Sell Photos Online

Introduction

If you enjoy photography, a good logical step is to try and make money from your hobby. Then you can spend more time doing what you enjoy. Selling your photographs takes time and effort, but it is possible. Lots of people do it, and you can too.

Almost every professional photographer started out in some other field: Elliott Porter was a doctor, Ansel Adams was a pianist, Galen Rowell was a mechanic, Bob Krist was an actor. If these people can start from nowhere and sell their work, so can you.

The nice part about selling photography is that everyone is welcome — you’re not limited by physical ability, age, or background. It’s more about art and energy. The photographic market is so open that every photographer and publisher that I’ve met is pleased to give ideas and suggestions. So it’s a fun world to join.

Key Terms – Stock, Copyright & License

Let’s run through the three key terms.

You’ve probably already got a bunch of great photos. We’re going to call them “stock” photos, since they’re in your stockpile of things ready to sell. By law, without submitting any forms, as soon as you take a photo, you automatically get the copyright to each photo, which is the sole right to copy. No one else can legally copy your images without your permission.

If someone wants to use your photos, they can pay you for your permission to do so. This authorization to copy the image is called a license. Thus, you are selling not the image itself but a license (a right, a permission) to copy the image. As long as you don’t sign away “exclusive” rights, you can keep selling “non-exclusive” licenses over and over. You can sell, and resell, the same images indefinitely, and on multiple different websites, creating many recurring streams of revenue into the future. Ooh, that sounds good.

There are various ways to sell — or more accurately, license — your photography online. I’ve divided these into three groups: “microstock,” “website,” and “products.”

Let’s learn more about these three ways to sell photos online.