Is Investing in Stock Photos Worth the Splurge? An Honest Styled Stock Society Review

In this day and age, having a strong online presence is key to the success of any business.

Whether you’re a blogger or a entrepreneur, having great visuals is an essential piece of that puzzle, and gorgeous stock photos can be just what you need to bring your website to life!

Your branding is so important, and having quality photos is the perfect way to show your professionalism and give visitors a better sense of who you are.

If you’re anything like me, finding images that accurately represents what you’re trying to portray while still being aesthetically pleasing can be challenging. And it’s not always possible to take your own photos either, so stock photos are an invaluable resource.

Styled Stock Society Review

That’s why I’ve been loving Styled Stock Society lately. They make it easy to find the perfect stock photo for any project.

With their membership plans, you get access to thousands of feminine images that you can use on your website or blog without having to worry about copyright issues.

And so I’ve written an honest Styled Stock Society review for you.

But wait…

Are stock photos ok to use on your blog? Doesn’t Google prefer the use of original photos?

Look, original photos are always going to be favoured over stock images, but if you can’t get your hands on them, stock photos are a great alternative.

Plus, you can make any image your own by editing and branding them with your own style on Canva.

You might also like:

Styled Stock Society review pinterest pin

Full disclosure! See those links below? These are affiliate links. If you happen to click on one of these and purchase something I recommend, I’ll get a small commission (wohoo). Don’t worry, this is at no extra cost to you (in fact, often I’ll have some discounts you can enjoy!). As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying sales. You can read my full disclaimer here.

What are stock photos

You’ve probably seen these images just about everywhere – the smiling family of four around a dinner table or the shot of two business people shaking hands. These are stock photos.

They’re generic pictures that anyone can purchase to use in media, advertising, websites and more.

While at times derided as cliched and uncreative, oftentimes stock photos can be an incredibly useful tool – providing ready-made visuals for projects. They’re especially useful when resources are limited. Like if you don’t have tools or items to take photos of yourself, or you don’t have the time to go and find a photographer.

Styled Stock Society images

There are two types of stock photos you can use:

Free stock photos: such as those found on Canva, Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash. You have access to hundreds of thousands of photos, but there is a very big chance you’ll stumble across the same image elsewhere and your photo won’t be unique. In fact, often you’ll find the same image across all of these sites.

Premium stock photos: where you pay for images. This is where the likes of stock photography membership sites such as Ivory Mix, Social Squares and Styled Stock Society comes in. They offer membership plans, where you have access to thousands of high-quality images that are unique and exclusive to their site. The benefit of using paid stock photos is that you know there is a lower chance of coming across the same image somewhere else.

Who are stock photos for

Basically, anyone who needs images for their website, digital products blog posts, social media posts, digital marketing materials, Pinterest pins and more.

This can be anything from online business owners looking to spruce up their website with engaging visuals to bloggers and content creators looking for vibrant images to bring their ideas to life.

Who are Styled Stock Society

Styled Stock Society is a feminine stock photography platform that provides high-quality, stylish images, social media graphics, and templates to help businesses and creative entrepreneurs produce visually stunning content.

They offer a huge range of images that are perfect for creating eye-catching social media posts, blog graphics, email campaigns, and website designs.

Their stock library contains thousands of professional photos, including flat lays, mockups, and lifestyle photos, which are updated each week with new additions.

Styled Stock Society’s customer base is mostly made up of female entrepreneurs, bloggers, and small business owners who are looking to elevate their brand with high-quality, on-brand visuals.

What’s the benefit of using stock photography

Cost-effectiveness: Stock photography is generally more affordable than hiring a professional photographer or commissioning custom images, making it a great option for businesses and individuals on a budget.

Time-saving: Using stock images saves you time as they provide a wide selection of pre-shot images that are ready to use in your projects, without the need for extensive setup, location scouting, or post-production work.

Variety: Stock photography libraries offer a diverse range of images, covering many themes, styles, and subjects, giving you plenty of options to find the perfect image for your project.

Convenience: You can pretty well access stock photography online whenever you want, meaning you can quickly find and download the images you need at any time of the day or night.

Consistency: Stock images can help maintain consistency in branding, as you can select gorgeous photos that align with your brand’s style, color palette, and overall aesthetic.

What you get with Styled Stock Membership

A Styled Stock Society membership comes with access to a huge library of high-quality, professionally styled stock photos, graphics, and design templates. More specifically, with a membership, you get:

Members library access

Styled Stock Society’s extensive library includes access to thousands of styled stock images and stock video clips, with new styled photos added to the collection each Friday. The feminine stock photos cover a wide range of categories, from flat lay images to lifestyle shots and mockup templates. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely noticed the lack of stock videos out there!

Brandable Templates

Styled Stock Society brandable templates

With a SSS membership, you’ll also get access to a ton of customisable templates.

These Canva templates can be customised with your own branding, fonts and color palette, saving you a ton of time during the design process. You’ll be needing a Canva Pro account in order to use these templates but there are helpful video tutorials that show you step-by-step how to use them if you don’t already use Canva.

Sign up for Canva here.

Here’s what Styled Stock Society has in their templates library:

  • Instagram story templates
  • Blog graphic templates
  • Mood board templates
  • Workbook templates
  • Product mockup templates
  • Instagram reels templates
  • Pinterest pin templates
  • Promotional templates
  • Facebook graphic templates
  • Testimonial templates
  • Instagram post templates
  • Ebook templates
  • Youtube templates
  • Instagram highlights templates
  • Online course slide templates
  • Affiliate guide templates
  • Collaboration guide templates
  • Media kit templates
  • And Much More!

