Now that 2020 is finally behind us, it’s the perfect time to look back at what we have accomplished and set our goals for 2021 and beyond.
First, a big thank you to everyone who filled out the 2020 year in review survey. It allows me to understand and provide relevant information to help everyone improve their skills and achieve their goals.
Let’s see what happened in 2020:
Progress and sales:
According to the answers, many of you are waiting to make your first sale.. However, 97% of you didn’t give up and are working on improving your portfolio and joining different agencies. That’s great! Perseverance is key, especially in the beginning.
Favorite Agencies:
Among those of you who earned an income from stock, Shutterstock remains the lead agency with 37% of sales but it is quickly being caught up by Adobe Stock (23%). Alamy and Dreamstime are tied for third spot with iStock dropping to the fourth spot.
Goals:
Collectively, the biggest goal for 2021 is to simply get started and find the time to process and submit images. Some of you set specific targets like uploading 25 or 100 photos, and perhaps some video as well.
A few of you mentioned needing help to get better at using Lightroom, organizing, and processing photos.
Luckily, I love processing and using Lightroom so you can expect to see many more tips and tricks throughout the year.
Here are a few other topics that you are interested in learning about this year:
- Understanding how to increase sales
- Taking sharper, better composed photos
- Selling Fine Art prints
- How to process images efficiently
- How to choose better gear (camera, lenses, etc..)
- How to get a model release from your subjects
- And my favorite… procrastination cures!
Overall, the biggest roadblock I see this year is how to get started. There’s no secret magical tip for this unfortunately. If you want to make money with your photos, you need to take small steps and keep moving forward.
Put aside a couple of hours every week to select your photos, process them and upload them to stock or fine art. By the end of the year, you’ll look back and realize you have accomplished far more than you had thought.
And you won’t be alone. This Club was created to support beginners and help them get started with selling their photos. I will do my best to keep you motivated and give a friendly little push to keep you moving forward.
If you’re serious about getting your photos out there, challenge yourself, and receive professional feedback, give the Premium Membership a try. It will really help.
I’m looking forward to accompanying you on your photographic journey. Let’s keep rolling towards our goals and find success in 2021!
