So here’s the thing for all those experts who are called by friends and family to click photos – get those cameras out more often and click away. There are many websites which will sell those photographs for you. Some of the best ones are:

• iStockPhoto
• Shutterstock
• DPhotoJournal
• KeyImagery
• BigStockPhoto
• FotoLibra
• CitizenSide (To sell News images)

You just need to register on these stock photo exchanges and upload your images. These websites pay anything between 20% to as high as 70% of the selling price. And the selling price ranges from US$ 1.5 for a small (about 150 px) image to US$ 15 for large images. This amount seems small, but once you multiply the number of photos by number of downloads, it is considerable – yes, I can wager that if you don’t suck at clicking images, the money from here will pay for a nice Canon SLR. Many successful photographers upload many good AND related (note this down) images thus increasing the chances of a multiple sale.

TIP: Look for what kind of images are sold most and get them. What kind of background (white?), subject (business or corporate?) and so on are the questions you may want to ask.

Perhaps you think that your images are way better than most to be sold at such a low price. Then, setup your own website, and add a photo gallery with shopping cart using web services and tools that are available. Some of them are:

Web Services

• Flickr. Host your images and just add readily available scripts to embed the slideshow of your galleries and tags
• PhotoBucket. Nice alternative to Flickr
• SmugMug. They also have selling services like shopping cart etc

Scripts. These are scripts ranging from simple Javascript to PHP/MySQL scripts. A big list is at http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/05/18/30-best-solutions-for-image-galleries-slideshows-lightboxes/

So go and click those images away. Who knows you will get money as well as rave reviews for them.

Keep watching this space for more on freelancing as a photographer