AVOID the photolibraries that sell pictures for under a dollar a time -I don't think you can make serious money from these.Just don't even CONSIDER it. Some of those libraries trade on the inexperience of amateurs. After they take their commission they'll give you about 20 cents on each dollar ! They mostly make their money by selling advertising on their site - mainly adsense.you're just a cheap content provider for them !!!!

ROYALTY FREE companies can be a useful source of income though and they often sell pictures for MORE than a stock photo fee. It's worth investigating - use royalty free photo in a search on Google to find those companies. Getty in particular owns a very large royalty free company called PhotoDisc and it's responsible for a large portion of their turnover. Corbis and Alamy also sell RF pictures. One thing you should consider about royalty Free pictures is that the CD's are among the most heavily PIRATED CD's in the world - you can buy RF CD's outside any Moscow Metro station for $ 1.50 or in any street market in Vietnam for a Dollar !!! Do you really want your pictures on those ? That's a decision YOU have to make ...

If and when you become SERIOUS about selling stock photography

then you should take out a subscription to VISUELL ( a magazine devoted to stock photography and has LOTS of adverts for agencies worth following up )

You might like to consider having your own website to display your work - then instead of sending cd's all around the world you can just email potential agents and customers with your website address. You will also need a web hosting company to park your website. Websites take an awful lot of looking after though. But on the positive side a website with samples is a great promotional tool DO NOT E-MAIL photos though .... (remember I already covered that !)

An EXCELLENT company with lovely professional website templates is Allwebco.

They are a very helpful company and their help pages take you through the setup set by step.

Prices are very reasonable and they will also host your website at a good rate too.

Here are a few useful Contacts: A.S.M.P. The American Stock Photolibrary body http://www.asmp.org/ B.A.P.L.A. The British Photo Library Association http://www.bapla.org.uk/ C.E.P.I.C. The European Photolibrary Association http://www.cepic.org/ Photographers Direct http://www.photographersdirect.com/ Photo District News - theMajor USA Photo Industry website

Photonet Travel

http://www.photo.net/travel/

Photoshop Tutorials http://div.dyndns.org/EK/tutorial/

You'll find lots more contacts and suppliers on http://www.stockphoto.net

There are 685000 results in the stock photolibrary search on Google ... so you can see it's a BIG business ! I will not suggest any individual photolibraries since the photolibrary business changes rapidly and what may be a great photolibrary one day may not even exist the next !

Here are a few hints to choosing a photolibrary Avoid ANY photolibrary that charges a membership fee. (Although it's OK for a photolibrary to charge for picture storage if their commission is low enough !) Avoid ANY photolibrary that promises to make sales - no one can do this. Do NOT sign up all your work exclusively to any photolibrary. But supply individual pictures exclusively to single agents. If you're in the same country try to see their office and size up the people for yourself

(An agency is only as good as it's staff) I know one photographer who has over 150 photolibraries handling his work. Look for credits to that photolibrary on Alavista.com - no credits to pictures means no sales ! Read http://www.stockphoto.net for latest stock photo news (but some of the correspondents can be a bit outspoken and you should read their other postings before making up your mind) This actually goes for any Site that permits people to put up postings - there will always be a few oddballs !

Look at www.ephotozine.com and read the articles on selling photos.

You can also put your photos in the Gallery for free !

Consider joinng Photographers Direct - their subscription is a bit expensive ( but they offer a commission based alternative.)

Remember - you'll only sell pictures if you send them to people !

Good luck with your Digital Photo Sales - let me know if you get a big one ! Keith

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