Photo banks for making money personal experience. Making money on photo stocks: how to earn money, how much and is it realistic for a beginner to earn money?

Passive income from photo stocks starts from $600 per month if your portfolio contains more than 1000 works. Photos are posted on several resources. To promote, you need to get acquainted with popular methods, trends, and study pictures of popular stockers.

Features of making money on photo banks

Microstocks – These are international intermediary catalogs with photographs, vector graphics, three-dimensional models, videos, and music files. Illustrations and images are in demand among advertising agencies, journalists, designers and individuals.

Making money on stock photos has its pros and cons.

The essence of the work comes down to the following: take a photo, upload, come up with a relevant title and description, select keywords, after verification, as sales progress, receive income. In the process of preparing images, it is important to follow the rules of shooting and processing.

Equipment required, preferably reflex camera with interchangeable lens. At first, you can use any digital camera from 6 megapixels. Unlimited high-speed Internet is required. In addition, the photographer must be proficient in Photoshop, the artist - Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator.

How to make money on photo banks? Step-by-step instruction

• Selecting a theme for photos and images. To do this, it is recommended to study stock reports, track customer requests and popular keywords. You can focus on topics that no one is working on. It is important to remember that visitors purchase images for business and are guided by the commercial value of the product. Topics are always popular: business, professions, family, relationships, travel, sports, holidays.
• Registration in photo banks. To generate income, you need to work with at least 5-6 portals.

Popular photo stocks for making money are Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, Depositphotos. It is worth paying attention to BigStockPhoto, Crestock, Lori, Istockphoto, CanStockPhoto.

During the registration process, the user actually enters into an agreement with the resource for the right to sell photos, images, and videos. Therefore, personal data must be entered correctly and English language. For identification, you need to send a scan of your passport or a second document.

Select 5-10 best photos that will be assessed. Based on the assessment, censors approve or disapprove the registration. Photos must meet the following requirements:

1. respect for copyright (unique photos without logos);
2. allowed format;
3. absence of unintended blur, noise, glare;
4. high-quality lighting without overexposure and unnecessary shadows;
5. It is prohibited to increase the image size with loss of quality;
6. For images with people, model consent is required - Model Release permission.

Many photographers start with simple images of products and merchandise against a uniform background.

• Passing the exam. The examination system operates on Shutterstock and Depositphotos. Data stock photos profitable for beginners, as they allow you to get the greatest income. 5-10 best photos, images with a variety of topics, ideas, and plots are selected for the exam. The rules for lighting, focusing, and exposure must be followed.

After approval, the photographer receives permission to upload photos in any quantity. If the test is failed, it can be repeated after a month. Illustrators who create vector images, it’s easier to qualify.

• Portfolio preparation. The basis for permanent income is a portfolio of 100-200 images. It must be constantly updated, adding 5-10 photos daily.

Main reasons for failing the exam

1. Insufficient quality of images, presence of noise, artifacts. To avoid this, it is recommended to reduce the camera sensitivity to a minimum and monitor the addition of sharpness and brightness.
2. Lack of commercial value of the image. You should focus on popular photos, strive for originality, and use a creative approach.
3. Incorrect keywords. To sell each image, you will need up to 50 “keywords”; for the exam, about 7 words are enough.
4. No Model Release. Permission is issued on a special form from the photo bank website.

Photographers receive up to 70% of their earnings thanks to Shutterstock, so you must definitely pass the exam; if you fail, retake it multiple times.

How to post photos for sale?

Resources offer several ways to upload photos. Descriptions for images must be filled out in English, since the main buyers from abroad:

• Title, Image name – title of several words;
• Description – description of several words;
• Keywords – keywords (up to 50 pieces) are the most important point to increase sales. To determine the “keywords” you need to answer the questions: What and who is shown in the photo, which one, where, when and how is it depicted?
• Categories – photo category.

