Can we make money selling stock photographs?

I have signed up with a few websites selling photographs. I never care about uploading my photos because I doubt I can make any money from it. Moreover, it usually comes with a string of terms and I am too lazy to read it.

I also am not sure if I need to photoshop my photo to perfection or whether it is alright to upload the RAW file.

So far, a few individuals have asked me for some photos of exotic fruits and vegetables and they told me they will pay me but they never get back after I gave them my large resolution photos. So be it, I am not bothered to chase them for payment either.

But it seems a waste that I have such a good DSLR camera and the photo opportunities, yet, I never capitalise on them.

Therefore, can anyone tell me if you have successfully make money selling photographs? How do they pay? I am not interested in those few cents clicks because it sucks to give them my photos f.o.c. I am interested in those more exclusive programs and I do not mind working on my photographs. (yayaya, I will make sure the ocean water doesn’t spill into your laptop due to uneven horizon)

Anyone? Referral?

Post Author: lilian

14 thoughts on “Can we make money selling stock photographs?

    BobbyT

    (May 27, 2008 - 11:01 pm)

    Hi Lilian,

    check out this site: http://www.istockphoto.com/
    this is not to spam you lar, the business model there quite easy to understand, you either earn credit or money when people use your photos. with the credit you can purchase the right to use other people’s photos on the same site on your own sites without attribution (hence royalty free stock photo)

    I think this is good for those who are not professional photographers, you won’t earn much money but you open up opportunities to use other people’s rare photographs…

    Make Money Talks

    (May 27, 2008 - 11:05 pm)

    I tried to submit some pics toShooterstock but they replay to me then need to be better quality.

    Michael

    (May 28, 2008 - 10:45 am)

    well why not? should not really be a problem depending on the quality! :)

    Andris

    (May 28, 2008 - 2:11 pm)

    Cool..isn’t it. well, when u can make money by selling pics that’s not a big deal..should not really be a problem depending on the quality! :)

    Marc Klein

    (May 28, 2008 - 4:40 pm)

    I think it’s a spam not a blog. I tried doing so but I could not succeed. Something is wrong with the blog.

    Raymond Chan

    (May 28, 2008 - 7:51 pm)

    I have no idea absolutely, but the thought of it is really tempting. When I try it one day, I’ll let you know =P

    kidkiller87

    (May 28, 2008 - 11:01 pm)

    Lilian ahyi, i just know got a site is earn money with sharing photos lor..if got people click your photo then you earn.. that is shareapic.com ..but it’s not easy to earn..less than your current earning about 100times or 1000times..haha !!

    Manish

    (May 30, 2008 - 3:55 am)

    I didnt knew at all that we could earn selling those pics I have in tons in my wardrobe.better get them out now.Thanx for sharing.

    Marc Klein

    (May 31, 2008 - 4:06 pm)

    I too have a lot of photographs which I would like to sell. But what I can to know form a friend of mine is that they should be god enough to be sold and in no physical damage.

    Matthew

    (June 1, 2008 - 7:59 am)

    Selling photos is becoming more and more tricky. Just look on ebay and people are selling CDs with 100s of pictures on it for peanuts!

    I good site to help set up a second income online is http://www.earnpaypalmoney.com/ It has some good reviews of genuine products.

    Hope that helps

    Bacner

    (June 2, 2008 - 12:41 am)

    can you get good income from selling stock photographs?

    MMBusiness

    (June 2, 2008 - 3:58 pm)

    Hi, I’ve heard about http://www.dreamstime.com/ – never tried it myself but has many users.

    Alex

    (June 2, 2008 - 5:53 pm)

    A friend has made a little but he has a huge library of shots of everything from coffee beans to utensils. Just having such a huge variety allows stock photography sales to flow. Good luck with it though I’ve tempted it in the past but didn’t feel my landscape or waterscape shot would really be of interest to the stock market

    Danny Foo

    (June 5, 2008 - 7:55 pm)

    Fuah! Not bad, diversifying. :)

    Anyway, I’m rather keen to do stock as well. However, if it involves models you’ll need the paperwork included. Plus, while iStockPhoto has higher requirements at least they’re serious in stock photos.

    Meaning they would want photos which are hot in the market. And won’t take just any photos.

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