Have you been thinking about building your own freelance business? Or you’re already on track but cannot take off because of photo management issues? Lighten up! Your concerns are actually relatable to many others who are also seeking ways to make money selling stock photos. It is after all a great way to supplement your income if you’re creative and want to make money through photography.
Why Should You Sell Stock Photography?
- You can choose how much time you want to invest in your business, whether it is a part-time job or a full-time business.
- You can create anything you want without restrictions.
- Although you may never be able to live off these photographs, once your stock photography income reaches a certain level, it can become quite substantial.
- Having a portfolio of stock photography can help you find employment as a freelance photographer.
You must have discipline and a strategy when selling stock photos online to earn a decent stream of passive income as a photographer. We’ve assembled this comprehensive guide to show you how to sell stock photos online. Let’s walk through this article with us to know more about how to sell stock photos and make money!
The 3 Different Types of Stock Photos
Stock photography is used in a wide range of applications including news reports, blogs, and websites, as well as for commercial and promotional purposes. Stock photographs are significantly cheaper than employing a photographer. They are accessible on websites with a large library of pictures so that purchasers can choose from a range of options. There are three kinds of stock photographs: macrostock, microstock, and midstock.
1. Macrostock
Macrostock photography is stock photography in its purest form. Pictures are sold at a premium price so that customers can keep them exclusively for themselves. Even though a macrostock image is not always completely exclusive, customers can purchase the same stock photo for a limited number of people.
2. Microstock
Microstock photography has a low price range as exclusivity is seldom provided. This method has grown in popularity as more stock agencies utilise technological advancements to establish themselves. Because exclusivity is not typically offered, microstock photography is inexpensive. In bulk, microstock images are sold at a reduced price per unit, allowing several customers to utilise them.
3. Midstock
A midstock photography option falls between macrostock and microstock in terms of price. It is popular on the net and can be used in both non-exclusive and exclusive images.
Important: It is your right as the author of the picture to make decisions. If a stock picture provider demands that you relinquish all rights to your picture in exchange for a fee that you think is too low, you may take your work elsewhere and sell it on terms that you believe are more reasonable.
How To Sell Stock Photos Online?
Find your niche
Specializing in a specific niche is the best way to sell photos online. Every successful photographer has a distinct style or subject matter that runs through their photographs. Whether you prefer to photograph travel, fashion, cityscapes, nature, or food, you should maintain a consistent theme. People follow other people on social networks in order to see more of whatever it is that first interested them. People unfollow others when those expectations are not met. If you want to sell photos online, you typically feel your way through which styles and photographs resonate best with your audience. However, you may also estimate the traffic for certain subjects by studying the number of people searching for them in conjunction with your photos.
Use keywords
Search engine users look for keywords to find what they want online. When an affiliate marketing client is looking for a stock photo for her business blog, she might search for terms like “executives, men in suits, grey suits, red ties, negotiation, bosses, handshakes, interviews, ambition” etc. The site displays photos that have been tagged with these terms for customers to browse.
Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension that shows you the search volume right below your Google search, making it easy to find and experiment with in-demand subjects and angles to see what you can cater to with your photographs.
It’s worth noting that anything above 1,000 average monthly searches is a significant volume to capitalize on. In addition to photographers learning how to sell their photographs online, bloggers, YouTubers, and any other artists should also invest in building their audiences. Building and leveraging their networks is the best way to sell photographs online whether they’re freelancing or selling photographs online as prints.
Furthermore, visual social platforms with built-in audiences like Instagram and Tumblr can help you reach a wide audience. But there are also photo-sharing sites that can connect you with other photographers, help you can build a following and, depending on the platform, sell licenses to use your digital photos
And conceptual tags to describe your stock photos
For example: When you take a photo of a child having fun, you can tag it with terms such as joy, happiness, childhood, playtime, and others that describe the character, emotions, and actions of the subject. Even if you have the best image for a client, it won’t be seen unless it includes the relevant keyword tags. Keyword research and proper tagging are critical for ensuring your photos are easily discovered.
Gears for your photography
There’s no doubt that you can produce high-quality stock photographs without having to shell out for top-of-the-line equipment, as long as the pictures are clean and follow stock photography’s fundamental principles. An entry-level DSLR camera and a kit lens are all you need to get started with basic stock photography. You may always upgrade later once you’ve got sufficient money to buy other accessories such as tripods and ring flashes.
