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 sales were abundant for any contributor during the first years (2002-2007), as the market was still in its infancy and agencies were in a hurry to fill their files. Unfortunately, the tables have turned, and it’s no longer as easy as loading random snapshots from your hard drive: competition between contributors gets fierce. There are some incredibly talented photographers and artists out there competing for the same pool of buyers, and anyone who has any hope of success uploading to the major microstock agencies today needs to have a leg up, something to make their work stand out from the dozens. of millions. from other images already online.
There are some very important things to keep in mind when developing 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.
2). Quality over quantity. Before, the collaborator who had more images in each agency sold more: 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 vast amounts of mediocre images no longer works. There are a lot of really good images online, and the 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 don’t sell anymore. Cats, dogs, sunsets, isolated objects… they’ve all been beaten to death. Look up any of these themes at any of the major microstock agencies and you’ll be inundated with pages with images that all look the same. Does anyone really think 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 long 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’s always a need for fresh images in this category.
5). Photos of people are always popular. Face it… images of people have always been the most popular, and always will be. The interesting thing about photos 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 out of fashion. This is the only theme that will be strong in the coming years.
6). 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 to create images with rich colors and lots of contrast. This helps your images stand out from the rest when a buyer views a page of 80+ images on a particular theme.
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 plenty of space open to the right or left of your main subject will be very appealing to buyers who need to add more elements to the image, since you’ve already done much of the legwork for them. Make sure the open space you leave is very simple and clean, as typography is often more difficult to add on complex (busy) backgrounds.
In short, don’t be stubborn: the types of images that sell today may be out of demand tomorrow, and just because 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.
