How to sell photos online
If you are a professional photographer or even an amateur photographer, you can earn good money by selling your photos online, where you can display the private and exclusive photos that you have photographed in a good way for sale. Yes, my friend, there are a lot of people who are willing to pay money to get a good picture in their field, and this is nothing new in the field of selling pictures. Selling photographs has become a respectable profession that you can rely on excellently, especially if you are a professional photographer.
In the age of the Internet, making money has become very simple. Where there are a lot of multiple and simple areas that can be learned quickly and then start making money from them. One of these areas is the area of selling photos for a few dollars. You can turn your passion and hobby for visualization into a profitable business. Here comes the role of the photo sale site in facilitating the buying and selling process.
If these sites receive millions of visitors per month and display your work or photos, and if a purchase is made, the site deducts its share, which may reach 50% of the value of the image, in exchange for exposure to your photos on its site, and this may seem fair.
The Best Sites to Sell Photos
The 10 Best Places to Sell Photos Online:
1. Alamy
Alamy boasts a huge variety of salable stock photos. Alamy is the most diverse site in the world, with over 215 million stock photos, vectors, videos, and 360-degree panoramas. You can sell anything from everyday photos to designs and more. The platform has more than 60,000 contributors around the world and more than 110,000 buyers.
It also offers the Stockimo app, where you can sell photos from your iPhone and earn extra cash from your selfies. The site pays contributors monthly and has a direct payment structure. If your photos are exclusive to Alamy, you get 50% of direct sales. But if the photos are not exclusive, you get 40% of all direct sales.
2. 500px
500px hosts millions of photographers who sell their photos through this amazing platform. This site has over a million customers around the world and is the number one choice for creative content. All content provided on the site is royalty-free, which means that it is licensed for permanent and unlimited use. The price also depends on the file size.
500px is also a community platform for amateur and professional photographers. You can follow other photographers, list your photos in their marketplaces, and participate in Photo Quest competitions to get loads of prizes. You can earn up to 60% royalties on exclusive photos and a 30% commission on non-exclusive photos.
3. SmugMug Professional
Whether you are a new or professional photographer, SmugMug can help you sell your photos online with a great selection, sales platform, and tools to help you grow. It is one of the best photo-selling sites. SmugMug also lets you keep 85% of the profits between the price you set and SmugMug's default print prices.
You'll need to sign up for a monthly membership, which costs you a minimum of $200 per year on the Wallet plan. The plan also gives you access to several e-commerce tools to help sell photos online.
4. Shutterstock
Shutterstock is one of the most popular online photo sites. The platform has paid over a billion dollars to its community in the past 15 years, and your photos can be viewed by millions of customers if they are posted on the platform. Shutterstock is a powerful platform where images are cheaper and non-exclusive, and the main way to increase your downloads is by contributing a large number of images that can be used as visual metaphors.
Don't expect to earn much here, but it's a good place to start if you're learning and just want to experiment with selling stock photos. Payouts depend on your earnings over time and range from 20% to 30%. There is also a referral program, where you can earn extra money if you refer new photographers or clients.
5. iStock Photo
iStock Photo is an offshoot of Getty Images. The main difference between the two is that your iStock photos are not exclusive, which means you can sell your photos to other agencies as well.
This means that you earn much less commission from exclusive photos. The commission ranges from 15% to 45% depending on whether the photos are exclusive or non-exclusive.
6. Etsy
If you want to sell photographs online, opening a photography store on Etsy might be a great option for you. It's easy to get started as you can sell prints and the site takes only 5% of the transaction price, including the shipping cost you select. If you receive payments through Etsy Payments, they also collect a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee after the printout is sold.
The difference between Etsy and other places to sell pictures online is that most people won't come looking for ready-made pictures. So you'll need to invest in your designs and in marketing your store on Etsy to get the most out of the platform. With a small deduction from each sale, it may be worth your energy. As a result, it is an excellent choice for both experienced and inexperienced photographers.
7. Getty Images
Getty Images is one of the best photo-selling sites on the Internet, ranking at the bottom of the top 10 sites. The site attracts brands and publishers who are looking for high-quality or hard-to-find exclusive images for licensing.
The platform, along with its iStock micro-site, reaches more than 1.5 million customers around the world. You are expected to grow up and become a better contributor than many other stock photography sites. However, Getty Images' licensed image prices start at 20% and can go as high as 45%.
8. Stocksy
Stocksy is a medium-sized photography website that is popular with publishers and creators. When you become a Stocksy contributor, you can get high payouts—photographers can earn 50% equity on standard licenses and 75% equity on extended licenses.
But all the images are 100% exclusive, which means you cannot reuse them on other image websites. Stocksy is also an artist-owned collaborative platform, which means you get partial ownership of the work and can help control its direction. Shareholders can also be able to share profits in the form of returns when the cooperation has to return a surplus. Amounts are determined based on your contributions to the collaboration through the sale of your photos and/or videos.
9. Can Stock Photos
Over 92,000+ photographers sell their photos online through the Can Stock Photo platform. Many payment methods range from percentages to fixed amounts.
This site also gives you $5 for every 50 photos your referral sells. When you sell photos on Can Stock Photo, it also lists your photos for sale on photo search, a photography agency.
10. Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock is one of the best places to sell images online for free because when you list the images for sale on the platform, they are also displayed on the Fotolia platform. If you already use the Adobe suite for other creative projects, you can add photos, videos, designs, or illustrations to Adobe Stock directly from Adobe Lightroom CC, Adobe Bridge CC, and across the web.
When you sell photos on Adobe Stock, you can reach millions of buyers and discover the world's largest creative community within their favorite apps. And you can earn a 33% commission on the photos you sell through them.
Summary
If you are a professional photographer or even an amateur, you can earn good money by selling your photos online. Selling photographs has become a respectable profession that you can rely on. The 10 Best Sites to Sell Photos Online are: Alamy, 500px, Photobucket, iStockphoto, StumbleUpon, and more. 500px hosts millions of photographers who sell their photos through this amazing platform. All content provided on the site is royalty-free, which means that it is licensed for permanent and unlimited use.
You can earn up to 60% royalties on exclusive photos and a 30% commission on non-exclusive photos. Your iStock photos are an offshoot of Getty Images, but your iStock photos are not exclusive, meaning you can sell them to other agencies. If you want to sell photographs online, opening a photography store on Etsy might be a great option for you. The difference between Etsy and other places to sell pictures online is that most people won't come looking for ready-made pictures. Getty Images is one of the best photo-selling sites on the Internet, ranking at the bottom of the top 10 sites.
When you sell photos on Can Stock Photo, it also lists your photos for sale on Fotolia. Adobe Stock is one of the best places to sell images online for free. If you already use the Adobe suite for other creative projects, you can add photos, videos, designs, or illustrations to Adobe Stock directly from Adobe Lightroom CC, Adobe Bridge CC, and across the web.