Making Money with Referrals
One of the most overlooked methods of making mone with microstock agencies like Fotolia and 123RF is to take part in their referral programs. While it may sound easy at first, you need to understand a few things about why agencies offer refferal programs and which programs will really work out best in the end.
Top Referral Programs
In our first table I list some of the best microstock referral programs availible today. Each part of their program is important. A referral program needs to pay a good percentage for a long time in order to be effective. You don't want to spend a great deal of time getting a great referral only lose out on the referral money after 3 months.| Agency | Percent /Terms | Duration | Cookie |
| Fotolia | 15% Designer / Buyer 10% Photographer / Seller | 5 Years | 15 Days |
| Fotolia is generally the most attractive referral program out there, a long 5 year period means that if you can get a few busy graphic designers under you, you can significantly increase your income for a long period. | |||
| Shutterstock | 20% Designer / Buyer 10% Seller | Buyer : Only first sale Seller: Permanent | 30 days |
| This would be my second pick for a top referral program, especially for photographers. On the buyer side, we don’t see many referrals, but when we get them, they are VERY NICE, generally $30-$40 per referral | |||
| Dreamstime | 10% Designer / Buyer 10% Photographer | 3 years | 30 days |
| Dreamstime recently improved their referral program by going form 1 year to three years. This is greatly important for photographer referrals where it often takes longer to build a large portfolio. | |||
| 123RF | 15% Designer / Buyer 10% Photographer / Seller | Buyer: 1 year Seller: 6 months | 1 Year |
| While the buyer referral program is very attractive, a 6 month photographer referral programs is not worth much. | |||
About the Photographers
We have learned a lot in the last two years about referring photographers. In many ways it seems better than buyers, because photographers should be ongoing income where buyers can just stop buying after the first package. However, remember that it takes a photographer 1-2 years to get a good portfolio together (unless he/she has it already in place from other agencies). A photographer referral program for less than a year is not normally going to make you much money.
Other Agencies
There are many other agencies that offer excellent referral programs. We have tried to list many of them here. We are involved in some of these and have chosen not to participate in others. See the warnings below when trying to evaluate a program.
| Agency | Percent /Terms | Duration | Cookie |
| iStockPhoto | $10 first sale | Unkown | |
| LuckyOliver | $5 for first sale | Buyers: None (only first sale) | 30 Days |
| StockXpert | 10% Designer / Buyers | 3 months | 30 days |
| BigStockPhoto | 35% Designer $5.00 for 75 approved photos (Photographers) | Buyers: None (only first sale) | 60 Days |
| CanStockPhoto | 10% Designers / Buyers $5 for 50 photos sold | Buyers: 6 months Sellers: 6 months | 1 HOUR! |
| Albumo | 10% Designers / Buyers 10% Photographers | 1 Year | None |
| Fotomind | 25% Photographers | Permanent | 7 days |
| GeckoStock | 3% Designers | 6 months |
On the next page we'll look at this cookie thing and why its important. We'll also discuss a few of these programs and why they are made for success and failure.
- Image in this article is called www internet © Eric Martinez
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