Happy New Year’s! Firstly, before sharing my tips about how to make money as a photographer, I would like to share a quote from Jimmy Valvano.
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
Jimmy Valvano
Wouldn’t it be nice to make money doing something you love – even if it were just enough to cover the costs of that hobby? It is an absolute dream to support yourself doing something you are passionate about. If you are looking to get started as a photographer full time, or to make some extra cash, this is for you.
I have been getting many questions:
How do you make money as a photographer in the beginning?
Where do you start advertising as a photographer?
What is the easiest way to make money as a photographer?
Where can get freelance photography work?
How can I get started as a freelancer?
Why am I sharing these tips?
I would like to address the reason behind this post. Spreading and sharing my tips and what worked for me, as a photographer can hopefully help a young entrepreneur to launch their own business and take it to another level. Hopefully, turning passion into their career.
Why do I think that is so important?
Because by doing something we absolutely love, helps us staying motivated to keep growing what we have, and potentially help others while we’re at it!
Imagine what the world would look like if instead of a handful of beneficial organizations helping the world, there were tens of thousands. How much could we achieve, and what problems could we overcome, if there were tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs actively contributing to a better world?
I believe, is that we could create a world that is safe and healthy and beautiful for all of us to coexist in.
I think we would see entrepreneurs who are proud of their organizations and personally fulfilled in their lives knowing that they are contributing and that they matter. Happiness stems from giving and from progress.
I’m going to share with you the top ways that I have personally used to try and succeeded in making money as a photographer, besides the classic ones. There are many ways out there, as long as you are willing to spend hours on research, getting yourself noticed and most importantly – keep on working on improving your photography skills every single day.
These top – ways of making money as a photographer are more online-based and less location-based. Of course, there are many classic ways of making money as a photographer in 2020, like doing photo shoots for clients, hosting workshops in your town, getting paid for branding photography and selling your photos on locals markets…
But the ways I will share, are a bit different and less location-based as I said.
I’ll share with you my experience with each, advice on getting started, and whether or not I was successful in my attempts.
Photography resources: Editing, shooting, filming, selling.
How To make money as a photographer in 2020
Making money as a photographer on Airbnb
Airbnb created a new feature last year – Airbnb experiences. All you have to do is sign up and start your experience. It could be something like Family Photoshoot or Instagram photo experience.
Sign up today and start hosting experiences!
Skillshare
Skillshare is a simple class sharing platform where you can create your own class in the area of your expertise. Photography is a popular topic, which is why is easy to make money on Skillshare as a photographer.
I had so far created 2 courses on Skillshare, one on photography and one on zero waste basics. I am planning on publishing more in the upcoming year! Since the platform makes it so easy to share your skills.
Zero Waste 101 – What You Really Need To Know
Tropical Photography – The Basics
How Skillshare Payments Work
There are two direct ways to receive payments from Skillshare:
Receive a $10 commission for each premium subscription referral you send to the platform via personal referral links.
Receive a portion of Skillshare’s monthly profits based on how many premium minutes people watched with regards to your Skillshare classes.
Essentially, you want to be promoting the platform as much as you’re promoting your classes, in order to diversify the revenue you make on related efforts.
Tropical Photography – The Basics
I also think there’s also a third way to make money as a photographer off Skillshare.
With the right strategy, building a following on Skillshare can transcend the platform. Proactively design your class and related materials to funnel traffic to your website and email list. This way, even if you don’t make more than a modest sum from Skillshare each month, you’re still growing your following for future classes. And offerings that don’t necessarily have to coincide with your Skillshare efforts.
On that note, creating a Skillshare following for your classes can also support business goals that include creating robust online courses and becoming a paid speaker. If you’re just getting started, Skillshare has a low barrier to entry. The best classes are capped off at an hour runtime and Skillshare provides teachers with a built-in marketplace of members who are hungry to learn new skills!
With regards to filming, there are two essential tools I’d recommend:
Blue Yeti USB Microphone: Sure, your Apple headphones with their built-in mic will technically work. But if you’re serious about online course creation, it makes more sense to use professional-grade recording equipment.
Panasonic GH5 to shoot high quality videos
And check out my photography gear checklist, to see what gear I use
As far as investments you’ll want to consider to be successful, that’s really it. And keep in mind that once you have these tools, you can keep using them to create additional Skillshare classes. — and other online courses!
Youtube or blog tips for photographers
Start a photography blog or YouTube channel.
Bloggers make money through ads and sponsored content. If you’re an adept writer, another way to make money is to start your own photography blog. You can make tutorials, share tips and tricks, or write reviews on all kinds of photography gear and software.
