Stocks, photo stocks, or stock exchanges are marketplaces where you can sell or rent your own images, videos, illustrations, designs, and templates to users all over the world.

In essence, a stock is an intermediary that helps you sell your work and attract new customers. The platform takes care of all organizational and technical aspects: marketing, promotion, legal and technical assistance. But at the same time, she takes a percentage of the sale, usually from 30 to 75 percent, depending on the exclusivity and level of sales.

Exclusivity is when you sell your digital goods on only one stock and do not have the right to sell these works on other sites.

What can be sold

The stock market is developing very dynamically, and with each new year the number of goods that can be sold is growing. Today I can note such popular and demanded directions:

• Photo. The oldest and most profitable type of sale. Professionals and amateurs from all over the world upload their work. Everything is in demand here: from some home photos to studio subject photos. Now there is a very strict selection of works, photos from the phone most likely will not pass moderation. By the way, stock photos are used in this article.
• Video. Also a common type of digital goods. You can sell video frames from 6 seconds to several minutes long. It could be a time lapse of a sunrise or a shoot with the actors.
• Vector. Here you can sell illustrations drawn in vector editor Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Both abstract elements, flowers or lace, as well as full-fledged illustrations and characters are in demand.
• 3d models. Sale of finished models made in 3D program. It can be furniture, characters, objects, etc.
• after effects projects. Templates made in After Effects. The buyer, having bought the project, will be able to insert his image, video, text and / or logo and get his video.
• Music and sound effects. You can buy music for YouTube, presentations, podcasts and so on. Huge range of music and noises. Given YouTube's aggressive copyright policy, this type of product is gaining momentum.
• Web-sites' templates. This is now one of the most profitable types of stock sales. Websites are always needed by many. Do you want your blog, online store, business card website or landing page? All of this can be bought on stock.
• Templates for graphic elements. Here you can sell logos, business cards, badges, mockups, posters and so on.
• Fonts. Buying fonts is not in high demand in countries former USSR, but every year the demand for licensed products is growing.

For full-fledged earnings on a photo stock, you need to have at least 1000 photos, from this moment earnings begin.

There is a lot of competition in the market today, and the only competitive advantage is the quality of your work and promotion through third-party sites. You basically have no other tools of influence. The price for your work is set by the stock and you cannot underestimate it. If everything is very ambiguous with marketing and promotion, then everything is extremely simple with the quality of work and the relevance of topics - a good and sought-after work will be sold and more often fall out in the search. But having 10-20 works in the portfolio is very little. For full-fledged earnings on a photo stock, you need to have at least 1000 photos, from this moment earnings begin.

More and more stocks are handled by professional studios and production companies with large quantity workers. They load the leftovers and part commercial works, and some are sharpened purely for the stock business.

What platforms exist

On the this moment There are several main, leading stocks:

• Shutterstock - selling photo, video and wind content
• Depositphotos - selling photo, video and wind content
• iStock - Sell photo, video, audio and wind content
• Fotolia
• Pond5 - this stock is more geared towards selling videos, but accepts images, music, After Effects templates,
• The Envato marketplace network is one of the biggest players on the market, selling everything from website templates to music. Very large selection and very low price.
• creative market
• Template Monster

There are many other sites, there are more and more of them every month. Share in the comments if you know any other profitable ones.

Making money without straining or earning $1,000 without getting out of bed is not about the stock business. This is where you need to dig in.

Material requirements

I will not describe each direction separately, because it requires a separate topic. But in general, it all comes down to four basic rules:

• Technically correct product. For example, if this is a photograph, the main thing in the frame should be sharp and in focus, the ISO should be minimal, the white balance should be correct, the amount of noise should be minimized.
• Must be professional equipment. A photo taken with a phone will most likely not work.
• Demanded or unique story. In some cases, this may offset the previous points.
• You must not infringe copyright and must abide by the terms of the particular stock.

Is it possible to earn money on this?

The answer is yes! You can earn money on this, but it all depends on your desire and the quality of work. We will consider this issue in more detail in future articles.

Where to begin?

If you are interested in the topic of stocks, I recommend starting by deciding what you want to do. Writing music, taking photos and making 3D models all at once is a bad strategy. You must gradually and regularly do this. Only after you realize that the stock is also work and you need to bother, you will move to a new level - a person who is ready to conquer the stock.

