If you're looking for a way to fund that next camera lens
an extra gear, then you should be selling your photos online.
It's a realistic way to fund your passion with very little effort.
Hey, I'm your host and creative strategist Michelle Bali.
As a photographer, you already know that the
competition out there is tough.
So I'll let you in on the secret to selling your
photos online successfully.
First, it takes skill and a unique aesthetic, but
it doesn't stop there.
The second factor is that you need to know how to market
yourself as a photographer.
You could have the most stunning photos, but if you don't
know how to run the business side, your sales will suffer.
So in today's video, I'm going to teach you how to sell
your photos online and start getting paid for your passion.
Sell your photography via direct stock.
Direct stock is a term that refers to selling your
photography on your own website.
You can create a site on Shopify with templates that are actually
for photography, and you can go with a plan for as inexpensive
as 29 US dollars a month.
Shopify also offers apps that are specifically
made for photographers.
So Photo Lock for example, is an antitheft image protection app
and Creative Hub is an app that specializes in printing fine art
pieces for photographers that are meticulous about print quality.
On your own website, consider selling licenses to your photos.
So if you specialize in travel landscape photography, for
example, you could sell photo licenses to travel magazines
and vacation companies.
For more information on how to sell photo licenses, check out
the link in the description box.
It goes in depth about what types of licenses are available
and how to negotiate those.
You can also sell physical goods on your site.
This would include selling prints and putting your photos onto merch.
To do this, you can easily download a Shopify app called
printiful and in just a few clicks, you can sell your photography
on virtually everything, from mugs to books and t-shirts.
For a whole detailed video on how you can start selling
March using print on demand.
Check out this video, right over here.
To sell photos directly to a buyer, you're going to need to spend
some time marketing your business.
I would recommend that you post the photos that you're selling
on social media and direct people to your website from there.
You can use hashtags to get accounts with larger audiences
to repost your images, or you can have your friends and family
post your photos on their own Instagram, and that's going
to help expand your reach.
If you're at a phase where you're ready to start putting paid
dollars behind your business, consider running Facebook ads.
Facebook ads are a powerful tool that can help grow your business
exponentially, but it's a pretty deep topic and luckily we do have
a video that's going to show you everything you need to know to fuel
your business through Facebook ads.
Sell your photography as prints.
In addition to having your own website, you can be a merchant
on popular print on demand sites.
Print on demand sites take care of all the details.
You don't have to worry about production, shipping or selling.
All you do is upload your work and get paid.
Print on demand sites are a double-edged sword though, because
those kinds of sites have tons of traffic, but they also have tons
of competition amongst merchants.
One thing that I will say though, is that it's a good way to
introduce yourself to customers that would have never heard
of your business otherwise.
And it's a good way to get creative with your merch.
With society6 for example, you can put your artwork
on virtually anything.
You can make your photos available and duvets, shower curtains,
face masks, and even tapestries.
Society6 can be competitive though, so also try fine
art america to find success.
If you have pretty artsy photos, this would be a
good platform for you.
They have canvas prints, framed prints and even acrylic prints.
And the nice thing about fine art america is that they
let you determine the cost, on top of their base cost.
So if the base price for a framed print is $50 and you choose to
price it at $75, fine art america takes home $50 and you get the $25.
Don't just stop at those two, though.
The more print on demand sites your photography is available on, the
better chance you have of selling.
Microstocks will likely be the route that gets you the most money.
So what's a microstock company?
A microstock photography company is a company that sources their
images online and they do so from a wider range of photographers.
This is nice because traditional agencies will only work with select
artists, but micro stocks have a willingness to accept images
from amateurs and hobbyists.
Another thing to note about Microstock sites is
that they're selling their images at a very low cost.
This can be anywhere from 20 cents to $10 for royalty free images.
So which Microstock sites are the best.
Here's my list.
Shutterstock, 500 pixels, depositphotos,
photodune, and Adobe stock.
Those will be linked in the description box below, and alamy
is another great platform, since it has one of the highest commission
rates for each photo sold at 50%.
They'll determine the price of your photo once you upload it
and they're not exclusive, which means you don't have to give them
exclusive rights to your photos.
With stock sites, you have to strategize and play
with the search algorithm.
What I mean by that is if you're able to get your photo on the
first page for a specific search term, like Paris, you're going
to see sales for that photo rise.
To get found for a specific search terms, make sure you're
tagging your photos with relevant terms that not only describe
what's in the picture, but also get inside of the head of
the person that's searching.
So if I'm selling a photo of Niagara falls and I'm targeting
travel agencies, I might include words like vacation, travel or
Canadian tourism as image tags, in addition to the more descriptive
tags like Niagara or waterfall.
It will be harder and more competitive to rank for
common subject matter.
You might be up against 10,000 other images for the
Eiffel tower, for example.
So think about unique photos companies may have trouble finding.
To do this, try some test searches of your own to determine what's
lacking on stock photography sites and plan a shoot to fill that
gap, ask yourself if there are underrepresented niches, emerging
trends, or upcoming events that people will want photos of.
So instead of just shooting the Eiffel tower, you might want to
shoot a local parade in France.
Sell your photos for free on stock sites, free stock sites,
make photos available for free to anyone who's looking.
Whether it's for personal or commercial purpose,
anyone can download these.
However, they do encourage people to make donations.
That said, this is not going to be a massive money earner,
but if you do have photos that aren't selling well on other
sites, upload those here.
Though, you can only expect to make a couple hundred bucks
using this method, it's at least better than having those photos
sit on a hard drive somewhere and not making any money at all.
Check out Pexels, Unsplash and Pixabay.
Those sites will be listed in the description box below.
Sell your photos on apps.
Some apps have competitions for a specific type of photo,
where the winner that is selected gets a cash prize.
Competitions are a ton of fun and you get these design
challenges that push you in new directions, and there's
excitement that builds up.
But this is definitely more of an entertainment exercise rather than
a way to make consistent money.
In addition to competitions, some apps also have the
option to sell your photos as stock directly on the app,
just how I mentioned before.
So check out Snapwire and Shutterstock for these.
All right.
So here's some tips to see real growth when you're
selling your photos online.
The more consistent you are with posting your photos to different
sites and on social media, the more revenue you'll generate.
The nice thing is that once you upload a photo for sale, it has
the potential of making money for even years after you've posted it.
Passive income is really the name of the game here.
Business images like meetings, handshakes and suits and
ties are highly searched, so they do have the potential to
bring in quite a bit of dough.
There are tons of images in the sector, so to stand out, you're
going to want to make sure that your images are looking authentic.
Many of the people that are searching for business stock
images are using these images on their marketing materials to
represent their own business.
So you'll want to make sure that these images are
as natural as possible.
Guys, just as you would always get a contract when you're
shooting, make sure that you're diligent and reading the terms
and conditions before starting with any stock sites, apps,
and print on demand services.
Pay attention to what percentage you get to take home, payment
terms and who owns the content.
Also, don't forget to get signed model and location releases
because this can protect you from future hassles later on.
So that about covers it.
If there's a method here that I'm missing, that's worked
for you, make sure that you're dropping it in the comments
below for all of us to learn.
I'm going to challenge you to start today.
Upload at least one image to a print on demand site, like
Society6 or a Shopify app, like printify, right after you're
done watching this video.
But make sure that you're leaving this window open so that once
you're done, you can drop a link to your photos so that we
can all check out your work.
Learn with Shopify is a channel for small business
owners with big plans.
Every week, we release a new video on how to start and
grow your online business.
So make sure that you're hitting that subscribe button.
I'm your host, Michelle.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.