What is the Best Place to Sell Your Photos?

Wondering where to sell your photos? As a photographer, you can easily earn some extra cash (or even start a new career) if you know the right places to sell your photos online. Photographers of various skill levels are in high demand for their work, now more than ever.

Everyone from large corporations, and small and medium-sized businesses to bloggers, graphic designers, marketers, and publishers buy and use photos regularly online.

We have listed some places where you can sell your photos.

Where to Sell Your Photos

The largest buying bases of stock photos are bloggers and small to medium-sized website business owners.

These are the top best places to sell photos online and make money doing what you love.

1.   IStockphoto

This site of contributors thoroughly vets new applicants to make sure they’re a good fit.

To apply, just select the most appropriate category (photos, illustrations, video, or audio) and fill out an application (it’s free).

The iStockphoto team will review your qualifications and you’ll have to take a short quiz to assess them. The final step is to upload a few samples of your work to make sure it’s top-notch.

Once accepted with iStockphoto, you’ll receive a minimum of 15% of any sales.

2.   Etsy

Etsy’s not just for selling wedding decorations, custom Halloween costumes, and quirky cat-themed gifts. You can also sell your photos.

While the fee structure is beneficial to a photographer (Etsy keeps 20 cents on each sale as well as 3.5% of the sale price), you have to put in extra work to make those sales.

While people browsing stock photo websites are specifically looking to purchase images, not everyone browsing Etsy will necessarily be looking for photos.

And people looking for photos may not think to look on Etsy.

That’s why, if you choose to sell your images on this site, you’ll need to invest time and energy into marketing your designs and images.

3. Shutterstock

Shutterstock has been a popular site for over 15 years to buy stock photos online.

They have over 200 million images, videos, and music tracks for folks to purchase royalty-free, which also means they have millions of purchasing customers.

As a photographer, you can earn great money with this marketplace in the long run. According to their site, sellers on Shutterstock have made over $500 million worldwide!

Shutterstock allows you to keep your copyrights protected, so it’s up to you to set the rights on your photos.

Shutterstock also gives credit to the image’s owners, which is a major plus that protects your ownership and markets your brand.

4. Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock (formerly Fotolia) is a stock photo marketplace by the maker of the most popular photo editing software solutions, including Photoshop and Lightroom.

This platform has been around for over 10 years and is known to be the very first online marketplace to sell photos.

The thing you’ll like most about Adobe Stock is its royalty share, which is higher than other online shops.

Photos uploaded at Fotolia become a part of the Adobe Stock library, which means they are also available in other Adobe applications and thus reach millions of Adobe users and potential buyers.

Contributors make anywhere from 20% – 60% with Adobe Stock.

And, unlike some other marketplaces, Adobe Stock does not force you to give them exclusive selling rights to your images. So, you can sell on Adobe Stock and other platforms at the same time.

5. Fotolia

Fotolia is a stock photography website that’s owned by Adobe.

It’s integrated into many of Adobe’s programs, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign – meaning that people can buy your images from within those programs.

You earn 20% to 46% commission on the images you sell through Fotolia – the better your contributor rank, the higher the percentage commission you’ll earn.

On Fotolia, you earn credits, which you can redeem for cash. You can earn between 1 to 30 credits per image. And one credit is worth $1.40

The site accepts a wide variety of high-quality images in all subject areas. But, it encourages you to review the images of top-selling artists to get ideas for photos.

6. 500px Prime

Five million photographers list their stock images with 500px, according to the site.

You’ll receive 70% net for every license sold (standard licenses are $250), and your images may appear in big-name ad campaigns if you submit them for commercial licensing.

To give 500px Prime a try, first sign up for a free account on 500px. Then submit your photos, enable your store, and complete the required forms for each image (including model releases, liability releases, etc.).

You’ll also have the option of selecting an exclusive or non-exclusive license for the images. You’ll earn more for an exclusive license, but that means you can’t license or sell the photo to anyone else.

7. Alamy

Alamy is another great platform on which to sell stock photos because it doesn’t have any hard and fast rules.

The site may not have as many buyers as Shutterstock and Adobe Stock, but it’s still a great contender and another great option for revenue.

Photographers can upload their photos to Alamy without licensing or any other copyright issues. To date, Alamy has made $180 million in payouts to photographers.

Alamy’s rates are competitive, too. The marketplace pays photographers 50% of each sale, which is significantly higher than some other competing platforms.

8. Fotomoto

Fotomoto is not an online marketplace, but rather a widget that integrates with your website to help you sell photos online.

After you add it to your site, Fotomoto manages all the photo selling processes for you.

Like Etsy, Fotomoto allows you to offer digital photos, photo prints, and even canvases to your site visitors.

And, Fotomoto handles the packaging of your material photos so you don’t have to. It doesn’t get much easier if you plan to sell physical photo prints or canvases!

What’s really great about Fotomoto is that the widget itself is customizable.

You can adjust the widget’s settings to display your own branding information, including your logo! That way, customers come to learn about your brand and associate it with your images.

Even if you are a hobbyist photographer, professional photographer, or even graphic designer, Fotomoto has some great features that will work seamlessly with your existing WordPress site.

9. Instaprints

Most people think of Instagram as a social networking and image-sharing site – but, did you know that you can actually make money from your Instagram photos?

While Instagram itself does not pay you directly for your images, you can earn money from the photos you upload from a website called Instaprints.

All you need to do is link your Instagram profile to your Instaprints account, and you can sell your photos as physical prints.

One of the best things about selling your images through Instaprints is that you can set your own rates.

10. PhotoMoolah

PhotoMoolah works in a slightly different way from other photography sites. Rather than uploading your images to an online catalog that customers can purchase from, on PhotoMoolah, you enter different photography contests.

The average contest prize is $100 to $200. So, if your photos win, the site can be very profitable.

All you need to do is browse through the contests on the site and then submit your photos to the themes that you like.

And, if you win, you could earn up to $500.

11. Snapped4U

Unlike other stock photography sites that accept images with a variety of different themes, Snapped4U only accepts photos of events, like weddings, festivals, and concerts, and portrait photography.

So, if those are the types of photos that you think you could offer, then Snapped4U could be a great match.

You will be charged a $0.50 commission on images that you sell for $5 or less.

For photos that you sell for more than $5, you’ll be charged a 10% commission.

The options for selling your photos are as vast and varied as the images you capture.

Even if you’re an amateur photographer looking to share your snapshots or a seasoned professional seeking to monetize your art, there’s a platform out there for you.

From established marketplaces to niche communities, the digital world offers endless opportunities to showcase and sell your work.

So, don’t hesitate to explore these avenues, experiment with different platforms, and find the one that best suits your style and goals.

Remember, your passion for photography has the power to not only earn you income but also to connect you with people around the globe who appreciate the beauty you see through your lens.