How to Make Money by becoming a Stock Photographer?

Published by Graphic Designer: Ghania Fahad.

You have read the title above and probably that is why you are here. Let us be honest to ourselves; We all want to make money, even if it’s a side hustle! I’m not just talking about only those who don’t have a way to make money but, I’m also talking about anyone who wants to start a a part time work, even those with jobs, because why not? 

Everyone loves to fulfill their desires and we can't do it, either the salaries aren't that efficient, sometimes your savings runs out, sometimes we are not getting promotions to increase our salaries.

 I am also talking for those who have no income source. However, before starting the blog I can answer your brain's current question. And that's "It takes time to built a business and we don't have much time!" 

Well, you're correct but you might have time to capture photos right whenever you go out somewhere. Yeah, that's the point and that's how much time this work will consume just some clicks. 

Additionally, we’ve brought a blog about an online work that anyone can do for free and earn at home. It’s called Stock Images, and if you don’t know what it is, we’ll explain you and show you how you can make money from it.

Although stock photography is a method of passive earning. You can still make a lot of money by selling the images if you have a love for photography. 

What is Stock Photography/images)?

Stock photos are pictures that businesses and people can use for their work. They’re handy for marketing and designing because they save time and effort. These photos are made to fit many different uses, so they usually don’t show specific places or things that might go out of date.

Think of this like a library of images that anyone can access and use. They're a convenient and cost-effective way to add high-quality visuals to your work, without having to hire a photographer or take the photos yourself.

How are Stock Images used?

Stock images are used for a variety of purposes, like for making designs or ads. Its also used to communicate your idea, conveying concepts, and adding a sense to your work. Here are some common uses of stock images:

1. Advertising or Commerical Purposes

2. Web design

3. Social media

4. Graphic design

5. Digital media (e-books, videos, etc.)

6. Publishing (books, magazines, newspapers)

7. Education (textbooks, presentations, online courses)

8. Corporate communications (company reports, newsletters)

9. Product design (packaging, labels, marketing materials)

10. Art and projects (collages, illustrations, digital art)

How to become a Stock Photographer?

Becoming a stock photographer isn’t too hard or too easy. You need to know about photography and stock images. This is important so you can tell which pictures are good and which ones need to be taken differently. Here are some ways to become a stock photographer:

Step 1. Write a Business Plan

The first thing you’ll need to do is create a detailed business plan. Write down your goals, your target market, your revenue sources, and your growth plans. Define your stock photography niche. For example, you could be a nature photographer, a business photographer, or a lifestyle photographer.

Do your research on your competition. Find out what makes your business unique and how to best position yourself in the market.

During research, what you could do is read blogs, forums because they are being published daily to identify the trend. Plus, they help in giving you a detailed instructions on techniques, post-processing for example saturation, brightness, desired tone.

Additionally, there are online communities, websites where people share their creative art. You can ask Questions and people will answer you. They’ll also mention their tips which can be useful for you while clicking pictures. 

By the way, what I recommend is that you can use an iPhone too for pictures, other than that Go-Pro cameras, or DSLRs are a good option. 

They can also suggest you some good companies cameras and the pixel you should keep while clicking photos. 

Decide how you’ll make money from your stock photos. Do you want to license them, sell them through subscriptions, or sell them directly?

Then comes your budget planning. Calculate your startup costs. You’ll want to know how much equipment you’re going to need, how much your website will cost to set up, how much you’ll spend on marketing, and what other expenses you’ll incur.

By carefully planning out all of these aspects of your business plan, you’ll have a clear plan for how to launch and grow your stock photography.

Step 2. Be Clear about Your Costs

It’s important to be clear about your costs because it will help you set prices and manage your finances better. You can calculate the cost of your stock photography gear, your software, your website hosting, your marketing costs, and other costs to make sure you know exactly what you’re spending money on. 

You can also look at ongoing expenses like equipment maintenance, your subscription fees, transportation, etc. to make sure you’re accurately assessing your business’s operating expenses. By being clear about your costs, you’ll be able to make informed pricing and budgeting decisions that will help your stock photography business succeed financially.

