It’s very hard to sell stock images online if you don’t know the right place to sell them. Many photographers are interested in monetizing their photography skills and discover places where they can offer their content for use by others. Fortunately, there are good number of companies that pay photographers for stock images. These companies make images ready for print and sale. However, finding microstock agencies depends upon your style. There are several websites that can showcase your images to an audience of a selected niche. For instance, TourPhotos can be the best place to share or sell your excursion photographs.
Moving forward, this article can help you understand how to sell photos online and make money. It discusses a number of good websites that can help you make money by simply uploading your stock images. Choose the best from the lot.
1. Shutterstock
Image source- shutterstock.com
Shutterstock is controversially the best website to sell photos. There are many photographers who easily between $0.25 to $2.85 per image. Elite photographers earn better with their excellent stock images. However, huge number of sales on the website compensates the earnings.
To get approval, you need to undergo a strict quality control process. Click here to contribute to Shutterstock.
2. Photodune
Image source- photodune.net
Photodune is popular for their simple navigation, reliable FTP and easy upload process. The website has an amazing repository of high quality images and commonly chosen by many photographers for its great rewards. However, you can’t share or sell all kinds of stock images on Photodune. It’s easy to edit your approved stock images on Photodune with some straight-forward touches. The tool has been created by Envato Market. The community has over 7 million users and elite photographers earn more than $20,000 every month for sharing stock images to the website. You can earn 55% from each sale done on Photodune if you’re a non-exclusive photographer. Your share will increase if images are shared exclusively on the website.
Click here to sell photos at Photodune.
3. TourPhotos
Image source: tourphotos.com
The website is the home for tourism photos various travelers and photographers. Several travel agencies use TourPhotos to upload and share their adventure trip photos for both the attendees and anyone who are interested to buy it from here. TourPhotos is kick-ass place for travel photographers who would love to share and sell their photographs to like-minded audience.
TourPhotos is the best website to sell photos if you are a travel photographer. You can post photos of places like cruise ships, amusement parks, northern lights excursion, paragliding, rafting, scuba diving etc. Click here to sell your photos at TourPhotos.
4. Alamy
Image source: alamy.com
Alamy is popular for its generous payout i.e. 60% royalty fee. Hence, Alamy contains 120 million stock photos, videos and vectors that makes it the biggest stock image library in the world. Moreover, photographers don’t need to sell their rights exclusively to Alamy. Therefore, you can sell the same photographs to other sites as well. Click here to post photos on Alamy.
5. iStock
Imagesource: istockphoto.com
iStock is considered as the best website to sell photos by many photographers as they offer excellent resources such as latest trends and stats to their contributors. iStock offers 15% royalty to every image you post on the website. You can earn upto 45% royalty rate if you supply your images exclusively to iStock.
To become a member, you need to submit your application with three samples. Once you become a member, you can start contributing to the website. To become an illustrator or an exclusive photographer, you must have 500 downloads or 50% approval and 250 downloads. Click here to sell photos on iStock.
6. Fotolia (Adobe Stock)
Image source: fotolia.com
Fotolia is one of the best website to sell photos as it is widely used across the world. Images on the website are paid according to its rankings and exclusivity. Photographers can earn from 20% to 63% royalty fee for every image downloaded on Fotolia. The subscriptions plans though may look complicated to some photographers, the website is very resourceful.
Fotolia was started 10 years ago and it now contains approximately 70 million images and it’s still growing. Images uploaded at Fotolia is added to the Adobe stock. You can view them at Adobe software like Illustrator CC, Indesign CC and Photoshop. Click here to join Adobe Stock or Fotolia.
7. SmugMug
Image source: smugmug.com
SmugMug is the best microstock agency if you are also interested in developing a professional showcase to display your stock images. Of course, you can earn money from the site but it offers a strong storefront appeal to your photo library and also provide e-commerce galleries for great shopping experience for your audience. You can set the price and earn 85% royalty fee on every download. You can sell prints, greeting cards, and digital downloads on SmugMug. Click here to contribute to SmugMug.
8. Art Storefronts
Image source: art.com
If you desire to sell your photographs as art prints, Art Storefronts is the best marketplace for you. Art Storefronts also guides you through the sale process and ensures that you are on the right track. The site has a community forum exclusively for members that share sale strategies, ideas and guidance to its inmates. Art Storefronts forum consists of industry experts from various niche. The site also offers ‘print on demand’ feature. Click here to contribute to Art Storefronts.
9. Redbubble
Image source: redbubble.com
Redbubble is a website where you can post your VSCO or Instagram friendly images. It’s an unconventional website easily discovers your preferred audience who can buy your photos. You can also sell products like canvases with your photos on Redbubble.
Click here to join Redbubble.
Bonus Tip
We have already talked about different websites that can carry your creativity to your audience. however, there’s another powerful way to reach your audience- by creating your own website. You can build your own photography website to connect effectively and sell images to your audience. Although this approach takes more effort than registering into different websites, it reaps more benefits. You can use websites like Photocrati that can supply you with multiple WordPress photography themes.
Image source: www.photocrati.com
You can use these epic themes from the website to build your own page. Websites like Photocrati offer limitless design possibilities, built-in galleries and features that can be used to build an e-commerce website. With your website, you will have more control over your images. You can also invite other photographers to sell images on your site. Nevertheless the choice is yours.
If you own a good camera, start clicking images and sell them on the Internet today itself. You don’t need to invest a fortune for this job. Moreover, you can earn between $700 to $1500 easily in a month with these sites in the beginning. Eventually, the payments can increase upto $100000 per year and even more as you become a seasoned photographer.
Best of luck with your endeavours! Also, subscribe to our newsletter for more interesting articles like this.