Jana Wang Dengan Stock Photo

Berapa banyak boleh anda peroleh dengan stock photography? Jawapannya, tiada jawapan spesifik. Jika anda ada terfikir untuk terjun ke bidang ini, dan membayangkan wang-wang kertas melayang-layang jatuh dari langit ke riba anda, sila padamkan bayangan tersebut.

Kerana ramai yang mengadu tidak berjaya peroleh walau sesen pun setelah mereka memuat naik gambar-gambar stok mereka ke pelbagai agensi stock photo. Walaupun kualiti dan nilai seni gambar mereka tinggi! Mengapa begitu?

Berdasarkan pemerhatian ringkas ML dari pengalaman-pengalaman mereka yang sudah menceburi bidang ini, mereka yang gagal ini tidak berfikir dari sudut maksud stock photo itu sendiri semasa mengambil gambar-gambar mereka itu.

Contoh Stock Photo

Apakah itu stock photo?

Stock photos (stock photography) are professional photographs 
of common places, landmarks, nature, events or people that are bought 
and sold on a royalty-free basis and can be used and reused for

commercial design purposes.

Source: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/stock_photo.html


Di bawah ini adalah antara respons komen-komen pengunjung website http://improvephotography.com/1129/how-much-money-can-you-earn-in-stock-photography/ terhadap siaran artikel luahan penulis tentang kegagalan menjual gambar-gambarnya di agensi stock photo. Walaupun gambarnya memang luar biasa! Rumusan daripada komen-komen ini, ML ekstrakkan beberapa tips yang boleh diambil.

"...i could not believe my images were rejected. hurt my ego, haha, but maybe i won’t. i don’t want to specifically take photos i think people/agencies may want. i want to take photos i enjoy taking (i feel i can be more creative and natural instead of being forced into going for a look) and if someone wants to buy it, even better." 

"I think to make money in selling stock photos, you’ve got to be willing to cover the niche markets for some of the off businesses. For example, I work in data recovery and I blog relentlessly about my work to build up my customer base. So I go through a lot of stock images blogging both on my site and others. Finding stock photos for the niche is actually quite difficult, as very few stock photos cater to data recovery. Dollarphotoclub.com was the only one, and they closed today. I’ve noticed that many of the few good data recover niche stock photos can be found on dozens of websites because it’s all that’s available, but still better than homemade images.Look for what no one else is doing. If you’re just taking pictures of nice scenery, you’re competing with every other amateur photographer out there and never going to make a sale. Take a picture of an open hard drive or a guy working on a hard drive, and you’ll have a sale quick. Keep it business oriented." 

#1 Sebagai jurugambar stock photo, anda harus menerima kenyataan apabila gambar anda ditolak oleh agensi. Mereka amat mementingkan kualiti dan paling utama sekali, ada nilai PASARAN / PERMINTAAN. Maka, harus dikaji terlebih dahulu permintaan yang tinggi dalam bidang stock photo ini. 

#2 Tumpu pada niche market / peluang pemasaran yang mengkhusus. Lihat komen di atas, itu adalah contoh permintaan. 

"As an image researcher, I seldom came across a client that is looking for something creative. They always want a blank, perfectly exposed photo that shows everything in the frame ‘clearly’ (no shadows or whatsoever). Stock photo sites only work for people that are comfortable generating images than creating them. This is why they don’t make any sense for an artist."

"...to sell stock you have to think with a advertiser’s or designer’s mind. What will work for them as they are designing in their agency. What appeals to a large audience. I think different people have different luck selling stock. I’m new to selling stock. A month or so in. i have 8 images on one site and so far have made 14 sales. Subject matter, lighting and usability are key. Most of my images are on a simple white background. I think I will continue. I had an advantage, several years with advertising agencies and a degrees in both media advertising and graphic design. Rather than buying books on stock photography I think new micro stockers should invest in a couple of good advertising and design books."

