100 Secrets for a $100,000 Career in Microstock Photography

By Devin Elnick

I went from $0 to $100,000 annually in just a few years as a contributor to microstock photography websites. I achieved this in my spare time, just a few hours a day, and have figured out a strategy for how to generate a LOT of downloads for my work.

This guide shares just about everything I've learned so you can apply the steps in your own work. Do you need to be the world's best photographer or graphic artist? Absolutely not. In fact, my guide points out that it's much more important to have business common sense. Most of the microstock artists around the world simply don't understand this, and most will not achieve their goals. But if you follow these 100 suggestions, you'll not just have one, but 100 legs up on your competition!

BONUS: "The 10 Commandments for Success in Microstock." This summary at the end condenses the guide down to the 10 most essential tips you must follow to grow a successful microstock business. If you read nothing other than these 10 points and make them words to live by, your investment in this guide may be returned to you many times over.

This guide is not a technical how-to manual. This guide IS no-nonsense about approaching microstock as a business. Who are your customers? What do they need? What will make your work stand out and get bought?

These are the steps I follow every day in building my microstock business, and I lay out in simple terms how I surpassed my goal of $100,000 annually. I can't guarantee you'll get the same result, but this guide lays out a clear, straightforward plan of how I got there. It's up to you to follow it and see how far it leads you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Devin Elnick
• Release date: Aug 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476421131

Devin Elnick

Devin Elnick is a self-employed writer and freelance artist based in the United States.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

You can do this.

Odds are your photography or illustration skills are greater than mine. I’d even guess that the average microstock contributor has technical and artistic talents far greater than my own.

But why am I selling so much more than the average contributor? By every measure I’ve seen –third party sites that collect data and rank artists, as well in the agencies’ own rankings – I’m in the top 50 or so microstock contributors in terms of sales out of an estimated 50,000 people.

I have succeeded because I treat microstock like a business. I have a background in marketing, so I apply a business perspective to every decision I make. Before I shoot anything or create a new illustration, I ask myself, Will it sell? If I have doubts, I think of something else.

I’m not out to beautify the world with endless shots of puppy dogs and rainbows. I’m trying to sell as much as possible and have made artistic fulfillment a secondary goal. If you have a similar mindset, you’re in the right place.

Next, let me share the goal of this guide, and tell you what it IS and ISN’T.

This guide will NOT give you technical pointers on photography or illustration. It will NOT go in depth on the importance of things like focus, avoiding noise, etc. It will NOT tell you how to apply to the agencies. There are countless books and websites out there to give you the by-the-numbers, technical info on how to create, how to apply, how to upload, etc. My goal is telling you how to SELL.

This guide WILL approach microstock from a business person’s perspective. How do you find topics that will sell? How can you differentiate yourself from your competition? How can you present your material to grab attention? How do you effectively title, describe and keyword your work for good placement in searches? And how do you measure your progress and adjust your strategy accordingly?

Some of the advice in this guide may seem like common sense. In fact, to me, all of it seems like it belongs in a Marketing 101 textbook. But know this: by and large, your competition is NOT doing these things, or is doing them very poorly. I believe this is why I’ve found it relatively easy to build a six-figure microstock income, and why – if you do everything right – you have a fighting chance at doing very well.

So let’s get started…

I. RESEARCH

Get to Know the Market

1. Build a core understanding.

2. Know the agencies.

3. Interpret industry trends wisely.

4. Follow the agencies’ advice.

5. Submit to agencies that are best performers.

6. Submit to agencies that are fair.

7. Submit to new agencies, but not all.

8. Understand what is oversaturated.

9. Find niches that are underserved.

10. Don’t copy.

11. Branch out.

12. Think like a buyer.

13. Read the news, watch for trends.

14. Follow and participate in forums.

15. Listen to the experts.

16. Seek critiques.

17. Use online research tools.

18. Never stop researching.

1. Build a core understanding.

Before you do anything else, you must first understand what microstock is and what it isn’t. If you blindly attempt to upload all your vacation snapshots from your camera and hard drive, thinking that buyers are anxiously awaiting your masterpieces and you’ll be richly rewarded, you will be sorely disappointed.

Microstock is a low-cost marketplace made up of a dozen or so agencies (many more, but only the top twelve or so matter). People in need of pictures for a variey of needs will search on the agency sites just like you search for information on a particular subject using an Internet search engine. They want to find what they need as quickly as possible, which means being near the top of the search results, and having content that jumps off the page, will get clicked on and bought.

Understand that microstock agencies are concerned first and foremost with amassing a large collection of images that will make them money. Every image you send them will cost them money to review, and if approved, to store on its servers and serve up in search results.

They DO NOT want subject matter for which they already have an oversupply. They DO NOT care how beautiful your pictures are, or how technically flawless they are, if they believe they will not sell.

Microstock agencies DO WANT images that meet buyers’ needs and get downloaded in high numbers. It’s as simple as that. Yes, they demand quality, but these days quality is like a high school diploma. Everyone has it, and it simply gets you in the door. Once you’re through the quality door, you have to prove yourself with a keen understanding of what buyers want, and you’ll be rewarded.

Don’t waste the agencies’ and your own time by giving them what they don’t want or need. Instead, develop a deep understanding of what buyers are after, looking for trends before your competitors can spot them.

2. Know the agencies.

While all the agencies share the same goal – getting as many image buyers to buy as many images as possible – each one has different approaches and attracts different types of buyers. You will find that your sales of certain subjects will be higher on one agency than another.

As time goes on, it’s possible, if not likely, that one agency will reject an uploaded image for having low commercial value while other agencies accept the same image. The image may go on to sell very well at the sites that accepted it. Clearly the site that rejected it was wrong, right? Not necessarily. While it’s possible that the rejection came from a new reviewer or one simply not in touch, it’s most likely that the site based its judgment on a keen awareness of the demand of its own customers balanced with the number of images like yours that it already has.

Think of how you shop for