Most photographers can sort their photographs into one of three categories: artistic, personal, and stock. Artistic and personal photos have a place in our lives displayed proudly on any wall space we can find.

A stock photograph is a high quality image that is lacking that artistic edge, but you don’t want to throw it out because one day it could be useful for something. It’s no surprise that many photographers decided these images could be better serving if made available to the public.

Selling stock photography can be a tricky business if you’re not sure where to start. You will find that there are two options to selling stock. The first is to set up your own shop and locate buyers. The second is to join a website that will do all this for you. There is no right or wrong answer here. Where you choose to sell your stock should depend on how much time and effort you want to put into this endeavour

Creating your own Stock Site

Creating your own shop is riddled with pros and cons. This is the most time consuming option, but it can be the more financially rewarding. The key to successfully selling your own stock is developing a solid business plan.

How will you make your stock available to the public?

Creating a website is the easiest way to make your stock available to anyone. If you are familiar with web site design, online galleries, and shopping cart software than getting started on your own site should be a breeze. If building your own site from the ground up sounds a bit too scary, you can always hire a web designer to help out.

Freelance web designers can be found a dime a dozen on sites like freelancer.com. Create a job post that describes your project and how much you are willing to pay. Web designers will be flooding your inbox with offers. You should choose a web designer that can provide a portfolio and a business web site.

Who is going to buy your stock?

Chances are you don’t have a line of customers outside your door waiting to purchase stock photos. Your target market is going to depend on the type of stock you sell. A photographer that specializes in gourmet foods will not have the same buyers as a landscape photographer. Review your stock and make a list of the best possible uses. Look into local companies for possible buyers.

When you have exhausted all local resources it’s time to lure in the rest of the world. Advertising online is one of the easiest ways to gain business. Some of cheapest advertising methods include starting an affiliate program, posting an ad on craigslist, or using social media sites. If all else fails you can always pay for traffic with a pay-per-click company.

Joining a Stock Agency

Selling your own stock photography is not for everyone. For those of us that would rather sit back and let the stock sell itself there are agencies available. Most stock sites are free to join and have easy to use FTP servers for uploading stock. All of the advertising, site maintenance, and checkout process are handled by the agency. The down side is less control. The sell prices are already set by the website and you will only receive a percentage of each sell.

How do you decide which stock site to use?

The old microstock vs. macrostock argument will inevitably come up in your search for what stock site is best. Macrostock is the traditional or, shall we say, old school way of stock photography. These agencies are looking for the crème of the crop of stock photography. The three best know macrostock sites are Getty Images, Corbis Images, and Alamay. All three of these companies require high-quality images that meet their strict standards. The good news is they will price your photos on the high end and you will see a decent percentage of the sale.

Microstock agencies are open to photographers from all walks of life. Anyone with a 4mp digital camera or higher can be microstock photographer. Fotolia, Shutterstock, and Dreamstine are the three most well known microstock sites. These agencies sell your stock for a couple dollars and you will receive anywhere from .20 cents to a dollar of the sale depending on the size of the image sold. The biggest down side of these microstock sites is they require you to reach a minimum sale amount before you will receive a payout.

There is nothing to prevent you from selling your stock on both macro and micro sites. The rule of thumb here is to save your best images for the macrostock sites and the more commercial images for microstock sites. Putting the same stock image on both sites is generally frowned upon.

Legalities of Selling Stock

Chances are unless you’re a lawyer, then you’re not going to understand all the legal terms these sites are throwing at you. Licensed and royalty free are two terms that will come up a lot. Licensed photos (also know as rights managed) generally reflect on how the buyer plans to use the image. Licensed photos can also be for a length of time that may restrict you from reselling the image until a certain date. You need to familiarize yourself with each license you agree to sell under.

Royalty free images are based on the image size. This has become the most popular methods of selling stock among both types of stock agencies. The unfortunate thing about royalty free images is you have no idea who purchased your photos or what they are going to be used for. On the upside you may one day be driving down the road and see a billboard with your stock image in the background.

As with most things, you get what you put into this market; the larger the gallery, the bigger the pay out.