Step 3. Get some good photography gear and learn how to take stock photos:

In order to be successful in the stock photography business, you need to invest in quality camera equipment, such as a DSLR/mirrorless camera, lenses and lighting equipment. You will also need to learn about composition, lighting and editing techniques that are specific to stock photography. This will help you to create high-quality images that meet the standards of the industry.

You will also need to understand the legal aspect of stock photography. This includes model releases, copyright laws, etc. This will protect you and your clients from potential legal issues.

By investing in the right equipment and skills, as well as staying up to date on legal requirements, you will be well-equipped to create and sell high-quality stock photos.

Step 4. Build a Portfolio 

This step is important because when you need to earn or get work you have to show case your best work so start with a website that looks good and shows off your portfolio to potential clients. 

Make sure your website is SEO-friendly to increase your online visibility and increase your chance of being found online. You can also use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to post your work, engage with your followers, and direct traffic to your website. 

Step 5. Market Your Portfolio 

Marketing your portfolio is a great way to get more attention from potential clients. To do this, you should actively promote your portfolio through different channels. For example, you can use email marketing to share your latest images with potential clients. 

You can also work with influencers and bloggers in your field to get your work featured on their platforms. You can also attend photography events such as workshops and trade shows to meet potential clients and network with in industry professionals.

Where to sell your Stock images?

Here are some of the stock websites whre you can sell your stock images too:

1. Etsy

Etsy is an online marketplace focusing on handmade or vintage items and arts and crafts supplies. Many also use the platform to sell photos online, both in the form of digital images and physical prints.

Etsy sellers are subject to three different fees – listing, transaction, and payment processing fees. It costs $0.20 to list an item. If it sells, Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee on the sale price, including shipping. If you use Etsy Payments to receive money, it also charges a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee.

2. Fotomoto

Fotomoto is an eCommerce Widget that allows you to sell digital items or photo prints on your website. It integrates seamlessly with different websites and platforms like WordPress or Joomla. It provides you with an easy-to-use dashboard with helpful customization and tracking features.

How to use Fotomoto?

To use Fotomoto, you need to sign up, set up your payment method and set up your online store. When you integrate your shopping widget with Fotomoto, Buy buttons will appear next to the images on your site.

Once you receive orders, you have the choice of allowing Fotomoto's network to take care of the fulfillment process for you or you can fulfill the orders yourself.

What is Fotomoto's subscription plan?

Fotomoto has three different subscription plans:

Free plan: $10 / month

12% transaction fee

Pro Plus plan: $25 / month

10% transaction fee

3. Dreamstime

Another way to sell stock photos is through Dreamstime. It’s a royalty free microstock media service with a huge library of more than 200M stock media files including vectors, videos, audio files, etc. On Dreamstime, contributors earn 25-50% of the revenue, and exclusive images get an extra 10%.

Exclusive contributors get 60% of the revenue for all sales, and an extra $.20 for every approved submission. Also, Dreamstime has a referral program that allows affiliates to earn 10% gross of their referee's transactions for 3 years after registering.

4. ShutterStock

Shutterstock is the world’s largest provider of stock media, including images, vectors, videos, and music. It has paid out more than $1 billion to contributors over the past 15 years.

Shutterstock lets you submit content, create custom portfolio pages, and monitor your earnings. Your earnings increase as more of your content is licensed.

There are four earnings levels for Shutterstock stock photos and videos:

1. Earn 15% to 40% commission

2. Earn $0.04 per image

3. Earn 10% per video downloaded by artists you refer

4. Earn $200 per buyer signing up with your link

5. Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock is a high-quality asset platform integrated into Adobe Creative Cloud platform. It provides a wide range of royalty-free assets, including images, illustrations, vectors, templates, music and videos.

As a contributor, you’ll benefit from several advantages. You’ll be able to upload, keywords and sell stock images with Adobe’s AI-powered machine-learning intelligence. You can also import albums directly from the Adobe Lightroom platform.

You’ll also get free access to Adobe Stock artists’ portfolio website, Adobe Portfolio.

Adobe Stock offers competitive rates for contributors. For images, vectors and illustrations, you can earn 33% royalties. For videos, you can earn 35%.

You can also join Adobe’s Affiliate Program, which allows you to earn extra income by promoting your work on Adobe Stock using its marketing banners and text links. You can earn $72 per month or $8.33 per every single purchase.

