Selling Stock Images - Amateur Photographer's Experience

Kia ora and hello.

I began selling stock images online approximately a year ago. I have not yet met the withdrawal threshold so I haven't really earned anything so far. Technically, I have sold some images though. I'll tell the story in more detail below.

In April 2024, I downloaded the Getty Images contributor app from the Google Play store. I submitted my first batch of photos which was a trial batch to see if they would accept me. The batch of photos I contributed contained enough satisfactory ones, and I was accepted as a contributor.

I started uploading around five to ten images per week. I fairly quickly learned which ones would be accepted and which would not. For any photo containing a person, they require a release from that person. Any photo containing branding like a sign or logo on a product could cause them copyright issues so they would turn it down.

So I started shooting photos containing no people, and of objects and public property that would not cause any issues when it came to ownership. Eventually I noticed that somebody had bought a photo and that encouraged me. And after a while a few more were used. Below is the downloads for the year.

You can see some of the strange things that people wanted to use including a white plastic bucket, some beehives, and some danger signs.

Although this was very promising, at some point I wondered how much I actually was earning and when I would get paid. The site can be a bit tricky to use at times, but I found the info eventually.

I found a graph that showed the monthly earning as dollars.

I found a statement showing the total amount I had earned as a summary.

And I looked at the help page to see why the small amount hadn't been paid.

So in summary, for a year's work I have earned nearly $2.50 and I won't get paid until I earn $50 or $100. That sounds bad, but it was really easy and even fun to take most of the photos. And I do the uploading as a peaceful activity each night before bed.

Tagging the images so people can find them is really easy in the app. And now the images just sit there and might be used in future, especially as their numbers accumulate.

I can't recommend selling stock photos on Getty Images to somebody who is a professional photographer or someone who expects the earnings to be a major source of income.

But I can recommend it to any amateur with a smart phone who doesn't mind spending a bit of time interacting with their app and site.

Even though I have been paid nothing in hand so far, I am still satisfied with the experience, and I'll keep adding to my collection of stock images with the goal of some day reaching the withdraw minimum - maybe more than once.

You can find the contibutor page to sign up here:
https://esp.gettyimages.com/contribute/

You can expect another post on the subject of microearnings and faucets in a week's time.

---

Support my work by voting for @almightymelon as a Hive witness.

• Just click the "Approve Witness" button on my profile
• or go to the Witnesses page, search almightymelon, and click the vote button.