How To Sell Photos Online - What You Need To Know

The growth of the Internet and the attendant growth in Internet based commerce has created a corresponding demand for digital images. This in turn has created an expanding opportunity for photographers (and not just professional photographers) to sell their photos online.

As with any new field, it's not always easy to know where to start. This article will act as a pointer in that respect.

There are three basic things you need to consider when looking at how to sell photos online:

1. What are the best sort of photos to take?
2. Where should I sell the photos that I've just taken? and;
3. What can I do to ensure that my photos prove popular to buyers.

Let's deal with each in turn.

1. When asking the questions as to what are the best sort of photos to take, you need to have a mindset of "think commerce". Most of the people that are buying photos online are doing so because they want to enhance the "saleability" of their websites. The old adage of "a picture is worth a thousand words" is as true in the digital age as it ever was in the past.

With that in mind, there are certain categories on stock photo sites that are very popular with buyers; those being: photos of electronics, photos of businessmen and women, photos of money and other photos that may be beneficial to their website or business. Well taken nature shots are also very popular online sellers.

You will find that any photo – regardless of category - with an element of real "uniqueness" could also prove to be a popular online seller, particularly if it's a shot of someone in the public eye.

2. In terms of where to go to sell your photos online, the basic rule here is to find out where your prospective clients go to buy their current photos and make yourself visible there. Your choices are (a) to sell your photos yourself using software designed specifically for the task or by creating your own custom site and html code to protect your images; (b) to sell your photos on eBay or other auction sites or; (c) sell them to online stock photography sites where you get paid a portion of the sale each time your photo is downloaded. Shutterstock.com, PhotoStockPlus and iStockPhoto.com are popular examples of such sites (though there are many, many more). The fact that a photo taken once can then be downloaded by buyers over and over again, makes this a very popular avenue for selling your photos online.

3. To ensure that your photos prove popular to prospective buyers you will need to combine two of the elements that we've already spoken about. You will need to take photos in categories that we already know to be popular with buyers, yet you'll need to make your photo stand out from the pack. How do you do this? You provide some sort of twist on an already established theme. Go to the stock photography sites that I mentioned in the previous section and do some research in the popular categories: electronics, pictures of businessmen and women, pictures of money. Look at what's there and make a decision on how you can come up with something different. If you have any Photoshop skills, then you really have a powerful tool to add an element of uniqueness to your photos.

In summary, when answering the question of how to sell photos online, your best bet is to go to the marketplaces in question – online stock photography sites or auction sites such as eBay and do some research. This will give you a feel for the photos that are popular as well as start fuelling you with some ideas on how you can start to put on your own unique spin.