The Brain Picking Commences

First & foremost, I'm a professional artist & photographer, so my insights may be useful.

A lot of the online resources for illustrations -- even the free ones -- seem to be owned by people with strong/arbitrary opinions about what's "good" and what's not.

As an illustrator, I find it frustrating to submit work to websites -- pictures that are comparable to what publishers have used, from my work -- and have them turned down for vague or silly reasons. (Silly = "The background isn't level," when the background is a hill, and other, comparable photos from that shoot were used to illustrate a major book.)

I also wish I could throw my pictures onto a site and refer my customers to that site. At this point in my online career/s, I don't have time to run an online photo business, too.

As a writer & publisher, I'm even more frustrated when I use one of those websites, see work that almost fits my needs... and then I find what I actually need at the personal site of one of their photographers. The pictures will be in a section titled something like, "These are the pictures turned down by ___."

Oh, I'm glad to find them at all. I just wish I could go to one source, find what I want, and get back to my editorial work.

Though I wouldn't want to wade through a bunch of junk, I think some royalty-free sites (pay once, and use the photos how you'd like to) are trying to be all things to all people... and then clamping down on the more interesting and artistic works that editors need.

There's a time & place for bland, mainstream illustrations. I use them, just as most publishers do, when I don't have time to take the same photo myself.

However, I'm more interested in unusual, artistic work that will make my books -- especially the covers -- stand out in the crowd. (Btw: I do want the right to tweak photos with Photoshop, to increase the artistic value.)

I'd recommend choosing just one theme for photos. It could be just b&w, or just landscapes, or just night photos, or... well, you get the idea. Basically, choose the visual equivalent of a long-tail niche. Become the go-to website when a publisher or webmaster needs such-and-such.

Then, as long as each photo isn't utterly worthless, throw it online and see what happens. (You could always let the audience decide. If one photo gets x-number of views and a certain percent don't buy it but do buy something else, the rejected photo is removed from the site.)

If this sounds like a rant... I took photos for an upcoming book, and had several good shots left over. I submitted them to a site with comparable and lesser works, and several of my clients were waiting for the photos to be approved, so they could purchase them.

All five pictures were turned down (including the one with the hill in the background). I had to go back to my clients and sell them the photos directly, one at a time, and... I'm trying to finish three new books myself. I don't have time to negotiate photo rights and prices.

So, my best advice is: Pick a niche and be open to different views on what's cool, artistic, and interesting. For me, since I sell a lot of my work, how much you pay the photographer is less important than the opportunity to get a volume of photos in front of potential buyers.

Copyright issues need to be enforced, of course. That can be a challenge.

But, for me, as long as I can put work -- that I'm proud of -- into a shop that'll handle the business aspects for me... I'm happy.

You could probably base your project on a model site like bigstockphotos.com

Another way that you could do this is by creating sort of a "flea market membership site" type of website. The only problem with that is that you will need alot of members to start it off right. That would probably be the biggest issue of them all.