I love photography almost as much as I love traveling. The two go hand in hand perfectly. One dilemma I’ve always had though: How to sell my photos online? Where are the best sites to sell my photos and what’s required? How do you even get started? And is there an easier way to sell my photos so they don’t get lost in the competition?
Most photographers would agree that understanding how to sell photos online and make money takes a little digging. You don’t want to take pennies on the dollar for your captured moments. You also want to get your photos seen by the largest audience possible.
When I first starting researching how to sell my photos online I didn’t know where to start. Where’s the best place to sell photos online? Are there sites where you can sell your photos online for a decent commission and not be asked to be exclusive to that site? This would mean being able to create revenue from multiple sites at once.
In this article, with video, I’m going to share with you my top 5 picks for best sites to sell your photos online. I’ll share exactly how you can combine some of them together to maximize your revenue potential. I’ll also connect you with a great free course for selling your photos from your own website.
How To Sell My Photos Online 2018 – 5 Best Sites For Photographers
What a great image they’re using here, right? That look on Iggy Pop’s face is all I needed. Sign me up!
As an update to that picture, there are over 125 million images in Alamy’s collection. People from all over the world are uploading their portfolio to Alamy and you can too. They also give one of the highest commissions to photographers at 50% of each photo sold. Consequently, as a photography lover myself, I read this and immediately signed up.
Alamy determines the price of your photo once uploaded and is non-exclusive. This means you can sell your photos elsewhere as well. And more is better.
It may not be Iggy Pop, but that picture is still pretty sleek. Shutterstock is another very popular site for selling stock photos. As a result, they are in over 150 countries globally with a collection of over 194 million photos. So just like Alamy, you can feel very safe uploading your portfolio to Shutterstock. People from all over the world are doing it.
Earnings range from $0.25 to $120.00, depending on the customer’s license.
Shutterstock doesn’t have the high commissions per sale that Alamy does, but since they are also non-exclusive, why not sell on both platforms? I do. Having multiple sites where you sell your photos is an easy way to get more eyes on your photos.
Commissions for photos sold on iStock Photo range from 15% to 45%. iStock is also very popular because of the thriving community forums available to you upon joining. Forums are great for getting inspiration for future shots as well, so don’t be shy about checking out what other people got.
iStock offers both exclusive and non-exclusive partnerships, with exclusive partnership royalties ranging from 22%-45%.
Fine Art America is an absolute favorite of mine. They offer a variety of ways for the customer to enjoy your fine art photos. From framed prints, to stretched canvases, to metal prints, to posters, to digital downloads, to iPhone cases and more, Fine Art America has got you covered.
Further, they take care of all the framing, shipping, and selling details. That’s a big plus for me. I love a platform that takes care of all the little things and lets me concentrate on what’s important. All you have to do is determine your price and collect your commissions.
You determine your markup on top of their base price. For example, if their base price for a 24″ x 36″ canvas print is $50 and you set your markup at $25, then the buyer pays $75 for the canvas print, and you earn $25. Easy peasy!
If you would rather sell your photos through your own site, this is the site for you. PhotoShelter is an e-commerce platform that integrates into almost any website or blog. That’s a pretty big deal. It’s nice to be able to keep your photography on your own real estate.
The platform includes cloud storage for your photos, some decent SEO (search engine optimization), and integrations for sharing over your favorite social media networks.
The Benefits of Selling Your Photography On Your Own Website
The majority of people who are selling their photos online start by uploading their photos to an established photo sharing platform. However, if you want to maximize your profits, it’s time to consider an alternative.
Cut out the middle man (and the competition) by selling your photography on your own real estate. You call the shots. You pocket the profits.
Never built a website before? Don’t know where to start? Don’t worry. There are very solid training platforms in place to lead you by the hand every step of the way.
No matter your skill level, you’ll be walked through choosing a profitable niche (in this case photography), and then taken step by step through building a professional site that generates organic, creating quality content that attracts free traffic, and converting that traffic into revenue.
If you’re entrepreneurial minded and serious about building a site that gets your photos the serious traffic they deserve, then you need to take a look at this free course for driving massive traffic to your photos and getting sale after sale..
Trust me, it’s worth looking into.
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There you have it. No more Googling “how to sell my photos online”, right? You now know how to sell photos online and make money! And now that you know where to get your photos seen and sold, get out and start taking pictures!
What photo sharing websites do you use? What websites do you use to sell your photography? Are you a success story using one of the ones I listed above? Got a horror story after using one? Share your story or ask any question in the comments below.
When you create revenue from your passion, you’re truly living life, and that’s the aim of WorkFromYourLaptop.com. Do you agree with my picks? Let me know! I’m happy to hear your insights!
If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to my Work From Your Laptop YouTube channel! And if you love travel adventures, follow me on Instagram @batmantravels!
