Paid uploads
Offer paid entry submissions from the gallery frontend.
Contest Gallery guides
Products and paid participation
Monetize your WordPress gallery
Choose a selling model that fits your gallery, your content and your community.
Choose how your gallery earns
A WordPress gallery can offer more than a collection to browse. You can sell a product from an entry or charge for a defined action such as submitting a photograph. Choose the model that matches what your visitors want to do.
| Model | What the visitor purchases | Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Physical products | A product you ship, such as a gallery print | FREE and PRO |
| Digital downloads | Access to the configured download files | PRO |
| Services | A configured service product and its order workflow | PRO |
| Upload credits | Credits for submitting gallery entries | PRO for live sales |
| Vote and comment credits | Credits for the selected gallery actions | PRO for live sales |
| Private credit preview | Test the credit flow without a real payment | FREE and PRO |
Turn a gallery entry into a product
Use an ecommerce gallery for shipping products, digital downloads or services. A photographer might sell a physical print, while a creator might offer a downloadable file. The operator configures the product, price and delivery settings.
Physical product sales are available in FREE and PRO. Downloads and services add protected post-purchase workflows in PRO. PayPal and Stripe are the supported payment providers.
Sell participation through gallery credits
Paid Actions work in regular galleries. Configure upload, vote and comment credits separately. A visitor signs in, chooses credit quantities and completes the supported checkout. The account balance then controls the relevant action.
Use upload credits when people pay to submit an entry. Use vote or comment credits only where paid participation fits your project. Existing upload, voting and moderation rules remain in force.
Paid votes and comments
Choose separate prices for your supported participation actions.
Start with a clear visitor journey
- Choose a product or one paid action to introduce first.
- Configure the gallery, entry information and participation rules.
- For a product, set its sale type and price. For credits, use the gallery’s Earning options.
- Configure the appropriate PayPal or Stripe settings and review the current readiness status.
- Check the visitor journey before advertising paid participation. Use the private credit preview or the supported provider sandbox where appropriate.
The private credit preview saves marked test actions and test balances. It does not charge money. Reset test actions cleans up the gallery’s saved preview actions and returns the related test credits.
Connect monetization with a returning community
Profiles give contributors a recognizable identity. My entries helps them manage their submissions. Private messages and confirmed friendships let people continue a conversation after viewing an entry.
Those member functions are available in FREE and PRO. Add a paid option when it supports the community’s purpose, rather than charging for every interaction.
Gallery monetization questions
Can the free plugin earn money?
Yes. FREE can sell physical shipping products through the supported ecommerce flow. It also offers private testing of Paid Actions. Digital downloads, services and real upload, vote and comment credit sales require PRO.
Do members automatically receive the money from their entries?
Payments go through the payment configuration set up by the website operator. Contest Gallery does not provide an automatic seller payout or commission marketplace.
Does this include recurring subscriptions?
The models described here are product purchases and action credits. They do not create recurring membership subscriptions.
Are earnings guaranteed?
No. The plugin provides the selling and participation tools. Results depend on your offer, audience and configuration.