Selling stock files is something most commonly associated with photography, however these days it’s possible to sell flash, illustrations, audio, video, fonts, websites and 3d. Thanks to microstock sites, it has also become incredibly accessible as well.
What is Stock?
A stock file is a ready made file usually sold out of a library that the buyer can browse through. A buyer would use a stock file instead of commissioning a specific piece of work. So for example a designer who doesn’t have the time or budget for a photoshoot might buy a stock photo that approximates what they needed.
What’s the difference between Royalty Free and Rights Managed
Royalty free stock means a buyer pays once for the item and is free to reuse it as often as they wish without further compensation. Rights Managed on the other hand means they pay for every specific usage.
What rights will I be giving away?
When you sell stock files you are consenting to their use in a variety of situations, not all of which you might be pleased about. Although with a Rights Managed stock file you may have more control, with Royalty-Free the only parameters are set by the library itself and are usually things like not being able to resell the item, not being able to reuse it more than a maximum number of times and so on.
If you are concerned about where an item might be used, don’t sell it as stock. For example if you have a photo of your baby daughter that’s really precious and you don’t want to wake up one day and find she’s become the poster girl for a nappy ad, then don’t sell it. You never know what a file might be used for.
What’s Microstock?
Until recently stock files usually priced in the hundreds of dollars, however these days sites like iStockPhoto.com sell files for as little as one dollar. Both microstock and regular stock have a place and generally serve two different markets.
Microstock usually sells in much higher quantities and is much easier to get into, whereas higher priced stock tends to be more lucrative per item and a lot more exclusive. In this article we’ll be mostly discussing microstock as it’s the most accessible and the one I know more about.
If you do choose to sell stock, it’s fairly easy to join most microstock sites – most often all you’ll have to do is fill in a form or do a quiz to become a seller. Sometimes you may need to submit a few samples, but as long as you know what you’re doing you should have no trouble being accepted.
Does Stock Damage the Industry?
It is important to mention that some feel that stock is potentially damaging to creative industries by devaluing their work. This is far too complex an issue to get into here, but it is worth reading up on the pros and cons of stock and making a decision on your own before launching into selling stock.
How Much Do You Make?
The amount you can make depends a lot on the library you sell through. You will receive a percentage of each sale and this can vary from as little as 10% up to 95%. Additionally the pricing of the file and most importantly the number of times it sells are critical factors in how much you can make.
It is a good idea to talk to other stock contributors on forums and websites to get an idea for how much they are making. The sky is the limit however and certainly there are plenty of people out there who make stock as a living.
Why Stock is Great for Freelancers
Selling stock is a great income source for freelancers because it’s something you can fit in between jobs. Additionally you will often have left overs from jobs that you can sell on. For example flash developers will often be able to extract parts of jobs they’ve done for clients and repackage them for sale as stock flash. Similarly a photographer might be able to get a few extra photos in while on location for a job, and provided they have the necessary rights they can then sell them on after the job.
Additionally building a stock portfolio is something you can work on over time, so that over a period of months or years you build a library of work that is constantly selling because of its size, and hence provides you with a very steady source of income.
Tips for Selling Stock
Here are some tips for people interested in selling stock
- Put Yourself Into Your Buyer’s Shoes
Consider who your main target market is and what they need the stock items for. For example if you are a photographer, you may find that your photos art being used by web designers. You might then find ways to help them represent ubiquitous pages like FAQs, News or Contact visually. Or you might consider that corporate shots sell very well online because they fit most websites, so if you can supply generic business-y images they’ll sell well.
If you aren’t sure what buyers want, then ask! Go to forums, contact friends of yours, and ask them what are some common needs that arise.
- Use Best Seller Lists
Many stock sites have a best sellers list, go through them regularly to examine what buyers are interested in. Identifying buying patterns is an excellent way to find the most lucrative avenues. Remember pandering to the masses is OK!
- Build Sets
Stock works great in sets of items. For example if you have a set of business illustrations that share a style or technique, these are more valuable than a single stand alone illustration as they appeal to not just buyers interested in one illustration, but also to buyers looking for a series. Sets are particularly useful for websites where the many pages of the site may require different illustrations or photographs, but branding requires them to match.
- Watch Buying Trends
Like anything stock sells in trends. Trends can be seasonal such as ‘Christmas’ or ‘Summer’, stylistic such as ‘Traced Vector Illustrations’ or ‘Iconic’ or to do with some other factor such as the resurgence in the web.
Try to notice trends before they become big and get your files ready in time. Because many buyers sort files by downloads or rating, having a file that’s been there from early on tends to be much more profitable.
- Identify Niches
This works both in that you should identify what niches have yet to be tapped AND what niches are already saturated. Look for areas that no-one else is really serving or where the files that do exist are heavily purchased. Avoid very common niches unless they appear to have an endless market (e.g. no matter how many business photos are out there, they still seem to sell)
- Choose Your Keywords Carefully
Most stock sites use a keyword system to find files on their site. They will generally be up to you to choose and key in, and are an art in themselves. It is worth taking the time to get keywords right, as otherwise no one will be able to find your product. Find similar files that are popular and use their keywords as a guide. Try to cover as many as you can think of without simply keyword spamming. You should also always double-check your spelling.
- Read the Submission Documentation THOROUGHLY
There is no better way to waste time and effort than to start producing files without first reading submission criteria. For example photographers should keep in mind that any photograph taken of a person or place will need either a signed model release or property release respectively. Some sites require a photocopy of the model’s drivers license as well. Photos can generally be downloaded and used by anyone, so would-be models need to be willing to have their photos used for almost anything. For illustrations, Flash and videos there may be file type requirements, and settings that need to be adhered to.
Different stock sites have different conditions so make sure you read carefully before you start uploading your files.
- Conceptualize
For photography and illustration try to find ways to represent concepts in your stock. This can be hard, but if you represent the right concept in an iconic way you can produce a very popular file.