Earn More Money With Stock Photographs:Tips & Tricks

Step Into A Billion Dollar Industry & Earn Online

I promised to come back with the tips and tricks on how to make more money with your stock photos. If you've missed my previous post by any chance then you can get it here.

Today we're going to learn the very basic tips and tricks of selling stock photographs. Now, I must warn you that these tips are pretty basic and mostly suitable for the newbs only. This blog is for newbies like me and I tend to keep it the way. If you're an advanced user and looking for advanced tips and tricks then I should warn you that this post might not help you.

So, let's begin with the stock photo business online. Well, I'm quite sure that you're well aware of online blogs and sites that need new and relevant images almost every day. The demand for the huge number of photos and images lead today's stock photography or micro stock photography industry where it is today. It's a huge hungry industry and it's growing bigger fast and steady.

Just imagine websites or blogs without images! How would they look like? There is a billion of websites and blogs and counting, one image a day means a multi billion dollar market . I hope you got the picture of the market and trust me it's just a fraction of the actual market.

So, if you're just starting out in the stock photography industry then you're actually stepping in to a trillion dollar industry. As the market is huge, so is the competition but all hope is not lost and you're still in a position to establish yourself as a successful stock photo seller. For doing so, first you'll need to learn the basics of selling stock photos.

Basics of Selling Stock Photographs

At the very beginning you'll need to learn the basic photography (only if you're serious about taking it as a profession). But the amateurs can carry on with their DSLR or with the camera on your portable devices.

Join A Stock Photography Agency Online

The very first step is to join any stock photography agency online. Don't worry most of them are free to join. Consider joining the most popular ones with a huge audience. You can get the list of top 5 stock photo agencies online from my previous post.

Follow the Quality Guidelines

All the popular online stock photography agencies have their own quality guidelines. Make sure you follow them before you upload any photo. Like one of the largest stock photo agency online istockphoto states their own quality guidelines. See in the screen shot below.

Acceptance is Tough

It's easy to join in but it's tough to pass their evaluation tests. Consistency and determination is the key here. Keep trying until you get accepted. As the filament inventor Edison said,

“I did not fail a 1000 times, I've just discovered a 1000 different ways of not making a filament.”

Rejections will lead you to work harder and will make you a better photographer. So, take rejections positively and try inventing new ways of shooting photos.

Perfection will Trigger the Sales

No one likes to buy a faulty product. So, if you're really into photography then eliminate the faulty clicks and make it perfect. It'll not only trigger the sales but also make you a better photographer. Keep in mind that at 100%, most of the pictures will not look as you want them to look like. Fix those issues for better conversions and you'll make more money from your photos.

Keywords Or Tags

Keywords or tags are really very important. Once you've passed their moderation and got accepted in their programs, you should focus more on visibility of your work. As people will search with keywords, the chances of sales will drop remarkably if you're not using the right keywords for your work.

Photo Description

A proper description of your photo is also very crucial when it comes to search visibility. A description that explains your work better will surely increase your sales. Means, more money in your pocket.

Sell What's Selling

Find the top selling photos, follow the trend and shoot photos like the top selling one. Every work is unique but the demand for all the products are never the same. Photos that are already selling like hot cakes, indicates demand and insufficient supplies. Fill the gap and you'll be selling hot cakes too.

Pick a Niche

Pick a niche that is not already over saturated. A good niche with less competition will increase the sales for sure. And there are evergreen niches like the technology niche, weight loss niche, fashion niche that will always will be in demand but the trend will be changing. So selecting the niche is more important than you're thinking it is.

Numbers Game

At the end of the day, stock photography is just like everything else in life. The more you sell the more you'll make. So, if you have more photos to sell then the sales will definitely go up. It's as simple as it could be.

Now that you know the very basics of making more money with stock photography, I hope that you'll be able to make more money online with your photos. Let me know if you've any questions or anything confusions, I will try to answer as much as I can. Until next time, take care. 

How To Really Make Money Online: The 30 Day Challenge

My last post was on “Can Ireally make money online?” and I've stated a few ways of making money online. Now, as I was in your shoes when I've just started my journey of making money online; I know how lost you might feel. No wonder that you'll feel like a nerd and you'll start searching once again for all. I don't blame you at all as I've done the same thing.


