Selling Fine Art Photography On Etsy

If you believe photography is a costly hobby, you’re correct, it can be. But that does not mean you need pro-quality equipment to make money from your photos! Selling Fine Art Photography On Etsy

In actuality, if you’ve got a decent phone camera along with a steady hand, you are already in with a shot.

But you get your clicks, you will find an increasing number of opportunities to monetise photos you have already taken. And when photography’s already your bag, you will find heaps more ways to develop your abilities, and income; from selling your Insta stock to pulling a Brooklyn Beckham (famous parents optional).

You know the drill: read, learn, and give it a celebration for yourself!

If you’ve got a digital camera (or fancy picking up one for a steal), you’ll have more options for selling pics to stock libraries, to sites for prints, or for print-on-demand products. This is because cameras will generally produce larger file photographs (although some camera phones are trumping digi cams nowadays so this isn’t necessarily the case).

Got a camera phone? A growing number of inventory libraries are catering for mobile snaps, plus you still have a shot at the other biz thoughts below. Continue reading!

It helps to have…

Some type of editing program can help buff your pics for best results, so it is well worth sniffing out a decent bundle (and learning how to use it!) So you can make more money with your own photos.

Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop are industry standards for picture editing. But they cost bucks! Do not crack open your wallet until you’ve checked out the freebies:

FastStone Image Viewer can open RAW files straight from your digital camera and save them as JPG, TIFF or PNGs. OK for basic edits such as color correction, straightening, cropping and contrast.
Raw Therapee is a Lightroom-like editor with loads of resources for tweaking colours, curves and much more.
PIXLR is a convincing alternative to Photoshop, and even recognises the very same shortcuts directly out the bag. You can run it directly from a browser / through the app at no cost.
GIMP can do a lot of what Photoshop excels at, though some users guess it is a more demanding learning curve.
There are loads of phone editing apps to be had for free or a few pence, but Snapseed (iPhone, Android, free) consistently makes the best-of lists.
Do not overlook the bloatware image software bundled into your’puter, phone or laptop. Most can make light work of the basics.

>>TAKE A LOOK AT HOW I LEARNED TO SELL PHOTOS FOR MONEY<<

Selling Through Stock Libraries

Stock libraries buy’n’ sell digital photographs to use on websites, in books, on goods as well as in advertisements, with the photographer getting a cut of the sale each time.

Selling photos through a stock site is a top way to surf passive income streams: you can upload a photo once and sell it over and over again, pretty much forever!

You may have to submit a choice of pics (and be accepted) until you can become a stock library contributor. After that, some sites will continue reviewing all your submissions, and will gladly bounce any they do not think meet standards.

What that means is you will always need to be on the ball about choosing your best shots. Do not get too hung up about rejections, though; combine a number of sites and post pics to them to find the best possible coverage.

Which Websites Pay Most?

Swing by Alamy first. Their student contributor scheme gives you 100% of the sales price of your pictures for two years. Total win! Your uni will have to be part of the scheme, but lots of UK and US institutions are already on the books. Selling Fine Art Photography On Etsy

Alamy reckons images typically sell for $90 (USD) each, but you might get anywhere from $20 to $500 depending what it’s used for. If you are not a student, or your uni isn’t enrolled, the pay-out’s still a fairly decent 50%. Selling phone pics through their Stockimo program (iStore only) earns you a 20% reduction.

Other Websites to Check Out:

Picfair has a twist: you decide to what extent your pictures sell for. Picfair then add 20 percent on top for their cut, but the sales price you set is what you get if your image sells.
EyeEm: if Instagram and Alamy had a love child, this is what it would look like. EyeEm is a photo sharing site butif you want to earn more than’enjoys’, you can also pimp your images through the market. EyeEm divide every sale with you 50/50, with photos selling from $20-$250. EyeEm Bonus: regular how-to articles, themed missions run by large brands, plus you’ll be able to upload pics via the net or phone.
Foap is constructed around telephone photographers, with everything handled through the program (Android, iTunes, free). Foap sells pictures for $10 each and divides it 50/50, so you’ll make $5 per pic. They also run monthly Missions, where you can submit photos on a theme to be in with a chance of winning extra money and perks.