Great article! As a professional photographer. I would also like to recommend Pixpa, as it helps built online store alone with an online portfolio.
Thanks.
Very cool. I’ll look into that and maybe do a review on it. 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
Hi Eric, my biggest concern is the cost involved in paying an accountant to handle sales taxes to multiple states. Are there any sites that pay the taxes for you and simply pay you a commission? With stock photo companies, do you have to pay tax to where the buyer purchased it from or is it all consolidated to a tax you pay to one place? And last, if no companies handle the tax for you, what is your advice to photographers just starting out in online sales to help keep initial profits from getting eaten up by accountants? Yeah, a lot of questions but I have been wrestling with this for a few years now and have not found good advice yet.
Thanks,
Scott
When you sell your photos online, whether you’re using a platform that displays your photos alongside many others photographers’ work, or you build your own site and take full control of how your photos are displayed and sell them yourself, your buyers pay their own taxes. You simply pay your state and/or federal tax at the end of the year based on where you live and how much income you’ve made. There’s no headache with accountants. It’s the same as reporting income from a part time job 🙂 Thanks for the questions and comment!
Eric, Thank you for this information. I’m new at wanting to sell my work and have been looking for solid advice. I have photos and digital paintings, but I have never ventured into selling any of it. I’ll be looking into all these awesome sites you talked about and following you on your social media platforms. And if you have any more advise, I’m all ears! Thanks again. – Roland
I really appreciate that, Roland. I’m a photography and travel lover myself and the two go hand in hand 🙂 My absolute top piece of advice for anyone looking to sell their photos online is to eventually take the plunge into building your own website where you have full control of your photos so they’re not lost in a crowd of competitors. The platform I link to in the article is absolutely great even for beginners and you can try it free to see if it’s for you. Thanks for the support, brother! If you need any help with anything, don’t hesitate to reach out.
I have been using Fine Arts America for 3 years and am very disappointed with this site. I have had technical issues since day 1 and I have emailed them but they have ignored my emails. Also my photos have won worldwide awards and have been published but I have only sold two on this site. There are millions of photos to choose from on this site from other photographers. Recently I went on my site and many of my photos have disappeared. I emailed Fine Arts America regarding this issue and have had no response from them. One has to email regarding tech issues because there is no phone number.
Wow, Gina. I’m very sorry to hear that. While I’ve never had issues with Fine Arts America myself, I can see the frustration that can come with technical issues that are out of your control along with feeling that your pictures are getting lost among the millions of other ones on that site. For that reason, many have opted to sell their photos from their own websites where they have full control over how they’re displayed, along with not having an competition to worry about. Photoshelter offers that feature to integrate into your own site. The main key to having success with that is knowing how to build a site that generates real traffic so you can get sales. For that I highly recommend creating your free starter account with this training platform and mentoring community that walks you through building your own niche site or building traffic to your already existing niche site so that your photos get the eyes on them they deserve. It also walks you through the key strategies to turning that traffic into consistent revenue and sales, in this case, from selling your photos. In fact, I’m going to go back into this article and add a more obvious link for those photographers just like you who could really benefit from that training. Thank you so much for your comment and insight!
Hello Eric
Thanks for this truly informative video and post. I have bookmarked it. I’ve taken some really great photos and had heard of opportunities to sell my photos but have not looked into it any further. This post cuts straight to the chase and straight to your best recommendations which are really helpful. I too travel a lot and would love to share some of the spectacular pics I have taken.
Thanks again mate
Paul
Very glad to help, Paul! Thanks for the comment!
Hey Eric,
I love taking photos too when I’m not banging words on my computer. I love ShutterStock a lot. I however have never thought of selling my photos online. And this is an eyeopener. I’ll bookmark this page for future reference. It seems like a good venture to sell my work. Thanks for your insights,
Dennis
Thanks for the comment, Dennis! I appreciate it. I’m right there with you at my laptop banging out words all the time. I just shared some tips on how to get organic traffic you might like. Follow that link and check it out 🙂 Thanks!
Hi Eric; how do you like Fine Art America? I take lots of photos in that style and it seems really perfect for what I’m needing.
I’ve always seen photography as a total hobby, but after seeing some photos online for sale I thought to myself that mine were just as good. Found your post online and now here I am.
Thank you!
DorcasW
Hi Dorcas! I think if you have photos that fit in that fine art category you’re going to absolutely love Fine Art America. They have so many options for selling your work and they take care of all the details. Very glad to help you with this. Thanks again!
Hi Eric,
You have some beautiful photos!
When it comes to selling photos online, I was wondering how I do this always wondered if mine were good enough, know what I mean? But the only way to know that is to do it, right? and now you have given me the answer.
I have never heard of Alamy up til this point, but I’m going to try each one of these. Thank you!
