In the last few years, many services and agencies have sprung up, selling stock photography in the form of rights to digital images taken by both professional and amateur photographers. Follow these tips from professional Scott Stulberg, to maintain control over your art while making money for all your hard work.

Tip #1: Choose Royalty-free Image Sales

Royalty-free images are those that a client may purchase the "indefinite rights" to, allowing them to use your image as they see fit, without additional compensation to you, in perpetuity. While this does often generate a somewhat higher price, it is probably far less than you might garner if you'd sold that image several times over.

Many of the larger agencies, such as Getty Images and Corbis, offer a variety of packages to their buyers. While they do offer some images as royalty-free, most are leased for a time, or for a specific use. In this scheme, using an image on a website costs someone far less than using it as a magazine cover several hundred thousands of times. Mid- and low-range agencies and stock services may give you no choice but to allow your images to be offered as royalty-free.

Tip #2: Use Micro-Stock Services

A far better way to make a recurrent income from your quality images is to use micro-stock services when selling stock photography. The fees paid for using images, very often for web or print purposes, are done on a per use basis, generating a potentially unlimited income. You could even have two clients using the same image at the same time, since the files may be sold for specific uses, such as a 100,000 run of your picture on the interior of a magazine, or as the banner of a website.

More often, however, you'll be paid about $5 per image use. This works best if you have a large number of suitable images to put up for rent. While some professionals are used to making a lot more with their work, on a per image basis, this can turn into a nice little income stream for those just getting started.

Tip #3: Use More than One Agency

Most photographers use more than one agency to sell their photos. You may use very similar photos with each agency, though you may not use the same photos most of the time. However, you may be registered with as many agencies as you like. Professional photographers are often with as many as 5 different big name stock agencies.

Some stock photo agencies have a speciality and you might find yourself taking pictures specifically for that market. Agencies that specialize in sport or working environment pictures are a good example of specific focus areas that are common when selling stock photography.

To learn more about how to keep better control over images when selling stock photography, visit 7PhotographyQuestions.com!