Sell Your Photos Online: 20 Ways to Make Money Selling Your Pictures

The amount may be very limited but it is a very convenient way to make a beginning. Plus, you can’t overlook the fact that you are saved the bother of printing, shipping and chasing payments.

Where to Sell Your Images as Prints:

You have  few options when it comes to selling your printed pictures.

1. Picasso Mio

This is a well known printing site wherein you can upload any number of images.

2. Red Bubble

The popularity of this website is growing faster than most other websites.

3. Imagekind

This is among the largest and most famous print websites that enables you to generate funds using your photos.

B. Sell Stock Photography

Microstock photography offers the latest and most admired methods for making cash from your photographs.

Their idea is very simple but brilliant.

It allows any person to upload their pictures and sell them to keen shopper, with the shopper purchasing images at deep discount.

This is how it works:

You simply take some good, interesting photos with your camera and upload the same on this site. As and when any of your images gets sold, you earn twenty to fifty cents or even more.

The best thing is that you are not really selling your photos but just awarding the buyers a license to use your photographs for various purposes including magazines, websites and designs etc.

Simply put, it means that the photographers retain the copyrights in totality, allowing them to sell the same photos any number of times to any number of customers. That’s the reason which makes stock photography attractive and possibly lucrative.

While it is true that the amount is hardly lucrative, you can’t overlook the fact that the same photo may be sold scores of times and if a couple of your pictures get sold repeatedly, you stand to earn a handsome amount.

Top Stock Photo Sites

There are no shortage of stock image sites where you can sell your photos. That’s good news since some have very high standards and will only accept the highest quality images.

1. ShutterStock

In this case you get three options for making money from your pictures:

1. You may sell your photos and get twenty five cents for each photo that is downloaded.
2. You refer to other photographers and get paid three cents for each photo they sell.
3. You may pass on your photos to Stock Buyers and get paid twenty percent of their subscription.

Once your earnings reach the level of $500, your commission is increased from 25 cents to 30 cents per download.

2. iStockPhoto

You get twenty percent of price that ranges from $1 – $20/photo. Your earnings increase to forty percent on offering your photos exclusively.

They allow you to sell your audio, video and flash graphics.

3. DreamsTime

You get fifty to eighty percent from every photo sold. Earnings from exclusive photos are higher.

4. BigStockPhoto

For every photo sold you can earn from thirty cents to three dollars. They have specified different categories of photographs they require. On offering photos as per the specified categories, you make more money.

5. Crestock

Providing a very quick and convenient process for uploading, they offer you twenty percent commission with prices of photo varying from five to fifteen dollars.

On achieving hundred sales, your commission gets raised to thirty percent.

6. PhotoStockPlus

They allow you to host your personal galleries and fix your own prices. Commission payable on all sales is 85% but they charge a processing fee of 3.25 percent for every sale you make.

7. 123RoyaltyFree

123RF is famous for offering free images to people, but they also sell images. For every photo that gets downloaded you get paid fifty percent and on referring clients, you earn fifteen percent of their subscription or whatever they buy.

On referring photographers, they pay you ten percent for all of their downloaded photos.

8. Veer

You may set your prices. For all images sold through standard or product license, your earning is 30 percent. On allowing downloading of your photo to subscribers, you are paid 30 cents per download.

Once your earnings reach $10, you get paid via PayPal.

9. Fotolia

Your average earning per downloaded image will be 50%, paid via MoneyBooker or PayPal. Wire transfers available for countries not supporting MoneyBooker or PayPal.

10. ShutterPoint

Of all the stock photography sites, they may the most: 70% for standard Royalty-Free license and 85% for full Royalty-Free license.

As soon as you have $50 in your account you can ask for payment via Check or PayPal.

11. ClusterShot

You get the option of putting your preferred prices or remain open to getting offers. They charge just 12%, the balance is paid to you automatically as your account accumulates to $100.

You may even request for payment before reaching prescribed level of $100, but they will charge you a nominal fee.

12. StockXpert

For every sale you are paid fifty percent. The payment for every XXL size download is $7.50 but for each super high quality vector download you are paid $10.

The payment options include Check, PayPal and MoneyBooker.

13. Corbis

Though it’s a professional photography site, allowing submissions of photographs, it doesn’t clearly tell you the benefits of your contributions.

You’ll need to fill up an application but the site provides no information about your compensation or its working. The site is not very user-friendly.

14. CanStockPhoto

You’ll find it convenient for selling your pictures online. You’ll need to sign up for opening your account, and fill in a form. Once your application is accepted you may start uploading your pictures speedily.

You get paid for referring other photographers. Photos with exclusive rights get you fifty percent commission. Commission varies for photographs of different sizes and the details are included in the website.

15. DepositPhotos

You need to sign up and open your account and pass an easy and quick exam before you start uploading your stuff. There is a slight hitch though. All your images to be sold need approval before getting displayed on the site.

The payment is akin to Dreamstime. They have a chart displaying various details concerning payments.

Their notable feature is that you can also sell vector images but these need to be uploaded in the prescribed format.

Other Sites for Selling Images

Stock image sites are not the only way to sell the pictures you take.

You could also try one of the following sites:

1. Etsy

Define prices of your photos and offer those to buyers. Many prefer buying original works and they throng to Etsy for locating some.

Available data at Etsy can be helpful in arriving at the prices you should fix for your works of art.

2. eBay

There is little doubt that eBay continues to be the most prominent online market.

You may sell your images as stock photography, canvas or frames. You could make good use of auction prices on this site for pricing your possessions.

3. CafePress

It works on the lines of Zazzle. You may upload your images or pieces of art. Visitors can buy a range of items including T-shirts, canvas, photos and posters etc.

CafePress allows you to sell without any charge and offers you the option of customizing your personal shop for just $4.99 per month.

4. Zazzle

Here’s another online market for selling your works of art. You can set up your store without any charge.

Simply upload your photos allowing visitors to the site to buy different items incorporating your images including mugs, T-shirts, posters, photo cards and calendars etc.

5. Blurb

You could make a photo book and present it to others as a coffee table book. It might surprise you to know many people, unknown to you, get interested in buying that.

The idea is to present all your works in one book. It is going to be an excellent art project that can be used as a portfolio too!

Sell on Your Own Site

In case you are really keen to sell your pieces of art, there is no better way than creating your own website for the purpose.

Of course, you’ll need to invest your time and money, but the results would be worth if you truly consider yourself as a professional photographer.

The fastest and inexpensive way to do that will be to buy a portfolio website containing ready-to-use templates. That way you can launch your own website in a matter of days. Though, at times, such websites have certain limitations, you can get started quickly.

Here are some more renowned sites, offering portfolio solutions:

1. DigiLabsPro.com
2. FotoMerchant.com
3. PhotoCrati.com
4. SmugMug.com
5. ZenFolio.com

The Bottom Line

These days, selling images is much easier than it ever was, thanks to the internet and the many doors it has opened up for pro and amateur photographers.

But perhaps the best part is that because of so many hundreds of new websites and blogs being born everyday that need images to accompany their publications, the demand for photos is very high.

So, despite the competition being huge, you can still carve a spot for yourself in this industry and make money selling your photos.