Today we’ll briefly go over everything you need to know to start making real money as a stock provider.

Like the article? Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter to stay up on recent content.

Can You Become a Stock Artist?

If you’re a professional designer, the probable answer to this question is “absolutely.” I won’t guarantee that you’ll make loads of money but getting started and making at least a few bucks is actually really easy with the resources available on the web today.

This post doesn’t only apply to stock art either, web developers and programmers could be said to have an even higher potential because you can often charge more for a functioning website than a JPG or simple Photoshop document.

If I’ve piqued your attention, let me bring you back down to Earth by informing you that there’s definitely no “get rich quick” element here. Creating quality stock products takes a lot of time and effort and can often result in very little payoff (or none at all!). The income potential is different for every site and for every product. Sometimes it seems like a joke to see something you spent hours creating on sale for a buck, but that’s the nature of most stock sold today: an odd mix of high quality professional work and ridiculously cheap prices.

Below we’ll take a look at some of the best and easiest places to get started selling stock online. Then we’ll discuss how to stand out among the throngs of competition you’ll be facing to make some sales.

iStockphoto

You simply can’t write about stock art and not discuss iStockphoto. It used to be that stock photography was dominated by sites that charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a single photo and were quite difficult to get into as a provider.

iStock may have not been the first site to bring stock to the masses, but they were definitely pioneers in the industry. Their idea was simple: to build a massive library of cheap images by letting almost anyone become a seller. They quickly made a name for themselves by selling $1 images and became so successful that Getty simply bought them instead of continuing to lose business to their unstoppable growth.

The huge size of iStock’s user base makes the income potential massive. Some of the top sellers on iStock are easily making more than enough money to eclipse most designers’ full-time income. However, the huge size of their library can make it quite difficult to make even a single sale and incredibly unlikely that you’ll be able to quit your day job any time soon.

What You Can Sell

iStock allows contributors to upload six different types of files: photos, illustrations, flash, video, audio and most recently, logos. The photos category is actually more flexible than it sounds and can include almost any type of art that isn’t vector (which would come under the illustration category). For instance, I personally sell 3D renders on iStock but upload them under the “Photos” category.

The big limitation with iStock is that you can’t bundle products together easily, create custom previews or offer anything but a JPG under the photos category. Since the illustrations tend to be vector only, there doesn’t seem to be a good way to use iStock to sell layered PSDs.

Signing Up

Cruise over to iStockphoto.com and click on the “Sell Stock” button on the home page. The signup is a pretty simple 3-step process but you’ll need some preparation before you get started. Read on for more info.

The first step is obviously to sign up for an account. After that you choose which type of content you’d like to sign up to contribute. This of course means that you have to get accepted into every category individually; just because you’ve proven that you can take a photo doesn’t mean you can develop in Flash.

Once you choose a category, you’ll be given a rather large amount of material to read and study. You might be tempted to breeze through this part, but there is in fact a test at the end. The material and following quiz cover both iStock policies as well as general information regarding the area you are signing up for, so even if you know your field well, you’ll still have to read the content on iStock policies to earn a passing grade.

If you’ve read the provided material, the difficulty of the quiz it quite low, though it does contain one or two questions that could easily trip you up. Don’t get nervous, this won’t affect your GPA and you can take the quiz as many times as you need to. In fact, if you suffer from test anxiety so much so that this simple quiz seems insurmountable, and you happen to be a dirty rotten cheater, the answers are easily found online.

Submitting Samples

Even after you’ve signed up for an account, read the manual, and taken the quiz, the hardest part is still ahead of you: getting accepted. After you pass the quiz for a given category you must then upload three samples of your work. Having worked with a few stock sites I’m confident in saying that iStock is one of the pickiest places out there when it comes to the quality of files submitted.

If you’re uploading a photo, the slightest factor can get you rejected. If your ISO was too high when you took the shot, if something is slightly and unintentionally out of focus, if your vector illustration has a stray point, or even if they simply have too much of that type of material, they’ll reject you in a heartbeat.

The good news is that you can keep uploading samples until three of them pass the test. But even then, the files that got you accepted as a contributor are not automatically accepted as files to be sold. You must resubmit them and go through the same rigid and unforgiving approval process for every file you every upload.

