The first time I saw the advert on the internet that said make cash from your camera in a few easy steps, I was immediately excited and ready to go. I purchased the eBook and was quite disappointed. Not that easy. I subsequently discovered, as with most things in life, it does require some hard work and can be very successful.

Don’t be fooled by schemes that tell you how you can make lots of money from very little work. They don’t work. But, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. There is money to be made and if you get it right, a lot of money.

So, what are stock sites? They are basically website agencies that accept images from anyone who meets their criteria and then sells them giving you a small commission each time the image sells. They really are called microstock sites as the amounts you receive are small per image. The key is to sell lots of images thereby making a good living.

The key to any new venture is to approach it carefully and cautiously while evaluating whether it’s right for you. Let’s take a look at some keys to making it in the stock photo business.

1. Where do I sell my images?

There are many, many sites all trying to sell images, but, sadly only a handful are very successful. What you need to do is find out which ones are and submit to them. What you may find is that what works for some won’t work for you, so it’s by trial and error that you’ll ascertain what works specifically for you. Here are some of the major sites that are very successful (add .com to all of then):

Stockphoto

Dreamstime

Fotalia

Alamy

Shutterstock

Bigstockphoto

2. Check the rules

Each stock website has it’s own rules or submission guidelines. What they are looking for and what they have enough of and what they don’t want. Follow these rules precisely. If you don’t you will be rejected immediately. If you’re not sure check out their forums and ask questions. Once you know what they want you’ll be able to submit from your archives or go out and shoot what they are looking for.

3. Find out what sells

Each of the sites will give you a comprehensive listing of their best sellers and guidelines of what the best sellers are. Most of them will clearly show what they don’t want. Categories such as lifestyle, health and fitness, business and technology are all great sellers especially people shots. When you look at a magazine, check out how many of the ads have people in them and then think about why stocks sites have a lot of people shots. 검증사이트

4. Submit only quality

The standards on all the major stock photo sites are very high as there are thousands of top photographers all submitting top quality work. So, only submit your best images. If you are not sure then go online and check out the most popular images for each of the stock sites and see if yours can compete. Remember that it is market driven, if you are not good enough people won’t buy.

5. Correct and resubmit

When your images are rejected there is always a good reason. Take a good look at them together with the criticism and ask yourself what you can do to fix the errors or improve the image. Sometimes the person who does the rejection did so just because they thought it wasn’t commercial enough or wouldn’t fit the site. Wait a month or two then resubmit, if it wasn’t a quality issue.

6. Wait for the sales

This can be quite disillusioning if nothing happens or the sales start trickling in. What you need to understand is that it’s a numbers game. The more images you have on a site the greater the possibility of them selling. So keep at it. Keep submitting your quality images and make any improvements they request and before you know it you can start making a reasonable income.

What you have to understand is that there is a cut-off point between doing this as a hobby to make extra money and a profession. To really make money you have to develop a large portfolio with many sites and keep shooting new stock. So it’s up to you to determine how much time you’ll spend and how much money you want to make.