Selling your prized photos on the internet may seem to be a daunting task to many, particularly if you do not know where to start. Photographers have a wide array of options to sell their photos. Various companies have devised ways to assist photographers while selling their photos. These alternatives permit for the sale of digital files along with prints.
The basic step is to find out where to sell your photos that usually is based on your style. Microstock agencies can be the best alternative for a product photographer. For fine art photographers, Etsy or Red Bubble may be ideal. This post discusses on some top sites where you can sell photos online.
Note: This page contains affiliate links and I’ll earn a commission if you shop through them.
Sell your photos online with these sites:
1. SmugMug
SmugMug can be the ultimate option if you want to create a professional and sleek showcase to display your photos besides selling them. the “Pro” option of SmugMug gives you an appealing storefront along with e-commerce galleries for a single-click shopping experience. The pricing can be set on your own and you can earn a royalty rate of 85%. You can sell digital downloads, greeting cards and prints.
2. iStock Photo
www.istockphoto.com
With iStock Photo, you can sell your images and earn a 15% royalty rate for every download. The other option is to dedicate yourself on being an exclusive contributor following which you earn a royalty of 45%. The community aspect of iStock Photo is awesome on account of the warm forums in addition to contributor lounge with some excellent resources, which includes stats and trends.
Before contributing your photographs, you need to be a member of iStock after which you need to apply as a contributor. The last step seems to be of great importance where you upload your application along with three samples.
3. Fotolia
www.fotolia.com
Fotolia is a widely used microstock site and can be a great platform to sell your photographs. A photographer wanting to sell his collections of Fotolia will get paid based totally on his ranking on the site along with the exclusivity of the image. The payment usually ranges from 20%-63% for every download. The site seems to be a little complicated for photographers on account of its subscription plans.
4. Photocrati
www.photocrati.com
WordPress, which is a widely used content management system, could be the best option for photographers. It does not have e-commerce functionality. However, the Photocrati theme can permit you to set up your photography site on WordPress. You also have entire control to personalize the appearance and feel of your site without the requirement to work on any code. An excellent thing about Photocrati is that you only require a one-time fee to buy it.
5. Shutterstock
www.shutterstock.com
Shutterstock is a famous microstock agency and heads the list of sites for photographers who want good earnings. A photographer at Shutterstock will be paid between $0.25-$2.85 for each image. The higher rates are reserved for photographers with extremely worthwhile images. The huge volumes of sales, however, makes up for the earnings. Your images have to go through a pretty tough vetting process prior to their acceptance.
6. TourPhotos
tourphotos.com
TourPhotos is basically a platform for tourism and activity companies that enables to sell or share (to their tourists) the professional photographs taken during their excursions/activities. These places are – scuba diving, rafting, paragliding, northern lights excursions, amusement parks, cruise ships and many more.
So, if you are into these activities then TourPhotos is just the thing for you!
7. BlueMelon
www.bluemelon.com
BlueMelon gives you a range of options to connect with your customers and sell downloads online with as much or as little effort as you want to exert.
You can use it as your base of operations – linking it to your blog, website, social networks.You need only to upload photos or videos, choose or create a theme, set the prices and the way to receive your money.
For a yearly plan starting from $70, you earn 92% royalty or more.
8. Alamy
www.alamy.com
Alamy can be called a generous site since it pays its photographers an alarming royalty fee of 60%. This is the prime reason why it happens to house the largest stock photography in the world with approximately 41.62 million images. Also, Alamy doesn’t pressurize photographers to give exclusive rights to the image. Hence, a photographer is free to sell his photos to other sites too.
9. DreamsTime
www.dreamstime.com
DreamsTime is the ideal platform for newbies to begin since its process of vetting is the most compliant out of all the sites present in this list. Photographers get a commission ranging from 30% to 60% of the price. However, the selling price of images can be as little as $0.20 for each image.
10. Zenfolio
www.zenfolio.com
With Zenfolio, you can create a portfolio site for your work. The site allows you to upload images, create galleries and password to protect your galleries besides displaying your images for sale. In case of e-commerce, you can opt from various labs while fulfilling your orders or settle for fulfilling them on your own. The prices vary from $25 each year to approximately $250 per year. It also has a free trial available for 14 days.
11. Flickr
www.flickr.com
Flickr and Getty images entered into a partnership in 2010 to devise a platform to allow users sell their photographs as rights managed stock and royalty free images. This led to the creation of image sharing as well as stock sales in one particular place. Just submit your best work to the site and wait for an approval from the editors. After this, you’ll start earning a royalty of 20% for your bought images.
More Sites to Sell Photos Online
12. Etsy
www.etsy.com
Etsy is the ultimate platform for selling prints to a waiting audience. However, the site has a major drawback since you are expected to make prints and mail them. This will increase your price and make it tough to sell. The flip side is that you exercise total control on deciding over the price and also the way your art looks.
13. Fotomoto
www.fotomoto.com
Fotomoto is quite different compared to the other sites mentioned in the list. It gives you a widget which blends with your present site and permits you to sell your photos. The product fulfilment is handled by the site for you. The pricing includes a monthly fee varying from $0 to $25 per month along with a transaction fee ranging from 10% to 22%.
14. PhotoDune
photodune.net
PhotoDune have great resource of stock photos and should be considered by almost all the stock illustrators and photographer. Meanwhile, you can’t sell all types of stock images, but you can get good reward for your images as this site. Few of the main features are easy upload process along with reliable FTP, and simple navigation with straight forward touches and editing of your already accepted stock photos.
