Well this article is not about something as much as a business opportunity, but more a way of making some money from your hobbies; in this case from photos. Now, as have entered the digital era, when digital cameras increased their performance in terms of resolution, picture stability, colors, and same time the prices went down, almost anybody with a bit of artistic sense can be a professional or artistic photographer.

Whether you take pictures of people on the street, pictures at a footbal match or any other sport event, buildings or natural sights, you can transform this hobby into something that brings some money as well.

If you just start a search on the Internet for methods of making money from photos, you will find many listings that hardly can help you. First of all you should know that making money by selling your digital photos is possible, not a fairy tale. The International Copyright law protects authors from being copied. Same works in this case. Many websites need photos to put near their articles. Not all of them have photographers, so they have to buy these pictures online. No matter the subject of your pictures, there are out there buyers interested in them. All you need is find them or them to find you.

There are a couple of alternatives to be used: for example you will find websites that will let you integrate a shopping cart for your photos on your own website. For many of you this offer might look tempting. But stop a second and think: how do you expect the buyers to find you in this big online community? That is an issue if you are not a very known photographer with a big collection of photos. Also, these websites will also ask you pay them for assuring this service and for hosting your photos on their servers, no matter if you get to sell something or not.

Other alternative would be some websites that act as a marketplace: the online place where photographers and buyers meet. I want to divide this situation in two cases: one where you upload your photos on the online marketplace and buyers pay a monthly fee to get to download pictures present there, and one where you upload your photos on the online marketplace and buyers buy specific photos, not a package.

This second option is in my opinion the best, as you will get the most money for your pictures. I would recommend in this case Fotolia, a huge online marketplace for photos. Here you can upload your pictures and categorize them on subject, such as sports, nature, society and much more. Buyers will search for what they are interested and if someone choses you picture to download and use you will get paid. The money you can get is based on picture resolution and size. The higher the resolution and size of your picture, the more money you will get. Fotolia works on both exclusivity and non-exclusivity. Best of all, registration is free and payouts are good.

Now in the case of the marketplace where buyers get to buy packages, you have more chances to get your pictures sold, but payouts are much smaller. You would get somewhere to $0.25 per picture. Not much, and the payout is not linked on picture resolution / size (but must be at least 2.5 Mega pixels) . In this case I would recommend Shutterstock marketplace, as it is visited by many buyers and photographers don’t have to pay any registration or hosting fee.

All these being said, carry on with your hobby of taking pictures and earn money by selling them online.