What, where and how?!

Are you a photographer, an animator, 3D modeler or a vector artist? Would you like to increase your income significantly and gain more creative freedom? I'm sure you do :) and I will try to show you how to do it.
It's not very easy, but with enough motivation and hard work every professional artist is capable of getting a maximum revenue for his creative effort. I'm talking about selling your creative work through specialized websites. The thing I most like about this way of earning your money is the fact that the system evaluates very well your skills and talent. The better you are, the harder you work the more money you will earn. Also this is a global market, so it’s a great opportunity for many talented people from developing countries, to work and live the way a creative and talented person deserves.

There are three areas I will like to cover on this site. The first one is the area I’m most proficient with - 3D models. I’m a 3D artist with several years of professional experience and that was the obvious choice for me to start selling creative content. Lately I started to sell rendered illustrations and animations on a dozen of stock image and footage sites. This seems like another great way to increase my earnings, but those sites should be most interesting for professional photographers and filmmakers.
The 3D market is still very ‘young’ and immature in terms of the way the sites work, the amount of traffic and sales. You will not find some useful features that are available on most of the stock image/footage sites. But already there are serious money to be made in the 3D market. Despite hundreds of thousands of models there are still a lot of niches and opportunities for creative artists.

The second area is the stock photography market. This is BIG business - millions of photos, thousands of photographers, huge traffic and a lot of customers. On some of the sites the level is very high and even talented photographers find it difficult to get their images approved. Still there are many niches and one should look for some interesting topics or visual styles that might be of interest for potential clients. Most stock photography sites sell vector art and illustrations as well and those areas are probably better for newcomers to the market. Except artistic skill you need professional equipment as low quality photos won’t be accepted by any of the major sites.

The third area is stock footage, VJ loops and any other “motion” content. This market is also pretty new, but growing quite fast. Currently there are just a handful of sites that are devoted purely to motion content. This market is also very promising with many niches and various opportunities.
All markets have a lot of room for expansion and I expect to see a boost of interest in the years to come. Computer games, interactive television, third generation mobiles even the e-paper, they will all increase demand for graphical content.
For now before I go into detail about the pros and cons of each site, feel free to use the links I provide in the side bar to start selling (or buying) content.