The 10 Best Sites to Sell Your Photos Online
Do you like photography? Do you take pleasure in immortalizing elements such as landscapes or people?
It is possible to earn money from this passion by putting your pictures for sale on the internet, via image banks, or via your own site.
However, it is not enough for you to create a blog or advertise on a social network to have customers flocking to buy your photos.
Indeed, competition is tough in this area and you have to be well prepared to sell your photos online effectively.
I have prepared an article for you to give you valuable advice on how to succeed in your sales as easily as possible and without wasting time. So don’t wait any longer to read on!
And if you are looking for other tips to earn money on the internet, you can also consult my article in which I present to you 30 ways to earn money online.
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Why sell your photos online?
Selling photos online initially allows you to recover money after work has been done. Indeed, you can quite love photography and take pictures for fun. But taking advantage of his passion to have an additional income will not be refused!
Initially, you will not sell your shots for incredible sums but over time the prices can increase and you will obtain a fairly significant income. Recovering money is therefore a good reason to sell your photos, but it is not the only one.
Indeed, by choosing to sell his images, you will do everything to gain visibility, this will allow you to make your work known to a wide audience. It’s always nice to see your passion and hard work being noticed by others.
Selling your photos online is a perfect solution to reach Internet users, get feedback on your work and loyal customers who will be waiting impatiently to discover your new shots. You will have a growing community to interact with and you will even be able to meet other passionate photographers like you.
Selling your photos will also allow you to finance your equipment in the long term. You will be able to buy new lenses, a tripod, or even a new device or training to improve yourself.
Taking photos will be profitable and selling your photos on the internet is a very good solution to finance your passion with the money of people who love your work.
How much does it cost to sell your photos on the internet?
To know how much you can get, it will be important to set a good price to sell your photos on the internet. It is quite difficult to know how much it can bring.
Indeed, at the beginning the sale price will not be the same as after a few months of sale or a few years. A photograph does not have a fixed price and the latter varies according to each photographer but also to each photo!
You will be able to take into account a few elements to give some value to your shots. Selling your photos requires defining the quality of the photo, the talent of the photographer, but also the popular theme or not of the shot.
You will also have to think about the price according to the customer, because your target will not have the same budget. If you touch the world of luxury, you will not charge the same prices as for selling to more modest targets such as associations for example.
Finally, we must not forget to set the price for the transfer of copyright and this can be very variable! And do not forget to set your price taking into account the format of the photo offered for sale and the number of prints.
Best practices for selling your photos?
When you have decided to take the plunge to sell your photos online, and you have set prices, all you have to do is get started. For this, you will need to organize yourself in order to avoid making certain mistakes.
We have therefore prepared a set of best practices that will help you sell your photos effectively as quickly as possible without forgetting to win a good price for them.
Make high quality photos
This element seems logical, but it is better to specify it to you from the start. To sell your photos online, you have to offer quality shots that will make you want to buy them.
Take the time to take clear photos, to have a high resolution to be able to increase the value of your photo. The more quality work you have, the more you will be able to offer high prices.
Make different pictures
To succeed in selling your photos as quickly as possible, we advise you to organize yourself well to succeed in standing out from the crowd. For this, you will have to succeed in standing out through your shots in order to attract customers.
If you make shots similar to other photographers in terms of theme or style of the photo, you will not be able to sell your images effectively. To make shots different, try changing angles, taking unique and original photos that may surprise!
Avoid off-the-shelf filters
After your shot, you will have the opportunity to edit a few elements such as brightness, contrast and colors. However, be careful not to overdo your photography.
Also avoid software with pre-registered filters, as this will not allow you to get a good photo. If you need to make some changes before the sale, you can use Photoshop which will give you a much more professional result.
Protect your photos with Watermarks or Watermark
To sell your images on a website, you will have to highlight them by making them visible to everyone. It will be important to show the quality, so you can’t put a thumbnail for every shot. It is important to apply watermarks or Watermark on each photo to prevent the theft of your creations.
So don’t forget this step before uploading the photos. If you intend to sell your photos online from Adobe Stock, the watermarks will normally be applied by the site, but in other cases, you will have to do it yourself.
Vary the photos
If you have not yet found your own photo style, you will have to vary the shots. This will allow you to see what pleases you the most to succeed in selling your photos online more easily.
By finding out which shots are the most popular, you can focus on a profitable type of photo and take the time to find your style.
The 10 best sites and applications to sell your photos on the net
Selling your photos online is not the easiest, you will have to take care of your photos and follow the essential steps to successfully sell them while obtaining good visibility.
It will be essential to choose effective platforms to sell photos on the internet such as sites or applications for example. We have prepared a selection of the 10 best choices to direct you to.