After years of learning and testing ways of making money online I've found a few ways that really earns money. It's not easy money but it pays the bills every month. The main purpose of this blog was to help people like me who wants to earn online. I would not say that I've achieved the goal I was after as I got distracted quite a few times but I kept pushing myself and started once again from where I left it.


So, after the last post I've published (there are a few unpublished half done post saved to draft, which I don't know when I'll be able to finish and finally publish) I wanted to make it easy for my audience to learn and implement the techniques; which will make them their first dollar. Guess what? I've found something pretty interesting and handy as well.

The Challenge 2013

I've just found the right course which is absolutely free by the way for you. It's called the “The Challenge 2013”. It's an online training series which promises to teach you “How to make money online” from the very beginning by simply following their step by step system. Now, this might sound very fishy but trust me guys, I've tested their techniques by myself. This will work for sure.

The Challenge: What Is It?

Well, as I've already told you that it's a free online training that teaches you how to make money online. And they ensure you that if you follow their path then you'll earn your first online dollar within 30 days only.

The 1^st $: The Hardest One

From my experience I can say that the first dollar you make is always the hardest at the same time the sweetest dollar you'll ever make. The Challenge will show you the way of doing that.

Disclaimer: I'm not associated with “The Challenge” and I'm not going to get any monetary benefit from this recommendation. Not a single penny that I'm going to earn from this recommendation!!

What's In "The Challenge"?

So, what's in “The Challenge”? A complete set of video tutorials that will teach you step by step to make money from online. How to make money online with in the next 30 days (only if you start today) and a lots more. Totally free, no charges and you can leave anytime you want.

The video tutorials are short and to the point, so that you can save your precious time. The site is fully featured with lots of stuff like groups, forums, progress reports, private messaging and many more cool stuff that you'll love.


Just follow the link below and you'll be there, sign up and voila; you're done. 

The Challenge: http://challenge.co/

Stick there for the next 30 days, follow their instructions and take necessary actions. You'll start to earn money from online in no time.



Let me know if you've got any question. Until next time, take care. 

Can I Really Make Money Online?!

One of the most commonly asked question of all time when it comes to online money making is, “Can I make money online?” The answer is pretty simple, “Yes, you can make money online.” That's it, no room for debate whether anyone can make money online or not. Thousands of people like me are making money online and living a dream life, if I can do it then you can do it too.

Now, the real question that you should ask yourself before you finally jump into the online money making business is, “Can you make money online?”. You must be wondering why you need to ask the question. You need to find the answer because making money online is not anything like you've done before. The whole game is totally different than the real world. Rules are way different than the real world rules and the whole thing takes place on a virtual world. Making money online means making money virtually, I hope this makes sense to you.

I know a lot of people thinks of “online money making” like a part time job. When the reality is, “online money making” is just like your every day job and sometimes pay more than any real life job. There are hundreds of professionals online that are making top dollars from the internet. So, it's not a part time job or a way to make extra money beside your full time job.

Where's the Money?

Now, that being said, I would like to ask you; “How much do you plan to earn online?”. If you're just planning to make some extra money online then the options are endless but if you're trying to replace your every day job then the scenario will be totally different.

It's really tough to cover everything in a single blog post and the post will be very long to digest at once. So, today we're going to talk on the opportunities of “making some extra money online” and on a later post we'll talk about professional online money making. I've made a few great post on this blog that sheds some light on professional online money earning topic, feel free to explore the blog archive.

So, let's get back to the real deal in here. To make some extra money online, you need to determine your way of doing that. As there is more than a million way of earning money online and all of them makes some money. I'm listing a few things that you can do to make a few extra money online. Pick one from the list below, master it and start making some extra money online.

Earn Money Online Testing Websites & Mobile Apps

There are companies that need real people to test their website or mobile apps to find out the bugs or flaws of their site and apps. You can do that too, some companies pay $10-$15 for every testing you do. Not bad for a quick 15-20 minutes task. Here's a link  to start, do check them out.

Teach Something

If you're an expert on anything that people might be interested in learning then you can start an online coaching class. It's easier than you think and the pay is not bad either.

Translate Some Documents

Translating documents is always a great part time job. Some foreign languages like French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese are always needs documents translating. If you know any of them then it's your time to cash the skill.

Write Resumes

This is really interesting, a good resume can change your life. That's why people always tend to hire someone better than them to write a resume on behalf of them. Earns top dollar in the industry and it doesn't take too much of your time.