Choosing the right stock site
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is a leading stock picture provider that enables you to sell your photos online. In the last 15 years, Shutterstock has distributed over a billion dollars to its community, and it may showcase your pictures to millions of clients. Shutterstock is regarded as a microstock website, where photos are cheaper and non-exclusive, and the most effective way to boost sales is to release a large quantity of pictures that may be used as visual metaphors. While you may not make as much here, it’s a great place to start if you are learning how to market stock photos.
Getty Images
Getty Images is a stock photography website that caters to brands and publishers looking to license exclusive, high-quality images. With over 1.5 million customers worldwide, Getty Images and its microstock site iStock reach millions. Contributors on the site are subject to higher standards than on many other stock photo websites, but the rates for premium images licensed through Getty start at 20% and can reach as much as 45%.
SmugMug Pro
Whether you’re a new photographer or a seasoned professional, SmugMug can assist you sell your photos online using a beautiful portfolio, sales portal, and marketing tools. You’ll keep 85% of the profit between the price you set and SmugMug’s default print prices. If you sell a 5×7 photograph for $10.79, the markup is $10 if SmugMug’s default price is $0.79. You will keep $8.50 if you don’t sign up for a monthly membership, which costs at least $200 per year on Portfolio. Portfolio gives you access to a variety of ecommerce tools in order to sell your photographs online.
iStock Photo
iStock Photo is an offshoot of Getty Images that sells micro-stock photographs. Since you can sell your photos on iStock with other stock agencies, the only real difference between the two is that your photos are non-exclusive. However, this means you receive a substantially lower commission than pictures with restricted use. Commission varies from 15% to 45% depending on whether the photos are exclusive or non-exclusive.
Etsy
Creating an Etsy photography store may be a smart alternative if you want to sell photographs online. It’s simple to get started: you can sell prints quickly, and it benefits both amateur and expert photographers. You only have to pay 5% of the transaction amount, which includes the shipping charge. If you accept payments via Etsy Payments, the company collects a 3% + $0.25 payment-processing fee after a photo is sold. It’s free for most individuals to look for stock photos on the internet. To take advantage of Etsy, you must invest in advertisements and designs. However, with a little cut from each sale, it might be worthwhile.
Can Stock Photo
As of right now, more than 92,000 photographers have learned how to sell their photos online through Can Stock Photo. Can Stock Photo offers a variety of payment structures, ranging from percentages to set amounts, and pays you $5 for every 50 photos your referrals sell. When you sell photos through Can Stock Photo, Fotosearch, a stock photography company, lists them for sale as well.
500px
500px Licensing (formerly 500px Prime) offers royalty-free stock photography for anyone looking for creative content. Its distribution partners serve over one million consumers across the world, making them the preferred choice for creative content. Because all content on the site is royalty-free, it can be used free of charge for unlimited periods of time, and file size determines its price, it is a community-based platform for amateur and professional photographers. You can earn up to 60% royalties on exclusives pictures and 30% commission payments on non-exclusives by following other photographers, listing your pictures on their marketplace, and competing in Photo Quest contests.
Stocksy
Stocksy, a popular stock photography website, is one of the most popular ways to sell photos online for many publishers and creatives. Photographers earn a 50% royalty on standard licenses and a 75% royalty on extended licenses, but all of their photos are 100% exclusive. It is also an artist-owned cooperative where you may help steer the firm. As a contributor, you receive partial ownership in the company and are able to help steer its direction. In addition to their contribution to the cooperative, you may receive patronage returns as a result of a surplus. The amount you receive is determined by how much you contribute to the cooperative through the sale of your photographs and/or footage.
Alamy
Alamy sports the world’s most diverse stock photo collection, with over 215 million stock images, vectors, videos, and 360-degree panoramic images. You can sell anything from everyday images to specific niches. The platform has more than 60,000 contributors worldwide and over 110,000 buyers. It also offers an app, Stockimo, where you can sell iPhone photos and earn extra cash from your selfies.
