Look at any blog post, web story or print ad, and there’s one thing you’ll likely notice they all have in common: the use of stock photographs. Visual images to break up text and illustrate a point about written copy is vital for web designers, content writers and advertising professionals, and almost none of these professionals take their own pictures. For photographers, this means there’s high earning potential in selling images as stock photography for print and web use.

What You Need to Sell Images

You know you need a sizable catalog of photos in order to sell images on a larger scale, but you may not be as sure about what else you need to make a viable business out of stock photographs. Actually, this is where many new online businesses fall apart before they’re out of the gate; invest too much in the wrong areas, and you’ll dramatically delay profitability.

To sell images successfully online, you’ll need a web store with secure hosting for your files, the ability to process transactions safely for your customers, and access to automated content delivery to eliminate wait times. While each of these is integral to your success, the latter can have the most substantial impact in the shortest time frame, as the modern online buyer expects to gain access to their files immediately. Monitoring your sales alerts and manually sending download links creates a delay, often significant, which can damage customer perception. To sell images and remain competitive with others offering stock photographs, you must be able to offer instant access.

Selling Images: Getting Started

Avoiding questionable investments you don’t need is almost as important as investing in the things your business requires in order to thrive. Rather than spending thousands of dollars on a fully-capable, custom ecommerce website which will require extensive maintenance to keep running, consider the benefit of a comprehensive ecommerce platform service paired with a business website which acts as a sales portal.

With a strong ecommerce platform, you’re able to integrate and outsource payment processing, file hosting and content delivery. Instead of spending hours each day just to keep your website in working order, you can invest in ecommerce platforms services like PayLoadz.com to gain all the benefits with none of the hassle or exorbitant costs.

If you’re thinking of selling images as stock photographs to get your foot in the door of online sales, don’t waste your start-up capital in the wrong places. Invest in streamlined systems that work for you, instead of the other way around. With more time to market and create new content, you’ll be able to spur business growth and a healthy bottom line.

 

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