Stock Photography Business

4 Stock Photography Business Success Stories [2024]

Pat Walls

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Updated: October 7th, 2024

Stock photography is typically sold on an exclusive basis to one buyer for a single usage fee. Stock photos are often available in different sizes, resolutions, and file formats. Businesses most commonly use stock photos for marketing purposes.

Stock photography is the supply of photographs often licensed for specific uses. Stock photos are the perfect marketing and advertising resource for website owners and bloggers.

You can build an impressive portfolio and earn a passive income by uploading high-quality stock photos.

To start a stock photography business , invest in some good photography gear and learn how to take stock photos. An excellent online presence can help you sell your stock photos faster and at profitable margins.

In this list, you'll find real-world stock photography business success stories and very profitable examples of starting a stock photography business that makes money.

1. Product Photography Studio ($540K/year)

Tsour Lee Adato, the founder of Pro Photo Studio, stumbled upon the idea of starting a product photography business when a client asked him to shoot one of their products. He quickly realized the potential of product photography and became obsessed with honing his skills. Today, Pro Photo Studio is a profitable business with a diverse range of clients, including prestigious brands like Starbucks and Versace, and plans to expand to multiple cities.

How much money it makes: $540K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 6

How I Started A Commercial Product Photography Business

Pro Photo Studio founder Tsour Lee Adato shares how she turned a $5k investment into a business that services over 500 clients annually and makes approximately $350k per year with plans to expand and become a 7-figure business while offering advice to fellow entrepreneurs to always be innovating, learning and growing, and not to undervalue themselves.

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2. picjumbo ($120K/year)

Viktor wanted to create an online passive income opportunity by selling his photos. However, all the paid sites rejected his images for being low quality. This rejection made him angry but also fueled his desire to start his own business.

How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0

How This Solo Founder Built A $120K/Year Stock Photographs Website

Picjumbo is a free stock photo site created by solo founder Viktor Hanacek that has amassed 150,000 monthly visitors, 5,000 free photos, over 10,000 premium photos, and brings in over $10,000/month in revenue through advertising and premium membership.

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3. Two Little Monkeys Photography ($24K/year)

Getting pregnant with twin babies, Samantha wanted to document as much as she could about her kids. She wasn't set on a particular career path until then, and immediately saw photography as the viable option to pursue.

How much money it makes: $24K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2K
How many people on the team: 1

How I Started A $2K/Month Newborn And Family Photography Studio

How a single mother went from starting a newborn and family photography studio with just a Canon 40D - risking everything after a turbulent time as a teenage mother - to achieving steady growth of 5-10% YoY.

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Read by 6,182 founders

4. PEWDOC ($14.4K/year)

Manthan Gajjar, the founder of pewdoc, came up with the idea for his business after realizing the potential to make money online through blogging. He used his passion for photography and his knowledge of SEO to create a photography blog that offers tips, tricks, and gear reviews for beginner photographers. Through consistent publishing, SEO optimization, and targeted ad campaigns, Gajjar has been able to attract and retain customers, earning $1.2k per month.

How much money it makes: $14.4K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 1

How I Solo Built A $1.2K/Month Blog Site For Indian Photographers

Founder Manthan Gajjar built his photography blogging platform, pewdoc, as a side hustle project and now generates $1.2K per month by publishing trending photography content for newbies. He shares his process of building a blog on a low budget, gaining traffic through consistency and SEO knowledge, and using social media advertising to attract customers and retain readers through newsletters.

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Read by 2,341 founders