MicroPayment
Micropayment photography is not an industry title designed to bring hordes of image submissions. But that’s exactly what happens every day at websites like Fotalia, Istockphoto, and others. The volume of people throwing image files at the wall to see what sticks is part and parcel of competing with other online for sales and business. The volume of submissions may be high, but the volume of what is accepted will not correspond except where quality occurs. That factor evens the playing field.
As a microstock professional, you can’t control what others do. People around the world might be trying to “game the system†by flinging so much material at the reviewers they will cry “Uncle†and simply vend the images. But the reason the submission process for Microstock photography is so labor intensive is to keep the duffers out of the game. Reviewers from the big legal image usage sites don’t want to wade through the garbage.
You can control the quality of the images you take, submit, and you can affect how the presentation appeals to the Microstock website reviewer. You can review the guidelines of each Micropayment site and see which ones will offer submission options that fit your image portfolio. There may be images you have discarded for submission to site A which are right for Microstock site G. Working through the image guidelines
The micro size of the payment should not be the focus of the beginning Microstocker. The microstock photographer should know their niche and their talents should be developed to the point where one photo taking walkabout yields hundreds of saleable images.
Becoming familiar with the rules and specifications of the Micropayment sites will aid you in determining marketability and photo technique “on the hoofâ€. Being informed and trained as to what images are desirable make the photographer more professionally competitive even before they leave the shutter and capture arena.
If only ten images from each photographic image group of 300-400 are accepted, and multiple site submissions bring total portfolio exposure to optimum levels, then the potential for overlapping payments and stacked payouts becomes likely. Suddenly, those micro possibilities because massive profit opportunities.
Like many ways to make money online, there is no one armed bandit where an instant onrush of cash blinds the happy amateur. But unlike many ways to rend cash from the Internet, microstock has a logic to it that allows success on a limited scale. Developing talents, focus, technique, and profit making efforts with practice will multiply the possibilities for each photography buff, beginner, or professional shutterbug.
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