Big Name Websites

Dreamstime offer up to 60% for exclusives. How much your photo sells for also goes up the more it’s downloaded: newbie images start at between $0.34 and $2.38 (USD). If you are shooting a phone, start with the free Dreamstime app (Android, iPhone).

IStock palms over 15% of an image’s sales price, but promise a bigger cut if you make the pic exclusive to the website. Photos typically sell for #7 or #20 a go, but the type of licence or subscription plan the customer purchases determines how your piece is calculated.

Shutterstock coughs up $0.25 (USD) per sale on the most common subscription plans, but say you will find a larger cut as your lifetime earnings pass different levels. To put that into context, as soon as you’ve earned $10,000, you’ll be bumped up to the heady heights of 38 cents an image…

Playing the Stock (photo) Market

Earning money with stock photos can involve a substantial cash-in, but there are a few things worth bearing in mind…

Stock photography is a numbers game: if you want sales, you will need to upload lots of quality pics to several sites.
Photos of individuals are constantly in demand, but anyone you pap may want to sign a model release form to say they’re OK with you using it (your inventory library will have template forms you can print, sign and publish ).
Check the accounts terms! When are you going to get paid, and in what currency? What happens to your photos if you want to cancel your account in the future?
You often won’t get a state in how clients use your photographs, so if you don’t want your selfies turning up in ads for STDs or benzoyl peroxide, don’t upload’em!
Sign-up for contributor newsletters, as they can clue you in on what sells, what to snap next, and even how to enhance your camera or editing skills.
Add loads of keywords when you upload your pictures. It helps people find (and hopefully purchase!) your pics.

Selling Your Prints

There is loads of liberty in selling prints (i.e., printed copies of your photographs ). You decide what to take, who to market to, and for how much and, like selling through stock libraries, it can be a wonderful little passive revenue earner.

Now, before you leg it down to Boots to batch publish your holiday snaps, there’s a bit more to it. While you can run off photos on your home printer or at a high-street laboratory, better quality means greater profits! Selling Fine Art Photography On Etsy

That means using a proper printing laboratory (one which excels in art or framed prints), opting for specialist paper, or perhaps selling limited or signed editions. Seems like a drag? Not necessarily; there’s inspiration below to get you started.

Use a Photo Host

Photographer-friendly site hosts provide you with a safe place to store your digital pics, a portfolio (which means you can show’em away ) and shopping tools (so you can sell prints, downloads and wall art).

They even take care of the printing and any stamp every time you make a sale. Hashtag hallelujah, right?

But the big catch is, not only do they charge for hosting your website, they also take a cheeky cut from each sale — and that is not everybody’s cup of cocoa! If you want to give it a whirl, be aware of free 14-day trials before you pony up the cash: try Zenfolio or Smugmug.

Get Your Own Photo Shop

As an alternative, you can always get your own site or Etsy store and hang onto more of your gain!

Obtaining prints or gifts to sell is also super straightforward; go for print-on-demand and you won’t need to store any stock (or be out of pocket if you can not shift it!) .

Sell on Social Media Platforms

Eventually the social media giants will wise-up and begin letting us market photos and other content right from our profiles.

But until then, take a hint from street photographer Daniel Arnold: he provided Instagram followers the opportunity to purchase prints from his feed and made $15k in one day. Obviously it helps if you’ve already got a strong fanbase, but if you have talent (and the ideal hashtags) it’s worth a shot!

The best thing about selling on social media is that you don’t even need a website: your feed is your portfolio, and you’ve got a enormous potential audience!

>>LEARN HOW TO SELL YOUR PHOTOS AND VIDEOS ONLINE HERE<<

Go print-on-demand

Print-on-demand is a brilliantly simple way to generate moolah from mouse mats, keyrings, t-shirts, bags, books and more — often using zero setup costs.

The real beauty of print-on-demand is that while you can advertise tons of goods, none of them really exist until someone buys’em — so there is no inventory to store, lose, or fall over. Better still, there are websites out there that do all the producing, printing and submitting for you, so all you have to do is take the photos!

Photo books

First stop: Blurb, the self-publishing publishing platform (learn how that all works here!) .

