| Can you imagine anyone paying you good money for | | | | if you are a Fortune 500 company, but what if you are |
| your photos? No? You know, I had all those photos | | | | on a budget or doing website design for a friend or a |
| from a recent trip to Rome, Italy, laying around and I | | | | non-profit organization? |
| thought it should be possible to make a few bucks off | | | | Enter micro stock agencies. Micro stock sites have |
| of them. First, I couldn't think of a way to market or sell | | | | stirred up the traditional market for stock photography |
| those images but then I discovered micro stock sites. | | | | over the last three years. What's the idea here? |
| Micro stock sites are great: You register (it's free) and | | | | Rather than charging $100 or more for a photo, on |
| then upload a few sample images. After your samples | | | | many of those sites you can get high quality images |
| passed an initial review you start uploading and making | | | | for less than $10, sometimes as low as $1! |
| money. | | | | With a payout of perhaps 25 to 50 cents per image |
| Let's look how this works in detail: | | | | this is not very attractive for professional |
| Stock photography | | | | photographers but an amateur can make decent |
| What is stock photography? Imagine someone is | | | | money this way and should at least be able to finance |
| creating a website about healthcare. To beef it up | | | | her hobby. And remember, this is the Internet we are |
| they want a few images of doctors, nurses, operating | | | | talking about: Make it up on volume. 25 cents per |
| theaters and the like. Rather than hiring a photographer | | | | image downloaded may not sound like much but if you |
| (sending him on "assignment" as it's called in the | | | | have several hundred or even a thousand decent and |
| business) which can be very expensive the designer | | | | usable images, all of them submitted to the big micro |
| decides to use stock photos, i.e. images that are | | | | stock sites even a paltry 25 cents per download can |
| readily available. Usually stock images are much | | | | add up nicely. |
| cheaper than "bespoke" photos. So our designer would | | | | What you need |
| visit one of the established stock image sites and | | | | Most micro stock agencies have the same |
| browse around a little until she finds some nice | | | | requirements: You'll need at least a four Megapixel |
| healthcare related imagery. After paying up (usually at | | | | camera (more is better, although you'll be fine with |
| the tone of $100 per image or higher depending on the | | | | between six and eight Megapixels), your images should |
| use) she downloads the photos, puts them on the | | | | be free of noise, properly keyworded and should |
| website and calls it a day. | | | | picture sought after subjects. For example, good selling |
| Micro stock sites vs. traditional agencies | | | | images are business or healthcare related or illustrate |
| With a traditional agency our designer likely spent | | | | a concept or an emotion such as love, relationships, |
| between $500 and $1,000 for half a dozen images of | | | | carreer and the like. |
| doctors, nurses and stuff like this. That's small change | | | | |