Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it’s our ticket to Paris. It’s our means to a stress-free life on our own terms – waking up when we want… in whichever state or country we choose to live. Curiosity is our biggest tool against fear. At one of our live workshops I once saw an attendee’s camera blow up in her face, ruin her chance at a modeling career, destroy her creative outlet because she became immensely afraid of cameras and ultimately destroy her marriage because her husband only loved her for her photos. Yes, I’m kidding. That never happened. And it’s never going to happen. Sometimes after we work through our fears we realize how ridiculous they are. My mother used to say – What are they going to do? Take away your birthday? And she’s right. What’s the worst that can happen if you apply for acceptance to an online stock agency? Will your camera explode? Will your husband leave you? Will they take away your birthday? No. None of those things will happen. In fact, it’s more likely you’ll experience the complete opposite… You’ll find you love to shoot photos with a stock photography theme. Your skills will improve. You’ll start making money. You can use that money to travel. You can use that money to buy a new car. You can put that money away for retirement. You can relax knowing that you have a second income coming in even while you’re out doing other things – attending birthday parties, planning reunions, playing golf, traveling. This is where curiosity comes in. You might be afraid of rejection — sending your photos to an online stock agency could mean they get rejected. But I bet you’re also curious about the kind of money you can make if you just set aside some time to go through with it and submit a few photos. So encourage your curiosity this week to overcome your fear. Go online to any one of these agencies TONIGHT and start the application process to submit your photos… Istockphoto.com Shutterstock.com Dreamstime.com Fotolia.com Bigstockphoto.com Getting started is the hardest part. Submit your application photos and if you get accepted – GREAT! That’s one less thing on your to-do list and you’ll have conquered your fear realizing it wasn’t even that scary to start with. The process is actually very simple. And if you submit your application photos and you get rejected – don’t worry. Join the rest of the 90% of photographers who got rejected their first time. Take a deep breath, realize that applying was much easier than you thought it would be and use that strength to take the next step — figuring out what’s wrong with your images. Doing this can be just as scary AND just as easy. It’s one of those things that sounds challenging but when you get into it, it’s really not that hard. In fact, the FREE Breakfast Stock Club newsletter can help. It includes tips, news, and motivation to help you get started selling your photos as stock fast. And you can sign up today here. You can go it alone. Or with The Breakfast Stock Club newsletter, we can help. But one thing’s for sure, if you never try, you’ll never succeed. Don’t wait. Apply to at least one (but preferably three ) microstock sites from the list above. We’ll talk more later this week about what to do next. [Editor’s Note: Learn more about how you can turn your pictures into cash in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel. Sign up here today and we’ll send you a new report, Selling Photos for Cash: A Quick-Start Guide, completely FREE.]
