hi guys you've had a lot of questions
for me after my last stock photography
video about whether or not stock
photography is worth it whether there
are things that we can know to make
ourselves a stock photographers more
successful so I've got Victoria Shaw
with me here today a former employee at
one of the largest stock photography
agencies in the world to answer your
questions
Victoria is an Italian Franco marketing
professional she is a visual creator
herself in a former marketing employee
as I said at 1 2 3 RF stock photography
agency the fourth largest agency in the
world she herself has been a stock
photographer since attending university
in the UK where she found a Nikon DSLR
and fell in love with it and started
creating her own unique style of
photography and illustration now she
continues to produce these stock images
she moved to Malaysia to work for one
two three RF and she continues to
produce stock images but she also now
works with businesses and artists to
create advertising campaigns and
copywriting corporate graphics and and
so much more to help people in their own
creative endeavors so given Victoria's
inside knowledge I thought I would ask
her for questions and also to give us
her tips on how to find success if we do
decide to go forward with stock
photography as a form of income here
they are number one what images sell
this is very very important if you're
going to be selling stock photography we
want to know what images sell
number two how much do the stock
photography agencies themselves
influence what images cell number three
is quantity importance
I mentioned in my last video that if I
was uploading on a regular basis I was
seeing more sales
Victoria can tell us if that is true
across the board and why or why not this
may be so and number four how can we
embrace trends to be able to sell more
images now I asked Victoria these
questions however Victoria has so much
more to offer and she answered a lot
more than I asked things about key
wording editing finding Nisha's should
you stick only with stock photography
agencies how to find customers and so
much more so I have included that and a
tape and a table of contents in the
description the questions that have been
answered by Victoria and at what point
in the video you can find them
so that way you can skip ahead move back
find the information that you're looking
for okay so welcome Victoria I'm so glad
you're here and thank you so much for
answering our questions the most asked
question about stock photography is what
images sell and this is a question that
so many bloggers bloggers journalists
try to answer and they all do it in one
way basically they tell you photographer
that it's all your fault
if you don't sell so they tell you how
to shoot pictures what to shoot follow
the trends make sure you do more
megapixels buy a better camera it's all
in the equipment etc etc I have worked
in a stock photography agency actually I
worked for two years and year at the HQ
of one to three RF in Malaysia and for
its bigger umbrella group imagine so I
know exactly how much stock photography
agencies influence your sales and this
is generally forgotten by the many
vloggers and bloggers I read who talk
about stock photography and clearly
don't know the entire business I am here
today to actually explain how much stock
photography agencies actually influence
your sales and how you can work with
this knowledge
and improve cell ability so stock
photography agencies our businesses that
work with algorithms an algorithm is an
IT code a mathematical IT code that
works behind a website and then
determines based on rules mathematical
rules decided by the business they
determine what they're gonna show and in
what order
so start photography agencies use
algorithms to determine why is gonna be
more shown or less shown of the media
content they have on sale stock
photography agencies like everybody else
keeps their algorithms secret so there's
no way I can actually tell you what's
the secret algorithm of one two three RF
or Shutterstock what I can tell you
though is that even if I did know it it
wouldn't be useful to you because they
change all the time
they can be changed either by by a
policy of a stock photography agency so
regularly or they can be changed if
something comes up like a new
legislation or if if an agency realizes
it's not selling enough online etc so
what can we actually do about it what
can you actually do about it not much it
is true but you can always remember that
there are three very important variables
that are always gonna be in stock
photography algorithms if you use your
head you can actually master them and
work with the stock photography agency
and not against it the three variables
are the sales of your content the more
you sell the more you're gonna sell in
the future this is determined by point
two views how many views do your
pictures attract the more views they get
the more availability is going to get
achieved that's pretty obvious what's
not obvious is the third point so
novelty the novelty is crucial because
every time you post something new this
is going to be shown way more by a stock
photography agency than if it was an old
one
so when you for example decide to upload
a batch of pictures remind yourself it
