.

Quote from: AM24 on April 30, 2026, 18:25

Quote from: BeautyStockUK on April 30, 2026, 12:08

Quote from: AM24 on February 14, 2026, 20:37
The other recommendation that has worked very well for me

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and recommendations. It is all very interesting, and you have found some really great tools.

But I cannot help, every time I read your posts, wanting to ask what "has worked very well for me" actually means. Maybe you have shared it somewhere, but I couldn't find what the actual results are, what the monthly sales volume is, or who your clients are.
Thanks.

It typically means that I have reached my own personal goals. Whenever I start something new, whether its selling my photography or other products, I set up a plan based on this framework:

https://payhip.com/MillefloreImages/blog/photography-tips/how-to-create-a-marketing-plan

Is this what you do?

Without a plan, or goals to know if you are on track, people can easily fail to achieve their desired outcomes.

Thank you for yet another link to your website, but I have a Master's degree in Marketing, so I don't need it 🙂 (And if you need professional advice, I'd suggest starting with a proper domain name linked to Payhip and promoting that instead)

So, essentially, what you're doing here is promoting your website by pushing links to it in every post. That suggests that any sales you've had likely come from this forum, if at all.
No more questions

Quote from: AM24 on February 14, 2026, 20:37
The other recommendation that has worked very well for me

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and recommendations. It is all very interesting, and you have found some really great tools.

But I cannot help, every time I read your posts, wanting to ask what "has worked very well for me" actually means. Maybe you have shared it somewhere, but I couldn't find what the actual results are, what the monthly sales volume is, or who your clients are.

I have been doing stock for more than 15 years, and at different times I have tried all the tools you describe. I have built shops on both Payhip and Photodeck, and have also driven traffic from YouTube and stock sites themselves. Yet I did not have a single sale when it came to images, and I always ended up going back to marketplaces. Etsy is probably the closest you can get in terms of an "own shop" with real customers, but never a standalone website.

If what you mean is that you have had success selling ebooks to other photographers, and perhaps some success with your audience here, how can that be transferred to selling actual images outside of agencies? Do you personally have consistent sales and clients this way, as you say it has worked very well for you? How well, exactly? 🙂

Thanks.

Why would you start a new thread every time you want to promote your new video? It gets one or two replies, and then you start 20 more with the same outcome.
It is much better practice to have one thread, where you post all of your updates, as others do with their websites, articles, videos, etc.

Reducing image size to 3500px on the longest side seems to be the only way to get at least 50% accepted, though not consistently. PNG files perform no differently.
At this point, it has become financially senseless to invest in AI tools, keywording, and time spent on research and editing when there is no proper inspection process in place.
Rejections appear entirely random, with no clear reasoning or feedback, making it impossible to improve.

I have found my whole portfolio in their Free category, so check yours! This explains the absence of sales.

Hello,

couldn't find how to start a new topic, but it is a related issue.

Earlier today, I discovered by complete chance that my entire image portfolio is currently listed for free on YayImages.

I have never agreed to offer my work for free. I have never opted into any such programme. Yet, there it was – all my work, fully downloadable.

I immediately contacted YayImages demanding they either move my content to the proper premium tier or delete it altogether, haven't heard from them yet.

If you are also a contributor on YayImages, you can search for your username there and check whether your work has been made freely available without your knowledge.

If anyone has experienced the same or has insight into how this could happen, please share your experience when dealing with them.

Thanks!

Hello,

couldn't find how to start a new topic, but it is a related issue.

Earlier today, I discovered by complete chance that my entire image portfolio is currently listed for free on YayImages.

I have never agreed to offer my work for free. I have never opted into any such programme. Yet, there it was – all my work, fully downloadable.

I immediately contacted YayImages demanding they either move my content to the proper premium tier or delete it altogether, haven't heard from them yet.

If you are also a contributor on YayImages, you can search for your username there and check whether your work has been made freely available without your knowledge.

If anyone has experienced the same or has insight into how this could happen, please share your experience when dealing with them.

Thanks!