Web

Using The Web To
License Your Stock Photos

By Andrew Hudson

The most popular way of offering your stock photos for sale is by putting them on the Web. You hope that the client comes to you by displaying your photos online and waiting for sales. It's like a spider waiting for flies by sitting in, well, a web.

There are two ways to offer your stock photos on the Web:

1. Stock Agencies: An agency combines the stock photos of many photographers and promotes them for sale. The agency sets the licensing fee and gives you a percentage. A particularly attractive part of this market -- to new photographers at least -- is called microstock.
2. Your Own Website: This is great for portfolio sales and wedding and event photographers. Your work stands alone, not with others, and you can set the prices. You can get a photo storefront from an Internet company that provides all the e-commerce tools and fulfillment, or build your own site from scratch.

Which Is Best?

This depends upon whether buyers would be searching for photos in general, or for your photos in particular.

For example, general photos of the Eiffel Tower, etc. are best sold with an agency. A buyer would go to Getty Images or Shutterstock and type in "Eiffel Tower." They'd see your photos and similar shots by other photographers; hopefully they'd license yours. Such photos sitting on your own site are unlikely to sell, as buyers don't know who you are and don't know that you have some photos of the Eiffel Tower; besides, buyers prefer the wider selection of an agency.

On the other hand, if you have something unique and specific, then your own site is better. For example, if you're photographing someone's wedding, you can tell the guests to visit your site specifically to see the photos. If you have photos of your town and you've been heavily marketing yourself to local clients as a source for such pictures, then your own site is best. Having you own site means you don't have to compete with the work of other photographers.

If in doubt, go with both! You can submit your photos to multiple stock sites AND feature them on your own site. Cover all the bases.

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