if you're looking for a way to fund that
next camera lens and extra gear
then you should be selling your photos
online it's a realistic way to fund your
passion with
very little effort
hey i'm your host and creative
strategist michelle bally as a
photographer
you already know that the competition
out there is tough so i'll let you in on
the secret to selling your photos online
successfully
first it takes skill and a unique
aesthetic but it doesn't stop there
the second factor is that you need to
know how to market yourself as a
photographer
you could have the most stunning photos
but if you don't know how to run the
business side your sales will suffer
so in today's video i'm going to teach
you how to sell your photos online and
start
getting paid for your passion sell your
photography via direct stock
direct stock is a term that refers to
selling your photography on your own
website
you can create a site on shopify with
templates that are actually for
photography
and you can go with a plan for as
inexpensive as 29 us dollars a month
shopify also offers apps that are
specifically made for photographers
so photo lock for example is an
anti-theft image protection app
and creative hub is an app that
specializes in printing fine art pieces
for photographers that are meticulous
about print quality
on your own website consider selling
licenses to your photos so if you
specialize in travel landscape
photography for example
you could sell photo licenses to travel
magazines and vacation companies
for more information on how to sell
photo licenses check out the link in the
description box it goes in depth about
what types of licenses are available
and how to negotiate those you can also
sell physical goods on your site
this would include selling prints and
putting your photos onto merge to do
this you can easily download a shopify
app called printful
and in just a few clicks you can sell
your photography on virtually
everything from mugs to books and
t-shirts for a whole detailed video on
how you can start selling merch using
print on demand
check out this video right over here to
sell photos directly to a buyer
you're gonna need to spend some time
marketing your business i would
recommend that you post the photos that
you're selling on social media
and direct people to your website from
there you can use hashtags to get
accounts with larger audiences to repost
your images
or you can have your friends and family
post your photos on their own instagram
and that's going to help expand your
reach if you're at a phase where you're
ready to start putting paid dollars
behind your business
consider running facebook ads facebook
ads are a powerful tool that can help
grow your business exponentially
but it's a pretty deep topic and luckily
we do have a video that's going to show
you everything you need to know to fuel
your business
through facebook ads sell your
photography as prints
in addition to having your own website
you can be a merchant on popular
print-on-demand sites
print-on-demand sites take care of all
the details you don't have to worry
about production
shipping or selling all you do is upload
your work and get paid
print-on-demand sites are double-edged
sword though because those kinds of
sites have tons of traffic
but they also have tons of competition
amongst merchants one thing that i will
say though is that it's a good way to
introduce yourself to customers that
would have never heard of your business
otherwise
and it's a good way to get creative with
your merch with society6 for example you
can put your artwork on virtually
anything
you can make your photos available on
duvets shower curtains face masks and
even tapestries
society6 can be competitive though so
also try fine art america to find
success
if you have pretty artsy photos this
would be a good platform for you they
have canvas prints
frame prints and even acrylic prints and
the nice thing about fine art america is
that they let you determine the cost
on top of their base cost so if the base
price for a frame print is fifty dollars
and you choose to price it at seventy
five dollars fine art america takes home
fifty dollars and you get the twenty
five
don't just stop at those two though the
more print on demand sites your
photography is available on
the better chance you have of selling
microstocks will likely be the route
that gets you the most money
so what's a microsoft company a
microstock photography company is a
company that sources their images online
and they do so from a wider range of
photographers this is nice because
traditional agencies will only work with
select
artists but microstocks have a
willingness to accept images from
amateurs and hobbyists
another thing to note about microstock
sites is that they are selling their
images at a very low cost
this could be anywhere from 20 cents to
ten dollars for royalty free images
so which micro stock sites are the best
here's my list shutter stock
500 pixels deposit photos photo dune and
adobe stock
those will be linked in the description
box below and alami is another great
platform since it has one of the highest
commission rates for each photo sold at
fifty percent
they'll determine the price of your
photo once you upload it and they're not
exclusive which means you don't have to
give them exclusive rights to your
photos
with stock sites you have to strategize
and play with a search algorithm
what i mean by that is if you're able to
get your photo on the first page for a
specific search term like paris
you're going to see sales for that photo
rise to get found for specific search
terms
make sure you're tagging your photos
with relevant terms that not only
describe what's in the picture but also
get inside of the head of the person
that's searching
so if i'm selling a photo of niagara
falls and i'm targeting travel agencies
i might include words like vacation
travel
or canadian tourism as image tags in
addition to the more descriptive tags
like niagara or waterfall
it will be harder and more competitive
to rank for common subject matter
you might be up against 10 000 other
images for the eiffel tower for example
so think about unique photos companies
may have trouble finding
to do this try some test searches of
your own to determine what's lacking on
stock photography
sites and plan a shoot to fill that gap
ask yourself if there are
underrepresented niches
emerging trends or upcoming events that
people will want photos of
so instead of just shooting the eiffel
tower you might want to shoot a local
parade in france sell your photos for
free on stock sites
free stock sites make photos available
for free to anyone who's looking whether
it's for personal or commercial purpose
anyone can download these however they
do encourage people to make donations
that said this is not going to be a
massive money earner but if you do have
photos that aren't selling well on other
sites
upload those here though you can only
expect to make a couple hundred bucks
using this method
it's at least better than having those
photos sit on a hard drive somewhere and
not making any money at all
check out pixels unsplash and pixabay
those sites will be listed in the
description box below
sell your photos on apps some apps have
competitions for a specific type of
photo
where the winner that is selected gets a
cash prize competitions are a ton of fun
and you get these design challenges that
push you in new directions
and there's excitement that builds up
but this is definitely more of an
entertainment exercise
rather than a way to make consistent
money in addition to competitions
some apps also have the option to sell
your photos as stock directly
on the app just how i mentioned before
so check out snapwire and shutterstock
for these
alright so here are some tips to see
real growth when you're selling your
photos online
the more consistent you are with posting
your photos to different sites and on
social media
the more revenue you'll generate the
nice thing is that once you upload a
photo for sale
it has the potential of making money for
even years after you've posted it
passive income is really the name of the
game here business images like meetings
handshakes and suits and ties
are highly searched so they do have the
potential to bring in quite a bit of
dough
there are tons of images in this sector
so to stand out you're going to want to
make sure that your images are looking
authentic
many of the people that are searching
for business stock images are using
these images on their marketing
materials to represent their own
business
so you'll want to make sure that these
images are as natural as possible
guys just as you always get a contract
when you're shooting make sure that
you're diligent in reading the terms and
conditions
before starting with any stock sites
apps and print-on-demand services
pay attention to what percentage you get
to take home payment terms and who owns
the content
also don't forget to get signed model
and location releases because this can
protect you from future hassles later on
so that about covers it if there's a
method here that i'm missing that's
worked for you make sure that you're
dropping it in the comments below for
all of us to learn
i'm gonna challenge you to start today
upload at least one image to a
print-on-demand site like society6 or
shopify app like printify
right after you're done watching this
video but make sure that you're leaving
this window open so that once you're
done you can drop a link to your photos
so that we can all check out your work
learn with shopify is a channel for
small business owners with big plans
every week we release a new video on how
to start and grow your online business
so make sure that you're hitting that
subscribe button i'm your host michelle
thank you so much for watching and i'll
see you in the next one
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