Another passive income idea is selling stock photography, you take pictures with your camera or mobile phone and there are several web sites which will display them. If someone likes your photo and downloads or subscribes you will earn some revenue. A popular photo can be a great money earner.
Thats the basic overview, lets look at this in more detail.
Requirements for stock photography
Anyone with a camera or aa very good mobile phone can do this, thats the good news
You must take very good, quality images at high resolutions. You should always double check your images before submitting them, with a digital camera I copied them to my PC and viewed them all manually.
I have read that people reckon you can suitable photos using a mobile phone but I have heard a lot of mixed reports on this, it depends greatly on the website you are submitting to – more on that later.
The camera on the phone has to be exceptionally good and it depends on the type of photo, for example a close up of an object may work but it may be tricky to capture an action shot or a distance shot.
These are the requirements from Shutterstock where I have had a couple of images approved
File Format
They accept images in JPEG and TIFF formats, but recommend submitting your images as JPEGs because all images are automatically converted to jpeg upon approval into our collection.
File Size
All images must be at least 4 megapixels, but preferably 5 megapixels or larger and set at highest quality settings to produce an acceptable file dimensions for submission to Shutterstock.
Please keep in mind that megapixels (MP) are different from megabytes (MB), as they refer to the dimensions and not the file size. To determine the amount of pixels in an image, multiply the pixel width by the pixel length. For example:
2000 x 2400 pixels = 4.8 Megapixels. A file of this size is acceptable.
1200 x 3000 pixels = 3.6 Megapixels. This is smaller than our minimum size requirement, and this file will not be accepted by our system.
Your photographs are manually reviewed and approved on most if not all of the stock photography websites
Things to avoid
Well the most obvious thing to avoid is anything that may be trademarked or copyrighted. For adult content (nude), check the terms and conditions on the stock website.
If you take photos of a person – get their permission, you may need a written agreement in place. Nothing will upset someone more than finding a photo of them popping up all over the place.
Some tips and advice
Practice, practice and practice again – the more pictures you take the better you will get.
- Try and avoid camera shake, learn to keep yourself steady when taking photos.
- Keep your camera lens clean and protect it as well to avoid getting scratches on it.
- Try and avoid using the flash on the camera or phone, use as much natural light as possible.
- If you have an SLR camera practice manually focussing rather than using auto-focus all the time
- Use the highest megapixel setting possible
- Save the images in RAW format if this is possible
Websites that accept stock photos
These are just a couple of examples but they are some of the big players in the market where the majority of traffic goes. A search for stock photo sites in your favourite search engine will reveal more.
Dreamstime
You can upload via web or FTP. They also have a mobile app that allows you to upload directly from your phone.
123RF
A very similar website to Dreamstime with similar functionality
Shutterstock
Shutterstock has high quality standards, so only upload your best work here. They also have an app to upload from your phone and check your account.
BigStockPhoto
This is another mobile photography accessible agency, which is owned by Shutterstock. Slightly easier than Shutterstock though.
Adobe Stock
This used to be Fotolia and is now owned by Adobe.
iStockPhoto
Another huge site in the collection
Another tip, visit the sites above and browse around and look at the popular images in the categories, that is what people are interested in.Don’t just copy them but come up with your own twist and variation, try and create an even better photo
Create a spreedsheet and enter the acceptance criteria for images, licensing rights and if possible commision rate on the stock photgraphy sites. This can help you pick the best one.
You can also see the views and downloads on several of the sites.
Twist on the idea
Of course you could set up your own photography site in a niche, people could come and visit and buy your photos if they like them. Using this method you could arguably make more money per image – no stock photography site taking a cut.
You would have to promote the hell out of this and drive a lot of traffic to the site. That is one of the major advantages of using an established site but it may be possible.
Summary
If you have got an iPhone or a top notch android phone go for it, practice and take some photos. You have nothing to lose, you can use the apps and see what happens.
If you have a good quality camera try any site above, incidentally the camera I used was a Nikon Coolpix P900 – so not an extremely expensive professional camera by any chance.
This is a genuine passive income site but again the quantity and quality of your images will determince your earnings but once the image is accepted its technically on the site forever potentially generating sales – passive income in an nutshell.