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Hustling Idea: Selling Travel Photos Online
01-24-2016, 08:43 PM
Not sure if this has been talked about on here, but I couldn't find anything in search...
Has anybody took their travel photos and sold them on stock image sites like iStock or Clashot for a little extra cash?
As a lot of us travel, you probably have 500-1,000 old travel photos of sunsets, beaches, mountains, colonial cities, and more mixed between nudes from your chicks. I usually will take 15-20 photos of a beach or sunset. Then I'll post one to IG and the other ones will never leave my phone.
I'm thinking about throwing these up (500+) on a stock image site and seeing if I can make a few extra bucks each month, but I wanted to know if anyone had done this before (so I don't waste 5 or so hours uploading for nothing).
I figured this could be a decent hustle for some of us travelers, but I have no idea if there's any money in it. Google didn't come up with many solid search results.
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Hustling Idea: Selling Travel Photos Online
01-25-2016, 12:01 AM
Not a problem, always try to help when I can. I wish the market was more viable. It would help us travelers who like to take pictures.
You could consider taking 4K video. Some DSLRs can shoot that now. I have heard it sells better.
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Hustling Idea: Selling Travel Photos Online
01-25-2016, 09:13 AM
Good thread idea. I'd especially like to hear some professional photographers provide their input here.
My friend who does some photography as a side hustle claims the pickings are slim in this area unless you have an extremely large, credible portfolio and the right equipment. I don't necessarily disagree with him, but I see stock photos everywhere and I've seen a couple boutique (don't know if that's the right term or not) stock photo sites come across my radar that makes me think twice about the proposition.
I have about 5000 photos from all my travels over the past five years, shot via iPhone, digital point & shoot camera, and DSLR. I submitted a bunch to iStockphoto with really bad results, I only had a couple accepted out of the 100 or so.
All of the iPhone and DP&S photos were axed, even though I had some really well done up ones. DSLR photos were the only photos excepted and they were also as "action" shots. For example, a dude river kayaking in some white rapids. All photos that were in the public domain (ex. picture of a city square at night) were axed, and they listed that as the reason. I think that makes sense to me that a stock photo site can't monetize public domains in a certain way, but additional information on this would be appreciated from any professionals out there.
Also, seems to me that the whole travel, nature, nomad lifestyle photo scene is saturated past the point of feasibility. I think if you want to really sell yourself in this area you need to get extremely specific and niche.
I'll use MP as an example since he started this. I think it would be easier for you to monetize photos of a Honduran Quinceanera in San Pedro Sula shot with a DSLR than try and monetize another version of the same sunset picture at Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica that every other gringo shot with their iPhone 6. Photographers correct me if I'm wrong, but is my line of thinking correct here?
If nothing else, you could go the route of uploading some of your photography as "art" on sites like Crated and Society6. Seems to be slim pickings there as well.
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Hustling Idea: Selling Travel Photos Online
01-27-2016, 08:31 AM
I am not sure who's going to buy (even at very minimal cost) someone else's travel pictures.
Is it national geographic quality? worth to end up in someone else's wall? is it raw image that can be printed big?
If you want to take good travel photos, you will have to travel for photos not taking photos while traveling.
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Hustling Idea: Selling Travel Photos Online
01-27-2016, 10:38 AM
I think Designate has the right perspective on this. Also I am sure these sites are loaded with pics of the Eifel Tower. How many more do you think they need?
Fate whispers to the warrior, "You cannot withstand the storm." And the warrior whispers back, "I am the storm."
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Hustling Idea: Selling Travel Photos Online
01-28-2016, 04:32 AM
My guess is to make mega bucks in selling travel photos, the hustle is actually in your marketing and salesmanship of the photos, rather than the photos themselves.
Kinda like the art industry.
I just finished reading Trump's "The Art of The Deal" and thought of the section where an artist friend of his basically tells him his art itself is a scam. But the marketing and salesmanship of the art is not.
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Hustling Idea: Selling Travel Photos Online
01-28-2016, 05:12 AM
Business idea: sell beautiful photographs that can't be found anywhere online to dudes who want to pretend that they are awesome photographers in order to impress girls.
Perhaps you can even have a book that can order that has their name on the cover as "By Lying Asshole," so that they can live the dream of telling girls that they are a published photographer.
Have the books themselves mass produced and have the covers done with print-on-demand and then put the two separate products together and ship them to the lying scumbags that form your clientele.
There might be a lot of money in this if you expand into other similar products targeted at betas who think lying will be a panty-dropper.
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