Stock photography has been good to me... and I would highly recommend it to photographers who have a repository of shots simply lying in their hard drives collecting dust. If your images are technically sound, and can be used in a variety of situations, such as business, food, sports and glamour, I would urge you to put those images to work and have them deliver a nice cheque to you at the end of each month.

I submit my shots to microstocks as well as traditional agencies. Each of them have their own pros and cons:

Microstock - Low royalty, but huge number of downloads
Trads - High royalty, but erratic sales

I would recommend creating a mix between the two and refining that balance as time goes by. Here are the agencies... click on the links to register yourself. None of these agencies charge for joining up, but some have a portfolio review process.

Here they are:

Istockphoto
The marketleader in microstock. It has the biggest client and user base. Royalties range from $0.25 - $2.50 per download.

Shutterstock
The leader in subscription based stock images. Very impressive number of users. Royalties are fixed at $0.30 per download. Looks less? Wait till you see the numbers :-)

Dreamstime
An agency rapidly rising to the top. Commissions range from $0.50 - $3.00. They have on of the highest payout rate in the industry.

BigStockPhoto
A solid agency with a trusted and faithful client base. Commissions range from $0.50 - $2.00 per download.

Fotolia
Fotolia has exceeded all expectations among contributors. It has a very strong European guyer base. In the brief period, they've really established themselves very well and are now producing strong sales. Commissions range from $0.37 - $1.40.

StockXpert
This agency has been launched with an established reputation from its sister site - sxc.hu. They have a huge member base and sales have picked up really fast. Commissions range from $0.50 - $2.50

123 Royalty Free
This agency started out with a bang but has quietened down quite a bit. It still generates a fair amount of business. Not the best one around... but certainly worth uploading to. $0.30 for subscription sales, $0.35-$1.05 for "per picture" sales.

Crestock
This site is improving at a great pace. One word of caution - be prepared for erratic reviews and tons of erroneous rejections. Their marketing is working, but their review process isn't.

 

There are other sites in the market as well, but I feel that they're yet to garner a sufficient buyer base in order to justify the time and effort it takes to upload images. Some are very promising, while others are simply headed for disaster. The agencies above are the "Big 7" of the market and each will net you a respectable income.

For those who really want to upload to all the agencies, here are the rest of the agencies:

CanStockPhoto
This site started off well, but slowly deteriorated over teh past 2 years. Have to say one thing... they have the best upload system.

FeaturePics
Now I hope these guys do well as they allow you to specify the sale price for images. If you don't get too greedy, you can actually make sales here.

Most Photos
New site... not much traffic as of now, but time will tell.

Lastly, I want to say that although the idea behind this page is to get as many photographers introduced to the wonderful world of stock photography, in the event you signup with these agencies, I do get a very small referral fee. No, I won't be buying a BMW anytime soon with it, but it sure is a nice way to know that the information above has helped somebody get off the ground in stock photography.