Very glad to help, Stella! Thanks so much for the comment!
I often take photos when I get out into nature and sometimes the results are quite good. I often use Photoshop to enhance the photos even more, so they would look more professional. I started getting asked about them and if they were for sale, so finally I started researching how to sell my photos online. Thank you for this quick overview of these sites! The video was perfect and simple and direct! Is Fine Art America your personal fave? It sounded like it might be.
I think you’ve guessed right. I tend to take fine art photos where I digitally edit them to make them surreal and I love turning the digital photograph into a canvas like that. For my style of photography it’s a perfect fit. Fine Art America and Photo Shelter for the control you have over your photos would be my top choices of the 5, but the 5 as a whole are my top 5 over all others for sure. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for the information! I’ve submitted photos to most of the sites you mentioned, but I haven’t had any sold yet. I haven’t had much luck with Alamy. They seem to be very picky. I’ve only had a couple of photos approved. I haven’t heard of Photoshelter, but I will try that next.
Thanks for the insight. I’ve actually been so busy building this site at WorkFromYourLaptop.com that I haven’t had the chance to upload several new photos from my catalogue to Alamy as of yet. I had used it in the past but heard that they recently became a bit more picky and I’ve been looking to see for myself how this affected the process. Thanks for the comment!
Great info. I will share it to my photographer friends. Thank you very much.
Thanks for the comment, Melani. Glad to be of help. And if any of those photographer friends need help building a solid site for their photos to get them seen, don’t hesitate to point them to my top recommendation! Take care!
Hi Eric and thank you! I loved the little blurb about writing a paragraph in third person about yourself. Too funny. Anyway, I was just suggesting to my daughter about selling photography online. I wasn’t sure how, but you gave me the info needed for her. I truly enjoyed the article. :o)
Ha! I’m glad that little blurb got a laugh. Very glad to help out with your daughter! Thanks for the comment!
Love this article Eric!
My sister is an Artist and just getting started with Photography these are great places to show her work I will let her know!
Thanks =)
glad I could help! thank you for the comment, Krista!
Thanks for collecting this info and putting it out there! I have thought about selling photos online but never got around to researching it. Thanks for making it easier!
Not a problem. I appreciate the kind words and your comment, Sandra. Feel free to share this page with your social networks. Thank you!
I really enjoyed your article. I am going to have to share photoshelter.com with an artist friend my mine. Thank you for the awesome links, much appreciated!
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Feel free to share the post, that’s why I wrote it 🙂 There are so many photographers out there who I feel could benefit from using these sites.
Eric,
I enjoy taking pictures while traveling, but inn ever thought about selling these photos online before. Thanks for the ideas! I think I’ll check the sites listed above.
David
If all you gotta do is upload some photos and tag them into a category it can’t hurt to try. 🙂 take care David.
Wow, I didn’t even know that such platforms exist before reading your article. I really like your article because not only you listed all the available sites, you also did short and concise summary of their pros and cons. Very helpful article!
Thank you! There are so many more out there, but these are by far my top picks. I appreciate the comment 😉
First off, It’s great to know how nice and detailed the site is that are accompanied with supporting images that is directly in line with what you want to say. Your website is clean and easy to navigate all throughout. I don’t mind signing up for the 5 best sites you recommended because I need new phots on my content lol
Hey thanks man. I appreciate the feedback. You should most definitely grab your photos from these great sites. Remember though, while it’s free to upload to these sites as the photographer it will more than likely cost you if you want to use these photos in your blog or website, so it could get pricey. For free, royalty free pics I use pixabay.
This is gold: “But if you’re doing something you love, why not turn it into revenue?”. I also have my blog and I’m monetizing it. If there is value in it, then why not?
I like the quality of images on Shutterstock but purchasing them it out of my price range at the moment. I was hoping that with these high prices that at least they are giving high commissions to photographers so that’s a downer. I would rather buy images on a platform where the photographer earns a high commission to keep on supporting them.
That’s a cool take on the subject. I always see it from the photographer’s point of view since I myself love photography and look to make revenue from it, but you as the buyer have a great point. If you’re going to be buying them why not reward the photographer who actually did the work. Nicely put.
This is a great post! I will start to learn taking great photos soon from a great photographer. So this post really a great info for me. Thanks!
Glad to be of help, Dino. When photography is your passion there is no reason why you can’t make money from it with all the tools available. Go out and take some great pics!
This is exactly the kind of article I was looking for! I always loved taking pictures and traveling and through my adventures I’ve captured some pretty good shots. I knew there was a way I could sell them online but I didn’t really know the best way. I have heard of shutterstock before but not alamy so thank you for introducing me to that! I think selling my photos is definitely something I’m going to look into more.
Brianna
Alamy is spectacular with their commissions. Glad I could help and thanks for the comment :).