where to submit your photo and illustration

It’s now easier than ever to earn extra money from your images by selling them online via micro stock photography sites

Requirement for photograph
- No digital noise,
- No snapshots or tourist-like photos,
- No logo/copyrighted material,
- Ask your model to sign a model release

Then categorizing and keywording for your photo, Keep your keywords simply and accurate. Remember, do NOT enter “junk” keywords or keywords that are not applicable to an image. This will slow down your approval process or even worse, get your photos being rejected.

At last, you can upload your photo, there are three ways to upload, The most common one is using the web upload form which is available on all stock photo agencies. Then you have the ActiveX/Java uploading system which available only on some of the agencies. The last one is via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software which I think is the easiest way of uploading your photos as what you need to do is to drag and drop your files from your computer to their server. You can also schedule your upload anytime you want (I usually do my uploading at night just before going to sleep). Unfortunately, one of my biggest money maker agencies (ie. Istockphoto) does not have this option available, instead the agency has its own uploading software where you have to pay to get the pro version.
To be able to transfer your photos via FTP you will need an FTP Client such as CuteFTP and FileZilla for Windows users or Cyberduck for Mac users. You can go to software repository sites such as download.com or tucows.com to find your FTP client program, read the user reviews, download & install it to your computer.

Below are some stock agencies where I submit my photos to..

1) http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=119683

Shutterstock is different than other stock models. Buyers subscribe on a monthly basis and can download up to 750 images over the course of 30 days. You’ll get 25 cents every time one of your images is downloaded. Uploading photos is easy, they have 3 uploading system; (FTP, HTML, and activeX). The community forum is also a great place to hangout with bunch of friendly people.

2) http://www.fotolia.com/partner/200423518
Fotolia is the newest micro-stock photo agency and really has a lot of earning potential.For each photograph sold, the photographer receives a commission based on the type of license sold to the customer. Fotolia currently has a local presence in 5 major countries: USA, France, Spain, Germany, and UK. By mid 2006 they plan to be in all English speaking countries and all major European countries.

3) http://www.dreamstime.com/res363823
Dreamstime has been online since 2000 as a Royalty-Free stock photography website, selling CD imagery. The concept has been redesigned, upgraded and adapted to the market’s need, evolving into a powerful and active community in March 2004. Your commission is .50 for each photo downloaded, but I believe your commissions would increase as more people download your photos.

3) http://www.bigstockphoto.com/?refid=gNnXbpDRWO
Since launching the site last May 2005, BigStockPhoto has grown to over 110,000 images, with 6,000 added weekly. With 11,000 buyers and 3,100 photographers, it’s one of the fastest growing stock photo sites. The site has a sophisticated search engine, multiple light boxes that can be shared with friends and colleagues, how-to articles and tutorials, forums, and an easy-to-use features for uploading and downloading photos. Whenever a person downloads one of your photos, your account balance increases by 50 cents, you can also make up to $20.00 for special licensed photo sold.

4) http://www.123rf.com/src_annielim
123RF.com is wholly owned by Inmagine. They have been in the Royalty Free industry since year 2000 and had since accumulated a strong database of repeated users. Prices for single images are available in low-res, med-res and high-res and are set at $1, $2 and $3 respectively. You will be paid a direct 50% of the actual price for each of your image sold. You can also earn money from their subscription revenue which is based on the total of downloaded images that belong to you and on the total revenue in that particular month.

5) http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php?refnum=limchengen
Some say it’s the first and the biggest microstock agency online today. No wonder if istock has more skillful photographers than other agencies. This means, more competition for you photographers. Your photos have to be really stand out to be able to sell well in this agency.