Photographers are always asking me about getting
their photos published. Those with better photos than me will ask me, and so
will others. Some just want to see their photos in print, others want to earn
money.
stock.xchng http://sxc.hu
This is the 2nd most visited stock photography site according to Alexa. It is
also free. Both organizations large and small use this site. Some photographs
here have been used by the UN, and the Grammies. This site offers great
visibility to those new to distributing their photographs.
iStockPhoto http://istockphoto.com
iStock is one of the most popular royalty free, paid stock sites. While entry
into stock.xchng is much easier, iStockPhoto pays. As a result their customers
expect a higher quality in photos. This means they're are extremely picky about
grain, and since everyone else also wants to be paid there are more than enough
subjects in categories like flowers, or animals. One upside is that iStock pays
nearly 50/50 for your work
Selling Locally
While selling rights to your photos online is cheaper and requires no initial
investment, selling prints of your photos provides much more profit. Many towns
and cities have a marketplace on the weekends where vendors can sell their
wares. Try making a few prints, getting a table, and selling at this market.
Often these markets will want a small fee, such as ten dollars. If you've a
portable photo printer you can offer to take portraits of people, and pets.
Your Own Website http://1and1.com
Owning a website makes it easier for search engines to find you and instead of
telling someone that your photos are at freehost.com/free/users/~myname42 you
can give them a short domain.
Depeneding on your needs you can set up ways for users to view your photos, to
buy prints, or to buy certain rights. CafePress.com makes it easy to sell
calenders, prints, and more. The tool Gallery (gallery.menalto.com ) makes it
easy to host photos on your own website. Include your eMail address on the site
so that it's for people to contact you to buy photos.
Flickr flickr.com
Most of you reading this article probably came from Flickr, so just skip ahead
if that's you. Flickr is a photo blogging service. You can upload photos, and
easily share them with the rest of world and your family. While this is only
free, and will get you the least amount of views it's a great first start.