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Stock photography site idea

by 512 Designs
13 replies
My daughter is a really good photographer and we're thinking of some ideas to help her make money with this talent.

I was thinking of creating a stock photo membership site where she could upload her photos which members could download and use for a monthly fee. But what kind of photos do you think she should take and upload? Should she ask for suggestions from members and take a variety of photos based on their suggestions? Or should she carve out a specific niche (such as landscapes or animals or whatever) and take those?

Do you think a full blown membership site should be built with galleries and individual photos that can be downloaded or should it be a "photos of the month" site where members would download a new photo bundle each month?

We're just trying to get some ideas for her to make some extra money doing what she likes to do.
#idea #photography #site #stock
  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    All kinds of photos sell well, whether it's landscapes or close ups or anything else.
    The difficult part though isn't figuring out what type of photos she should take, but how to make them stand out from the rest, because there are many websites that offer free photos for download.
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  • Profile picture of the author RealCasher
    Why create a website for her, instead of uploading and selling photos using popular stock photos sites?

    Photos that sell well are portraits, landscapes and travel
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
    It's much better to work directly with stock resellers like iStock than to create your own platform. Stock photo sites you contribute to, tell you what's in high demand.
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  • Profile picture of the author FreedomBlogger
    that's so awesome!!

    That is a nice hobby and skill to have

    You have some good ideas already. I would build a membership site - then fill it up with pictures businesses in different niches could use. I would offer a monthly membership as the photo galleries will be constantly updated with new content.

    You should do a Survey and ask for people's opinions and requests. Find the demands and fulfill them. I think you can make pretty good money with a simple strategy like this.

    I hope this helps!

    I wish you the best!!

    Keep up the great work!

    Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author QueenMelanie
    to be honest I don't think people are going to want to pay a membership fee to access the photos of only one girl. People searching for stock images want variety. I am not saying she's bad, but why would someone pay her a monthly fee for her pics only, where you could pay a monthly fee somewhere else and get access to 1,000's of photographers?
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  • Profile picture of the author We Sell Sunglasses
    You will be competing against enormous sites with countless millions of photos. I would do as others have said and work with those companies instead.
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    • Profile picture of the author 512 Designs
      Thanks for the replies guys.


      We thought about just adding her photos to the big stock photo places, but from what I've been reading, it's very difficult to make any money there because you get lost in the crowd.


      This is why I thought about opening our own instead. I know we'd be competing directly against the big boys, but maybe if we could carve out our own niche, it could work. Similar to carving out a sub-niche in the weight loss arena (isn't that what's always taught here.....go after sub-niches?)
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  • Profile picture of the author wordpressmania
    Remember the market is quite competitive. And here in WF you can beat the competition very easily. Just get niche based images.

    Like, you can have a plumbers images.... dentist images.... Actually here all the people have their specific niche to work with. So give them what they need also you will face less competition.

    Hope this helps
    Sabbir
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  • Profile picture of the author Kitottile Rheingold
    I think you shouldn't go about building your own site. Go straight to the sites that will buy your daughters photos. So nice to see a proud parent here! Wish you both all the best.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
      Its not that you couldn't build a niche based site, its how do you tell enough people what you have in that niche and would someone recognize your niche enough to either search for photos in that are or ask their friends about it.

      The amount of work she would need to create to sustain a membership site would be enormous, couple that with the thought that everyone in that niche would be using the same photos, and it might seriously be worth her time to submit to already in existence sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author slammer81
    Take her skill in photography and leverage that, not the actual photos.

    She can still mine her passion, but has more options to earn through such a blog sharing tips techniques etc.

    Her photos will also be forefront in such a blog - share the cool photo - and go into the technicals/inspiration or whatever (i'm not a photographer sorry) behind it.
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  • Profile picture of the author san2hnl
    As others have said, she will need to focus on a niche to have any success selling stock photos (on her own or with stock photo sites such as dreamstime or shutterstock).

    I used to sell stock photos for years on all the major stock photo sites, and I had massive success early on, but I eventually got sick and tired for selling images for 10 cents each and I quit. I opened up my own stock photo store to sell my own photos on my own terms.

    It hasn't been easy, but I'll tell you that my biggest success has been from finding a niche (that I was very knowledge about) and focusing on that. Having an active blog has also helped, and people regularly seek me out to do work for them.
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  • Profile picture of the author quinng123
    If you are trying to do this strictly for money, all you would need to do is simply reverse engineer the major stock photo sites and see what are the top selling photos.

    You will generally see a consistent trend on the top sellers. This is because there is always going to be a specific type of photo that is most sought after for a particular site. Sometime it could be the same thing on multiple sites.

    Simply replicate what is already working don't try to reinvent the wheel. You must separate the business from what you are artistically inclined to do.

    Also you should just upload all photos across the stock sites, your maximizing your traffic sources for practically free.
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