How to Sell Your Photos Online

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Why Should You Sell Your Photos?

You don’t know how good we’ve got it. Most people have a smartphone with a camera good enough to take photos worthy of professional websites. It wasn’t like this five years back. It’s only been very recently that we’ve all been opened up to this opportunity to make money so casually. Pick up, snap what you see, and upload it to one of a host of different platforms, just waiting for a buyer to eventually pounce.

You should take part because it’s so easy to do so. Once you’ve got your material out there, your work is complete. How much you get out of it obviously depends on how much content you put out there, and how well you’re able to capture the types of imagery that people would want to pay for.

Who Would Buy Your Photos?

The world needs more photos. Even with ever-increasing numbers of people contributing content to the internet, there’s always a need for even more. Newspapers and magazines need to accompany their posts with images. They know that high quality photos come at a cost, and they have budgets specifically for this. Of course they’ll take freebies when they can, but they know that there may be consequences if media is used without credit or adequate remuneration.

Even blogs these days often use paid-for images. Many site owners pay a subscription for access to a library of photos that they can use at their convenience. They need more photos flowing in to keep everyone happy. This demand for more photos won’t fade.

What Photos Can I Sell?

I mean when I say that companies will pay for photos of almost anything. Even if you’re working full-time, you could get five sellable shots by lunchtime.

Let’s go through some examples:

Wake up and take one of your messy sheets for a feature on the UK’s sleeping habits.
Leaving your tower block flat, take a snap of the stairwell. That’s for a piece on accessibility.
Commuting to work, you see construction work. Snap. That can accompany something on the housing crisis.
While sat at your office desk now, you could take a photo of the scene and it could be used in a story about employment rates.
You lunch in the park. Perfect place to take a photo of a dog walker, to go along with a piece about the positive impact having pets has on your mental health.

It goes on and on. Spend any amount of time scrolling through stock photography sites and you’ll realise just how much opportunity there is.

As with anything, there’s going to be a lot of competition where the barrier to entry is low. It’s better if you’re able to take photos of things that others might not, like regional landmarks, remote locations or scenes with particular people in them.

What Camera Do I Need to Sell My Images?

The more the megapixels, the better the results are going to be. iPhone 6 quality is a good benchmark. 8 megapixels and above is probably going to be all you need. DSLRs will obviously get you better results, but if you wanted to do this as casually as possible, it’s easier to stick with the hardware you have on you at all times. No need to invest in expenses lenses and tripods and all of that, unless you’re thinking of taking things up a level.

There will be stock image photographers out there that have been paid using even lower quality images. There are going to be ones that would never think about trying to sell a photo on before they’ve had the time to edit it beforehand. All of this comes down to how committed you are to this activity and how much money you want to get out of it. There’s no shame in starting off small and working up to invest in better tech to take photos that are worth more money. Make it fit in with your lifestyle.

Where Can You Sell Your Photos?

So where are all of these photos going? It seems as though more and more photo marketplaces are cropping up. Below I list a few of the popular ones. They all have different arrangements about the commission structure and your rights as a contributor.

Hunt around to see what suits your needs best:

Sell My Photo: For quirky, celebrity and newsworthy photos. Varied photo value.

500px: High quality stock photography with paid membership to sell on marketplace.

Smug Mug: Assorted stock photography. Pay for the ability to sell.

Adobe Stock: Marketplace for high quality images, paying a 33% commission on photo sales

123RF: Stock and editorial image marketplace

Alamy: Quality stock imagery marketplace, offering 50% commission for sales

Foap: App for on-the-go stock imagery capture and sales

Gallerist: App to conveniently capture stock imagery and sell

PicFair: UK-based stock imagery site, where image owners name the price

Creative Market: Make images or bundles of them to sell, set your own price and earn up to 70% commission

ShutterStock: Globally recognised stock imagery site, paying 20-30% commission per image sale