All photos provided by stock

The concept of "stock" comes from a consonant English word, which translates as "store in stock" or "stock". Thus, stock is clothing that has not been sold before. In this case, a stock store is an enterprise that sells leftover goods.

Stock: what is it, when did it appear?

The first companies of this type emerged several decades ago. Their appearance was justified by the fact that retail chains and enterprises could not completely sell out new collections, despite all their marketing tricks. At the end of each season, a decent amount of things from past collections remained, and fashion went on. This reduced the rate of capital turnover and reduced the financial capacity of companies. This state of affairs did not suit anyone, so there was new idea. A separate store could sell the remnants of things and shoes, various accessories and other things - stock. What is marketing? The ability to dodge and not lose your profits.

Popularity

The idea found its customers. After a short time, the stock segment took a strong position in the market. In the States and European countries, people are worried about saving the family budget, so the stock business has long had large financial turnover, making it a good competitor for the release of new collections. Stock companies in the CIS gained popularity after financial crisis, because the cost of Turkish and Chinese goods, which were previously cheap, has risen significantly. The middle class could not afford to buy clothes at such prices. Buyers learned about the stock, that such an enterprise can significantly save money.

The essence of stock goods

The peculiarity of stock companies is to provide a huge discount on all goods. Discount from branded stores can reach 70-80%, as, for example, in the company "Stoke City".

Runoff sources

There are several main resources of stock items and their corresponding types:

1. Reissue at the plant or factory.
   This type of drain is called factory or factory. It includes original items that for some reason did not leave the factory warehouse. There may be surpluses of goods, because after the end of the batch there are materials left. They are paid in advance, but it is almost impossible to simply sell them, so the factory produces an additional batch of clothes or shoes. The implementation of such things goes through stock wholesale companies, which directly without intermediaries buy large lots from factories. Also, such a stock can be formed due to the refusal of the trading network from part of the party or from cooperation in general. Garment factories, like any other business, need working capital, so the goods must be sold. Stock companies buy goods and sell them at a discount.
2. Stock wholesale, stock dealers.
   This is a product purchased by wholesale buyers. Such products were purchased by wholesalers from official companies. The latter could not sell the goods in full, and as you know, in European countries, the collection is considered fashionable for three months, some networks even reduce this period from two weeks to a month. Let's say the collection has nine thousand items, and the networks bought only five of them. The company is forced to search for new connections or cooperate with stock companies. It is necessary to check this type of stock, because unscrupulous dealers try to sell five- or ten-year-old stock.
3. Warehouse stock.
   What is this type of stock? It should be singled out. Can be attributed to retail chains or dealer balances. The stock exceeds the quality and completeness of the store, it is packaged, has tags and does not contain minor defects that can occur during the fitting in stores. Important feature this type of runoff - the presence of dimensional grids.
4. Stocks of trading networks.
   The main part of stock goods that arrives in the CIS is of this type. Western countries also often meet this type of product. These are clothes that were not sold out during the season and after the end of the promotion. It is removed and stored in designated warehouses, and then it is sold to wholesalers or sent to stock companies in European countries.

Runoff formation

The store receives a new collection of goods of a certain brand. The company sets the initial price. Few people know that the margin can exceed more than a thousand percent of the cost of goods. A certain part of the lot is sold at the maximum price. Time passes, and clothes are already sold with a concession of 20-30%. With such a price, some part of the party is sold. Final sales at the end of the season sell goods at a discount of 70-90%. Such promotions still do not sell the entire balance of the goods, so part of the lot remains unchanged. What can be done?

Solutions

The first option is to leave the clothes in stock. The second is to put it back up for sale. I don't like any of the options trade enterprises for several reasons. During sales, you can sell a small part of the collection. If both a new collection and previously unsold goods remain on the same trading floor, buyers feel embarrassed. Someone considers the purchase of a discount product to be a decrease in their status, someone prefers not to go to a store with sales. Moreover, the pricing policy of the brand becomes inexplicable for the buyer. Nearby are goods of the same quality, but with a big difference in cost. This negatively affects the company's reputation. Another negative consequence of combining collections is a waste of space on the trading floor. Clothing from previously released collections reduces the store's profit per unit area trading floor. An unsold product freezes finances that could bring in much more profit outside of the product.

Sales of goods to stock enterprises

So, store owners face a number of difficulties that require immediate solutions. There is more than one way out. It is possible to open a dedicated store or a network of similar ones that could sell the remaining goods at a significant discount. Not only does this option solve the problem with the accumulation and sale of goods, it also helps to increase target audience stamps. Such stores will be visited by people who cannot afford to buy the goods of this company at the usual cost. The option is acceptable for large and deployed chains that can open a separate stock (Moscow offers many such examples) and consistently fill it with goods.