Further, iStock has so many submissions to sort through that it can literally take weeks to hear back from them regarding one of your files. If they request that you change something and try again, you’re back to square one on the timeline.

iStock’s humungous library and wealth of daily uploads ensures that they can afford to pass up anyone that doesn’t seem up to par. If you’re in a hurry and can’t stand long periods of inactivity and a lack of communication, iStock is not for you. On the other hand, if you’re dedicated, confident in your ability and patient the process really isn’t that bad at all and uploading new files quickly becomes routine and non-problematic.

Payment and Rates

iStock has complete control over what they charge users to purchase your files. Depending on the size of your original upload, they’ll offer a variety of sizes available for download at different rates. Their system is based on credits instead of dollars so selling something for 15 credits does not mean it sold for $15.

Initially you get a 20% cut of each sale. How this is determined is actually a complicated system that depends on how much the user paid for the credits (the more they buy, the cheaper they are). This means that you can sell two of the same file in the same size on the same day and actually receive different amounts.

Contributors are eligible for a bump up to 40% royalties after they have over 250 downloads and possess approval ratings over 50%. Your payments go straight into your iStock account and you can receive payouts via mailed check or directly online through services like PayPal.

The Envato Marketplaces

The Envato Marketplaces are by far my favorite place to sell stock. Their system is much easier to get started with than iStock and is much more flexible from an author standpoint (they call contributor’s authors). The Envato marketplaces usually give you complete freedom over what files you want to include in an item for sale: you can have one or one hundred, they don’t mind at all and even encourage you to include as much as possible. This really gives you the opportunity to stand out by offering an impressive download, packed with features and extra goodies to really help make the sale.

The Envato Marketplaces are comprised of seven individual but connected stock sites offering an incredibly wide range of files to creatives of all kinds. Whether you want to sell an icon sets, website templates, 3D model, code snippets or even original music, Envato has a site for you. Some of these sites have been around for years, others are just getting off the ground. Let’s take a quick look at each one.

ActiveDen

“At ActiveDen you can buy and sell royalty-free Adobe Flash and Flex files for just a few dollars. Items are priced on the complexity, quality and use of the file. The site is home to a bustling community of Flash designers and developers and is the largest Flash library on the web.”

AudioJungle

“At AudioJungle you can buy and sell royalty-free music and sound effects that are completely Podsafe for just a few dollars. The site is home to a bustling community of audio composers and producers.”

ThemeForest

“At ThemeForest you can buy and sell HTML templates as well as themes for popular CMS products like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal with prices ranging from just $5 up to $40. Items are priced on the complexity, quality and use of the file. The site is home to a bustling community of web designers and developers and is the biggest marketplace of its kind.”

VideoHive

“At VideoHive you can buy and sell royalty-free footage and motion graphics as well as After Effects Project files starting at just a few dollars. Items are priced on the complexity, quality and use of the file. The site is home to a bustling community of motion graphics junkies!”

GraphicRiver

“At GraphicRiver you can buy and sell royalty-free, layered Photoshop files, vectors, icon packs, Adobe add-ons and design templates for just a few dollars. Items are priced on the complexity, quality and use of the file. The site is home to a bustling community of graphic designers and illustrators.”

3DOcean

“At 3DOcean you can buy and sell royalty-free 3D models, textures, concepts, and materials and shaders. Items are priced on the complexity, quality and use of the file.”

CodeCanyon

“At CodeCanyon, you can purchase and sell scripts and components for a variety of languages and frameworks, currently including JavaScript, PHP, ASP.NET, and Java. Items are priced between $3 and $25; we review complexity, quality, and overall appeal when determining the specific value to assign to an item.”

Becoming an Author & Submitting Files

Signing up to become an Envato author is similar to the iStock process, only on a much easier level. Like iStock, you have to sign up for each section individually, read some content and take a brief quiz. However, for the Envato sites there is much less reading involved and the quizzes are real no brainers. This means you can be up and running within minutes from the time you stop by the site.

Further, there is no approval process to become an author. This means that everyone that passes the quiz becomes an official author. However, each submission will still be put through a review process similar to iStock’s. A reviewer will examine your work and get back to you within a few days of submission, though as these sites grow the process is becoming longer and longer.