The verification takes from a couple of hours to several days. After approval, the photo goes on sale, the photographer receives a notification by e-mail. If deficiencies are found in the work, the user is sent a letter with the reasons for the refusal. Once the defects have been corrected, you can post the image again.

How much can you earn from photo banks?

The average income from one high-quality photo per download ranges from $0.14 to $0.7. For popular images, some photographers receive up to $1,000 with a large number of sales, or up to $2.50 per download. The most popular photos sell up to 15,000 times. Photo banks take a commission from 30 to 70% of the cost of the image.

The most profitable is the sale of images for commercial purposes, for example, the production of posters, calendars, postcards, mouse pads. To increase income, users create slightly smaller photo sizes. The peak of sales occurs in the first 6 months after the image is posted.

Today we will touch on such a niche as photo stocks for making money. Photo banks and photo stocks are special services on the Internet, which allow you to earn money from photographs and more. Nowadays, photography has become much easier, which makes it possible for even a beginner to make money on photo stocks. You no longer need to spend hours developing film in a dark room using professional equipment. In addition, the result of the shot is visible immediately, which makes it possible to retake an unsuccessful shot.

Unfortunately, truly high-quality equipment costs a lot of money, and not everyone can immediately start receiving serious orders, but the tool needs to be paid for. There is an interesting way out - selling your photos on special exchanges on the Internet - photo stocks. How to start working with them and what photo banks exist – let’s try to figure it out in more detail.

In this article, we have collected lists of the most proven and solvent photo stocks for making money, as well as simpler services that allow beginners to earn money without a preliminary exam.

A photostock or photobank is a service that mediates between the photographer (seller) and the buyer. A person who has taken a unique photograph and wants to sell it can put it on public display. If someone is interested in it, they can purchase the photo.

Photo stocks have one advantage for novice photographers, which is also a disadvantage of such services: each photo has a very small price, since its quality is not assessed. For those who spend hours trying to catch a unique shot, it would be sacrilege to sell their creation for 20 cents. Those who simply take photographs for fun and post the best options can earn money from their hobby, albeit small, but still money.

In addition, on some photo stocks there are no restrictions on the number of purchases of the same photo. That is, if we continue talking about previous prices, you can get much more than 20 cents from one photo if it interests several dozen or hundreds of people. You shouldn’t think that making money on photo stocks is only available to people with a camera, on the contrary: if you are creative and draw beautifully or can create an illustration in graphics programs, then the result can also be sold, and in some cases even more expensive than a photograph.

How to make money on stock photos

First, you need to decide on the category in which you will work. Will you take photographs yourself or draw and sell pictures. Next, you need to choose a photo stock that is most suitable for you, both in terms of price and conditions. You can go through the following steps:

1. Having chosen a photo stock to earn money, register on it.
2. Please read the agreement carefully, especially regarding the rules for posting images.
3. Some photo stocks may ask you to go through a verification procedure. As a rule, a scan of your passport is sufficient.
4. After registration is complete, you can start uploading photos. It is worth noting that you need to download as much as possible to maximize profits.
5. While you are waiting for the first money, you can add more photos, since they are effective only for the first six months, this is when the maximum demand occurs.
6. Work with several photo banks. The more images are distributed on the Internet, the more you will earn.

Advantages of making money on photo stocks

There are many advantages to this type of earnings, including:

• You are the master of your time.
• With each new deposit your earnings will increase. It can only disappear if you haven't downloaded anything for more than a year.
• Itself occurs in automatic mode: No need to negotiate with buyers and accept payments manually. As a rule, the entire process of selling and receiving payment on photo stocks is fully automated.
• You are constantly improving and creating a portfolio for serious orders.
• There will definitely be sales, since prices are low.
• Nobody can fire you.

How much can you earn from photo stocks?

Typically, if the images are high quality and in demand, you can earn 50 cents per photo each month. Let's imagine that you upload 5 photos a day. In a month you get 150 images, which will bring you $75. Not bad, let's move on.