Another way to solve the situation is to sell goods to another stock network or to wholesale stock companies. For example, the brand "Adidas" sells stock to many enterprises. This allows you to sell shoes and clothes that have not been sold before. The cost of selling such products, of course, is much lower than the retail store. But the solution to the above problems is worth it. Moreover, this is a suitable way for branded boutiques to get rid of the accumulation of rare sizes. Wholesalers buy such things if the clothes were released recently, but their supply is no longer planned.

When asked about what I do, I answer that I draw for stocks, my interlocutors are pretty hung up :) And it takes a long time to explain what stocks are, because the vast majority of people have absolutely no idea about them. And this is normal, a couple of years ago I myself did not know anything about illustration or microstocks. If you try to ask Google “what are stocks and why are they needed”, it will give a lot of links to a site about treatment facilities:)) But these are completely different stocks. The stocks we are interested in are exchanges where visual content producers sell their photos, illustrations, drawings and videos, and buyers buy them. ​

In this note, I will talk about stocks from the point of view of an illustrator (or rather, a vector illustrator), for photographers and videographers, the data may vary.

Think of the Internet as a shopping mall, inside which there are many shops, that is, microstocks. You, the content producers, give your creativity to them for sale, and when your product is bought, you get your penny from the income.

Each microstock has its own amount of royalties to authors, which depend on many factors, but we can talk about an average price of $0.25 per purchase.

HOW TO EARN IF STOCK PAYS SUCH PENIES TO AUTHORS?

This is where the mall analogy breaks down, because when your product is bought, it doesn't disappear from the counter like you would in a normal store. When you upload a picture to the stock, you seem to be selling an infinite number of copies :) And one picture can be sold many times, bringing you penny after penny, and as a result, serious sums “run up”. In addition, your picture can be bought at a higher price - this happens when it is bought "on demand" (on demand) - that is, without a subscription, or under an extended license - for business use.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU EARN FROM MICROSTOCKS AND WHEN WILL STOCK BEGINNING TO GENERATE INCOME?

These are the two most frequently asked questions about microstocks, and at the same time the two most "unanswered". It is impossible to predict how much a particular person will earn and when he will start receiving at least $50 a month.

The amount of earnings depends on:

• the time you are willing to devote to stocks
• your desire to improve and draw, and not just flowers and patterns
• stock competition - the longer you wait to pass the exam, the more difficult it will be to start earning income
• portfolio size
• portfolio quality
• good luck:)

In fact, there are many, many more factors. It can be unspeakable for you and, having uploaded the work, you will be included in the promo list of the shutter in the first month - and customers will come to you (although I have not heard such stories yet :). Or maybe you “dig up” such a rare but popular topic that you will immediately attract a lot of buyers who were just waiting for you.

I don't want to give you rose-colored glasses and say: quit your job, paint for fun and become a millionaire! Because it's not true. Stocks are hard and sometimes tedious work (because you need to not only draw, but also correctly interpret files, upload them to different stocks, monitor sales, prepare releases, analyze trends). And the experience of all the stockers that I know personally or virtually suggests that those who stubbornly upload work no matter what for a fairly solid period of time (a year or more) manage to succeed on microstocks.

I myself have been actively working with stocks for five months today. I started from scratch, knew almost nothing about the illustrator, my drawing skills were limited to visiting the art studio in childhood, in general, without exaggeration, we can say that I started from the very bottom of the Mariana Trench :)) And only in February I felt that shutterstock. At the same time, today I can live on the money earned on stocks, even in Thailand :) But I see good positive progress, my earnings grow by an average of 60% per month, so I don’t plan to give up stocks in any case, but on the contrary, now I will actively explore other microstocks, draw for printshops, participate in competitions and develop my drawing skills, as well as improve my knowledge of an illustrator.

If you have an artistic background and/or excellent knowledge of drawing programs, and even cooler - you already have your own style and maybe even a certain portfolio of work, you will probably start from a better position and be able to get to the point " breakeven" faster.

With due patience, improving your skills and permanent job you can count on an income of $ 500-1500 per month or more. My goal for today is to earn $2,000 from all stocks in total, and I hope to achieve this goal within a year, or better, of course, early.

