Notes About Business

Although photographers spend hundreds of hours learning the art of photography, the one aspect that’s often left out in school is how to actually make money. Here we’ll explore 15 creative ways to get your foot in the door as a paid digital photographer.

Method #1 – Selling Stock Photography: Selling stock photography is easier than you may think. Just take some of your best photos and submit them to stock photography sites. They will be reviewed and if it’s a good photo, it will hopefully be accepted. You’ll get paid about $1-2 every time someone uses your photo.

Method #2 – Screensavers: Screensavers are a big business online. You can make a whole lot of money online by taking a group of photos and making them into screensavers. You can sell them on screensaver websites or eBay.

Method #3 – eBay Sellers: Speaking of eBay, eBay can be a great source of business. eBay sellers often have very poor photos of images they sell over and over. Set up a local service photographing eBay items.

Method #4 – Wedding Photographer: One of the more popular ways to work as a photographer. The key to getting wedding photography business is to have a very credible website and profile.

Method #5 – Restaurant Photographer: Restaurants often need photos of their restaurant or their dishes for their menu’s and websites. You can work directly with restaurants or make yourself available to designers who work with restaurants.

Method #6 – Real Estate Agents: Real estate agents need listing photographs of new homes they’re listing. Get yourself a few real estate agents you work with regularly and you could quickly be booked with work.

Method #7 – Take Insurance Photos: When someone gets insurance, they usually need to have their belongings photographed. For higher end clients, the process of going through their home item by item taking photos just isn’t a good use of their time. Instead, you can do it for them. For a premium, of course.

Method #8 – Online Dating Photographer: Men and women both need good photos for their online dating profiles. By positioning yourself as an online dating photographer, you can help people find their matches while making some extra money for yourself.

Method #9 – Consignment Art: Places like Cafes and restaurants would often love to showcase your artwork. It gives them art on their walls for free. In exchange, you get exposure and potential buyers for your art.

Method #10 – Local Sports: Sporting events like high school football or little league baseball would usually be thrilled to have their photos taken.

Method #11 – Church Directories: Churches often want to have photos of their members along with contact information in a booklet called a church directory. You can position yourself as the go to photographer for that.

Method #12 – Make T Shirts: Original T shirts are big sellers on websites on eBay. By taking good photos and putting them on T Shirts, you can make a very good profit.

Method #13 – Craigslist: You can advertise yourself on Craigslist, a free and very popular online classifieds website. Position yourself as a photographer and you’ll be exposing yourself to thousands of people who’re looking for your services.

Method #14 – Portrait Photographer: The portrait business is a big business. You can work with a studio or set up your own practice for doing portraits.

Method #15 – Photo Blogging: You can build a small but loyal following simply by posting your photos online on a regular basis. Art lovers who love your style will often subscribe to your blog and keep coming back again and again.

You now have 15 great ways to start off your practice as a digital photographer. Each one of these tactics can book you with gigs if you put the work into it. Don’t wait. Get started today!