5 stock and photography business do’s and dont’s for 2010
And so the turkey is eaten, the beer is going flat, the Xmas jumper has been dutifully worn and thoughts turn to the New Year and the hopes and fears that may bring. Here’s PP’s handy guide to the 5 things you really do and don’t want to do if you want to make more money than last year.
1. DON’T bother with microstock: It’s a mugs game if you are solo. If you weren’t in there near the start you have a snowball’s chance in hell of making any decent returns from your efforts. Hats off to the Yuri Arcurs of this world, they know the only way to make serious returns per image in microstock is to run a production house churning out thousands of well targetted, well produced images each week and upload them to every microstock library there is. That’s what you have to do, but 95% of all micro contributors don’t and will never have that production capacity.
2. DON’T be a ‘generalist’: if you shoot the sort of images anyone can produce then 2010 will further dilute your power to make returns; even at traditional libraries. Cameras are getting ridiculously easy to use to you must find a way of injecting your talent into the images you make to set yourself apart from the crowd. Standard snaps are just not cutting it anymore.
3. DON’T work harder – work smarter: Those of you flogging yourself out there for a ‘day rate’ (you know, the rate you dare not increase and the one that keeps getting undercut by your competition) you guys are in for a rough ride. This Christmas will have spawned a thousand new ‘photographers’ all eager to get their standard Clickpic or similiarly ridiculously-easy-to-set-up site up and running and selling their services. Except of course they haven’t a clue what to charge. Some will have talent but know nothing about making money. Talent and no business sense is a formula for being taken for a ride. Some of these people will be your competition and your clients will have no way of telling the difference.
If you still use a ‘day rate’ you need to read this first:
http://www.thephotographybiz.com/photography-business/dont-charge-out-your-photography-on-time/
then take this free course of five tutorials:
Licence, licence, licence = $$$, $$$, $$$ and it repeats too. If you want a business that makes self-generating profit from shoots you did two years ago then licence the use of your work, don’t work an hourly rate. Simple.
4. DO spend less time on forums and more time shooting: We all know the photo forum dwellers, those whose name appears in the status bar of the forum every time you pop in and who just can’t resist to pass on their words of wisdom despite being the guys that never ever seem to sell anything (thinking of a particular stock photo library forum here ;)). Getting mixed up with these guys is a whole waste of your time and productivity. Their negativity and sheer ignorance will infect you, wind you up to distraction and before you know it two hours is lost in a flame war over whether you need a model release in Bolivia pre-1985. Get over it, check out, take it off your “favourites” list and get on with your job.
5. DO treat photo competitions with suspicion: It’s the latest way to make money. Set up a competition and take money for entries. Candy off a baby. Promise a reward and ever-lasting recognition. If you’re going to spend $$$$ on entering online photo competitions make sure you realise it’s not going to make you as revered and/or wealthy and/or hired as Nadav Kander overnight. In fact $ for $ you’d be better off spending that money on direct targeted marketing to art buyers and prospective clients you have a chance of impressing.
So happy new year to all my blog readers, may you make more $$ for less effort in 2010 (see #3) :)
PP
Tags: Photography Business
Good to have you back :)
Some great advice; particularly on the need to work smarter to try and produce fewer but more distinctive images. There is an element of gamble in this approach though; if the style a photographer adopts doesn’t find any favour amongst buyers they could end up worse off than the generalist.
Thanks Alex,
Think “subject” rather than style when it comes to stock. Everybody snaps travel and flowers so find yourself a niche area, something that everybody and their dad can’t do. Despite there being more stock images in the world than the world actually needs (lol) there are still gaps.
You just have to find them.
PP
P.,
Thanks, I never went away :)
PP
Agreed, finding an as yet untapped niche is definitely the aim!
Alex
That’s true. Learn what to charge for your photography services and licensing.
On competitions, we wary too of what your signing up for – the recent tourism australia’s campaign – http://nothinglikeaustralia.com/index.htm
has terms and conditions that are particularly draconian – not just for winners (which maybe fair enough) but any photo entered.
Agree on the micro stock thing, its ok to play with starting off but not a way to make any cash for most people.
Good point Sean,
Always read the terms of entry first. Some are thinly-veiled rights grabs.
Pro-Imaging have a list of competitions with less than wonderful entry criteria which can be found here:
http://www.pro-imaging.org/content/view/291/154/
Worth checking any competition out there first to see if it’s been reported and/or if you find anything that sounds like a rights grab, file it with them using this form:
http://www.pro-imaging.org/component/option,com_fabrik/Itemid,224/
PP