How to make money selling your photos online

The online universe has multiplied the possibilities to earn income with your creations , as well as boost your own business.

With the rise of digitization and freelance employment, photographers are one of the most demanded professional profiles, since every day more companies and brands need to have paid image banks and personalized photographs in line with their graphic personality .

The best sites and online platforms to sell your photos online

You may want to specifically target a niche market as a photographer, such as weddings, travel, decorating, or interior photography. But you can also sell your photos and make money with your photos on the following platforms and websites:

· Twenty20: If you want to sell your photos , you can do it on this platform, once called Instacanvas and linked to the social network Instagram. The team of experts will review the quality of your images, which you can import from various cloud hosting services and if they approve your work, you can earn 40% of the cost of the photo if customers acquire it through a subscription plan and a 32% if it is a one-time photo sale.

· Fotolia : It belongs to Adobe and it is one of the most interesting microstock platforms to sell your photos. As indicated on their website, you will receive a commission for each image or video sold, determined by your rank and your chosen exclusivity options: for the content sold with their credit system you will receive between 20% and 63% of the price of sale, while for subscriptions you will receive 33% of the sale price of the image.

· Getty Images Affiliates : A pioneer in quality photographic archives, for this portal you must send your images to one of its four basic departments : creative / advertising, filmmakers / moving images, news / sports / entertainment and archive. It should be noted that photos must be submitted as 47.5-52 TIFF files, uncompressed, with 24-bit RGB color at 8 bits per channel, property and model free. It has several affiliate portals such as Getty Images, iStock, ThinkStock or Photos.com, so you can benefit from the sale of your photos on various platforms.

· Dreamstime : Anyone can be a member of your community and sell their photos, images and / or videos. You simply have to create an account and upload your files, since the company works as an agency that sells quality images to professionals. You can receive an amount of 25-50% for each transaction , which is calculated based on the net amount of the sale. Exclusive files receive an additional 10%, while exclusive contributors enjoy 60% on all sales and an additional $ 0.20 bonus for each approved file.

· Shutterstock : It is one of the world's most famous payment banks for photography , as well as a large global marketplace for artists and creators to sell free images, videos, vectors and illustrations in more than 150 countries. You can upload your material, both images and video clips and vector designs and earn income from them. Don't miss his blog, where valuable resources for photographers abound, including a forum to share experiences, editing techniques, and expert advice. The reward depends on many factors such as the subscription of the user who purchases the photo or the license. The minimum is 25 cents, up to 30% of the price of the photo, with a maximum of 120 dollars per photo).

· DepositPhotos: Another stock image service where you can create your user account, upload your photos and earn money. In addition, you must pass a test before publishing your images, videos or vector designs to make them available to DepositPhotos users, who go through a prior quality control. The earnings depend on your level as a contributor, a scale that is set according to the number of downloads you generate. In the case of photos purchased on demand, the margin is between 34% and 42% , while in photos purchased by subscription, a fixed price between 30 and 35 cents on the dollar.

· Snapwire : This online platform connects photographers from around the world who want to sell their material online with users who want to buy photos other than those that are usually in paid image banks. If you work on this platform you can accept photographic challenges and special requests from clients or use it as a showcase for your photos as a normal profile in which they buy them. In the first case you will get benefits of 70%, and in the second, 50%. In addition, you retain the copyright.

· Scoopshot : Unlike the others, it is designed for you to upload photos from your Android smartphone or iPhone, incorporating it into the platform's store. If someone uses your image in an online ad, as part of the Scoopshot advertising network, you will also receive a percentage of profit. Another point is that clients can request tasks and commissions.

· Alamy : One of the biggest advantages is that they give you 50% of the benefits, although the prices are set by them and the average is around $ 90 per image . They accept practically any kind of photo in terms of subject matter. They have a special program for students, to whom they pay 100% of the price of the photo.

· EyeEM : With a version for iPhone and Android, the EyeEM platform focuses, like others mentioned, on the sale of photos from your mobile device, although you can also do it from its website. Among its characteristics, you can accept “missions” from the brands to increase your profits, the distribution of profits is equitable (50% for each one), you maintain your copyright and it also allows you to sell through other image agencies, increasing your visibility. .

· Clashot: It belongs to DepositPhotos but in a mobile version , it is available for both iPhone and Android. You can put your photos for sale directly from your mobile on the platform, as long as they comply with simple quality standards. The profit percentages, as explained on their website, range between 50 cents and 80 dollars.

And as an extra, do not miss some recommendations when selling your photographs online : try not to have the presence of brands and logos within your photographs abound - due to copyright - obtain the express consent of the people who appear in the photo, tag your photo with the appropriate keywords, renew your photographic equipment regularly, train in photo editing and post-production and specialize in a specific niche.

It should be noted that some of the photographs that are sold the most are those of people in action -work, family, dating, etc.-, babies, pets, music, tattoos, flowers and nature, professionals, events and food, as well as backgrounds, texture and decoration. Take good note! Doing a good job and having a complete portfolio distributed on the network, you will be able to benefit from economic feedback thanks to the image sales portals that abound in our times.