If you’re an amateur or professional photographer and you’re interested in selling your photos online, I have good news and bad news. The bad news: Thanks to the popularity of digital cameras, photo websites, and social networking, pretty much everyone takes pictures now. According to one estimate, there are several 100s of millions of photographs uploaded to the internet each day.

That’s crazy, but here’s the good news: As you may have noticed, 99.9% of the photos posted online are clearly taken by non-professional photographers. They’re not well-taken pictures, and they’re certainly not worth selling. So in the end, if you’re a real photographer, the sheer number of pictures online is no threat to you. You can still make money with your craft. The key is to step up your game. You know how to take high-quality, professional photographs, so it’s time to get to work.

A great place to start if you are not a professional photographer is Camera Career. They can teach you all you need to know to start your freelance photography career.

1. Camera upgrade: As we all know, the craft of photography is generally more important than the equipment used. But that doesn’t mean that having a high-quality camera doesn’t help. In fact, since the photos you’re going to be selling will have to be at the highest possible resolution, you want to have a really nice camera. People are only going to want photographs that show no pixilation whatsoever, so get a camera that lets you take gigantic pictures.

2. Get out there and take pictures: There are two categories of pictures that people want:

1. pictures that are unique and beautiful;
2. pictures that serve a purpose.

When you take your photographs, keep both of these things in mind. For the desktop wallpaper and photo print markets, take pictures of interesting places and things. Go further than anyone else, and get more angles. Use all your training and creativity. It will pay off.

And for the online/web-design market, take practical photos that companies will want to use. For example, there are always going to be companies out there that want nice stock pictures of the Sydney Opera House for their websites or marketing materials. You can provide this service.

3. Sign up for sites: When you have a substantial portfolio to put online, it’s time to start signing up for sites. There are a few different kinds of sites that will help you sell your photographs:

• Royalty-free stock photography sites: These sites will allow customers to pay you for usage of your photos, but you’ll retain the copyrights. On most sites, customers pay a one-time fee and get to use the picture as much as they want, but they don’t have exclusive access. Thousands of people could have equal rights to the same picture.
• Rights-managed photography sites: There are some sites that will allow you to flat-out sell photographs to individuals or companies for unlimited use. The policies vary, but in most cases, you’ll lose the copyright.
• Print photograph sites: Finally, there are other sites that allow customers to purchase hard-copy prints of your photos. All you have to do is upload your pictures, and the company will take care of the rest.