I am sure that most of you have heard that you are able to sell your photo’s online to make money. I know that I have heard about it, but never really gave it much thought. Now that I have heard about the amount of money that some  novice photographers are making, it has made me sit up and take notice to this creative way to develop a passive income.

Not only are novice photographers able to compete with the pro’s, they also have an equal playing field at having their photos, video’s or  illustrations being selected for purchase in editorial or commercial campaigns.

Personally, I looked into several companies and each one has different requirements, so you will need to do your research first to make sure you understand what all is expected.

One of the top, if not the top, stock photo companies, iStockPhoto.com is the hardest company to be accepted with. You will have to take a test, submit pictures and realize that only 40% of submitted pictures are accepted.

They are not the only fish in the pond. There are many others that you can apply to get your photo’s accepted.

I read of one man that had a bank of photo’s submitted in many, many photo banks and he was making $10,000 a month, every month, for doing nothing. He doesn’t even submit photo’s anymore. He is just living off his  huge library of photo’s that he had submitted, years ago.

If you go to quantcast.com, you will be able to check the traffic for each company you apply to so that you will have an idea of how many customers, they are attracting. But, even if they are attracting less, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply. That would also mean that your competition wouldn’t be as great.

Also, do a little research before you start to take pictures. If you go to their site, select a category and then check the downloads of a particular photo. You might be surprised that it is  not the sunset that is getting downloaded over and over, it might be a picture of a puddle of mud, or a piece of steel, etc. Remember, these photo’s are bought by companies for their advertising campaigns, magazines,etc.

The lowest price a photo usually brings in, is $1. There is a picture of a  stainless steel looking background that was downloaded 8,900 times! There is a picture of a man’s hands, holding a small tree that was downloaded 17,000 times! So let your creativity explore all the possibilities!

Once again, please research each company for yourself and find out which ones are the best match for you and always remember to get releases for any pictures of people, as well as properties that you photograph. Each site should have releases that you can download to use.

Below are some examples of image banks, but feel free to search for more companies as well.

Until next time,

Janice

EG Team