The Mini-mini-mini
Photo Agency
Photo Agency
Advance Notes: When it comes to agencies, most stock photographers think in terms of thousands of photos and hundreds of markets. However, if you follow the principles outlined below, you
Many stock photographers who enter the field of stock photography arrive at the gates with misconceptions. And to make matters worse, they compound those misconceptions by continuing to follow the same path. No wonder they soon run out of motivation, ideas, and -yes, cash.
In my consultations with people just starting out in stock photography, I've seen over the years that most entry-level photographers make the same mistake in their marketing strategy. They take bundles and bundles of photos. After a few years when they think they are ready to tackle the stock photo industry, they attempt to find markets for their pictures.
This of course, is the wrong way to go about it. The marketing secret is to reverse the process. Before you take a picture, ask yourself if it will be on a specific photo editor's desk tomorrow.
You're asking how can a picture be on an editor's desk 24 hours after you've taken it? How do you know if the photo editor will find the picture acceptable? How do you even know the editor's name or email address?
You know the answer to the first question: thanks to today's electronic delivery capabilities, transmission of images can be immediate.
The answer to the next two questions takes some preliminary homework on your part.
1.) Single out one of your prime photographic interest areas.
2.) There's bound to be magazines, periodicals, possibly book publishers, committed to your choice of subject matter. They need photos.
3.) Because you are a devotee to this special area of interest, you won't mind the initial chore of finding your markets.
Google is a big help nowadays. Just type in the search bar
Magazine and your special interest area
Several dozen names will come up. The chore begins because you'll want to also type in the word
periodical or publisher or website.
Try it.
For example, if you specialize in photographing dachshunds, don't type dogs, but instead type dachshund magazine.
Up come your market(s). They are waiting for you to bring your photographic expertise about dachshunds to them.
Out of the scores of potential markets you'll find, you're going to find a dozen or so that like your work.
Out of that dozen you are going to get along especially well with one publisher. Everything will click. They like your work, you like their company and the way they work.
You might earn as much as $1,000 from them over a year's time. And since our statistics show that a photographer will stay with a publisher on average ten years, you've gained a $10,000 client.
You'll learn the ropes with this client, in effect as your own stock photo agency with one dependable client. Then of course you can expand this success to include a gradually increasing number of other markets - clients.
You'll agree this is a better way to approach your stock photography:
* Focus on one of your prime interest areas
* Research the markets for this specialty
* Go for it
And now you know that the picture you take today will be on a certain photobuyer's desk tomorrow. And because (at first) you have only one client, you speak their language, and they know the picture you send them is going to be on-target. Even if it's not something they need immediately, they will add it to their database and probably use it within the year and send you a check.
You can find more detailed coverage of this marketing system in my first book, Sell&ReSell Your
Yes, 1981, and the marketing principles outlined there for stock photographers hold true today.
I'm not trying to sell the book here in this article - you can buy it for $3 or $4 on e-Bay or Amazon.com. I don't get a penny from the sale. (The postage will cost more than the book!) But the book will be a goldmine for you if you buy it and study it with a highlighter in hand.
As far as the non-targeted photos you've so far built up in your files, all is not lost. Enter descriptions of them in text form on your website so that the search engine web crawlers can pick them up and direct traffic to you. This works well also for descriptions of your more arcane photos that major stock photo agencies are not going to have. If you don't have a website to list your photos on, look into getting your own page on the photo website www.photosource.com/bank, to list descriptions of your photos. This website gets traffic from hundreds of photobuyers daily who come there searching for the photos they need.
Become your own mini stock agency, and watch your client list build!
Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and best-selling author of "Sell & ReSell Your Photos" and "sellphotos.com," has helped scores of photographers launch their careers. For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, and to receive this free report: "8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer," visit http://www.sellphotos.com
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