Ladder To Success: The Strategy Behind A Stock Photo

An old idea with a new twist, a businessman climbing a ladder created from people standing on each other's shoulders is an example of a stock photo strategy that has paid off for me.

Strategy Of A Stock Photo

While there doesn’t seem to be any sure fire way to guarantee that a stock photo idea is going to result in a successful (financially) image, a strategy that has generally worked well for me is to start with an iconic symbol and add a new twist. If you can add into the mix just enough ambiguity to provide for more than one concept, then the odds of an image generating a good profit increase dramatically.

Iconic, Boring, And Potentially Compelling Imagery

Take for example the classic, iconic symbol of a businessman climbing a ladder. What could be more common, hackneyed and even, at this point, boring? Yet such an image has the advantage of being a quick read, something that is burned into our subconscious and can be powerfully compelling when presented in a new and different way.

Images With A Twist

It was with this idea in mind that I decided to create an image with a significant twist, a ladder created from people standing on each other’s shoulders and using their arms and legs as rungs.  A cool thing about such an image is that the concept broadens from the classic “climbing the ladder of success” and “challenge” to include “teamwork” as well. By adding a background of high altitude clouds we can even bring in the concept of “the sky is the limit” and “possibilities”. 

Photo Of A High Altitude Cloudscape

Adding the high-altitude cloudscape in the background helps raise the potential of this concept image by providing a background that most of us seldom see unless we happen to be seated at the window of an airliner at a very opportune moment.  This cloudscape background image is actually the combination of several different captures combined in Photoshop.  Any time we see something that we don’t see very often it tends to be more compelling.

Over A Dozen Separate Photo Shoots For One Image

The models who are creating the ladder were each photographed separately for a different project…a human DNA chain, which by the way has not sold despite being online for over a year now…oh well.  So, to put this image together we have something like a dozen photo shoots of models (albeit for different images), shooting out the window of a jet (headed back to the Bay Area from a shoot in Mexico), and probably two days of Photoshop work between putting a cloud image together as well as compositing the human ladder and so forth.

Time, Effort And Pay Back

Ultimately the question for me, as a professional stock photographer, is whether such images are worth the time, effort and resources that go into them. It really comes down to whether the image will pay me back sufficiently for my time and effort. While some images, such as the DNA image, clearly don’t work, many others do. I expect that this image will bring in at least $5,000 or more over the next five years, and if it does I will consider it successful. If it brings in a return significantly below that amount then my strategy will have failed me.  While it is impossible to know what the future will bring, to this point creating images like this human ladder have served me well.

A Stock Photo Strategy

 

This "Social Media" image of two hands reaching for each other against a backdrop of hundreds of individual portraits is the result of setting aside time for experimentation.

 

A Strategy For Stock Photographers

One of the strategies for stock photographers that I firmly believe in is to continually stretch yourself in new directions by experimenting with no specific final image in mind. This is important for several reasons. First, only by experimenting and pushing yourself into new territory can you continue to grow as an artist, and experimenting without a hard and fast image in mind can open you up to new unexpected results. Secondly, copying your own best selling images is a questionable strategy because even if you are successful with your new versions, which in my own experience is highly doubtful, you will be cannibalizing your own work. Thirdly, by continually adding new directions to your stock photo collection you will be able to keep tabs on what type of treatments, subject matter, and style are good earners. And fourth, having a diverse body of work in your stock photos, like diversity in the world of investing, helps insure against the vagaries of the marketplace.

New Ideas And Directions

I spend a lot of time experimenting with combining various images from my archives.  Often these efforts result in new ideas that then give me direction for future shoots. In the case of my “social media out reach” above, I wanted to come up with a way to utilize my portrait mosaic in new ways. In the mosaic portraits I have over two hundred model released photos…and it represents a ton of work in both putting the mosaic together and in uploading releases to the stock agencies!

Experimenting  And Success

Experimenting does take time and doesn’t always yield immediate results. For this particular image I spent two days experimenting before the idea was fully formed. Then I had to photograph the hands and do the actual composite work. That was another half day. Finding, organizing and uploading the model releases took almost an entire day by itself! Not fun work either…. But like any investment, it is the continuing practice of experimentation that leads to success.

