If you think that buyers will pay you for your photos and you want to make money by selling photos, then you can join some of the best stock photo sites. In this list, we are discussing some popular websites, where you can earn money by selling your photos.
If you don’t know, where to sell photos online, don’t worry. Today I’m going to discuss some of the best websites to sell stock photography and make money with trusted sites.
What is the Best Website to Sell Photography?
Basically, you can sell your photography online in various ways such as Sell from your own website, sell your photos with Non-stock Photography Platforms, or commission share with stock photo sites.
Sell Photos from You Own Website
If you can do, you should create your own website to sell photos and prints. It is the most effective method and can be the best website to sell photography prints as well, because, if you’ll sell photos from your own website, then you will get the full earnings. However, in this case, you have to have good popularity and social network.
Firstly, you can create a portfolio website or if you think that you are ready to sell your photos with your website, then you can add the sell option to your website.
To sell photo from own site, you have to create a website. WordPress is the best platform for all website owner which is very easy to use, customization, control system, plugging facilities, and more. To create your website, you need Domain and Hosting. If you buy a hosting plan, you’ll get a domain free.
However, try to avoid low quality hosting provider. I can recommend you to buy a shared hosting plan from HostGator. It’s a great Domain and Hosting provider and provides service globally.
Non-stock Photography Platforms
In this step, you can use any one Non-stock Photography Platforms to sell your photos such as Squarespace, Fotomoto, SmugMug, Photoshelter, Instaproofs, etc. You can easily create a website for selling photos through these platforms.
Sell Photos with Stock Photo Sites
Here you can join various stock photography sites for commission share. Basically, in today’s episode, we are discussing 10 best stock photo sites.
Most of the time a new contributor has faced some problems joining stock photography sites. For example, there are many questions like which site gives good commission, which site has more buyers, what is the submission system, license agreements, etc. Hopefully, today’s article will clear up all your confusion.
Read More: How to Sell Photos Online and Make Money
Which Agreement Should You Accept?
Basically, most of the stock photo selling websites are allows exclusive and non-exclusive agreements for contributors.
The Exclusive agreement is you can upload photos only one site. That means if you upload a photo of any site exclusively, you cannot upload that photo other any website to sell. So the result of the exclusive agreement is working with a particular stock photo website. However, the amount of commission is more if you make an exclusive agreement, or submit your photos exclusively.
The non-exclusive agreement is that allows you to upload your photos to many sites, where to have a non-exclusive system. The system is more profitable for photographers. Because you can upload your photos on many websites to sell. Although the commission is a little less here, the amount of income is much higher. And some websites only accept non-exclusive licenses.
Finally, I’ll recommend you to work with the non-exclusive agreement, because it’s much better than an exclusive agreement. Although you will get 10-15% more commission for working non-exclusively, you will get royalties from many sites if you work non-exclusively.
Photography may be a small business for you. As a professional or amateur photographer, you can earn some extra money with some with the right place to sell your photos.
What is the Most Selling Photo Niche?
Most of the photo niche is popular with the clients because photos are required according to work or necessarily. Therefore, all photos are required on a work basis. Some of the best-selling pictures are Portrait, Food Photography, Landscape, travel, nature, etc.
Some Buyer of Stock Photography
As can be seen in most cases, the major buyers of stock photography are large corporate firms, small businesses, digital marketing agencies, bloggers, graphic designers, etc. Your best and creative photos are in great demand. If you present in the right place, it is possible to get quite good results.
Payment Method of Stock Photo Websites
The most popular Payment methods of Stock Photography sites are Paypal, Payoneer, Skrill, and bank cheques. You can easily accept payment by joining these online banks.
10 Best Stock Photo Sites
Now, I’d like to share with you the top 10 best stock photo sites for photographers, where you can sell your photos and make money. Read the full article and join some of your favorite sites.
1. Shutterstock
Shutterstock is one of the most popular and best website to sell photography online. So far, they have been paying contributors more than $500 million. After uploading a photo on Shutterstock, It will still allow you to keep your copyright. Their other reputation is that they are a trusted stock photography website for buyers. So, having a lot of buyers here will also increase your income opportunities.
They will provide you up to 30% of the sale commission of your photos, which can be $0.25 to $120. The photo price is depending on the buyer’s subscription plan.
2. Alamy
The 2nd one best site to sell photography online is Alamy and it is one of the highest royalty payer website. Here you will get 40% commission for a non-exclusive agreement and 50% commission for an exclusive license. There are also opportunities for student photographers, where they pay 100% commission. It’s amazing for student contributors.
The photos here are sold at a very good price and they have the most potential customers for photos. A large number of monthly visitors help Alamy to become the large stock photos marketplace.
