There are many ways to make money with photos, but some of them require a lot of work. Selling your photos online can be lucrative and you don’t have to worry about the quality.
The best places to sell photos online are on Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr.
If you are interested in selling your photos online, there is a wide range of websites that can help with that. For example, Shutterstock allows you to sell on its site by uploading and labeling your files for easy finding by clients.
You can earn some extra cash by selling your photos online. There are lots of places to find buyers nowadays, and photographers of various skill levels are in high demand. Many businesses use photos online, including social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. These photos are downloaded for use according to regulated guidelines as well as individual needs.
In this guide, we’ll share the top 12 best places to sell your photos online. They usually offer a nice commission that you can make back from your sales.
Who buys stock photos, and what kinds of photos sell well?
Estimates of the number of blog and small to medium-sized website businesses have seen an increase over the last few years. This means that blogs and websites have become a powerful platform for buying stock photos. Luckily, this makes it easier for you to target your audience on Instagram.
What type of images are they buying the most of?
- People of all ages and cultures – children, adults, and everyone in between!
- People at work – This type of photograph is quite common among businesses.Just make sure they’re not too generic that they become a meme.
- Food – a wide variety of delectable delicacies, as well as empty, unclean plates.
- Gears, hammers, nuts, bolts, and screws may all communicate a lot to potential purchasers.
- Cities are made up of cityscapes, buildings, and commuters.
- Nature – This is a no-brainer to photograph or sell, and it never gets old.
- Travel – Photographs from all across the world are in high demand.
Where Should You Sell Your Photographs Online?
1. On Your Website
The number one best place to sell photos online is on your website. It will allow you to earn more.
That’s because:
- You are free to choose your rates.
- No one else is willing to take a cut.
- You have complete control over how your photographs are displayed.
- You have complete control over the terms and conditions.
- Simply said, YOU ARE IN CONTROL!
Don’t have a website yet? It’s easy to start. This guide here will show you how to create one in WordPress, which is one of the most popular platforms for professional photography websites. So it’s best to start here too!
After creating your website, it’s time to show off your photos. We recommend using a top-rated WordPress plugin like EnVira Gallery to create galleries for the images on your website.
The Envira Gallery plugin also has a WooCommerce add-on that allows you to sell photos just as easily as selling digital products on your site. To learn how to sell images on WordPress, you’ll have to do some digging, but it will all be worth it in the end. The less time you spend learning about the service, the less time you’ll spend selling images.
In this guide, you can find all of the information you need to know about the most popular website builder tools out there.
2. Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock provides a huge selection of high-quality stock photos. Founded in 2004 and known as the first online marketplace, this platform has been around for over 10 years. They specialize in photography, just like their most famous software: Photoshop and Lightroom.
The thing you’ll like most about Adobe Stock is their higher royalty share, which is appealing to businesses.
Content uploaded at Fotolia becomes a part of the Adobe Stock library and is then available in other Adobe applications, potentially reaching millions of people.
Contributors on Adobe Stock earn anywhere from $1,000 to $60,000! And, unlike in some other marketplaces, contributors don’t have to give them exclusive selling rights. So you can sell your images on Adobe Stock and elsewhere at the same time.
Adobe Stock is known for offering a variety of high-quality photos for various platforms and creative needs. Businesses can use it to find photos that suit their specifications, or consumers can use it on the go.
3. Shutterstock
Shutterstock has been a popular site for over 15 years to buy stock photos and videos. They have over 200 million images, videos, and music tracks for folks to purchase royalty-free, which also means they have millions of customers.
Shutterstock is an online marketplace for photographers, but it’s also a great business opportunity. You can make thousands of dollars in the long run. According to their site, sellers on Shutterstock have made over $500 million worldwide!
Shutterstock’s copyright system ensures that your photos stand up against the competition. It also gives credit to the original photographer, which protects your ownership and markets your brand.
We make it easy for you to become an image contributor. There are tons of opportunities to grow your content and make more money. Shutterstock pays out anywhere from 20% to 30% of whatever your content sells for every month, which is great considering the added exposure you’ll be getting!
Shutterstock doesn’t force you to use their marketplace exclusively. You can also sell on Adobe Stock and Shutterstock at the same time, which makes it more effective for all parties involved.
4. Alamy
Alamy is another great platform to sell photos on because it doesn’t have any hard-backed rules.
Despite not having quite as many buyers as Shutterstock and Adobe Stock, Alamy is still a good source of revenue and a great site to sell on. Photographers upload their photos to the site without any copyright or licensing issues. As of today, Alamy has paid out $180 million to photographers.
Alamy’s prices are very fair and they have great deals. The marketplace pays photographers 50% of each sale if you exceed the $25,000 limit per year, 40% for each sale if your annual sales are less than $25,000 but higher than $250, and 20% for contributors whose annual sales are under $250.
5. Etsy
Etsy is a marketplace to buy and sell handmade items, which many people may not think of when looking for places to sell their photos. However, it has over 30 million users and multiple ways to sell your photos.
Etsy is a great site for selling stock photos as well. Not only does it have a bigger audience than most photo sites, but it also has an audience with more buying power. Etsy allows photographers to sell both prints and digital images. So if you’re looking for a great way to expand your business, Etsy is one of your best options.
Remember that the cost of printing, packing, and shipping must be factored into the total value of any print order.
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