In my experience, the Envato reviewers are a much more gracious bunch than those at iStock and it’s not too difficult to get something past them. However, they do still pride themselves on the quality of the items in their marketplaces so be sure to submit your best work.

One thing Envato seems to be really picky about is items too similar to something already uploaded. They are very quick too say “we have too much of this” and therefore squelch any hope you have of throwing your hat into that particular ring. No matter what their reason for rejecting your file is, they always state it plainly in an email and offer suggestions for how to improve the submission before you try again.

Envato Payment Rates

Envato starts every author at a generous 40% of every sale and gives them the opportunity to earn their way up to a stunning 70%. Their system is extremely straightforward and not complicated by fluctuating credit prices like you see on iStock. Here’s a snap of their rate schedule (click for bigger preview).

Keep in mind that these numbers are deceptively enticing. I would wager that the vast majority of authors never make it past the first rate bump and therefore stay stagnant at 40%.

Submitting Files

Each Envato site has different types of files that they accept, but all the sites are fairly flexible about what you can offer. For instance, GraphicRiver lets you include anything from fully layered PSDs to flat JPGs and transparent PNGs.

Carefully read the brief requirements listed on each site before uploading so you make sure to get everything right. Some sites require things you might not think to include such as readme files and multiple JPG previews. In fact, Envato usually let’s you completely customize both the thumbnail and expanded preview of your submission. Where iStock simply shows visitors a preview of your image, Envato sites allow you to construct a sales pitch and list attractive features in your preview image.

More Stock Sites Where You Can Earn Money

Though I recommend getting started with the sites above, there are plenty of other options to check out for selling images online. Here are a few more:

• Inkd: Professional Logos, Business Cards and Templates
• WP Theme Market (WordPress themes)
• ThemesMonster
• Dreamstime
• Vector Stock
• Shutterstock
• Templamatic (website templates)
• Cutcaster (images)
• Graphic Leftovers
• Buy Stock Design

Help us out by letting us know what we missed! Post any links you know of in the comment section below.

How to Actually Make Sales

Now that you know all about the typical process of signing up and submitting artwork, let’s close off with some brief discussion on what it takes to start earning money by making sales.

Analyze the Competition

One of the most important things you can do is to familiarize yourself with what’s currently for sale on a given marketplace. Take a close look at authors and items that are selling particularly well and analyze their methods. Don’t seek to duplicate their work, instead think about what it is people are looking for that leads them to buy this specific file and ask yourself if you can meet the same need in a different manner.

The key to making sells is to stand out, not to follow what everyone else is doing. Getting even more than a couple of views per month can be extremely difficult on bigger sites like iStock, much less actual sales. Put yourself in the shoes of a customer and try to find your files. For instance, if you’ve created an attractive but generic icon set, go to iStock and search for “icons.” Odds are, after sorting through a couple hundred pages, searching unsuccessfully for your file, you’ll see what I mean.

The best way to battle this is to carve out a niche for yourself. Find a group of people whose needs are not being met and try to pioneer and own that category of images. If you’re able to discover such a niche, upload tons of files that fit this category. This way, when someone runs a search for that particular type of image, you dominate the results!

Offer More

Another method for blowing away the competition is to simply offer a lot more in your download than they do. As I said before, sites like Envato allow you to cram in the features and extras so go crazy.

For instance, if you create a website template to sell, consider creating 5-10 alternate versions by varying the layout and colors. Even just a little variation such as a color change can drastically impact the perceived value of the product. If someone is trying to decide between two similarly priced templates, their is a good chance they’ll go with the one that has more options and features.

Create an Awesome Visual Sales Pitch

As I said before, your preview image on the Envato marketplaces is 100% customizable. Many of the best selling authors can attribute a good deal of their success to taking the time to create a preview image that really sells the file.

Go all out in making your file look good. Use exciting headlines, complete feature lists and detailed descriptions of what your file has to offer. Consider showing zoomed-in detail shots of the really attractive parts and always emphasize the presence of multiple versions.

Offer Support

If you’re selling complicated objects like themes or code snippets, offer free support to anyone having trouble working with your files. Showing purchasers that you care enough to take the time to personally help them out is a great way to boost your ratings and show others that your files are worth the money.

