microstock

Or why does microstock exists?

Lis Sowerbutts from travel for over 30s asked in a comment to this post :

“… Why do people pay for images when you can use so many for free and legally using sites such as flickr’s creative commons images?…”

Like always there is more then one answer to the question

The most common reasons are a) image quality b) the need for properly released images c) volume of images needed. From back to front:

c) volume of images needed

If you are a professional web designer or magazine editor you need a high volume of quality images fast –dead lines are looming and time is money, no way too waste time –and money- in going to search painfully for each image/ subject on free sites. You want it now and the few dollars, that in case of a web designer, gets passed anyway to the customer, are completely unimportant.

b) the need for properly released images

Imagine you have a successful site/ business and out of the blue somebody sues you because you have used their image/ likeness without the proper release/ agreement. Not good!

a) image quality

Every site checks the images for technical quality before allowing them on line, by buying from these sites you avoid loosing time in downloading images that look great at thumbnail size but are unusable at larger size.

Other reason: You need images to put them on re-sale products like cafepress or the like, this requires normally a special license as your about to make directly money from the image.

Some time ago I put together this Free Image Guide, a bit wordy but perhaps it is useful to one of my readers ;-).

Things to consider before starting to submit images to microstock sites.

A lot of sites advertise like this “Make money with your images that are only collecting dust on your hard drive”. Apart of the obviously nonsense of “files collecting dust whilst sitting on a hard drive”, there are some more points to consider before you make a decision if to enter the microstock game or not.

1. Despite what, nearly, everybody tells you, it is hard work. You get back what you put into it, not more, sometimes even less. Not only the shooting and post-processing of the images costs time, also the key wording, uploading and submitting to the different sites.

2. If you earn more then 10% of your income with photography, you are most likely not anymore entitled to participate in amateur photo contests. That may vary depending on contest/ country but should be kept in mind as a rule of thumbs.

3. Another myth, you don’t need a DSLR, photoshop etc every point and shoot camera will produce worthy images straight out of the camera. That is simply wrong, the better your tools –and the better you know how to use them!- the more success you will have.

4. “All my friends say my images are great!” Honestly, that what friends are for, finding you great. But even if they are right, a great photo doesn’t mean automatically a great stock photo, that are two different beasts.

5. and last. If you are a sensitive soul that can’t handle rejections stay away from microstock. Your images will get rejected until you learn to take better ones. And not all of your images will sell.

Summary: Microstock can be a great source of income, I know that, it is my main source of income, but it requires hard work and a thick skin to be successful!

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As of 5^th August 2008 Shutterstock introduced the so called OD (on demand) offer/ sales. People that where reluctant to buy a full subscription (starting at $249/month for 25 image licenses/day) can now “test the waters” with an investment of $49, enabling them to purchase the license to up to 12 images. This post tries to evaluate the advantages/ disadvantages for buyers as well as contributors alike.

Just to get the basics straight: Image libraries like Gettys (expensive) or Shutterstock (affordable) exist because people need images for different uses like web, print, print on demand. Not everybody can take a good photo, make a good illustration or simply has not access to places/ objects etc they need images of. These people license images from image libraries. And others submit content to be licensed via such sites Todo claro?

Shutterstock is and was mainly a subscription based risk model. People buy a subscription that allows them to download up to 25 images/ day for a certain amount of money (the price depends on the license/ prospective use of the image). It is a risk-model because profit is made on the assumption that only very few buyers will download every single day their full allowance. What is true, my experience as a supplier of images to Shutterstock shows that I sell only 20% of the licenses I sell on weekdays on weekends, proofing the point that not everybody downloads there full share. Back to the new, additional, OD model.

Shutterstock maintained previously a site where people could buy the license for single images at a much higher price. They gave it up sometime in 2007 due to lack of volume. In August this year they introduced the new on demand model, basically a time independent subscription for up to 12 images (depending on the size). As a contributor to Shutterstock I have seen over the last few months that this model was hugely successful, increasing not only my total number of downloads but also subsequently my overall earnings. In my opinion the success of this new model is due to several factors:

Buyers, as stated above can test the waters, investing only $49 instead of previously $249, this a) opens new markets as it attracts also buyers that need only a moderate amount of image licenses and b) allows buyers to test the image quality available before committing a larger amount of money.

Image suppliers like photographers or illustrators feel more better when they get $0.81-2.85 instead of $0.25-0.38/ download, encouraging them to submit more images of higher quality to the site.

Disadvantages: None really, it is a win-win situation for everybody! In the beginning there were fears of dropping subscription sales but these have not been confirmed.

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