Get Paid to Take Digital Photographs

You’re reading this because you have two passions in life. First, you love taking photos. You probably carry your camera everywhere with you, just waiting for a chance to snap a candid shot that tells a little story. That’s the art of photography and, if you’re reading this, you have a passion for that art.
But then there’s your passion for money. Don’t worry, you’re not being judged. It’s good to be motivated by money. It’s what makes the world go ‘round, right? Or is that love? Point is, money may not bring happiness, but it sure makes life a whole lot easier to get through.
And anyone knows that the best way to make money is to take what you love and turn it into a business. Well, congratulations. You have taken the first step towards making money doing what you love: Taking digital photos.
Not many people know that you can make a good living just by selling photos over the Internet. But once you become aware of just how many photos we’re exposed to on a daily basis, the realization that you can make money taking great photos should be a no-brainer.

Do You Have What it Takes?

If you think it’s easy to sell digital photos online, you’re mistaken. Show me one person who’s made it big selling photos, and I’ll show you ten more just like him/her that don’t make squat. They could even be taking pictures of the same things. The difference between them is that the person who made it put time and effort into his/her photo business. So ask yourself, do you have what it takes to sell your digital photos online?
If you said yes, then you must commit yourself if you hope to make it.
Go back and read that sentence again. That’s the most important aspect of making money through digital photography. You must put in the required time and you must remain passionate about what you’re doing because that passion, or lack of it, will come out in your photos. And finally, you must be able to have patience until you’ve learned enough to actually know which photos will sell, and which ones won’t.
It requires time, your creativity level, obviously equipment and as well as rejection.

Sites that Pay for Your Photos
Now that you have a camera and you’re ready to publish them online so that you can make some money, it’s time to find some microstock sites to add your photos to.
You’ll find that some sites pay more than others, and you’ll also find a variation in the pay terms as well as methods of payment. Hopefully, this guide will help you choose one that’s right for your needs.
Shutterstock
This microstock site can be extremely lucrative, but first you have to be accepted. The main complaint you may hear about Shutterstock is that they’re picky about who they accept for their site. To get accepted, you must send in ten photos and have at least seven of them accepted by a review team.
It’s important to understand how stock photography works, and you also must have good equipment. It’s not uncommon to have to try a few times before getting accepted on this site. But if you can get in, the income potential is quite high.
Get Paid to Take Digital Photos

Dreamstime
This microstock site has a proven track record and it gets many visitors per day, as well as many sales. When you submit your photos to Dreamstime, you stand to make 50% commission on each sale you make. The best part is that you don’t have to send any test photos in order to get accepted. So this might be a good site to start with until you get a little more experience.
It must be stated that even though they accept unknown photographers, they do check all of the images they receive and they will reject any photos that they deem are of a lower quality.
Fotolia
Fotolia is sort of new on the microstock scene. They are quickly gaining popularity, however, and they have customers that span the globe. Fotolia isn’t known for its high commissions but your prices can go up once you gain through the ranks and get more sales.
The single most heard complaint about Fotolia, besides their long upload time, is the fact that they have a blacklist which includes all photos they no longer need. If you shoot a lot of horse photos, for instance, you may find that the site is saturated with them and that horses are now on that list.
Shutterstock, Dreamstime and Fotolia are the main microstock sites that most people use to successfully sell their photos. However, new sites are popping up all the time.

Your Target Audience
When you take a photo with the intent of selling it, sometimes it helps to picture your target audience. Those are the customers who buy your work. What do they typically look for? What sorts of images do they request or regularly buy? What angles do they prefer? What prices do they usually pay?
By knowing your target audience, you’ll be better prepared to give them what they want and you’ll double your chances of making sales.
Some would say that tailoring your shots according to what the clients want takes away from the beauty and candidness that makes up the art of photography. But don’t newspaper and magazine reporters do that all the time? What about the Paparazzi? They’re all photographers who set out to make money with their photographs and they’re giving the consumers what they want.
And that’s exactly what you’re doing with these microstock websites. You’re providing a service. That service just happens to be something you’re skilled at creating. So they pay you accordingly. Get good enough and you’ll never have to go back to an office job again.