I’ve sorted through my photos, I’ve done endless research, I’ve go my model releases… it’s about to time start submitting photos to the stock agencies!
Here is a list of the major micro-stock photography agencies. I plan to submit photos to all of them, and will update this article with links to each agency as I go through the submission process. The current plan is to go down the list in order.
Micro-Stock Agencies List
iStock Photo (http://www.istockphoto.com/sell-stock-photos.php)
One of the origial innovators in micro-stock. They pay 20% of the price of downloads (more if you’re exclusive, which sounds like a bad deal). They charge $2 – $24 depending on the size of the photo downloaded. iStock accepts photos at 1600 x 1200 or larger (2 MP).
Checkout the breakdown of the iStock Submission Process
Shutterstock: (http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=474139)
They accept photos as small as 4 MP. Stutterstock works on a subscription model for their buyers. Buyers pay a fee for a month and can download as much as they want (great deal for buyers – and encourages them to download a lot). Photographers are paid a flat $0.25 per download, but once you make over $500 (2k downloads) you bump up to $0.30 per download. They have a nice fast review process for new photographers which makes them nice as well!
Check out the breakdown of the Shutterstock Submission Process
Fotolia (http://us.fotolia.com/Info/HowToSell)
Fotolia pays from $0.30 to $0.60 per download – the exact amount depends on how many total downloads you’ve had. The more images you sell, the more you get paid for each image you sell. They accept images as small as 4MP, and certainly have the easiest submission process.
Checkout the breakdown of the Fotolia Submission Process
Dreamstime (http://www.dreamstime.com/sell)
Stockxpert (http://www.stockxpert.com/support/help/4)
ClusterShot (https://www.clustershot.com/account/edit)
ClusterShot seems to have an unusual approach, in which they let you set your own prices for your photos. I’ll be digging into this more closely as I work down the list, but my hunch is that it’s a smaller site that won’t get nearly as many sales (bad deal for the buyers).
