How to Make Money with Photography? – Pexels Review

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Pexels Review

Hi everyone! In the previous blog post, I discussed about ClickASnap, and whether it is a good place to earn some passive income.

Today, I am going to discuss with you another site where you can share your photos, and make some passive income too. It is a site called Pexels.

It is a site where creators share their photos and videos that become copyright free stock photos and videos there.

But is it really a good way to create passive income? Can you make lots of money? Let’s explore and discuss about this.


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Watch: How to Make Money with Photography? – Pexels Review

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What is Pexels?

I have been using Pexels for years.  Mostly, I use it to get copyright free images and videos. I use these for my websites and YouTube videos.

Yup, it is a great resource for getting images and videos that are copyright free. Some of you know this already. Some maybe not.

But did you know that you can earn some side income at Pexels? Let’s take a look now.

About Pexels

From their About Us page, you can see that Pexels claims to provide “high quality and completely free stock photos” And all these photos and videos are “licensed under the Pexels license”.

About Us – Pexels

They also claim that “All photos are nicely tagged, searchable and also easy to discover through our discover pages.” I was curious about this part, and so I wrote a help ticket to ask them about this.

Here is the answer from their support team :

Email from Pexels – Photos and Videos Tags You Added Not Visible

As you can see from the above screen shot of the email reply from Pexels, the photos and videos you upload will not be automatically tagged or even searchable on Pexels. Even the tags you add will not be visible. And only the Pexels team decide which images and photos get tagged an shown on their search pages.

This does reduce the chances of your images and videos being found and seen. And as such, can impact the amount of donations you can get.

Still, that is not to say that your images and videos will never be seen. Somehow, people will find them. I have tried it, and seen that my photos and videos do get viewed.

Not a lot of views at the moment. But, let’s see how it goes as I upload more in the coming months.

Pexels’ Mission

Also on the About Us page, Pexels wrote about their mission. They stated that :

“We help millions of designers, writers, artists, programmers and other creators to get access to beautiful photos that they can use freely which empowers them to create amazing products, designs, stories, websites, apps, art and other work.”

And they called this mission as “Empowering Creators”. That is quite a nice slogan, don’t you agree?

Contribute to Pexels

Besides downloading the copyright free images and videos, you can upload your original photos and images, too. Doing that, you are contributing and supporting the Pexels community.

What are The Benefits of Sharing Photos and Videos on Pexels?

So, what are the benefits of sharing photos and videos on pixels? When you share your photos and videos on Pexels, you can help creative people from all over the world.

And, you can also inspire them. These people can be entrepreneurs, visual artists, photographers, video creators, etc. Just like you and me.

And Pexels gets over 18 million visits per month. That makes it one of the most trafficked photography platforms in the world. As such, it means that you can get your work reached and seen by millions of people from all over the world.

But remember the information I received in the email from the Pexels team? While Pexels can get over 18 million visits per month, there is no guarantee that your photos and videos get that amount of exposure.

Receive Donations at Pexels

And here is an interesting part of the site. It is a section called donations. It is where users are prompted to consider a donation after downloading your video or photos.

Personally, I have seen this whenever I download a photo or video at Pexels. After the download, a popup appears to ask if I would like to donate to the creator of the photo or video.

Increase Brand Exposure at Pexels

And there is the exposure where your photos and videos can reach millions. As said before, Pexels gets millions of visitors to their site. This is an opportunity for your images and videos to be seen by people.

Stats to Boast About

And there is the stats where you can see how many image views, downloads, and likes your photos have gained.

Get Featured and Be Famous

You can also see where your photos have been featured on other sites. The photos and videos from Pexels can often be used in major publications, major channels, and major sites. So, Pexels will show you the notable outlets where your work has been featured.

Giving Back

Many of the contributors at Pexels have benefited from the free images and videos shared by others. So, sharing your own work is a great way to pay it forward.

So, like I mentioned earlier, Pexels is a great resource for getting images videos that are copyright free. And to use it for your designs, your website, your apps, etc. I use it on my YouTube channel, my websites, and social media too.

And, I have been doing it for years. But, I have not really used it for making money. So, let’s take a look at that now

Can You Make Money With Pexels?

All the time that I have used Pexels, I noticed that whenever I downloaded a photo or a video, I will be asked to give a donation to the content creator. A pop-up would appear, and I would be asked if I would consider a donation to the creator of the image or video.

Pexels – Popup Asks If You Would Like To Donate After Download

So, from there I have seen that there is this donation element where users are prompted to consider a donation after downloading a photo or video. And I did think of sharing my own photos and see if I can get donations and some side income.

After all, I have many many photos  taken on my smartphone. So, I thought why not give it a try?

But, I had been so busy and had been putting it off. Now, lately I have been thinking of exploring this passive income opportunity.

So here I am, and as usual, I share with you what I experience as I embark on this make money online potential.

It looks very simple. Just upload the photos, activate the donations option, leave your photos or videos on the Pexels site. And wait for donations.

As you upload more photos and videos, more donations may be possible because you have so many photos and videos. Some people will actually be kind enough to give you a little donation. And that can be your side income.


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How to Make Money with Photography? – Pexels Review

Timotheus Final Thoughts

So, this is a good option to share for those that you do not plan to sell your photos. Or if you do not want to add them to any stock photography site like Shutterstock. I will do a blog post about making money with Shutterstock. So, watch for that.

Is This a Potential Stream of Passive Income?

So, just upload on Pexels, and accept donations. As you can see, this can be a form of passive income. When you upload more photos and videos, there may be people willing to donate to you.

So, it is a numbers game. And you can earn a little, a nice little side income.

From what I have seen, the amount to donate is actually not fixed. So, some people may donate, say, 10 cents to you. Some maybe donate a dollar. So, you never know how much you can get.

I’m going to do that. And, in fact, I’ve started uploading photos and videos already. Just to try out and see whether I can make money from here.

So, I made sure that my account allows donations. In time, over the months or so, when I make some money, I will do a follow-up video to share with you.

One thing to note is that most people who tried this have mentioned that the money earned is not a lot.

I won’t say the amount. But, some have said that it’s like pocket money. Enough for you so that you can afford to buy pizza. Or, maybe even pay your Netflix subscription for a month.

My Recommendation

If you actually prefer to have an online business to make more money for the long term, then I recommend affiliate marketing. And, you need to learn how to do it right.

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If you have ANY questions, or anything to clarify, please drop a comment below. I will be happy to help you.

I wish everyone great wealth and success.

Timotheus
Digital Marketer, Lecturer, Amazon Bestselling Author & Cancer Survivor

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