What are the Popular Stock Photography Websites to Sell Photos?

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Most of you may not even know that you can sell your photos on stock photography websites and make money. I decided to shed some light on how you can join some of the popular stock photo websites to sell your photos and make money. I’m going to do this by sharing a list of stock photography websites.

Don’t worry about the DSLR camera or lens or photo editing software. Almost every stock photography website requires RAW pictures. You’ll learn more about this later in this blog post.

I have had a chance to test one of the popular stock photography websites, and I’m glad that I’m about to spill the beans. You’ll be amazed to find out a few essential things you didn’t know about stock photography.

I’m not boasting that I’ve learned enough about selling photos photography, but I might be able to help you start on the right foot.

You’re about to learn:

  • What’s essential to know before start taking photos?
  • Can you start selling stock photography with a smartphone?
  • What are the best stock photography websites to sell photos?

Before I get to the list of popular websites to sell your photos, there are certain things I learned about selling stock photography. However, the terms and conditions may vary from platform to platform.

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links in the blog post could be affiliate links, which means we’d earn commissions if you buy the products, but it won’t cost you any extra money. Please read the disclosure page for more details.

Here are some essential tips regarding selling stock photos online:

Un-edited Photos

Don’t edit your pictures if you want to sell photography on the internet. The stock photography websites take RAW pictures.

Blurry Backgrounds

In the beginning, I uploaded some blurry background pictures, and those got rejected. So if you want to sell photography, don’t take photographs having a shallow depth of field behind your subject. Again, such photos may get accepted on some stock photography sites.

PNG or JPGs

You’ll be better off if you take all of your photos in JPG format. However, some photography sites also accept PNG format, but you have to be on the safe side.

High-Resolution

Use the maximum resolution on your camera or smartphone so that you could take high-resolution photos for selling online.

Phone Photography

If you have an iPhone or a good-quality Android smartphone, you can quickly sell photos online. Phone photography is getting popular as the latest phones can take impressive photos nowadays.

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So I guess you’re ready to check out the photography sites to get started with selling photos.

12 Popular Websites to Sell Your Photos and Make Money

Let’s get to the cream of this blog post.

12 Popular Stock Photography Websites to Sell Your Photos

1. Shutterstock

Shutterstock is one of the most popular stock photography websites out there. It isn’t just famous for photos, but it’s a massive marketplace for stock videos, vectors, and illustrations as well. Hence, it opens up many opportunities for photographers and videographers to hop on this platform and start making money. All they need is to become a Shutterstock contributor to get started with selling photos and other material.

2. Canva

Canva is a leading online graphics designing tool that graphic designers, bloggers, and social media experts use to create blogs and social media images. Canva has taken a large market share within a few years. Although there are so many competitors out there that don’t seem to pose any threat to their business. As far as making money on Canva is concerned, you can become a Canva contributor to start selling your photography.

3. Photodune

Photodune is a part of the Envato Market; it’s one of the most significant websites for buying and selling website templates, illustrations, icons, graphics, stock photography, and website scripts. You can sign up on Envato and access all the marketplaces at once. Furthermore, if you want to sell photography or any other material on Envato, you have to become an author on the Envato Market to get started. The authors get paid via PayPal and Payoneer.

4. Creative Market

Creative Market is a major Envato Market competitor in the space. They sell pretty much the same things as Envato. However, they don’t have a portfolio of different websites like Envato has. You can sell photos, graphics elements, web themes, fonts, 3D designs, and more. If you want to sell photography on the Creative Market, you’d need to open a shop on their website, which is similar to sign up on the platform.

5. FOAP

FOAP is an app-based platform for buying and selling photography and videography. After signing up on the app as a creator, you’d have to upload your portfolios onto the platform. When a brand or agency purchases your content, you earn 50% of the price. The FOAP takes their 50% cut, but it shouldn’t bother you because your photos and videos would make a passive income day in and day out.

6. Visual Society

Visual Society is a marketplace for selling photos, prints, merch, and graphics elements. It may not be among the top stock photography platforms, but it sure is another option out there. You’d have to create your free shop on the Visual Society website to get started.

7. Symbiostock

Symbiostock is a WordPress plugin for selling stock photos and videos. It provides you complete control over overpricing. The benefit of using such a plugin is that you can SEO optimize your images along with your website pages to reach the prospective audience faster. It does help even if you’re using the fastest WordPress theme for a blog.

8. Alamy

Alamy is a stock photography agency launched in 1999. It’s headquartered in Milton Park, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Furthermore, this agency has a development and operations center at Technopark in India and a sales office in the United States. Alamy is famous for its extensive collection of stock photos, videos, vectors, and 360-degree panoramic images.

9. Dreamstime

Dreamstime is a royalty-free photos website that sells stock footage, vectors, illustrations, and audio files. They stand tall among the top stock photography websites as they have managed to capture a handsome share in the global stock photography market. They also showcase staggering numbers of their photos, videos, downloads, and users on the website.

10. Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock was formerly known as Fotolio before Adobe acquired it for $800M in cash. It’s a stock photography site that sells photos, videos, 3D assets, and templates. The package price range starts from $29 per month and goes up to $199 per month.

11. Zenfolio

Zenfolio is a website builder for photographers. You can create a one-stop shop for your photography business. A service like this gives you more control over your photo selling business. The starter plan costs $5 per month, and the pro plan is priced at $20 per month (which is ideal for selling photos).

12. 500px

500px is a stock photography website that sells photography through its membership program. It accepts submissions from the photographers and offers up to 60% royalty. They’ve provided all the submission guidelines on their website. It does seem like a fantastic stock photography site to get started with the stock photography business.

What’s Your Plan About Selling Stock Photography?

I’ve shared a bunch of top-class stock photography websites with you.

I’m sure you’re serious about taking your photography passion to the next level. Let me admit: if you get paid for what you love to do, it makes life easier.

I’m a full-time blogger and freelance writer.

I’m lucky to build a business around blogging.

So if you’re passionate about photography and haven’t started selling stock photography yet, then it’s time to take action.

Maybe, you shouldn’t quit your job or drop out of college, but instead, you should build a photography business on the side. I wrote a small book on side hustling that might help you get started with something on the side.

I can’t wait to read your comments.

Let me know what you’re thinking about selling stock photography on the internet.