Sell Photography

Morning Market on Santorini

Okay – so you’re ready to start looking for sites that will buy your work. Here are the basics, regardless of what you hope to do.

1. First step: Choose your best 10 images. Some sites will review your first 3 to 10 images to determine if you have an eye, and know what you’re doing. So it’s important to note that you should choose your best 10 images.

2. Next, name each file to the image name (in Windows, right-click , then Rename). Then, you need to add details to each photo. Do that by right-clicking the file or icon/thumbnail, go down to Properties, then open the Details tab. In that window, you will find all the information about that photo, including the exif info, dates taken and modified, camera used, etc. The important things to fill in here are the Title, Subject, Tags, and Comments. Some Microstock sites will collect this info when you upload the file, saving you the time of retyping it at each site, for each photo – a laborious process.

3. Next you need to register with the sites that will sell your images for you. There are sites that are free to use, and some that charge a monthly or annual fee. All of them have some qualifying process, with varying degrees of complexity. Start with the free sites. But note, just because they are free doesn’t mean they are “easy”. Most are still discriminating about what photos they accept, so make sure you submit your best.

Okay, here we go. Let’s start with the free sites. If you go down the list with me, you can go to each site’s registration page by clicking on the links furnished:

Free Sites That Sell Your Photos

123RF

DreamsTime

Can Stock Photos

Crestock

FeaturePics

fotolia

Imagekind

Image Vortex

iStockPhoto

Pixmac

SmugMug

Shutterstock

StockXPert®

NOT FREE -  these sites have a setup, monthly or annual fee

MorePhotos, Zenfolio, Shutterpoint