14 Websites to Sell Photos Of Yourself
Stylinity
Stylinity allows you to earn money uploading photos of yourself, including mirror selfies. Although you don’t directly sell your photos, you can earn affiliate commissions of the products you link to your photos.
For example, you can upload your mirror selfie and place all the affiliate links to your outfit pieces. Once someone purchases any product using your link, you will get a commission percentage from the company.
Fiverr
Fiverr Summary
- Set your own prices for your services
- Choose from over 500 service categories
- 3 different options for cashing out
- Protection from fradulent chargebacks
Fiverr is a remote work marketplace, connecting freelancers with businesses or individuals who need certain jobs done. As more companies are going online, they need high quality photography to promote their products and engage with their audiences.
Fiverr is one of the best places to sell your photography as businesses turn to it when they need creatives for their products.
How much you make on Fiverr entirely depends on you as you are the one determining your own pricing. For example, you could sell the high quality photo of a product for $100.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is the biggest marketplace for stock images and a great source of passive income for photographers. It allows you to easily upload your photography and create and share your personalized portfolio page.
Shutterstock has a flexible earnings schedule – the more your photos sell the more commission you’re getting. For example, as a beginner contributor you’ll earn 15% of the sales, while level 6 contributors whose content sells over 25,000 times within a year earn 40% commission.
One Shutterstock image is worth $9.16 – $9.80.
BigStock
BigStock is another popular stock photo marketplace.
In order to start selling your photos on BigStock, you should become a contributor in a simple steps:
- Sign up to become a BigStock member
- Once you’re logged in, navigate to “My Account” and upload your images
- The BigStock team will review your images and notify you when you’re approved
Once you’re approved as a contributor, BigStock will publish your works for people to purchase.
As a BigStock beginner contributor, you’ll earn $0.25 per download for the first 199 downloads. You can check the detailed earnings breakdown to estimate your overall earnings potential.
iStockphoto
iStockphoto is a child company of GettyImages and one of the biggest stock photo marketplaces.
If you want to become an iStock contributor, you need to submit an application to GettyImages app.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to apply:
- Download Contributor by Getty Images app for iPhone or Android
- Upload 3-6 images
- Wait to get accepted to either iStock by GettyImages or GettyImages
iStockphoto has a flexible commission rate, meaning your earnings depend on how many times your content gets sold.
When you’re accepted to iStock by GettyImages, your content will be non-exclusive, meaning you can sell your photos to other stock marketplaces as well.
SmugMug
SmugMug is a one-stop-shop, offering you to store, show off and sell your photos.
Unlike other websites mentioned in this article, SmugMug is not a stock photo marketplace. However, it provides you with tools to sell your photos online with your clients. This gives you an opportunity to set your own pricing for your photos and sell on your own terms.
In order to start selling your photos using SmugMug, simply sign up for a free 14-day trial. If you enjoy selling with SmugMug, you can choose the pricing plan (starting at $7/month) that works best for you.
500px
500px is paying the highest rate in the industry to photographers, which is 60% of sales from their contributions.
Here are some tips to making more money with 500px right from the beginning:
- Add relevant keywords to your photos as it’s the key to discovering your content. A keyword is a word or a phrase visitors enter in a 500px search box to find photos.
- Add location where the photo was taken as it helps visitors find the photo of their desired location.
- Keep your portfolio fresh by adding new images frequently.
Alamy
Alamy’s mission is to be a marketplace of most authentic photos, featuring photos of real people in real places.
In order to sell your photos through Alamy, simply sign up to become an Alamy contributor. Once you get approved, you’ll be able to publish your photos and start selling.
You will earn 50% commission for exclusive image downloads and 40% for non-exclusive image sales. The prices for a single image on Alamy vary from $19.99 to $199.99 per download.
PicFair
PicFair lets you have your own photography store with your own domain. Moreover, it allows you list your images to their stock marketplace as well.
To start selling your photos with PicFair, first sign up as a photographer.PicFair offers you the most profitable pricing structure. You have a freedom to set your own pricing and keep 100% of your earnings.
For example, if you want to sell an image for $15, that’s how much you’ll take from the sale. Instead of paying commission to you, PicFair is charging the buyers an extra 20% commission and additional payment processing fee.
Foap
Foap Summary
- Earn $5 for every photo that you sell
- Earn up to $200 from Foap Missions
- No need to be a professional photographer
- Low minimum withdrawal threshold of $5
Imagine worldwide popular brands like Nivea are using your creative works. Isn’t it great? Fortunately, Foap has turned the dream of selling your hard work to brands of all sizes into a reality.
Foap is a platform connecting creators like you to brands who are looking to buy visual content for their online marketing.
Foap sells images for $10 each. Selling your photos to Foap, you’re earning 50% of sales, i.e – $5 per sale. The good thing is, you can sell the same image unlimited times.
GettyImages
GettyImages is a parent company for iStockPhoto and one of the biggest stock photo marketplaces.
To become a GettyImages contributor, you should apply using a mobile app. Here’s a step-by-step guide to apply:
- Download Contributor by Getty Images app for iPhone or Android
- Upload 3-6 images
- Wait to get accepted
Based on where your content will sell best, GettyImages editors decide to publish your work to either iStock or GettyImages.
When your content gets accepted to GettyImages, it is exclusive, meaning you can’t publish the same or similar images to other stock sites or licence them yourself.
You’ll get 20% commission for exclusive image sales.
123RF
123RF is another stock photo marketplace allowing you to make money selling your photos.
Become a 123RF contributor in 3 simple steps:
- Sign up as a contributor
- Upload your images to 123FR marketplace
- When your photos get sold, you can earn from 30-60% commission, depending on your contribution level.
Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock is the world’s largest marketplace of stock photos.
To become an Adobe Stock contributor, simply create an account and upload your photos.
Before getting published, your photos will undergo the review and you’ll be notified when your images get approved.Every time your photos get sold, you’re getting 33% commission into your account.
PhotoShelter
PhotoShelter lets you create your online store for your photography without any coding skills. It provides you tools to design your own store and easily sell your photos on your own terms.
In order to build your store and start selling with PhotoShelter, simply sign up for a free 14-day trial. After the trial ends, you can choose a plan that works best for you, starting at $10/month.
How to Make Money Selling Photos Online
To make most out of selling photos online, first you’ll need to invest in following:
- Professional camera with multiple lenses. Some of the best cameras for professional photography are: Canon EOS 5D Mark II and III, Canon EOS 6D, Nikon D800 and Nikon D7000. Alternatively, you can use your smartphone to take photos. iPhone 11/12 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Huawei P40 Pro are just a few examples of smartphones that have amazing cameras.
- Professional photo editing software – Adobe Lightroom is the most popular one.
- Level up your skills – take photography courses, read relevant articles and watch videos on Youtube.
- Build an online presence on social media to increase your exposure and earnings accordingly.
- Consistency is the key to success so make sure you keep working consistently and always develop your skills.
How Much Can You Make Selling Selfies Online?
You can make anywhere from $5 to $50 per selfie. Here’s a case study of a 23-year old Lottie Miles, who makes over $3,000 per month with her selfies.
