(Note: I hope my regular microstock photographer readers will allow me a few posts here & there to help out the newer microstock photographers amongst us – I promise my normal focus will stay on high-level microstock thinking and progression.)

I know a lot of my pro photographer friends are thinking about getting into microstock this winter to help pay some bills, earn some extra money and possibly there are those who want to transition into commercial photography more. Everyone asks me virtually the same questions every time so I thought I?d answer them once and help you get started.

1) How do I even begin?

The first things you need to decide are simple things. Do you want to shoot commercial, stock images? If you do, you need to decide what type of images & licenses you want to sell and where you can do that.

I shoot RF images ? royalty free ? meaning I?m aiming at a lot of sales, low pricing, but more of a ?bulk? reseller of licenses. I have chosen this for now because it is the easiest sector of commercial photography to get started in and I can learn a lot about it before I make changes to what I am doing & shooting.

2) Where do I sell?

The agencies we sell at are all listed at the top of NiltoMil.com under Agencies (surprise!). We currently sell our images at 7 agencies. Shutterstock, Istock, Fotolia and Dreamstime are the hardest of those to get images accepted through. 123RF, Bigstock and StockXpert are ?easier? although they sell far less as well. You should pick your poison and possibly attempt applications at all 7 to see where your work stands up. (disclosure: the links under Agencies are all referral links ? in some cases that benefits me, in no case does it harm you to use them).

Hundreds of agencies exist. Not all have buyers or sales. We have narrowed down our market ? yours may be different if you are shooting at top level rights managed stock agencies (RM) like Corbis, Getty, etc.

3) What type of images do they want?

Stock images are different than what you shoot for clients. Clients do not have high expectations while some microstock agencies are extremely picky in what they accept. Your uploaded images will all go through a process ? you submit them, keyword, title, describe them, and then a reviewer checks them over to make sure they are what the agency is looking for. Each agency has different guidelines and you?ll see your share of rejected images.

4) Rejected?! Who do they think they are?

Actually, this is the hardest part for working pros. We are ?professional? photographers ? who do these reviewers think they are, kicking back our awesome art!?!? Well, in truth, microstock agencies don?t want ?art? they want ?commercial.? And unless you?ve been shooting commercial work, you probably shoot more artistically than that.

Reviewers are typically other microstock photographers who want to earn a bit of extra money. They review for the agencies against an established set of criteria and from what I?ve seen over the last 9 months, most agencies have their stuff together. (I won?t say who doesn?t for fear of having my account deleted & closed?) Generally after a review, I can look at an image and say ?yeah, I knew that?? I submit stuff that may not get accepted and you will too ? just pick your battles carefully. Most reviews are on the mark. MOST. Not all, but many, most, the vast majority.

5) Progressing

So what does it take to be successful in microstock? It depends on what you are looking to get from it. If you want to make this your full time job you?re going to need to know your expenses and what your own personal income needs are. If you want to make an extra couple hundred dollars a month, you could be doing that by March. If you want to ?just see where it goes? then ?just start? and you will.

The hardest part of the equation for most people is ?finding time.? It?s work. Starting microstock is like having a hobby that?s part of your existing business. You want to do it but can?t find the time. If you never find time, you?ll never make anything at it. If you dedicate a bit of time each week to adding new images and getting to the point where you can pass inspection regularly at Shutterstock, Dreamstime or one of the other agencies, you will start making some ?real? income from this.

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