6 Ways your camera can earn you money!

Taking pictures is your passion? Friends say you are great at photographing and call you cameraman? Why not to earn some income with it?

How? Here are some ideas…

1. Calendars and postcards

Most of people know Anne Geddes, who is making cute pictures of little babies for postcards. She found her niche and she is grate in it! You can also reach such success!

First of all choose your theme. It can be 12 seasons, or cute pets, or cities. Then take pictures according this theme. Then contact calendar publishers and offer your album to them! But remember, it has it own seasonality, so publishers will not accept your pictures at any time!

It could be easier with postcards, especially if you live in province, where are just small publishers. You can make photos of your city or country showplaces. It’s always marketable among postcard publishers! You can add some text to them or some decorative elements like borders. This way you can offer ready to publish product and ask for more money for it!

2. Newspapers and magazines

You can make photo reporting for newspapers. Make some pictures of interesting events or just your city and come to newspapers editorial offices. Even if they will not buy your photos right away, they will know whom to call next time when they will need “fresh” pictures. Newspapers and magazines need a lot of pictures on their theme. They can write around same thing again and again, but pictures shouldn’t repeat! Make different albums with different themes for them or make complete reports (with text) of interesting events or theme. It will make your service complete and will add additional value to your work! Be creative and unique and your pictures will be marketable!

3. Photo stocks

You can sell your photos online too! There are a lot of photo banks where you can upload your pictures for sale! Is there any demand for quality pictures? Yes, there is! Websites, blogs, online newspapers and magazines are always in need for fresh colorful photos and many of them are ready to pay money for them!

What you need to start selling your pictures in such stocks? Good digital camera (many stocks will ask certain quality of pictures), sometimes digital copy of your documents like passport or drivers license copy, at least 15 pictures to start (to pass exams in some stocks you will be asked for about 10 pictures).

But don’t be afraid, it’s not so difficult! Not all photo stocks are so requiring! 

  

OK, let’s see where you can sell your pictures online:

www.fotolia.com – no exams and no documents required! Fast to register. Easy to use. Minimal size of picture: 2400х1600. Money withdrawal by PayPal and Moneybookers after you reach 50 dollars.

www.bigstockphoto.com – terms and conditions test required, but test is very easy to pass even without knowing the rules! No documents required. Minimal picture size: 800x800. Money withdrawal after reaching 30 dollars by PayPal, Moneybookers or by check.

www.dreamstime.com – no documents and tests required. Quality of uploaded pictures: not less then 3 MP. You get 50% from every sold picture you uploaded! You can withdraw money after you reach 100 dollars. The limit of uploaded pictures is 100 files per day. 

www.istockphoto.com – one of the most profitable and popular photo stocks. Unfortunately it’s not so easy to start. Firstly you will be asked read the user manual and pass the test about it, then you will need to upload scanned document like passport or drivers license to identify you. After these tests you will need to upload 3 photos made by you. You will be accepted within 2 weeks. If moderators will not like your photos you will be asked to upload another 3 photos. Minimal picture size: 1200x1600. You will get 20% from every sold picture (1-40$), but if you become exclusive photograph and publish only on this stock, then your percent will raise to 40! You can withdraw your money when you reach 100$ in your account by PayPal, Moneybookers, Payoneer or by postal transfer.

www.shutterstock.com – at the moment most profitable image stock, that’s why it’s not easy to enter there. Firstly you need to upload a scan of your passport or driver’s license and then wait about 2 days. After identification you need to pass the exam: 7 out of 10 of your uploaded pictures need to be approved by moderators. But if you don’t pass this exam from the first time, you can do it after 1 month again and again till you pass. There are no limits for trying! For beginners minimal size is 4 MP, but for experienced – 2.5 MP. Format should be jpg or eps. For every download you will get 25 cents, but after you reach 500$ your income will rise to 30 cents per download. It doesn’t look much, but as more you upload as more you will get. For example, if you upload 100 pictures and each of them will be downloaded just 10 times, you will get 250$! Minimum to withdraw – 75$ (via PayPal, Moneybookers or check).

You may think photo stocks pay too less for your images, but it’s better than nothing, right? Your images can just take your disk space or they can bring you some income! It’s up to you what to do with them!

4. Participate in online photo competitions

There are many online contests and competitions for photographers. As a winner award could be money or valuable prizes like professional camera or laptop. Some competitions have participation fee, but some are free to enter. You can find some competitions here:

http://www.photographycompetitions.net or http://www.fanartreview.com/page/photo_contest/photo_contest.jsp

 

5. Sell printed pictures

Most of professional photographers make money with framed pictures. How? Celebrity photos sold to newspapers or to celebrity representatives, framed pictures online stores, your own website where you can sell framed pictures or art exhibitions and galleries.

Talking about online photo stocks, there are 2 unusual stocks. Why they are unusual? Despite of stocks mentioned before they specializes on printed photographs. First is www.photogonia.com, where you can just print images on canvas. Another one is www.imagekind.com, where you can also sell your works through the site! Advantage of Imagekind is free membership and possibility to hold a gallery up to 24 images. Upgrade to paid membership is also available. It gives more opportunities as usual.

6. Making photo sessions in schools, preschools or events

Every one of us has photos from their schools, preschools and different events they participated. Someone made these pictures for us and was paid for it! So you can too! Events are also great opportunity. For example, sport events. Then you can sell these pictures to fans or even to the teams who participated on event! Also in famous places where are many tourists you can make pictures of them. If they like your pictures, they can order them in printed format! For such income you may need advanced equipment, but if you are good in negotiations, your investment will pay off! And don’t forget about weddings, exhibitions and other events, where people simply need you!

For my blog readers I am giving away the eBook Photo wealth system

Enjoy your time by taking pictures and making money!
Best wishes!