Honestly, I could keep going with this list but I think you get the idea! Styled Stock Society has a huge selection of template designs that can be used to create stunning visuals for your blog, business, and social media posts.

I use the social media templates the most to quickly create visually appealing posts for my social media feeds. All I have to do is change up the font and colours to match my own branding!

Monthly caption guides

This is probably one of my favourite features of Styled Stock Society. Each month they create a spreadsheet with a comprehensive caption guide that includes caption prompts for each day of the month. You’ll also get a template, an example and an image so all you need to do is post on social media!

Bonus Resources

Styled Stock Society bonuses

If all that wasn’t enough, Styled Stock Society also includes a range of bonuses as part of their membership, such as:

  • Monthly celebrations: when you log into your dashboard, you’ll be greeted with a list of monthly celebrations that you can use to post on social media and engage with your followers. For example, in February the list included ‘National Dark Chocolate Day’, ‘Valentine’s Day’, ‘National Random Act of Kindness Day’ and ‘National Drink Wine Day’ (wohoo!!).
  • Trending now: this section provides you with the latest trends and keywords that are currently trending. This is great for coming up with ideas for blog posts or social media content.
  • Marketing toolkits: this bonus includes a Flash Sale Toolkit, a Content Calendar Toolkit, a Webinar Toolkit and a Challenge Toolkit, to name just a few. Perfect for giving your business a boost!
  • Done for you graphics: You’ll even get over 200 graphics ready to post to Instagram without the necessity to edit.

How to find the perfect photo with Styled Stock Society

As mentioned before, there are a lot of stock images included in the SSS Membership. Over 7000, in fact. So, how do you find the perfect photo for your next blog post without having to trawl through them all?

First, you should start by taking a look at the categories. SSS have categorised all of their images into different sections: Workspace, Lifestyle, Travel, Food & Beverage, Nature, Wellness, and more. This makes it much easier to narrow down your search.

You can also use the keyword search function to find specific images. For example, if I’m looking for an image of a laptop with coffee cup on a desk, all I need to do is type in those keywords into the search bar, and voila!

Laptop with coffee mug and notebook

If you want to keep your photos looking consistent, you can also use the colour filter. This allows you to select an image with a particular colour palette.

Styled Stock Society colour filter

An incredible search feature that I just have to mention is the People filter. You have the option to choose images with no people, one person, or multiple people. You can also choose images specifically with people of colour.

SSS People Filter

Depending on what orientation image you’re looking for, you can search for the following options:

  • Portrait Images
  • Horizontal Images
  • Square Images

The last thing I want to point out about searching for stock photos with Styled Stock Society is the use of collections. Collections are groups of similar images and styles that have been curated by the Styled Stock Society team. This means you can find all related images in one place.

Styled Stock Society Collections

What are the stock photo membership options?

Styled Stock Society review - membership plans

Quarterly membership

If you don’t have the price of a full yearly membership to hand, you can also go for a quarterly plan. This option includes access to everything mentioned above and costs $120 (working out at $40 per month). This is billed to you every 3 months.

Click here to find out more about SSS Quarterly Membership

Annual membership

If you want to get the best bang for your bucks, then the annual plan is the plan you’ll want. It allows you to save 3 months on fees and you pay once a year. The cost of the annual membership is $360, making it the best value for money.

Click here to find out more about SSS Annual Membership

Agency membership

The agency plan is more suited to businesses and designers who have multiple users. The only difference between this and the other plans is that you get a multi-user licence rather than a single-user licence. This plan costs $600 per year.

Click here to find out more about SSS Agency Membership

Is there a lifetime option?

The answer to this is a bit ambiguous. While it’s not advertised on their website, at times Styled Stock Society open up the doors to their lifetime membership. This gives lifetime access to all of their content for one single payment and it’s by far the best value for money. The cost of the lifetime plan is $800 once-off, or $750 if you’re upgrading from another plan.

Click here to get the SSS Lifetime Membership

As soon as you sign up for any of the above plans, you’ll have instant access to their vast library and will have unlimited downloads available to you.

What’s not to like?

Honesty, not much! But since this is an honest review, there are a few things I have to point out.

The first one is the lack of video content. While they mainly focus on stock images, Styled Stock Society do offer some video content as part of their membership. But it’s fairly limited in comparison to other services that focus on this type of content.

The second issue I have is the cost. While it’s definitely on the lower end of the spectrum compared to other stock photo services, some may still find it too expensive for their needs. This can be especially true if you’re a small business or an individual just starting out. I’d love to see them offer a more cost-effective plan for those just starting out – perhaps limited access but for a smaller monthly fee.

SIGN UP TO STYLED STOCK SOCIETY HERE

Not yet ready to sign up?

I get it, you want to be sure before making a commitment. But if that’s the case, you can always sign up for their free styled stock photos – totally risk-free!

Get your free stock photos here

Styled Stock Society review: Is it worth the splurge?

I totally get that investing in stock photos can seem daunting and it’s tempting to just grab free pictures from anywhere on the web, but trust me when I say that it’s worth the splurge.

Having access to unique, beautiful photos is essential for creating a professional and cohesive brand look. And with all the features included in a membership, you can’t go wrong with Styled Stock Society. Plus, the bonus templates and caption guides make it super simple to create gorgeous visuals with minimal effort.

The bottom line is that if you’re looking for an affordable and high-quality stock photo service, Styled Stock Society is definitely worth the splurge!​

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