Photographers can make some extra money by uploading their best images to the microstock sites. The photographers get a chunk of each image purchased. A few really good photographers have been able to make a living from Microstock. I like industries that pay money to artists.
I maintain a list of microstock web sites. There are two common ways to sell microstock. Subscription services have a monthly fee and you are allowed to use a given number of images a month. I dislike the subscription sites. I prefer the credit system. With the credit system; you buy a set number of credits which you then use to buy images.
On my previous post, I posted an image that I bought for one credit (about $0.80). The image below was a free "Free Image of the Week" photo from iStockPhoto. (I said I like programs that give money to artists. I didn't say that I am not cheap).
When you use a microstock image, you are expected to give the artist credit ... which is the point of this post.
Netiquette requires that bloggers credit photographer's for their work.
Web sites also need inbound links. Combining these two needs, I created a project to credit microstock photographers. When I use an image, I add a row to the MicroStock Database on iRivers.com. I use some CSS to put the credit for the image on the lower right corner of the page. This page links to irivers.com. iRivers then includes a link back to my site.
Using this little trick, I fulfill the requirement of giving credit to the photographer and I get a free link to my blog post.
I opened the MicroStock credit program to the users of Community Color. I will block users who abuse it.
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