Alamy pays contributors monthly and has a straightforward, user-friendly payment structure. If your images are exclusive with Alamy, you receive 50% of direct sales. Images not exclusive to Alamy receive 40% of all direct sales. There are also no long-term contracts with Alamy.
Adobe Stock
With over 150 million users, Fotolia is one of the largest stock photo and image licensing sites, and when you sell pictures here, they are also accessible on Adobe Stock. You can add your images, videos, vector graphics, or illustrations to Adobe Stock directly from Adobe Lightroom CC and Adobe Bridge CC, as well as through the internet. You can sell your photos to millions of consumers and reach the world’s largest creative community through their favourite applications, and you will receive a 33% commission for every sale you make.
Depositphotos
Depositphotos is a worldwide, online image library with over 150 million photos which serves customers from over 200 countries. Major international companies such as Warner Bros., TripAdvisor, Subaru, and more all rely on it for high-quality photos. The site has over 100,000 contributors from all over the world, and commissions range from 34% to 42% based on experience and status on the platform as well as image resolution and license type.
Twenty20
When Twenty20 was first established, it was a tool for Instagram photographers to sell their pictures to companies. Now, it’s a substantial stock picture website where you can sell photos online and connect with potential clients. You may make money in three ways:
- Receiving $2 for every picture licensed
- Receiving cash prizes for photo competitions
- Receiving 100% commission on all photographs you are hired to shoot for brands
Every time you sell a picture on Twenty20’s app or on your own website page on their website, you can make money online and sell pictures. It’s a great place to sell pictures online and generate income.
123RF
123RF is a significant stock photo provider. All content on the platform is non-exclusive, so you can market your photos on other websites as well. In addition, 123RF reaches over five million buyers across 44 countries and 17 languages, and markets your photos for you. You can make between 30% and 60% commission on each photo sale once you sign up as a contributor.
Dreamstime
Dreamstime, a stock image provider, has been serving the creative market for nearly 20 years. Contributing photographers, who are part of over:
- 31 million registered users
- 600,000 photographers
- 144 million photographs, illustrations, cliparts, and vectors
- 20 million unique visitors per month
Unlike other stock photo sites, Dreamstime offers a generous payout to contributors. However, the commitment level is higher than with other sites, so it’s not the best option for selling pictures online. Your portfolio must include at least 70% of your photographs for at least six months to participate. Non-exclusive contributors can get 25% to 50% commissions, while exclusive photos can earn 27.5% to 55% commissions. You can also earn extra money for referrals, both from the contributor and purchaser sides.
EyeEm
EyeEm is focused on stock photography advertising, so it is one of the best places to sell photos online if you want to be in the commercial photography business. You can also earn money from photography shoots for brands like Airbnb, Spotify, and others. More than 25 million photographers and videographers from over 150 countries are part of the community, and each photo sold gives them a 50% commission.
Pixieset
Pixieset provides photographers with everything they need to distribute, advertise, and sell their photos online. You can easily create an online store to sell photography prints, products, and more with Pixieset. All you need to do is set the price for your products and advertise your pictures. For free plans, they take a 15% cut, but they take no commission on paid plans, which start at only $8 per month.
Foap
There are over three million creatives on Foap. Whether you want to upload a professional photograph (or try and make money from pictures of yourself!), you can sell your pictures using Foap’s app. There are a few different ways to sell photographs online on Foap: $5 for every photo sold $100-$2,500 for Missions, in which brands provide a photo brief and award cash prizes for winning entries Selling photos through partner platforms like Adobe and Alamy You can also sell your photographs to major brands like KraftHeinz, Nivea, Heineken, and others if you use Foap.
Zenfolio
Zenfolio makes selling photos online simple for beginners and professionals. You can create a website to advertise your work, attract new clients, and sell photographs online. In addition, it provides photography print and digital product alternatives, with a commission fee of 7%. However, you must have a monthly subscription with Zenfolio, which begins at $5 per month.
In Conclusion
There are more ways than ever before to sell photos online, whether photography is your hobby, side hustle, or full-time side gig. To do so requires a bit more know-how, whether you’re an avid shutterbug or just looking to make some side cash. Your talent and determination determine your earnings potential, but some of the best money you’ll ever make is the income you generate from doing what you love.
Check out Havah’s editing services here for your stock photos portfolio
