Most of us know how to how to capture good photos. But do you know how to earn money by selling photos? Yes, you read it right, believe me, you can earn money with photos that you normally capture. In this post, we will explore the 10 best websites to sell photos online and earn money.
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Sell Photo Online and Earn Money
Do you want to sell photo online and earn money? Want to know the websites where you can upload photos and earn money? Want to know how to earn money with pictures. If yes then this is the post for you.
Sell Photos and Earn Money
The process of selling photos online is straightforward. All you have to do to sell photos and earn money is to upload them to photo selling marketplaces. This is the simplest way to earn money with photos.
Therefore if you have a good stock of beautiful images on your hard drive. Why not start selling these photos and earn money from photography online. Here, I have compiled a list of the best site to upload photos and earn money.
What type of photos sells the best?
The following types of photos sell best:
1. People and Lifestyle: Men, women, kid’s images from every country and culture.
2. Family and Home: Family members, pets, various spaces of the house.
3. Travel: Images of the beach, vehicle, nature, hotel, etc.
4. Food: Images of food items are always in high demand.
5. Health and Fitness: Images related to fitness from every country.
6. Business: Working people images are very popular.
7. Finance: Images related to money.
8. Festivals and Events: Photos of festivals and events.
Who buys stock photos?
The largest buying base of stock photos are designers, producers, publishers, and bloggers. All types of businesses buy stock photos.
So, let’s take a look at how and where sell photos earn money.
Top 10 Best Websites to Sell Photos Online and Earn Money
The following are the best photo stock sites to sell. So make money selling photos online.
1. Shutterstock
Shutterstock is one of the best and popular stock photo sites. It has the largest customer base from 150+ countries. People have downloaded over 1 billion images, video clips, and music tracks from this website.
The website has world-class content that comes from 1 million+ contributors. The website has a library of over 350 million images, with 200,000 more added every day.
As a contributor, you can upload your content with their easy-to-use platform. And make great money every time your content is downloaded by someone. They have paid over $1 billion to contributors since 2003.
There’s also a referral system where you can earn even more by referring new contributors and customers.
Click here to start selling images on Shutterstock’s website.
2. Alamy
Alamy is another great website where you can sell stock photos. This website contains 225 million stock images, vectors, and videos (Over 100,000 new images added every day).
Alamy pays contributors a higher percentage of the sale than its competitors. You can earn up to 50% of any sales. Moreover, the student can earn a 100% commission for two years. They have paid out over $1 million every month to the contributors.
There are no lengthy minimum terms, no sneaky T&Cs. And it’s very easy to upload your images on this site. Your uploaded images will be available for sale within 24 hours.
Click here to get started with Alamy as a contributor and earn money by selling photos.
3. Fotolia/Adobe Stock
Another best stock photography websites to sell photos. Fotolia is now Adobe Stock. As of November 5, 2019, Fotolia is closed. Adobe Stock is another micro-stock photo website. Here you can sell photos online and expand your creative career with stock.
If you have original and high-quality photos or videos, you can join the creator community. Just sign up to become an Adobe Stock contributor and start uploading. It’s free.
You will earn a 33% commission when you sell photos on Adobe Stock. So, sell your photos to the world’s largest creative community.
Click here to get started as an Adobe Stock contributor.
4. Getty Images and iStock
Getty Images and iStock has over 1.5 million customer base from 200+ countries. They have the largest global distribution network which allows you to have your content seen around the world.
For each license a customer purchases, you earn a royalty, which is a percentage of the price paid by the purchaser. There are more than 2 lakh contributors, from beginners to full-time professional artists.
To become a contributor, you need to apply through the Contributor by Getty Images app. Once your application is accepted, you will receive an invitation to join Getty Images or iStock as a contributor.
Click here to get started as a contributor at Getty Images and iStock by Getty Images.
5. 500px
500px a leading online network for photographers. It is a community-based platform that helps you share incredible photos and make money. It is one of the most popular stock photo sites to sell images online.