15. Can Stock Photo
www.canstockphoto.com
Can stock photo is an easy and great platform to sell your photos. First of all, you need to get approved. You have to submit three pictures to the site editor, and if your pictures get approved, you can upload hundreds of images at once. Usually, you get the response within 24 hours.
While uploading the photos you need not to categories them as metadata and keyword data is read automatically.You can earn a royalty of 50% and can withdraw your money from PayPal once it reaches $50 or can get mailed check once your money reaches $100.
16. 123rf
www.123rf.com
123rf provides you over 58 million stock images, vectors, footage and audio clips. Yo can get up to 30% to 60% royalty depending upon the contribution you make. If you upload less than 250 images, you’ll get 30% royalty, and if upload up to 1 million images you will get 60% royalty, which means that more you upload more you get.
17. FineArtAmerica
fineartamerica.com
The FineArtAmerica is an excellent place to create your portfolio and sells the prints of your images. You can sell your photos as canvas prints for home decor, posters, framed prints or greeting cards.
The company also provide print on demand service. However if you want, you can take care of prints yourself.
18. Crestock
www.crestock.com
Its good and easy to sell photos at Crestock. It allows you to open an account for free and by following few steps you can earn a royalty on any image they sell for you.
To get started, you have to upload the images by following the instructions and keyword your images. Once the pictures are uploaded, they are evaluated by the editor. If your images are approved, they are added to your portfolio for selling, and you’ll earn the royalty.
19. 500px
500px.com
You’ll get the most inspiring photos on 500px. It’s a great platform to showcase your work and license amazing photos. Here you can create your portfolio for free and can showcase your work. You can also participate in a contest or sell your images in market place.
20. Art Storefronts
www.artstorefronts.com
This website is a robust platform for professional photographers who are focused on selling their photos as art prints. It also provides best in class educational resources and a step-by-step Success Plan to make sure that you follow best practices.
It also provides you the ability to print and fulfil your own orders, select your own lab, or go for automated print (“print on demand”). It also has a members-only forum to share ideas, receive guidance and sales strategies from many industry experts. So if you want to sell photos online, then this website can be an easy pick.
21. Red Bubble
www.redbubble.com
This website is a quirky one but in case your images are more Instagram and VSCO friendly rather than studio lighting or fake smiles, you can easily find the right audience on this website which is more interested in photos you wish to sell. They not only sell photos online but also sells products too. For example, you can sell canvases with your own images.
22. Photoshelter
www.photoshelter.com
PhotoShelter gives you the option of choosing from a host of their templates which can be customized. You just need to upload your images to the site. Visitors can buy your prints or digital photos if they happen to like them. You can opt to have your orders fulfilled or fulfil them on your own. Plans start from $9.99/month and can go up to $49.99/month.
23. Fotolibra
www.fotolibra.com
You can easily sell your own photographs through this website. You can even keep the copyright too. You are provided with a live picture. You can get calls from professional buyers through this website. You can easily upload HISTORIC pictures free of cost.
The payment mode is PayPal and Check. The minimum payout is $50.
24. Photobox ProGallery
Just upload all of your photos to the standard Photobox account or even create a new account then go to the Pro Gallery website in order to convert the images into various collections for the purpose of sale in every gallery. Each gallery can easily be customised with own logo banner, contact details and text.
The payment mode is BACS payment. The minimum payout is £50.
25. Graphicriver
graphicriver.net
If you earning is less than $50, then you can easily spend the cash on any particular Envato Marketplaces. In case your balance remains below $50 even after 12 months, you can still withdraw the balance to your PayPal or Payoneer account.
The payment mode is PayPal, Payoneer, and Moneybookers. The minimum payout is $50.
26. Cutcaster
cutcaster.com
You can easily choose the price of your pictures, or the patent pending pricing algorithm of this website can easily find the correct market price for your images.
The payment mode is Check, PayPal and Moneybookers. The minimum payout is $20.
27. Alaska Stock Images
www.alaskastock.com
The payments of this website are made for all the sales that are made in the previous month. Any photographer doesn’t have to pay any additional money for the advertising of the images on their own websites or in the catalogues. All of the promotional fees are duly paid by it.
The payment mode is PayPal and Check. The minimum payout depends on person to person.
28. Scandinavian Stockphoto
www.scanstockphoto.com
At the moment, Scandinavian Stockphoto only allows quality photographers with online portfolio to showcase their work, you have to send them your existing profile pages and they will decide if they want to include your photos for selling on their website or not.
The payment mode is PayPal, Direct Deposit and Check. The minimum payout is 50 Euro.
29. Graphic Leftovers
glstock.com
You can easily earn 40% of total sales for the entire length of the membership on this website. You can easily increase your own earnings by means of participating in various referral programs of this website which allows you to easily earn more commissions by referring both the sellers and buyers.
The payment mode is PayPal, Check and Moneybookers. The minimum payout is $50.
30. FotoTime
www.fototime.com
It is quite easier to get started with this website. You can easily upload your own photos, set the pricing and you are done. It handles all the vital aspects of order fulfilment that includes credit card processing, shipping, printing and even customer service.
The payment mode is PayPal, and the minimum payout depends on the various conditions.
31. FeaturePics
www.featurepics.com
You can easily become an Author once you have uploaded even one image. They actually process the payment requests which are made during the previous month at the particular end of the current month.
The payment mode is PayPal and Check. The minimum payout is $50.
That’s it. If you know any other site that gives you the power to sell your photos then please share them with us.
