What’s better than doing what you love to do and at the end of the day, getting paid for doing that? Sounds like a perfect pastime, or a perfect job, or a blend of both (and we can name it jobby)? Photography, as a hobby has grown enormously since the advent of camera-phones, and that’s precisely the reason why we see companies coming up with phones with super cameras (the most recent being the Nokia’s 808 that boasts a 41 MP camera)?
In fact, it’s not really a hobby restricted to a selected few anymore, I mean who doesn’t look at something beautiful, interesting, or down rightly funny, and takes out his/her mobile phone to capture it to share it with your friends or family at websites like Flickr, Snapfish or Mixbook? All you need to have is a good camera, some basics of photography, and some practice, and in next to no time, you will be having pictures that you can proudly share with your friends. But some compliments from your friends are not all you can get, here’s how you can take it one step ahead, and start earning with photography.
1. Selling them as stock photos:
There are many websites serving as a platform for amateurs and professional photographers to sell stock photos and get paid every time a picture is downloaded. While the commission might appear a little too small in the beginning, but when you have got a big portfolio and a good number of downloads, the income will add up to a significant amount. Remember that you need to have extra ordinary photography skills, good camera, and some good understanding of exactly what type of photos are sought-after by webmasters and graphic designers.
2. Start a Photo-blog:
As the name suggest, a photo-blog is essentially a blog with photos making up the majority of content. It can be a thematic one, with all photos having a similarity, or some sort of messages to share, or a region specific one, or maybe a general blog where any image goes. Whatever’s the theme, once you’ve got a photo blog up and running with reasonable traffic, there are many ways to earn money. You might not be able to use contextual ads (unless you are accompanying your photos with some text), but you can always place image ads, pop up ads, or simply sell some banner space to businesses or websites who are looking to sponsor.
3. Offering photography services:
Many people are looking to hire professional photographers to capture the memorable events like weddings, birthday, parties, etc. You can easily create a website using WordPress with a portfolio theme and include some of your best work in the gallery. Of course you will have to target local customers, since it wouldn’t be easy for you to travel to other cities for a small photography gig. So, it will help if you can utilize some offline marketing methods like business cards or flyers along with your website link to get the orders coming.
4. Offer Photography Training:
As I’ve earlier stated, more and more people are opting for photography as their favorite pastime, but these are amateur photographers, and many would love to have some professional advice coming from an old hand who knows a thing or two about photography. You can create a short course meant specifically for amateur photographers, or a full fledge course for people looking to become a professional, all depending on your own level of skill and knowledge.
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