| ance photography is a passion for many people, but | | | | couple of hundred dollars while Macro stock agencies |
| others stay away from freelance photography | | | | such as Alamy, Corbis and Getty will not sell any |
| because they are not sure how to make money off | | | | image for less than about fifty dollars. |
| of this passion. The good news for those people | | | | While a fifty dollar sale might sound quite enticing, |
| who are unsure of how to make a profit off of their | | | | submitting images to Corbis and Getty can be a |
| photography is that you can actually make a decent | | | | tough task for newcomers because their approval |
| living from the stock photography business by selling | | | | procedure is very tough. If you are just starting out |
| stock photos online. And all the while you will still have | | | | you would probably do better to cut your teeth on |
| the freedom to work at your convenience. | | | | the micro stock photo sites. |
| Submitting your photographs to stock photography | | | | Can you make enough money from websites that |
| websites is like investing money in a bank because | | | | sell images for just one dollar? Yes you can make |
| those images can generate income for you | | | | money and you may even make a lot more than |
| throughout your lifetime. Or at least as long as the | | | | websites that will not sell images for lower than fifty |
| websites are up and running. This is because once | | | | dollars. But how is this possible? |
| you post your images for sale they will remain | | | | The secret lies in the number of sales micro stock |
| available to buyers indefinitely. | | | | agencies can generate compared to macro stock |
| This is called “passive income”. You do | | | | agencies. A micro stock photograph could be sold |
| the work upfront (take the pictures, post them) and | | | | hundreds of times while a macro stock agency will |
| then the revenue continues coming in without any | | | | take a lot longer to reach even 50 sales. It’s |
| further effort. This is a great model to work towards | | | | really just simple economics. Sometimes selling more |
| for any freelancer as you continue to get paid even | | | | for less is more profitable. |
| when you are no longer actively working. | | | | Working your way into selling stock photos on a |
| The truth is that there are a lot of websites that | | | | macro stock site is still something to strive for, but |
| allow photographers to sell their images. These stock | | | | do not be discouraged that you are starting small as |
| photo sites come in a variety of sizes and have | | | | you may still be quite profitable. As you learn the |
| varying levels of quality images. But mainly the sites | | | | tricks of the trade you will become better and better |
| can be broken down into micro stock agencies and | | | | at producing quality images that sell. |
| macro stock agencies. | | | | Before you know it, you may even be able to call |
| Micro stock agencies such as iStockphoto, | | | | yourself a successful freelance photographer. But first |
| Dreamstime, Shutterstock and Fotolia sell your | | | | you need to get start submitting your stock photos! |
| images for a very low cost from one dollar to a | | | | |