Stock Photography month 3 - March 2024
Month three of doing stock photography, hitting my goal of 200 uploads, Adobe’s weirdness continued (the Editorial edition), Why does stock photography sound like a 4 letter word, my sales for March + the change in strategy for April.
Does anyone else feel that mentioning Stock Photography around photographers is like saying a 4 letter word in polite company? It’s often portrayed in an icky “get rich quick / passive income” way - and that can put a lot of people off doing it. So today I really want to share with you why I love it so much and why you should give it a try - and the beauty of this is that you can do it at any level of your photography journey!
Plus! I want to share with you my sales for month 3 and how I’m changing strategy for month 4!
The point of these monthly updates is that I’ve really loved reading about and watching other photographers do monthly stock reports, and seeing their behind-the-scenes - it’s been really helpful and motivating - and I wanted to both join in that conversation, but also take you guys along with me - kind of like a Hansel and Gretel style breadcrumb trail, if you will.
Also today - discussing why I personally love stock photography (and why I think you should too); a quick note on Editorial content in Adobe that you should be aware of as a new contributor and also possibly a part of your consideration process when you’re deciding on which agencies to submit to; my sales for March (including my first sale with one of the agencies which is exciting!) and goals for April including strategies I’m going to try, to get more sales in a month).
WHY DOES STOCK FEEL LIKE A 4 LETTER WORD (Coffee time)
One of the things I love about catching up with other photographers is the ability to just chat about things photography-related - but on YouTube especially - I often find that people are so “get to the point” that we miss out on actual DISCUSSION points. Not everyone has access to other photographers to chat with and just have coffee with - and I really want my channel and blog to be both informative but also like “Hey, I’ll be your new photography bestie. Le’s do coffee and chat about things photography related”. It might not be great for the algorithm on YouTube, but I think it’s really important to discuss topics other than just how your camera works.
I was thinking recently that in some circles, mentioning stock photography is like saying a 4 letter word in polite company. And it made me wonder: why? I know that when I was researching Stock Photography - I came across quite a few videos that were like “I’m going to post stock images for the next month and see if I can make some passive income”. It kind of made it feel… cheap… to me - for lack of a better word. As a photographer that’s invested THOUSANDS of dollars into equipment, plus additional training, not to mention the YEARS I’ve put into learning about it - it feels like someone with a cell phone or a point and click thinks they can just walk in and go “oh yea, this is easy money”.
Truthfully - perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps it is. Perhaps I’m overthinking it and becoming arrogant about it because I’ve invested so much time and money that I WANT it to be more exclusive. And even though I’ve worked on my photos - some people have a natural eye - so could it simply be that those of us who have had to work to learn about it, are jealous of those with a natural talent?
In the end, I decided that it doesn’t matter what other people think - because that’s robbing me of time from becoming the best version of myself. :)
So I simply asked myself - why do I like stock photography and why would I recommend it to other photographers?
Well - just like someone with a cell phone - there’s a low barrier to entry - so in other words, even if you’re fairly new at it - it’s a great starting point to sell your images AND excellent practice. That’s actually why I love it - it challenges me as a photographer to do my best work and come up with ideas to fit in with the monthly trend reports. It makes me think outside of what I would normally think to photograph, like being at school. Except your exam is: will they be accepted and will they sell? And if not - how do I get better?
Also - as someone on the other side of these stock photos and videos - I’ve used stock for blogs I’ve written, social media posts for clients, and extra footage for YouTube - although I haven’t posted those, it still looked cool. So - when you consider yourself as the first half of this process, and think about how you’re making someone else’s job better on the other end of this - that excites me too. I love it when I find a great image for social media, and my client loves it too! Even though I didn’t take it - I still feel stoked that I found something they loved. So… y’know - dopamine high 5’s all around.
The last thing I love about Stock Photography - is that as a homeschooling Mum, an introvert, and someone who gets drained by being around lots of other people - Stock allows me to do what I love, earn some income, and do it essentially on my own. I’m not waiting for bookings - I’m just doing it myself.
I’m sure there’s lots of other great reasons - but that’s what I started with, and I could probably keep yabbering about it - but lets get on with the rest of the blog so it’s not 20 pages long. lol.
