Have you heard of Foap? I had not either, before the beginning of this week.

What is Foap?

Foap is a website that allows photographers to post and share their images with the large community while simultaneously making their photographs available for others to purchase for a set $10 USD.

Foap also appeals to companies wanting stock photos matching their look and brand, advertising the following:

Access a community of 3 million talented Creators to
equip your brand with tailor-made video & imagery
to match your ambition & budget.

-Foap.com

To me, it came through as genuine and I could see the monetary possibilities from potentially uploading my own work. I need all the help I can get, and having a passive income is never a bad idea. Put in a little work on a continual basis, and eventually it should pay off. It was worth giving it a shot.

Features

Foap has a variety of different features, some of which may not appeal to everyone.

Missions

Missions are an interesting feature and create an event for the community to compete for prizes. Missions are a call for specific types of photos to be submitted, like a photo of local places that deserve a highlight, fruit, or for photos of a specific place. Missions are free to enter.

Then, there are Premium Missions. These are not free. Premium Missions require Foap Coins (FC) per photo submission. FC can be purchased from the Foap.com website for as little as $3 for 100 FC. Other options are 300 FC (for $7) or 500 FC (for $12). For those who do not wish to pay actual money for FC, there is an additional option to watch ads in the Foap app for 5 FC each. Most premium mission cost 100 FC for one entry, so it adds up in money, or time, either way.

I am not at all a fan of this system.

The prizes from premium missions are significantly higher than regular missions, though. The prize pool for one recent Premium Mission was $900, so there’s a fair chance for creators to have their photos chosen. (Since not just first place gets a prize, and a certain number of photos entered are purchased by the sponsoring company.)

And, to be honest, I can see the reason for using coins (and charging money or time) as it does “weed out” the potential for photographs of lesser quality. And, Foap is a company that needs to get paid, too. It’s one of those necessary evils. And as far as downsides go, it’s not that bad.

Obviously, being a new user of the site, I have motivation to share my experience with it. It brings attention to my work, as well as any albums I have created. Which brings me to the next piece…

Albums

Albums are the way to collect photographs of a specific theme (of the creator’s choosing) that can, but do not have to, include their own uploaded photos. And if I collect a number of photos for an album and another person uses that album to purchase another user’s photo, I would get a small amount ($0.25) based on the commission structure. Not a lot, but still something.

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The Website versus the App

There are a couple weird things going on with Foap, and I am not quite sure what I think about it.

• Purchases cannot be made through the app, and must be made on the website.
• Photos can only be uploaded, one at a time, through the app. There is no option to do this on the website.
• Ratings are only shown if they are 4 or 5 stars. Lower ratings do not show up and the creators are not informed of low ratings on a photo.

Overall

In the end, Foap doesn’t seem like a bad option for selling stock photos. The fact creators receive $5 for every photo sold (and a photo can sell multiple times) is significantly higher than other similar platforms. I’ve uploaded a number of photos to the Foap Marketplace through the app, and expect to add a few more in the days and weeks to come.

Here’s hoping it makes me some money! 😉

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Do you use Foap, or anyother similar website? Have any of them worked for you? What other platforms would you recommend for selling photography? Let’s discuss!