As most photographers already know, selling your work has never been easier with the multitude of online microstock agencies eager to represent your images. Things were very easy and the sales were abundant for any contributor during the first years (2002-2007), since the market was still in its infancy and the agencies were in a hurry to fill their files. Unfortunately, things have changed, and it’s no longer as easy as uploading random snapshots from your hard drive – the competition between contributors becomes fierce. There are some incredibly talented photographers and artists competing for the same pool of buyers, and anyone who has any hope of success uploading to the top microstock agencies today needs to have an edge, something that makes their work stand out from the dozens. of millions. from other images that are already online.
There are some very important things to keep in mind when building your royalty-free portfolio. Here are some of them:
1). Be unique. Create a style or personality that will make people remember you and your bag.
two). Quality over quantity. Before, the collaborator who had the most images in each agency sold the most: it was a numbers game. Quality didn’t matter when the microstock business was in its infancy, as there were very few images to choose from and buyers were happy to get what they could. Now that the business has matured and the big agencies have collections numbering in the tens of millions, flooding your portfolio with masses of mediocre images just doesn’t work anymore. There are a lot of really good images online, and mediocre images (no matter how many) just don’t get the attention they used to. Your sales will be better if you upload limited amounts of your best work, guaranteed.
3). Forget common themes – they are no longer for sale. Cats, dogs, sunsets, isolated objects… they’ve all been beaten to death. Look for any of these themes at any of the major microstock agencies and you’ll be inundated with pages of images that look just like them. Does anyone really believe that their isolated tomato image is going to stand out from the 10,000 other isolated tomatoes already online? Veteran contributors have realized this and moved away from these common themes a long time ago. You also should.
4). Sales Concepts. Think of phrases and metaphors in your everyday life and create images based on that. There is still a huge void of these types of images at most microstock agencies, compared to the plethora of standard object images already online. A creative concept image will always outsell a standard image of a flower or a plate of food. The best part: concepts can be based on current events, so there is always a need for fresh images in this category.
5). Photos of people are always popular. Face it… pictures of people have always been the most popular, and always will be. The interesting thing about images with people is that there is (and always will be) a need for fresh images: clothes and hairstyles change frequently, and photos from just a few years ago are already going out of style. This is the only theme that will be strong in the coming years.
6). The bright colors will make your images stand out from the crowd. Not that it’s appropriate for every type of photo or illustration, but one thing you can do to increase your traffic is create images with vivid colors and high contrast. This helps your images stand out from the crowd when a shopper looks at a page of 80+ images on a particular topic.
7). Leave room for typography. Buyers of your images will most likely modify them extensively and add text and captions on top of them to complete their design. Leaving a lot of open space to the right or left of your main subject will be very attractive to buyers who need to add more elements to the image, since you’ve already done much of the work for them. Make sure the open space you leave is very simple and clean, as typography is usually more difficult to add over complex (busy) backgrounds.
In short, don’t be stubborn: the types of images that sell today may be out of demand tomorrow, and the fact that you’ve been successful in the past doesn’t automatically guarantee future success. The online microstock business is a living and organic thing. And just like any living thing, it matures and evolves over time. Staying ahead of (or at least in line with) these developments will ensure that you can continue to profit from this business for many years to come.