Make It Worth It

So I made my first foray into the world of Stock photography. Stock photography, for those who don't know, is a large database of photos, art, and graphics. Instead of a site hiring their own photographer to go out and take photos for them, they just buy them from one of these sites. It's been something I've been toying with for a couple of weeks now. I co-worker who is business inclined suggested it to me. My goal is to one day be able to sell my photos but I had always envisioned printing them all out in various sizes and different frames and sitting on a street corner or at a craft fair and hocking my wares. I hadn't really thought about posting and selling until recently and since this whole "world wide web" experiment seems to be taking off, I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

I'm going to take it slow and only add one company at a time. I'm joining only non-exclusive sites meaning that I am free to sell through other companies. Multiple (theoretical) income streams! The first site I went with was Crestock.com. They're not the biggest or the best but it was pretty easy to get involved. Just create an account (make sure you read the Consent for any site before you agree, it's your property you're loaning after all) and start uploading photos. They only pay a 20% commission! (30% after you sell 100 photos) which is pretty awful, but since they aren't one of the big hitters yet it's easier for someone new like me to get my feet wet and learn the ropes. I'm also hoping that they'll have a less stringent Quality Control (QC) process and more of my photos will get through. Still, making 20% on selling one photo for $1 is more than the 20% of $0 I'm making now. I'm not hoping to get rich (yet) but just want to see what is possible. Now I just have to go through the rigorous process of naming and key wording all of my photos I've uploaded thus far. fun...
My only goal at this time is to make enough money from selling that I could support my habit; adding to and upgrade my gear. I've already gotten spousal approval for upgrades but that budget is pretty much set and I've found more things that will help me get better. So I feel that if I can make a couple hundred bucks a year from various sites I can funnel that into better products, not have to take from the family funds, and get what I need to take this to the next level.