is better if you are load a very small
batch but you upload regularly in time
like once a week for instance rather
than uploading once every 2 or 3 months
a massive batch of like hundreds of
pictures that's not gonna work for you
it's gonna work against the algorithm
not with it do not consider these three
points so sales views and novelty as
separate variables they work together
they are combined by algorithms and they
get combined differently naturally it's
not just an algorithm that will
determine how much you sell but it
definitely plays a very important role
in role that many vloggers and bloggers
out there forget which is a mistake when
you notice for example in a period of
time that you're selling strangely a lot
of work and in another period of time
you're not selling almost anything at
all or anything at all then you can also
make an educated guess that the
algorithm has changed and for an amount
of time it's not gonna work for you the
way out of it is to get new content
again small batches but uploaded
regularly in time this will help you now
another point you should always keep in
your mind is not just the quality or the
content you have but the quantity of it
so high quality obviously is good and I
would never tell you not to produce high
quality content but don't forget the
quantity the quantity will determine how
many how much audience will actually see
your pictures and will also determine
thus as we said through the algorithm
how much you're gonna sell a question I
get very often is how many pictures do
you need in your portfolio so accepted
by stocks with RF agencies before you
can make real money the answer is it
depends it depends on the agency it
depends on the quality of your work it
depends also on the topic
it depends on a variety of factors and
in this respect I see that a lot of
stocks photographers especially when I
was working at one two three RF I saw
that many of them were always
complaining about the fact that they
produce content a picture in two
versions maybe or more than one like a
color version and a black-and-white
version for instance and one of the two
if not both yet refused because they are
too similar
now other agencies are way more strict
about that
for example I'm sure you've noticed
Adobe stock does that all the time
without even thinking because in my
experience in stock photography both as
a stock photographer myself and as a
marketing responsible I do see that
consumers like choice like variation so
keep on producing that variation but do
not thus you do not waste your time
pursuing fights with contributor
supports for instance regarding the
acceptance of one of your picture it's a
waste of time
and customer support generally doesn't
really care about photographers only one
two three RF has a decent contributor
support I'm sure you already know that
so but don't waste your time just do
your work do your variations but
separate them into different batches so
today for instance you can upload the
colored version in three weeks time
you're gonna blow the batch which
contains the black and white version
trust me so much more of your content
will get approved with this little trick
and no fights which is always best stock
photography agencies do work on a
business model that gets you single
photographers or illustrators or
videographers or composers to work on
your own do your art and stop the tog
rafi agencies take care of the rest of
the business side of things and you get
paid a commission on sales the thing is
that with the years
I mean stock photography isn't so new
anymore I mean it's been going around
for many years now it's a massive
industry worth billions of dollars
nowadays
so it has evolved in time and now a
major contributors are not anymore sole
traders like you their massive companies
or organizations of many photographers
many experts that say that send to
photography agencies and stock
photography agencies hundreds of
thousands of pictures so those
definitely sell more and get shown more
they have also more means to finance
their their shootings so don't try to
compete with them
don't try to enter into their niche
markets do your own work
the way you want it don't imitate do
your own the way you like it this is
gonna work better effectively you can
also think about joining one of those
organizations yourself I mean or you can
you can create one on your on your own
if you have a lot of friends who do
stock photography or you know a lot of
people who do stopped photography or
illustration by no means why keeping on
being a sole trader get together guys
make an organization a small business or
a foundation bending on the country
where you're at whatever it is
physically easier for you and get
together your portfolio will be way
bigger in no time and you're gonna make
more money
that's for sure another important
question that is always debated about on
the internet and on magazines is trends
what are the trends you should embrace
to sell your stock photography what I
can tell you is that whatever you do
whether you prefer to look on Google
Trends whether you just follow your own
instinct whether you look at what
pictures sell best on stock photography
agencies it's okay I'm sure it's gonna
work for my part I can tell you what I
