Stock Photo Sites

[oldfireguy]

After you guys do all the work and you are rolling in the money let me know which one worked the best.

Not sure rivermans idea is a bad one.

[Jen]

Was searching around on some other photographer's websites (hosted by the same company that I use) and the following stock photography sites were mentioned (just thought I'd share):

Fotolia

Bigstockphoto

Dreamstime

Stockxpert

Shutterstock

Istockphoto

Lucky Oliver

Featurepics

Imagekind

123RF

CanStockPhoto

[riverman]

hey!!! riverman here again. talking about selling at flea markets and swap meets. i didnt expect so many questions reguarding my posting. i was just sharing info. i guess ill share a little more since a few people were interested. first question- where do i have the printing/duplication done? any duplication house can do it. kodak, fugi... on-line is easiest. place an order, up-load your specific shots, assign a quantity, and boom!!! off to the races!!! they will even ship them to you. time frame? depends on the weather!!! ha ha ha!!! biggest advantage of mass-duplication? the more you buy, the better the price. an 8x10 for around $3-5.00. turn around and sell it for $10.00. dont get me wrong though. the price break isnt tremendous, unless its a HUGE order, but remember... a dollar saved is a dollar earned!!! 8x10's are my biggest seller. its a popularity thing. the drawback of larger orders...? most of the time there is a minimum purchase price. your mostly paying for the "machine set-up". whatever that may be... its similar to going to an automotive machine shop. once the "machine" is dialed-in, its simply a matter of making copies. most of the bigger houses dont want to waste time setting up the machine, just to re-set it in ten minutes when your "puny" order is done. solution...? your local drug store. yes its true... they will do just as good a job, yet they will be more willing to cater to a smaller budget, as well as a smaller quantity. for me...? i like to go to the drug store myself, rather than doing it on-line, so i can actually talk to a human being. some of the other questions were about the quality of the prints being sold. most of my selling is at flea markets and swap meets... selling at a flea market/swap meet doesnt call for top-flight/ultra produced prints. in your face reallity. i dont sell them framed either... to much un-called for work. my customers are more interested in the unique story being told in the photo, rather than worrying about the goody-two-shoes aspects of super hi-quality prints. my expierience also tells me that the small places do the same quality printing as the big places. but then again, im the kind of guy who thinks that the local road-side diner has better food than the upper-class bistro in town... better service as well!!! of course "quality printing" is subjective... they dont have a quality "scale" to choose from. its either there or it isnt. there is no, "i cant afford hi-quality right now, so ill take medium". although i have noticed that the same photo developed at two different places will at times be different. darker, softer...etc. if you dont like the quality, go to a different place. there arent any other choices. many people have asked me if i print my photos on my own printer? i tell them "hell no"!!! take a look at the printer the next time you walk in to have a photo developed. even if its at your local drug store. these machines are the size of refrigerators!!! with every kind of photo-manipulation software known to man!!! these set-ups cost thousands of dollars!!! how could you possibly think your home printer could even come close!!!??? if quality is job one for you, dont waste your time doing it at home... besides, most drug stores will give you a 4x6 print for 19 cents, if you buy more than 50 at a time!!! 50 samples for under $10.00? without having to buy paper, or dealing with ink re-fills...? and they do the work!!! i dare anyone to find a better deal... all things being equal... i still believe that the absolute best way to assure a quality print, is to make sure its a quality shot to begin with. bottom line. do you adjustments in the field is my motto, and i truly believe in it. do you cant polish a turd!!! these duplication houses, big or small, only reproduce- they dont correct... thanks!!! riverman...

[src]

That Fotolia.com place wants your Social Security number .. that's rather odd imo. Exactly why would they need that type of information? They don't even offer a secure sign up page .. there is no Golden lock, like on a secure webpage such as paypal.

[Jen]

I signed up and I can't remember them asking...hmmm...I could just be forgetting completely since it was a while back....

It may because they are actually sending you payment checks and probably have to report the income you are receiving to the government for tax purposes (which makes sense).

[src]

Well that I can understand .. but their lack of security protocol is what puzzled me. Anyone could retrieve that info without a secure transmission. They also pay by Paypal, not a hard check .. so I would assume you would have to file with the government yourself as "self employed income" .. ya know. I'm just leary of throwing my SSn around I guess lol.

It asked me for that when I was filling out my profile. It asked if I was a US citizen, I clicked yes .. and it asked for my SSN. It wouldn't update my profile since I wouldn't enter it.

[Jen]

I'd check to see if they have an "ask us" section where you can send them a note asking why they need it and if it's secure somehow...

[boryak]

Hello everybody

I've started submitting to microstock agencies about 3 month ago and today i earn some ~200$ monthly from those sites.(with income increasing every month) I'm not any pro photographer, Just an amature with a Digital SLR, that couldn't believe I can ever make money of my photos.
And strange as it was, it was not that difficult.(Just takes some time to invest)
Those are the sites i submit to sorted by the most profitable ones first :

Shutterstock
Istockphoto
Dreamstime

Wish you luck and remmember to believe in your self. U can do it too... :)

[Jen]

Found this on the web. It compares stock photography sites side by side...don't know how accurate it is, just thought I'd share.

http://www.stock-photo-review.com/Default.aspx



If you click on the links tab I noticed photoforum.com is listed.

[8run0]

Just a thought, but, wouldn't it be better to go through stock photography websites that are more niche-orientated than sites one could describe as 'big players'? I can well imagine that one might reap more sales out of relationships than with smaller sites who market niche content. I suppose that's kinda relying on the marketing ability of the website in question, but as I say, it's just a thought. Check out my website if you want to see what I mean. It's not 100% populated at the moment in terms of content, but we're working hard to target a specific market.