Many people love to take pictures in this age of information technology. What if this love of yours is your means of earning? Yes, the way to earn money by selling photos online has become a profitable business nowadays.
If you have an interest in photography, experience in photography, good camera or mobile phone, you can start earning by selling photos online on Stock Image Website. Nowadays many people are earning 1-5 lakhs or more per month by choosing selling pictures as a means of earning. So you can also take your passion as a profession.
How to Earn by Selling Photos Online
Currently, the demand for quality photos is very high. Earning money by selling photos online is a very popular business nowadays. However, many people do not know how to earn money by selling photos online.
Various photographers upload their own pictures online as partners of various stock image websites, these pictures are called stock images.
Many people want to collect stock images for their various projects. And they have to pay to collect the desired images.
When a photographer’s photo is sold from the website, the photographer partners are paid a fixed amount of commission from the price of the photo. This is how a photographer earns by taking photos using his hand mobile or camera and selling photos online.
Also, if you want, you can open your website and earn by selling photos through your Facebook page.
What does it take to Earn Money by Selling Photos Online?
To earn money by selling photos, you must first have the skills to take good-quality photos. In this case, you may need-
- A High-Capacity Mobile Camera / Digital Camera.
- Photo Editing Application.
- Specializing in Photography of Specific Categories.
- Detailed idea about Image Composition, Lighting, Color, Resolution, and Size.
- A Stock Image website Account, where you Upload your Photos.
Read more: You can Earn Money by Playing Games on Mobile Apps – 10 Apps – 2024
Who Buys Pictures Online?
Today’s people’s lifestyle is becoming internet-based. Millions of rupees projects now revolve around online. If you want to earn by selling pictures online, pictures are sold in the following ways:-
- To do different Company Marketing.
- Bloggers need Images on their Blog Sites.
- For Freelancers and Online Businesses.
- Product Management.
- Creating Content.
- Content Promotion.
- Video Editing.
- In Institutional Magazines.
We use different images for different needs. However, to get demanding and high-quality pictures, such projects have to hire different photographers, which is very expensive. Then project managers get their desired images at low cost from online stock image websites.
Especially developed countries such as America, Italy, Canada, Switzerland, and Greenland buy the most stock images from such countries.
Read more: How to Create a Blog and Make Money
How to Sell Photos on Stock Image Website
First of all, you have to become a contributor or partner of a website in various stock image websites to earn money by selling photos online. Nowadays many stock image websites are available online. From there visit the website of your choice.
On the home page of the website, you will get options like Become A Seller, Contributor, Become A Partner, Sell etc. Options may vary by website.
From these options go to the Join Now page and complete the registration by selecting email, password, name, date of birth and country.
After registration, login and upload some good quality photos of your choice to your profile on the website to earn money by selling photos online.
The website authority does everything from digital marketing, advertising, to bringing in customers, making these sites popular. So you don’t have to think about selling after uploading a good picture. After uploading the image, whenever a customer buys it, the websites usually split the profit 70/30.
How to get a Profile Approved on the Marketplace
You will not get approval for your profile immediately after registering an account on stock image websites/marketplaces. Initially, you have to upload some selected images. The website authorities will review and publish all the pictures you upload.
- Specific Content
- Clear and Good Resolution
- Attractively Edited
- Copyright-free
- Attention should be paid to Lighting, Color, and Adjustment.
- Must meet non-adult and Website Policies.
Initially, you can upload a few photos and sell unlimited photos if your profile is approved. If not approved the first time, standardize the photo collection and apply again after a few days.
What kinds of Photos are in High Demand Online?
Generally, there are ways to earn by uploading quality and well-edited photos of any content and selling photos online. However, certain categories of images sell more. They are-
- Nature– Currently, the most sought-after images on the Internet are nature images. The intensity of nature fascinates people. Therefore, there is a high demand for pictures of beautiful scenery and places of interest in various project management.
- Animals– We often see fascinating pictures of different birds, fish, lions, wild animals, and pets online. Some pictures are very random. Taking these pictures requires advanced cameras and a lot of skill. Stock images of such close-up animals are in high demand.
- Art – Interesting pictures in different museums or different fine art pictures are very interesting and in high demand.
- Fashion (Fashion)- Digital Marketing Most products are fashion-based. So the demand for various stock images related to fashion is also very high. Big fashion designers and companies want such pictures.
