Microstock: Getting More Sales

It has been quite a long time since I last wrote about microstock, it is time for me to start writing about it again.

As in any other business, having sales is the top most priority. Microstock is of no difference. To be successful, you need to have both quality and quantity to have good sales.

In terms of quantity, having 400-500 photos in your portfolio will be good. Nowadays, almost all the microstock sites go for the magic number. They always want to out-do each other by having more contributors, more photos on site for their customers. Quite a number of sites passed their 1 million photo mark in the past one year. Just imagine, out of the millions of photos, you have to grap the attention of a potential customer. By having a bigger portfolio, you will have a higher chance of getting your photo noticed, simply by statistics. It is a numbers game.

In addition to having a bigger portfolio, your constant presence in the microstock scene is very important, too. Just like the sales people, they call on their customers from time to time, even there is nothing in particular important. Sending greeting cards for major holidays, birthday cards to the customers. Why do the they do that? They just want their customers to be aware his/her existence, to remember him/her when there is business to do, profit to make. The same applies to microstock, but in a slightly different way. You don't send cards to your customers, you don't call on them, as you don't even know who the customers are. How do you make your presence known? Contribute photos periodically. For example, in Shutterstock, if you don't have any new uploads for a month or two, no matter how big your portfolio is, you will notice there is a drop in your sales. How big the drop is varies from person to person.