Selling Photos Online – How to Turn Your Photos Into Cash

Have you got a passion for photography? By selling photos online, you could be earning some extra cash from your hobby! We all occasionally snap the odd photograph that has the wow factor. Learn how to take your photographs further.

How Can I Earn Money by Selling Photos Online?

At Cashfloat, we try to encourage our consumers to make responsible financial decisions. We aim to help our consumers to be financially independent so that they will not require unsecured payday loans at all. A great example of this is by finding a way to earn some extra income. If you have a passion for photography, selling photos online could be the solution for you. Read on to find out the best way to go forward.

Do you love taking pictures? Have you got a vast collection that you keep to look at when you need something better to do? Consider that you could turn this little time waster into cash! Online photo companies will pay you to use your photos. Often, the kind of images that are posted on social media sites can really appeal to the public. It’s these images that are usually more genuine and natural than the average stock photo.

How to take beautiful pictures

Think about the photos that tug your heartstrings and make you smile. You’ll start to realise the value of them from a marketing point of view. Selling photos online – as with any product, is all about relating to the buyer and creating a connection and empathy. If a photo can stir up emotion in the viewer and connect that feeling to the product on offer, chances are that they’ll buy it.

There are hundreds of photography websites. They cater to all of the levels of photographers. Their standards are quite high; people are paying money for these pictures after all. Most of them will want you to send them your best work. If they are happy, they will then give you the approval to go ahead and upload more that will be for sale.

If you are serious about selling your work then you should think about investing in a good camera. It’s also worth learning a bit about taking photos. The cameras on the latest iPhone 7 or Galaxy S8 are extremely high quality and can produce great photos. But, they don’t compare to a good camera.

Choosing a good camera for your images

Cameras do not cost what they used to any more. If you enjoy taking photos and want to take your hobby a bit further, then it’s worth investing in a good quality camera. This will allow you to start snapping the higher quality photos with the correct focusing qualities and lighting that will get you more success. Entry-level DSLRs can take the kind of clear, focused, brightly coloured pictures that these sites prefer. The quality of these cameras are a lot higher than compact or smart phone cameras.

The perfect way to start for a first time buyer would be to invest in a DSLR kit. This comprises of a camera body with a 18-55mm lens and plenty of auto features for you to use. Once you gain a little bit more confidence, you can start to use the manual features that will allow you to start taking professional level pictures. When you have more experience, you can add wide angle and telephoto zoom lenses, a flash gun and more accessories to your kit. These will allow you to experiment with different types of photography. A good example of a camera with these components is the Nikon D3300, which you can find for £300 if you shop around.

Turn your photography hobby into a skill

Taking a professional course will help you to take better photos. You could do this at a local college where you can make new friends, and where you will meet like minded people with the same interests as you. If your budget is tight and you’d need same day funding small loans, consider teaching yourself by watching clips about photography. Youtube has thousands of helpful video courses that can explain the basics and get you familiar with your new camera or learn about taking better pictures with your phone.

Using a photography editor

Once you have become comfortable and are putting your knowledge into practice, it may be a good idea to learn how to maximise your photograph’s beauty with the help of computer software. There are many free versions which are available to download. Courses can be found on Youtube for Adobe’s Lightroom which will allow you to learn about correct exposure and how to apply special effects.

What are the kind of photos that will sell the best?

To find out which type of photos are more in demand, you can search some of the photo stock websites online and see which photos are being sold. If you have a passion for a certain subject, then your enthusiasm for that particular topic will express itself in your photos and you are more likely to be successful in taking and selling photos connected to that. Photos with plain backgrounds often sell well, as the buyer can adapt the photograph to their own needs.

Where to sell stock photography

Hundreds of websites offer photographs, video and other kinds of images for sale or for personal use. It is important that you read carefully and fully understand the terms and conditions of each website. The payment terms, percentages and copyrights will also differ, so make sure that you are happy with these before you move forward. Let’s take a look at some of the more popular sites for selling photos online. We’ve collected the important details for you. Once you have decided which comany you want to work with, you can start adding money to that piggy bank.

