Late 2008 I have started my stock photo business. At that time I decided I wanted to explore all options, microstock and macro stock, but also direct selling next to shooting for stock agencies. And I started with (only) shooting beauty images in the studio. I have learned a lot this year and now it is time to make some decisions on the way forward. This post is about my experiences in direct selling stock photos and the decisions I have made in going forward.
Photoshelter
In 2008 I was thinking of going into stock photography. When I approached stock agencies, like AGE or Jupiter, their first question was how many images I had available (model released). Uhhh…none. So I looked for agencies where I could submit without that kind of requirements. I started submitting to Alamy, IStock and Photoshelter.
At that time Photoshelter was running a stock agency and they promised us stock shooters that we could submit fresh imagery and we would get 70 percent of sales. I guess thousands of photographers ran into that “trap” and some submitted even thousands of pics. But this new initiative was stopped soon – no sales. Currently the promise of Photoshelter is
The most powerful website solution for photographers. Attract more visitors with our marketing and sales tools. Let them search your full archive, make purchases, and download hi-res images instantly online. Create a standalone website in minutes, or integrate our tools with your current site!
Used by over 50,000 photographers, from aspiring amateurs to full-time pros, who demand pro-strength tools to build a following, display, sell, and deliver images to clients fast. Commercial and editorial pros, to specialists in travel, nature, sports, wedding and stock photography rely on PhotoShelter.
Pretty convincing ha ? Although their stock agency adventure was a big failure I was still interested in the idea of direct selling your images. Or at least some part of your collection.
Direct selling what ?
In 2009 I came to a better understanding of this stock photo business. I decided I had to get a contract with an agency that did more than just selling your pics. That I needed an agency with a creative team. Enabling me to work on promising projects developed together with the creatives of your agency. So when I had the opportunity to start shooting for Moodboard agency I was very glad.
But shooting RF/RM for stock agencies means that all these images are exclusive. You cannot sell these images at other places. I did not intend to start shooting a RF/RM collection on my own. Especially in this bad business climate it comes to down to shooting salable images and getting these images in distributing networks with a high selling power. This means getting your images at the best selling agencies – Getty – or at aggregators that have their collection licensed by many many stock agencies.
I don’t think it is a good idea to start direct selling RF/RM imagery when you don’t have a good understanding of what sells and what does not sell. And putting your collection online at Photoshelter will only work when you are able to get a high volume of traffic and visitors that buy !!
I still shot some microstock images. And I wanted to get some experience with direct selling. What it takes to be successful with direct selling. And if that is a realistic scenario. So I decided to not only submit my microstock images to microstock sites but also upload these images to my Photoshelter site.
Direct selling of microstock imagery
So I have this (small) collection of microstock images online now. Photoshelter does help you with making your site Search Engine Optimized. I must say I learned a lot about SEO and what it takes to get traffic to your site. One of these ideas is that you must start a blog and when everybody reads your blog they will also go to your personal archive.
Now I realize that to make this personal archive a profitable business I have to succeed in pulling a massive audience to my personal archive and these visitors must buy your images !! But only a very small percentages of your visitors will really buy – even at micro pricing. Remember I decided to only put my microstock images online at Photoshelter.
Now I also have experience with selling at microsites and I have seen that most sites not even come close to the selling performance of iStock. In my analysis it all comes down to branding. Istock has a massive appeal to both sellers and buyers. Some people even think that iStock is a synonym for stock.
Anyway – having seen the performance of the other microsites – I realized I will not come even close to these sites when it comes down to branding and pulling traffic to my personal archive. And visitors are not buyers !!
Time to quit
I guess I was bloody naive when I started with this personal archive. I will never succeed in pulling the volume of traffic required to make the direct selling of microstock images profitable. I am not intending to put RF/RM online for direct selling. Maybe I will focus more on RM but I don’t think I should try to sell RM imagery myself.
Micostock is selling in high volume with low cost. Low cost in pre-production, production, post-production but also in distribution !! The effort required to establish high volume traffic cannot be justified when running a personal archive.
Post Mortem
Is direct selling a bad idea for everybody ? I guess not. Whenever you are a brand yourselves – like some famous wildlife shooters – and you have a good understanding of the stock business and you have a large RF/RM collection then I think it can be a valid option. But it will still require investing some serious time in setting up a Search Engine Optimized site and getting those buyers to your website.
In my analysis direct selling is no option for microstock. And when you are not that experienced stock shooter and don’t have a “big name”…I think you are far better of by getting your imagery online at Getty or work together with agencies that have good distributing networks.
Early January my personal archive will disappear. Still I am happy to have done this. It has learned me many many things that are important for running a stock business. And now I know that I can concentrate on shooting for good agencies.