1 – Shutterstock
Selling your photos online can be an effective solution from Shutterstock. Its operation is slightly different from traditional image banks, as customers can access photos posted online for a monthly fee.
If a customer uploads one of your photos, you will receive a payment of 25 to 30 euro cents. It doesn’t seem like much, but if your snaps become popular, you will quickly receive large sums of money.
To sell your photos on this site, you must send 10 photos and have at least 7 approved, so select what you send carefully.
2 – Dreamstime
Dreamstime is an online shopping site where you can put your snaps up for sale and get good income pretty quickly. Indeed, for each photo purchased on the site, you will be entitled to receive 50% commission.
But that’s not all, if your profile and photos become popular, you can receive bonuses for downloads. However, you must provide snapshots with a minimum quality of 3 megapixels.
3 – iStock
Istock is a well-known solution for selling photos online. But your work will be evaluated by sending 3 photos. If your request is validated, you will get 20% of the price of the photo but it can go up to 40% if you are selling an exclusive.
If you manage to make your photos popular, you can receive great sums of money in a short time and for the same photo!
4 – Envato
You can use envato to sell your photos. They will be available on Envato Market which offers sound effects, themes, videos, photos. So you will have the opportunity to reach many users and a chance to gain popularity to sell more photos!
5-Adobe Stock
If you choose to go through Adobe Stock, you can reach a large number of users while putting your photos online very easily. This site allows you to receive a commission for each contribution.
If you gain popularity, you can get more income from your photos so do not hesitate to upload many photos.
6 – SmugMug
SmugMug lets you sell your photos as a digital download, print, or greeting card. You will be able to set your rate and get a fairly large royalty on sales.
You can also start with the free version and then switch to a professional offer to benefit from many features. It will be important to create your storefront and manage your store to quickly increase your number of sales.
7 – 123RF
123RF is an image bank with many users which will allow you to reach a large audience by publishing your photos.
Selling your photos online on this site will be quite effective and if you choose a monthly plan, you will have the opportunity to take advantage of many useful features.
You should know that your remuneration will vary according to the level of your profile. It will therefore be necessary to gain levels to earn more income.
8 – Can Stock Photo
Selling your photos online using Can Stock photo will allow you to reach many customers because it is one of the most important sites for selling images online.
You will have the opportunity to sell professional images while enjoying a good price. The commissions are fair and you will be able to get your earnings from $50.
9 – Pixabay
Pixabay is a very good solution to sell your photos online. The site is ergonomic and very pleasant to navigate. The photos are free of rights for users and this therefore makes it possible to attract a large number of them.
But this also means that the money collected for each download will only be possible in the form of donations. This solution will not necessarily allow you to have big income, but it will allow you to make your photos visible and share them with a large number of Internet users!
10 – Foap
Foap is an application that gives you the possibility to expose your photos to put them on sale easily. It is also possible to go through the website.
The photos are sold for €10 and you can recover €5, but your income can increase by winning contests organized by the site, for example.
Selling photos on your own site
It is important to know the different methods to sell your photos online, but it is also possible to take care of your sales through your own site.
By choosing this solution, you will get 100% of the sale price and no commission will be taken into account for another site or an image bank. However, you will have to think about applying your watermarks to avoid the theft of your work.
Create your site
The first step to selling your photos is to create your website. It is possible to do this for free using WordPress, but it will be important to have some knowledge on the subject if you do not want to go through a service provider.
It is possible to use Builderall for less than 30€/month without having any particular knowledge for your site creation. Indeed, it is an all-in-one marketing tool with a drag and drop system to set up a design adapted to your needs.
You will also have an autoresponder, sales funnels, payment systems and other features. If you are a beginner, we highly recommend this solution!
Attract customers
To know how to sell your photos, the solution is quite simple: you have to attract customers! But this task is not always easy. By choosing to sell photos on the internet from your own site, you will need to find the customers yourself.
This is not the case with image banks, which allow you to reach many customers easily. It will therefore be necessary to develop your network from social networks, and referencing for example.
Build customer loyalty
If you’re wondering how to sell your photos sustainably, that’s normal. It is important to succeed in retaining your customers from the start.
Selling your photos online is not easy and if you do it from your website, you will have to invest in finding customers and above all keeping them. You can set up a newsletter system to keep in touch with customers who will gladly return to your site.
It is also possible to set up discounts, games, contests, and promo codes for customers to make them want to come back to your site.
You should not forget to offer new content regularly enough to bring your site to life and make your customers want to make new purchases.
Finally, it is important to be active and available on the networks to communicate with your community. Customers like to feel confident and proximity is a very good way to build visitor loyalty quickly.