Learn How to Make Money With Your Camera
Genuine Photography Money Making Ideas Preface
Maybe it is easy for me to say as I have over 20 years experience, a huge stock of images and video clips plus some fairly good contacts in the business. However, even for someone just starting out, there are many ways in which to get yourself seen and to also earn good money with your camera.
Please note: This site does not in any way encourage tacky get rich quick schemes. Any advice, tips and photography money making ideas that we give (for earning money from photography or other avenues) will require some hard work and a little dedication from you.
This page will grow as we build All Things Photography. but we wanted to get it up and running now that we are receiving a fair amount of traffic through this site (6,000+ photographers a day).
No matter what stage you are at or what experience you have, if you can take a half decent photograph, you are on the way to making money with your camera. It may take time to get started, but if it was that easy, EVERYONE would do it.
Now, obviously as a beginner, you won't be going out and doing society weddings or anything (are you?) at this stage.
You need to get to know your camera, how it works and then start to use it to your best advantage. The first thing you should maybe look at is selling your images as stock as detailed further down the page.
GROW YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE
One of the secrets to growing your photography or video business is knowing how to make the best use of the internet. The internet is still a massively growing area with soooo many opportunities you can't imagine but you do need to learn if you plan to make it work.
I have bought, paid many thousands of pounds for and studied many facets of the web over the past decade and have been using it to my advantage ever since.
For example, as soon as aerial photography and video started becoming popular, I set about cornering the (online) market in my area and now I am not only in first place on Google for Aerial Video Dorset , I am 1st, 2nd AND 3rd (after the ads)…
I get a lot of enquiries through my photography services site and am now taking bookings well in advance for aerial work in particular. This year, I have worked with Pinewood Studios, Channel 4, The Sailing World Cup team and many more and have massively recouped the £10k + needed to get started in aerial video work (equipment, licenses, insurance etc).
If you want to learn how to get your business seen online FOR FREE, check out this new book by a well-known internet millionaire who has helped some very cool businesses make a lot of money and get established very quickly.
Click for your free hard copy DotComSecrets book (and yes, I have a copy).
Before I created the Wedding Photography Blueprint DVD's in 2008/2016 (below), I spent over £2000 on marketing materials that taught me pretty much what this book will teach you but the book is more relevant for today's internet (note: there are up-sells available when you buy the book which I highly recommend you take a look at but even if you don't, the book is still free).
Those Blueprint DVD's have now made well into 6 figures and were a lot of fun to make.
Grab your free copy of the DotComSecrets book today.
Make Money Shooting Weddings
Maybe wedding photography is something that hasn't crossed your mind before but now your confidence and experience is growing, perhaps you should think about it now? Wedding photography is, and will be for some time, one of the most lucrative aspects of photography that is available to the masses…but you MUST know what you are doing!
An established professional wedding photographer will earn anywhere between £500 and £5,000 depending on the size and location of the wedding as well as what skills and experience they can offer.
Even as a part time business, a confident photographer with the right attitude, skills and ability can make a healthy income from wedding photography. If you think it is out of reach for you, think on…
We have written, filmed and produced one of the, if not THE most in depth wedding photography training DVD's available. It takes you through absolutely every aspect of shooting and processing a wedding as well as all the business aspects too, so you even get help getting the work in.
Not only that, you also get the following 2 eBooks for FREE as a bonus (Business and Stock Photography) so this really is a business in a box!
Available to watch on DVD and/or online in High Definition, please check out the Learn Wedding Photography Blueprint 2.0 and turn your life around today! Start doing what YOU want for a living for a change…
Photography Money Making Ideas: Start Your Own Photography Business eBook
Learn how to start your own profitable, full or part-time photography business with nothing more than a DSLR and lens with our new Photography Business eBook.
Photography Money Making Ideas: How to Sell Stock Photos eBook
Learn how to sell your photos and create a monthly, residual income with our new eBook on How to Sell Stock Photos.
EARN $$$'s If you want to sell either or both of the above books on our behalf, you can earn a fantastic 50% commission, you can find all of the details here:
Photography Money Making Ideas Build Your Own Website That Actually Works, Quit Your Day Job and Work From Home!
Why pay a fortune for someone else to build your website only to hope that your beautiful looking pages eventually get found. Why not, for just $1 a day, teach yourself how to be the master of your own destiny and do it yourself knowing that you can get yourself and your business seen by thousands of people daily.
