Stock Photography and Video is unstable

If you are think about starting your stock Photography journey, remember that is ver unstable and unpredictable. You really never know what will happen and what images will be selling.

But don't let that discourage you, allow it to actually inspire you to create more so you can give yourself the best chance to get as many sales as you can.

There are certain things you can do to try and get some more sales, and some consistent sales, but even that is not a guarantee that they will come, or even that those will be the most popular images you have on your Portfolio.

What do I mean by that?

Photos of popular celebrations, that come back every year, famous local places or events, and mundane things that happen every day can be helpful to get you some consistent sales.

Themes like Halloween, Christmas, Hannukah, Carnival, Woman's Day, and so many more like this, come back every year, so if you have and keep adding new works to categories like this, you are working in the long term.

Giving yourself the chance of photos you create today, will be bringing you money for the long run.

Then you have the famous places and events around the World, people will always be creating about travels, and there will always news and events that will refer those places. So there are potential for them to be rediscovered over and over again.

Let's not forget the most random and unique stuff that you might be able to capture and no one else can, or no one else remembers to because they think it will never worth anything. For that reasons, if you take that extra time to be the one capturing it. They can be very valuable.

I have just started and I can tell you that is in fact true. Some of my licensed images are all in these categories I told you above. And that's what make this so unstable and unpredictable.

Expect the unexpected. And that's why I recommend you to upload the photos, even if you look at them and think: "this will never be licensed".

I have thought that about every single image I got licensed, including, a photo I decided to take at a dirty toilet I have used in a coffee shop.

In my head, I took the photo and thought: "Who would ever need or license a photo of a random dirty toilet".

Well someone did. And it sold once already.

If anyone tell you that they have the secret to what will sell when it comes to stock photography and video, they are lying. Because, you never know. There are tips that might improve the probability a little higher, but not assured.

Something else that can help with those probabilities, are the "help" that some micro agencies offer you. What help you might be asking?

The majority of the micro stock agencies have their "community section" and their announcements where they come up with suggestions, ideas and briefs of things you can create and upload.

These requests can be helpful because they have the insights of what people are looking for, and what people are selling the most, but also, what might be missing on their portfolios.

So if you those briefs and suggestions, not only could be good if you are out of ideas, but a great tip on a market that might been untapped and they have been getting a lot of search for. That means, less offer of stock photography and more people looking, higher chances to get your images seen and licensed.

But again remember, everyone is getting those briefs, so you might not be the only one competing on that section, so once again, not guarantee.

Your best photos might be licensed but your worst photos can be licensed more, because you are not the client, so it doesn't matter at all what do you think it is the best or the worst! What matters is what others are looking for.

So what might have a lot of value for you, might worth nothing for others. What is relevant in your life, might not be relevant for others.

On the other hand, what you might think it is irrelevant in your life, it can actually be valuable for others without you even realise.

Take the photos, get the photos on the agencies, and then it is the waiting game.

I would risk to say that at this point there are trillions of photos all over the different micro stock agencies, and that number grows daily. That's why the most experience, call stock photography and video, a numbers game.

The more you upload, the bigger are the chances to get discovered and licensed.

I would not recommend you to photograph just because and put it out there. That's not what I mean. Try to have a little bit of perception. And whenever you want to photograph something think before: "how can this be used by people?", and if you can come up with at least one use case for the image, then it is worth it to get the photo and upload it. Because if you thought about that one case scenario it means that probably are other cases you can't even think about but others might.

Back to how irregular the markets and your sales can be. You must accept that and know that there are nothing you really can do to control it. You have to roll with waves.

Now, something that I can see happening in the future, whenever I have more information about which of my photos are selling the most. And that is something you can also do when you have that information.

If there is a certain style, or a certain type of images of yours that sell way more than everything else, then you can also focus on uploading more of those. To once again, improve the chances to getting more sales.

Because if a certain specific type of image of yours get more sales than others, it means that at certain point, people are looking for that specific style. And if you know you can offer it, you should be offering it.

Although I can't yet confirm you this information, since I don't have enough date or am in the market for long enough. I think it is just a obvious statement we can make. Anyway, I will bring you updates in the future when it comes the time.

Hopefully this information was useful to you and if you are starting your journey, don't lose your motivation and keep growing your portfolio. We can do it together and share our victories and things we learn, so we can share the great results we achieve in the future.

The Microstock sites I am on:
Shutterstock
Pond5
Dreamstime
Depositphotos
500px

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