Check out the sixteen best websites where you can sell your photos if you think they are worth it and someone will pay for them.
If you think you have an artistic streak, that your vacation photos are really cool and maybe people would be willing to pay for them, then check out the most sought after and profitable sites to sell them online.
You can easily make some money just by uploading to public repositories.
Some of these photo repositories may require a subscription to create your own space. Some others will deduct a fairly large percentage from you.
Either way you will get an extra income, but remember that your income should all be declared to the tax office of your country, whether it is from your normal profession, or occasionally from the internet.
The links below all refer to the point of each website that leads you to become their partner. The list is alphabetical and has nothing to do with personal preference or anything else.
Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock is a beautiful site that offers 33% royalty for photos. If you are into videography, you can get 35% for the videos you sell. You can get these rights in your bank account after reaching the $25 threshold. Adobe Stock is integrated into Adobe applications, making it more likely that your photo will be noticed.
Adobe has simplified the way you upload your photos. Instead of going through the painstakingly slow process of tagging all your images, the smart system Adobe tagging does it for you.
To make your life even easier, Adobe allows you to upload your photos through Adobe Lightroom CC, Adobe Bridge CC, or their website.
Alamy
There's a reason why Alamy has over 160 million videos and photos for sale on its website. It offers photographers 50% of their royalty payment for every photo sold. The site also allows photographers to sell their photos with Alamy partner agencies, although you'll get less this way.
This policy has allowed Alamy to become the world's largest photo and video marketplace for stock photos, with a huge number of monthly visitors, where everyone is a potential customer for your photos.
Can Stock Photo
If you're looking for an easy way to sell your photos online, Can Stock Photo is a good choice. After submitting three images to the site's editors, you'll need to wait 24 hours for approval to start selling.
When uploading photos to the site, Can Stock Photo will also publish your work to one of the largest stock image databases, Fotosearch. You can earn up to 50% in site royalties and you can withdraw your money to PayPal once your account reaches $50. If you want a check in the mail, you'll have to wait until you earn $100.
Depositphotos
depositphotos has 20 million customers and this puts it on the list of the most traffic in the world of stock photography. He speaks Greek and provides commission from $0,25 to $33,82 per photo.
You can also sell videos with a commission of $3,83 to $64,22 per video. Generally there are five levels of partnership which have to do with how many photos you upload and consequently what commission rate you will get. It starts at 499 downloads and you reach the cap when you exceed 150.000 downloads.
To become a Depositphotos contributor, you must register and submit images for approval. Once approved, you can start uploading files to your wallet right away. Add the right keywords so that the audience can easily find your images on the website.
Dreamtime
In the world of stock photography, Dreamstime is a reliable player. He achieved this position by ensuring that all uploaded photos are checked to meet high standards, thus ensuring quality.
Once your photos are approved, you will receive 25-50% royalties. However, this could be increased to 60% on all images if you sign an exclusivity contract. If you sign this exclusivity agreement, you will also receive an additional $0,20 bonus for your first 100 approved submissions. Photos used in news could earn you a $5 bonus.
EyeEm
EyeEm is a creative community app that allows you to upload and sell photos online while allowing you to maintain your own copyright. You can earn between 25% and 55% revenue share when you sell your images on the platform.
This site also integrates with other image markets, giving your photos better visibility. The more exposure, the more money you can earn. If you're starting to run out of ideas, visit EyeEm's in-app community page to get inspiration from other professional photographers.
Fine Art America
Fine Art America is the perfect place to build an enticing portfolio and sell physical prints of your photos. You can sell each photo as a canvas print, poster, framed print, metal print, acrylic print, greeting card, phone case and more.
When you make a sale, the order (including printing) can be fulfilled by the company's own printing service. You will have to pay the base price to produce the print, but you can make a profit by increasing the price of the finished product.
In other words, if a canvas print costs $50 for Fine Art America to produce, you can raise the price to $75, and that way, you'll make $25 off an order.
iStock
If you're interested in learning about the best types of photos to sell online, check out iStock. Its popular forums and resources will help you understand how to sell photos online.
You must apply before you can start selling your photos. The application process consists of submitting a few samples workthrough the Contributor by Getty Images app. Since iStock and Getty Images are partners, you can be accepted on any platform.
