How to Sell Your Travel Photos as Stock Images

For those with a good eye and a half-decent camera, it is possible to make some cash by selling your best travel snaps as stock images.

Selling to magazines and newspapers is next to impossible without being a professional and having connections. Stock photo sites act as middle-men to broker deals between travel photographers and media giants. Creating a profile is fairly simple and you get a commission for every photo sold.

The most professional agencies are of Getty, Corbis and JupiterMedia. However, we think most amateur photographers have a better shot at making sales on ‘micro-stock’ agencies like iStockPhoto, ShutterStock, and Big Stock Photo as they are less elite. When uploading your pictures make sure to tick ‘non-exclusive’ this means you can display them on different stock sites at the same time.

SHUTTERSTOCK

Payment on Shutterstock works on an incremental scale. So the more of a particular photo you sell, the greater the value per sale. The starting price is $0.25 per image so it can take a while to build up any decent cash.

iSTOCKPHOTO

iStockphoto offers larger commissions if you tick the ‘exclusive’ box when uploading your pictures. This gives you more cash with every sale but limits your exposure so the money might be longer in the coming. If you have a truly extraordinary photograph, iStockphoto puts it into it’s special program called Vetta which helps boost sales.

BIG STOCK PHOTO

Big Stock Photo offers the high commission rate of 50% meaning you’ll earn between $0.50 and $3 for every photo sold. Pay-outs are done electronically but you need to acculumiate at least $50 before you can cash out. They organize their images by what is in demand which gives you an indication of what photos will sell best.

STOCKXPERT

Stockxpert used to be a prominent micro-stock agency until it was bought out by stock giant Jupiter. They offer 50% commissions on all credit purchases and pay electronically through Paypal and Moneybookers, which is handy for travellers. Affiliate programs, such as links to websites and referrals, can boost your earnings.