do personally what works for me what I
saw is that most people tend to create
images or videos that are especially
based on long term or mega trends as I
call
them so big trends very very broad like
ecology like politics they're big
they're long-term because they think
their content is gonna last longer
thus self longer sell more so it is true
but to some extent I mean they're not
focus only on the mega trends the long
term mega trends such as ecology so many
people are actually creating content
about ecology do not just don't just
stop yourself at something so broad try
to work out more specific niches inside
the mega trend so not just ecology for
instance but but higher levels of oceans
or the relationship between the
extinction of a certain species of
animal and a natural change go deeper
find a specific concept that you want to
show or two more concepts and find a way
to combine them that is what sells to
wrap it up here are my tips for you to
sell more as a stock photographer one
remember remember to separate your
images into many batches don't do one
mega upload every two three months do
many of smaller uploads smaller batches
across time to key wedding is an art and
you have to master it I know it's very
boring to do it but it definitely
affects a lot your sales number 3 do not
overuse the tools that you have with
Photoshop or other editing software
don't make the pictures fake I've lived
in Venice for like many many years and I
see I still see I saw when I was working
at one two three RF so many pictures of
Venice with the water where the lagoon
looked like the Caribbean Sea the main
market that buys these images is the
Venetian market
and with initials do know very well that
the lagoon is not turquoise it's green
so yeah it's okay to enhance a bit make
it prettier but don't make it fake okay
number four different agencies like
different content because they have
different consumers so if you see that
some of your content doesn't go too well
does not even get accepted in an agency
don't worry if you fail in one it
doesn't mean you're gonna fail with
another agency use the one that works
best for you have a look at your data
have a look at your sales have a look at
your acceptance rates across the many
agencies in which you upload and decide
don't waste your time with an agency
that just doesn't work out for you
number five embrace the trends yes use
the tools you have available nowadays
everywhere you can find data and
information but be careful of not
creating just a lot of imitations of
content that already exists and that
depicts mega trends please combine
concepts within a mega trend number six
if you want to sell more don't just stay
with stock photography try to find your
own consumers based on what you to shoot
and above all what do you like to shoot
because that's gonna be your bet the
best of your work anyway address could
potential customers always with with
kindness but try to put a foot in the
door obviously if you write a simple
email to the magazine it's very rare to
get accepted to get even a response many
times include only a very few amount a
very small amount of pictures of your
work two or three is enough and always
address your customers in the best way
to retain them a customer that stays
with you is less expensive for you to
acquire and can lead you to have way
more money if you'd like to to get more
insights more knowledge about how to
speak to cust
and to retain to create a loyalty and
retain them in a long-term relationship
I have written this book and published
on Amazon how do you like it customer
services you can find it on Amazon
worldwide last but not least keep on
shooting shoot what do you like and
don't care too much about what the
others say the others don't know what
you know the others cannot judge
everything you do believe in it and try
to achieve that those 500 pictures in
your portfolio or a thousand and when
you've gone beyond that always try to
get more content now cheers to your
future success as stock photographers
and find me on my website www.engvid.com
and check out her her work and and
everything that she's got available to
you there I just I'm really glad that
she came along and she's been really
great person to work with she's been
really professional and really kind and
yeah so thanks again Victoria so her
information will be in the description I
am going to be away next week and I am
so looking forward to showing you all of
the adventures that I have had while
I've been away
an Oregon at the condo 3.0 Sony event
it's going to be really exciting I'm
very excited to go and I will be seeing
you soon I also have a really cool
review for you coming up with the with a
new gimbal the
I'm using the Canon m50 camera and I'm
going to be using it on the zoom crane
m2 gimble which is brand new it's just
come out and it's smaller than the
gimbal that I use now and it's pretty
neat so I can't wait to share that with
you I also wanted to give you a bit of a
behind-the-scenes look at how I make my
videos and invite you to just kind of
come along with me on that part of my
journey while of course taking more
images thanks for coming along today
guys
and I'll see you soon bye
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