Why Stock Photography?<\/h2>\n
The Internet has opened up new ways for people to make money online, and for photographers, stock photography<\/a>\u00a0can be a golden opportunity.<\/p>\n Stock photography involves licensing photos to others for an objective use. Generally, people buy the rights to use a stock photo because it\u2019s cheaper than paying a photographer to compose\u00a0a new photo specifically for a given project. The flip side, of course, is that you can sell the license to a single photo more than once.<\/p>\n All sorts of people pay money to use stock photos, including:<\/p>\n Stock photography presents\u00a0its challenges, but you can make some good money off of it\u2014especially if you have your own stock photography website.<\/p>\n At the top of the stock photograph food chain are the big names; those large stock photography websites that gobble up a huge share of the market. Companies\u00a0like Dreamstime<\/a>, iStock<\/a>, Shutterstock<\/a>, and Bigstock<\/a> all exemplify the types\u00a0of behemoths that dominate the industry.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot to be said for simply making an account on one of these sites, uploading your photos, and hoping to capture your own slice of the pie. But then again, you could also create your own outlet.<\/p>\n Both options have their pros and cons. For joining a major site, the benefits are:<\/p>\n But there are also drawbacks:<\/p>\n While starting a stock photography website of your own may seem scary, it\u2019s very doable. Creating and managing a website is easier today than ever before. In fact, you won\u2019t need to worry about coding, server maintenance or any of the confusing technical stuff that often deters folks from starting a website.<\/p>\n The benefits of going your own route are:<\/p>\n Stock photography\u00a0is an industry of\u00a0fierce competition. Simply put, lots of people want to sell their photos online.<\/p>\n The problem is that if you go off and create a website selling general stock photos, you\u2019re unlikely to get anywhere.<\/p>\n The solution is to specialize, specialize, specialize. The big stock photography websites already offer a one-stop-shop for just about every type of photo. It’s not realistic to compete\u00a0with their volume and advertising dollars. But you can compete with them in a smaller arena. If you provide amazing photos geared toward a single niche market, you have a chance.<\/p>\n How do you find a niche market?<\/p>\n First, think of the themes that appear in your photographs. Are they geographically related? If so, you might consider starting a regional stock photo business that targets just your local area. For example, if you’re a photographer based in Montana, start stock photo business that targets the keywords “Montana photographs” or “Montana stock photography.”<\/p>\n Perhaps the themes in your photography archive are defined by subject matter, such as surfing. Start a niche stock photo business that is optimized around the words “surfing photography” or even something regionally specific like “California surfing photography.”<\/p>\n The best way to do this is to find a market need<\/a>. Make a list of industries or potential customer segments\u00a0that utilize\u00a0stock photos; be sure to focus on people that use the kinds of images\u00a0you can create. Then, look at that list and identify who\u00a0will be willing (and able) to pay good money for stock photos. At the intersection, you\u2019ll find your niche market.<\/p>\n So you want to do stock photography. You\u2019ve decided to sell photos on your own website\u00a0and have identified a market. Now, how do\u00a0you actually set up the website that will serve as the start of your stock photography business?<\/p>\n Three main steps will take you from no web presence to a solid site:<\/p>\n Launching your own site takes a lot more legwork than just throwing your photos up on someone else\u2019s platform. It all\u00a0starts with laying the groundwork for your site.<\/p>\n You should first purchase a domain name. Since it\u2019s what users will type into their address bar and\u00a0see on a search results page, it\u2019s important to pick something simple and recognizable.<\/p>\n You can buy your web address from a domain name registrar. Each registrar has different pricing and services. Here are a few companies to consider:<\/p>\n Once you have a domain name, you’ll need WordPress web hosting<\/a>. Web hosting gives you server space to hold your site\u2019s files.<\/p>\n WordPress is an intuitive content management system that enables you to efficiently manage your site without having to worry about coding. With literally thousands of plugins to add functionality<\/a> and themes to customize your design<\/a>, WordPress can help you build a unique presence on the web.<\/p>\n These statistics<\/a>\u00a0illustrate the widespread popularity of WordPress:<\/p>\n You can easily find guides on the web that explain how to install WordPress (here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a> or here<\/a>).<\/p>\n You\u2019ll want to install a theme designed specifically for photography. In fact, since we’re\u00a0going to talk about the Sell Media plugin below, it won\u2019t hurt to install a theme specifically designed for use with Sell Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve installed your theme<\/a> and gotten a feel for WordPress, it\u2019s time to bring it all together.<\/p>\n Sell Media<\/a> is a WordPress plugin helps you sell photos, prints, videos and other digital files directly from your own website.\u00a0With Sell Media, you can:<\/p>\n The plugin is free to download, with a handful of upgrades that make it even better. You can download it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve downloaded the plugin, you\u2019ll want\u00a0to install it, configure the\u00a0options and give it a test drive. You should log in to your WordPress dashboard and follow these steps:<\/p>\n You can then use nifty\u00a0shortcodes to insert the Sell Media plugin<\/a> on any post or page. One of the most popular features is the “Filters” shortcode, which creates a custom layout that is perfect for your stock photography business homepage. It includes tabs for filtering your stock photos by Most Recent, Most Popular, Collections or Keywords.\u00a0The Filters shortcode\u00a0looks like this<\/a>\u00a0when added to a page.