There are many ways to utilize mobile apps nowadays and one of them is to make money with Foap. Not long ago this app was making headlines and had everyone going gaga. It sounded really simple – just upload photos and cash might just be falling out from your pocket. Well, don’t be over-excited just yet. Read this review to find out if the fad is worth the trouble.
Foap In Action
Foap is essentially a platform created for buyers and sellers to trade stock photos at an affordable yet creative way. In this case, you are the seller (or the creator as they called it) and the buyer can be anyone from agencies to website owners.
The first place to start selling is on the marketplace which can be accessed through the web browser version. To upload the photos, you’ll need to install the mobile app. Before publishing, each image should be given a short description and tagged with at least 4 relevant keywords to enable easier search.
All images on the marketplace are sold for $10 per download in which Foap will take 50% of the revenue. If buyers purchased under the discounted credit plans, they can buy at a cheaper rate and you will earn less profit-sharing per download.
Most images are royalties free, meaning that they can be used multiple times and you can also set between editorial and/or commercial licenses. If you are lucky and some get transferred to the Getty or Shutterstock collection, the values of your photos become higher and you will earn 50% from what Foap gets – usually up to $80 per photo.
The other popular method of earning is to join missions. These are basically creative projects launched by Foap or big companies that run for a certain time frame and pay in high cash prizes. For example, Foap Mission’s reward is between $100 to $500 (only 1 winner per time) while Premium Mission can have multiple winners with rewards totaling up to $2000 per time.
The least popular method of earning is by adding photos from other users into your album. When someone searches and purchases through your album, you’ll get $0.25 cents. In summary, your earnings breakdown in Foap will look something like this;
- Marketplace commission – Earn 50% revenue per download
- Getty/Shutterstock commission – Earn 50% for selected images (at higher values)
- Mission rewards – Cash prize varies between $5 to $250 per winning
- Album commission – Earn 25 cents through other user’s photo
All earnings are paid through PayPal and can be cashed out on a monthly basis.
Who Should Join Foap
Technically, anyone who knows how to and like taking nice photos using their smartphone or digital cameras can explore the creative and money opportunities using this app. That includes hobbyists, adventure seekers to professionals who are looking to build a portfolio to showcase their work.
It also acts as a social platform that brings together people who love photography so that they can share each other’s work and inspire more creative projects. Joining is free and all you need is to register through Facebook or an email. After that, you can immediately access the app (for uploading photos) or web version (for browsing and/or buying).
The Perks
So what are the advantages of using Foap, you asked?
- For obvious reasons, you can make money through the conventional list-and-sell or cashing from reward prizes. It’s a nice side hustle that doesn’t need a lot of high-end equipment or a big team. In most cases, any smartphones that come with a good camera feature (or the lastest GoPro) should do the trick. The rest is just about skills, location and thinking outside of the box.
- For serious photographers, it’s a good avenue to share your work with a wider audience. When you create a seller’s account, there will be a link pointing to your profile. On that page is where people can find your photos and albums. Hence, if you are looking to do a bit of self-promotion, you can share the link on social media or better yet, create a photography blog to highlight your work on Foap.
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- The Foap marketplace (and Mission photos, to some extent) don’t restrict the selling of photos to just their site so that gives plenty of opportunities to sell and earn from other photography platforms as well.
- Foap also protects your images through their signature watermark, making it hard for people to steal them. Likewise, it also provides a model release form whenever there are recognizable faces in your photos. All these legal measures will ensure the safety and legitimacy of your work in the online space.
- Still can’t figure out how best to use Foap for your daily photo-taking activities? No worries. Just visit the Foap Academy Tutorials to learn more. It’s a series of short YouTube videos so it’s free to watch.
The Downside
So what are the shortcomings with an app that is so easy to use? That’s exactly where the problem is.
- There are many competitions (we are looking at approximately three million participating creators) whether it’s in the marketplace or inside mission rewards. Gone were the days of bad photos – now everyone seems is capable of taking good pictures with very minimal effort.
