Learn how you can capitalize on your photography by selling it online.
Selling your photography online is a great way to make some money from your digital images without having to invest a lot of time. Stock photography sites are becoming increasingly widespread, offering great opportunities that a photographer can cash in on. The pay ranges from mere pennies to hundreds of dollars, depending on the content and quality of your photographs, as well as the online traffic you can obtain through these websites. These websites are also the fastest, easiest way to make money from photography online. Read on to learn how.
Step 1:
Research the different stock photography sites to determine where to upload your images for sale. Stock photography websites sell users the rights to use submitted images for a license fee. The very same image may be sold over and over again to different clients.
Previously, a stock photography library was typically targeted at the print media or magazines which typically have large budgets, charge very high prices and usually only use professional photographers. Today, several websites host online stock photography libraries for both web and print use.
Step 2:
Compare the different stock image websites to determine the one most lucrative for your work. Compare the structure of their pricing and payments, as well as the content and style of the photos that sell well on the site. Highly professional, popular and well respected sites such as iStockPhoto and StockExpert tend to have stricter standards and longer approval waiting periods, at times as much as a week. However, they do offer a higher rates and volumes of traffic if you do get your shots approved. Just the same, consider uploading your images to smaller websites because, in addition to having less stringent standards, they may also give your images exposure to customers and companies that the larger sites don't target.
Step 3:
Be original and creative when deciding what to take and submit pictures of. Take into account what clients might be searching for on the stock image website, and then try and provide it. Generally, nature photographs do not sell nearly as well as portraits or photos of people using a particular item that can be used to portray a mood or to advertise a product. Very often, the more specific you are, the better. As an example, consider the large number of websites and or magazines that use images of people at work at a computer. If you can take well-composed images of a variety of scenarios of people using computers – for example a child at a computer, or somebody smashing a monitor – you will be more likely to increase your chances of having your photos accepted by the stock photo sites, and commanding higher prices.
Step 4:
Try to meet and exceed the website's submission guidelines. Most reputable websites will be fairly rigorous regarding the quality of the images they will accept, so as to offer their clients highest quality images. They won't accept images that are out of focus, of the wrong exposure or of low resolution. The higher the image's resolution and the bigger it can be enlarged, the better it will sell because there is a demand for larger images for print. You can sell smaller images for web use at sites such as BigStockPhoto, but they don't sell quite as well.
Step 5:
Try to meet and exceed the website's submission guidelines. Most reputable websites will be fairly rigorous regarding the quality of the images that they will accept, so as to offer their clients highest quality images. They won't accept images that are out of focus, of the wrong exposure or of low resolution. The higher the image's resolution and the bigger it can be enlarged, the better it will sell because there is a demand for larger images for print. You can sell smaller images for web use at sites such as BigStockPhoto, but they don't sell quite as well.
Tips
Read each website's guidelines carefully regarding the submission of images. Most sites will be rigorous about the quality of the images they offer. They want to offer their clients quality images, and will not accept images that are low resolution, the wrong exposure or out of focus. Most sites give detailed guidelines and examples of what to submit.
Read also : A Step-by-step Tutorial on Selling Stock Images on the Web
Selling your photography online is a great way to make some money from your digital images without having to invest a lot of time. Stock photography sites are becoming increasingly widespread, offering great opportunities that a photographer can cash in on. The pay ranges from mere pennies to hundreds of dollars, depending on the content and quality of your photographs, as well as the online traffic you can obtain through these websites. These websites are also the fastest, easiest way to make money from photography online. Read on to learn how.
Step 1:
Research the different stock photography sites to determine where to upload your images for sale. Stock photography websites sell users the rights to use submitted images for a license fee. The very same image may be sold over and over again to different clients.
Previously, a stock photography library was typically targeted at the print media or magazines which typically have large budgets, charge very high prices and usually only use professional photographers. Today, several websites host online stock photography libraries for both web and print use.
Step 2:
Compare the different stock image websites to determine the one most lucrative for your work. Compare the structure of their pricing and payments, as well as the content and style of the photos that sell well on the site. Highly professional, popular and well respected sites such as iStockPhoto and StockExpert tend to have stricter standards and longer approval waiting periods, at times as much as a week. However, they do offer a higher rates and volumes of traffic if you do get your shots approved. Just the same, consider uploading your images to smaller websites because, in addition to having less stringent standards, they may also give your images exposure to customers and companies that the larger sites don't target.
Step 3:
Be original and creative when deciding what to take and submit pictures of. Take into account what clients might be searching for on the stock image website, and then try and provide it. Generally, nature photographs do not sell nearly as well as portraits or photos of people using a particular item that can be used to portray a mood or to advertise a product. Very often, the more specific you are, the better. As an example, consider the large number of websites and or magazines that use images of people at work at a computer. If you can take well-composed images of a variety of scenarios of people using computers – for example a child at a computer, or somebody smashing a monitor – you will be more likely to increase your chances of having your photos accepted by the stock photo sites, and commanding higher prices.
Step 4:
Try to meet and exceed the website's submission guidelines. Most reputable websites will be fairly rigorous regarding the quality of the images they will accept, so as to offer their clients highest quality images. They won't accept images that are out of focus, of the wrong exposure or of low resolution. The higher the image's resolution and the bigger it can be enlarged, the better it will sell because there is a demand for larger images for print. You can sell smaller images for web use at sites such as BigStockPhoto, but they don't sell quite as well.
Step 5:
Try to meet and exceed the website's submission guidelines. Most reputable websites will be fairly rigorous regarding the quality of the images that they will accept, so as to offer their clients highest quality images. They won't accept images that are out of focus, of the wrong exposure or of low resolution. The higher the image's resolution and the bigger it can be enlarged, the better it will sell because there is a demand for larger images for print. You can sell smaller images for web use at sites such as BigStockPhoto, but they don't sell quite as well.
Tips
Read each website's guidelines carefully regarding the submission of images. Most sites will be rigorous about the quality of the images they offer. They want to offer their clients quality images, and will not accept images that are low resolution, the wrong exposure or out of focus. Most sites give detailed guidelines and examples of what to submit.
Read also : A Step-by-step Tutorial on Selling Stock Images on the Web
