Hey fellow ‘golden hour light’ chasers,
I’m predominately a travel stock photographer and always on the lookout for additional means to increase my income streams within the photographic realm. We must act like hunters in this jungle that is the stock industry and, especially as it’s become increasingly challenging to make a living purely off stock photography. This is especially true when Agencies curtail contributors’ benefits all in the name of staying competitive, such as Dreamstime’s recent move to make all their images Royalty-Free and Limit-Free.
In my book, I discuss at length about ‘Opportunities Outside of Microstock’ and encourage all contributors to think strategically on where to upload their images so that they yield the most returns.
To purchase a copy of this book, click on this link!
Print On-Demand Business Model
A friend of mine and fellow Microstock grinder, Steve Heap, has written a series of articles on his experience within the Print On-Demand business model, in his blog ‘Backyard Silver’ He’s been submitting to their biggest player, Fine Art America (FAA), for a few years now and has had some nice sales. He goes into details which of his images have sold and crucially, for how much.
Interesting, Steve has a new pricing strategy which he’s adopting. Certainly great advice which I’m adopting. By the way, he’s also an author and written an excellent book entitled “Get Started in Stock”, check it out:
So, how does Print On-Demand work?
Well, taking a paragraph from my book:
“A number of online Agencies have emerged to assist photographers to sell their prints, namely ‘Print on Demand’. Some of these Agencies are full-service in that they handle the entire chain of transactions (collecting payment, packaging, and shipping). Understandably, these types of Agencies charge steep commissions, but there’s flexibility in setting your own margins.”
Fine Art America
FAA is certainly the biggest player. They offers two packages for photographers: a free option, which is limited to a selection of 25 works; and an affordable premium option, costing $30/year, where you can upload as many images as you want, and receive a 5% share of any extras a buyer chooses – like matting or framing. The premium option also has some other added features, such as a customisable portfolio/website.
I recommend everybody to take advantage of the free option and upload your best 25 works to them at no cost. That’s precisely what I did about 4 months ago but, I then thought, what the hell it’s only $30/year so I signed up to the premium version. A few simple downloads would cover your costs for the whole year.
How have been my sales at FAA?
It’s early days and no sales to report as of yet in my FAA portfolio, in fact I only have about 150 images on there at the moment and more are added every week.
If there’s anything I would like you to take away from this post is an indication of which types of images potential buyers are searching, so here’s my most searched for images in terms of ‘visitors’. Perhaps not so scientific as actual sales, since lots of buyers just window shop, but it’s all I have at the moment. I hope to blog about my first sale soon and not in 2 years’ time…!
So which types of images should sell at FAA
What I take from the above simple analysis is that traditional stock images don’t appear to rate so highly, at least in my portfolio. These visitors are looking for more ‘fine art style’ images that would look good on a t-shirt, canvas, iPhone covers, greeting cards and even duvets. It appears that my ‘dark and moody ‘ images are most popular, although the little boy with the camel I shot in Dubai is racing ahead, literally. On a side note, I wrote an article about my recent visit to the UAE, so check it out.
The following one from my trip to Israel (which I also wrote an article), not so much but it may appeal to a ‘niche’ buyer or something that’s trending:
Other Print On-Demand Agencies
Within Print On-Demand there’s numerous other agencies, including Redbubble and Zazzle.
Have you considered FAA and how has been your experience so far? I would love to hear from you, so please comment below.
See Part II of this article – Opportunities Outside of Microstock: Fine Art Images.
Until next time!
Alex
Alexandre Rotenberg's Brutally Honest Guide to Stock Photography & Footage 
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