Microstock Photography - Return on Investment (ROI)

Over a year and a half ago I registered at a few microstock sites to see how I'd do with it, but it very quickly faded from my daily routine - either from lack of results, rejection, or just life getting in the way of one of my many ideas.

I had about 50 images at StockXpert, but they've since closed (moved to Veer) and the $1.00 I made will never be recovered.

I have far fewer images at iStockPhoto and Dreamstime, with combined sales of $6.50. I think the payout threshold is $50 or $100, so at this rate I'll be lucky to be paid out before I'm 65. To be fair, I only have 3 approved photos at each site so the return hasn't been too bad considering such a low number.

I've decided to give it another go, with mixed feelings. Part of me thinks that spending such a lot of time for such little return is a waste of time. Part of me just wants to experiment with this avenue of sales and see if it's really for me. At the moment I'm way behind on my Return of Investment (ROI) with the amount of time I've spent on Microstock in the past and the time I've recently put in. We'll see how this goes and maybe I'll be able to show some interesting graphs and reports down the road like Lee Torrens over at MicrostockDiaries does.

Future post....an update on my progress in 2010!!

Monetize Your Images :: With Microstock

I've recently gotten back into the idea of monetizing my images and there are a number of options one can pursue to make money from your photos.  Microstock is one of those options...

Microstock

A contentious avenue for sales to some and one I haven't put a lot of time into.  I've been getting back into it, but slowly.  Keeping the motivation going through rejection, a large amount of time editing and keywording images, with little payoff in the beginning has been a struggle.  But I'm determined to give it a go and see where I end up - I'll be updating my progress here in future posts.

Microstock is mainly Royalty Free images requiring a model/property release (if applicable) and counts on multiple sales of the same image to recoup the cost of production due to the low cost per image in microstock.  Sales typically range from $1.00 - $20.00 per image, with only a percentage of that going to the photographer.  It is open to anyone with a decent camera (usually 4-6 mega pixels and above), but most sites have quality standards that you must meet in order to submit images for sale on their site.

A few of the major microstock sites to check out if you're interested in this:

iStockphoto
Shutterstock
Dreamstime
CanStockPhoto
Fotolia