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re just starting out, don\u2019t worry about everything all at once\u2014there\u2019s a lot to consider, and you\u2019ll improve over time. Jump over to the official Sell Media Documentation<\/a> for a comprehensive setup instructions. You\u2019ll want to explore\u00a0plugins<\/a>,\u00a0themes<\/a>,\u00a0social media<\/a> and web traffic<\/a>, among other initiatives.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve picked a good market and set up a good site, you\u2019re halfway there (you should also give good thought to increasing traffic<\/a> to your site).\u00a0But a website alone won\u2019t rake in cash. You need to actively work to draw people in through keywords and loss leads. Let’s look at each of those in turn.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t skimp on captions or keywords. Sure, you\u2019re a photographer and you love working with images, not text. But to succeed, you have to bridge both worlds. When people pull up a Google search, they\u2019re typing text to find an image. You want to make\u00a0sure they find your image.<\/p>\n When writing captions\u00a0and keywords for your stock photos (which you absolutely must do), make sure that you do two things:<\/p>\n The second point\u00a0is necessary because people will use a wide variety of search terms to search for photos. If you can anticipate the terms likely to be used by people looking for an image like the one you\u2019re selling, you up your chances of\u00a0making a sale.<\/p>\n Captions\u00a0and keywords help your audience find exactly what they\u2019re looking for, which saves them time.<\/p>\n Some of the big stock photo\u00a0sites let photographers donate images to the \u201cfree\u201d section. While the appeal for the site itself is obvious (free photos draw\u00a0more users), this model also garners benefits for the photographers.<\/p>\n A free stock photo, which tends to see lots of traffic, can get visitors interested in who took the photo in the first place. Because free offerings can lead people to your paid pictures, putting a free image out there every once in awhile is not a bad idea at all. Use the Free Downloads extension<\/a> to simultaneously drive traffic and increase your email marketing list. You can also set the price of a photo to $0 and it will generate a free download\u00a0for your visitors. It’s a win-win with either approach you decide to take.<\/p>\n Loss leads help your audience by providing high-quality pictures that they can use (free of charge) in a pinch. Chances are that some visitors will be happy to return the favor later on by buying a license to use one of your photos.<\/p>\n To take your stock photo business to the next level, you’ll want to sell subscription\/membership access to your stock photos<\/a>. \u00a0Offering subscription plans turns a one-time product sale into a monthly or yearly recurring sale. The more photos and video you add, the more valuable your service is to your customers. All you have to do is activate and configure the Subscription extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stock photography is\u00a0a way to merge your passion with a profitable livelihood. Creating your own stock photography website is a risk, but it’s one that can pay off both financially and emotionally. With WordPress, Sell Media, and solid\u00a0strategies in your toolbox, you have a great\u00a0shot at success.<\/p>\n How have these ideas worked for you? What struggles or successes have you had with building your own stock photography business? Tell us your thoughts\u00a0in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Selling your photography\u00a0can be a great way to funnel your passion into a business. However,\u00a0the web is awash in stock photography sites that curate photos from\u00a0thousands of photographers. To stand out, you might be better off going your own way. And with the right tools\u2014such as\u00a0WordPress and Sell Media\u2014you can build your own stock photo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182107,"featured_media":78650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,211,152],"tags":[240,197],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Stock](\"https:\/\/graphpaperpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/stock-photography.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
Should You Launch Your Own Site?<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/graphpaperpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/istock-logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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How Can You Find a Market?<\/h2>\n
How Can You Create Your Site?<\/h2>\n
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1. Buy a Domain Name<\/h3>\n
![\"Having](\"https:\/\/graphpaperpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/web-hosting.jpg\")
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2. Get\u00a0Web Hosting<\/h3>\n
3. Install WordPress<\/h3>\n
![\"wordpress-logo-stacked-rgb\"](\"https:\/\/graphpaperpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/wordpress-logo-stacked-rgb.png\"){kind=logo}
Chances are, you\u2019re not looking to spend time plucking at\u00a0HTML and CSS to make a website from scratch. Luckily, there are much easier solutions. For a stock photography website, the clear choice\u00a0is WordPress.<\/p>\n\n
4. Install Sell Media<\/h3>\n
![\"sell-media-advanced-search-screenshot\"](\"https:\/\/graphpaperpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/edd\/2012\/09\/sell-media-advanced-search-screenshot.jpg\")
In the past, tons of problems plagued photographers<\/a> who wanted to sell their images online. But many of those problems are no more, thanks to a new\u00a0handy little plugin.<\/p>\n\n
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![\"sell-media-filters-most-popular\"](\"https:\/\/graphpaperpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/sell-media-filters-most-popular-1000x955.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat Gets Images Noticed?<\/h2>\n
Captions\u00a0and Keywords<\/h3>\n
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Loss Leads<\/h3>\n
Take it to the Next Level: Sell\u00a0Subscriptions to Your Photos<\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n