55+ Designers and Photographers Ultimate Earn Money Online Guide

Whether you’re a professional designer, web-developer, photographer or just doing some design work as a hobby you may be able to earn some money by selling your work online. In this article tripwire magazine present with 50 online services that you should check out if you have created unique designs, taken amazing pictures etc. that you want to allow others to use in return for some money.

This is a revision of previous article 50 Great Places to Sell Your Designs Online. Some links where not active any more and a few new have been added. All sites Alexa Rank have been added and every category have been ordered with best rank on at the top.

Introduction

Be aware that not all of the websites listed below have huge traffic numbers and may not expose your work very well. If you’re really serious about making a business by selling your work online you should do some investigations up front. A few tips.

Check the monthly page impresssion on compete.com or alexa.com to get an idea of how many potential “customers” a specific website have. Below is an example of trafic rating for two websites where the popularity / traffic rating difference is very clear. The same is true for the expected increase in visitors going forward as one is completely flat.

I use the firefox plugin from alexa.com myself quite a lot because it is so convenient  to just look into the lower right corner. You need to have an understanding of what a good rank is because alexa.com is not giving you any real numbers but instead a rank indicating amount of traffic compared to other sites. google.com have rank 1 as an example.

Be careful with relying to much in metrics for non .com domains as they typically are significantly lower than the actual number. Also don’t expect any of the general site analytics companies to be exact. They provide estimates and they may be quite rough but still they will give you an idea of the condition a site is in.

Index

The article has been organized into the following secitons.

Section 1: Image and Vector Buy / Sell Marketplaces

Section 2: Templates Buy / Sell Marketplaces

Section 3: Fonts Buy / Sell Marketplaces

Section 4: Project and Competition Marketplaces

Section 5: Sell on T-shirts, cups, you name it…

Section 5: Organisations that you may be able to join

Guides on selling and presenting your work

Free E-book, How To Sell Your Photos, Make Money From Photography

What’s more fun, is getting paid for taking photos. Then you can spend more time doing what you enjoy. In this free, “online book,” I’m going to reveal how you can make money from photography. Welcome to PhotoSecrets How To Sell Your Photos.

A Guide to Design Presentation: How to Sell your Work

So you’ve been asked to come up with a couple of designs. Let’s say you created 6 designs for a logo that you’re about to present, and you have a killer logo that is absolutely fantastic. You want your client to choose that one (the top pick) over the other five (the fillers). In the scenario of initially presenting your work to your client, try this approach.

Image and Vector Buy / Sell Marketplaces

iStockphoto

Really a high traffic site with more than 4 million items for sale. You can sell your photos, illustrations, flash, video, and more through this quality-controlled site. istockphoto use a credit based system. iStock pays contributors a base royalty rate of 20% for each file downloaded. If you are an Exclusive contributor you can earn up to 40%. Alexa Rank July 30: 420 (very good)

Fotolia

Fotolia sells photos and images individually as well as through subscriptions. As a seller, you can earn up to 80% commission, with an average of 52%. You can sell your work with exclusive licenses and name your price. Get more information at their website. Alexa Rank July 30: 836

Dreamstime

Dreamstime sells images individually. The base commission is 50% per download, but it can go as high as 80%. You’ll earn a high commission for exclusivity plus there are different levels according to how many of your files have been purchased. The more you sell, the more you make. Alexa Rank July 30: 986

Shutterstock

Earn $0.25 per download for photography and vector images. It’s a very popular service wiyh currently more than 7 millon royalty-free stock photos availbale. Alexa Rank July 30: 1.390

123RF.com

Offers two payment systems: 50% of individual high res photo sale, and $.36 per subscription download. Alexa Rank July 30: 3.828

Stockxpert

Stockxpert is similar to iStockphoto in terms of the photos and images that are available, although the selection is a bit less than iStockphoto. At Stockxpert you can earn 50% commission and you can view your stats and earnings in real time. Get more information about selling with Stockxpert. Alexa Rank July 30: 5.798

BigStockPhoto

BigStockPhoto sells images individually and have more than 3.5 millions stock photos online. You can earn $0.50 to $3 per download (or more on special license downloads). In order to be accepted into the program you’ll have to pass a test. You can get more information and sign up from their website. Alexa Rank July 30: 7.073

Crestock

Crestock is another popular option for buying and selling stock photography and images. Their site does not offer details on payment structure or commissions (at least not that I could find), although there is an option to apply to become a seller. Alexa Rank July 30: 9.885

SuperStock.com

A stock image seller for over 20 years, seems pretty selective in the work they except, and no mention of procentage. Alexa Rank July 30: 12.140

GraphicRiver

Sell vector images, layered Photoshop files and more. You will earn at least 40% of the sales price. Alexa Rank July 30: 16.758

VectorStock

VectorStock™ is a Royalty-free vector stock art collection. Many of the vector files are unique to VectorStock™. All files are available for download as a zipped Vector EPS Version 8 file, many files include a native Adobe Illustrator™ CS file as well. Alexa Rank July 30: 17.661

Alamy.com

With over 15 million images, you may get a little lost in the shuffle here, but if you can sell your work, you’ll get 65%. Alexa Rank July 30: 18.107

VideoHive

Sell your stock video footage and motion graphics. You will earn at least 40% of the sales price. Alexa Rank July 30:  29.248

inkd

Earn at least a 20% commission when your designs sell on Inkd! Alexa Rank July 30:  36.298

shutterpoint

Sell your stock photos to image buyers worldwide. Get instant exposure to publishers of printed or digital media. ShutterPoint’s extensive community features will inspire you to produce outstanding images. Alexa Rank July 30:  59.935

