APP OF THE DAY: Turn your mobile photos into cash with Foap

Many of us have become so accustomed to taking photos with our mobile phones that we’ll snap pictures of pretty much anything, our friends, cool buildings, things we eat (maybe stop this) and impressive scenery.

However, the majority of amateur photographers (yes, that’s the title we’ve decided we can all call ourselves) don’t tend to upload their photos to Flickr Creative Commons or online databases that would allow others to search for them, look at them, use them and possibly even buy them.

Well now a new app called Foap allows mobile photography geeks to upload and share their work and maybe (maybe) even make a few pennies from their snaps in the process if people want to reuse them elsewhere.

To get started you take a photo, or upload one you’re particularly proud of, build up a portfolio, publish them to the market and start earning money from people that might want to use them for a range of editorial or commercial purposes. The deal is, you sell your images for $10 a pop, you’ll get $5 of that and Foap takes the other half.

The important thing to remember is don’t go overboard with filters. Foap is all about quality imagery, so if a filter looks great then it’ll work, if it makes the photo look blurry or a bit rubbish (sorry Instagram), then it won’t get approved and even make its way onto Foap’s market.

The approval process also aims to stamp out any inappropriate content too, so don’t worry, you won’t stumble across anything gross or X-rated accidentally. After all, there are plenty of other sites for that kind of thing.

There’s a real community feel to Foap as you’re encouraged to go and rate photos taken by other users. The better rated a photo becomes, the more chance people will find it in search results, which is a great idea and ensures that Foap is about quality over anything else. It’s interesting to browse through other photos too and see which are the Top Rated or Latest Sold in order to give you a better idea of what works well and what others are searching for.

Foap sounds good in theory, but as we’ve only just signed up we can’t comment on whether it’s a cool way to make a few extra pennies or just a pretty app with little purpose in the long run. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Foap is available from iTunes for free. Oh and can we also talk about how good the website looks too? Check it out at: www.foap.com