Where And How To Sell Photos Online: The Updated List

Updated: October 7, 2014

More than three years ago, I posted an article under Income Opportunities on how you can earn money by selling your photos online.

And now that DSLR and good quality point-and-shoot cameras are as common as mobile phones today, I thought I’d make an updated list of the websites where you can actually sell your photos to make extra cash.

I’ve also included below a short and quick guideline on how you can increase the chances that someone will buy your photos.

I hope this post will help you turn some of those pictures in your hard drive into good profit and likewise, give you back some of the money you invested on that expensive camera.

Things You Should Keep In Mind If You Want To Sell Your Photos Online

• Have a Paypal account – you’ll need it in most transactions. You can apply HERE for FREE.
• Make sure your photos have good technical quality – which means most, if not all of them are:
  • At least 2 megapixels in size
  • Has no unnecessary blemishes
  • With adequate lighting
  • Proper composition
  • And good focus
• It’s best if you have premium subjects – which means your photos are of things, people, places and/or events that not a lot of people have pictures of. Highly marketable are:
  • Photos that capture an idea, emotion or concept (ie., determination, loneliness, success, etc.)
  • Artistically unique photos
  • Pictures of things that are hard to find (ie., rare species of birds, collector’s item toys, etc.)
  • Photos of “undiscovered” places and rare events
• Learn how to enhance your photos through digital post processing.
• Know what you’re good at and focus on that. Will it be portraiture? Food photography? Stock photography? Festival photos? Skyscraper landscapes? Or something else?
• Prepare for your photos to be stolen. You can put a watermark on your photos but that doesn’t guarantee protection from piracy. My take – trust in the goodness of people that most will actually respect your copyright.

And with that, let me now show you the top websites where you can sell your photos online. These are popular stock and microstock photography websites.

If you want to learn more about this industry, you can read the Wikipedia articles on Stock Photography and Microstock Photography.

Top Websites Where You Can Sell Your Photos Online

123RF	Alamy
Big Stock Photo	Can Stock Photo
CreStock	Cutcaster
Dreamstime	Fotolia
FreeFoto	Image Vortex
iStockPhoto	Photo Shelter
Photo Stock Plus	Shutterpoint
Shutterstock	Veer
BONUS: Flickr

Flickr is NOT really a website where you can sell photos, but your work can get outsourced to Getty Images. Also, “photo hunters” sometimes browse Flickr and give buying offers directly there. Personally, I’ve sold a handful of my photos here.

Please note that this is not a complete list, these are just the currently most popular ones. I’m sure there are others you might find. And if you do, then please share them below so I can add it to this list. Thanks!

Lastly, if you really want to pursue photography as a business and career, then do check out my post on: How To Start a Photography Business

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