Graphic Leftovers

Sell logos, icons, illustrations, templates and more through this site. Graphic Leftovers use a credit based system. Alexa Rank July 30: 109.844

Artbreak

Artbreak is a community marketplace for artists and art lovers. It’s a place for artists to share and sell their stuff, tell the world about themselves, get feedback, and make connections with other artists and people who like their work. It’s a place for art lovers to find incredible work from emerging artists from all over the world. Alexa Rank July 30: 87.257

Artist Rising

An artwork marketplace that includes photography and digital art. Alexa Rank July 30: 161.759

Photospin

Photospin sells images by subscription. Their website allows you to inquire about becoming a seller.There are 2 ways you can participate: you can either receive a 50% revenue split for exclusive images to PhotoSpin or a 40% revenue split for non-exclusive images. Alexa Rank July 30: 222.746

Boundless Gallery

Sell your art online. Alexa Rank July 30: 245.222

Cerizmo

Sell any kind of digital product in your own customizable store and get paid instantly. Alexa Rank July 30: 454.634

CoSwap

Swap your designs or codes for something else you need, or sell your work outright. The following categories are available. Alexa Rank July 30: 807.281

Template Buy / Sell Marketplaces

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is an Envato Marketplace. At ThemeForest you can buy and sell site templates and themes to skin popular CMS products like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. Files are priced from just five dollars, based on the complexity, quality and use of the file. Anyone is free to sign up for an account and begin trading or purchasing files. You will earn at least 40% of the sales price. Alexa Rank July 30: 3.067

FlashDen

At FlashDen you can buy and sell files to use in your Adobe Flash projects. You’ll find everything from preloaders to site templates, all selling for as little as $1. You will earn at least 40% of the sales price. Alexa Rank July 30: 4.813

SitePoint’s / flippa Template Marketplace

List your templates for various systems here and connect directly with your buyers. (being transferred to http://flippa.com/). Alexa Rank July 30: 5.379

CMS Market

Sell templates, extensions and more for Joomla and WordPress. Alexa Rank July 30: 48.301

cutcaster.com

Sell your digital images and vector graphics, along with stock video. Sellers can set their prices or those new to the world of licensing can use the Cutcaster Algorithm to find the fair market price.Alexa Rank July 30: 91.792

Css Templates Web

Sell low-cost, css-based website templates. Alexa Rank July 30: 180.156

WP Theme Market

Design and sell WordPress Themes.Theme authors earn 70% of every sale by default. If your theme was created with the WP Themer Kit you will Earn 80% for every single sale you make! Alexa Rank July 30: 310.843

Templamatic

Upload and sell your own website templates. Alexa Rank July 30: 621.650

Fonts Buy / Sell Marketplaces

MyFonts

Sell your fonts as part of the largest font collection online. Alexa Rank July 30:  5.648

ITCFonts.com

Sell complete font character sets through this site. Alexa Rank July 30: 72.157

Project and Competition Marketplaces

99 designs

Compete against other designers on real projects to win cash prizes. Alexa Rank July 30: 5.436

crowdSPRING

Work on spec on a variety of design projects, competing against other designers. Alexa Rank July 30: 20.286

DesignFirms

List your design firm and have clients come to you for project bidding. Alexa Rank July 30: 25.444

Zooppa

Create ads and compete against other designers to win cash prizes. Alexa Rank July 30: 55.959

Project4Hire.com

Bid on projects in a variety of categories including graphic design and web design. Alexa Rank July 30: 60.728

Minted

Submit designs to this regular contest and receive cash prizes. Alexa Rank July 30: 158.953

I Vote For Art

Put your artwork up for sale and have it voted on. Alexa Rank July 30: 1.266.858

Sell on T-shirts, cups, you name it…

Zazzle

Put your designs on unique products to sell. Alexa Rank July 30: 1.437

Threadless

Design a t-shirt, submit it for voting, and if it’s one of the best, see it made and sold. Alexa Rank July 30: 4.906

redbubble

Another artwork marketplace where you can sell wall art, t-shirts, calendars and greeting cards. Alexa Rank July 30: 7.755

imagekind

Sell artwork in a variety of formats—framed, canvas, posters, greeting cards and more. Alexa Rank July 30: 17.717

printfection

Adding Merchandise is a great way to build your brand. It helps your fans and followers increase their connection with you and spreads the word in the offline world about your great brand and what you are up to.Alexa Rank July 30: 35.178

Cafepress

Well this is really different but quite fun. Why not put your designs on a dog-T-shirt and sell like that? Choose from

80+ customizable products, including apparel, home & office accessories to books, music and data CDs. Also, check out our new Direct Printing to give your apparel images greater durability, coming soon to select apparel. Select from our full line of products below, or use the links to the right. Alexa Rank July 30: 84.688

Spreadshirt – Create custom t-shirts to sell.

pikistore – Set up your own online t-shirt store.

Organisations that you may be able to join

Theme Galaxy

Premium WordPress theme designers who are always looking for new talent to join their team. Alexa Rank July 30: 76.514

WordPress Designers

Premium themes site that is on the lookout for new designers to work with. Alexa Rank July 30: 166.150

Linotype.com

This site actively seeks new font designers to add to their collection. Alexa Rank July 30: 18.012