Introduction: The “Boring” Money Maker
When people get access to tools like Midjourney, their first instinct is to create dragons, cyber-cities, and magical forests. They post these on Instagram, get a few likes, and make zero dollars
Why? Because businesses don’t buy pictures of dragons
Marketing agencies, bloggers, and corporations buy pictures of “people shaking hands”, “healthy salads”, and “solar panels”
The stock photography market has undergone a massive shift. Major platforms like Adobe Stock and 123RF now accept AI-generated content, provided it is labeled correctly. This presents a massive opportunity for [leveraging AI for extra cash] without needing a 3,000$ camera or lighting equipment
The Strategy: Generic is Gold
To succeed in stock, you must think like a buyer. A buyer usually searches for a concept, not art
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The “Diversity” Niche: Corporations need imagery that represents diversity. AI allows you to generate business meetings with specific demographics that might be hard to hire models for
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The “Hard to Shoot” Niche: Aerial views of futuristic cities, microscopic views of cells, or cross-sections of machinery. These are expensive to photograph but free to generate
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The “Texture” Niche: Wood grain, marble surfaces, crumpled paper. Designers use these constantly for backgrounds
Platform Requirements & Technicals
You cannot just upload raw files. The quality control on Adobe Stock is strict
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Resolution: Midjourney defaults are too small. You must upscale your images to at least 4MP (Megapixels)
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Aspect Ratio: Standard photography ratios sell best. Use
--ar 3:2(landscape) or--ar 2:3(portrait). Don’t use square (1:1) as often, as it’s less versatile for designers -
The “AI” Checkbox: When you upload, you must tick the box that says “Created using Generative AI tools” If you lie, you will be banned permanently
The Metadata Game
Your image is useless if nobody finds it. Stock sites are search engines
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Titles: Be literal. “Golden Retriever dog running in a park with a tennis ball”
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Keywords: Use all 49 tags allowed. Include: generative ai, illustration, concept, 3d render, no people, background
If you hate writing keywords, you can actually use the strategy from our prompt engineering guide to have ChatGPT analyze your image and generate a list of 50 relevant keywords for you
Culling: Quality over Quantity
In the beginning, people flooded Adobe Stock with thousands of bad images. The algorithm now penalizes this
Do not upload 50 variations of the same prompt. Pick the best 3. Check for “AI Weirdness”—does the person have 6 fingers? Is the text on the sign gibberish? Photoshop these errors out, or discard the image. A portfolio with a high acceptance rate ranks higher than a spammy one
Conclusion: The Long Game
Stock photography is a volume game, but it compounds. An image you upload today might sell once a month for the next five years. Once you build a portfolio of 1,000+ high-quality assets, the passive income becomes significant
It is the perfect hustle for the visual perfectionist who prefers working with files rather than clients