Selling Fractals as Stock
posted by Dzeni at 1:55 AMI've been meaning to post about this topic for sometime now - so here goes.
For the past 14 months I've been selling my work on Shutterstock. The deal works like this. You upload your fractals, they get reviewed and hopefully approved by SS staff. Then if a designer downloads them, you get get paid the grand total of 25c (US). Once you make over $500.00, you get a raise to 30c.
The process is not as simple as I've made it seem. To be able to post stuff on SS, you need to get accepted there first, which means going over to the site, registering, and posting 10 of your best "shots". This is followed by an agonizing wait to see if you make the cut. If 7 out of 10 "shots" get accepted, you're in business. Sort of.
Turns out that it can take quite a while to accumulate enough money to get a payout (the minimum amount is $75.00). Of course, there are many artists who feel that getting paid a whopping 25c per download is not worth their time and effort. They may have a point but if you're doing it as a hobby and want to see if your work is commercially useful, it can be a fun exercise. By uploading regularly and building up a portfolio, it is possible to make some "change".
In my foray into the world of Stock photography, I've discovered several things:
I've also discovered that I'm a hopeless photographer! I have lighting issues :( Happily, this has not prevented me from doing quite nicely from fractals.
So, has anyone else out there tried selling their stuff as "stock"? Its certainly one way to evaluate the merit of the pieces one produces. Its not the only way, but it can give some idea of what designers / advertisers find attractive / useful.
5 Comments:
Hey Keith - so are you saying that your fractal images have sold well there? At least in terms of numbers if not in terms of "the big bucks"?
Might be a fun thing to try, at least with fractals - I'm still trying to figure out where the heck to install the film in Joie's Nikon D-80. She said I could use it if I bought my own film but won't even give me a hint as to where the heck the film goes or where the latch is.... ;-)
Rick
I am still thinking about this one.
My fractals have sold reasonably well over there, hence my post :) The neat thing about shutterstock is that you don't really have anything to lose. You keep the copyright for your images and I know there is no way that I could sell / market my work to a large audience without the agency.
LOL - ooops, somehow I thought Keith had made this tread - sorry! Glad to know that there's a market for fractals out there, somewhere!
Rick
I had to giggle at the comment about how if you like a fractal, it can bomb, and then a fractal you hate takes off...VERY true. It blows me away. So, I find that if I hate the art I just completed, it's a good sign LOL.
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