The Nerd Series

Alamy: Platform To Make Profit From Your Photography

Photography March, 13, 2025

Are you a professional photographer who wants to make a little extra money? What if you're a new photographer who has a good eye for beautiful pictures and wants to start your own photography business?

No matter how skilled you are or how much you know selling photos online is a big opportunity in today's world and it will only get more popular with time. With so many low-cost high-quality digital cameras on the market photography has become a good way to make money for people who don't want to invest a lot of money or don't have any special certifications or experience.

You can make money from your creativity in a number of ways such as by contributing to stock picture websites. After you take pictures upload them to the stock photography library or portal and set up the metadata for the pictures you're almost done with the job. You can do other things while your stock photos start selling and you start getting a cut of each sale.

Now the question arises is where to start selling your stock photos and start earning money? The answer to this question can be found with Alamy. Alamy is a site for stock photos that has one of the best collections on the web. It is a place to find vectors movies stock photos and even 360-degree panoramic images. People from all over the world send pictures and other visual content to Alamy.

You may already know this but what you might not know is that you can make money on Alamy by putting up images for sale. We have a way for you to put your stock photos on this website and get paid for them. Alamy could be a great way to make money for photographers whether you do it for fun or for a living. Read this article to find out why Alamy is the best place to make a profit from your photography.

Easy Ways To Sign Up For An Account On Alamy

In order to become a member of Alamy you will first need to become a seller on the website. On the official website there is a form for you to fill out and submit. After that you will be required to send in your first photographs for Quality Control to review. After a short amount of time Alamy will let you know whether or not your photographs have successfully passed their Quality Control often known as QC by Alamy.

How much Money can you Make on Alamy?

Your most interesting question about Alamy is probably how much money you can make and if putting your work up here could be a good way to make money.

Alamy sets the prices for the stock photos videos and other content you send them. It depends on the type of work you send in as well as the standards of the field. On the other hand Alamy gives you some references.

  1. On average a photograph costs $90 to license.
  2. On average a book cover costs $150 to license.
  3. The average cost of getting a license for an ad is $500.

As you can see the typical licensing fee varies a lot based on the type of photograph.

It is important to know that you do not get all of the licensing money a customer pays for your photo. How much of an Alamy commission you pay depends on where you sold the picture and whether or not you want Alamy to be the only place to sold pictures. In general if Alamy is the only place that can sell your stock photos Alamy will charge you less of a commission. These are the most important ones:

  1. 50% if the image is sold on Alamy; 60% if it is sold elsewhere.
  2. If distributors are used 70% of the images will be exclusive. 70% Non-exclusive Images.
  3. 50% if the book sells through Novel Use Exclusive Images and 60% Non-exclusive Images.

Based on this list of commissions you could get up to 50% of the money made from the sales of your images.

  1. Easy-To-Follow Guidelines

Here are the most important rules you should follow when sending pictures to Alamy.

  1. You have to give your own uploaded work keywords and a title.
  2. Alamy will let you know as soon as possible if any of your work is sold.
  3. You must own the rights to your work or have permission to send it in.
  4. Alamy decides how much you get paid for the work you send them (stock images videos etc.)

These criteria back up what has been said about Alamy's benefits such as the fact that there are no long-term commitments.

  1. Established With Big Brands

It is also important to note that the business has connections with well-known brands that have big advertising expenditures and need a wide variety of stock photos to choose from. Their clientele includes companies such as Microsoft The Economist Bauer Media Group and many more.

  1. Quality Control At Alamy

One thing that makes Alamy different from other microstock websites is that you upload photos in groups. The whole group will be rejected if even one of these pictures doesn't pass Quality Control. Not just one picture that didn't make the cut like on some other stock websites. If you don't want your photos to be turned down because of problems with quality control. Alamy has a helpful guide on how to pass their QC so make sure to read it carefully before sending in photos.

Conclusion

If you're a photographer joining a stock photography site like Alamy as a contributor might help you earn more money and help you plan more photoshoots each month. If you're interested in contributing to Alamy stock photos you can easily sign up and submit photos by following the steps outlined in this article.