How Stock Photography Prepared Me For Success in Writing for Vocal

I’ve been a stock photographer since 2005. And while success was slow in coming, I have gained continuous growth in knowledge, reach, and income over the years. It represents a significant portion of my income, and I have long since considered myself a success in that genre.

But that success took time. I had to learn a lot, mostly through trial and error. But eventually, I developed processes, workflows, and project management techniques that not only gave me that success, but did so efficiently.

So, as I took on the role of a professional writer, and especially since I have shifted from content provider to blogger on Vocal, I applied those same lessons I learned so painfully in stock photography. This has given me a quicker and easier success because I could learn from both my past successes and past failures.

What worked once will probably work again.

What didn’t work before will probably still not work.

The First, and Hardest Lesson

It ain’t easy.

It Ain’t Easy To go ahead when you’re going’ down

~Three Dog Night

Any time you see a link or ad on the Internet that has the words “Make Money” and “Easy” in the same sentence; run away.

You will not lose weight while you sleep and you will not make money the effortless way by (fill in the blank).

Making money or succeeding however you define it requires work. A lot of work. Everyday work.

But here’s the key. If that work is something you love doing, then it can seem easy.

But it’s still work.

The Second Lesson

It ain’t quick.

On February 23, 2006, I uploaded six images to my first stock photo agency. This morning, I uploaded thirty images to a dozen agencies, including that first agency from 14 years ago. In between, I have uploaded between 30K and 50K images to various agencies. I do this every day.

Every day.

The day I uploaded those six images, I sold one. So the next day, I uploaded a few more and sold a couple. The more I uploaded, the more I sold. Now, I’m no dog and I don’t know anyone named Pavlov, but the bell rang fairly early in this process.

The more I work, the more I make.

The Third Lesson

Don’t work harder, work smarter.

This may seem like it goes against the last statement, but it doesn’t. I could keep uploading every image I shot, and I would continue to make more money. But by tracking my efforts and sales, I learned something in the first month or two.

One-third of my images never sold

One-tenth of my images sold a lot

Half my income came from images that sold poorly.

What did this mean in practical terms?

Looking at the stats you would think the first thing I needed to do was identify the images that never sold and stop taking those and take more of the ones in that top 10%.

The problem with that is, you never what will fall into which category. I’ve taken images with little thought or effort that became big sellers. I’ve taken images where I carefully mapped out the concept and orchestrated the photoshoot and processing that fell flat.

But you can detect patterns. You can learn, generally, what works and what doesn’t. And that, at least, gives you a direction to work in.

But the biggest lesson in those numbers is the third stat. Half my income came from images that sold poorly. This seems contradictory, but it’s not. As I have told other photographers looking to get into this niche, if I sell one image for $1,000 and 1,000 images for $1 each, I have made the same money. Not with the same effort, but the same money.

This tells me it’s a volume game.

Quality is important, but quantity is critical. I can’t tell you how many times a beginner has reached out to me with a variation of, “I’ve uploaded my best 25 images, but I’m not making any money.” Come back and talk to me when you have 25,000.

So, how do you work smarter? By focusing on the areas that work and dropping those that don’t. It’s a hard lesson for an artist, but you have to give the audience what they want. I’ve sold more pictures of fried chicken than anything else, so I focus on food photography. Images in my all-time top 25 include a floor, an airline ticket, and a brick wall. People need images of mundane things. The sales of my beautiful travel photographs start somewhere around the top 50.

So, when I’m on vacation, I’ll take a picture of the Eiffel Tower. But I’ll take a lot of pictures of the construction site down the road.

I also track where I make the most sales. There is one site that is constantly berated because you can make as little as a quarter for an image. Other sites are praised because their average pay is higher, or you can set your own prices, or some variation of those. But I make almost half my income from that low paying agency. They have a large audience and do better marketing.

How Does This Relate to Writing?

Easy. I took those lessons I learned with stock photography and applied them to my writing.

On the first day.

On day one, I had a leg up over many others because I already had the experience. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy or quick. But I knew that if I turned out quality material regularly that I would succeed. I knew I had to learn what worked and what didn’t quickly, to apply my time most effectively.

In that, especially writing for Vocal, I already had a head start because there were so many people that came before me willing to tell me what to do. But that only goes so far. I can’t write what you know, I have to write what I know. Well, that’s not entirely true, but learning what others wrote about and emulating them is a lot of work. Writing what I already know about is more fun.

I already knew that I needed to focus not just on what to write, but who to write for. Everyone knows that Hank Aaron was the king of home runs. But he also struck out a lot. If you swing for the fences with every article, you might get a home run, but it’s not likely. I’d like to make $1,000 from one article, but ten $100 articles are the same money.

But mostly, I knew that I had to be both good and consistent. One without the other wouldn’t get me far. I didn’t have to lock myself in the office for ten hours a day, but I needed to devote a certain amount of time daily.

Every day.

I will not make the effort to do the exact math, but I’ve spent over 5,000 days doing stock photography.

Every day.

With my experience, I don’t spend a lot of time on it. Unless I’m on a major photo shoot, I only spend about an hour and a half daily on my photography. And most of that time is on my laptop while I’m watching TV. But it is every day.

And finally, I already knew that it wasn’t a sprint, but a marathon. I wasn’t going to make it big with one article, or a dozen. Or maybe a hundred. I knew that each body of work built on the last one and that it would be the cumulative effort that made money. I knew that over the long haul, that 10% of my articles would be big. But I also knew that half my money would come from the also-rans.

Using what I already knew from the stock photography business has given me a tremendous boost in writing. I’ve been fairly successful from the beginning, but it is with writing for Vocal that these lessons really shone through. After three months, I have hit what I consider significant milestones:

Joined the elusive and mythical $100 a month club

Gained almost 1,000 views.

Had my first 100 view stories

My top 5 articles are closing in on 500 views

Over Top Stories, Bonuses and Tips

There are many who have done better. But there are far more that have done worse. I am happy with my progress so far and will keep doing the things that work and quit doing the things that don’t. And I will have fun doing it.

So what were my final take-aways from the photography business that I have applied successfully to my writing?

• Write every day.
• Learn from those that came before me.
• Constantly test what works and what doesn’t.
• Submit to the best communities that I can get into.
• Market myself constantly.
• Continue to build on successes and learn from failures

What have you succeeded with in the past that you can apply to your writing?