I sell photos on three sites: Lightstock, Adobe Stock, and Shutterstock. In my personal experience, I’ve had the most success with Lightstock and Adobe Stock. You do have to be over 18 to sell on stock websites.
Each site does things a little differently. In order to sell on Lightstock, you have to request an invitation to be a contributor. For Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, you just have to set up accounts with them (provide basic information, submit a tax form, link up payment method, etc). Once you’ve gone through those setup steps, you just submit photos whenever you want, and they review them and either accept or reject them. The photos do have to be high quality for them to be accepted.
The amount you make varies from site to site, and even varies based on how the person who purchased the photo did so. However the thing that is the same on all stock sites is that you get paid a royalty rate, which is a percentage of what the photo sold for. You don’t get paid a one-time payment for a stock photo. It’s based on royalties from the sales of your photos that the stock site makes. Usually it’s not more than a dollar or so per photo, though I think you could make up to around $4/photo on Lightstock.
In order to really do well on a stock website, I’ve found I need to be consistent in submitting photos and cull my photos well so I’m only submitting the best of the best. I’ve personally done well with some people-related photos, like ones that I’ve taken for recent Lenspiration assignments.
Hope that helps answer some of your questions, @laura-aome. 🙂 Feel free to follow up with more questions!