A Mosaic Portrait And Multiple Concepts

However, I did manage to come up with eight different images that share the mosaic portrait background so the effort is “amortized” sufficiently to insure that the effort was worthwhile…uh, I think. I will know in six months to a year when I see some the sales reports for a period of time.  Sometimes it takes several years for my images to reach a level of income that I regard as appropriate and successful.  In the case of this image of two hands reaching towards each other, there are many concepts that can be illustrated from social media connections, to social media as a charitable tool, to social networking friendships. There is no doubt that creative art directors and designers will figure out many other ways to use the image…er…at least I think they will!

Experimentation, Fun And A Pay Off

One final reason, at least for me, to experiment with my image making is that it is just plain fun…and fun is one of the reasons I was so drawn to stock photography in the first place! So whether you experiment in capture, or in post, go out, try something new and have some fun. In the long run it will really pay off.

Patience, Perseverance, and Perspiration:A Stock Photo Strategy

A businessman pushing an elephant out of the room was created for the stock licensing market.

 
This funny animal photo was create with the consumer market in mind.

Google Searches, Consumers and Stock Agencies
I believe are many more potential purchasers of photography doing Google searches (what I will call the “consumer” market) than those searching stock agencies. This “consumer” market includes everyone looking for fine art prints and bathroom wall décor to photo-imprinted coffee mugs, tote bags, T-Shirts, greeting cards and, yes, licensing stock photos (though they might not know that they are seeking to license a stock image).

Stock Agencies, Publishers and More Money
I also know that it is a heck of a lot easier for me to make money by licensing stock through the traditional agencies than it is for me to license images directly or to penetrate that consumer market. As I have said before, if I want to earn more money as quickly as possible then I should be shooting as many pictures (intelligently) as possible and getting them into Blend, Corbis, Getty, Kimball and SuperStock (my agencies in alphabetical order) as quickly as I can. Similarly, I can earn significant money by getting more greeting cards of my silly animal pictures into the market through brick and mortar publishers.

A Ton of Work and Slow Progress
After over a year of pushing SEO, upload and key wording images, blogging, writing articles, and putting images up on Imagekind and CafePress, I have learned a couple of things. Firstly, it is a TON of work! Secondly, there is progress but it is agonizingly slow. I have gone from an average of one unique visitor per week to my website, to an average of almost 500 a day. I have gone from about 1 sale on CafePress every couple of weeks to pretty much an average of one sale a day. And don’t forget all the click-through ad revenue…about $5.00 a day.

Pumping Out More Images
Given all of the downward price pressure from low price stock and an oversupply of images the idea of trying to pump out more and more images, and adding to that oversupply, just doesn’t make a whole lot of long-term sense to me. I still very much believe in stock photography, and frankly, particularly looking at my Blend sales, I’d have to say there is still a lot of life left in the old girl yet. But it ain’t like it used to be. Not in RF or RM. But creating more new quality content can still work for both the short and long term.


Changes In the Photo Market, Bad Business Decisions, and the Recession
I used to make a killing in greeting cards as well, and I am down about 70% on those (I am only down about 30% on stock photos but still earn enough to make me feel a little guilty). Given that the greeting card company that used to publish my cards made some seriously questionable business moves (like firing their entire sales staff), it is unclear how much of that drop is due to the changes in the photo market and how much due to bad business decisions and the recession.


Shipping Product, Generating Traffic and Income Streams
This brings to the point where I am now, trying to continually adjust my time and efforts to provide for the maximum return. I have to look at both the short and long term. For me, the short term is creating images and getting them to the stock agencies, what Seth Godwin would term “shipping product”. The long term, for me, means tapping into the vast powers of the internet and continuing to build traffic to generate income from that “consumer” market as well as guide more users of stock photography to my images at the various agencies that handle them. The seemingly slow nature of that process is secondary to the evidence that it does work. Ultimately, they all work together. Creating more images for agencies, which I can then put up as additional content on my site, will both generate that short-term income (hopefully middle-term and long-term revenue as well), and will generate more traffic that I can channel into various income streams.

Creating Compelling Stock Photos As Quality Content
My tasks, then, are to create compelling stock photos, market-needed images, get them onto my site, and continue my SEO through key wording, blogging, article writing and link-building. In short, creating quality content for the agencies and my site. I guess it boils down to patience, perseverance and perspiration…all with a sense of urgency.