Submitting to Stock Photos Sites III
Jun 12, 2010 Hints and Tips, Sites for Photographers, stock photography
Thought I’d report in and let you know how things are going. If you’re into photography have you tried out iSyndica yet? I discovered this week that not all the stock photo sites actually notify you when a sale has been made so imagine my surprise when I logged in yesterday to iSyndica and discovered on my dashboard that another photo has sold! That’s 3 now. Again, only small amounts but it starts to add up.
The dashboard at entry also tells you other things, such as the best selling channels and how many photos are available for sale. I have a total of 75 so far but have just uploaded 10 more to set up with keywords and descriptions and then submit to the photo stock sites. I am very aware this is a ‘numbers’ game, so to speak, and the more images I have uploaded for sale, the more chances of getting more sales.
I’m also waiting to upload more photos to istockphotos.com – they seem to be the hardest to get into and each time you try they make you wait longer if you get knocked back. Unfortunately for me that wasn’t obvious information otherwise I might have taken more time in choosing what I uploaded, but I must admit, I know a lot more now than I did 3 months ago, so it’s probably not a bad thing. I also met a couple of guys who own a graphics and web design company and when I saw the photography on their products I asked where they sourced them – istockphotos.com naturally! I wonder if I should offer my photos to them direct and what that might be worth to them and me?
In the meantime, here is one of the images I’ve got listed with a stock photo site.
Tags: photo stock, stock photography, stock photos
Playing with Photoshop
Jun 11, 2010 Hints and Tips
I’ve been having fun with some of my photos and playing with photoshop.
I wanted to find out how to put speech bubbles on my photos. I had to download an add-on and install the style into Photoshop, and Photoshop Editor too. I’m uploading a number of photos to my account at Send Out Cards and they do have speech balloons but I don’t find them as easy to manipulate and they seem to take over the photo. So I thought I’d learn how to do it myself and apply them before uploading the photos to use.
I like personalising my cards when it’s appropriate to do so and especially if I’m sending a card overseas – using Australian images is great to do!
Submitting to Stock Photo Sites II
Jun 5, 2010 Hints and Tips, Sites for Photographers, stock photography
Well, the end of my first full week with 85 images submitted to 5 photo sites.
Interesting experience. Not all of the photo sites work with the same criteria for photos so while some accepted all, or nearly all images, others would knock them back because they were ‘too snapshotish’ (not sure exactly what they mean by that), or some were considered grainy whereas other sites didn’t consider the same to be so, and so on. Sometimes it was simply because they had too many of that type of shot.
Upshot is I now have 85 images online for sale on photosites and have already sold 2 images. Not for a lot of money but I expect if I had multiple downloads of those images over a period of time it is going to add up.
iSyndica has definitely been worth signing up for. It has saved me considerable time. Some of the photostock sites accept the photos from iSyndica with no further work required but others need me to go in and select categories, or add a few more words to the description as one has a 5 word minimum and another 7 words. I’m learning to do that at the iSyndica end now. I’m also learning to submit photos in category bunches, i.e. a whole group of cockatoos, a group of kookaburras, and so on. Makes for even faster setting up as I can simply copy and paste the same set of keywords and similar descriptions or titles. Let’s just say I’m learning to work smarter.
Another great thing that iSyndica does is show a graph of your sales through their Analytics page. And as time progresses you can view this on a month by month basis, stock site by stock site, and total sum of sales and downloads. They also show a graphical image of which sites are producing the most income for you.
Tags: photography stock, stock photos
Winner for my “Year Today” post
Apr 5, 2010 Hints and Tips
Thanks for those who commented for my anniversary post. It’s nice to see what photos you’ve enjoyed. Unfortunately there can only be one winner and that person is Lisa Olinda. Seems my kookaburra images have sparked conversation in her US based home. I’ll be organising to send a copy of the photobook to Lisa by mail very soon.
Thank you everyone and I encourage you to keep the comment coming. Tell me which shots you like or if you don’t like one and why.
Project 365
Mar 21, 2010 Hints and Tips, Photography
I belong to the Australian Photography Forum and also Project 365 where it means taking a photo a day. I take more than just one a day but struggle to get them all uploaded every day. However this link will lead you to some of the shots I have tagged for Project 365 which is hosted at Flickr.com
This is all about developing habits, getting lots of practice (as photographers definitely need this) and honing skills. I hope you can see that over the 80+ days I’ve been participating my photos are improving.
This shot was taken in Monbulk last Friday.
Tags: apf, project 365
