Have you ever wondered how you could take advantage of your photography hobby and make some money from the many random pics that you have taken over the years? Well making money from stock photos online has become a big business for thousands of part time freelance amateur photographers. So deciding where to start can be an overwhelming prospect for a lot of people hopefully some of the tips I will share with you here will help to guide you along the way to earning a little cash on the side for your photographs.
If you have been told by friends and family that you have a “real gift” for picture taking and that you should look into getting published then what are you waiting for as this is a great time to be an amateur photographer. Like I said there are a lot more options available to you now a days and especially if you are limited on time. The two markets that are really primed and ready for new photos and are amateur photographer friendly are stock photos and greeting card companies.
Do a quick Google search on either making money selling your stock photos to agencies or greeting card companies and you will find that your choices are plentiful. Let’s start with some tips regarding getting your pictures into some of the bigger name stock photo agencies. First off like I said if you do a simple search you will see plenty to choose from with some of the bigger more well established ones being BigStockPhoto, iStockPhoto and Shutter Stock and like I said there are a lot more I just wanted to point out a few of the more popular ones that I have come across.
The first thing you may want to do is read through their requirements in terms of photo submission sizes and more importantly the type of commission pay plan that they have in place. They all mail commission checks but quite a few of them also work with pay pal so it may be advantageous to you to open an account. Most of them have a photo submission process in place to keep the quality of their site on par with their image so if you don’t get your pictures in on the first attempt don’t take it personally. I realize that may be a hard thing for a lot of amateurs to take is that rejection notice and taking it hard and putting the blame on the market for not understanding “your artistry”.
Think Photography Themes
Guess what if you want to get your photos out there then you will have to learn the market of the stock photo site you are looking to work with. Most sites have a community aspect to them and it would be in your best interest to get the opinions of the people that are there all the time to give you a better idea of what you should be shooting for. You may want to put a lot of thought into the themes of your pictures as some sites specialize in certain photographic genres like people, landscape, travel or food and drink to name a few.
The idea of shooting photographs with a theme in mind leads me to the other market the can be quite profitable for aspiring freelance photographers, I am referring to selling your photos to greeting card companies. The same ideas can be applied to getting your photos published with greeting cards. Holiday themes are an obvious target for you if you are considering getting into the greeting card market as that is the bulk of the business for those companies. Think about the big seasons like xmas, birthdays, weddings and all the other big sellers. They all use photographs to sell their products so why not yours? I am only pointing out two options here for making money from your stock photos online, please understand that there are a lot more opportunities out there for the aspiring amateur freelance photographers out there.
I believe on of the most important things to remember if you are seriously considering putting your “photographic art” out there for the world to see. Learn to take criticism and rejection and either learn from it or let it go but don’t take it personally as with most art the beauty lies in the eye of beholder. Not everyone will agree with artistry of your work and indeed some if not most will be more than happy to tell you about it. What you do with that input again is up to you but if you can learn to ignore most of that and stay true to your photographic work then you should be fine.
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