You're a professional photographer or graphic designer and on average upload 10 photos every day. But you work not on one photo stock, but on 5 services. Thus, one photo stock will bring in $150 in income. Simple mathematics tells us that in total we will receive 750 dollars. But photographs do not stop selling, the number of purchases is simply decreasing.

Let us receive 10 cents per photo in the coming months. By the end of the second month, in addition to our $750 for new ones, we will receive another $150. In six months we will be able to receive $1,500 a month. This is already a significant figure, taking into account the fact that this work may be additional. The main thing is not to forget to replenish the photo bank.

There is one blogger who uploaded one photo daily to 4 photo stocks. A year later, he calculated his earnings. In total, he received $1,861, meaning he earned $150 a month. It is worth noting that he analyzed the market situation and knew in advance what he would buy, and drew the appropriate conclusions. But even so, his result is quite good.

Another person who runs a stock photography blog boasts a figure of $2,000 per month. He travels constantly filming interesting points, landscapes and people on a professional camera. After processing, the images also end up on various services. You can make money on photo stocks, the main thing is not to neglect your work.

Stock Photos for Beginners

The stock photos that are needed for , should be different in that they do not have difficult exams that each author must pass. However, the earnings on such resources are lower, which does not prevent you from gaining experience. Let's look at the most popular photo stocks for beginners:

1. Lori.ru– does not require completing a preliminary task. To get started, just register and sign an agreement to ensure legal protection.
2. – to make money on this service you do not need to test your professional skills or go through a verification procedure. In addition, the service does not impose requirements for uploaded images, which allows you to upload more photos.
3. 123RF– despite the need for verification and verification, this photo stock is also available to beginners due to low image requirements.

1. Take good pictures right away. It is better to post one photo and it will be downloaded 100 times in a month than to post 100 photos, of which only two will be downloaded once.
2. Buy quality equipment. Even with a limited budget, it is better to choose the best and understand in advance which manufacturer’s tools you will use.
3. Constantly improve. Watch webinars, read books, take courses. But theory is nothing without practice, so keep taking photos. Out of 100 pictures taken, you can select 1-2 of the best and make money on them.
4. Don't get stuck on one stock photo. The more services you connect, the more you will earn.
5. Come up with something new. Each photo stock is filled to capacity with portraits, landscapes and other images. Stand out, find your niche and become the best at it.
6. Don't give up. Most of those who make money on stock photos receive less than $100 per month only because they stop working without getting immediate results. Do not add to their number, because if you approach the matter with right side, earnings will increase significantly.
7. If services for beginners are not suitable for you, and on serious sites the task is too difficult, you can post free images on different services to create a portfolio and gain experience.
8. Analyze your best-selling photos. As a rule, photo stocks have a rating of the most popular works. Look at what kind of photographs they are, who is buying them and why, and make similar ones.

Russian photo stocks for making money

Of course, it is always more convenient to work with sites in your own language. Let's look at the most popular photo stocks for Russian-speaking users.

1. Lori– in addition to the fact that this photo stock is convenient for inexperienced users, it is one of the oldest photo banks for making money on the RuNet.
2. Fotobank is a subsidiary of one of the world's largest classic photo banks. Images from this service are used by news sites, magazines and blogs.
3. Photogenics– came from Europe, but firmly established itself in Russian market photostock. Its database consists of more than 30 million files.
4. Press Photo– one of the largest photobanks on the RuNet. It has a huge base due to the fact that it sells photos from partner sites.
5. – also a good photo bank for Russian-speaking users.
6. 123RF– despite the abbreviation in the name, it is a Russified version of a foreign service.
7. BigStock– like the previous site, it is located on foreign servers, but allows Russian-speaking users to earn money.

The best photo stocks for making money

No matter what anyone says, the main goal is to earn money. Let's consider the most proven and solvent photo stocks:

1. – one of the highest paid services. On average, it turns out that for 5 uploaded photos we will receive 1 dollar.

