Great Escape Publishing

Posted April 22nd, 2017 by Bonnie Caton & filed under Travel Photography.

Congratulations to the Breakfast Stock Club members who’ve recently signed up and been accepted to several stock photo agencies!

It’s happening a LOT right now and I love it.

Motivation is fleeting.

If you need some quick tips to get you going, check out our three-part series, walking you through the process here, here, and here.

Getting started is the hardest part… but selling your first photo is an absolute thrill. And it really becomes worth it once you see consistent sales coming in.

One question I get a lot is: Ok, I got accepted… now what? How do I make more sales?

The thing is, if you have a small portfolio of images, you won’t likely sell much. Around 300 photos seems to be the magic number where stock photographers start gaining noticeable traction in sales numbers.

300 might seem like a lot at the start, but it’s a pretty achievable number.

Here are my top three ways to go from getting accepted at an agency to making regular sales:

Keyword thoughtfully. Keywords are how buyers find your photos, so it’s worth taking the extra couple of minutes to add strong keywords to your shots. More advice on this here.
Tune in. Pay attention to current trends. Photos that convey a popular theme, activity, or idea are sure to sell the best. Page through a few magazines and take note of what type of photos the advertisers are using. Notice the color palette used and the compositional styles. A little research goes a long way!
Include people. As much as possible, fill your portfolios with images of people – especially people doing things. Photo buyers crave images showing people engaged with life, having experiences, and interacting. Try to capture authentic, true-to-life moments that don’t feel overly staged.

That’s it! I guarantee that if you do these three things, you’ll go from stock photo acceptance to stock photo sales!

Our most successful readers get their cameras out on a regular basis, and continually build upon their portfolios.

Doing this, you’ll not only improve your photographic skills, you’ll start seeing the small sales add up! It’s a win – win!