Getting Paid for Taking Pictures?!?

So a few of you that know me know that I like to take pictures. Mostly I like to do it for fun, but getting paid for it doesn’t hurt either. I’ve had a couple people ask me lately about how I sell my pictures or how I get paid for them…so I figured I’d just post some information that I have found helpful. Hopefully you can learn from my experiences and make a little mula for yourselves while having fun & being creative too

• Option #1: Stock Photography:
  1. iStockphoto : My Rating = A++ (Click here or on the banners to visit the site)
     
     
     iStock is BY FAR THE BEST Stock Photo site I have found. They advertise the most, are the most affordable, and have a huge network of artist and photographers who contribute. If you are going to sign up to be a photographer with any Stock Photo site, THIS IS THE ONE. I would also recommend becoming an “Exclusive Contributor” for reasons I’ll discuss a little later.
  2. ShutterStock: My Rating = B (Click here or on the banner to see the site)
     
     ShutterStock is a pretty good stock photo site as well. They definitely do not get as much traffic as iStockphoto, but it does okay. Their royalties (commissions) may be a little higher, but you won’t sell as many pictures.
  3. Dreamstime: My Rating = B- (Click here or on the banner to see the site)
     
     Dreamstime is a fairly decent Stock Photo site…but it gets less traffic than the others, and it is not as user friendly as the others.
     Becoming an “Exclusive” Photographer : Basically you have 2 options. You can either choose to submit your photos to every stock photography site in the world, and hope that mass exposure will bring in mass money…or you can become “Exclusive” to only one Stock Photo provider. When I first started selling photos…I chose the first option, thinking that the more sites I had out there, the more money it would bring in. This would be the case, if each provider received the same amount of traffic…but they don’t. So I ended up with my pictures on a ton of sites that weren’t making any money because they didn’t have as many people buying photos. My iStockphoto account sold the most photos by far, but the individual commissions were fairly low (because I was not an “Exclusive” photographer). I realized that if I sold my photos EXCLUSIVELY on iStock, that my commissions would increase more for each sale than I was getting from all the other sites combined. So took all of my photos off all the other sites (which was a real pain in the neck!) and became an exclusive provider to iStockphoto. This was the best decision, now not only am I getting lots of people buying my photos because they are on the best site, but because I’m exlusive I’m getting paid more for each picture sold. I would definitely recommend becoming an exclusive distributor with iStock from the beginning, so you don’t have to take a bunch of stuff down from other sites. You can’t become exlusive right away however, you have to “Earn It” by having certain amounts of people who download your photos.
• Option #2: Create your own Photo site: Another option that you may want to consider is creating your own website with an online store where people can either download, or buy prints of your photos. There is some really great software out there that makes it really easy to do this, but you have to be careful because some of it is really expensive and hard to use. On my site www.fischindustries.com I used some really great software by Ktools called PhotoStore

  

  PhotoStore is a great and super easy to use software for selling photos and other stuff online. It automatically creates thumbnails, watermarks (to protect from people stealing your images) and integrates with PayPal so anyone can pay you with a credit card. The BIG ADVANTAGE of this software is that fact that you OWN IT. It’s a one-time purchase fee and that’s it. Almost every other software I have found requires you to pay a monthly fee of at least $25 bucks!

Anyways, I hope this info was helpful to you. Photography really is a great way to have fun, and make money at the same time. With a little practice and some good shots…you’ll be on your way to becoming a pro In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions about any of it…