Sell Photos Online: 14 Top sites For Selling Photos in 2023
Updated on December 5, 2022 in Photography by Alifiya Mustafa
Have you filled your phone, memory cards, and hard disks with innumerable images and can’t find them worth deleting? Well, then why not make them worth something?
Yes, you can make money out of your photography skills even when you’re not a professional photographer! How? Simply sell photos online.
However, suppose you are a professional photographer wanting to sell his/her photography online. In that case, the 14 places mentioned in this article will be your sook for selling photos online.
In this article:
14 Places To Sell Photos Online
1. Getty Images
Getty Images are one of the most premium places to sell photos online. Since it joined hands with Google, it has an ocean available for images and for its market.
Your chances of becoming a contributor to this place are pretty high. Also, you may get a high return on your sold images as people here are first they’ll have to buy a Rights Managed license. That means people don’t pay for the pictures themselves but the right to use them on specific platforms such as the web or print. You have the chance to earn 20% in commission.
2. Shutterstock
Shutterstock is a min-stock site where photos are less expensive and non-exclusive. The way to increase downloads is by contributing many images that can be used as visual metaphors.
Large profits shouldn’t be expected from here, but it’s a good place if you’re just starting out. Payments are based on your earnings over time, ranging from 20% to 30%. There’s also an affiliate program where you can earn some extra money if you refer new photographers or clients.
3. Alamy
Alamy pays contributors monthly and has a diverse payment structure to sell photos online. Sales through its website earn photographers 50%. Distributors make 70%, and Novel Use reaches 50%. Payments are deposited monthly, as long as your Cleared Funds are $50 or more.
Apart from reasonable payments, it also doesn’t ask you to sell photos to them exclusively. Hence, it has become the number one place to sell photography online – if you’re not looking for any fancy and established place like Getty.
4. iStock
iStock is an offshoot of Getty Images. Here, to sell photos online, the commission you get ranges from 25% to 45%, depending on whether your images are non-exclusive or exclusive.
5. Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock is one of the best places to sell photography online because when you list your images for sale here, they’re also available on the stock site Fotolia.
You’ll earn a 33% commission on the photos you sell through Adobe Stock.
The best part is that your royalties come instantly. Other sites wait until you reach a financial threshold or after 30 days.
6. 500px
500px is a community-based platform for photographers. You can follow other photographers and create listings to sell photos online in the marketplace. And even take part in competitions and win prizes.
Also, it has options for viewers to ‘like’ and ‘photo view’ to show you the ranking and views of your images. With this, you get complete data about where you’re getting your engagement.
7. Stocksy
Stocksy isn’t among the large platforms used to sell photos online, but it isn’t too small either. With a fantastic collection, Stocksy is a well-known platform for selling photography online, especially among publishers.
The standards are high, and it needs exclusive images. It’s reasonable as the amount you get here is pretty handsome, that is, 50-70% commission.
8. Dreamstime
Dreamstime is perfect if you have just started to sell photos online. It’s pretty easy, and user-friendly, and its competitors’ requirements aren’t as rigid.
You can earn a commission starting from 25% for non-exclusive images and 27% for exclusive ones. But if you remain a seller here, you may earn up to 45% to 49.5%, respectively.
9. BigStock
Though BigStock looks similar to Shutterstock or Dreamstime, it has its different credit system. This makes this platform very unique for selling photos online.
If buyers purchase photos using credit, they earn a certain amount. Your commission generally remains at 30% for each BigStock partner sale.
However, if your photos keep getting downloaded, then the price of your images gets higher along with your commission.
10. CanStock Photo
Uploading your images on platforms that allow you to sell photos online can be very messy, as creating the right keywords for your pictures seems to take ages.
Thanks to CanStock Photos, this frustration is eliminated. With the help of the SpeedSubmit system, you can attach releases instantly to a batch of photos. You can even upload a text file with all your pictures, so you don’t have to add keywords manually.
For immediate downloads, you earn US$1 for small sizes files and US$2.50 for extra-large images. On credit downloads, you get 50 cents and US$2.50, respectively.
11. FreeDigitalPhotos.net
As the name suggests, FreeDigitalPhotos.net allows its users to download images for free. It also provides ideas to purchase too. When your small photos are downloaded for free, you are entitled to only credit but no real money. However, you may earn a 70% commission when their images are purchased.
12. Canva Photos
Canva is known for its pre-designed templates and editing features. What’s even better with canva is that it allows photographers to sell photos online.
Unlike any traditional stock photography website, Canva makes it quick and smooth to buy images. Users must only drag and drop images and click on purchase to remove the watermark.
Its user-friendly features make it easier for you to sell photography online as it has many potential buyers who love convenience. Also, you may take up custom projects on behalf of Canva whenever they are available.
13. Etsy
Etsy is a great place to buy and sell handmade, artistic, and vintage products. When it comes to photography, you may sell physical and digital prints. If you like capturing vivid colors and arts, then this platform can earn you much easier for such subjects.
Here, you have the advantage of creating your shop under your name. Set the prices that suit you and make the page that best markets your photography niche. You might also consider listing your business on other sites similar to Etsy.
Etsy charges 20 cents on each image you upload and 3.5% of the sale price. You can learn along while selling your work as Etsy teaches you how to set prices, how to market, and strategies to brand yourself to increase sales.
14. Fotomoto
Fotomoto doesn’t sell photos online on its website, but it enables you to sell images on your website using its widget. Once you install it, it’ll sell them for you.
With this, you’re not required to take care of all the selling and marketing processes you do on other platforms. Instead, you can invest that time in clicking more images and editing them.
Tips For Selling Photography Online
1. Know Your Niche
You can either stick to one kind of niche or go for many. But, whatever you choose, try to be consistent with it. This doesn’t give you instant results but highly affects your career path in the long run.
Mastering any one niche helps you to be exclusive. Hence, where you sell photos online, the platform and your buyers can be loyal to you. This, with time, improves your skills, increases goodwill, and makes you unique.
2. Camera Quality
Use good camera quality for capturing your images. Use a camera lens that at least captures photos at 12 megapixels.
If you do not have a good camera, use your iPhone for photography. But, no matter what, don’t use a poor-quality camera, as the results aren’t worth selling online.
3. Photo Editing
Don’t sell photos online without editing them. Photo editing improves the quality of your image by removing any unnecessary objects and background and eliminating any disturbances like scratches, too dark or light photos, etc.
I prefer hiring image editing service providers to save your precious time and money. Just think about it – you can never settle by clicking just one image of one thing. If you click ten pictures of each thing, it’d be 500 images of just 50 items. You can get all these 500 images edited within half an hour!
4. Reaching Out
Reach out to your seller frequently. Stay in touch with them and make efforts to sell photos online. You can’t simply put a request on these websites and wait for them to reach you.
These sites must get thousands of daily queries from people who want to sell photography online. And you’re one of them.
Hence, putting extra effort into reaching them via mail or social media can make your efforts fruitful, and you sell photos online successfully.
Bonus Read
I have listed the 14 best places where you can sell photos online. If you see no better conversions or feel it’d be better if you could earn a little extra while creating your own identity, then I suggest you sell on your website.
Create a website that flatters your skills, sets competitive prices, and continues to market your work. That’ll help you own your business while selling photos online.
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