Photoshop

It may be easier than you think to turn your passion for photography into a profession that can become quite lucrative. If your photos are above average quality and you have a creative mind, you have the potential to earn more than any 9-5 job could ever pay. To become a top earner in this growing field you must remember that your photos need to be unique and draw the eye of potential buyers. For every downloaded photo your bank balance will increase. Now, if this sounds like something you would be interested in please read on to see how you can make this a reality for you.

First of all, you don’t need to be a professional photographer or even have the best camera on the market today. Ordinary cameras can take amazing pictures, any 5 MP camera with a 3X zoom can create good quality photos that can be edited with a software program such as Adobe Photoshop or Elements.

You will want to take photos of items that have a bit of commericial appeal and then submit them to an online stock photography site; if your photos are accepted the site will then put your photos for sale. I recommend you visit various sites to see which types of photographs are for sale prior to taking your own photos. You also want to investigate the stock photography sites and compare the compensation packages that they offer in order to ensure you are finding the one that suits you best. When deciding what to photograph always keep in mind who would be purchasing your photos; interested people include media personnel, web designers, and advertisers. For each downloaded photo you will receive a commission, the amount dependent on which site you have chosen. To ensure your success in this business you want to submit only your best photos and continually update your portfolio.

You also want to make sure people who are looking to buy photos will find yours. This is done by using appropriate keywords to define your photos. You want to do this so that potential buyers who use search engines to find what they are looking for will find yours. The typical rule of thumb is that the earlier your photos appear in the search engine results the higher your changes of it being viewed and purchased. For instance, if you have photos of tennis players then adding the keyword “sports” increases the visibility of your photo.

When you do your research into stock photography sites you will come across some of the more popular ones including ShutterPoint, Photo Stock Plus, Fotolia, Corbis, and everystockphoto.com, etc. Each of them will ask you to fill out a free membership form giving you access to their site. A few of them may charge a nominal fee so please do your research prior to deciding which sties you want to join.

Prior to putting your photos up for sale each site will ask you to submit your work for approval so it is important that you only submit your highest quality photos. Competition is stiff so you want to only submit photos that are unique and different from the rest. Do your research prior to submission and you will be guaranteed a spot and, with that, an incredible income.