How to Make Money Online Selling Stock Images (for Papua New Guineans)

For the last few years, I’ve been exploring ways to make money online and one of these ways I mentioned was selling stock photographs. And a couple of months ago, I got my first pay from selling photographs I took online. Here, I share how I did that which site I used.

Investing

The first thing we need to understand is that you have to invest in a few things before you get into selling stock images or photographs. Your main investment should be in:

1. Time, and;
2. Equipment.

Investing Time

You will need to invest your time in two things. Firstly, you need to invest in learning digital art or photography. These skills are the main resources you will need to get started and you can do it by trial and error or you can find a course.

In my case, I enrolled for online photography classes at Udemy (which I am yet to complete). This has helped a lot with my photography skills.

https://www.udemy.com/

Investing in Equipment

Investing in good equipment is an essential part of producing quality images for your stock photography account or site.

A couple of years ago I invested in a Canon EOS 1500D (Rebel T7) digital camera which I have been using. It is a budget range and does not come with all the bells and whistles but it gets the job done.

The tools of the trade make work easy, but any tool in the hands of a master artisan makes a world of difference.

Another good investment, if you are thinking of turning this into a professional career, is good image editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop etc. There are also many other options online. A quick search on the web should return some good options.

Optional Equipment

Although not necessary for beginners, there are also other equipment that you might consider which I have listed below.

A tripod is also a good option and the Amazon Basics 60-Inch Lightweight Tripod is the ideal lightweight companion for your camera. It is made from aluminum and weighs less than 2kg carry up to 3kg.

A camera bag is another item that will make it easier when moving around and also protect your equipment against the elements. The Altura Camera Backpack is an example of this.

Additional Lenses are also something you will want to get if you are looking to explore different styles of photography. For example, wildlife photographers will want to buy telescopic lenses to capture animals from a distance like the Canon EF 70 – 200mm f/2.8L IS III USM Lens.

Stock Photography Sites

Once you are equipped with the skills and equipment, you can start getting photographs or make your digital art and start selling them. Here are a list of sites I joined when I first started.

• Shutterstock
• Alamy
• Adobe Stock
• iStock / Getty Images

The good thing about these sites is that they are non-exclusive. This means that I can sell the same photographs on these sites. However, it also means that royalties are low. The royalties for for exclusive content is higher but it also limits your target audience.

Knowledge is Key

It is important to understand that like any digital products you are trying to sell on stock image website, you must have demand or needs in order to generate traffic. Most sites will have a section that will tell you exactly what the demands are.

• Shutterstock (https://www.shutterstock.com/explore/the-shot-list)
• Alamy (https://www.alamy.com/contentresearchtool/whatshouldishoot.aspx)
• Adobe Stock (https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/insights/best/contributors)
• iStock / Getty Images (https://contributors.gettyimages.com/getting-started/)

Remeber, the concept of supply and demand also apply to stock photography and images.

Alamy

If you are looking for a site to sell your stock images, I recommend Alamy. Their payment option allows them to make electronic transfers directly into your account and their commission rates are good.

However, if you receive a payment, it might take a week or two before it shows up in your bank account.

Before I end, let me stress that while stock photography is easy to get into, it requires a lot of work and research in order to produce quality digital products that people want. Anyway, if you have any questions or anything to add then feel free to leave a comment.