Did you know that you can make a passive income or even begin a new career by selling your photos online? Whether you are an amateur with a really great smartphone or a professional with a very expensive camera, you can make money. Stock photography is high in demand and there are tons of sites that are always in need of great photos. Dreamstime, Getty, Shutterstock, IStockphoto, SmugMug, Adobe Stock, Etsy, and 500px are only a few. Below, on ‘How to Sell Your Photos Online’, I am going to talk about Foap and how having your own photography website is the best way to sell your photos online.
∗As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post contains affiliate links, if you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. I may also be compensated through other links on this post, and all ‘opinions’ are my own.
What is Foap?
Foap is a private company that was founded in 2011 with its headquarters in Kristianstad, Sweden. You may have seen them featured on ABC News as a profitable photography app that you can use to sell your photos and make money. Foap photos have been used by popular brands such as Nivea, KraftHeinz, Volvo, and Heineken.
Looking for a great camera? Check out Amazon!
How Do I Make Money?
First and foremost, you must be eighteen years or older and have iOS or an Android device in order to use the app. You will also need a PayPal account to get paid. Once you have downloaded the free app from Apple iTunes or Google Play and registered, simply upload your photos and videos to the Foap platform. Brands, agencies, and bloggers can then purchase your photos/videos from foap.com for $10 each. You will receive a 50% commission or $5 for each photo sold.
There are two additional ways to make more money with Foap:
1. Regular Missions- Regular missions have only one winner. Rewards range from $100 to $500.
2. Premium Missions- Premium missions have multiple winners. Rewards can be as high as $2,000. You can unlock these missions by using Foap coins. To earn 5 Foap coins, you simply watch video ads.
A ‘mission’ is when a brand is searching for a particular type of photo. They will send Foap a detailed description of exactly what they want. Photographers (you) then compete in a ‘mission’, where you submit the perfect photo to match the brands’ detailed description. You will then wait to see if you won the mission where you can potentially earn hundreds of dollars for that one photo. Easy and Fun right? Below is one sample of a Premium Mission.
What Type of Photos Should I Submit?
Think about different ads, blogs, and websites that you have seen also topics, think of what type of photo would make the content of a certain topic pop! Keep in mind, recognizable people and brands many require releases or special licenses so you should always look into what is required before submitting photos of that nature.
Also, the more photos you submit, the better your chances of selling them and winning missions so keep submitting, keep practicing and take that camera everywhere because you never know when an amazing photo op will arise. Quality is of course going to up your chances so consider that as well. Below are some great photo ideas.
- People: All walks of life doing everyday things, working, playing, eating, crying, laughing, etc.
- Food: All different foods from all different cultures, at home, in the grocery store, at a market, takeout, dine-in, eaten, uneaten, etc.
- Nature: Everything in nature is amazing. Trees, water, mountains, weather, animals, insects, disasters, etc.
- Travel: Travel is huge and photos of any sort of travel from anywhere would likely be a hot photo, not just places, think planes, trains, buses, and boats.
- Business: Think outside of the box, computers, meetings, paperclips, headphones, cameras, books, handshakes, bosses, coffee shops, suits, and ties, screenshots, sticky notes, etc.
- Words: Yes words. Be creative and shoot lots of words in many creative ways for business, moods, actions, etc.
- Miscellaneous: Go crazy and use your imagination. Sports, tools, weapons, hearts, stars, bicycles, balls, toys, etc.
The Best Place to Sell Your Photos
There is a lot of competition out there and you are not likely going to get rich from selling your photos on Foap. It is a great side hustle and you may get lucky and make a very huge profit off of a few photos, you can even sell to other sites, however, the very best place to sell your photos is from your own website. I know, you’re probably thinking, “I don’t know the first thing about building a website!” If that’s the case, let me assure you if I can build a website, so can you.
With Wealthy Affiliate, you can build a WordPress website from scratch, you will be trained step-by-step, you will have all the tools and services required at your fingertips along with all the support you can imagine all in one place for one price and it’s completely free to try out, so you can take the time to decide if it’s the right place for you and your photography website. Read more about that HERE.
Once you start to build your website, you can easily download a plugin that will easily showcase your photography, I highly recommend Modula or Envira which are both free WordPress plugins, and after that, all you need is WooCommerce (also a free plugin) installed so that you can sell your photography right from your website. All of this will be very simple with one amazing platform, Wealthy Affiliate.
