Microstock or stock photography is supposedly take photos, upload photos and wait for money to come in.

Tens and tens of thousands photographers are out there thinking the same thing.

https://www.dreamstime.com/baby-birds-colldet66475

Easy as it seems?

It is hard work(photography), hard work(editing), hard work(keywording) and more hard work(submission) and a loooongggg wait to see some results.

As a photographer most of us could have tried selling stock photos at one time or another. I tried it but find it too tedious and stopped after a while.  Does the money still comes in? NO! It’s unlike what we think.  Upload the photos and wait for the money to come in.

It doesn’t work like that.  You need to upload photos on a regular basis to see some movements in your sales.

I stopped for a few years as the keywording and submitting your images are too boring and to get your images turned down by the stock agencies are quite bad for your ego too.

After my back starts hurting, I thought I will give it another go.  After all I have tons of images sitting on ten hard disks or more.  And my traveling plans are coming back again after Covid.

I started to Google and search YouTube for more information on selling photos online.

I stubbled upon xPiks a FREE app that takes the key wording a lot easier and you can even upload your same photos to multiple stock libraries at the same time!

A dream come true for me or for any photographer who hates all these preparation works.

1 Shoot to sell by PicFair

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One of the biggest mistakes that people make when trying to sell their photos online is to shoot subjects or destinations that they want to shoot. While that might feel great for you professionally, and the photos might look wonderful on your website, it may not lead to much in the way of hard-earned cash. If you really want to maximise your sales online, you need to shoot subjects that are in demand.

For example gritty documentary photos of a city might get you lots of plaudits, but when was the last time you a saw a travel magazine show one on its front cover? On the other hand how often do you see a beautiful sunny beach shot with blue skies on covers of magazines?

I’m not saying you shouldn’t shoot what you want to shoot, but also make sure you shoot the types of photos that are likely to sell as well.