Stock: Don’t Just Buy—Sell, Sell, Sell

You’d be forgiven for thinking that by the title of this post, that we’re going to take a journey into the arena of financial markets and in a tangential way we are—in as much as we’ll be talking about money, and the potential for making it, anyway.

In a world where we increasingly require on-demand content, microstock imagery has never been so vital a tool to creative pros – tight budgets with even-tighter schedules mean that we need to be able to draw upon libraries of resources that can easily and immediately satisfy our needs – which is why this is one of the most active new markets on the internet. By now, I’m sure that you all are aware that Adobe Stock entered the microstock market – built on Fotolia who joined the Adobe family last year – and has a number of key features that clearly distinguish it from other stock vendors, not least of which is an immediate consumer base already using Creative Cloud products into which the library is tightly integrated.

The ever-growing base of CC subscribers haven’t just been presented with a new resource to use, but the prospect of generating new revenue by contributing to the library. Read on for a few tips on how to get started in the Adobe Stock asset market.

1) Play To Your Strengths

Adobe Stock wants to offer the best possible content on a technical and creative level; focus on what you’re good at and invest more time in making sure that your work meets the highest standards.

2) Monitor The Pulse

Make sure you’re aware of the trends and try to learn to predict what may be coming along next—reading about design trends will help you to see not only where things are going, but also how to identify gaps that your work may fill. It’s also important once you’ve started to add content that you add content as frequently as you can to demonstrate that you’re responsive to changes and are keeping your work fresh. Respond to seasonal changes and upload ahead of the curve—generally about six-eight weeks in advance, then ideally keep content trickling in during that period until about two weeks before you cut-off and move on to the next.

3) Intellectual Property

Your work must not infringe the rights of anyone. If your work depicts any recognisable copyrighted item you’ll need a signed release from an authorised signatory of the rights owner; if your photo uses a model, you’ll need a signed model release form to accompany your image. Derivate images are quite common but the rules around them are complex.

Read more here.

4) Indexing

Producing your assets is only half of the task and indexing is the other half. Keep in mind that your work is going into a database and you need to be able to identify it amongst millions of others; don’t miss the importance of this final step—the easier it is to find your content, the more you’re likely to sell. You’ll need to provide information such as:

• Title: KYSS principle—Keep Your Subject Short—“Man in a Grey Double-breasted Suit Holding Briefcase on a Windy Day Using Smartphone” is perhaps a bit much; boil it down.
• Country: It’s a good idea to include any country-specific information—either about the subject or the location—as users may want to search based on their geographical particulars.
• Keywords: Use keywords that would help users to find your content. Do use words that appear in your title and description and other keywords related to the subject as there is a search benefit to doing so; don’t use too many keywords—never more than twenty. Adobe Stock has software that uses dictionaries to translate keywords—make sure that your spelling is spot-on.
• Categories: Even though it is a bit of effort to learn the categories and apply them correctly, it is worth it as this is a mechanism used to filter results when refining a search.

5) Wrapping Up

The visibility and sales potential of your content is determined by how closely you pay attention to these details. Your potential customers already know what they are looking for so if you’re to make a success in the microstock marketplace, it’s in your own best interests to make sure that you’re providing the best possible content, and the relevant information to ensure it is discoverable. Good luck!