#3 Hasilkan gambar dari sudut pandang seorang pengiklan atau designer. Mereka adalah klien tertinggi agensi-agensi stock photo. Stock photo bukan ruang untuk berkreatif atau berseni. Fikirkan gambar yang klien mahu, bukan yang anda suka.                                                              

#4 Hasilkan gambar yang bermakna, jelas & terang. Jika anda perhatikan, kebanyakan gambar stokadalah berlatarbelakangkan warna putih atau plain.                                                                                                                                      

"I started doing microstock last year Jan 2013, on the first 5 months after my initial submission i hardly have sale at all, my first month is only $0.50, i’m very frustrated over it, it made me giving up submit photos to the stock site in my first 5 month..if i remember correctly, i have less than 40 photos in my portfolio in the first 5 months an earned only $12.76. I started to get serious submitting again in the middle of May 2013, the more i submitted the more sales/downloads i got and it boost up my motivation so i keep submitting, at the time i commenting here i have 433 photos in my port. I finally got my first payment $124.00 on the month of August 2013 (threshold payment is $100). My sales is doing good ever since except for December 2013 since i didn’t reach threshold payment. My experience is based on one microstock website only, and if anyone interested to know, my portfolio is mostly landscape/nature/travel photos."

"I have been a professional stock photographer for a number of years. One thing you need to remember is that it’s a numbers game. The more images, providing they have the quality and content, the more you will sell. I’m with 10 agencies, with approximately 15,000 images on each. I found sales proved dramatically at around the 3,000 image mark, less than that was quite painful! I do know photographers with 1,000/2,000 image portfolios that make money – but not a living!"

"...I would like to point out you cant make any statistic by uploading only 8 pictures, some stock sites will not even take you serious and put you in their search engine with that small portfolio, sorry to say. I am also new to stock photography I have 95 pictures, it took me around 50 pic. to be avalaible in Bigstocks search engine, Depositphoto, 123rf and Fotolia I got sales after uploading 20 pic. or so. but you have to “Feed The Beat” means you have to continuarly uploading pic. otherwise you will loose your search ranking with your whole portfolio, I am now selling 2-3 pic. a week with my tiny portfolio I am uploading to 5 stock sites. I am in the stock business not for the money, but for the chanlenge the requierments to get your pic. approved are high, when I started I had an acception rate at 50% and now I am up on 95% on most sites, stock photography is in my opinion the best way for a newbee to improve, because you have messureable result, instead of uploading to photo sites where everybody is telling how awesome your work is, even you know it cant be true, with stock photography you know people like your picture when they find their credit card and pay for your pic. Just my opinion on stock photography. I dont really earn money, but it push me to perform my best.   

#5 Kuncinya adalah konsisten! Semakin banyak dan kerap gambar dihantar, semakin tinggi kedudukan gambar anda dalam senarai carian, semakin tinggi peluang gambar terjual.                                                              

#6 Stock photography juga adalah peluang untuk menambahbaik skill anda sebagai jurugambar dari semasa ke semasa; teknik shooting, props & styling, pencahayaan dan sebagainya.                                                                                                                                                                                               

"I am researching on stock image sites and just stumbled over this conversation . Only recently did I start with Shutterstock. I was accepted at the end of December. I had about 10 or more vector images and still keeping up with the hopes for sales, I started adding more and had even more sales. So for now I have about 15 sales only on Shutterstock! For the last few days I researched for more stock sites and registered there too.  

So far I realised that the more you spread your work over the web, the more you keep it fresh and updated, you verify your keywords often to make sure they acurately spot the idea of the image, you should gradually build a stable and full portfolio, experience and soon your images would sell even more and would bring you higher income (which happens after some conditions, like 500 downloads, etc).  

No one says that you should actually provide enough income for the first several years, but if you’re consistent and persistant, also creative (and most of all – work something else, and the income from the stock images would be like a bonus  ), you would be pretty happy in the end.   I may be in this for the last almost 2 months, but I see the progress, because I add more and more. If you have only 8 images or photos waiting for them to do miracles, that’s wrong!  

