Whilst this opportunity was always available to professional photographers, there are no longer any barriers preventing amateur photographers from taking and selling their digital photos as well.

As with any incoming producing opportunity the old maxims still prevail: what you get out is somewhat equal to what you put in,or translated for the purposes of this article: the more photos you sell the more money you will make.

The explosive growth of the Internet has seen that the demand for digital images is large (and growing) and the fact that that there is a readymade marketplace (in the form of microstock photography sites) has really expanded the size of the money making opportunity. Think about all the print ads, wall posters, magazines and websites that you see. Someone had to take those photos. Would it surprise you that many of those of pictures are taken by everyday photographers who by no means consider themselves to be professional?

For some, selling digital photos allows them to make an extra few hundred dollars a month which is a handy second income whilst others are able to earn in excess of $100,000 per annum.

The amount you are paid for each photo is negotiable and big name photographers are in a position to ask more for their images than is a photographer without a brand name. Whilst the actual price for an image is whatever the market will bear the following shows an average range of different sources which will be close to the following:

Web Images $10.00 – $40.00
Postcard Shots $30.00 – $80.00
Magazine Images $50.00 – $400.00
Book Illustrations $7000.00 – $12,000.00
Advertising Photos $1000.00 – $14,000.00
Stock Photo Site Rates 10c – $10.00

There is the option with photographs to sell the entire rights or just first print rights and then sell it again at a later time. A good photograph (and by good I mean in demand rather than artistic) can produce a passive income stream for many months to come. It is not uncommon for an image that pays you 20 cents each time it is downloaded, to be downloaded over 50,000 times!

As indicated by the price ranges mentioned above, the opportunity is by no means limited to stock photo sites but that is certainly the best place for a budding freelance

In my experience I have found that successful commercial photography comes down to 30% photography and 70% marketing. In fact, it is my sincere belief that an amateur photographer with the right marketing nous can outgun a professional photographer in certain markets in terms of pictures sold.

One of the most crucial things to get right when selling your digital photos is to make sure that you position your work correctly with your customer.

IT IS ALL ABOUT PERCEIVED VALUE

How do we measure the intrinsic value of something? We cannot: what is valuable to me may not necessarily be valuable to you. The value of a thing cannot be separated from the person who is doing the valuing.

This is a very important concept to take heed of when you go into the marketplace to sell your digital photos.

Now the fact of the matter is that one of your digital photos may have cost you exactly nothing to take. Does that mean it is worth nothing? No. Your humble photo may be the central image on a web page that generates thousands of dollars each month in sales.

You may already have an inkling of this but it is very important not to forget it whilst you are in the midst of the sales process. Specifically, DO NOT go out and underbid your competitors in order to win business. Why? Because you are immediately creating a perception in the mind of your customer that your work is inferior to that of your competitors.

What you need to do is not have the lowest bid but to clearly define exactly why it is that your bid is of value to the customer. You can do this by showing proofs and documentation of previous work and by being professional in the way you go about the bid. Take these steps and you are more than likely to win the job over lower bidders.

Another way to approach this is to adopt the mindset of your potential customer. Would you want to be in a position whereby you accepted the lowest bid and received back shoddy work, thereby forcing you to go back to one of the higher bidders and get the work done again, compromising your deadlines and forcing you to pay more than was originally necessary? I would imagine the answer is no. This is the potential worry that your customer has when looking at bidders. You can put his mind at ease by assuring him that your price is both fair based on market research and a guarantee of quality.

In certain field such as wedding photos and portrait shots it is nearly all about perceived value. After all, everyone knows how to take a photo so why would they pay anyone at all? Because they feel that paying someone else will give them control over the final product and that because that someone else is a professional ,will deliver work to an acceptable standard.

Deliver work that is to standard your customer has in mind and you will have a happy customer who will be a repeat buyer and a referral agent.