List of the best MicroStock Photo Buyers
The following is a list of the best mico stock photography buyers on the net. These are all image agencies that I have been using for more than a year. They are the ones I trust to represent my digital photos and make me money. I would recomend them to anyone who is ready to get into selling their digital photos and strengthing our industry.
Dreamstime (NUMBER 1 PICK!)
I can not say enough about Dreamstime. They are my personal favorite microstock agency. They have one of the highest payouts for your portfolio, and great advetising that leads to hirer image sales. There is also a very active forum and tutorials on selling digital images. You will learn a lot and sell a lot at Dreamstime
Fotolia (ONE OF THE BEST TOO!)
Fotolia is one of my other favorites! Not only are their payouts good for sold photos, but they have a secondary "free" market for photos that just don't make the grade. This makes them unique. They buy and sell your decent photos, but you can still upload photos that are pretty much awful. Those photos go into a free bin for visitors. Unlike other digital stock agencies, you will actually recieve payments on the photos you sell for free. Stick with selling photos the regular way, but if you want to try and make money off every last picture you took, Fotolia is the place!
I love ShutterStock. I was nervous about them at first because they pay the lowest of any of the sites, per photo sale. They explain that their system of subscriptions will get you so many sales that they will make up on the low pay per image. I gave them a try (because those same photos were making money elsewhere anyways) and sure enough, they were right! Don't be put off by their rates, they truely get the volume of digital photo sales you need.
If I could say something about BigStockPhoto it would be that they are fair and a good agency to be a part of. Decent payouts and a fun community. And they payout rates are right up there with the other photo agents.
I like FeaturePics because you set your own prices. Of course it is VERY hard for people new to microstocking to understand what a good price is. You may beleive a photo is worth thousands, but it will never sell for that price. You have to learn the balance between value and quantity of image sales. I say to go with them, price your stuff a little high, and see the difference you have in sales versus the other microstock sites. If you aren't making that much on FeaturePics, then lower your prices to match the others, and get the volume you need.
Nice site, payouts can take a while. I usually don't wait for payouts though. When I need to buy photos for my own projects at work, I just cash in my sales for credits. You can do that with every site here, by the way. You can cash in a little bit of your image sales to buy photographs from others to use in your projects. (Especially useful if you need a picture of something you can't take yourself.)
Ergh, iStockPhoto. Great, great, great resources for learning about the microstock industry, but such a pain to join. Very difficult to get photos submitted, but hey: the more honest micro-stock sites your pictures are at, the more money you make. For all their trouble, they are at least a legitimate micro stock agent.