As I mentioned in my introduction, this is my favorite method for making money using your digital camera. Creating Stock Photography gives you passive income and you can start from your own home - no need for an expensive studio or camera.

What is Stock Photography?

With this method, you’ll be creating Stock Photography. These are images that you take that can be used and re-used for a number of different commercial purposes. An example of a stock image is the photo to the right.

Stock Photography is used by loads of businesses today - from advertising companies planning nationwide campaigns right down to web designers who need an image for their website.

And commercial is the operative word. Since no one expects you as a photographer to work for free, these companies are willing to pay you for your images. In fact, there are a number of stock photography websites who specialize in acting as a middle man between you (the photographer) and the commercial buyers of your photos.

Stock Photography offers a passive income because each of your photos can be sold over and over and over again. Each time it’s sold you’ll receive cash!

Here’s the basic process to start your stock photography business

1. Take Photos

The first thing to do is start taking photos! Not just any photo though. Use the wrong subject and your photos won’t get sold. The best stock photography is simple and suits the purpose of the buyer.

Some suggestions are : Technology Shots (Keyboards, Mice, Screens); Nature (Sky and clouds, Landscapes, recognizable landmarks, textures); People (spectators at a baseball match, businesswoman holding a phone). Photos of copyrighted material (paintings, exhibits, sculptures) are usually not accepted so check first.

If you’re still stuck, search some of the stock photo websites for their most popular photos and take photos with a similar subject. Go with what’s in demand!

You need to take your photos with as high a quality as your camera allows, and use software to remove noise from the image if present. The minimum photo size sites accept is between 2-3 megapixels, however the larger the better.

Do not add your own frames, or copyright notices to the image. If there are blemishes or unwanted objects in the photo, take the time to remove them using image editing software.

2. Get Model Releases

Do you have any people (or private property) in your photos? If so you must get a release that allows you to use their likeness for commercial purposes. There’s a good model release here and on most of the stock photo sites (see below). If photographing children have the release signed by their guardian. With any legal document get it checked by a lawyer before using.

3. Upload to Stock Photography Websites

Now you have your money making images, you need to sell them. You can put up your own website to sell your photos, but I think that’s way too much work. Better to use one of the websites specifically setup for selling stock photography. For providing this middleman service, they get a cut of each sale, but in my opinion this is much better than doing everything yourself.

The major sites for selling stock photography are: Shutter Stock, Big Stock Photo and Fotolia. All these sites will handle your image with pride and have a large customer base to purchase your photos.

These sites all have a copyright policy that you must agree to when you upload your image. It shows you the rights you keep as the photographer, as well as the rights you give to the purchaser of the image. Make sure you agree with everything in the policy.

When uploading your photos, you will need to select a category and keywords for each. It is very very important to choose good keywords, as this is what your potential customers will be searching for to find your image. Try to list each element in your photo, as well as small details (what color shirt; is the subject smiling).

4. Sit back and wait for the cash!

If your images are wanted, you’ll start seeing results as soon as your photos are approved! As a stock photographer, you can earn anywhere between 1c and $10 for each photo purchase. If you don’t get many sales initially, don’t worry too much. Take a look at the popular images and try to create images with the same theme. Fortunately there’s usually no limit to the number of images you can upload.

And your popular photos will continue to sell even years after you first upload them, so it is real passive income.

Further Information

While these are the basics for creating winning stock photography, there are some extra tactics and tricks you can use to increase your sales. Far too many to explain here.

With each of these methods for cash with your camera, I’ll be recommending a product to purchase if you want to get more information on the steps involved, and for extra tips on making even more cash. Each of these products I have personally reviewed to ensure the content is suitable and accurate.

Today’s recommendation is an ebook called Camera Dollars. Some of you may have heard me recommend this product before. It goes through all the steps above in much more detail than I have space for, gives you extra tips (that have been proven to work), and detailed instructions on what photos to take and how to register and upload to the stock photo sites. If you want to make money with your camera using this method, I highly recommend you pick up this ebook.

Next time: Cash by Photographing Real Estate or Cars in your Home Town