Is it possible to make income online with freelance photography?

United States
September 28, 2012 9:17pm CST
I take a lot of nature photographs and love photography. I would really like to make some extra income from this hobby. Some places that I have looked at online to submit my photos to are very strict and picky about what they will except. I am thinking there must be other ways to sell these prints online without going threw these companies. Has any other mylotters had good luck with selling photos online for extra income?
2 people like this
6 responses
• United States
29 Sep 12
Yes, it is very possible to make a good income online with freelance photography. As a matter of fact, this is an avenue that I'm planing to take when I get a new better camera, and when I have a bit more free time from getting my many other projects off and running the way I would like. Selling your stock photos and images online can be very lucrative, if you do a bit of research. Here, I'm going to tell you about 3 places online that seem to be pretty good, and which I have heard great things about... 1. is Fotolia.com, here you just upload your files and your images are viewed by image buyers around the world 24/7, there's no registration or portfolio management fees, you can make thousands of dollars a month(from like 20%-63% royalty payout per file sold) and it's free to sign-up for an account. 2. is Shutterstock.com, it's pretty much a similar setup as Fotolia only your pay per download is based on your total lifetime earnings, so like the more earnings you make per download, the higher percentage of the rate your lifetime earnings go up(less than $500 to over $10,000...)I actually know people who have claimed to have made $4,000 or better with them. This too is free to sign-up for an account. Last, but not least is 3. iStockphoto.com. Since it's been already mentioned to you to check them out I don't feel the need to go into detail about them, except that they seem pretty good as well... not personally my first choice, but hey, everyone's different. So yeah...,check em' out ... you might find what you're looking for.
@ptrikha_2 (46478)
• India
4 Oct 12
Have you made any earning on this website?
• United States
30 Sep 12
Yeah... Free is always good, lol. And, the thing about these 3 places is, they all seem very simple to use, everything is pretty cut n dry. Like with Fotolia.com,(my favorite of the three)all you have to do is sign up and upload your files and you got a global audience,that quick. Also, they have the best royalty rate percentage out of the three. Another great thing about these 3 is, if you have great pics that have potential to sell often, they are all going to want you to be exclusive to them, because if your pics become famous, then they look good,too.
1 person likes this
• United States
30 Sep 12
Those sites sound like they will be good ones to check out to see about making extra income from photos. Loading photos for free is very good. I think if you pay for a site to load your photos it could get rather expensive.
1 person likes this
@ptrikha_2 (46478)
• India
4 Oct 12
Well, you have two ways to go: 1)Use sites like Mypage5, or some blog sites, which pay a small amount- say 1 to 2 cents per photograph. 2)Try sites which pay more for the photographs, but which would place a lot of emphasis on the quality of the photographs, and a strict check on the quality, and yes, it will be difficult. Yet, why not try?
• United States
4 Oct 12
I've never heard of mypage5 it is worth checking out to get paid for photos. Even if a site is strict it doesn't hurt to try. Worse thing that could happen is to make no money and go on to find a different site.
• Slovenia
29 Sep 12
I have try to sold my photos in past few years, but without success. You need really good photos and photos that are people need for their web sites and similar. I think you need good ideas to make that kind of photos and its hard to make money with freelance photography.
• United States
29 Sep 12
I think if a photographer would have photos that are something very different from what everyone elses are then it might be possible to make few pennies. My photos are just standard photos. I think they are well done but too many other people are trying to sell just standard photos too. You need something to stand out above the rest of the photos that are out there. Its very difficult to do.
@rog0322 (2829)
• Cagayan De Oro, Philippines
29 Sep 12
Hi, I have lots of photos here but I can't make sense of it how to sell them online. The competition is too stiff, the taste varying and online photos are there for the taking anyway. I have yet to make one single cent out of my uploaded photos, until now, nothing. Maybe I'll just burn them to a DVD for future use such as desktop publishing or some magazine articles who may need them.
• United States
29 Sep 12
The competition does seems to be very stiff for photos online. I am sure there are many people that would like to sell their photos because it is a popular hobby. I am thinking I am going to stick with just selling my digital graphic layouts because that is something that I have some experience to do for other people as a service.
• India
29 Sep 12
Hi friend, good to hear about your photos, some sites are available to upload photos and they are paying for us, some persons needs photos, you can get more money from this kind of persons. Better to post your talent in sites like fiverr, lot of persons are visiting this site and the person whoever needs photo will purchase your thing and you will get money with your pictures
• United States
30 Sep 12
Yes that is the key to being able to make income from photos is finding the right person that is looking for photos. I think it is very difficult to get good traffic on a site of my own like a blog or website until I learn how to do it after time.
• Philippines
6 Jan 13
There is lots of photography earning online that you might want to consider, if you want to have a good career on your craft. Join Stock Photography: Stock photography basically is the common way on photographers to earn some decent amount through their photographs, usually you are allowed to upload images of your content and when clients are interested on your digital photos, they can buy the digital file and pay via electronic carriers. PhotoSharing Sites: Photosharing sites are good sites to promote and to get your photographs noticed to a wide audience, although some photography sites like flickr, and deviantart is not intended for photo selling, they do have an option whether a user can buy the photo uploader’s prints for their interests. Sell on Etsy: Etsy is an arts and crafts online store, that enables its sellers to showcase their art stuffs such as photography, paintings, customize jewelry, and other art collections.