How to Sell Stock Photos Online

In years past you had to be a professional photographer with a large portfolio to make money selling your photos. Today, however, the internet has opened up the market to amateur photographers through microstock photography agencies. So if you are a shutterbug, don’t let all of those photographs you have taken just sit on your computer. You can sell your photos online and make some good residual income.

Many businesses don’t have the resources to hire a photographer to take a picture for them every time they need one. Instead, they rely on stock photos, also called royalty-free photos, to fill their needs.

Photographers take pictures with no particular client in mind and offer them for sale in a stock photography collection. When a client needs a photo for a project, they look through the many stock photographs available to find one that will work for them. They then purchase a license that gives them the right to use the photo without paying additional royalties to the photographer. With stock photography, the client does not purchase the photo itself, so the photographer remains the owner and can sell the same photo many times.

Stock photography can be divided into traditional stock photography and microstock photography. Traditional stock photography is usually provided by professional photographers and the license fees can cost hundreds of dollars. Microstock photography is open to both professionals and amateurs and the license fees are much less expensive. The main focus of this article is on what you need to know to sell microstock photography successfully

The amount you can earn selling stock photos depends on how popular your photo is, how large it is, the type of license you offer and where you sell it. Your photos can earn anywhere from a few cents to several dollars for a general royalty-free license on a microstock photography site. For more exclusive licenses, of course, you will earn more.

But why would you ever want to sell your hard work for only a few dollars or cents? Remember, that when someone buys your photo, they are buying the right to use the photo, not the photo itself. This means you can sell your photo over and over again on multiple websites. Each sale may only earn you a dollar or two, but if your photo is sold multiple times, those dollars add up. A very popular image can earn hundreds of dollars alone. Of course, some of your images won’t earn much at all, so you should aim for a large portfolio to maximize your earning potential.

The biggest advantage of selling stock photography online is that it is a set it and forget it type of occupation. You do the work once and your photos continue to earn money over time with very little additional work needed from you. Imagine having a portfolio of images that continues to earn money while you sleep, on the weekends and regardless of whether you are working or not. That is the power of residual income, and that is the beauty of selling stock photos online.

There are many different places you can sell stock photos online. Some of the big names in microstock photography are:

• iStockphoto
• Dreamstime
• Fotolia
• Shutterstock
• Big Stock
• 123RF

While there are other stock photography websites, these six are the ones you should concentrate most of your efforts on. Their ease of use, consistent sales and popularity with clients make them the best stock photography websites out there.

The method of signing up as a contributor is different for each stock photography company. Some companies may simply allow you to sign up and start uploading photos, others require you to go through a review process before you are accepted as a contributor.

Before you sign up for a stock photography site, read and understand the terms of use because you will be bound by them once you become a contributor. Make sure you understand who holds the rights to your photos, if you are allowed to submit them to other sites and the length of time you are required to leave them on the site before you can remove them. Also make sure you understand how and when you will be paid.

Becoming an Exclusive Stock Photography Contributor

At some point, you may want to consider becoming an exclusive contributor, meaning that you agree not to sell your stock photos on any other website. Many stock photography agencies reward their exclusive contributors with higher commissions, higher ranking in searches and even upfront pay for their photographs. When you become an exclusive contributor, however, you will lose the additional income you may have gotten by selling your photos on other websites.

When you first start selling photos online, you should stay non-exclusive because not all stock photography websites are a good fit for every photographer. You need to have the freedom to sell your photos on several different websites to find the ones that are the most profitable for you.

After you have gotten a good feel for how the stock photography business works, you can think about becoming an exclusive contributor with your favorite stock photography agency. However, don't feel like you have to go this route, many photographers successfully sell their photos online without ever becoming exclusive.

Probably the most commonly asked question about taking stock photos is what type of camera do you need. Despite what some may say, it is possible to take good stock photos with a regular point-and-shoot camera, but it is much harder to do. Standard compact cameras tend to take pictures that have noise, or graininess, distortion and lens artifacts. You can minimize these flaws by taking your stock photos under the best possible conditions. Make sure you have good lighting and avoid extreme close-ups or pictures that require you to zoom in. Also, put your camera on a tripod and use the lowest ISO setting possible.

You may be able to get rid of some of the noise by taking the picture at a higher resolution, like over 8 megapixels, and reducing the image size with a good photo editing software. You can also try using the noise filter in your photo editing software. Use filters carefully, however, because most stock photo websites will recognize and promptly reject over processed photos. Even with these precautions, you should expect to have many of your photos rejected due to technical flaws.

