Stock Photos

[Andrew76]

Hello everyone. Has anyone had any luck selling their work on a stock photo site? I'm not implying that my images are good enough that people will want to pay $$ for them, but it would be exciting to try. I've looked at a number of sites, and there appear to be two styles:

1) Pass an exam, offer examples of your "best work" for review, and then if you're accepted they'll let you post on their site for free and make a small royalty.

2) Sign up for free and post as much as you like - earn huge royalties - upwards of 90% I've seen, you're not restricted to what you post, but they ding you $X for 'buying' storage space on their site. I've looked at the forum on a site like this, and have found the general mood and tone of the people to be less than happy.

Just thought I'd ask the people who I respect to offer their advice. I do have a lot on my plate in life right now, so if it's just going to waste my time then I'll forget about it. If you think it may offer some fun and excitement, with the possibility of earning a little $$ on the side, that would be great!

Thanks for your time, as always!

[Fit]

I once worked with somebody who had success via Getty: http://contributors.gettyimages.com/...rticle_id=2367
She said she thought it was the best place to be as it's the most-respected stock source in the world- she said that also meant that your images were competing with lots and lots of others.
Her contributions were through the editorial side FWIW.

[cichlid]

Hi Andrew,

I've been attempting to become a contributor for iStockphoto. Whenever I review their stock for sale, I am surprise by a lot of images and it gives me hope that I too can contribute. Though, I keep on missing out. Their feedback is vague. What I get out of the feedback though, is that the image must "speak" or communicate a message, emotion or something that the public can connect with.

I must say though, that the experience of going through the application process over and over and over and over, has lead to see things different and setup my scenes more in order to make my images "speak" more.

Good luck.

Erik

[Andrew76]

Thanks for the insight Erik. iStock was one of the ones I was looking at, but I haven't got as far as you. I would be interested to know what they see in some of the images they have on there, that they don't see in yours. Best of luck!