I have started selling my photography.
By minx267
@minx267 (15527)
Hartford, Connecticut
June 28, 2019 2:30am CST
I just recently decided to try selling my photos through a stock site. I chose Shutterstock to start with. I have slowly been building my portfolio over the last 6 months. I have had 14 sales.
Not getting rich yet, most of those sales are paying .25 cents. But there were a couple for more, one was almost $20.
I'm hoping to have a few different places out there were I can continue to get residual sales. Zazzle is still fairly good for me. I have to keep persistent making things there.
Have any of you used sites to sell photos? I am trying to figure out which pay more. The other I started with is EyeEm. I've had a few sales. One for pay great. But then the sales stopped. So I'm trying others. Any suggestions?
This is a photo I took last weekend.
16 people like this
17 responses
@minx267 (15527)
• Hartford, Connecticut
30 Jun 19
Sorry. Aftershock is Shuttershock. My phone autocorrected.. It always seems to think I don't know what the hell I'm typing. Lol. My sales are at about 3 to 4 a month.. I think just keep building your portfolio.. I might start looking for another one or two sites to use. Love the heron in your profile pic.
1 person likes this
@minx267 (15527)
• Hartford, Connecticut
1 Jul 19
@cperry2 That's all we can do. I just keep adding them and hope they accept them. sometimes they disappoint me and reject ones I know are really good. So i put those on zazzle and make stuff with them.. I will show those idiots.. :)
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (167071)
• Boise, Idaho
28 Jun 19
Sorry I don't know much about photography. Wish you luck though.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (167071)
• Boise, Idaho
29 Jun 19
@minx267 .......Nice of you to share some of them with us.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
28 Jun 19
Good for you! I'm still only selling through Zazzle and I don't make near enough products. I'm cleaning out my stores of the things that don't sell and trying to get new products made. There's just so miuch to do between my blogs and Zazzle. And then there's that thing called housework.
1 person likes this
@minx267 (15527)
• Hartford, Connecticut
28 Jun 19
I hear you... I don't delete my Zazzle products.. I am still getting first sales on items I made YEARS ago.. I never delete.. unless it's a discontinued item. you never know what someone will want or when. :) I really wish I could get organized enough to blog.. that would probably help me with my sales.. but I just can't remember to do it! Housework? what's that?
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
28 Jun 19
@minx267 I only delete the products I made with quick create -- some of them years ago. I don't need so many variations -- especially since people can put your design on any product now so you don't have to make them all. I didn't have a very good camera when I started and I am deleting some of the photos I don't like anymore if they've never been viewed or sold. I need to make more products that illustrate the blog posts I'm writing now.
1 person likes this
@didinedhia (8470)
• Algeria
28 Jun 19
That is really good idea I really want to try it
1 person likes this
@minx267 (15527)
• Hartford, Connecticut
1 Jul 19
@didinedhia yes, another money maker is always good!
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
28 Jun 19
I have never tried to sell my photos, though I did look into it once. I also could have sold a photo which I had put on Flickr - if I had been quicker in responding to a message left on that site! I was offered $100 for it as a book jacket but I don't visit the site very often and it was several months before I actually read the message and, of course, by then it was too late!
My experiences with selling books on Amazon suggest that you need to have plenty of good quality images on a site in order to sell just one. I have no idea what the ratio would be for a photo site but, on Amazon, I needed to have 40 or 50 books listed to make one sale a month. Selling photos would very likely work in a different way but I think that the underlying principle would be the same - you could expect that at least one of, say, 40 or 50 images to appeal to a paying customer. There is probably the advantage, too, that when a customer is searching a site for usable images, if they come across your name two or more times against images which may not be what they are looking for but, nevertheless, stand out as 'good', they are going to begin looking at the rest of your portfolio and, quite likely, remember you the next time they want an image.
I like your photo of a rose. It is positioned in such a way that I can see potential for adding text above, below and to the left. In other words, it could be very usable as a book jacket. You clearly have a good eye for composition, colour balance and contrast. The only thing I would have to say against it is that it is not quite crisp enough. I don't think that its a problem with your focussing (or with camera shake). It seems to me that it is more likely the lens.
1 person likes this
@allknowing (136595)
• India
28 Jun 19
Something is better than nothing I have loads of photos and I too am seriously thinking on those lines as you
1 person likes this
@LeaPea2417 (37355)
• Toccoa, Georgia
28 Jun 19
That is a good idea. Congrat, I may look into that.
1 person likes this
@isweartokira (3460)
• United States
28 Jun 19
I've never tried to sell photography (I'm terrible with a camera) but I have sold my art on websites like the one you're talking about. I make the art, the company prints it on products, and I get a margin of the profits. It's usually just for extra money but I always need gas money so it helps!
1 person likes this
@isweartokira (3460)
• United States
30 Jun 19
@minx267 that's awesome! hopefully you'll be selling for many years to come
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
7 Sep 19
beautiful capture! i plead laziness 'n've not read the other responses, so may be repeatin'. if'n so, 'pologies!
i'd suggest ya go to fine art america. basically ya jest put yer pics 'n they do the rest.
@Hannihar (130218)
• Israel
28 Jun 19
@minx267
I have used Zazzle. Is there something there that you can sell photos? I thought you had to use their stuff and add your pictures to them? If that is right then I do not do good there.Are these all apps to do on the phone only or can they be used on the computer too?