EyeEm is a website that claims you can earn money by selling your photos. If it’s something you are interested in doing to earn extra cash, then I urge you to read this EyeEm review before you sign up for it.
It will explain how the site works so you will know what to expect from it before you even join. Then, you can properly identify if what it offers is a good fit for you or not.
So, let’s go ahead and check out EyeEm, shall we?
What is EyeEm, and what does it offer?
EyeEm is a legit royalty-free photo marketplace that offers an opportunity for you to earn extra cash by selling your photos and artwork. To earn, you must become one of their contributors and upload your photos and artwork for sale.
Now, to find out if it is the right fit for you, the first step is to understand how it works. The only way to do that is to examine the earning opportunities it offers so you will have a clear idea of how good it is.
So, here’s how to earn from EyeEm.
Option 1 – Selling Photos and Artwork
As a contributor, you can upload the photos and artwork that you want to sell on the platform. Take note that all the photos and artwork you want to sell should be original.
You can use analog, digital, or mobile cameras when taking photos that you want to sell.
For artwork, it can be a scanned copy of your work or digitally produced illustrations. To upload them, you must log in to the member dashboard.
Once you are in the Upload section of the dashboard, simply choose the type you want to sell and follow the instructions. It will only take a couple of minutes to finish uploading them.
The pricing will be determined by the type of license the buyer will purchase. You can check out this guide on how your photo is priced, but the gist is that you’ll be sharing the revenue with EyeEm since they will be the ones to market and price your photos.
Later, I will discuss how you will get paid. Now, the photos and artwork you’ve uploaded can be seen on EyeEm’s marketplace. They will also show up on their licensing partner’s marketplace (like Getty Images and iStock).
So, if a buyer bought your photo from one of their licensing partner’s marketplaces, you’ll also earn a certain amount. What will happen is that you are handing the reigns of the photos and artwork over to EyeEm for them to sell on various marketplaces.
The only downside to this opportunity is that there’s no guarantee you will earn from it because everything depends on people buying your photos. That’s why if you are looking for something to regularly earn from, this is not the best option for you, in my opinion.
It’s only truly meant for people who want to sell their photos and artwork and don’t want to do it on their own.
Option 2 – Missions
Missions are like contests that EyeEm’s brand partners run. The idea behind this is that EyeEm will run a couple of missions every quarter, and each mission will involve submitting an image or a video.
Each mission will have a set of instructions you must follow. It will also run for a certain period, and once it is over, the winner will be announced. The winner will receive the prizes promised in the mission details.
Most of the time, they are just opportunities to be featured on certain websites, magazines, etc. There are cash prizes, but they are not very common. Think of this opportunity mainly as a way to promote your skills as a photographer/artist.
Recommended: Check Out the Best Freelance Sites
How do you get paid?
Whenever someone buys your photo or artwork, you’ll earn a certain amount, and it will show up in your EyeEm account balance. Now, the question is, how can you withdraw your earnings?
Well, EyeEm offers a convenient payout method in PayPal, and the good thing is that you don’t need to hit a threshold to withdraw your earnings. As long as you’ve earned from the site, you can withdraw it to your PayPal account immediately.
Just keep in mind that there will be a service fee involved, so don’t expect to receive the full amount. Unfortunately, the site is not quite clear on how much the service fee will be.
Overall, I would say its payout system is relatively simple and convenient. I like the fact that it offers a convenient payout method like PayPal. If you are interested in more sites that use a convenient payout method, I suggest you check out the top sites that pay via PayPal as well.
How much money can you make?
The amount you can earn from EyeEm will mostly depend on how many photos you can sell. Unfortunately, you have no control over this aspect of the platform. The best thing you can do to maximize your chances of selling photos and artwork is to guarantee its quality.
Apart from that, there’s not much else you can do. So, if you are looking for something reliable, this is not a great option. In my opinion, you should only consider this as a way to dump your photos and artwork and hope that you can earn from them.
As for how much you can earn, as mentioned earlier, you’ll be sharing the revenue with EyeEm. Every time someone buys your photo, they will be paying for the license. Then, you’ll receive 50% of the revenue. The other half will go to EyeEm.
In my opinion, it’s a very steep rate because you’ll only get to earn half of what it costs for someone to buy your photo. But this is the cost of getting your photos out there, so to speak. That’s why if you want to get the full value of your photos, this is not the most ideal option, in my opinion.
This is why I would consider its earning potential to be not that good because there’s no guarantee you’ll earn from it, and the “service fee” is very high.
Can you use it on mobile?
EyeEm has a mobile app you can download, but it only works on iOS devices. So, if you are an Android user, this is not for you. I suggest you check out the best money-making apps for Android instead.
As for the app, it is relatively user-friendly, so you can navigate it with ease. It also has all the features of the web-based platform, so you can manage/upload photos easily even when you are not in front of your computer.
The overall user experience it provides is relatively decent, in my opinion.
Who can join EyeEm?
The site doesn’t tell you exactly which countries it is available in, but as far as I can tell, it is available more or less worldwide. So, you can sign up as a member anywhere in the world.
You do have to be at least 18 years of age to sign up. As the photo above shows, you can use your Facebook account to register, or you can just provide your email address and password.
After you are done signing up, EyeEm will send you an activation email. Make sure to click the link in the email to complete your registration. Once you’ve done that, you can log in to the member dashboard and start uploading photos/artwork.
Can you get support?
If you have questions about the site or your account, you can check out the Help Center. It discusses most (if not all) of the important topics you need to know about EyeEm.
If you can’t find the answers you need, you can contact their support team instead. To do so, just go to the Help Center page and click the Submit Request link at the top. Then, fill out the form and hit submit.
What’s good about this system is that it will let you track all the support requests you’ve submitted, so in case you forgot the answers, you can just read them again. This is why I would say it provides decent support to its members since it offers a convenient way to ask for help.
Final Verdict
EyeEm is a legit platform that will let you earn by selling your original photos and artwork. It has a couple of decent features, but it also has certain limitations you must consider.
Let me wrap up this review by summarizing its pros and cons so you can see a clear overview of what it offers. Then, you can decide if it is a good fit for you or not.
Pros:
- Offers payment via PayPal
- Available more or less worldwide
Cons:
- High service fee
- Doesn’t offer a guaranteed way to earn
In my opinion, if you are looking for a reliable way to earn extra cash, then EyeEm is not a great option because it doesn’t offer a guaranteed way to earn. Plus, you’ll only receive 50% of the revenue generated by the sale. The other half goes to EyeEm.
The cost of doing business with EyeEm, in my opinion, is just too high. That’s why if you want to maximize your earnings from your photos and artwork, you are better off on your own, in my opinion. That’s why I would only recommend you sign up for this platform if you don’t mind sharing half the revenue with the website or if you just want to unload some of your photos and artwork.
But if you want to get the full value of your photos and artwork, you can sell them yourself by building your own online business. That way, you get to keep all the revenue. You can do this both by selling photos or, in general, just running an online business where you completely decide everything and get to keep all the profit.
You just need to learn how to set up your own online business, and for that, you can check out this guide on how to build your own online business.
If you have any comments, questions, or experiences with EyeEm, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.