On average, stock photographers make $0.02 per image per month with stock photos, while professionals make $0.05–$0.25 per image per month. Royalty-free sales earn between $0.10 and $99.50, while extended licenses bring up to $500.
Does Shutterstock actually pay? Yes, Shutterstock does pay. The company pays contributors for each image or video download from the site. Contributors earn a base rate of $0.25 per download and can earn up to $120 per image depending on the image price, portfolio size, and performance level.
The best-selling style of images varies from one year to the next, but overall, images of people (or lifestyle photography) are an all-time best-selling genre in stock photography. Other concepts like landscapes, flowers, and beaches are also consistently popular.
There are plenty of platforms available to professional photographers, or beginners, who want to sell their images. These include stock photography sites like Shutterstock, eCommerce platforms like Etsy, or, as many photographers choose to do, you can set up your own website using WordPress.
When I say “buy,” I mean “license.” You can continue selling photos repeatedly and make a good living with a large portfolio. Commissions vary depending on which of the many stock photography sites you use. A few to consider are Alamy, Dreamstime, and Shutterstock. Read our full list of recommended stock sites.
As a more affordable stock photo site, Shutterstock sells stock images for $0.22, while Getty Images' prices range from $50 to $499/image.
Keep in mind, Google won't pay you for your photographs. However, once you've achieved Trusted Pro status, they'll provide you with marketing tools so you can try to sell 360 photo services to local businesses. If a local business requests a 360 photographer from Google, they'll send you a paid lead.
Turn spare moments into spare cash with the stockimo app and sell your images on Alamy, the world's largest website for picture buyers. Select photos from your smartphone, tag, and upload them to Stockimo. Once approved, your photos go on sale.
Drone Photography
And images that have strong leading lines will continue to be in demand for stock photography. But photos that capture relaxing scenes like beaches, snow-capped trees, and fields of flowers will be the most popular.
Know your market
Instead, consider what potential buyers are looking for. At the most basic level, your photos need to look technically sharp and polished. Take them with a professional camera (or at least a very good smartphone camera), and make sure the shots are in focus, correctly exposed, and properly framed.
As a Shutterstock contributor, you will earn a percentage of the price Shutterstock receives for licensing your content. There are 6 separate earnings levels for images and for videos, ranging from 15% up to 40%. You can graduate through them independently based on your download count in each category.
Google Photos doesn't support selling photos or other media. You need to upload the photos to a third-party platform for selling digital content.
You can also go to art galleries and ask them if they can accept your photos as exhibits. You can offer your prints to local businesses that can use your business cards with fine art images for further promotion. A local restaurant or retail outlet may want to have your photos on their walls.
You can choose several types of photos to increase the diversity but make sure to put the one with the most level of creativity at the center of your plan. Currently, there are hundreds of types of photos selling on Etsy, but let's just focus on the 3 best choices: Stock photos, Digital photos, and Instagram templates.
Not many know Charles O'Rear is the man behind Bliss, the photograph considered by many as the most-viewed picture in the history of the world. O'Rear clicked Bliss 21 years ago and it was used by Microsoft as the default background for its Windows XP operating system.
4. Shutterstock. Considered the easiest way to sell photos online for some, Shutterstock is a leading stock photography website for selling photos online. The platform has paid out over a billion dollars to its community in the past 15 years, and it can get your photos seen by millions of customers.