Shutterstock

This is one of the largest global sites that claims to have paid out over $350 million to its contributors. You can earn between $0.25 and $28 per sale. They pay up to 30% of the sale price, and the size of your image will dictate the price. On this site, you retain the copyrights to your photographs, HD and 4K videos and vectors.

Istock Photo

If you are happy to sell your photos exclusively on this site then they will reward you with between 22-45% royalties. The standard royalty payout on this site is 15% per download, and this amount can rise to 45% if your photos become more popular. If a customer buys one of your pictures by using subscription credits, then the rates stay at 15%. Istock photo is a good site for beginners to find their feet with many forums and resources to understand how photo sales work.

Dreamstock

This is a reputable company that has worked hard to ensure that the quality of its stock meets their high standards. The photo’s value is based on the number of downloads that it has, and you can earn between 25-50% royalties. If you choose to sign exclusively with this company, then the royalties can rise to 60% with an added bonus of $0.20 for each photo submitted.

Alamay

Alamay has over 60 million stock photos and is the worlds largest stock photo marketplace. It is a very popular site as it pays 50% royalties and does not demand any exclusivity.

How to Take Your Photography to the Next Level?

There are numerous ways that you can earn extra cash through photography, but bear in mind that there are millions of people chasing a few dream jobs as high earners and competition is very stiff. Don’t be disheartened though, the trick with photography is to create something unusual with your own unique style.

How to sell photography prints

Direct sales

This is one way of selling your prints. You will need to find ways to promote yourself amongst friends, family and colleagues and you may have some success on selling sites such as Etsy or Ebay. Craft fairs are a great place to get out there to meet the public and sell some of your work.

Displaying your work

You can try hanging your work in local restaurants and coffee shops for a small commission. This is a great way to get your work seen by a lot of people and many business owners will be quite happy to get the chance to have some free artwork on their walls. Sites such as Smugmug and Zenfolio will host, print and send your photos and offer shopping cart options, but they will not promote you.

How to sell photos to magazines

Get your work known

In order to get your photos more widely recognised, as well as selling photos online, you can try to get your artwork publicised in magazines. The simplest way to to do this is to make yourself known to the photo editor and show them where they can view your work. This is where you will need to have a website or have your work on view via Smugmug or a similar site. If many of your pictures were taken in your local area then you may be surprised at the amount of interest a local magazine could take in your work. You could also try submitting an article with your photos.

How to sell photos on Instagram

If you love posting photos on Instagram, there are companies that specialise in the pictures posted there that offer high royalty rates for your pictures. You can also consider selling photos online directly from Instagram if you have a lot of followers. Make sure that you add the correct hashtags with your photos. Don’t forget to use Geo-tagging so that people will be directed to your pictures.

You could do wedding photography

In addition to selling photos online, consider becoming a wedding photographer. It’s important not to take this decision lightly, as you will be responsible for the photographs that will document what will hopefully be the best day of a couple’s life. If you have a lot of friends who are around the age where they are getting married, then this could be a opportunity to make some cash.

There are many tutorials on this subject matter that can help you achieve the results that should make the couple happy. It is very important to spend time with the couple so that you can establish exactly what type of photos they hope to have taken. It’s a good idea to shadow a professional wedding photographer a few times to get a feel and have a trial run before taking on any jobs.

Photography for Estate Agents

Many estate agents use professional photographers in order to get the best shots of the properties that they are trying to sell. With so many people browsing the internet for housing, great photos of a property could make the difference between a sale or not. The pay will never be huge on this kind of job, but it would certainly earn you some extra pocket money doing something that you enjoy.

Many people are selling photos online as a way of earning extra cash, millions in fact! You will need to work on producing original and high-quality photos and establish a following with good sales if you want to give up your day job. Perhaps your photo could be picked up by a big brand and plastered all over the world. If you love photography then you are probably perusing your hobby anyway, so why not make some money in the process?

Before taking out direct lender short term loans, it is important to remember that there are often alternatives that you may not have considered. Getting a side job doing something you enjoy is a great idea. Good luck and feel free to send us some of your prized snaps.