Hello dear readers. Today we will talk about photo banks for making money. Such services allow users to sell photographs online. IN this moment Nowadays, you can find a large number of photo banks on the Internet, but not all of them are profitable: some have long lost their leading position; buyers have stopped visiting them; others simply do not pay what they earned.

In this regard, I decided to make for you a small selection of top projects that you should definitely pay attention to. I don’t recommend you spend your precious time publishing works on ten or more services - it’s better to focus your attention only on the best photo banks, and there are only five or six of them.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all photo banks are divided into two types: microstock And macrostocks. The first are projects where you can sell your graphic works for a low cost. The bulk of buyers on these services are information publications and websites. Microstock photos can be sold to different buyers as many times as desired.

The main audience of buyers on macrostocks are publishing houses and magazines, that is, those organizations that have considerable amounts of money and need only unique and high-quality content. Images on these projects are much more expensive than on microstocks, but when concluding a transaction, the buyer receives not only the photo, but also all the rights to it.

The best photo stocks for making money

Before moving directly to the consideration of projects, I would also like to inform you about which photo banks allow you to make money also on videos, flash animations, vector images, etc. The most commonly purchased graphics are raster graphics - these are photographs, 3D images or illustrations.

Now I will present you with a list of photo stocks where you should register, pass the exam (if necessary) and start making money.

Photobank Shutterstock

This project is considered the most popular and most profitable among all currently existing ones. In this regard, Shutterstock administrators decided to introduce some restrictions when registering new sellers, namely, beginners need to pass a specialized exam: after registering on the project, you need to upload 10 of your photos, 7 of which must be approved by the “commission”.

If you fail the exam, you can retake it only once a month. That is, you will be allowed to upload 10 new works again after thirty days.

I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that when registering an account, you must send a scan of the first page of your international passport to Shutterstock. Data verification is carried out within two days.

For one photo download on this photo bank you will receive 25 cents. If your total income reaches $500, then you will be paid 33 cents per photo download.

The best way to withdraw your earnings from Shutterstock is to PayPal wallets. The minimum amount for a payout order is $75.

By the way, what is noteworthy is that Shutterstock users are allowed to earn money not only from photographs or videos, but also from audio works. That is, by uploading your music track to this project and passing the exam, you will be able to receive money for downloading your audio works. Not implemented on every site, which is why Shutterstock is one of the best services For creative people in the Internet.

Photobank iStockphoto

This project takes an honorable second place in the list of “most profitable”. Both Shutterstock and iStockphoto have Russian-language interface support, which is very convenient. To register on iStockphoto, you will need to send a scan of your international passport (citizens of the Russian Federation are allowed to send copies of a “state” passport) or a driver’s license.

After the system identifies you, the next step is to pass the exam, which consists of two parts: theoretical and practical. The practice is much more simplified than on Shutterstock - instead of ten photos, you only need to upload three works.

Regarding labor costs: iStockphoto pays 20% of the cost of downloading your photo. The price is the same raster graphics range from $1 to $40. Accordingly, if your image was purchased for $5, then the system will take $4 for itself, and you will only get $1.

Exclusive photographers of the iStockphoto project receive not 20%, but 40% of the cost of the downloaded photo. Only those who post their works only on this project and on no other can become such a user.

Just as in the case of Shutterstock, it is best to withdraw money earned from iStockphoto to the electronic payment system PayPal. The minimum amount for a payout order is $100.

Photobank Stockxpert

Another photo stock that deserves your attention. Before making money on this project, you will need to upload 5 photos and if the administration approves them, you will pass the exam.

Unlike other projects, Stockxpert is good because the buyer pays 50% of the price for the downloaded photo. Payments are made via PayPal.

Photobank BigstockPhoto

On this site you will need to take a theoretical test in English, but since you will have access to tips, it will not be difficult. I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that BigstockPhoto is one of the few projects where, when registering, you do not need to send a scan of your passport or any other documents proving your identity.