Promote From Within

Get to know the marketplace that you’re selling on and really explore all of the promotion opportunities therein. This includes anything that will increase the chances of your files getting seen by others.

Creating lightboxes and collections that mix your work with popular files, commenting positively on the work of other authors, and participating in forum discussions or contests are great ways to gain exposure.

Closing Thoughts

To sum up, you can definitely begin making money through selling stock items today if you’re confident in your ability to produce quality work, can identify a group of customers whose needs you are uniquely positioned to fill, and have the time and energy it takes to ensure sales.

I have personally been selling stock for about a year and have made hundreds of dollars with a pretty mild amount of effort (less than 20 files). I definitely make a lot more money on the months when I put forth more effort and continually upload new items. However, now that I’ve built up a pretty decent foundation, even when I don’t have time to make a single upload all month, I still enjoy a decent return.

This promise of passive income is perhaps the single biggest thing that draws me to selling stock. There are very few ways life to continually make money for work that you’ve already finished and this is genuinely one of them.

So how about you? Do you think selling stock is a venture worthy of your time? If you don’t currently sell stock, let us know why and if you’d like to in the future. If you do currently sell stock, tell us where and whether you’ve had any success.

The presence or lack of good stock imagery can make or break a design. My best advice is to use custom photography/artwork whenever possible. However, I’m a big fan of stack art because there are tons of scenarios when it makes good sense to purchase someone else’s work over taking the time to create your own. To keep it classy, here are ten things to avoid when you’re working with stock images.

1. Using a Stock Photo When You Could Easily Shoot or Illustrate Something Yourself

Designers tend to be multi-faceted creatures. Chances are, if you like to design websites, you like to take photos as well (though not always). I personally know several designers who will spend hours hunched over their computer, searching endless stock photo collections for that one perfect image of a pile of strawberries to complement their artificial sweetener ad. Meanwhile, they’ve got a $2,000 camera with a $1,500 lens sitting on their desk and a grocery store across the street which no doubt carries strawberries. The same is often true of designers with amazing drawing skills who spend hours looking for simple illustrations.

My point is, if you have the time and ability to create the image you’re looking for with relative ease, then why buy it? On the other hand, if your photography experience is limited to snapshots taken with an iPhone or your illustration capabilities consist of writing your name in cursive, stock art is probably the way to go.

2. Using Cliché or Overused Photos

A wise man once told me, regarding design, “Your first idea is probably the most generic.” This really holds true to stock art. If you told fifty people to find a photo that symbolized the concept of “diversity” or “partnership,” you’d get a pile of photos that look similar to the one above and perhaps only a few really unique ideas. I’ve designed a ton of material for pet product companies and one of my biggest “pet peeves” is walking through PetSmart and seeing designer after designer use the same exact dog photo (from a popular discount CD of images on iStock) to represent their supposedly unique product.

No matter what industry you are designing for, take a look around at your competitors and take note of the images they are using. Obviously, step one is to make sure you aren’t using the same image. Step two is to find a different way to represent a similar product or service in a fairly unique way.

3. Creating Bad Clipping Paths and/or Masks

Everybody loves photos on a white, studio background. In my opinion, it’s one of the least discussed major design trends of the last 10 years. The reason for this goes beyond the fact that this tip of imagery creates a simple and clean look. More importantly for designers, it makes for super easy layout. Using an image shot on a white background means you can put it anywhere on a page without worrying about how text will look over the background, if the scene is appropriate, etc.

But what happens when a client asks you to take a photo that wasn’t shot on a solid background and put it onto one (or on a gradient like the picture above)? Sadly, many designers in this situation will open Photoshop, use the extract filter or even the dreaded magic wand tool and call it a day. The truth is, while these tools can be helpful, they rarely produce a professional quality mask (though the new “Refine Edge” command really helps). Good masking is the cornerstone of creating quality artwork in Photoshop and you should take the time to practice and learn some advanced techniques to avoid that ugly, cut out look seen in the picture above. I hope to do a proper masking tutorial or two in the future, let me know if you’d find that helpful.

