Did you know you can make money selling your photos? People need stock images for websites, social media posts, brochures, etc., and they’re willing to pay for quality photos. Anyone with a decent camera and a good eye can make money selling stock photos online.
This stock photo income stream was listed as one of our 25+ Ways to Make Money as a Real Estate Agent, and I’ve received some interest from readers wanting to learn more about it. So today we’ll dig into some of the details of how exactly to make money selling stock photos.
We’ll cover:
- the basics of how to make money selling stock photos online
- why this income stream is so easy for real estate professionals to add to their businesses
- the 6 keys to making this income stream productive
- how to get started
- how to push this idea further
The Basics of How to Make Money Selling Stock Photos Online
The basic idea is incredibly simple: you sign up as a “contributor” with a few stock photo websites, post your photos, and get paid when other people buy them. And repeat. That’s the entire process.
If you’re thinking this sounds too good to be true, well, you’re partially right. The fact is because this is such an easy process, lots of people are doing it, so the competition is high. But you’re probably used to standing out in a competitive environment as a real estate agent! We’ll discuss specific ways to address this stock photo competition later in this article.
The other hurdle to making money selling stock photos online is that the commissions are tiny. You may only make $0.25-$1.00 on a sale. But that’s not as concerning as it initially sounds because a single photo can be sold hundreds or even thousands of times. You might post a photo on 3 different sites (which is perfectly fine as long as you don’t have an exclusivity agreement with any of those sites), get a couple hundred buyers for that same photo from each site, and end up making several hundred dollars from that one image. This is not the most common outcome, but it’s a real possibility.
My Personal Experience So Far
The more likely scenario is the one I’m personally experiencing. I reported last month that I’d made a whopping $1.95 after investing about 3 hours in signing up for multiple sites and posting about 12 photos I already had sitting on my computer. Well, 4 weeks later I’m up to $4.49. Still not a great hourly rate, but I’ve not added any additional photos or even logged into the sites. I’ve been going about my life with no time or thought given to these photos, and they’re making me some money. Enough for a coffee anyway. And they’ll continue to make me money while I continue not thinking about them.
Make no mistake, selling stock photos online isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It can take time to build a sizable bank of images and for your photos to gain momentum. But once that happens, you could start making money while you sleep. And that’s the best part of this income stream: it can be highly passive. You take the photos once, then collect money for months or years going forward!
Why Stock Photos are an Easy Addition to Your Real Estate Business
As a real estate professional, you’re the perfect candidate to make money selling stock photos online.
You already have:
- access to a good camera (cell phone photos aren’t going to cut it for most stock photo sites)
- basic photography skills (for your listings if nothing else)
- relationships with property owners and/or vendors who may be willing to grant you access to their property for stock photo shoots (more on why this is important in a bit)
- experience handling heavy competition
Stock photography also fits into your business because it doesn’t require much time or effort to maintain. You can take the photos and post them on your slow days or during your slow season, and reap the benefits the rest of the year.
6 Keys to Making the Stock Photo Income Stream Productive
So we’ve looked at the basic process of selling stock photos online and why this income stream is a great fit for real estate agents. Now let’s talk about how you really make money selling stock photos. These are the keys to making your stock photo income stream productive.
1. Get your photos accepted by the stock photo sites
The first key is to make sure your photos are acceptable. This isn’t necessarily about the composition quality (you’ll always be submitting your best work, of course), but about the submission guidelines for the sites to which you’re posting your photos. Each site will post guidelines for acceptable photos. Make sure you read them!
In general, all stock photo sites will have guidelines relating to:
- Camera type. Most require a DSLR Camera (or equivalent). If you don’t already have your own, ask your if you can borrow the company camera for stock photos.
- Image ownership. You must be the sole owner of any work you submit.
- Trademarks. Trademarks like company logos or other branding can’t be visible in the photo. If you take a photo of a skyline with a visible billboard, you need to Photoshop the billboard’s advertisement out of the photo.
- Landmarks. Landmarks cannot be the focus of your image unless you have a waiver signed by the owner.
- Technical quality. View your images at 100% before uploading to make sure they are in focus, free of noise (graininess), and haven’t been excessively retouched.
- Size. Sites are looking for high-resolution files on the large side, so each will have a minimum acceptable file size.
2. Get a release signed for any person or property visible in your photos
If people are recognizable in your image, you must have a signed model release from each person (or their legal guardian if you have anyone under 18 appearing in a photo). The same general rule applies to private property; if the property is recognizable, you need to have a signed property release from the owner to sell the photos online. These release forms must be uploaded to the stock photo sites along with your photos. Adobe’s model release and property release forms are available for download and should be accepted by all stock photo sites.
3. Niche down
Question: How can you make money selling stock photos online with such heavy competition? Answer: You niche down.