It doesn't even have to be a photography site but this is who we use…
Photography Money Making Ideas Photographing Properties
This is probably more for the more experienced Digital SLR user, but is by no means out of reach for newbies. If you are fairly confident with your camera and need new direction, motivation or guidance on how to start up your own photography business, this could be for you.
My main income from photography comes from Weddings, Commercial, Portraits and Stock as well as the one thing that actually brings me those jobs Property Photography. Rather than battle it out with hundreds of other photographers for work, by learning a niche and specializing in something not many photographers do, you can grab so much of the action.
Rather than duplicate all the info on this page, you can learn more by following the link HERE!
Photography Money Making Ideas Stock Libraries
Ok, I am new so where can I sell stock photographs? or Sell photographs for money? how do I compete with all the professionals and what do I do?
Many agencies require high quality, high standards of photographs taken by very expensive cameras and which are used by large advertising agencies. this maybe out of some peoples leagues for now, but there is hope…
Well, think about it. The large stock agencies sell high quality photographs by professional photographers like those above to large, wealthy companies! So who sells photos to the smaller businesses that can't afford the large prices? You do! If you have any decent photographs on your computer or are willing to go out and take a few, I will show you where to send them.
You will need good photographs of everyday subjects that I will cover in a minute, but if you have a digital camera of 3 mega pixels or more…read on!
Now this is a system that I for one hadn't looked at before, I have always put my stock photographs on with the large agencies and they make good money but not that often and the competition is fierce. Corbis have over 3,500,000 images on their files. How do you compete?
I came across a rapidly growing company that charges very low prices for its photographs (approximately $139 will get you 750 images in a month if you are buying ). Now this means there are people constantly on this site downloading photographs and they need more…a lot more images to keep up with the growth.
As a submitting photographer, you only get 38 cents per photograph downloaded, but each buyer will download a minimum of 750 images each month therefore thousands of images are downloaded daily. If they are just sitting unseen on your PC, what do you have to lose?
When I started, I tested this site and referred a photographer to them and with just his 35 images of motocross bikes online; he had sold 9 images in the first 6 days. I tried it myself and uploaded a sunset picture and in 3 days I had sold 3 copies. The way I see it, and according to the company's forums, if you have 1000-2000 images on their database, you should easily earn around $600 per month. All you need is 100 downloads a day and you have it for life! Or all the while the company trades.
One Year On Update I now have just over 1,200 images with them and have sold over 23,000 photos. I am earning around the above figure every month and it just seems to be getting better.
Three Years On Update I still have about the same amount of images online (but I have over 3,000 images waiting to be uploaded…busy, busy) and I have now sold around 50,000 images at Shutterstock alone, countless video clips and the photographers that I have introduced to Shutterstock have sold a combined total of…wait for it…529,191 images!
This is the first image I uploaded
The great thing is that they have now started a new system and a bunch of new sites whereby you will earn up to $2.85 per on demand image downloaded so it just gets better. Your images get uploaded here automatically so there is less work for you!
Plus…If you sell an image with an extended license , you will earn $28!
I expect to hear from professionals saying this is bad for stock photography, but I disagree. This is just another sector of the market that caters for the beginner and amateur photographer, as well as the smaller business wanting to buy stock.
10 year update: Yep, still making money each month and I have rarely uploaded anything for 7 years or so. I am now (as of 2016) picking it back up again and uploading a ton of new stock images and video clips.
For the record, my earnings from stock have now hit well over 6 figures so do yourself a favour and in the first instance, sign up with the agencies below to get started. This is an evergreen industry as things always change:
- Landscapes Scenery (cityscapes etc) Trends, fashion and technology…
So, if you have any images of 4MB or more that would be suitable, and they are just sitting on your PC, you are wasting money. I uploaded 50 yesterday and am waiting for their approval. They are the same as the ones I have on with a larger agency and I will earn a lot less, but it is still more than I had before yes?
Click the links below to Shutterstock and two other popular, high selling agencies, sign up and registration is genuine and absolutely free so you have nothing to lose. The beauty is that once they are there, you have an income for life! Once you have registered, look at their Best sellers and other types of photos that they have and start uploading. Use the forums for advice and start earning.
How much are your pictures earning you at the moment?
…and start making money!
You could also join our new private membership site at ATP Members and read our huge stock photography training section which goes into every detail you need to know to start earning with stock photography.
If you live in the UK, you could enroll on our 2 day stock photography course in Dorset.