Your commission for non-exclusive photos is 15%. For exclusive images, commission ranges from 25% to 45%. You will need 1.050 photo downloads to reach the 30% commission level, 11.235 for 35% and 45.675 for 40%. The 45% commission is reserved for photographers who achieve at least 681.083 shots. Difficult levels for amateur photographers.
Photomoto
For photographers who already have a website but want to sell physical prints, Fotomoto is the way to go. This site handles all the printing, packaging and shipping so you can concentrate on λήψη photos.
All you have to do is copy and paste Fotomoto's code into your website and you can immediately start selling your photography online.
The most basic membership plan is free, but after that you'll have to pay a 22% transaction fee. Paid plans will reduce the transaction fee you have to pay.
photoShelter
If you want to sell your photos online, but prefer to make those sales through your own website, PhotoShelter is a fantastic tool for that.
It is a photography-oriented e-commerce platform that you can integrate into almost any website. This includes cloud storage of your photos, a built-in shopping cart, drag-and-drop website templates, an intuitive interface, decent SEO, and lots of social media integrations.
The benefits of this option include maintaining full control over how your photos are displayed, not having your competitors' photos displayed alongside yours, and the ability to earn much more than the selling price.
Unfortunately, you will have to pay a subscription fee for this service. The basic plan starts at $10/month (yearly) and $12,99 for month-to-month subscriptions and comes with the minimum number of features. PhotoShelter charges 8-10% when you sell an image. These do not include possible fees that your bank may also charge.
Shutterstock
Since its release, the Shutterstock has paid more than $1 billion to photographers who contribute to its site. When you upload a photo to its marketplace, you still retain the copyright.
You can earn up to 40% of the selling price of your photos. However, for the highest commission rate, you will need to achieve more than 25.000 licenses in a single calendar year.
There are six levels of commission, ranging from 15% to a cap of 40%. You will reach the second level after you exceed 100 licenses in a calendar year and you can also sell vectors and illustrations.
SmugMug
The SmugMug Pro package is an alternative to PhotoShelter. The platform enables you to display your work in a massively customizable storefront and manage your orders with an annual subscription.
The main feature is the ability to use SmugMug's printing service to create prints, books and greeting cards from your snaps. There are also some additional features, such as the ability to create coupons, photo packs, and built-in analytics. At SmugMug you can keep up to 85% of your earnings.
Snapped4U
If you are a photographer who takes photos at events, parties, concerts, festivals, weddings etc. you should know that Snapped4U allows you to easily sell these photos online. You can also use the sale of your photos as a way to raise money for a good cause.
By uploading and selling your photos here, you don't have to deal with the nightmare of processing, printing and shipping orders. Snapped4U handles all of this for you. For each photo sold that costs $5 or less, you will be charged a fee of $0,50. If the photo sells for more than $5, Snapped4U will charge a 10% commission.
stocksy
Stocksy pays some of the highest royalties for contributing photographers, making it one of the best sites to sell photos online.
To apply, you'll need to submit at least 25 photos, along with some information about yourself. If you manage to get accepted, expect to see royalties ranging from 50-75%.
Stocksy recruits top photographers who shoot high-resolution images, so make sure you have all the necessary photography equipment you need to take amazing photos. You should also keep in mind that Stocksy requires all of your photos to be exclusive.
story blocks
Storyblocks is a popular place for online creators who photograph landscapes and objects. You will need to apply before you are allowed to sell on the Storyblocks platform, but if you are accepted you can earn a 50% commission on your sales.
In addition to photos, you can also list vectors. You can upload many types of images, including drone shots and landscape images.
123RF
This site has over 110 million files on offer, with another 100.000 added almost every day. Royalties payable vary between 30% and 60%, depending on your level of contribution. This means the more photos you upload, the higher your payout.
If you upload less than 999 images to the site, you will earn 30%, which is equivalent to $0,216 per download. If you upload more than 1 million images, you'll get 60%, which equates to $0,432 per download.
Sell photos online to earn some extra cash
Photography is a fun hobby, so making money doing what you love is a bonus in your pocket. These photo selling sites can also give your photo the recognition it deserves.
Hopefully, as you improve your photography skills, you'll start to discover which photos sell well (and which ones don't), leading to more sales and bigger profits!
You may also want to use your improved photography skills to sell other things online like books and more.
