You have an eye for photography and the drive to succeed; you’re ready to start selling pictures. How do you turn a profit in a competitive online marketplace? What’s the best choice when it comes to sales and business management? There are so many options and expert opinions, it can be difficult to know which is right for you and your new venture. Before you sell your photos to a stock photography clearinghouse site, it’s wise to consider your needs and expectations. You may find the more profitable and rewarding option to be easier than you think.

Why Selling Pictures is a Good Business Decision

Take a good look at the websites, blog posts and even print material you see every day. Do you notice what all of the most compelling and eye-catching pieces have in common? Stock photos! Adding visual interest to long blocks of text content is one of the single most effective ways of keeping readers’ attention. For this reason, selling pictures as digital downloads has the potential to be one of the most lucrative business choices available to you. Best of all, you don’t need to make a large startup investment to get your business off the ground. Newer cell phones often feature highly advanced cameras, and photo editing software can be obtained for little to no cost. There’s another way to slash overhead costs and boost profitability, too: skip the custom web site built by an expensive professional. With the right tools and services, you can get the ball rolling by using free blog sites and social networking.

Selling Pictures On Your Terms

Many new web merchants choose to either invest heavily in an expensive website, or to sell their photos directly to a stock image clearinghouse site. Both of these options come with substantial drawbacks which should be considered, though.

High-end websites cost a small fortune, and will still require a high degree of maintenance to stay functional. You may need to manually monitor sales alerts in order to send out content, damaging customer service ratings. Stock image sites handle the work of payment processing, content delivery and file hosting for you, but will only pay a small fraction of what your photos earn in the long term. The best, most effective and most profitable option for selling pictures is to manage your own web store with the help of a dedicated eCommerce platform.

Services like PayLoadz.com allow you to reap all the convenient management benefits of a stock photo sales site without the loss of control. You’ll be able to set prices and continually earn money from each sale, rather than settling for pennies on the dollar. Services like PayLoadz.com give you access to file hosting, secure payment processing and automated content delivery for one low price. Don’t settle for less than your photos are worth. Start selling pictures independently in your own web store, and keep your earnings!