Newbie question - sell myself or via stock sites?

[thaiphotos]

I'm hoping to sell some photos online in the very near future, and my main question on the "biz side" at the moment is whether to try and sell photos myself with a smugmug site, or pass the selling side onto the stock sites?

What factors should go into this decision? Has anyone here made the wrong decision and lived to regret it?

Any help very very welcome!!

thx,
lee

Do both.

I have a Zenfolio site and have sold about $600 or so worth of prints off of it last year. I also do iStock, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime for about $2K in the last year. I should probably get involved in more stock sites, but haven't gotten around to it.

Might as well diversify for maximum potential. I think it's easier to make money from the stock sites than it is on your own site, but to each his own.

[digirebelva]

Originally Posted by Photoboothguy

I also do iStock, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime for about $2K in the last year. I should probably get involved in more stock sites, but haven't gotten around to it.

Might as well diversify for maximum potential. I think it's easier to make money from the stock sites than it is on your own site, but to each his own.

Out of curosity, how many images do you have on the microstock sites to make 2k in a year..?

[dakwegmo]

Originally Posted by digirebelva

Out of curosity, how many images do you have on the microstock sites to make 2k in a year..?

It's not the number of images that he has, but the number of original, creative images. I know people with hundreds of photos on stock sites that don't make that much in a year, because they're the same boring guys in suits, type shots and they're competing with every other guy in a suit for sales.

[Alokchitri]

There are very few people I've come across who make a lot out of Micro Stocks..and many veterans simply hate Micro Stocks because they sell your work so cheap. You can earn about 50c only per download, and there is no guarantee that your work is going to be downloaded a number of times.
Go for traditional stock agencies...they pay better. And obviously keep selling yourself too.

[funcrunch]

Originally Posted by Alokchitri

There are very few people I've come across who make a lot out of Micro Stocks..and many veterans simply hate Micro Stocks because they sell your work so cheap. You can earn about 50c only per download, and there is no guarantee that your work is going to be downloaded a number of times.
Go for traditional stock agencies...they pay better. And obviously keep selling yourself too.

Agreed. I went with Alamy myself; just wrote a blog entry about that today. But I can also license images through Zenfolio, and already do for personal use. Just need to work a lot more on the SEO and marketing...

[digirebelva]

Originally Posted by dakwegmo

It's not the number of images that he has, but the number of original, creative images. I know people with hundreds of photos on stock sites that don't make that much in a year, because they're the same boring guys in suits, type shots and they're competing with every other guy in a suit for sales.

Actually it does matter, the ones I know making any consistent money on microstock have thousands of images out there, and are constantly refreshing their stock.

[steheap]

I'm new to the forum and definitely posting in trepidation having read some of the other discussions! I am by no means a professional photographer (in the sense that photography pays enough to live off), but for 3-4 years I have been focusing increasingly on making it into a viable second source of income. I started with Smugmug and tried to sell images as prints (and I am about to try getting a display at local art fairs etc.), but I got nowhere with that. So, just over 3 years ago, I made a start with microstock. Because I had no preconceived ideas about what an image should sell for, I happily joined the main sites, Shutterstock, iStock, Fotolia, etc. and uploaded my old images. Some of them sold pretty quickly, and I was hooked. Since then I have built up my portfolio to between 1400 - 1700 depending on the standards of the site, and the income to $750 a month. I'm not good with models (or perhaps I need to gain more confidence) and so I have focused more on landscapes and travel images - things I would have taken anyway to satisfy my creative urges, and I have a nice range of isolated bengal cat images that sell well - and I'm still enthused to get up before dawn for that special image. I also joined Alamy, and have had a few (bigger) sales, but the sheer volume of downloads from the microstock sites makes up for the lower prices per image.

I've searched through some of the posts here, and if there is an existing thread discussing this as a way to earn money from photography, I'll join that.

Steve