So, you lose when you admit to yourself that you lost.  And besides, every old stock photographer and image maker started from scratch!  "

#7 Luaskan wilayah jajahan anda. Hantar gambar ke serata agensi stock photo! Shutterstock, 123RF, Dreamstime, Fotolia dan banyak lagi!

#8 Jangan mudah menyerah kalah! Gambar ditolak, hantar pula yang lain, ditolak lagi, hantar yang lain lagi sehinggalah gambar anda diterima. Yang penting, selidik mengapa gambar anda ditolak. Kebiasaannya, agensi-agensi akan memberitahu sebab gambar anda tidak diterima.

Berita sedih, gambar ML baru sahaja lepas kena reject oleh agensi stock photo kerana chromatic aberration T_T. Terlepas pandang pula. Berita gembiranya kesemua gambar itu sudah berjaya diterima semula! Yang penting jangan berputus asa, betulkan apa yang tidak kena dan hantar semula. 

Pengajarannya, pastikan zoom gambar anda 100%, lagi baik 200% - 400% untuk pastikan tiada habuk yang melampau, noise, chromatic aberration dsb.

Terima kasih kerana sudi membaca! Semoga anda berjaya menjana wang dengan stock photo anda!

Topup Celcom Murah!

Kali ni MalayLight(ML) nak share pula bagaimana dan di mana boleh dapatkan topup untuk Celcom dengan harga yang jauh lebih murah dari pasaran. Dengan diskaun sebanyak RM6!

Tetapi hanya untutk Celcom RM30 sahaja. Ha, banyak kan? Celcom RM100 pun ada dan lagi tinggi diskaunnya, iaitu sebanyak RM20!

Caranya ialah dengan mendapatkannya di Lazada. Dan masukkan Voucher Code sebelum membuat pembayaran.

Jika anda perhatikan review pelanggan-pelanggan di atas, ramai yang mengadu tidak berjaya mendapatkan rebate RM6. Kemungkinan besar mereka tidak menggunakan voucher code semasa membuat pembayaran dan menyangka RM6 akan dipulangkan semula setelah pembayaran langsai. Kerana itu juga sangkaan ML pada mulanya.

Lazada hanya menyatakan RM6 rebate tetapi tidak memberitahu perlu menggunakan voucher untuk mendapatkannya. Jadi, pengajarannya selidiklah dahulu ya sebelum duit melayang.

Voucher code ini sentiasa berubah-ubah, jadi anda perlu sentiasa alert.
Voucher code TOPUP & TP20 sudah expired.
Untuk setakat tarikh hari ini, 21 May 2016, code nya ialah MAY20X.

Berjaya!

Cara-cara menggunakan voucher code boleh rujuk post di sini.

Sekian untuk kali ini. Jika ada apa2 kemusykilan, sila kemukakan di ruangan komen ya!
Kalau ada maklumat boleh dapatkan topup murah di tempat lain pun, share2 lah dengan kami.

Terima kasih kerana sudi membaca!

Jangan Lupa Guna Voucher Lazada

Buat anda yang ingin membeli belah di Lazada, jangan sesekali lupa menggunakan voucher. Macam-macam voucher ada. Perhatikan terms and conditions nya ya. Tak semua voucher boleh digunakan untuk sebarangan.

Contoh di atas adalah voucher bagi pelanggan baru sahaja. Bagi pelanggan yang telah mendaftar, mereka hanya layak menggunakan voucher ini sekali sahaja sepanjang hayat.

Selalu-selalulah ya jenguk websites yang menawarkan voucher Lazada, antaranya ialah:

https://iprice.my/ 
http://www.flipit.com/my/ 
http://shopcoupons.my/ 
http://www.vouchercodes.com.my/

Voucher-voucher ini kebanyakannya ada tarikh luput. Maka, sekiranya semasa anda masukkan voucher code ini di ruangnya, dan yang terkeluar ialah Sorry, this voucher has expired. 
Jangan menangis pula ya. Cuba lagi di lain hari! Kalau tidak urgent lah.

