Earn Extra Income With Your Smartphone Camera

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You no longer need to carry around a digital camera to capture in-the-moment photos. Today's smartphones feature fantastic cameras with surprising quality and clarity. For example, the latest iPhone 7 boasts a groundbreaking new camera, including the ability to take RAW photos and capture images in low light.

The new camera quality in smartphones means they can be a tool to create a small photography side business. If you love taking photos and have a great eye, you can turn your artistic vision into cash, right from your phone.

These three sites will pay cash for your smartphone photos. Here's how to get started.

EyeEm

EyeEm is one of the largest smartphone-picture platforms, with over 18 million creators. Available to both iPhone and Android users, you can sell photos for anywhere from $20 to $250, depending on the license.

EyeEm also allows you to upload photos from your computer, so you can edit photos from your smartphone before posting them for sale.

Foap

Foap is a free app for iPhones that allows you to sell your photos. Once you sign up for an account, you upload your photos. To use any of your photos, a customer must purchase a photo license for $10; Foap keeps $5, and you get $5 as the artist.

The great thing about Foap is that you are not limited in how many times you sell a photo. If that one adorable picture of your dog appeals to customers, you can sell it 100 times or more.

Fotolia Instant

With the Fotolia Instant app, you can upload images from your Android or iPhone directly to Fotolia Instant Collection, which is a subset of the site dedicated solely to smartphone images for brands looking for stock images.

Fotolia Instant allows you to include a model release, add keyword information, and manage every aspect of the sales process. You get a 33% commission for every photo you sell. Once you reach $50 in sales, you can request your payout via PayPal or Skrill.

Tips for Selling Your Photos

While you can turn your smartphone into a money-earner, the stock photo market can be crowded with other sellers. To increase your chances of customers buying your pictures, try to think from their point of view and what they need. Most shoppers are small business owners and bloggers looking for stock photos.

They likely will need your photos for various purposes, so:

• Make sure your photos are large enough that they can be resized without getting blurry or grainy.
   
• Take advantage of your location. If your city has well-known landmarks or shopping districts, those areas can translate to very popular photos.
   
• You can also get inspiration by checking out blogs and looking at the stock photos they use for ideas for what shots sell.

Turning Your Phone Into Cash

Instead of just snapping selfies and paying for an expensive data plan, turn your smartphone camera into a cash-earning machine. If you love taking photos and have a unique point of view, you can turn your camera into a decent side hustle. Post photos on various sites to maximize your chances of earning extra money, and keep adding fresh content to keep customers coming back.

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