Using a DSLR camera to take your stock photos will give you a much better chance of getting your stock photos accepted. DSLR cameras have a larger sensor, which makes it easier to take clear, sharp photos without noise. The lenses also tend to be of better quality, minimizing any distortion and lens artifacts. You can pick up an older, used DSLR camera from places like eBAY for not much more than the cost of a new, higher end point-and-shoot camera.

Keep in mind, however, that taking good stock photos is about more than just the camera. A good camera can make it easier to meet the technical requirements for stock photos, but it won’t make up for a lack of skill or poor setup. Get to know your camera and learn about its capabilities and limitations. Brush up on your photography skills by reading books and taking classes. Also, learn about what types of images sell well on stock photography sites.

To succeed in selling stock photography online, you have to take the kinds of photos that clients want to buy. This means that your vacation snapshots or photos of your cat probably won’t cut it.

Spend some time looking at the different photos that are currently for sale on the stock photography websites. Also, browse through magazines, brochures and advertisements to see what types of photos have commercial value.

In general good stock photos have the following characteristics:

• Clear subject or message
• Uncluttered background
• Good lighting
• Not over or under exposed
• Sharp details
• No graininess or noise

Stock photography is different than art photography. Unique lighting and artistic effects may make for a beautiful photograph, but it doesn’t mean your photo will sell well as stock. Try to think about what an advertiser or designer would want and pick your subjects and camera settings accordingly. In general, photos of a single subject on a white or generic background sell well because clients can use the photo in many different ways. Photographs of people are also good sellers.

Many of the microstock websites have a list of their most popular stock photos and searches. Check back with these lists frequently to see what images are actually selling and what clients are looking for.

Make sure the photos you want to sell don’t infringe on any trademarks or copyrights. This goes beyond only selling photos that you take yourself; your subjects must also not be protected by any trademarks or copyrights. For example, many sculptures, buildings and works of art are protected, so you can’t take a picture of them to sell.

Even if the trademarked or copyrighted item isn’t the main subject of your image, no stock photography agency will accept it. For example, if you have a photograph of a person running and that person is wearing Nike shoes or a logo T-shirt, you can’t sell the image. Watch out for things like brand names, logos, recognizable designs, license plates, street names and house numbers. You also need to get a model release if you are photographing people, and a property release if you are photographing private property.

Once you have uploaded your stock images, you have to add the keywords. Don’t rush through this step because the keywords are very important if you want to be successful selling stock photos online. Clients use keywords to search for images and, if your image can’t be found, then it won’t sell.

Begin by typing in all of the obvious keywords that would describe your image. For example, if your image was a picture of a boy playing soccer, you would type in soccer, player, ball, game, boy, child. You can even include less obvious keywords like summer, kicking, sports, field, athlete, net and goal. Then, consider what types of emotions your image portrays and how an advertiser might use it. You could include keywords like victory, win, championship, triumph, compete, energy, rivalry and challenge.

The more keywords you use, the more likely your image will be found by a client. Make sure your keywords are appropriate for your image, however, because they will also be reviewed. If you have many unrelated keywords, your image may be rejected.

Rejection is a fact of life when you are selling stock photography online, especially when you are first starting out. The competition is fierce and microstock companies are getting pickier about the types of images they accept.

If you applied for a stock photography company and didn’t get accepted, find out why. Read through the rejection email and look carefully at your sample images to see if you can figure out what the problem was. Ask for help on the forums; many contributors will gladly look at your sample pictures and give you advice. Instead of taking the rejection to heart, use it as a learning experience and try again with new, better images.

Once you are accepted as a contributor, you will still have individual photos rejected. Every image you upload will be reviewed closely before you can sell it on the stock photography websites. Each microstock company has certain criteria that your images must meet, and if the image falls short on even one of them, it will be rejected.

There are several reasons your images may be rejected including poor quality, not enough commercial value, or simply because the company already has plenty of pictures covering the same subject. If the problem is fixable, as with keyword or slight noise problems, you may have the option of correcting any issues and resubmitting the picture. Pay attention to the reason given in the rejection email and take a critical look at your photo to see what you can do to fix it.

Just because an image was rejected doesn’t meant that you took a bad picture; it just means that image wasn’t right for that particular microstock agency. Try submitting the photo to the other stock photography websites because what isn’t right for one may be perfect for another.

Selling stock photos online is not a way to get rich quickly; it takes hard work and persistence to be successful. If you stick with it and are willing to learn the ropes, however, selling stock photos online can be a great way to earn money doing something you love. Keep building up your portfolio of images and watch your residual income increase over time.