How to Sell Digital Photos Online

Does this sound like you? Your camera never leaves your side. Birthday parties, vacations, holidays–your friends know that you will be the one taking all the photographs. You’ve always thought that it would be great to get paid for your pictures, but you didn’t want to take an expensive course or spend four years of college to find out how. With the internet, it is easier than ever to become a paid photographer. In fact, you can get started by selling the photos that you have on your computer right now. This is your stock of photos and depending on the subject matter, these might be in high demand. So read on to learn how to sell digital photos online and turn your hobby into a profession.

Little Fish

The best way to get started with selling your digital photos online is to approach the microstock sites. Unlike the big stock agencies that are difficult to get started in, the microstock sites are perfect for the beginner. You post your photos online to one of these sites and allow others to license your work. The stock agency is responsible for hosting the photos, providing the search capabilities, billing the customers, and paying you your commission check.

Consider one or more of the following companies to start your digital photo selling: Dreamstime, Fotolia, iStockPhoto, iStockPro, PhotoStockPlus, Shutterstock, and Stockxpert. Be sure to read all the terms and conditions before uploading your photos and use more than one site so you can test which ones give you the best results. Even though these might be the little fish of the photo stock industry, you do need to submit your best work. Take your time to go through your photos and discard any that are out of focus or low quality.

DIY

If you like to work directly with customers, you might want to sell your photographs direct. This Do It Yourself approach can be time consuming and requires knowledge of business and marketing, in addition to your photography skills. The advantages of this path are that you are more in control of your photos. If you are going to be selling your digital photos direct, you will first need to create a webpage. This will be your online portfolio, so take the time to have a professional design and only include your best photos.

In addition to creating your website, you will need to do market research. Who are you selling your images to? Will you be targeting webmasters who need to buy photos for their webpages? Study your competition and see what they offer and what prices they charge. Find webmasters so you can ask them what they look for when purchasing graphics. Also take the time to study copyright law. Make sure you have permission to sell your photos. If you took the photograph you own the copyright to it but if a person is recognizable in your photo you will need a model release before you can use it.

Big Fish.

The three big professional stock photo agencies are Getty, Corbis, and JuperiterMedia. If you are inexperienced with selling your work and are first starting out, it is probably best to ignore the big fish of the industry. Do not, however, dismiss them entirely. When you are accepted by the large stock sites your work will be seen by bigger companies who offer more per image than the customers on the little fish or your DIY site. Because of this make it your goal to have images accepted by the big three. First take the time to improve your photography skills and learn what the market needs before spending your time and money on one of these agencies.

Whether you are looking to supplement your income or pursue photography as a full time career, the internet makes it easier to profit from selling your photos.