How Much will you earn after Becoming a Stock Photographer?

Well your earnings from stock photography depend on some factors like the quality of your photos, market demand, and how many images you have in your portfolio.

On an average stock photographers make around $0.03 to $0.04 per image per month. Experienced stock photographers can make as little as $0.01 to $0.03 per image monthly and stock photo agencies charge $0.04 to $0.07 per sale of an image without a royalty.

Let's say you have about 300 photos of everyday objects like fruits and office supplies. You could earn anywhere from $30 to $300 a month, depending on how popular your images are and where you sell them.

For instance, if you focus on trendy topics like home office setups or healthy eating, you might earn more since these subjects are in high demand.

It is difficult to say how much money you will make, but if you focus on trending topics that are in high demand, you will most likely get more clients and earn more!

Tips to become a Good Stock Photographer and Earn Good from it?

1. Research the Market 

The market for stock photography needs to be understood in order for you to succeed in the industry. This means that you need to understand what types of stock photos are popular and what your customers want.

The first thing you should do is spend some time browsing stock photo websites. This will help you to identify the types of stock photos that are popular and selling well.

You’ll want to focus on themes, styles and subjects that pop up frequently. You’ll also want to look for patterns in types of images that people are looking for.

Whether it’s business ideas, lifestyle photos, nature scenes or something else, you need to be able to identify what types of images people are searching for. You should also look into the demographics of the people who buy stock photos.

2. Have your Own Style

One of the most important aspects of stock photography is developing your personal style. You want your stock photos to be unique and stand out from the crowd. Experiment with different techniques, compositions and editing styles to find out what you like and what feels right for you. 

Check out other photographers’ work for ideas, but make sure you add your own spin to it. Always select the niches you’re interested in and how you naturally view the world through your camera lens. Over time, practice your skills and get better at your style it will take time but once you have your own style you'll see more customers approaching for a unique product more.

3. Always Open your Social Media Account

One of the most important things I would emphasize is having social media accounts. I’ve found platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to be extremely useful for this purpose. When you post your work on social media, you’re not only getting valuable feedback that will help you grow as a photographer, but you’re also opening up the possibility of connecting with potential clients. 

This is especially true for small businesses, who are often looking for high-quality stock images. If you don’t have social media accounts, you’ll miss out on opportunities because you won’t be able to reach as many people. 

4. Add Good Keywords 

Keyword stuffing is another important tip that I want to share with you. Keywords in stock photography are like labels that you can add to your images to make them easier to find. When you upload your images to stock websites, you should include relevant keywords in the image descriptions. This will help your photos rank higher in search results and get you more views.

Take some time to research which keywords are trending and relevant to your stock photography. However, don’t go overboard with keyword stuffing. This is where you add too many keywords that you don’t intend to. It’s not only bad to your search engine ranking, but it’s also harmful to your image’s overall quality.

Instead, focus on using few key words that describe your image exactly. This will help potential buyers find and purchase your stock photos more easily.

5. Regularly Upload your Work

Another tip I’d like to share with you is the importance of regularly uploading new photos and maintaining a consistent posting schedule. It doesn’t matter if you’re posting on a stock website or on social media, upload new images on a regular basis. This shows you’re creating something new and keeping your work front and center for potential buyers. 

Additionally, regular uploads help you build your following and keep your audience engaged with your work. So, if you want to stay relevant and boost your stock photography success, make it your habit to upload fresh photos every now and then.

Why will someone buy Stock Photos?

These images are examples of those needed by individuals or businesses in their daily work.

Conclusion:

To sum up, stock photography can be profitable for anyone who loves photography and wants to make extra money. Stock images can be used in a variety of industries, such as advertising, education, and more. This means that amateur and professional stock photographers alike can make money from stock images.

The key to success in stock photography is to have a well-thought-out business plan, understand your costs, invest in high-quality equipment, and build a solid portfolio. Doing market research, creating your own style, and using social media are all great ways to draw in clients and boost your sales.

Your earnings will depend on a variety of factors, such as image quality, market demand, and more. However, if you focus on trending topics, and upload on a consistent schedule, you will be able to generate a steady stream of income.

Anyone can become a stock photographer with dedication, patience and creativity.