- Technology– For blogging, content creation, and advertising there is a high demand for quality images of various technologies or devices.
- Travel– If you want to travel somewhere, the demand for pictures of natural beauty and places of interest is also increasing day by day. Travel agencies are looking for such pictures.
- Food– Food bloggers, restaurant websites, and restaurant item menus require attractive pictures of various foods. Also, the people of each region have some special food list, which carries their traditions. There are ways to earn money by taking photos of such food and selling them online.
- Business– Various business magazines must have pictures of success. If you are proficient in this type of photography, there are many ways to earn income by working directly in an organization or by selling photos.
- Lifestyle & Culture- The lifestyles and traditions of people in different countries of the world are different. If you are an avid traveler, you can take as many pictures of their culture’s activities and life as possible and sell them online.
- Abstract– Abstract photography is taking a picture of a subject very closely and taking a picture of its inner intelligence. Taking these pictures requires an advanced camera and skills.
How much Money can be Earned by Selling Pictures Online?
The amount of income one can earn from selling pictures online depends on the picture’s quality, the number of pictures on the stock image website, the frequency of uploads, the website’s sale conditions, and the payment per picture.
Typically, if you regularly upload quality images to a famous stock image website, they pay $0.25-$0.40 for each image.
In this case, if you have 1,000-2,000 photos in your profile on the website and sell 50 photos daily, then your income will be-
$0.25×50 = $12.5, which is currently about 1,200 taka in Bangladeshi taka. As per month, 1,200×30 = Rs.36,000. (This is an approximate calculation, which takes a lot of time to achieve)
In this case, the higher the profile picture, the higher the sales. Also, an image can be sold repeatedly. So if you adopt the method of earning money by selling pictures online for a long time, it will be a very profitable business.
Website to Earn Money by Selling Photos Online
There are many stock image websites online. Some of the popular and trusted websites are discussed below:-
(1) Alamy.com
Alami is a creative website popular worldwide. Currently, this website has more than 237 million images.
Every day, people upload and sell more than 3000 images here. The Contributor receives up to 50% commission for each exclusive image sale and up to 40% commission for non-exclusive images.
We make the payment via PayPal or Bank Fund Transfer on the first working day of the following month if the monthly income exceeds $50.
(2) Shutterstock
Shutterstock is another popular website to earn money by selling photos online. Every day countless content creators, digital marketers, and other project managers take high-quality images from here.
Earn up to $120 per image download. Also, 20%-30% commission is given as a contributor. Also paid on Client Subscription.
(3) Adobe Stock
Every day, thousands of visitors flock to Adobe stock to purchase high-quality premium images. You can sell photos taken with your mobile or camera as well as videos on this site.
By opening a free account and regularly uploading photos and videos, you can earn a commission of 33% for photos and 35% for videos every time they sell. You can withdraw your earnings from selling photos online through PayPal for just $25 monthly.
(4) iStock Photo
iStock Photo, a famous Micro Stock Channel, is renowned for selling photos. However, to work as a contributor here, you need to first upload 3 images of your choice.
The iStock Photo management team will check the quality, resolution, and copyright of these images. If they deem the images acceptable, they will allow you to upload unlimited images as a contributor.
(5) Fotolia
Fotolia, a distinct service from Adobe Stock, offers higher commissions for selling good-quality images.
You can earn a commission of between 20% to 60% for each image you sell on Fotolia. For skilled photographers, it serves as a significant source of income from selling pictures online.
(6) Big Stock
Opening a contributor account on the Big Stock site is relatively easy. The Big Stock website will review the image after opening the contributor account.
If the reviewed images are added to the Image Collections of the Big Stock website, the images can be bought and sold. Here your income will also depend on the type of payment plan and image size.
On this site, you can earn money by selling pictures online, and we pay commission at the rate of about 25%-40% for each picture sold, ranging from $0.25-$3.00.
(7) Getty Images
Getty Images Natural, romantic, emotional type photos are in high demand on the website. The website has more than 50 million monthly visitors. The website sells images at high prices to a large number of people. Pays 20% commission per sale to Contributor.
(8) Pixels
Pexels is famous for downloading photos and videos for free. But even if you can’t sell pictures here, there is a Thanksgiving option on behalf of the site. A monetary prize will be given for your picture if it gets a lot of downloads.
There are also ways to earn money by selling photos online on websites like Dreams Time, Pixabay, Depositphotos, Stocksy.com, etc.