If a friend has ever browsed your gallery and complimented a photo you’ve recently taken, chances are that a little voice inside your head whispered “pssst, why don’t you just sell your work online?”. And it makes total sense, you’re creative, armed with an artistic eye you’re not seeing anywhere else on the internet, why let all of that talent go uncompensated (literally)? It might be time to listen to that voice. Here’s all you need to know about selling photos online and the innovative platform Wirestock that makes the whole process a no-brainer. In this article, we’ll share how to sell photos online with Wirestock.
While researching the easiest way of selling photos online, it’s very likely that you were hit with a slew of marketplaces which might potentially want your content. And while these are by all means major players in the stock photography game, they still require a few manual steps like filling out forms, keywording, etc. A lot of creators—especially when they are novices—can easily feel overwhelmed by the process, often abandoning the idea altogether.
Cue Wirestock—a platform that takes all the manual guesswork out of stock photography, instead of letting creators stick to what they do best; creating. With a user-centric approach, the platform makes sure that a creator’s workflow is as easy as it possibly can be; keywording and captioning are weights lifted off your shoulders. On top of all that, Wirestock allows you to submit to multiple marketplaces at the same time, heightening your chances at developing a lucrative and successful side hustle.
Selling Your Photos Online: Starting Out on Wirestock
So you have a unique eye and a wandering lens. Is this enough to start selling photos online? Wirestock says absolutely. Millions of people visually document their lives online, completely unaware of the commercial potential of their work. They simply settle for a few hundred likes and compliments from their friends and family members—at least you can say that you’re tempted to go beyond that.
With photos and visual content being in such high demand these days, one thing will always be true about the online world; it will forever remain in need of new imagery and fresh ideas. Add authenticity to that, and you’ve got yourself ready-made, boiling potential. And if you’ve not yet been able to carve out an authentic niche for yourself—fear not—passions have a way of sorting themselves out, besides, you’ll always have market trends available online for a piece of inspiration.
Creator Challenges and Wirestock Solutions
Marketplace Overload: Sell Photos on Wirestock
As mentioned above, a simple Google search is enough to get you flooded with an array of stock content marketplaces, each outfitted with their own set of guidelines. And even if you’ve done the necessary research, a lot of times you’ll still be left wondering which specific marketplace will provide you with the easiest way of selling your photos online. And as with a lot of things on the internet, decision fatigue becomes especially real for creators who’d much rather not spend valuable time and energy filling out extensive forms.
Realizing this, Wirestock instead provides one-door access to the largest content marketplaces out there—Shutterstock, Adobe, Dreamstime, Alamy, Depositphotos, Pond5 being among the list. Instead of opening accounts on each and every site, a creator can simply open one account on Wirestock and submit all their images to the largest marketplaces at once; it is also possible to opt-out of specific agencies as well. Thus the choice of the marketplace, and often tedious process that puts creators off monetizing their content altogether, becomes as irrelevant as can be.
Keywording and Captioning
The easiest way to sell your photos online is to have captions and keywords. That accurately reflects within your images so that consumers have a seamless time finding them. On the surface, this notion does not seem too daunting until you realize. You must do this for every single photo. There are millions of creators who, while armed with a wonderful artistic eye. Simply do not possess the knack for these kinds of things. Writing may not be their strongest suit, or they may not have the best command of the English language; the possibilities are endless, but also irrelevant when it comes to Wirestock!
The platform’s biggest draw is that they automate keywording and captioning for you. Wirestock has a team of metadata experts from all over the world. To ensure quality no matter where you shoot your content. By mixing human curation, keyword presents, and technology, the whole process becomes a matter of seconds. This means that the only thing needed from you, the creator, is to simply upload your files onto Wirestock. The manual steps will be ready for you.
Getting Payments
In order to keep track of your earnings. Possibly be able to determine which agency is making you the most money. It’s always helpful to have one single place to turn to. It’s neater, more productive, and eliminates the danger of forgetting about a marketplace you’ve submitted to before. Wirestock oversees this with a clever solution. A single dashboard that helps you track all of your sales from all the agencies. Without dealing with them individually, even allowing the withdrawal of royalties through a single request. The only thing you need is a minimum threshold of $30.
Mobile App, or Lack Thereof
Believe it or not, mobile apps are still a rarity among stock agencies. This can present limitations for creators who work primarily from their phones; creative processes are never one-size-fits-all. Not to mention the decrease in motivation when additional technology is involve. Some people don’t like working from their computers, and some don’t own one at all. And out of all the major marketplaces out there. Shutterstock is probably the only one that has a mobile app for contributors.
Wirestock’s mobile app is super handy if you prefer working from your phone. You’ll be able to sign model or property releases from it. So, check your earnings and the status of your uploads on top of being able to upload photos. Videos directly from your phone; the latter has often proven to be tricky business.