�

Another 7 ways to earn money with photography

In the blog post; 7 Ways To Make Money With Photography I discussed some ways that you can earn money with photographs. Here I’m going to have a look at some others.

Some of these are ways to earn money online, some are mostly off line.

While any form of photography, or way of earning money with it, can have an online presence of some sort, Some are completely online, apart from taking the photographs in the first place.

It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to make a great deal of money the internet with any one of the online methods on they’re own, but if you get several up and running over time, they might generate enough to make a living over time.

The ones that needn’t involve working online probably offer a better chance of making a career off.

All the photographs I’ve used in this eBook and in the blog post mentioned above, are images that I’ve sold through Micro Stock sites.

�

1. Micro Stock PhotographyMicro Stock Photography works just like Stock Photography, well almost. There is one very big difference, you generally earn much less.

The standards for photographs to be accepted by an agency are higher in Stock Photography than Micro Stock. This allows for very good, but not excellent photos to enter the Micro Stock market.

While in Stock Photography a photo can sometimes sell for a three figure sum, in Micro Stock they don’t.

Most Micro Stock sales will yield the photographer only cents. Some will make you a few dollars, but most will be less than a dollar.

Yes it’s easier to get into Micro Stock Photography, but it’s very hard to make money with it. Making a full time living is almost unthinkable, and getting harder daily.

There are so many photographers that have a go at Micro Stock. The number of photographs for sale on them are enormous, and growing everyday.

It’s very hard to get your photos noticed, because of the massive competition. You need to have thousands with an agency, or several agencies, to stand a better chance.

You can submit the same photos to several agencies to increase your chance of sales. Some will offer a slightly better payment for exclusive use of a photo, but I prefer having it listed on more than one.

If you join more than one agency, some will give yourself a better chance of having some success.

I’ve joined a few agencies and have had some sales, but not that many. I used to check them everyday to see if I got a sale. Now I rarely do.

When you submit photos to an agency, they have to be accepted. Some are and some aren’t. I once submitted ten photos to two different agencies on the same day. One accepted all ten, the other rejected all ten. They were the same images.

Having said that, I’ve sold all the photos in this eBook and this blog article through Micro Stock sites. So, yes you can get some sales.

�

2. Sell photographs from your own web sitePhotographers use to sell photographs from a brick and mortar shop. It was a huge investment to set that up.

The shop would usually include a studio where the photographer normally shot portraits. They might book other shoots on location. Whatever got them work and money.

By and large the work and sales were local. There were photography businesses like this dotted all over the place.

I expect some still exist, but it’s a dying form of business. Then shops of all sorts are finding changing conditions trying.

The changing conditions are mainly the Internet. Web sites are the new shops. It’s a smaller investment, has a greater reach, and insurance is cheaper.

If you can build a reputation, and get traffic to your site, this is a possibility.

Now, when you had a shop on the street, with a sign over it, you were visible to anyone who passed by.

While there’s much more traffic on the Internet it doesn’t come by in the same way. No one is going to walk past your web site.

The challenge for online business is how to grab some of that traffic. Remember it’s easier to surf to another site than walk to another shop.

The next shop might be on the next street, the next web site could be on another continent.

Use you site to sell digital and printed copies of your photos. It might also bring you some photo shoots. Portrait work would normally be local or involve serious travel.

You need to produce work that will sell globally or definitely to a large part of the world. The better known you become and the wider your reputation spreads the better chance you have to make money.

�

3. Make money with Pet PhotographyThere are probably more pets in the world now than ever. While not everyone has a pet, certainly, many people do.

It’s natural to want photographs of your pet. Not only are they being constantly snapped, but tons of pet videos are being produced daily. They’re all over youtube.

Many people accumulate vast numbers of images of their beloved pets. Digital photography is instant and once the camera is purchased, cheap to produce.

With most people having a camera to hand most of the time, pets are being constantly photographed. Animals are incredibly photogenic.

I see this as being both bad and good news for photographers.

Bad in the sense that if people are taking tons of their own photos, most will be happy with those.

It can also be good news. While so many people are photographing their pets, most will be getting mostly average and sometimes very poor images.

A person with a smartphone who knows nothing about lighting or camera settings will be literally pointing and shooting. They will be getting mostly badly lit, out of focus and very soft photos.

This can lead to a desire to get better photographs of their precious pets. They want better shots from a professional photographer.

Now the challenge here is to be able to provide those better photographs. You need to Work out some really good shots to take.

If you have access to pets, your own or friends, start photographing them. Work out some good shots and build a portfolio.

Once you do that, and build a reputation, this could be a good gig. Pet owners know other pet owners, and you could get some referral business.

�

4. Sell prints in restaurants and shopsWith this one you agree with business owners to display some of your prints on the walls of their business, and get orders for copies of them.

After receiving the orders you print a copy of the photo hat was sold , or have it printed professionally, and have it delivered. If the buyer is local it can be delivered in person or through the business that sold it.

If the buyer is not based locally then the print is delivered through the postal service or a courier.

The owner of the business that made the sale will get a commission from any sales they make.

This idea is better suited to restaurants and cafes. People sitting down eating a meal will be looking at these photos on the wall as they do so.

A photo can catch their eye as they eat and possibly lead to a sale.

The number of photographs to hang in a situation like this can be worked out between the photographer and business owner.

It will depend on a few things like how big the eating area is, and if there is any other art work sharing the space.