On this platform, you can discover and share incredible photos and compete in photo contests for prizes. You can easily license your photos for stock usage through 500px.
Contributor gets immediate exposure with your first upload with the “Pulse algorithm” that surfaces new photographs. You will get 60% royalties when you license your photos exclusively with 500px global distribution partners.
Click here to set up a free account and upload your images.
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6. Twenty20
Twenty20 is the world’s largest authentic photography marketplace where you can sell photos and earn money. Moreover it doesn’t have any hard and fast rules for uploading images.
Now, Twenty20 is part of Envato. Twenty20 website contains 50M+ crowdsourced photos. On this website, you can make money in two ways: by selling a photo and participating in photo challenges for prizes.
Selling photos on twenty20 is easy and free. Simply set up a free account on Twenty20 and upload your photos. Every image you upload is automatically available for sale. So be a part of this global community of photographers making money doing what they love.
Give Twenty20 a try today! Click here to sign up as a contributor on Twenty20.
7. Stocksy
Stocksy is an authentic stock photography and footage with no filler. It is an art-forward, royalty-free stock photo + video agency. It makes discovering unique, beautifully authentic imagery effortless.
On this website, every artist, photo, and video is hand selected. If you are accepted by Stocksy, you will be able to upload photo earn money. You will receive fair pay i.e. 50%-75% of the total purchase.
To become a contributor, create a Stocksy account, fill in an application form and upload 10 photos or videos. If approved, you need to build your Stocksy profile and begin making money doing what you love.
You can get started here to submit your application at Stocksy website.
8. Crestock
Another excellent place to sell photos earn money is Crestock. It is an ideal stock photography site for freelance photographers. This website contains more than 2.5 million royalty-free creative images.
You can set up a free account on Crestock and upload images. The Crestock inspection/editing team will evaluates your images. Once approved, they will add them to your account so that customers can purchase them.
You will get 20% to 40% royalty rate based on your total number of images sold since joining Crestock. You can also become a Crestock Affiliate and Make Money!
Click here to start selling on Crestock’s site.
9. Dreamstime
Dreamstime is another popular stock photo site if you want to sell photos online for money. The website has 147 million images from talented contributors from all over the world.
You can register for free on Dreamstime to earn money by selling photos online. The requirements on Dreamstime are not as stringent as other photo websites. However, they accept only quality files after assessing them.
You share might vary from 20% to 60% based on such certain criteria. You can also make money for referrals.
Click here to get started to upload photos and earn money on Dreamstime.
10. Can Stock Photo
Can Stock Photo is one of the world’s largest and oldest micro-stock photography websites. The website is home to over 93,677 contributors. It is always growing with over 30,358 new files added every day.
Creation of an account on Can Stock Photo is easy, free, and required. Just fill an application and submit three images. They will quickly review your application and get back to you, often on the same day.
Every time your uploaded photo is downloaded you will earn a commission. You can also refer another photographer to Can Stock Photo and earn $5 USD for every 50 images they sell.
Click here to upload photo earn money as a contributor on Can Stock Photo.
Bonus: Some more websites to sell photos online and earn money
Here are some more websites where you can sell photo online and earn money.
- Mostphotos – Mostphotos allows anybody to buy and sell images online.
- Photomoto – Fotomoto makes it easy to sell your images directly from your own website.
- Snapped4u – Snapped4U offers an easy way to sell event images.
- PhotoShelter – You can store your images, create your photo website, sell or license your images with PhotoShelter.
- Bigstock – Bigstock allows to make money from your original images and illustrations.
- SmugMug – SmugMug gives you of all kinds a feature rich home for your images.
Final Thoughts
I hope this post has helped you to find the best websites to sell photos online and earn money. Stock photo sites are perfect to earn money online images because they take off your workload. Therefore, if you are a photographer then sell your work and make money from photos.
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Also Read: 10 Best Websites to make money online as a freelancer