Making Money from Your Hobby
MICROSTOCK
Today you can find many money making options to upload different types of content. One of most popular and safest way to get paid for upload is to work for microstock agencies. These agencies and companies accept photos, vector illustrations, flash animation and video clips.
You must be the creator & copyright owner of the content. You will be paid for every download, with the starting rate being from $.20 to $20 for downloaded photos and from $2 to $50 for every video clip that is downloaded. The payout rates depend on the size of the files and the rules vary for every company. Photos and other content have royalty-free status and can be uploaded on more than one site if you choose to not be an exclusive photographer for one agency. Your files can be downloaded unlimited times.
Every agency uses different pricing and payment methods; also they have different rules which you must accept if you want to work for them. All photographers must have basic knowledge of digital photography.
For most agencies, photos cannot be smaller than 3mp. All uploaded photos first must go through quality control and if it’s been approved, you can start to earn money for every download. You must read carefully the Terms Of use for every agency because the rules are not the same for all of them. Copyrights and model releases are also very import things in this business.
It is free to join in all the reviewed companies on this site and you don’t lose anything to try it. Most of them have few payout methods: PayPal, Moneybookers, checks, etc.
If you already have website, microstock companies is best place to download and use high quality contents (photos, illustration, animation and videos) with legal background.
Here are some tips and recommendations if you decide to try microstock agencies:
- 5+ Megapixels photos are recommended. No snapshots!
- Re-sizing, re-sampling and re-saving can all degrade the quality of a JPEG image. After you edit your picture, always save your images on high quality settings
- The quality standards are every day stronger and your photography skill cannot be on the beginners’ stage. If you know all the functions in cameras manual mode, you are not beginner!
- Always use your best quality options on your digital camera
- Photos with compression artifacts, noise and incorrect exposure will be rejected. Be sure to use low ISO settings on your camera whenever it is possible
- If your photos contain copyrighted logos, trademarks and signs, you can remove it with some photo editing software like Photoshop.
- You must have a signed model-release form if your photo contains a recognizable face. A model release form can be downloaded on company’s sites. When you upload a photo, don’t forget to attach a model-release form. If the model is child or is under 18, then a parent must sign the model release.
- Be sure to write 20 or more keywords for every photo that you submit.
- Commercial concepts and creative photos and illustrations have a much better download rate than vocations, sunsets, flowers and other every days photos.
- Newspapers, advertising agencies and web designers are a huge group who download most of the content from microstock sites. You should think about what they would download and use the most. What graphics do they really need?
Good luck
Recommended microstock agencies under Upload Photos/Videos link
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Make money with video sharing websites
Many video sharing websites will pay you to upload video clips. The procedure is easy and all you need to do is the upload your videos and enter in the producer reward or advertising campaign. You can find recommended sites under this link.
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Content sharing
Another way to earn money with uploading is content sharing and downloads. Many companies will pay you to upload your files on their servers and for every 1000 downloads, you will earn some amount of money (usually 1$). Because almost every one of them require a premium membership to reach payout, I’m not going to do detailed reviews for these companies
Procedure is very simple:
- Open a free account
- Setup payout options
- Upload your content (movies, music, pictures, archives…)
- Take your link for the uploaded files.
- Post your link everywhere (sites, forums, blogs, messengers, etc.)
- When you earn some money, you can exchange it for a premium membership (after this you can payout your earnings) or gifts.
For list of companies that pay, click here