Similarly, you can also make money by starting a photography channel on YouTube. It’s essentially the same content (tutorials, reviews, etc.) but in video form. However, your blog or YouTube channel needs to gain a good following before you can actually start making money from it.
Start your own blog for 3.97$!
Sell photos on Shutterstock
There are people out there who make good money with stock photography. That’s the main reason I chose to include it in this post.
Do you have a sizeable collection of high-quality photos? Why not submit them to stock photography sites? It’s a good way to earn a stream of a passive income!
It’s a very hard industry to break into if you’re just starting out because the agencies typically will feature popular photographer’s work first. One point I’d like to make is that you have to keep in mind that the photographs people are looking for are ones that will help them sell a product or service to their clients. Therefore you have to think about that when you take your photos.
How to sell your stock photos:
Sign up as a contributor. You’ll be required to provide some basic information about yourself, as well as identification documents to prove your identity.
Read and familiarize yourself with the submission guidelines.
Upload your photos and add metadata, photo descriptions, and relevant keywords. Keywords are important!
Submit your stock photos for review.
Join photo contests.
Don’t believe that your skills are good enough to win a photography contest? Think again! It’s not just the experts who join these contests, after all. The contestants you’ll be competing with will usually be an eclectic mix of photographers with different levels of experience and expertise. Don’t be afraid to venture out and try your luck.
What do you have to lose? Even if you don’t win any of the cash prizes, photo contests can help boost your confidence and gain you some exposure.
There are plenty of photo contests out there. And the grand prizes can go as high as a few thousand dollars! Not bad, right?
Sell prints ~ making money as a photographer
A beautiful photo is a work of art—and people will pay for art. If you want to earn some extra cash by selling prints of your work, here are a few ways to do that:
Sell your photos on your own website or upload them to sites like ImageKind.
Bring framed copies of your photos to sell at art and craft fairs.
Get your photos displayed at coffee shops, restaurants, and other outlets.
Offer printed copies to your clients.
Sell your photos at local art or photography galleries.
Before you start selling prints, find a good printing service first to ensure the quality of the end product. Also, as a general rule, people don’t normally buy photos with people in them, so try to avoid selling these kinds of photos. After all, the prints they buy will likely be displayed in their homes or offices.
Ways To Sell Your Photography
Okay so now that we’ve gone over some of the basics of what you’ll need to do before you even begin to sell your photography how do you actually go about selling it?
Direct Sales – If you can build a very loyal and close-nit community of people in your town, college, or place of work you might be able to generate sales in this manner. Also, many local coffee shops will allow you to hang your work on their walls for a commission on sales (this is how I got my first print sale). It benefits them in that they get free art to hang on their walls and you get to have a lot of eyes on your photographs.
Online Sales – Smugmug and Zenfolio are the two names that come to mind when I think about online sales. There are some other places as well like Etsy, Fine Art America and Redbubble which don’t offer as many features and typically will take a larger percentage of your sale. Again while all of these places will allow you to host your photographs, offer shopping cart options, and even print and ship the photo to your client they won’t promote it for you so we’re back to the first point above about needing a fan base to sell to.
Do freelance photography work for magazines or newspapers.
Contact your local magazines and newspapers and inquire about possible freelance work. It definitely won’t be a stable job, but it’s a great way to earn some money on the side. Eventually, when you’ve established a relationship with a local publication, you can expect a steadier stream of work covering local events and snapping photos for features and news stories.
Make sure to build a strong portfolio to increase your chances of getting work!
Are you making money with your photography? If so are you using one of the options listed above or do you do something else? Share below!
If you are taking a vacation soon, I’d like to invite you to take advantage of this -65$ off Airbnb discount for your next trip! Enjoy it for me as well.
☽ Follow me on Instagram – @alenkaamali – to see more of my adventures ☽
[wdi_feed id=”1″]How To make money as a photographer in 2020
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More about Alenka
“My name is Alenka and I’m a freeride snowboarder and Squamish based photographer. I love using my medium to capture sports, adventures, underwater shots, adventures in the mountains and days on snow! Very simply put, I’m one stoked girl, ready to get up at 2 in the morning and hike for sunrise, go to the airport and take a random flight…you name it!
Snowboarding, photography, web design and digital marketing have been things I’m proud to call my job lately! Very flexible, lots of traveling and even more adventures than when I was a kid. Here, on my website I share tips on photography, spreading awareness about the zero-waste lifestyle and sustainability and crazy stories from my travels. Welcome.”
Editing photos
Photography (free mini-course)
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