This idea will probably work best in a area where there are a lot of tourists, but it might work anywhere.

The investment is in the presentation of the images on display. It they are framed in the usual way photographs are, with a glass front, they should last for a long time.

Obviously some effort should go into presenting them as well as possible to attract sales. Once in place they should provide some passive income for both the photographer and business owner.

There may be a chance to have an arrangement like this in place with more than one business owner. If so use different photographs every time.

If you practice different forms of photography, present each in a different location rather than mixing them.

This will give you the opportunity to put more of you images on sale and will give a unique product to all those who partner with you.

If you do decide to pursue this idea you will need to price it right. You will need to allow for the initial presentation of the work on display.

Secondly you will have to cover the cost of printing and delivering the prints you sell. Then build in the commission your paying the business owners.

Lastly you will have to make sure that there’s something left over to pay yourself.

When you’re delivering the print that was sold don’t forget to include some information about yourself and how the customer might buy some more of your work.

�

5. Give Wildlife Photography a goWildlife Photography has something in common with Pet Photography in the they’re both all about photographing animals. That’s all though.

While Pet Photography involved working with tame animals that are very used to people, Wildlife Photography involves getting images of wild animals that don’t always trust humans.

You may get pets to pose for you to an extent with the aid of toys and treats, but toys won’t work in the wild.

If you get to know the behaviour of wild species well it may be possible to set food for them and photograph them eating it.

To do so you will need to get to know what they feed on, and when, how and where they do it.

You can set some food, hide up wind, and wait. This could take time and many efforts before it works.

Now the easiest way to get shots like this is by setting up bird feeding stations in the back yard and shooting the birds when they avail of your efforts.

This works better in very cold harsh weather when the birds find it hard to find food. The species who feed in gardens are ones that are used to living near and encountering people regularly.

Animals can’t escape as easily as birds, and are less likely to come into domestic gardens. Foxes might at night, but you will need some ingenuity to photograph those.

You can go on organised photographic shoots to photograph wild animals which should yield some good photos. It may not be possible to that very often though. These could include local and foreign expeditions.

Wildlife Parks and Zoos will provide the opportunity to photograph wild animals. The downside is that they may not be in their natural environment, and may not look convincing.

Farm animals can be easier to photograph than pets even. Their easy to find, will be in their usual and natural surroundings, and possibly carry on as normal.

There is the possibility that some of them will look for attention from you by coming close and looking straight at you. So get a quick shot before that happens, and a portrait when it does.

�

6. Make money with a Photography BlogStart writing a photography blog. This allows you a few different ways to make some money, but it takes time.

Firstly you can put some ads on your blog. Google AdSense is one place to start with this. If someone clicks on one you will get a payment.

For the most part this will only be a few cents, very often less than ten. Occasionally it might result in a dollar or slightly more.

Some people think that you should only do this when a blog is established and has good traffic. I did it from day one and while the return is small it is building.

You need to get high traffic to your blog to make more than a trickle of money.

Another way is to join affiliate programmes, place links in the blog posts, and get a commission, like with AdSense.

Again you need high traffic. These links should pay better than AdSense but it’s not easy to get any sales.

Try to build a mailing list and get some affiliate sales through it. You must be providing content that people want and include affiliate offers. People wont stay subscribed if you concentrate mostly on selling.

It’s very hard to get people to subscribe to a mailing list. There was a time when it was relatively easy to build a mailing list, but not anymore.

You can try to book paying photography jobs through your website, or sell products of your own. You need two things for this, patience and perseverance. It takes a lot of time and work before you see any real return.

You can include a portfolio of some of your photographs and attempt to sell them as prints or downloads.

People have made a lot of money through blogs, and some continue to do so. Most of these blogs are established for some time. Starting from scratch and making serious money is becoming harder all the time.

If you can get several money streams through a blog it might build up over time. It will require a lot of work, and some luck.

�

7. Drone PhotographyThis is a relatively new form of photography and as such is not as saturated as the other forms yet. As such it offers a greater possibility of getting unique photos.

In the past aircraft would have been used to get the shots that drones do now. Those are shots looking down from the sky.

Drones are able to operate in space too confined for aircraft, so are probably capable of capturing shots that may have been unattainable.

There are rules and laws emerging to control the use of drones though. These are different in different countries, so you need to know what you can do in a country before you start.

These include privacy laws, drones can be very intrusive. Unregulated they could become part of tools of criminals and perverts.

They can also be dangerous around aircraft and there have been temporary closures of some airports because people were flying drones in their vicinity. These include big international airports.

Where drones come into their own is in rural scenic areas where they can shoot spectacular landscapes.

Before drones photographers had to climb to high ground to get certain shots. Now they can launch their drone and get wider and more dramatic shots faster and safer.

Drones are possibly even better at capturing video from on high. Some of the film they produce are truly spectacular.

At the present time their probably isn’t another form of photography with the opportunity of getting unique shots.

More and more photographers are using Drones so novelty and uniqueness are disappearing. The sooner you get started the better chance of making an impact before that market is saturated also.

�

Check out the accompanying blog postI hope you enjoyed this book and possibly learned something useful from it. Check out the accompanying blog post; 7 Ways To Make Money With Photography

Perhaps there’s one or two of the ideas that you’ve decided to try. If so I wish you all the best with them, and that you make money with them.

I publish regular articles about photography at Enjoy Your Photography. Come by for a look.