There are plenty methods for photographers to create income streams to make money uploading photos online. Nowadays there are phones that have pretty advanced cameras on them so, depending on your intentions on being a photographer, you won’t really need to use a fancy DSLR or separate camera if you don’t want to. Whether you are someone who is interested in becoming a full time photographer or want to use it as a side hustle – one method would be taking advantage of stock photography online to earn money by uploading photos.
What is Stock Photography?
Stock photos are made available online by many different agencies managing them. Photographers upload their images to their profile on the agency’s website, then this makes them available to be licensed by people who need it for personal, media, commercial, editorial and other purposes. Depending on the website, photographers can be compensated for their photos when consumers use them in different payout systems.
Stock Photography Websites
1. Adobe Stock is a great resource for photographers and consumers to connect because the company is so well known around the world with a millions of users in their creative community. This is great for exposure and can help with driving traffic to your profile if you are uploading high quality images that would be useful to people for different purposes. Popular photo editing applications such as Adobe Lightroom CC, Photoshop and many more would be integrated with your stock profile, which makes it easier to upload your files.
You must be at least 18 years old and the sole owner of every file you upload for sale. The type of content you can make available are original photographs, video clips, vectors, and illustrations.
2. Shutterstock gives you the opportunity to show your photos to their user base that has been built for the past 15+ years, making it another platform with millions of customers in 150+ countries. Once you sign up to be a contributor it unlocks your potential to earn commissions whenever a user downloads or purchases your image. When you add more images to your profile it will increase your chances of earning higher payouts.
Shutterstock helps creative professionals from all backgrounds and businesses of all sizes produce their best work with incredible content and innovative tools, all on one platform.
3. Getty Images supports photographers, students and non-profits around the world. The platform along with iStock, the microsite, it attracts many publishers and brands looking for high quality content online. You must be accepted into the program first, apply here.
They even have a grants program, enabling photographers to bring attention to significant social and cultural issues, and reach new creative heights. It is very common to see images of celebrities and public figures in different events with a Getty Image watermark on it on social media and publications.
4. 500 px allows you to sell your photos, keep your copyright, and get your photography the attention it deserves just like the others. They launched in 2009 as a community based platform so there is more room for networking with other photographers along with content recognition.
There are also opportunities to compete in photo contests, and license your photos through their exclusive distribution partners.
5. SmugMug makes your photos available online with a portfolio, sales platform and different tools to allow you to grow. Aside from selling your photos online, there are print options as well. They offer a 14 day free trial to their users and you get to keep a majority of the profit (85%) received from your sales.
These are not the only stock photography websites available but they are popular and very user-friendly. The possibilities are endless with your photography when you put your work on more platforms. It is important to choose your desired niche and work from there. Experiment with different kinds of photos and see what gets more attention. Promoting your work on different social media accounts (Ex. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc) will increase traffic to your stock photography portfolios as well.
Don’t be discouraged at the beginning! Good things come to those who wait.
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