Make Extra Money Taking Photos From Your Smartphone

Gone are the days when only professional photographers with expensive equipment could profit from the photos they take. Today, anyone with a good smartphone camera and a photographic eye (even if you don’t have that eye) can earn money.

This is not that complicated at all. You can do everything right from your mobile phone. These days, there are several apps that allow you to take photos and upload them from your smartphone directly to their marketplace where they can be sold to businesses and individuals.

I will list a total of 3 apps that will earn you an income from your photos alone. I have tried these applications so I will be giving you my personal experience with each of them. In the end, you can decide for yourself if it will be worth it.

FOAP

I started using the Foap app about two months ago, and to be honest it has made me a total of $25.50. I know, it sounds like a waste of time doesn’t it?… Well personally, I do not find it a waste. Any money earned is still money. There are “missions” on the app (which I will go into detail about later on) that can give you the chance to win big money. I have yet to win one but, that does not mean I’ve given up.

Foap is a popular free-to-download app that gives you a platform to sell your smartphone pictures and videos. It’s a legitimate way to make extra money, and it’s simple enough for even an amateur to use. It’s available on Android and iOS, so anyone can get in on the action.

This service acts as the middleman in selling your photos. Brands, agencies, and businesses of all sorts are always searching for images to use commercially. When a business finds your picture and they like it, they can buy it and you get a cut from the sale.

This app is super simple to use! Once you’ve downloaded it and registered, you can upload the pictures you want to sell directly from your phone. You don’t have to visit any website! Just click on the camera icon in the app and you’ll be able to select which picture to upload from your phone.

How do you make money on Foap?

There are two ways in which you can make money on Foap:

Marketplace. When a buyer is searching for pictures to buy, this is where they’ll be looking. When someone buys your photo, the money is split 50/50, where each photo is sold for $10 and you get $5.

You retain ownership of your photographs so you can sell the same image multiple times to different buyers, even on other platforms.

Missions. These contests are open to all photographers to submit a photo that satisfies a specific brief provided by a company. The winning photo chosen by the company can receive up to $100USD or more.

Each mission is different, therefore it’ll have its own requirements, reward amount, and copyright stipulations. Payouts are made through PayPal.

I am planning on spending a bit more time taking more interesting photos to see if I can increase that income. If you’re a person that takes a lot of photos then give this a try because I am sure you will earn from this app.

SNAPWIRE

Snapwire is among the top apps that allow you to sell your mobile photos. It’s free to download from the Play Store and also on Apple Store. I started using this app around the same time as Foap. I’ve gained a total of $0 to this date. That doesn’t mean I am giving up on the app.

A quick side note here: There is no time I am losing by just uploading more photos to these apps. Either I end up making some money or I don’t. That’s the mindset I have when it comes to all of these money-making chances. Always have low expectations with anything so you can be surprised if you see a good result or not bothered at all if it doesn’t go your way.

Unlike with Foap, Snapwire leans more towards people who more or less know what they’re doing. Amateur photographers may struggle to find exposure on this platform. But, with these new smartphones that come out, anyone can take photos that look professional.

The mobile app provides a platform where a photographer stands a chance to have their smartphone photographs purchased by an individual such as a blogger or a big brand company.

How does Snapwire work?

After downloading the app, you’ll go through a sign-up process where you can sign-up using your email account.

As soon as you’ve completed the rest of the registration process, you can start uploading your pictures into your portfolio or entering contests. What’s great about Snapwire is that you can upload your pictures via their website, too.

There are “ranks” you can achieve on Snapwire, a total of 7. The higher you rank, the more opportunities you have to make money. It’s very important that you upload only your best shots because the site monitors the pictures you upload to see if they have enough value to level you up the ranks.

How does earning money work on Snapwire?

The biggest way to make money on Snapwire is by entering a challenge. That’s basically what Snapwire is known for. When a person or business is in search of a certain type of photo, they will post a request or challenge.

This challenge is open to all interested photographers and contains details of exactly what the buyer wants, how much the prize money is, and for how long the challenge will remain running. It is very similar to Foap “Missions”.

The money that can be made from these challenges varies from one challenge to another. But no matter how much the prize money for the challenge is, you get to keep 70% of it. As the content creator, you get to keep the copyright of your work. When someone buys your image, you’re simply giving them a license to use your photo. They can’t sell or license your work to someone else.

Another way you can make money on this platform is by building a portfolio, which then becomes available on the Snapwire marketplace. A portfolio with really high-quality images will help you earn points and rank you higher.

Not only will you make more sales in the marketplace if you rank highly, but you could also get commissioned directly by buyers. Unlike with the challenges, you only get to keep 50% of whatever you make selling directly to buyers. Payments are made through PayPal and Stripe.

EyeEm

EyeEm is a great mix between a photo-sharing social app with an incredible community and a marketplace where you can sell your photographs. You can get it for free on both Android and iOS.

Whether you’re professional or amateur, you’re welcome and respected on EyeEm. It connects you with a huge community of photographers.

How does EyeEm work?

You can sign up on EyeEm (using social media or email) as an individual or a business via the app or website. From there it’s a simple process to upload your photos and start selling. However, before your images can go into the market, they go through a review process.

Once your picture is approved, you can sit back and wait for the sales to come in. There’s no guarantee of when your image will sell and how many times it will sell. But to increase your chances of making money on the market, I advise that you constantly keep uploading quality photos.

Just like Foap, you and EyeEm split the revenue of your sales 50/50. Payment is made via PayPal and can take up to 7 business days for it to arrive in your account. You retain the copyright of your image and make money every time it sells.

How does making money work on EyeEm?

As mentioned above, you receive 50% of the money you make from selling a photo. The amount of money your photo sells depends on the type of license the buyer chooses to purchase.

Here are the license options with their cost:

• Social license = $20 per photo
• Web license= $50 per photo
• Full Commercial license = $250 per photo

EyeEm also has something called Partner Collection. If your image or images make it to this collection, they will also be featured on partner sites such as Getty Images.

There’s no telling how much your images will sell on these third-party sites. The price is set by the partner site. But even then, images from these sites are often bought through subscriptions or high-volume packages. This means you probably won’t be making as much money through a third party as you would on EyeEm.

With all of these apps, you can definitely earn some income on the side. Some advice for you is to take photos of whatever you see. Take a photo of your cat, or a cat, animals, nature, water, the sky, people living life (maybe a group of people just walking in the street), people playing basketball or any other sport, basically anything at all. You’ll never know if your next photo upload will be the one that will earn you the biggest earnings.

This is also something that won’t take up a lot of your time espcially if you’re a person who’s out and about a lot. Or even someone who has a pet or two running around at home. Consider these 3 apps and expand your money-making opportunities. You may not see money coming in right away but, you have nothing to lose so might as well give it a try, and leave the option to earn open.