Stock Photo Seller

Stock images are photographs, illustrations, or other visual images that an artist has uploaded to a stock photo site for other people to use for personal or commercial purposes. Photographers make money by selling the licensing to their photos to people who want to use them.

Businesses will often use stock photos when they need visual media but don’t want to invest the time and resources in hiring a professional photographer or designer. You can find stock photos in all types of places, from websites and email campaigns to books, journal articles, ads, and flyers.

One point to bear in mind is that not all stock images are photos. You can also sell the licensing rights to your illustrations or digital images you’ve created on stock photo websites. Some stock photo sites even allow you to sell AI-generated images.

Stock content can come in other formats as well, such as audio format in the case of stock music. The defining characteristic of stock media is that it’s not created for one specific purpose—instead, the content is shared for use in different projects and products.

How does stock photography work?

When you sell stock photos, you’re not actually selling your photos the way you would if you were selling prints or giving a client photos you took for them. Instead, you’re selling a license to use your photos.

There are different types of stock photo licenses that dictate what buyers are allowed to do with your photos. Stock photo websites tend to have their own licensing agreements, so you don’t need to license the photos yourself.

This selling of usage rights is the main difference between stock photography and other types of photography. When you work as a photographer for a client or employer, you take photos according to a particular assignment. You get paid per photo or task. Typically, the client receives copyright and ownership of these photos.

With stock photography, you upload your photos to the websites of stock image companies. These are photos you’ve taken on your own and do not belong to any other clients or photographers.

How you get paid for stock photos

Customers usually have a few different ways in which they can buy stock photos. They can purchase a license for photos one at a time, they can pay for them with pre-purchased credits, or they can pay for a subscription to the stock photo company and receive an allotment of a certain number of images they can download each month.

The stock photo company determines the price of your photos, and they keep a cut of each sale you make. The percentage or commission you get from stock photo sales is referred to as your royalty rate or royalty payment. You’ll earn more from selling stock photos if you have a higher royalty rate.

The process for getting started as a stock photographer is relatively straightforward. Just follow three simple steps.

Step 1: Take stock-worthy photos

You might be wondering if there’s a difference between how you take stock photos compared to other kinds of photos. The answer is that there is.

Other types of photography have a narrow focus, and the photographer has limited freedom over what they’re shooting. If you’re taking portraits for a client or shooting feature photos for a publisher, you have a pretty well-defined scope for what you’re photographing.

Stock images, on the other hand, can encompass a huge variety of subjects and allow you a lot more creative freedom—as long as they’re versatile and expressive enough to be used in various projects. They should be specific enough to convey a particular idea, but they also need to be broad enough to be usable in a variety of contexts.

Just as you’d submit the best photos from your shoot to clients, you’d want to do the same when uploading your content to stock image sites. Photos that aren’t well lit, well framed, or well edited may not be accepted by the site. If they are, they aren’t likely to sell well.

To decide what to shoot, start by looking at what stock photos sell best. It’s not only the subject matter or niche you should be looking at. You should also consider the overall style and quality of the images. This will give you an idea of how to create the most sellable photos.

Step 2: Sign up with a stock photo agency

Next, look for stock photography sites to sell your photos. Many of these websites offer nonexclusive agreements with photographers. This means you’re free to sell your photography with other stock photo companies if you want.

However, it takes a lot of time to edit and resize your photos, upload them, and tag them with keywords. For every site you sign up with, you’ll have exponentially more work to do. It’s a good idea to start with one platform and then gradually sign up for more once you get the hang of selling stock photos and start making a profit.

Step 3: Upload your stock photos

You can usually start uploading your stock photos right away. However, most stock photo websites will review your initial submission before deciding to approve you as a contributor.

Once you’re approved, you’re free to upload photos you’ve taken in the past, so long as they meet the requirements of the stock photo company and haven’t been sold or used anywhere else.

Make sure to provide all relevant data when uploading each photo, including keywords and metadata. This information helps the website’s search algorithm better understand your photos and then show them to customers in relevant searches.