Offer a Service

Good at something or anything? Why don't you start to offer the skill as a service? There could be numerous things that you can sell like writing, drawing, graphic designing, website designing, web development; even voice over could be sold as a service.

Instead of looking for a job online, start offering it as a service. This will ease things out. When you feel like doing it, accept orders else decline them.

Sell a Product

Amazon is selling products worth billions of dollars every year. You can sell some too. Even Amazon is looking for people to promote their product for them and they offer great commission on sales. You could do that too.

Create a Product & Sell

Don't feel like selling other people's product? Create one for yourself and start selling it online. Products could be both physical products or digital products, doesn't matters as long as you're getting paid for that.

Feeling lost? You can create products like Ebooks, Video Training Materials, Software, Themes and many other things like that. And the best part is, you get to keep all the earning for yourself.

Sell Stock Photos

Like to shoot with your camera? Why don't you sell a few of your photos to make some extra money online? Here's a post I've recently wrote on selling stock photos online.

Start a Blog

Love to write? Then starting a blog should be a good choice. People makes decent amount of money online by blogging and surely you don't have to be a professional blogger. Read more about blogging, here.

Become a Mystery Shopper

One of my favorite, get paid to shop. Mystery shopping is nothing but shopping from a shop specified by the employer. Retailers like the Walmart, Home Depot and Kroger need to learn about their customer services, they usually do it by hiring mystery shoppers from all around the world. You can do it too. Just Google "mystery shopping opportunities" and you'll definitely find something to start with. But be mindful that actual opportunities don't cost money to sign up or don't need to pay up front anything. If someone is asking for anything to pay for the job, simply walk away. Try some where else, just to be on the safe side.

Well, I can keep going all day and still there will be a hundred left. So, to be realistic I'm not going any further. Do explore all the ways of making money online listed above. I'm sure you'll be able to make some extra money online and support your family better.

If you have any question or confusion on anything I've said here then please feel free to contact me or post a comment here. I would be more than happy to help you. So until next time, take care.

Make Money Selling Stock Photography

My previous post was a bit of tutorial type post and I must admit that it was a pretty simple one. Well, my blog is for the beginners only and for that reason I'm consistently trying to write about things that will be helpful for newbies like me. Though I hope that experts or advanced users will find my posts helpful as well.

Today, I'm going to share a simple and free way to make money online. Is it going to make you rich? I don't think so but this will definitely help you pay some of your bills. I hope you'll like this simple but interesting way of making money online.

Every one these days own a smartphone which is by the way comes with a pretty strong built in digital camera and other useful gadgets as well. No room for debate that mobile technology has changed the way we live. It has made our life a bit more comfortable and made us a bit more productive in ways that no one ever thought was possible.

Modern Smart Phones

Modern smartphones are more like a bundle of gadgets in a single box. Digital camera, mp3 player, mini video camera, flash light, digital alarm clock and much much more.

Now, these smartphones gave birth of a new click happy generation that tends to click and shoot anything and everything around them. Resulting a huge collection of digital photographs that they don’t even need to print. They just store it on their SD Cards, Hard Drives or on Cloud Storage services (free and premium both counts) like the dropbox, Copy, Google Drive, SkyDrive etc.

Well, what if I tell you that you can make some money with those pictures that are sitting idle on your SD cards or whatever storage device or service you use. Yap, you're right and no, I'm not kidding at all. You can make some real hard cash right at the moment and the best part is, you don’t need to spend a dime to make that money.

Yes, you heard me right! You can, right at this moment. I know by now you must be excited yet there is a bit of doubt on your mind. I don’t blame you and I’ll also like to remind you that you’re not going to get rich today or tomorrow by just doing this as I’ve already mentioned it. So, without any more BS...let’s roll it in.

You can easily sell your stored photos as stock photography and surely you don’t have to be a pro photographer to sell stock photos. I can vouch for the statement I’ve just made.

“Stock Photography”; let's you sell your photos to people who need them. Simple, easy and mostly free. There are plenty of agencies online that lets you sell your photos and pay you for your hard work, over and over as long as your photos are in demand.

Just imagine yourself as an owner of a viral photograph that you've just shot by accident. You’ll be able to pay many unpaid bills with the money you’ll be getting for that picture.

