Jan 25, 2016

Only a lazy bones hasn't written about it. Me, for instance.

Crowds of “gurus” who have just uploaded their first 100-200-500 works, consider it necessary to post some info on stock agencies and what they are on their free-hosted blogs.

That’s why for quite a long time, previous 3-4 years, I've avoided this theme. However, many people still ask me about my stock experience. Numerous questions are put forward to me and it seems I've already written hundreds of A4 sheets about this topic while replying to all the concerned. Therefore, I am writing this post. Instead of writing endless scribble to everyone in private messages of social networks I am just going to send them a link to our blog.

So! Stock Agencies, Photostocks, Stocks and so on are web sites specializing in selling photos, movies, audiotracks, vector images and so on.

The content on them comes from thousands of contributors from all around the world. Every day these guys upload grand numbers of their works for stock inspectors to check. These guys, i.e. inspectors, check the works for technical and visual quality. Approved works join the search engine of stock sites in order to start taking part in global sales.

Customers are on the other side of the barricade. These mysterious people are usually designers, representatives of magazines (photo editors, for instance), advertising agencies, fair bloggers etc. They are people who for one reason or another need inexpensive content of good quality.

It’s costly and time-consuming to order a personal shooting. Moreover, you never know what you’ll get in result. In stock agencies you see the result and all you need is just to choose the stuff you like. More than 70 000 000 images to satisfy the most picky customer! You can find anything you want.

Thereby, stock sites are the agencies that connect sellers and buyers of creative content all around the world

Apart from the above mentioned agencies there are lots of others. If you want to learn more about them, you can visit MicrostockGroup. There is a column on the right hand side with a rating of all known stock sites, and also there are lots of articles and forums on this topic.

Macrostocks. These are relatively old agencies, where photos are sold rarely and at a high price. The main differences between micro and macrostocks are prices and types of licenses. In case you are buying an image on Microstocks, there is no guarantee that your competitor won't buy the same image. So you might end up using the same image to promote goods and services. Whilst on Macrostocks there is the Right Managed licenses. This license allows you to buy the exclusive right to use the image for a specific period of time and on the required territory. It is quite difficult to become an author in such agencies. You must be invited by a curator or an acquaintance-photographer who is agency’s contributor with a good reputation. Such agencies include: Corbis, Getty Images, Alamy and others.

The third type of agencies is something between micro and macro stock agencies. Sometimes it is called Midstocks. There are plenty of such agencies. Their main idea is to have content of macrostock level – of a better quality and limited in quantity to simplify choice, using macro and micro stocks licenses. As for the prices, they are higher than on microstocks but lower than in classic agencies like Corbis and Getty Images.

The most vivid examples are Stocksy and Offset. It is practically unreal to become a contributor of these stock agencies. They are extremely fastidious about contributors and content. Regular stock photo sites have around 50 000 active authors, whereas Stocksy and Offset have only several hundreds, not more.

In conclusion, I would like to say a few words for you to understand whether to dive into the world of photography sales in our time, or not. 

When I was just starting to work with stock market in 2008, there was less competition and the market wasn’t overfilled with photographers and their work. In those days it was possible for one person to sell images for hundreds and even thousands of dollars per month. It was a chance to provide oneself a comfortable life.

In the recent years the situation has become more complicated. Crowds of photographers of different levels, like swarms of locusts invaded stock sites and flooded them with their works. More than 80% of the images are of a very poor quality. Including technical quality, when photos are shot by simple non DSLR cameras, and visual quality, when there is no understanding how to work with light, photoshop and other tools.

Thus, sales have become heavily diluted between contributors. So now it is very difficult to compete in such streams of files. This requires much higher quality of content and a much larger quantity. Therefore, different kind of money needs to be invested into your team and equipment in order to earn more.

Deciding to work with Stock Agencies you’d better not expect huge amounts of money streaming into your pocket. Every day it requires hard work. If you only have an access to microstocks, don't bet on it, and don't get your hopes up too high. Start small – upload images which you took wholeheartedly for yourself, or worthy images of your clients, if you have their permission.

If you are able to become a contributor of Stocksy or Offset, it is clear that it makes sense to focus maximum attention on building up a portfolio there.

I hope this article helps you understand what Stock Sites are and make a reasonable decision about working with them. And allows you to avoid disappointments. And, of course, if you have any questions, you can always message me, for example, on Facebook.