ADOBE’S WEIRD - PART 2 (Editorial content and changing strategy)
Just a quick note here: Adobe isn’t accepting editorial content right now (or at least not from me as a “new” contributor). And anything vaguely editorial (like a parade or a car show, etc, that would otherwise require property releases; and ANYTHING with a logo) I’m just not even bothering to submit. Those 11 images I mentioned in last months stock report were just taking up space. I went up to 13 cos I tried adding a few more in the same genre to see if they’d be taken - but they weren’t. So I went in and deleted them.
The interesting thing is that some of the ones Adobe hasn’t taken - are actually the ones that have sold for me on Shutterstock - so I think that’s an interesting insight that - just because one agency won’t take your images - doesn’t mean they may not sell on another. So Adobe has the smallest portion of my portfolio and it’s a great example of not putting all your eggs in one basket.
MARCH’S GOALS (and did I hit them)
I set my targets based on what I can control - which in this case, is UPLOADS because I can’t control what does and doesn’t get accepted. And as I’ve said in the past, I use a “good, better, best” system - so depending on how busy each month is, I can adjust accordingly.
This month I hit “good” on my stock target - which was 200 images. This is the end of my photos from off my Hard Drive, so next month - I actually have to step up and take photos to submit - which I’m looking forward to.
As a side note, I tried to film another youtube episode this month too, but after 4 attempts, and just never quite nailing it - I decided to put it aside. But I say this because that was easily 40 hours I put in. So I can see, moving forward that it’s going to be a bit of a juggling act to do both YouTube and photography. But it’s worth it. I’ve got a bunch more YouTubes planned on both stock photography and starting YouTube - and I’m super excited to get into them - so it’s going to be a busy next few months!
APRIL’S TARGETS (and some changes in my strategy)
April's targets are as follows: Good, 300, Better, 350, Best 400. This is quite a reach - that’s almost 100 images just to achieve “good” this month, but I’m going to keep stretching myself.
Now, as for strategies… I’ve heard of two distinct strategies recently - both of which are resulting in a liveable wage for these creators.
Creator number 1: does 2 or 3 images or videos per concept and uploads daily.
Creator number 2: takes multiple photos per concept (like, hundreds) and uploads them weekly in batches of like 20 - 50.
The common denominator between both, is the regular uploads - both of them swear that by regularly uploading, that the algorithm favors them and they’re pushed more through fresh content and they make more sales.
So I think I’m going to combine these two - while I think that uploading hundreds of similar images and taking over that topic might be an interesting strategy for more sales - I see the point made by Creator 1 that you’re kind of cannibalizing your own potential sales by being your own competition.
So the sweet spot I’m going to aim for is creating “sets” - with the idea of multiple angles or slightly different stories for the same subject, where I’m able. I’m still going to put up photos from events or random things I take - but it saves massively on time in every aspect when you can bulk produce and upload. Even if only one photo from every set sells - you’ve still got another dozen from the same set out there working for you to bring eyeballs to the one that sells. And if I can include video with that, I’ll do that too.
The goal will be 2 “sets” per week, of approximately a dozen images or videos - give or take. I’m not going to submit stuff that’s not good just to make the numbers. So I’ll see how this strategy goes.
Stock photography and YouTube are part of a much bigger growth and testing strategy for my photography career and improvement this year - so this plan fits in with me to use my time strategically and efficiently.
I don’t have a tonne of time to dedicate to just one area - and I want to find the most streamlined track I can - and help find it for you guys too. So in future episodes, I’ll be releasing some PDFs to help with the process - cos I also nerd out on structures and procedures and list-making. So - stay tuned for those!
SALES + INCOME
2 exciting things happened this month:
I got my first sale on Adobe. I made 1 sale, and I got 25c - and if you’ve watched my other episodes - you’ll know this brings me a disproportionate amount of happiness - because it means that I’m making progress. Which leads me to number 2…
I made THREE sales on Shutterstock. One for 57c, one for 10c, and the most recent for $1.50. So that’s a total of $2.17 USD.
So that’s pretty cool - that’s 4 sales this month - which again - to someone else, that’s like, dumb. But to me - I made a total of $2.42 US Dollars. It makes me excited to see what next month will bring. AND, my first few months were just random images off my hard drive - so I’m even more excited to see how the next couple of months go when I’m actively taking photos specifically for the purpose of stock photography.
As always - if you have any questions about stock photography, make sure to drop a comment or find me over on Instagram or Facebook and send me a DM. :)