This service pays quite well - up to 38 cents per downloaded image. Withdrawals of earnings are made, as usual, via PayPal.

Photobank Lori

Russian photostock for beginners. There are not many buyers on this service, but the payment is very decent: from 40 to 6,000 rubles (the price of images depends on the purpose of use and their circulation). This site is very convenient because you can withdraw your earnings to the wallets of the electronic payment system Yandex.Money or WebMoney.

Photobank Dreamstime

This is one of the few projects where you do not need to pass any exams, and registration is carried out without a passport. Prices for images here range from one to three hundred dollars, while the payment to the author is from 50% to 80%.

The minimum withdrawal amount from Dreamstime is $100. Money can be received via PayPal.

Photobank Fotolia

Another photo stock where there are no theoretical and practical exams during registration, and there is also no need to send scans of documents proving your identity. In my opinion, this project is ideal for beginning photographers, since the Fotolia administration is not too demanding on the quality of the authors’ works put up for sale.

The cost of photographs on this site ranges from 1 to 2000 dollars, while the authors of the work are paid from 33% to 80%. By the way, Fotolia has a very interesting system, according to which royalties increase as the user’s number of sales and photographer status increases.

You must have at least $50 in your balance before you can request a payout. As usual, you can transfer money to your e-wallet payment system PayPal.

In addition to all the above services, I would also like to recommend you such projects as Depositphotos(one of the most famous photo banks in the world, which pays newcomers 34% for each file sold or 0.3 cents if the photo was sold by subscription), 123RF(newcomers can receive 0.216 cents per download via subscription or 30% of the amount of the image sold) and Cutcaster(exclusive authors on this photo stock earn 55% of the cost of the purchased drawing, and non-exclusive ones - 40%).

Conclusion
Working with microstocks is beneficial because by uploading your work to one of the projects (or several) you can earn money from selling it for the rest of your life. On such services, buyers acquire rights to non-exclusive use of photographs: your photo can be sold an unlimited number of times, while the copyright remains with you. At the same time, the cost of such images is not very high, and the services will take a certain percentage of the transactions.

Photostocks (also called microstocks) are special services through which Internet users can sell copyright photographs. Initially, the list of possible operations included exclusively the sale of photographs, however, after a certain period of time, photo stocks began to offer the possibility of selling vector graphics, various illustrations, video and audio clips on a wide variety of subjects. According to the established procedure, sales from a user who decides to register on a photo stock will go directly under a license called “royalty free”, without royalties. In other words, sales will be carried out at a relatively low price, but they can be made quite a large number of times. One example can be given in which a user has photographs that have already been sold several hundred times.

Important! By taking advantage of the opportunity to sell the same photo multiple times, you can ensure a constant and stable income.

How much can you earn from photo stocks?

It is important for any user to know how much do they earn on stock photos?, what efforts need to be made to ensure a consistently high income. In practice, everything depends solely on your own capabilities (primarily creative), and a little luck. To be able to make money from your own photos and achieve a profitability of 10-15 thousand rubles per month, you will need to regularly upload current photos to the service. In fact, the photographer's fee amounts to approximately 30% of the final cost of the material sold. Thus, after selling a photo for $1, the user can expect to receive a reward of 30 cents (maybe even more, depending on the conditions of work on a particular photo bank). If about a hundred photos are posted daily, a significant amount of money is obtained per month.

In numbers, the ratio of uploaded photos in the user’s assets and income level can be displayed as follows:

• If your portfolio contains between 10-300 images, you can earn an income of at least $50-$100.
• When a portfolio contains 300-1000 photographs or images, the profitability of one account varies between 100-300 dollars.
• Decide to constantly keep about 1000-3000 images in your portfolio, which means you can count on your own income in the range of 300-1000 dollars.
• Finally, to receive a stable income of 1000-3000 US dollars per month, you should keep at least 3000-10000 photos in your hosting account.

