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Make Money with your Photos
By Bruce C. Murray

Yes you can make money by selling photos online. Many of us have hundreds of excellent photos taking up space on our harddrives, some may have thousands. I've been buying photos for my various travel websites since 1995. And today I still lots of stock photos. So I'm familiar with both ends of the process making money from photos and buying photos.

With the explosion of online content publishers need images. Several selling options exsist: Setup webpages and manage the process yourself. Create a professional portfolio and submit it to one of the exsisting stock photo agencies. Connect with ShutterStock who is set-up specifically to help individual photographers make money from their photos.

I'm a big fan of ShutterStock. It's free and has no service fees or hidden charges. You fill out a simple form and your up and running.

They are looking for good, quality images. Images that have good content and high technical standards are a reqirement. They also show you a listing of most downloaded images showing you what images are selling the most on their system. They pay you each time one of their sites subscribers, usually photo editors, webmasters, and other publishing outlets, downloads your photos.

They pay what seems like a very small amount, and it is. But the secret to making money with your photos is in the volume. They only pay you 25 cents each time a photo is downloaded, but with volume this can add up to a steady monthly income. I have a friend, a travel writer/photographer, who has tens of thousands of images in his files and as he approaches retirment a service like ShutterStock is an excellent source of future income.

They offer detailed online members area reporting pages on the site that helps you keep track of your photos and earnings.

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And for those of you OUTSIDE the USA, can you join? Yes! Certain high fraud areas of the world may require prior approval before an account is created. If your country isn't listed on the signup form, please contact support and submit your portfolio. They may also require references. As long as you can receive and cash checks by air postal mail, and your pictures are 100% yours, you can join. Checks will be drawn in US dollars - so make sure your bank is capable of cashing this type of check.

What are the requirements of an uploaded photo? Photos must be at least 2.5MP (2.5 Million Pixels). To determine the amount of pixels in a photo, multiply the width by the length. For example: a photo which is 1700x1500 adds up to a total of 2.55 million pixels - a photo of this size is valid - however, a photo which is 1200x1000 adds up to a total of 1.2 million pixels which is smaller than our minimum size requirement. Photos must also adhere to our Content Guidelines or they will be denied entry into the system.

If you have photos that can fit into the ShutterStock service you can make money with your photos, today and tomorrow.

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