3. Gettyimages and iStock Photo
Generally, GettyImages is a grouping company, which consists of the combination of Gettyimages, iStock photo, and photo.com. Also, 500px and Eyeem is their partner.
GetImages offers the highest quality photos for customers, so their photos are sold at a high price. However, the price is a little lower in Istock photos. On the other hand, photo.com prints are popular for sale.
You have many opportunities to work with Gattyimages and make a handsome income. But, this site will not give you any exact information on how much you will be paid.
4. Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock is also one of the best website to sell photography for contributors. Because they have a large number of stock photos customers. Also, Adobe Stock is appreciated by the customer for its good quality photos.
Actually, Adobe is a large corporate company with many services such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Premiere Pro, InDesign, after effects, and more. So, for those users who use the others products of Adobe, maximum time he needs many stock photos. Then they are using Adobe stock accrediting to demand.
Adobe Stock will share with you a royalty of 33% for photos and 35% for vector art images. But, you have a huge income opportunity here. When you can earn $25 in your account, then you can transfer it to the bank.
5. Depositphotos
Depositphotos is also a great marketplace for photography with a large number of customers and contributors. It has approximately more than 60 million files and has clients in more than 200 countries. Also over 45,000 contributors are working with Depositphotos to sell their photos online.
It has an opportunity to sell your artwork to their global customers, as a result, your chances of earning more here. Becoming a contributor at Depositphotos you can sell your photos online on an international scale or price. It will provide you 34%-42% commission for every sale.
6. Dreamstime
Dreamstime is also a famous stock photography website for contributors. Many photographers work exclusively here. A large number of targeted customers buy stock photos from Dreamstime. They have been serving with fidelity for many years. You’ll get 25-50 percent royalties after the sale of your uploaded photos. If you work exclusively, you’ll get up to 60 percent commission.
Getting approval on the account is not a problem here. However, exclusive photographers are quite popular with them and also get a lot of opportunities.
7. Can Stock Photo
CanStockPhoto has an easy way to sell your stock photos. Easy upload and approval systems in a short time are very useful for contributors. When you upload an image, it takes 24 hours to be quality checked and displayed for sale.
Its commission rate is very good than other many sites, It will give you up to 50% royalty commission for each sale. When your earning will be $50, you can take payments through PayPal or Payoneer. If you want to get your earnings by check, you have to earn at least $100.
8. 123RF
The eighth number best stock photo website on our list is 123rf. It pays royalties of 30% to 60% to the contributors, which is determined depending on your level. When you get to a good level, you get a higher percentage of royalties. If you upload a large number of photos, you’ll get the higher lever soon. On the other hand, if you have a lot of photos, your sales will be higher too.
The website has more than 110 million files and about 100,000 pictures are uploaded every day. If you upload less than 999 photos, you will get 30% royalty, where you can get $0.21 per download.
9. Bigstock
Bigstock is one of the oldest Microstock agencies, where you can contribute your photos to sell to global clients. It was founded in 2004 in California in the USA. At Bigstock, the credit system-based sales process began in 2009, which was operated by Shutterstock.
According to the last update, it has approximately 43 million royalty-free images for sale. Photos contributing system of Bigstock is very easy; you can join it within a short time. The maximum contributor uses the FTP server to upload photos on Bigstock. Because it is a very easy and faster system. You can upload unlimited files at a time via the FTP server. Although the review period is mentioned as 2/3 days, typically, they complete the review within 1 day.
Here the contributor is paid 30% royalty, so it is possible to get $0.50 per download. However, if a buyer downloads from the subscription package, then the royalty is available from $0.25 to $0.38 per download.
If $30 is credited to your account, then you can withdraw money through PayPal, bank check, or Skrill.
10. Canva Contributor
Canva is one of the most user-friendly and popular graphic design creation platform for designers. Its easy drag-and-drop features help the user create much design quickly. So, many workers work with Canva to create designing tasks. They offer a lot of graphics templates and photos for free. But they have some pro services too, and stock photography is one of them.
So, you can work with Canva as a stock photographer. They have millions of users to buy and continually looking for new stock photos to expand their business. With the drag and drop system, customers can easily purchase photos from the canvas.
Conclusion
Basically, Stock photography is quite different from general artistic photography and a great chance to sell your photo work. To get great feedback to sell your work, try to capture new concepts, ideas, or emotions. Your high quality and creativity are so much demanded of the clients.
Different stock photography sites require different types of photos. Some sites often have the option of “popular photos” or “photos needed”. Sometimes they can also mail you about this. So, even if you work according to the needs of the stock photo site, you will get quite good results.
Photography is one kind of hobby, so you can turn your hobby into income. These best stock photo sites can give you some extra cash.
In this article, I’ve not discussed only the best stock photo sites for photographers, I discussed some important methods to sell photos online also. Thank you for stay with us.