4. Using Pictures That Don’t Relate Well to Your Content

When I take on a new project, my clients will often give me a folder full of stock photos they’ve purchased for past projects with the instructions “Just make these work.” To put it bluntly, this sucks and you should never do it to your designer. The result is inevitably a bunch of photos that don’t necessarily provide a strong visual connection to the product, service or general information on the page.

Fully 90% of the time or more, you want to use photos to reinforce your message, not to simply decorate your page (exceptions may include personal blogs, sites for children, etc). This almost always means that your content should precede your design, not the other way around. Otherwise you end up with a tech-support site featuring photos of smiling people spinning happily in fields of wheat. Even if the photo is incredible, the connection just isn’t there.

5. Buying the Lo-Res Version Because It’s Cheaper

iStock gives you several resolution options for every image. Trust me, either you (presumably the designer) or your client will be tempted to grab one of the cheaper versions to save a few bucks. The one thing that should determine which size you choose is the size of the area you will be placing the photo into. If you can’t afford a photo that meets your size requirements, find a new photo. Never, under any circumstances, think “oh well, I can just make it bigger.” This will lead to a sloppy, pixelated image which alone can dramatically reduce the perceived quality of your design.

For the sake of your reputation and the quality of work you promised to deliver to your client, never be afraid to stand up and tell your client that a given image simply won’t work because of size restrictions or any other reason. You’ve been hired as an expert and have a fiduciary obligation to your client to point out any big mistakes they are asking you to make on their behalf.

6. Using Imagery That Looks Outdated or Non-Professional

Seemingly outdated imagery comes in two forms. The first is in photography. When purchasing a stock photo, always make sure that the image quality looks like something photographed with a modern, high resolution camera. In other words, a photo that your average joe simply couldn’t take with a $100 camera. Also, be sure the people in the photo (if there are any) are “in style.” Watch out for clothing, hair cuts, vehicles etc. that would suggest that the photo was taken in past decade. Unless you’re intentionally going for a retro look, outdated imagery will bring down the visual quality of whatever you’re designing.

Perhaps even more common than outdated photographs are outdated illustrations. As a designer, it is your job to take note of current and past design trends. Like a car buff who can spot a ’56 Chevy at 100 yards in an instant, you should be able to attribute certain design features and styles to a certain period and know when they are acceptable to use. For instance, if you’re creating a modern, professional website, you should not be purchasing stock art that screams ’90s web design like the picture above (GeoCities anyone?).

7. Using Pictures That Look Overposed

As strange as it sounds, the perfect picture is often the worst picture. When you see a photograph of an evenly lit person from the neck up, centered in the frame, staring straight into the camera and smiling it can often have the effect of looking rigid and posed. The two examples above are polar opposites in quality to prove my point, but in reality you’ll have to get good at spotting subtle differences. Look for real vs. fake smiles, realistic vs. flat lighting, and genuine eye contact vs. blank stares. Avoid anything that looks like a school photo or family portrait and search for something slightly more candid while still remaining high in quality.

8. Unnatural Cropping

One major problem with using stock photography is that it isn’t shot to fit the space you need it for. Check out the image above from Wells Fargo’s website. Apart from the fact that the subject of the image is sort of staring into nowhere and looks like he’s in the middle of a sentence, the crop of the photo is pretty awkward. On the left side of the image there’s a distracting, blurry, cutoff extra guy that really serves no purpose but to screw up the picture.

The lesson here is to not stop at simply making the photo physically fit the space. Go further and decide how to make it actually look good in the space. If Wells Fargo wanted a picture of one person, they should’ve cropped out the second completely. If they wanted a picture of two people, they should’ve found (or taken) a different photo.

9. Poor Cloning to Extend the Photo

This one is my personal favorite because it’s so fun to spot and point out poor Photoshop skills. If you regularly use stock art, you’ve probably been there a thousand times: You bought a photo but it just doesn’t extend far enough to fit the page. No matter, you have a clone tool that’ll fix this problem in a jiffy. Unfortunately, the fact that you’re using the same pixels over and over again often leads to recognizably repeating patterns in what should be an organic background.

This is not at all to say don’t use the clone tool. I personally love the entire set of cloning tools Photoshop has to offer these days so by all means, clone away. However, don’t rush the process. Take the time to paint a picture that’s believable. This is a painstaking and tedious process but it pays off in the end when you have a quality image that you can be proud of. Never fall into the trap of thinking, “Ehh, good enough. No one will notice.” Instead, strive to make even professional cloners strain their eyes to see if you’ve manipulated the photo.

