How to Make More Money on iStockphoto
There has been a lot of negative press surrounding iStockphoto over the past year. First, they lowered some photographer’s commissions. Then, a few months later, Getty Images (iStock’s parent company) flooded iStock with photos from Getty. With a portfolio of 900 images, I saw my iStock earnings drop about 20% year over year. I became depressed about iStock’s future and reigned in my efforts as a contributor. Then, this spring, my istock portfolio took a real turn around. I started to get more downloads and my income went up. This turn of events was completely inexplicable. I hadn’t been uploading much to iStock. If anything my earnings should have been dropping. What was happening? Maybe it was a best match change or maybe the economy is turning around. No matter, I was inspired to redouble my microstock efforts.
With a fire in my belly I decided it was time to modernize my approach to iStock. My workflow was full of inefficiencies. It was time to ditch old habits and embrace some better practices. After years of procastinating I finally learned how to best use Adobe Bridge and I also started using DeepMeta (the wonderful and free iStock upload software).
In the spirit of kicking off the rust and learning some best iStock practices I came up with this list of ways to improve your istock performance. Some of these tips discuss time savings and efficient workflow while others show you the practices I’ve used over the years to build a profitable portfolio. So here it is… my ten ways to increase your istock photo earnings. As always, if you can think of anything I left out please leave a comment
1. Get Efficient with Bridge
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I only recently taught myself how to use Adobe Bridge. Up until I learned Bridge I had been using Windows file viewer and the old drag and drop into Photoshop method. OMG, I can’t believe how many hours I must have wasted over the years. Bridge is an awesome tool for keeping your images organized. For example, I now use the Bridge star rating system when I first review a batch of photos. Then, when I have time to edit, I simply open mini Bridge and sort by star rating. There are all my best photos ready to edit — no more time wasted digging through the folder to find favorites. That’s just one aspect of Bridge that I find useful. Head over to YouTube if you want to learn Bridge. There are a bunch of excellent tutorials.
2. Stay Organized
My wife will tell you what a disaster my side of the closet is. In normal life I am a pretty messy guy, but when it comes to my photos I have a system to keep everything organized. It’s important to have an easy to understand system of organizing your photos. Otherwise, over the years it will become more and more difficult for you to keep a handle on your growing collection of images. Staying organized is essential for stock photographers. If you can’t find your images quickly there is a good chance they won’t get uploaded to iStock.
It’s up to you to develop your own organizational structure. Mine is pretty basic. I create a folder for each month and then inside that folder I create sub-folders with names I can easily search for. For example, this month’s folder is called June 2012. Inside the June 2012 folder I have subfolders called “Point Lobos Hike With Grandma”, “Santa Cruz Boardwalk”, “iPhone Pics and Videos” ect… When it comes time to archive my pics I can create easy checklists with months and years to make sure I don’t miss anything.
3. Use DeepMeta
Are you tired of iStock’s clunky upload interface? I was — so I downloaded DeepMeta. Using DeepMeta my uploading and keywording process takes half as long as it used to. This gives me more time to go out and shoot pictures and less time on my computer. DeepMeta is completely free. You should definitely check it. It takes an hour or so to figure out how to use DeepMeta, but once you have it figured out you won’t go back to uploading the old fashion way.
4. Take more photos
This tip is pretty obvious. The more pictures you take and upload the better your chances to make money at iStock. Of course, you don’t want to waste your time uploading garbage, but it is important that you always have an eye out for useful stock photos.
Two quick stories…
I took this picture of corn while switching drivers on a country road. My wife was tired of driving and we pulled over next to a cornfield to swap seats. On the way around the car I noticed that the corn would make a perfect stock photo. I reached back into the car and pulled my camera off the backseat. My wife thought I was nuts to waste time taking a picture of a cornfield. But, the 30 seconds spent capturing this photo has so far earned $550 in iStock royalties. Always bring your camera and always take lots of pictures.
This picture of the State Capital Building in Madison, Wisconsin is another big earner for me. We w