One of the mistakes newbies make (I know because I was once one myself), is thinking that they have the greatest stock photograph ever, upload it, sit back and wait for the sales to pour in. Its like waiting for the phone to ring to tell you that you've won a contest.
Well, the stock game doesn't work that way. First off an image takes time to get into the search engines. Then it takes a while for the image to be seen among the millions of other images offered for sale. Even if a buyer likes the image, they might not have an immediate need for it.
Sure once in a while an image gets lucky and it finds a buyer right away, but for most images its takes time. Like those old Paul Masson winery ads "We will sell no wine before its time.”
The trick is to have a diverse quantity of quality images in one's portfolio. I still think every batch I upload is perhaps my best yet. But I don't sit back and wait for it to sell like hot cakes. I get a new idea and start working on it. Often sales of images don't come for many months. Way past the time I even remember having them in my portfolio. You have to understand that buyers are working many months ahead. Consider that right now in August, Halloween items are being stocked on the store shelves. Back to school is over before school even starts. When do you think the designers got to work on those products and ads?
So make a choice, sit around and wait for the phone to ring like my friend in the picture or get out and start shooting.
