How to sell Photos and make money online

How to Sell Photos and Make Money Online

We all enjoy photographs. Don’t we? Nowadays, every person is carrying a camera wherever he goes. With the advent of mobile with inbuilt powerful cameras, and small handy digital cameras, getting photos have become cheap and easy, and people have really become shutter-happy. Sometimes, we click casually and sometimes seriously with a purpose in our mind. Whatever, but sometimes some photos comes out extraordinary and stands out from the rest. Why not make money online from these photos. Don’t you think that is a logical step? 

Earn Extra Money selling your Photos 

Who will buy my photos?

We all need photos for illustration. A photo can say thousand words. Publishers, Web designers, advertisers, bloggers, designers, architects, creative artists, journalists, news agencies, magazines, journals, students, research fellows….all need appropriate photos for their use. They search the internet to find the photos to suit their needs and buy them online. Subjects can be varied. Scenery's, city skyline, flowers, trees, landscapes, events, décor, people, poverty, pets, wild life, food, fashion, filth….you name it. Any kind of photo, even if you think it is mundane, can be precious to others. And they will buy it. So, even if you are an amateur photographer, your photos can find a market in the internet. Everybody is welcome. 

How to Sell your photos online 

Copyright and License 

Copyright - Now, you must be thinking about copyrights and license of photos which you are going to sell online. You must know the fact that, when you take a photo you automatically get the copyright of it, without registering or submitting any forms anywhere. Legally, nobody can copy your photograph by anyway or means, without your prior permission.

License – If somebody wants to copy your photo, they will have to get prior permission from the copyright holder. This authorization from the copyright holder to the person who wants to copy the photo is called a license. There are many kinds of license though, which I have already discussed in my blog “Inserting Photos in Blog Posts Legally”. Until and unless you give “exclusive” rights to somebody, you can sell and resell ‘non exclusive’ licenses of the same photo over and over again. A single outstanding photo can bring you a fortune. Nobody knows. Now, it sounds interesting? 

How to sell photos online?

That is the biggest question of all? To an amateur it’s a painstaking process. But after you get to know the nitty-gritty’s of the trade, it will be a smooth process for you. The major steps are as follows: 

Step 1 : Categorize: The first thing will be to find out all your digital photos you have stored or ‘photostacked’ in your computer. Select the one’s you wish to sell online. Then you will have to categorize them into different groups. For example, landscapes, cars, flowers, happy family, church, religion, bridges, towers, children, old men, sea beach, sunrise, catastrophes, highways, etc. keep in mind that all kinds of photos can be sold online. 

Step 2 : Keywords : The next step will be to find out the keywords for each photo. A person who wants a photo, searches the net with appropriate words which are known as keywords. So, the keywords with which they search must match with the keywords of your photo. A research on popular keywords must be done before tagging each of your photo. You should use many keywords as possible to describe your picture. By any means, your photos MUST get noticed. You can find out the popular keywords from Google Adwords. I had explained how to find keywords in one of my blog post titled “Promoting Blog sites” 

Step 3 : Photo selling platforms: Now, you need a platform to sell your photos online. There are many sites or agencies on the web which will allow you to sell your photos from their site. They will keep some commissions on the sale, but your purpose will be served. While choosing the sites or agencies, go through their terms and conditions closely – understand about your rights, commissions, rules and guidelines, payment procedure – find out whether they are suitable to you or not. Finally, when you join an agency, keep adding your fresh photos to get good results. Now, let me give you a list of some good platforms/sites where you can sell your photos. 

Photo selling sites 

FOTOLIA : It is a marketplace for royalty free images, where individuals and professionals can buy and share photos and images. Thousands of new photos are updated each day and photographers receive commissions from the photos sold. It is FREE TO REGISTER. You will receive your payments through Paypal or Moneybookers. 

SHUTTERCOCK : A renowned company, highly regarded by the photographers. The sales potential from the site is high. Your photos will be subjected to stringent check for quality and sale-ability. 

Zazzle : You can make money online by submitting your photos to this site and also can earn from referrals. 

RED BUBBLE : From this site you can sell your work in print form. You can showcase your portfolio. 

ETSY : You will have to sell prints of your photos here, not the digital photos as elsewhere. You will have to make the prints yourself and mail them and fix your price for it. 

SMUGMUG : This site allows you to showcase your portfolio. It has a joining charge though. There are different account options starting from $40 to $150 a year. 

ISTOCKphoto : The photo selection process is very stringent in this agency. Photographers get commissions ranging from 15 to 45% depending on quality, aesthetics, sale-ability and so on. 

FINE ART AMERICA : There are two kinds of accounts – Free and Pro. A free account will let you sell up to 25 photos at a price fixed by them. A Pro account have more features useful for photographers. 

DREAMS TIME : The site is not stringent in choosing photos, and it is good for beginners. Commissions are comparatively high. 

Selling your photos online 

Making Money with YOUR Photos

While submitting your photos or portfolios to different sites, many photos may be rejected. Don’t ever feel despondent. This does mean that the site really means business, and they are selecting photos which will really sell. 

What Photos sell best online? 

If you are serious about selling you photos online and earning a decent income, you should buy the following books, for exhaustive know-how on the subject.

Ways in which you can make money selling digital photos

Build you own website or blog site to promote your business.

Build your own blog site to drive traffic and visitor to see what you are offering. You can also sell from your own website or blog site directly and keep all the money for yourself. Until and unless people know about your business you won’t be successful with your endeavor. Advertise online and offline to get business. Use the social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Google+ to make people know what you are up to. 

The Best Digital Cameras. 

These are top selling cameras and will be very useful for you. Buy and Use one of them – start clicking and earning money online.

Hope this article was useful to you. 

Please add your comment below.