Tips to make money online with stock photo sites

Stock photos have always been recognised as a great way to make some extra cash online from your photos or illustrations. Here are some tips to using stock photo sites, and some links to the ones I would recommend.

After doing some research, I decided to subscribe to the top recommended sites (list of sites below):


STOCK SITES:

Shutterstock - MY FAVOURITE! GREAT SITE!!!!
i Stock Photo - GREAT SITE!!!!
Big Stock Photo
Can stock photo
Dreamstime
Feature Pics

NOTE: there are a few other sites that I would recommend NOT listed here... check back for updates, because silly me can't find the list of links I have!! :O


I have been on Shutterstock for the longest, and have found it to be extremely user friendly and a great source of income. Once you pass the initial review process, it is easy to upload your images and the review process is very quick. Also, because buyers pay a monthly subscription rather than pay-per-photo, it means that they are more likely to buy photos to fill their quota, which is great for beginner photographers who often struggle to create that top-rated image.

i Stock Photo is also very good, although it follows a different subscription system to Shutterstock. It is a pay-per-photo site, so you wont get as many downloads as Shutterstock, but you will probably get more per photo.

I have more recently signed up to the other sites mentioned above, and find that some of them are a bit slower or not as user friendly, but they are still all worthwhile because you can still make a small income from photos.


EXLUSIVE OR NON-EXCLUSIVE SALES?

Deciding between exclusive or non-exclusive sales really depends on how you like to sell your images.

Each stock photo site offers photographers the opportunity to go exclusive, meaning you can only sell your photos on one site. This means that royalty rates and the amount you get for each image downloaded is higher, which is a good option if you don't have time to submit your photos to ten different sites.

However, if you have time to submit to multiple sites, the overall downloads and income of a single image on all the sites will most likely be higher than the exclusive sales on one site. Especially if you submit to sites like Shutterstock and iStock Photo, double the sites can mean double the sales, plus non-exclusive sales also gives you the right to sell the images yourself by any other means, so if you have a friend that wants to use your image without signing up to a site, you can make a private arrangement with them without worrying about the exclusivity on the sites.


MAKING MONEY THROUGH REFERRALS:

This is the part I love.... almost all of these sites offer referral bonuses, so by using a link provided to you by the site, you can refer your friends to the stock photo sites and make money from THEIR images too, without disadvantaging them in any way.

Take Shutterstock's referall program as an example:

If I get 20 downloads a day on my images, at 25c US per download (which, by the way, goes up to 30c once you pass the $500US dollar mark!!!), then you make $5 a day off your own images. It doesn't seem like much, but you already dont have to do anything to your photos once they are online.
$5 a day = approx $150 a month - going good so far


FOR EVERY PHOTOGRAPHER YOU REFER....

You get 3c per download for every referred photographer. So lets assume they also get 20 downloads a day.... thats 60c extra a day, which is approx $18 a month. Not much, but that is from THEIR photos, not yours, so you can't complain! Plus, they still get the 25c per download, so it doesn't disadvantage them in any way.

Taking all into consideration, imagine if you could just refer 10 people- that could make you approx $180 a month off other people's photos!

Sounds good to me!!!


You can also refer photo buyers, where you will get a commission on their purchases, usually from 5%-30%, depending on the site. Pretty good deal!



TOP TEN TIPS:

1. Subscribe to the top stock sites (listed above)
2. Refer all your friends and other photographers
3. Practice your photo skills... Better photos sell much more!
4. Spend the time to make good keywords- it makes it easier for people to find your image
5. Decide which is better for your needs- exclusive or non-exclusive
6. Have links to your gallery on other sites or your blog
7. Submit photos regularly to keep a good flow of income
8. Get advice from other photographers in the forum
9. Use FTP or uploading software to make submissions quicker :)
10. Bookmark all your sites so you don't get lost! (It has happened!)