Is it possible to make money on photo banks and what needs to be done for this?

But it’s still important to figure out whether it’s realistic to make money on photo banks. This way of earning money is quite realistic, but the user will need the following set of equipment, tools, accessories, and skills:

• A high-quality camera capable of capturing only the highest quality photographs. It is very important that all images are exclusively high resolution, the minimum threshold for such a camera should start from six megapixels.
• You will need a computer with the minimum set installed software, as well as skills to directly work with them. It should be installed on a computer or laptop, relevant when editing posted photos.
• The user has unlimited access to the Internet, because he will have to upload the necessary images to the resource. If you plan to work on the site for a long period of time, there is a lot of work to be done and all of it will require prompt access to the resource at any time.

And, of course, it will be mandatory to have the skills to fully work with everyone software products, regardless of their complexity. In addition to the ability to work with raster images, you need to learn how to process source photographs using vector graphics, in which case the success of your work will increase approximately several times.

Choosing the best photo bank for making money

Now it is important to determine what are the best photo banks for making money - how to choose? In accordance with the services provided and the benefits for the potential user, it is worth highlighting several resources:

1. ShutterStock offers subscription download fees of about 25 cents, which, with a monthly rate of 2,000 photos uploaded by other users, will allow you to earn up to about $500. Provided by the system and alternative ways earnings.
2. iStockPhoto provides the opportunity to earn 20% from one download, and for owners of VIP accounts, this figure is about 40% of the total.
3. Dreamstime does profitable proposition registered photographers. the service allows you to count on making a profit depending on the number of downloads up to 50% of the final cost.
4. Fotolia, within the framework of the user agreement, offers the opportunity to earn within 33-64% of the final cost of the photo. The percentage depends on the account hosted on the image resource.

Having figured out the procedure for working on photo stocks, it’s worth trying this way of earning money.

Hello, dear readers of my site! Today I invite you to consider another possible and very common way for a beginner (and not only others) to make money from their hobby of digital photography.

Nowadays it is very popular make money on the Internet, if you love the sound of a camera click, you can earn by selling your unique photographs in photostock.

Photo stocks and photo banks there are a lot of them on the net. However, they have different conditions for registering and exhibiting their works. sometimes it requires entering additional personal data, sometimes you need to pass a short exam during registration, so you should choose a resource that is most convenient and acceptable for everyone. Initially it may be small, but over time, having compiled a competent portfolio and won, you can make good money doing what you love.

So, I'm posting it list With brief description most popular photo stocks and photo banks both Russian and foreign.

Domestic or Russian photo stocks and photo banks

• http://ru.depositphotos.com/- a popular Russian photo stock, with acceptable registration conditions (you must present any document confirming your identity and submit five works to pass the exam). Accepts vector and raster graphics. To download photos, you must pay a certain fee, which varies depending on the time of use and the number of images, and the minimum is $35 for 30 credits (the currency for which you can purchase photo images). On Depositphotos You can post and download HD videos, photographs, as well as editorials (images used in the press).
• http://www.pressfoto.ru/ - photostock accepts photos, vector graphics, clipart for design projects, videos. To register, you must provide 3 photos, passport details and draw up an agreement. The authors are paid 50% of the cost for which the image was sold, which is an advantage over other domestic resources. The cost of downloads depends on the size of the images and their number, and is a minimum of 29 rubles. You can also subscribe for 2 weeks for 500 rubles.

I must say that make money on photo stocks more is possible if you contact foreign sites.

Foreign or foreign photo banks and photo stocks

P.S.: Many people ask: “Is it possible to display processed photographs on photo stocks, so to speak, to pre-edit them in editors?”

I haven’t seen any prohibitions, I’ve even seen a lot of video tips on how best to do this to increase sales. Here is one such video tutorial (I recommend it!):

What other popular photo bank do you know?