10. Quickly Faking Your Product Into the Photo

This is in the same vein as the cloning error. The picture above is an exaggerated example to be sure, but you’d be surprised how often you see these kinds of huge mistakes. There’s a big poster that hangs in many KFC’s around the US of a man holding a dog up to a happy child. Only the dog has been removed from the photo and in its place is, you guessed it, a box of chicken. How do I know it was a dog you ask? I’m not even sure, it’s just an iconic sort of Normal Rockwell image that you know had a dog in it to begin with. Further, the boxes are a bit brighter than the rest of the scene and had to be awkwardly positioned to cover the area formerly occupied by the dog. Surely a big company like KFC can afford to snap a photo containing an actual box of chicken! (If anyone has a picture of this poster, please post it! I couldn’t find it anywhere online.)

As with cloning, this certainly does not mean that you should never attempt to fake a product into an existing photo. It just means that you really need to know your Photoshop features before attempting to blend a studio lit product shot into a natural environment. Look closely at the highlights and shadows in the area you’re placing the product into and make sure you reproduce those onto the product. You also have to take into account overall scene lighting, the position and angle that the product would have if it were actually in the scene, and even the resolution and grain of the product shot versus the stock image. Clients will never stop asking their designers to fake their products into scenes so you might as well get good at it!

Conclusion

To sum up, when you are in a situation where you must use stock imagery, make sure you do so with extreme care. Take the time to find the right piece of art and to make it even better using advanced, professional Photoshop techniques.

Use the comments below to tell us if you use stock photography and why you think it’s a good/bad idea.

What exactly does Cutcaster offer, and why are you unique?

Cutcaster offers unique royalty free images, stock photos, stock footage and stock photography for advertising, publishing or web design. We have combined a Flickr-type community with a Getty-type licensing model but turned the old licensing model on its head. In my old job trading stock on Wall st. I saw what electronic markets and cutting out the middleman did to our markets and I applied those efficient market elements to what I saw as an outdated licensing model.

We are the first licensing platform to let people set their prices for a high resolution file, use a patent pending algorithm to help them find the correct market price or let buyers buy ala carte, on demand or bid on content they want so they can name their price or licensing terms directly with a seller. That seller has the option to accept, reject or re-submit a new offer back to that interested buyer. We also offer buyers a way to request custom content from the community of Cutcaster members through our ProjectRequest area. Cutcaster is an open platform and anyone can join, learn and participate in the community and marketplace.

For how long have you offered the service?

The site has been researched and developed over the last 3 years but we launched our Cutcaster beta site in April of this year. We are a very new service but have been growing extremely fast. I left my trading job on Wall st. in January of this year to focus on Cutcaster full-time as the demand and time commitment became too much to try to do with two jobs.

Which two design features of the site are you proudest of, and why?

I am proud of how easy our site is to use but I am very proud of our negotiation platform called My Marketplace, which allows buyers and sellers to seamlessly negotiate on pricing and licensing terms much like a stock exchange. Sellers can now get hard data on how to price their content and where demand lies for their work. Buyers can directly buy or bid for content which allows them to name their price or buy extended rights like exclusivity over a certain time period or geographic region. The platform is simple to understand, easy to use and the negotiations happen very quickly between buyers and sellers.

I also really like the layout of our media details page which clearly lays out the details surrounding any media file uploaded to the site and is set up to allow users to easily interact with the different features of the site like immediately buying, bidding for content, adding content to lightboxes (we call them clipfolders at Cutcaster), reporting copyright infringements, downloading comps to show clients, requesting different file sizes and the ability to virally send your work to multiple networks to get more traffic and sales. Here is an example of one of the media detail pages, http://www.cutcaster.com/viewmedia/view/100027215/Photo.

Could you give an overview of the technology used to power the site?

Cutcaster is written/coded in PHP using a web application framework called CodeIgniter. Other scripting codes used would include Javascript and AJAX. It uses the world’s most popular open source database, MySQL to store data and other information. The site utilizes Amazon’s web services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for web-scale computing and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for storage of files.