There are numerous stock photo websites that pay real money for high-quality photos. While you might be eager to submit your work to the highest paying stock photo sites, there are several other factors you should consider:

• Commission percentage
• Exclusivity
• Number of customers using the site
• Amount of competition (photos and photographers) on the site

Even if you find a site that pays photographers really well, you could potentially earn much less than you would on a site with fewer competitors and a user base that’s hungry for photos like yours. The table below shows how the top stock photography websites stack up.

Best Places to Sell Stock Photography

It’s not enough to just upload your photos to stock photo sites. To see bigger profits from a stock photography side hustle, follow these expert tips.

Think about what buyers want

It’s typically businesses and freelancers who buy stock photos. For example, they could be independent developers and designers building websites and apps. Or they may be bloggers looking for images to complement their copy. They could even be major marketing companies looking for photos to use in email or social media campaigns.

When taking photos, you first need to imagine what kinds of visual content these professionals will need. You can look at stock photography websites to see what’s trending.

Next, you need to understand how they’ll use those visuals. For instance, web designers often need photos that have ample white space where they can place text. Bloggers need images that embody a specific theme.

Being able to anticipate what stock photo users want will enable you to take photos that are better suited to their projects than what other photographers have created.

Edit your photos

Before you upload your photos, you should always edit them. Even though editing isn’t a requirement stipulated in your contract with stock photo agencies, it’s something that will substantially enhance the value of your photos.

Some photos might not need much in the way of retouching. Others may require additional work. Additionally, by studying stock photo trends, you might discover certain layouts and enhancements that are popular among buyers.

Use appropriate keywords

You have to do more than take attractive pictures to make money as a stock photographer. Because a stock photo site’s search algorithm can’t “see” your photos, you need to use keywords and metadata to communicate what your photos portray.

Stock image websites often set limits for how many keywords you can use. For example, Adobe Stock allows you to attach anywhere between 5 and 50 keywords to each photo. However, that doesn’t mean you should max out your keywords—according to Adobe’s stock keywording tips, 15–25 keywords is ideal, and it’s the first 10 that are most important.

Choose keywords that describe the layout, colors, people, places, objects, emotions, styles, and other characteristics of the photo. The more specific you get with your keywords, the easier it will be for people to find your photos.

You’ll also have a chance to provide metadata, which usually consists of a title and description. In some cases, you can also add a caption. Your photo file name is also technically considered metadata, so make sure to give it a descriptive name before uploading your photos.

It’s possible that selling stock photos online used to be an effective way to generate passive income. These days, however, selling stock photos won’t make you rich or allow you to quit your day job. The best most stock photographers can achieve is raking in a few dollars each month, usually after uploading hundreds or thousands of photos.

Unfortunately, the stock content market is oversaturated, and stock photography has become a highly competitive market. To start, there are hundreds of millions of photos available for sale.

On top of that, many stock photo companies offer free stock photo downloads, which is really tough to compete with. And with AI encroaching on the space, it’s only going to get harder to earn decent royalties and gain visibility in search results.

A stock photography side gig is probably most worthwhile for photographers who already have a collection of photos ready to upload. Otherwise, you’ll need to spend a fair bit of time taking good stock photos and editing them in exchange for only a small profit.

Pros and cons of selling stock photos

Here’s a rundown of the biggest advantages and drawbacks of a stock photo side hustle.

How much money can you make selling stock photos?

Becoming a stock photographer seems like a great side hustle for photographers, but is selling stock photos really profitable? It used to be. Prior to 2020, stock photographers could make between $0.25 and $0.45 per image. These days, you’ll likely make between $0.02 and $0.25 per photo you sell.

You’ll earn more if you’re a professional photographer who can mass produce photos with high production value. Selling extended licenses on high-value images will earn you the most money per image, and uploading more images will increase your overall earnings from stock photography.

How AI is affecting stock photography

Recent AI developments have been wreaking havoc on photographers’ earnings from selling stock photos. For example, if you check out the Shutterstock AI Image Generator, you’ll see that customers no longer need to purchase stock photos anymore. All they need to do is describe what they want and let the generator make the image for them.

So, while you can make money selling photos on stock content sites, it’s a better opportunity for a side hustle rather than a career.