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How To Turn Smartphone Photos Into Quick Cash

BOSTON (CBS) - Smartphones have made amateur photographers out of just about everyone. Now there's an easy way to officially make you a pro.

Like any tourist, Carly Smith of Billerica snapped dozens of photos during a recent trip to New York City.

"I took it from my phone," Smith says. "It's not anything professional."

But two of them were good enough for her to get paid.

Carly posted her photos on Scoopshot, one of several new apps that allow smartphone users to offer their photos for sale.

Carly sold a photo of Times Square to Scoopshot for $10. She also snapped a photo of Broadway actor James Norton. Scoopshot paid her another $10.

So who's buying these photos? Experts say it's all about marketing on social media.

"We've seen this with the Oscars; we've seen this with David Ortiz and his selfie with the president," says social media expert David Gerzof Richard.

Both of those photos generated a huge buzz for Samsung and according to Gerzof Richard the possibilities are endless.

"Brands want socially sharable photos," he says.

Another app called 'foap' created what it calls a 'mission' asking people to shoot photos of the popular game Candy Crush.

The game maker bought several photos to post on Facebook including a shot of a cat playing the game on a tablet.

"It's very expensive to do a shoot and have it last on Facebook for a matter of minutes or hours," Gerzof Richard says.

Instead companies like Heineken, Puma and MasterCard have pages of photos to choose from for pennies.

But Gerzof Richard says it's not just about the money.

"The model shots really, that doesn't reflect real life," Gerzof Richard says. "What does reflect real life is the photos that we are taking with our own smartphones."

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