How To Make Money By Online Selling Stock Photos
If you aren't sure which types of photos to shoot, take a moment to think about what types of stock photos are currently selling well on the major stock photo sites.
You'll find that many people are looking for photos with people in them, especially photos that show happy people interacting and working together. Photos of animals and nature also tend to sell well and are a good choice if you're looking for something fun and interesting to photograph.
Landscape shots, close-ups, food photography, toys and games, pets, travel scenes (especially cityscapes), buildings both old and new, abstract images like glass or textured surfaces—these all sell on stock photography sites.
How to take high-quality stock photos
If you're serious about making money as an online stock photo seller, you need to learn the basics of photography first. Learning how to take great photos will make it much easier for you to become successful in selling your photos. Here are some tips on how to start:
1. Pick a single subject and focus on it exclusively. If you're going to sell stock photos, your subject must be beautiful in its own right—not just a handful of different things in the scene together. The perfect stock photo is one where a single object or person stands out from the rest of the image instead of being overwhelmed by other objects or people.
2. Give yourself plenty of room in your frame. Unless you want your subject to appear smaller than it really is, use a wide-angle lens so there's plenty of space around them to give their full size and scale away from the viewer's eye. This will help emphasize their beauty while still giving enough space between object and background not to feel crowded or claustrophobic when looking at them as an image on your computer screen.
3. Use natural lighting whenever possible. Even if it's raining outside, focus on taking pictures outdoors under clear skies with strong sunlight whenever possible so that most parts of your images are lit by direct light instead of indirect light like clouds or candlelight (which both create shadows). Using good natural lighting means that shadows won't be too dark, nor will the overall exposure be too bright and washed out—making for better-looking images overall with more detail in the highlights and shadows along with better-defined edges between objects and backgrounds.
Where to sell your stock photos
Shutterstock is a very popular stock photo website that can help you find customers and make money selling photos. On Shutterstock, you can upload your photos and earn money every time someone downloads one of them.
Adobe Stock is an online marketplace for creative assets, including videos, illustrations, and more. You can contribute to the platform by selling your photos there.
Alamy sells stock images, vectors, and videos to businesses, marketing agencies, and media organizations around the world. Once you join Alamy as a contributor, you get access to their free training programs for photographers. That way, you'll learn how to take even better photos in the future—and sell more of them!
Getty Images sells stock images through iStock (they're owned by Getty Images) using a partnership program they call "Getty Images Contributor." With this program, you can sell your stock photos on both iStock and GettyImages.com.
How much money you can make selling stock photos?
This depends on how popular your photos are and where you're selling them. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but as a general rule of thumb, you can expect to make anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars per photo depending on the site you're using and the popularity of your photos.
Of course, if you're constantly taking and selling high-quality stock photos, your earnings will add up over time—giving you a nice passive income stream that can help supplement your other online earnings.
