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| Best for Direct Selling | |
| Best Photo Marketplace |
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| Best for Amateur Photographers |
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We’ve all snapped thousands of photos with our smartphones and cameras over the years. But if you’re like me, they’re just sitting on a your phone, hard drive or cloud storage and taking up lots of e-space. Instead of only sharing digital memories with select friends on social media (if anyone at all), why not make a little extra money from your photos? It’s an easy and passive way to turn your hobby into an additional revenue stream. This article shares a few ways you can turn your photos into cash and will hopefully inspire you to find the best stock photo sites for photographers and grow your income.
How To Sell Stock Photography Online?
First off, you might be wondering what the heck we mean by “stock photography.” Well, luckily for you, we have an entire comparison dedicated to the best stock photography sites. So, start there and get familiar, then come back here. Or if you’re ready to start right away, read on, we won’t stop you!
Why Should I Sell My Photos?
Did You Know?
Probably not surprising, but 85% of photos are taken on smartphones. And yes, that includes professional photography.
With so many photos out there, are they just going into a black hole of wasted space? Not anymore thanks to online marketplaces for selling stock photos.
Businesses and publishers are taking advantage of having access to photographers around the world for a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional. More frequently they’re now turning to photography sites to crowd-source for photos for their brands and stories. Either by passively browsing via search or more actively challenging photographers to take and submit specific photos for a larger monetary incentive. So, in addition to fortune, you could earn a little fame and turn those unused and unpublished photos into the next big advertising campaign or editorial piece.
What’s The Best Place To Sell Photos?
Next logical question: where do you sell your photos? No matter what your motivation is, there are dozens of sites out there that will buy your photos. Which site you choose and how much you can make depends on a few factors. In addition to picking our “best for” in each category, we get into the pros and cons of each. Are you ready to start getting something in return for all those hard spent creative hours behind the lens?
Here’s our “Best For” categories:
Direct Selling | Photo Marketplace | Amateur Photographers
Best for Direct Selling: SmugMug Review
SmugMug is a popular photo sharing service for photographers to showcase and sell their photos from events and weddings but can also be used for sharing personal photos. After signing up, you can easily drag and drop your photos into a browser to upload them from your computer or mobile phone. You can also connect via Dropbox. Then, you have the option of creating a customized website for your photos. You can brand it with your colors, fonts and logo or embed it into your existing website. Organize photos into albums using drag and drop tools and track sales history through their online portal. Although you must “pay to play” by signing up for a Smug Mug subscription, plans start at as little as $3/month, and you can try them out risk-free to see if it’s a good fit before committing to anything.
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Pricing
Set your own prices using a price list (or create packages to sell larger quantities at once for events or groups). You can even offer promo codes for discounts to incentivize customers to purchase. Your profit is 85% of your sales (SmugMug’s 15% fee includes credit card payments, customer service for refunds, applicable taxes, etc.). Payments are issued on the first business day after the 7th of each month.
Best Photo Marketplace: 500px Review
500px is a community made up of over 5 million photographers who create and upload their work for others to see and buy. They offer three types of plans for members: Free, Plus, and Awesome. Awesome gives you the most amount of features, including unlimited uploads and advanced statistics and settings. After creating a free account, upload your photo via computer or third party site, add a description, tags, and location and submit your photo for review (along with a model release if there are recognizable people in the picture). Then you’ll receive a notification once it’s been approved and can track your views and sales through your account. They also have a feed (similar to Instagram) where you can browse through and interact with recently uploaded pictures from others. Feeling up for a challenge? Use their Photo Quests to submit specific photos for a chance to compete for prizes including cash, recognition and more.
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Pricing
Pricing is based on whether you give 500px exclusive rights to sell your stock photos (which means you can’t sell an individual photo anywhere else). Exclusive photos have a higher payout (double the royalty percentage). Price per photo for the buyer is based on the license type and the quality of the photo, so the better the license (where to use and for how long) and the higher resolution, the more you’ll get paid.
- Non-Exclusive to 500px: 30% of net sales (price ranges from $34-$149 per photo, plus $99-$499 for extended licenses)
- Exclusive to 500px: 60% of net sales (price ranges from $34-$149 per photo, plus $99-$499 for extended licenses)
Best for Amateur Photographers: Foap Review
Foap is an app that allows anyone the ability to sell photos taken from their iPhone or Android. Users download the free app to their smartphone then take or upload photos to the Foap market and list it for sale. Add tags to help it get more visibility in search and create albums to organize by type. The only downside is before your photo gets listed in the marketplace for sale, it must receive an average rating of 2.6 or higher from 5 other users. However, they also pay you to curate other’s photos (or your own), so that’s another option. Similar to 500px, Foap partners with brands and businesses to challenge users to Missions to submit photos of specific shots for a larger incentive (upwards of $2,000 if your photo is chosen). Learn more about Foap Missions in the video below.
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Pricing
- $5 per photo and you can sell any photo an unlimited number of times
- $0.25 for every curated photo sold in an album (can be your photo or someone else’s)
Other Ways to Sell Stock Images
We should note that most the companies we reviewed for best stock photography provider also offer selling programs as well. So don’t by any means feel like you’re limited to only these three options. However, we believe these companies are a good place to start. Depending on how creative you are in wanting to make a buck, there are other ways you can sell stock photos, including an online shop like Etsy or a WordPress plugin like SellMedia. However, those require a little more work and technical know-how so not recommended if you don’t have the time, patience or expertise.
Who Makes The Best Photo Editing Software?
Our experts compare the top photo editing platforms so you can maximize the quality of your work before submitting. Want to brush up on your photography skills before getting started? We recommend taking a photography class online on a site like LinkedIn Learning to brush up on your skills.
Have you tried selling your photos online? Let us know your experience in the comments!
Tagged With: Comparison, Stock Photos