- Think your shot is good enough? Inside Foap, you will find hundreds more that are equally as good, if not better. So standing out from the crowd can be quite challenging.
- As such, it can be difficult to earn any money in the beginning when you don’t have a strong profile. Even so, it’s not wise to rely on the platform to supplement an income due to the fluctuating trends and market demand. There are certainly no guarantees as to how much you can earn on a regular basis.
- Mission rewards is where the money is and in the case of premium missions, you need to accumulate sufficient coins in order to join. This can be done by watching ads on the app, rating other people’s photos or purchase directly from the website through any of these three plans.
- 200 Foap Coins = $5 (2 missions)
- 600 Foap Coins = $7 (6 missions)
- 1000 Foap Coins = $12 (10 missions)
In other words, you need to pay to play. Though it’s a small sum, that’s just one of the ways the company makes money while keeping the community engaged. However, if you are consistently paying but not getting any rewards, then you need to rethink your strategy.
- The only way to upload and to cash out is through the mobile app. Apparently you can’t do that with the web browser so you need to ensure that the app is working all the time (and that your phone doesn’t crash) if you want to keep track of your earning activities on Foap.
Is Making Money on Foap Worth It?
The answer to this is both yes and no. Personally I think Foap’s primary existence is to cultivate photography creativity among the common people. In the process, of course, money is just an incentive to attract new creators and to increase the pool of stock photos.
It might sound contradictory but here is how I see it. Foap can actually turn out to be inspiring and rewarding when you don’t focus too much time and energy. On the flip side, the outcome could potentially be more disappointing if you invested too much effort into the whole thing.
Either way, there is no harm trying and see where the app will lead you. But if you are serious about making long-term money on the side, I would recommend doing affiliate marketing instead. With this income model you can start an online business in whatever niche you liked – be it photography, arts or gadget related. Join me at this robust training program to learn more about these opportunities if you are interested.
Jake says
This app sounds like a good way to dip your toes into the photography world with minimal gadgets. Even if you don’t make any money at first, you can learn what kind of pictures sells and what doesn’t and also get to know what people are looking for specifically. I think these are valuable experiences.
Like anything else, it requires hard work and persistence before one can see success. Just enjoy the learning process.
Cathy says
Well said, Jake. It doesn’t always have to be about money. Small experiences like this can teach us useful skills that we can later use in life.
Henderson says
It seems to me like making money with Foap will be a bit hard, given the number of competitions out there. Everyone is good at using phone cameras nowadays so you can’t really distinguish the amateurs from the professionals. Even though I love taking pictures with my phone, seems like a slim chance to win anything.
riverdogg says
I wish FOAP had been around years ago, or at least that I had known about it. I built a website for my cousin to sell her photography on but it never did well and the same goes for my father’s WordPress site which I set up for him to share his photography with others. The Foap app would have made it so much easier for them and it seems like a truly great service.
Boniface-AndroidBix says
I’m pretty good at taking photos, especially with a good camera. So you can be sure this got me interested – until I learned about what kind of competition I’d be up against. One should really think about whether their time and energy are worth investing in this so-called money-making app.
Ordinary people like me would face a lot of challenges if the competition was in the millions – but the developers of the program would always gain as long as the community stays active. Just wondering, do the photos remain copyrighted to me or Foap for life?
Cathy says
Photos sold on Foap are all royalty-free so it’s not strictly copyright imposed. In other words, buyers can use it as many times as they want.
Jay says
This is not a bad idea and 50% profit sounds like a pretty reasonable bargain. It’s somewhat a good side hustle but like you said it does come with some disadvantages. For starters, the competition is massive compared to the small amount of money one can earn. The chances of not earning reasonable cash is actually a factor that can hinder people from partaking in this venture.
Anyone going into this must be made aware so they know exactly what to expect if they are using Foap.
Cathy says
Yup, with the crowdsourcing type of model, you can’t really expect much gain unless you really build a strong portfolio and participate actively in all the missions.