WHO BUYS PICTURES ON STOCK AND WHAT DO THEY DO WITH THEM?

WHAT SIZE OF PORTFOLIO CAN FEED ME?

I read a lot about the ratio of portfolio size to earnings and concluded for myself that in the early stages of conquering stocks (from 0 to 6 months), portfolio size is still important. More precisely, it is important that you constantly load a certain stream of work. While you are a beginner, you have a small “internal ranking” (it is impossible to know in any way, but it definitely exists), so your images in the search engine will be displayed in the most disadvantageous positions, and almost all sales will occur when the buyer sees your illustration among new. To make it easier for the buyer, I advise you to read my note on how, and follow the advice :)

When you stop being a beginner, the quality of your portfolio becomes more important. I know guys who make several thousand dollars from a portfolio of 700 or less works, and I know those who, with a portfolio of several thousand works, do not earn even $500.

It's one thing if you have 100 works in your portfolio, but each one is unique, detailed, elaborate, drawn on a niche topic. And another thing is if you have 1000 works, but only 100 of them are “originals”, and 900 are “similars”. Similiars are pictures made from the same base. That is, you drew five flowers - this is an original work, repainted them - this is a similar, rotated 90 degrees and put a different background - another similar. So the picture can be multiplied indefinitely, but it’s better not to load many similars in one “batch”, inspectors don’t like this :))

IS IT WORTH TO GO TO STOCK, THERE IS BIG COMPETITION THERE?

If you love to draw and dream of turning it into your main source of income, while being ready to devote at least one full day a week (or an hour or two every day) for at least six months, it’s definitely worth it. Firstly, the number of not only stockers, but also buyers is growing. Secondly, our world is becoming more and more remote, and more and more pictures are needed. Thirdly, there are still a lot of unoccupied niches, and they will still appear.

I decided not to be scattered and for the first four months I worked only with shutterstock, since this stock is the main breadwinner of all illustrators (I'm not sure about photographers and videographers). Then, when I had a certain portfolio, I decided to start exploring other stocks.

I will write separate notes about uploading to each of the stocks, and also talk about my file preparation system, and share the experience of uploading a portfolio of 100 works to five stocks in two days :))

In the meantime, I’ll just say that there are microstocks of the “first echelon” - the so-called “big four” - that bring the maximum profit to illustrators, and these are:

• Shutterstock
• IStock
• Dreamtime
• Fotolia

And there is a mass of “second-tier” stocks, of which I have identified the following for myself:

• 123rf
• bigstock
• CanStock
• color box

I haven't looked at the rest of the stock yet. On average, shutterstock brings 70-90% of profits to an illustrator, and 10-30% comes from all other microstocks in total. Therefore, if you are only getting $100 on a shutter so far, is it worth it to spend several days a month uploading works to other stocks for the extra ten bucks?

For myself, I decided that I would rather master printshops - this is another category of sites that allow illustrators to earn money by selling pictures on real things like iPhones and pillows (for an example, you can see my just opened store on society6). There will be a separate large article about printshops (or maybe I’ll write separately about opening stores on various similar sites), but for now, if you have questions about what stocks are and what they are eaten with, write to the commercials :))

Fashion clothes are always worth big money and not everyone can afford to dress fashionably, and in difficult economic times, fashionable high-quality clothing becomes a real luxury! That is why now buyers are increasingly turning their attention tostock centers . Indeed, large stock stores receive goods several times a month, and discounts on goods reach up to 90%! Best Ratio price and quality - this is the formula for the success of stock clothing. It is this quality that allows these stores around the world to dress people in fashionable and high-quality clothes at affordable prices! Going to a stock store is a great way to update your wardrobe while saving money.

All over the world, stock centers have already firmly entered people's lives. Many experts believe that this phenomenon is only in its infancy and soon stock stores will be real competitors for big brands.
Moreover, according to statistics, many branded stores in Russia and Europe do not want to transfer their goods to stock centers, but they also do not want to reduce the price. They restore the appearance of clothes and try to sell them for the same money. This means that sometimes in boutiques you can buy goods that can be even worse in quality than in a stock store.

Stock trading is such a unique type of stores that is already very relevant in the West, but is considered relatively new in Russia.Stock shops differ from the usual ones in that they sell goods that have remained unsold. All the clothes there are absolutely normal quality and appearance, but due to the constant development of fashion, these things are considered old-fashioned and depreciate.