Blurb enables you to create photo books just by importing your Facebook or Insta images — and you can sell your final book on Blurb or Amazon.co.uk. You could even advertise books on your own website (if you’ve got one), but have Blurb/Amazon handle the payment. Easy! Selling Fine Art Photography On Etsy

Gifts and Goodies

Turns out you can slap a photograph on pretty much anything, from shower curtains to pet clothing and PJs; and you do not even need a glue gun to begin!

Most print-on-demand outfits allow you to upload your photographs (or illustrations), choose which products you want to sell them on, and give you a cut of the profits if they market.

CafePress pays you 10% if your products sell in their market, but you can opt to have your very own online store and add a mark-up into the cost (which you get as your royalty) instead. It’s free to set up and run a shop, but CafePress take 10% of your royalties monthly, up to a $10 max.
Zazzle lets you set your own royalty rate between 5% and 99 percent but, while it is tempting to dial it up to full whack, keep in mind that your cut is added to the sales price: go OTT and you might find it harder to make sales.
With Spreadshirt you may add a mark-up of $1 to $20 on items sold through the marketplace, or you can start your own store and catch 20% commission.
Redbubble begins with a product base price and lets you add on a mark-up — the default is 20%, but you can tweak it as much as you like.

Running a print-on-demand shop is low-fuss and low-cost — if you are happy with the occasional sale, it can be a wonderful way to generate money on the side for relatively little effort.

The word from successful sellers is that, to earn proper bucks, you’ll need to put in the hours (so just like a project, sadly). We’re talking uploading plenty of photos or layouts, getting the word out, and generally making an effort!

Go Freelance

Selling photos anonymously online is easy enough. But if you want to build a rep, get more glory or just have clients of your own, here are some tips to get started as a freelancer photographer:

Know your niche. When it’s people, pets, food or something completely left-field, it is a lot easier to market yourself whether your portfolio showcases what you do best.
Take time to learn your craft. You can get lucky selling stock if you don’t know your aperture out of your elbow, but you can’t afford to chance it when someone’s paying you for wedding pics!
Work out your rate and be sure it covers your time, your costs and leaves you a little on top for profit. And get insurance for your equipment!
Offer to photograph events, portraits or parties for family and friends to develop a portfolio, and ask them to spread the word for you. Or hunt out your favorite bloggers and pitch them your pic ideas!
Batter your social networking account with your best pics, let folk know you’re available, and tell’em how to get in touch. Get cheeky and choose alternative promo shots for brands, then tag them to get noticed.
Get in contact with picture editors at magazines, newspapers or sites and ask if you can submit photographs or cover local events.
You might have more chance of being adopted by Madonna than getting a press pass, but it’s like a golden ticket that can get you into sports, fashion and other exclusive events. You will want to apply each time (or become a member of the National Union of Journalists) however, once you’re in, you’ll get plenty of saleable photo opps!

While everybody with an Insta account seems to reckon they’re a pro photographer, the truth is that being a freelancer is probably the toughest route you can take.

You’ll need a great deal of patience, perseverance, good shoes and adequate pics — and you may well have to give away images for free when you first start out to get noticed. If you are in it for the career, do not give up. If you are in it for the money, get your game on with the other ideas on this page in the meantime!

Bonus Tips for Aspiring Photographers

Carry your camera everywhere — and not only when you are doing something or going somewhere special. Loads of companies and brands are after photos of everyday life and often it’s the simple things that produce the best pics — think roads, food (street food?) , facial expressions, loved ones, pets, sports… anything!
Back-up your best pics (or any you would hate to lose): keep copies on an external drive or in cloud storage (Dropbox gives you 2GB of space for free).
As soon as you start getting sales, get to grips with tax and the freelancing fundamentals. It’ll save you stress in the long run, and could save you cash on your tax bill.
You might not be able to sell photos should they comprise trademarked products, brands or even specific buildings. Check out the terms with your stock library, or contact the company involved and ask if you need permission to hawk your snaps.
Do not just do the same-old or what everyone else is doing. Quirky, cute or weird is always in fashion. Amen to that! Selling Fine Art Photography On Etsy

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