Pricing and earnings playbook
Most sellers pick a number and hope. This playbook shows how to price photos, sets, customs and videos, and what is left once fees come out. Start with the calculator and your own numbers.
To be left with the full $12.00 from each set after a 20% fee, the list price would need to be $15.00.
The boxes start with sample numbers. Replace them with yours. This is arithmetic on your own inputs, before tax, with a month counted as 52 weeks divided by 12. It is not a forecast or a promise of sales or income.
Everything buyers pay you in a week. The only number most people look at.
The share the platform keeps from every sale, taken before the money reaches you.
Any fixed monthly cost of having a seller account, owed whether you sell or not.
What is left to withdraw. Tax still comes out of this later.
01How to price
Each format costs you a different amount of time and gives the buyer something different. Price them separately instead of stretching one number across all four.
A single is the cheapest way for a new buyer to try your work, so treat it as the front door. Keep it low enough to be an easy yes and high enough that the fee does not swallow it.
Sets are where most of your sales should land. Price a set so each photo costs less than a single, while the sale as a whole is clearly bigger.
A custom is made for one person, to their brief and their deadline. It needs planning, its own shoot and a lot of messages, and it usually cannot be sold twice.
Video takes longer to film, check and upload than stills. Pricing by length keeps quotes simple and stops long requests from being underpaid.
Count the minutes a piece of work really takes, including messages and delivery. Decide the hourly rate you would accept. Then adjust for the fee. Anything listed under that number costs you money to sell.
See the worked exampleminutes ÷ 60×your hourly rate÷(1 − fee)
02Where the money goes
Four things sit between the price a buyer sees and the money you can spend. None of them are hidden, but they are easy to skip past when you are choosing a number.
Most platforms keep a percentage of each sale. Some charge a seller membership. Some do both. A percentage follows you on every sale, and a membership is owed even in a month with no sales at all.
Do this: Read the current fee page, then put both numbers in the calculator.
Many platforms release money only after your balance passes a minimum, and only on set days. Until then, your earnings are a number on a screen.
Do this: Look up the minimum, the schedule, the payout methods and any transfer or currency charge.
A buyer can dispute a card payment after the sale. If the bank sides with them, the money is pulled back out of your balance.
Do this: Keep payment and messages on a platform that handles disputes. Never refund an "overpayment" yourself.
This is income. In most countries you are expected to report it, even when the amounts are small and even if no form ever arrives.
Do this: Put a share of every payout aside, keep a simple log, and ask a tax professional about your own case.
03Upsell ideas
Finding a new buyer is the slow part. These ideas add to an order instead of chasing another one. Only offer what you are comfortable making.
Offer one theme as a small, medium and large set. Seeing the sizes side by side makes the bigger one an easy step up.
A custom that is needed by tomorrow jumps your queue. Charge a clear added amount for jumping it.
A set you promise never to sell again earns once, not many times. Price that promise in from the start.
Extra angles, a second outfit, a chosen prop. Give each a small fixed price so you never negotiate from zero.
A buyer who comes back took no effort to find. A modest deal on their next set gives them a reason to stay with you.
Release a theme in parts on a steady schedule. Each part gives past buyers a reason to return for the next one.
04Side by side
Seven habits that quietly cost sellers money, each next to the fix.
Price it wrong
Price it right
Wrong: Copying a price someone posted online
Right: Starting from your own time, fee and floor price
Wrong: Charging the same per photo for singles and sets
Right: Making the set a better rate per photo and a bigger sale
Wrong: Making up a custom quote in the chat
Right: Sending a written price list with fixed add-ons
Wrong: Meeting the fee for the first time on payout day
Right: Checking what you keep before the price goes live
Wrong: Cutting the price as soon as a buyer pushes back
Right: Offering a smaller set at a lower price instead
Wrong: Taking payment off the platform to skip the fee
Right: Keeping payment where disputes are handled for you
Wrong: Changing prices every few days
Right: Changing one thing, then waiting to see the effect
10 mina month is enough for the review.
05The routine
Good pricing is a small habit, not a one-off decision. Four steps keep it under control.
Work out the lowest price that still pays for your time after the fee. Nothing goes on sale under it.
One line each for a single, a set, a custom and a video. Short lists are easier to buy from and easier to stick to.
Date, item, price, fee and what you kept. A notes app or a spreadsheet is enough.
Look at what sold and what it paid per hour. Change one price, then leave it alone until the next review.
06FAQ
Short answers to what sellers ask most about prices, fees and getting paid.
Something missing? Send a question and it may be added here.
There is no single correct price. Start from a floor: the lowest amount that still pays you fairly for your time after the platform takes its cut. List a little above that floor, watch what sells for a few weeks, then move the price in small steps. The calculator on this page shows what each price leaves you with.
No. It only does arithmetic on the numbers you type in. It cannot know how many sets you will sell, and nobody else can either. Use it to compare prices and fee levels, not as a forecast or a promise.
Usually some mix of these: a percentage the platform keeps from each sale, a monthly or yearly seller membership, a payout or transfer charge, and currency conversion if you are paid in another currency. Every platform sets its own mix and changes it from time to time, so read the current fee page before you set prices.
Yes, that is the point of a set. The buyer gets a better rate per photo and you get a larger sale from one shoot. A set that costs the same per photo as your singles gives nobody a reason to pick it.
Charge clearly more than a ready-made set of the same size. A custom takes planning, a separate shoot and messages back and forth, and you usually cannot resell it. Quote the price before you start and take payment through the platform before you shoot.
They take longer to plan, film and edit, and they are larger files to deliver. Many sellers price by length, with a base price for a short clip and a higher price as it gets longer. Custom videos sit at the top of the price list.
When you are selling steadily at the current price and requests are taking more time than you have. Raise in small steps, apply the new price to new listings first, and give it a few weeks before you judge the result.
It is the minimum balance a platform asks you to reach before you can withdraw. If your sales are small and spread out, a high threshold can leave money sitting in your account for a while. Check the threshold and the payout schedule before you rely on that income.
A chargeback is when a buyer disputes a card payment with their bank after paying. If the dispute goes the buyer’s way, the sale is reversed and the money can be taken back from your balance. Selling only through a platform that handles payments and disputes for you lowers the risk. Taking payment directly from strangers raises it.
In most countries money you earn from selling photos counts as income and has to be reported. The rules, limits and forms differ by country. Keep a simple record of what you were paid and what you spent, and ask a qualified tax adviser about your own case. This site does not give tax advice.
Neither wins by default. Low prices can bring more sales but each one takes time to deliver and support. High prices bring fewer sales with more left over from each. Run both cases through the calculator with honest guesses and look at the time each one would cost you.
Adults aged 18 or over who sell, or plan to sell, photos of their own feet and want a clear view of the money side. Nothing is bought, sold or uploaded here, and the content stays informational and non-explicit.
The full guide walks through floor prices, fees, payouts and raising prices, with worked examples.