Now, I’m not a pro photographer and I suck at amateur photography as well. Still, I have managed to make a few bucks every month from stock photography alone. So, if I can do it, you can do it too(I’m kind of hoping that you’re a better photographer than I’m).

By now your head must be spinning and you’re already planning to sell some of your photos online. Nothing wrong with that but if I were you, I should finish the whole blog post first and then get to work. You know there is a saying,

“A little learning is a dangerous thing”

I hope you get my point. Now, lets look at the facts on how to start selling stock photos to make some real cash.

A Sample Stock Photo Image
Courtsy by www.istockphot.com

The Process of Selling Stock Photography

The process is pretty simple, all you've got to is to take some high resolution pictures by yourself or sort them out from your previous stock(most of the agencies don't allow pictures less than 4 mega pixels in resolutions).

Here are the steps to start your own online stock photography selling business.

• Create an account with the top agencies (there are both free and paid agency services).
• Upload your photos to your account.
• Name it carefully, use the most appropriate tags so that clients and people could easily find your listings.
• Sit back and relax.
• Money should start to flow in to your account.

Not making you rich, I guess but making you a bit more happier for sure.

Where to Sell Stock Photography

Well, there are numerous places online that you can start selling your photos right today. I'm listing the top agencies for selling photography.

http://www.istockphoto.com/

http://www.shutterstock.com/

http://www.gettyimages.com/

http://flickr.com/

I should warn you that you’re not alone in the market and you’re going to face some serious competition for sure. But from my point of view,a little competition is always better as it gives me the message that there’s money to be made. It also indicates that the product I’m trying to sell is still in demand.

Another Word of Caution:

Every online stock photography agencies has their own set of rules, read them carefully and make sure you understand them. This will ensure your safety as we’re talking about selling digital photos that you own.

I would also love to add that every platform is different and to obtain the maximum paycheck, you’ll have to master these platforms first.

This post has already became longer than I’ve planned and I’m certain that I need to talk a lot more about selling stock photo. But that’s not possible right now, so I’ll be making another in depth post on the tips of tricks of selling stock photos online.

In the next post I’ll show you how you can easily make more money by selling stock photography. Till then feel free to explore those agencies listed above and I’ll back with the next post on “How to make more money selling stock photos online”. Take care.

Make Money Online Forums

Everyday hundreds of people search online for “Make money online forums”, I do understand the importance of online forums. I myself do use them everyday and kind of like it as well. Moreover, the online forums have given me so much over the years in my online money making ventures that I feel I'm buried under their favors.

I'm not an online big shot guru something like that, instead I'm just an ordinary guy like you trying to make a living online. So, I felt that it's time I should give something back to the online community. So, here I'm with a brand new post. I've wrote a couple of posts that covers most of the forum topics. You can find those posts here.

Today we'll learn how to find online money making forums and I'm going to show you the simplest way to do so. There is a Chinese saying that

“Don't teach how to eat fish, teach how to fish if you're really trying to help”

I love Chinese and I love this quote but forgive me for my ignorance, I don't know who's quote is this. Anyway, let's get back to our tutorial on online money making forums.

Well, most of the Internet Marketers, especially the new ones struggle like hell only because they don't know how to use Google to get the right result. Only this skill will boost your efficiency remarkably.

The Technique:


The simplest technique to find the most relevant online money making forums is to type in Google search bar “Your keyword” and then follow the step by step pictures. You'll get it without any struggle. 

Type In “Your Keyword”

Once You've typed in then use the drop down “More” menu. 

Select the discussion and voila, you've got your required and the most relevant results. See in the picture below.

Adding a double quote like the picture will ensure that you're getting the exact search result. This will definitely show more relevant results for you. Try it yourself.

Google Search Tools

But that's not the end of everything, I would love to add a few more advanced technique so that you can easily work your way up to the ladder. 

Google search tools is a great addition for the Internet Marketers. This way we can easily find the latest posts or discussions. Explore the tool and you'll be amazed by yourself.

Using Google search tools will not only let you use Google smartly but also faster than before.

Once you click the option search tools, you'll see a couple options; named “Anytime” and “All Results”. Both has drop down features, just click it and there will be a new era of search tools that will surely blow you away.

Just use the pictures here for references and you'll find it way easier than you thought it was possible.

I hope you'll find these simple but useful technique of Google search for yourself. Now that you know what to do, go and find yourself a few “online money making forum”.