In stock stores, you will never find the division of goods into categories, as is often the case in second-hand stores. All goods in stock centers are of the 1st quality category, which means that they are in no way inferior to their expensive counterparts in boutiques.

Main advantageshopping in stock centers are, of course, prices. Sometimes discounts on goods reach up to 95%. Such offers attract people, because this is a chance to get a quality branded product for a great price!

An interesting fact, for the most part, all the clothes sold on stock sites come to the market from Europe! But why is that?
The bottom line is that Europeans, in their own way financial condition, have the opportunity to update their wardrobe regularly. It turns out that a lot of things that fashionable Europeans consider already illiquid are rented to stock centers or second-hand shops. In European countries, it is not customary to store things, they immediately hand them over to special centers, from where they then fall on the shelves of second-hand shops. The best quality items can end up in stock centers.

stock center receives its goods from various sources. Brand stores are the main supplier of clothing. They give instock store slow-moving goods, the latest models, things from shop windows or with traces of fittings (most often this means torn tags). Another important source of goods instock centers are wholesale companies. From such companiesstock store receives a product that is considered outdated by fashion standards. This product is of excellent quality and attracts buyers the most.

Also instock stores often you can find a product that is called "factory surplus". Such clothes and shoes go tostock center straight from the factory. The reason for this shipment is as follows:

After sewing the batch, there are materials left, the manufacturing company spends the material on creating a small batch of goods and sends it to the stock center. They do this because any business needs working resources, so they are interested in quick sale its small batch of goods.

There are not many types of stock stores, let's get to know them better:

1) Stock shop one brand. Datastock shops have at their disposal goods of only one manufacturer, such stores, as a rule, have a narrow focus and are intended for a specific audience.

2) Retail - park. Stock store of incredible size, built as cheaply and quickly as possible. The goods there are varied. From clothes to tools and toys.

3) Stock online stores. This typestore stock is now very popular, because the prices are even cheaper than in physical stores. Cheaper, since the seller does not spend money on renting the premises. Our online store "Europe-Stock" is just such a stock center.

People are so involved in buying cheap things instock stores that over time even formed their own rules for buying clothes instock centers:

1) Feel free to spend more time in stock stores than in regular ones. Search and dig through things and baskets. Many clients of stock centers can specifically hide in the depths of the most best product, hoping that they will buy it later.

2) If some thing has sunk into your soul, immediately take it without thinking. Do not put off shopping, because tomorrow it may not be. Yes, besides, the prices for goods in stock stores are always friendly and small, which means that everyone can buy the goods they like at any time!

In our store you can find a huge selection of clothes not only for adults, but also for little dandies and fashionistas.

Our store has some of the best prices in Runet, as well as good system discounts and bonuses for regular customers.

For more than 6 years we have been supplying high-quality clothes from the best boutiques in Europe. Our range includes only suppliers and brands that have been proven over the years. We guarantee quality!

The word stock, which is unfamiliar to Russians, literally means “stock leftovers,” so stores that position themselves as stock centers sell new clothes that were fashionable last season. This is the fundamental difference between stock and second-hand. Second-hand stores sell used clothes and shoes, and stock centers sell unsold goods in a timely manner.

The stock stores that appeared after the 2008 crisis were bypassed by Russians for the first time, not fully understanding what kind of goods they sell. However, when it became clear to many that main features such outlets is the sale of new clothes and shoes with discounts, sometimes reaching up to 90%, stock stores have gained thousands of loyal fans.

Most buyers consider the main advantage of the stock to be the opportunity to save money by purchasing things from well-known brands. trademarks at ridiculous prices. However, sellers make significant discounts only because they sell slow-moving or stale goods. In other words, the stock includes items that were not bought up in a timely manner by buyers in mono-brand stores, elite boutiques or large shopping malls.

What product is sold in stock stores?

Large wholesale companies are another important source of stock goods. They usually sell the remnants of seasonal collections that they have purchased from manufacturers or official dealers, but, for certain reasons, remained unpurchased by retailers. In this case, clothes and shoes from last year's or the year before last's collections will go to the stock store. But these things have not lost their presentation, in addition, there is a full size and height range of models.

Sometimes stock stores receive goods directly from manufacturers, who in this way sell surpluses, unclaimed lots or leftovers of seasonal goods. In order not to occupy trading premises and to receive money for already manufactured products in a timely manner, the enterprise is forced to sell goods at a significant discount. However, these are high-quality fashion items that can be found in ordinary stores.