Benefits of Having a Photography Website
You can make a career out of doing what you love and you can even monetize your photography website with ads and affiliate links if you choose. Imagine the other doors that may open because of your website. The possibilities are endless. Here are just a few of the benefits of having your own photography website:
- Your own photography portfolio to display
- You are an Authority
- Set your own rules
- Set your own prices
- You keep 100% of your earnings
- You are in control
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed the article and found some useful tips. Selling your photos to stock photography sites is a good way to make some extra income, however, if you’re looking for something more solid and want to start your own business, I highly recommend looking into building your own website. I did it with Wealthy Affiliate and I honestly have not found a better or more affordable way to do it. I hope you consider this route and I wish you the very best on your new journey!
Thanks for visiting!
Hi there Loving your blog and learning how to sell your photos I am a name of selfies but that’s another type of photos. Most importantly your site has more clarity the way you layout your articles helps anyone to understand the photography sales opportunity I myself, I’m hooked I would love to go in the world taking memorable photos that anyone would love to spend money on, I really love the details of the blog Thank you
You bet! Thank you for reading the article and for the kind words. I’m sure you could sell some photos, give it a try.
Thank you for sharing this!
I didn’t know that some of my pics can be placed on a website and actually make some profit out of it. I always take great pictures of my dishes since I love to cook. I think sounds like a project to me to build my own website to have my own gallery
Thank you for giving me such a great idea.
You bet Nicole! I’m glad that my article was of some use to you. Keep taking those great photos and get something out of it! Thanks for visiting.
Gosh, bro. Crazy information. I always am looking for ways to generate passive income and now you have shown me a great way, I do have some amount of passion in photography, and have a good camera. But the thing is I am not an adult so what shall I do? Which would be better income-wise Foap or selling your photos on Shutterstock etc.
Thanks for the great question Surya. Not being an adult could be an advantage for you. Start focusing on taking quality photos and build a portfolio. Then as soon as you turn 18 you will be ahead of the game. You could even start building your website now. All of these stock photography sites are pretty similar and it depends on several factors such as, how many photos you download, the price a buyer pays, etc. Foap is just much easier to use. I highly recommend your own website as that really is the best way to sell your photos. Have a great day!
Hi Tracy,
It’s great to see your sharing about Foap, but just like what you mentioned in the article, the platform takes 50% of your earning potential. So, it seems a better idea to build your own site to sell your photos if you are passionate for photography. Based on your experiences that selling photos on Foap, what kind of photos do you have a higher possibility of sales? Or on your own site?
Thanks.
Matt
Hi Matt, It really is best to build your own site and have full control. To answer your question, I believe that you need a very wide range of topics. See what’s trending and what other stock photo sites don’t have, be unique. Health, Fitness, Travel, Food, and Business are very popular niche’s and images with people sell very well. High-quality photos are also a must, build a portfolio, and only show your best work. The sales are dependent on demand. Wishing you the best. Thanks for visiting.
Wow… that is a fantastic commission rate. Do you need to have a certain number of photos available before you start receiving that commission?
Hey Catherine. No, you do not need a certain amount of photos before receiving commissions, however, the more the better. Also, if you add other users’ photos to your album and someone buys one of their photos, you would receive $0.25. Foap is a pretty cool way to earn some money. Thanks for visiting. : )
Hi Tracy, thank you for sharing this information with me. I didn’t know about Foap and I never thought about using my own website to sell my photos. I am very happy to learn about this, and I’m going to give it a try, starting with the free website I can build with Wealthy Affiliate. I will make sure I leave another comment to let you know how it’s going. Thanks again Tracy for the very helpful post.
My pleasure Jim, my daughter is really into photography and very good at it if I do say so myself. : ) I enjoy writing articles on things that could be helpful to her and other photo fanatics. I’m glad you found this one useful and I look forward to hearing about your new website! Thanks for visiting. : )
Thank you so much for this highly informative article! I love to take pictures, though I only do so as a hobby (I’m definitely not a “photographer” by any stretch of the imagination. Haha). It’s amazing to see how technology has progressed over the past century-we now have computers, can own online businesses, and can earn passive income via affiliate marketing, photography, and a wide plethora of things. I have saved your site and will share it with my friends and family. God bless you!
You bet C.N.! I’m glad you liked it. It truly is amazing how technology has progressed. Thank you for visiting and for sharing, I truly appreciate that. : ) God Bless you too and have a great evening.