Instead of competing with everyone else, target a very specific audience, and dominate in that niche. There are a million photos of the Rocky Mountains, for example. Your photo would have very little chance of even being seen, let alone purchased. But if you niche down to adventure excursions in the Rockies, photographing racks of snow skis, whitewater rafting trips, and hang gliders, you could be the go-to source for that industry.
To choose a niche, consider your potential buyers. Stock photos are purchased mostly by companies, entrepreneurs, and bloggers for marketing purposes. So think about what images they need for their businesses and what resources you have available to meet that need.
As a real estate agent, you have access to homes (make sure you get those releases signed by the owners!) and props like keys and signs. This gives you an opportunity to niche into Realtor®-related stock photos: images other agents could use for their websites, emails, and social media posts. You may also have access to home repair tools and equipment, so you could focus on creating stock photos for home repair professionals like electricians, plumbers, and painters.
Get creative!
4. Tag your images wisely
As you upload your images to the stock photo sites, you’ll have the opportunity to tag each image with appropriate keywords to make them easier to find. The more tags you add, the greater your chances of being found in the sea of images. Try to use as many words as the site will allow (sometimes up to 50).
Here are some categories to consider as you tag:
- Subject: what is visible in the photo (home, family, keys)? List as many things as you see.
- Synonyms and off-shoots: what other words might people search for (house, buyers, door)?
- Emotion: what emotions are conveyed (happy, proud, excited)?
- Colors: what colors are prominently featured (blue sky, white trim, green lawn)?
- Industry: to which industries would your photo appeal (real estate, hospitality, home maintenance)?
Try to picture your potential photo buyers and ask yourself, “What words are they typing in the search bar?”
5. Market your images
If you have the time and desire to really invest in this income stream, you could actively market your images to your potential buyers. Join Facebook groups that cater to your audience, and post your photos with links to where they can be purchased. Or pin your images on Pinterest.
6. Keep building your image libraries
Here’s where I’ve really dropped the ball. I’ve gotten busy with other projects and failed to get out there and take more stock photos. The more high-quality photos you upload, the greater your exposure, and the more money you can make. *Penciling in a photo shoot for next week right now.*
How to Get Started
You can test the stock photography waters by posting images you already have sitting on your computer. Get started today by signing up as a contributor for free on these platforms (these are the sites I personally use), and posting your photos.
Each site will review your initial photos and accept or reject them. Rejections will help you understand more about what each site is looking for. You may have the same photo accepted by one site and rejected by another. Once you understand what each site is looking for, you can invest time in a scheduled, purposeful stock photo shoot.
How to Push This Idea Further
Now that you know how to make money selling stock photos online, let’s look at a couple options to push this idea further: membership sites and new home photo shoots.
Membership Sites
If you really enjoy the stock photography income stream, you could create your own stock photography website, and charge a monthly subscription fee for members to access your library of photos. To provide added value to your members, you could provide curated image collections that work together to create cohesive branding.
Haute Stock is a great example of a membership site for stock images. They specialize in “stylized stock photography for women entrepreneurs.” If you look at their website, you’ll see how their image library is well-curated to make life easier for their subscribers. Haute Stock is able to charge $99/quarter or $299/year per member. That’s a pretty lucrative income stream.
A quick word of caution regarding membership sites: membership sites are not passive. You must provide new high-quality content month after month to keep your members happy.
And you should be prepared to spend lots of time marketing your site to grow your member base. But as a real estate agent, you’re probably pretty good at marketing yourself, right?
New Home Photo Shoots
Here’s a totally different way to make money in photography: new home photo shoots.
You know how the upcoming generation documents every step of their lives in photos. The big steps get professional photo shoots; think engagement, wedding, and maternity photos. But we haven’t really capitalized on new home photo shoots yet. Establish yourself as The New Home Photographer in your area before someone beats you to it!
Here’s why I love the idea of adding this service to your existing real estate business:
- You know exactly how to find new homeowners to market this service to
- You can cross-promote your services: make your new buyers your next photography clients, and make your new photography clients your next sellers
- And you probably already have most of the resources you need (a camera and a website), but even if you don’t, it’s a relatively low-cost start-up when you can get your camera with accessories, a lighting kit, and a website all for under $1,000!
Get a Small Win
Great victories are made possible by small wins. Before you move on with the rest of your day, get a small win!
Your Small Win Challenge is to sign up for just one of the stock photo sites (I would start with Adobe, because most of my sales have come from there, but it’s entirely up to you) and upload a few test photos you already have. This way you can work through the process, see how much time it takes, and decide if you’d like to make money selling stock photos online as one of your new income streams.
Oh, and the group would love to hear about your stock photo sales experience. Report back in the comments if you have a minute!
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