I know there are a bunch of stock photography sites out there; and there have been numerous debates on stock photo sites versus microstock sites, and whether or not it’s a viable way for photographers to make some money from their photographs. Some photographers simply refuse to sell their photographs via microstock sites, and some even refuse to do stock photography at all. That may be because there are not a lot of good opportunities for amateur photographers to make any decent money with stock photography. A new kid on the block, StockPhotoDirect.com, aims to change that.

EchoArts, owned by a friend of mine - Stewart Reynolds, has been offering online services since 1998 with a long-standing tradition of excellent customer service (he usually retuns my emails within hours, if not minutes). Last week EchoArts announced that they have launched StockPhotoDirect.com and PhotographyCorner.com was one of the first sites to get a sneak peak; and while they’re small and just starting out, so far I like what I see. There are lots of opportunites to submit photographs (they just launched, so their current library is very small), and with a simple and easy to use interface, you can not only upload individual files, but they also have a great batch-uploader so that you can upload a bunch of files in one go.

That’s all fine and dandy… but how much do they pay? I’ll let Stewart answer that one for me:

A lot of other stock photography sites offer photographers 50%, 30% or less each time one of their photographs sell. 70% commissions positions StockPhotoDirect.com as one of the most lucrative stock photo sites online by offering some of the highest payouts for images sold. The best thing, though, is that they’re not a microstock site, and they are a microstock site. Confused? Well, they’ve merged the 2 together. They offer small images to consumers for as inexpensive as $1 (which means $.70 of that goes to the photographer), but as the size of the image increases, you can earn a lot more - like $50 per photo or more (which means $35 goes to you, the photographer). All in all, it’s a great deal for consumers buying images, and a good percentage offered to photographers who are providing the photographs.

As I mentioned previously, I know the owner, Stewart Reynolds, and he’s told me he’d be happy to answer any questions you may have and will get back to you as soon as possible. You can contact their support here. If you’ve got some photographs that you think could make some money with stock photography, or that you’re already selling on other stock sites, why not give StockPhotoDirect.com a try, too. Once you’ve given it a try, I would love to hear your feedback (and I’m sure Stewart would appreciate it as well) in the comments.