Monetize Photography: Ways You Can Hustle with Your Photos and Boost Your Career
Should you monetize photography?
You don’t need to monetize photography and your images if you’re just planning to be a hobbyist photographer (or travel photographers). But still, there’s nothing wrong with making some side-income out of your photograph. I can tell you for sure that you’re not alone; a lot of people have all sorts of stunning photos that they know might be worth a few bucks, they just don’t know what to do with them.
If you’re brave and bold enough, you can try to make a full-time income from your photography skills. Frankly, we live in a bolder new world of photography. What does that mean to you? It means that we’re swimming in a sea of photos, and photographers are almost a dozen or so.
It is more and more difficult to succeed as a photographer in today’s modern world. Still, there are more and more opportunities for us to monetize photography uniquely and creatively. But how are you going to create a one-of-a-kind business where your talents could stand out?
Create A Mousepad with Your Photos and Sell It Online
All the stunning photos you have got could be turned into a mousepad. You wouldn’t believe how lucrative the market for mousepads is. If you think that mousepads aren’t too cool to sell decently, think again. Each computer out there that uses a mouse is likely to have a mouse pad. That’s a big revenue potential – if you know how to make the most of it!
You can design and sell your stunning photos to mousepads online. Who knows, you might even receive inquiries from possible customers who want to purchase your photo license. Talk about making money while advertising, right?
Create A Specialized Photo Book
Do you have a bunch of photos of a soccer (or sports) team at school? You can use these photos and make some great photo books to sell to parents. Parents love keepsakes from their children’s successes, and they are happy to pay for a photo book.
The quality of the journals or photo books you are selling will show your possible buyers what they could expect from you as a commercial photographer. Give some examples of the kind of services you ‘re supposed to provide, so give it to all of you.
Always give value to all, even those who may not yet be your customers. If they need photography services, you’d want them to think about you.
Use Your Photos to Create Phone Covers
You could use your photos to create Ipad, iPhone, and other smartphone covers, which is a heavy market right now, like mousepad making.
Phone cases are a favourite must-have for many smartphone owners. There are vastly different reasons for buying cases-some people value practicality and security. Others, on the other hand, are more interested in a case that matches their style.
Tip:
Since your images are your own — make sure they have copyright — you could provide what most suppliers cannot offer: individuality and exclusivity in the design of the cases that you will sell.
Create and Sell A Calendar
One way to generate revenue for your sidelines in photography is by making and selling calendars. Most people enjoy having a wonderful calendar on their wall or desk. Your fans might appreciate the opportunity to purchase your artwork this way.
Creating an image calendar is very simple; we ‘re using it in just about every place we ‘re going into. They’re hard to sell in stores, so make an online store and advertise your images online to drive your calendar revenue.
How Should You Set Your Prices?
Keep in mind that customers who see calendars in retail stores or calendar kiosks selling around $5.99 will challenge you. There’s no way you can compete with those prices; your best reason is to say that the pictures are hand-picked and of high quality. You can even offer them bespoke calendars if they want it.
Sell Photos as Posters
A custom poster is a great product to sell, but it’s a great way to distribute your work and get attention. Anyone who buys a poster and displays is now an advertisement for your brand and you!
You should only sell images of prints of the highest quality, so it is important to find a reliable photo printer. You can search for nearby fine art printers or take advantage of online printing service and offer your prints. The online printer could ship directly to your customers if you wish so that some of your shipping and handling costs could be minimized.
Some printers specialize in color photography, while others specialize in black and white film, so shop around to choose the option that best suits your needs.
Where Do You Sell Them?
There are a lot of online markets where you could show your artwork and monetize photography. Platforms such as eBay and Etsy are some marketplaces where hundreds or thousands of other sellers list artwork. The marketplace creates competition, but it also attracts a large number of shoppers. Such online markets are great choices if you do not have time to promote yourself or if you don’t have strong marketing capabilities.
Do some analysis and look at the various fees and options on the marketplace. Some of them have a monthly flat-rate fee, plus if your artwork sells, they take a small percentage. Typically, these charges are worth the cost with the right visibility and order frequency.
Create a Coffee Table Book
Would you like to show a solid portfolio? Maybe you’ve got a good collection of photos from your area or a specific location? If so, put them all together in a coffee table book!
Don’t worry if you’re a bad writer, there’s really no need for words to show your images in a novel! Although writing a few words about your work or a specific picture may be helpful, it is unnecessary.
Now, what are you going to do when you print a handful of books? Monetize them of course!
How Do You Sell Those Coffee Table Books?
Easier said than done, huh? But there’s are several ways to market a coffee table book. It is a great start to visit your local café, tourist office, or maybe a local studio. Keep in mind that nearby cafes and shops are most likely to prefer a book that includes photos of the city.
You could reach out online to your friends, fans, and family and let them know about your latest book. They might be interested in having a signed copy of your book because they already appreciate your work.
Create an Online Portfolio
This isn’t a way to monetize photography directly, but you can make an online portfolio that highlights all of your work and points visitors to different sites that have things you have made for sale with your photos. If nothing else, you can host your work on Flickr (after you watermark it).
Sell Your Photos Online
The demand for quality images continues to grow. For their content, websites need graphic designers, beautiful images, and need specific images for their layouts. Authors need book covers, and the listing goes on.
Do you have a large collection of high-quality photographs? Why don’t you send them to public photo sites? It is a good way to monetize them and make a passive revenue stream.
Become a Stock, BigStock, and ShutterStock contributor or upload your images to your Flickr account and assure you license them using Getty Images.
Selling Your Photos as Stock
Register as a seller. To confirm your identity, you’ll be expected to provide some basic information about yourself and identification documents.
Read and become familiarized with the Instructions for Submission.
Upload your images and add metadata, related keywords, and details of pictures.
Send in images of your stock for review.
Begin a Photoblog Channel on YouTube
Bloggers are making money from commercials and sponsored content. If you’re a great photographer, starting your blog is one way to monetize photography. You could make guides, share tips and tricks, or write reviews on all kinds of photo equipment and apps.
You could also monetize your skills by starting a photography channel on YouTube. It is essentially the same content, but in video form, (tutorials, reviews, etc.) Although before you could really start making money out of it, your blog or YouTube channel needs to attain a good following.
Monetize Photography by Promoting Products
Companies have begun to see amazing value in teaming up with influencers in their niche over the last few years. If you have strong online tracking and rad photography skills, you might be a good fit to become an influencer and monetize photography through that medium.
Whom Should You Work With?
Instagram has become a wonderful place, especially to monetize photography. When you see that your next online business is starting to grow, you will soon see greater interest from companies that also love to work with you.
However, I suggest that you analyze which brands or companies you want to work with because I agree that working with everyone who approaches you could harm your followers. Try to work primarily with photography related companies or brands that share your ideals.
Now that you know how to make some bucks out of your photos, make sure you avoid these photography mistakes that make you look amateur.