Ok, ini cara-cara menggunakan voucher Lazada. Setelah selesai isi kesemua maklumat anda, terus kepada payment dan ikuti langkah di bawah. Jangan place order dulu ya.

Klik 'Apply here'

Masukkan voucher code di ruangan 'Enter voucher here' dan klik 'Apply'

Dah masukkan voucher code, baru place order. Ok?

Dapat diskaun RM1.60!

Ya, inilah produk yang diceritakan dalam entry lepas, boleh ke sini untuk lihat review.

Ini contoh yang berjaya guna voucher. Jimat kan? Selamat memburu voucher!

Lazada Spin "N" Store 49 Pieces Food Storage Set

Alkisahnya, peti sejuk mula bersepah dan bercampur aduk bekas makanan yang berbagai rupa dan ragam. Maka, puas duk mencari bekas makanan ni. Supaya sedaplah mata memandang tatkala pintu peti sejuk dibuka.

Cari punya cari, (lama juga mencari) nak pulak yang harganya murah, kualiti pun nak lah ok juga kan, akhirnya ketemu dengan bekas Spin "N" Store 49 Pieces Food Storage Set di Lazada.

Mula-mula, terjumpa dengan yang warna penutupnya biru (gambar kanan). Terus jatuh cinta, tapi saja lah pergi klik 'other options', keluarlah si merah (gambar atas), tengok2 lagi murah harganya! RM32!

Walau hati berkenan dengan yang biru, tapi disebabkan harganya yang lebih mahal, RM39, maka si merah lah yang diangkut masuk ke CART. RM7 boleh beli macam-macam tau.

(update, hari ini 14 Mei 2016, kedua2 warna harga sama, RM35)
Jadi, kena lah rajin2 cek selalu dengan Lazada ni, harganya memang sentiasa berubah2.
Setakat hari ini, dah 2 bulan guna, so far so good.

Hah! Lagi 1, jangan terpedaya dengan nombor yang banyak tu, 49 pieces! Ya, memang betul 49 pieces, tetapi termasuk penutup dan stand holder/spinner. Maka, jumlah bekasnya adalah 24. Kena teliti bab ini, takut2 anda terbayangkan 49 bekas dan kecewa di kemudian hari. Hihi.

Kesimpulannya,

What's in the box?

• 8 bekas 8 oz (~200 g)
• 8 bekas 16 oz (~400 g)
• 8 bekas 24 oz (~600 g)
• 24 penutup satu saiz
• 1 carousel stand holder

Apa yang best?

• Ada tanda penyukat di sisi
• Boleh untuk oven dan peti sejuk
• Penutup satu saiz, memang memudahkan!
• Tempat penyimpan boleh putar
• Comel! 

Yang tak best? Mestilah ada, tak semua benda sempurna.

• Disebabkan saiznya yang kecil, maka groceries yang bersaiz besar tak sesuai dimuatkan dalamnya. Seperti terung, timun, tembikai (ops!)
• Nak menutupnya tak semudah seperti dalam video (lihat di bawah), tapi masih boleh ditutup dengan kemas.
• Tak ada instruction untuk pasang carousel stand holder, tapi disebabkan tak susah mana pun nak pasang, maka dimaafkan lah. 
• 
  

                                   49Pcs Spin N Store | AsSeenOnTvMalaysia | Asot Malaysia


Ini antara review pelanggan2 di page Lazada, boleh membaca selebihnya di Lazada.
So, selamat menimbang-nimbang ya.

Oh, ya. Kalau anda terima item dalam keadaan rosak, cepat-cepat contact customer service mereka. Setakat pengalaman berurusan dengan mereka, servis mereka boleh tahan bagus. Gunakan hak anda sebagai pengguna bijak, dan gunakan bahasa yang berhemah, insyaAllah mereka akan layan dengan berhemah juga.


Spin "N" Store 49 Pieces Food Storage Set