With the rise of smartphones with mega cameras, everyone thinks they are professional photographers. I will admit that I also got caught up in the act of taking far too many pictures. Hey, it was fun back in 2012.
But now, less is more, and I take pictures that truly move me. However, I am not even close to being a photographer. With everyone having a camera in their pocket, what separates a true photographer from all the wannabes?
Welcome back to the Passive Income from Creativity series (101), where I discuss making money from your passion.
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Perhaps passion is what separates the professionals from the amateurs. We want to leverage our passion for building passive income streams from our photography. With that, let’s hop straight into the fire. Remember, photography is all about building your brand.
Stock photos. An excellent way to earn passive income from your photos is to upload them to stock photo sites like Pixlr. I use stock photos from Pixlr every day as I add art to my posts and books. My Financial Independence Magazine series is a perfect example of the type of photos you can upload.
The idea with stock photos is to upload many images consistently. Once you have a particular set of pictures and keywords that work for you, then narrow your focus onto those. Trust me; when I click on an artist for more information, I want more of the same. I wrote more about stock photos in the article “Sell Your Creativity for Passive Income.”
More stock photos. Once you get enough stock photos, it’s time to open my own hosting site. Remember that you could still leave your pictures on the other stock photo sites. However, your site should be free for at least 2-4 years. The book “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” by Gary Vaynerchuck states that you have to add an extreme amount of value for the world to notice.
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If you make your site free but require an email login, you are now collecting many emails for your list. An email mailing list is more valuable than money, at least for a short period. I first read about the importance of an email list in the book “How to Blog for Profit.”
For my personal site, I would always keep the photos free. However, you can add perks for your more avid followers. Making tons of money from stock photos sites is difficult, but you have far more control over pricing and extras with your website.
Weddings and family photos. To get an exuberant amount of stock photos, you could photograph weddings and take family photos—for free (that’s why you have a job). The clients would agree to release your work as stock photos in exchange.
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Yes, you would have to be on the grind, but hey, that’s life. Passive income is all about doing excellent work upfront for a long payoff in the end. It’s not for everyone. Most people expect to work an hour and receive an hour of pay. To earn more money, you have to exchange more time.
As you conduct more wedding and family photos, you become a subject matter expert on lighting, ISO, framing, etc. Your experience will be vital to your credibility during the duration of your career.
Facebook group. Start a Facebook group for fellow photographers, freelancers, and passive income seekers as you grind. Every venture you start will need an audience, so you will need to build one.
You may not know how to monetize your group yet, but that comes in time. Under the rules of “Content Inc.” you build an audience and brand first, then release a product. It is the safest way to start a business.
You can put tips and tricks into your group, along with samples. You can guide people back to your stock photo site and email list. Your brand will be growing as you grind. Hey, I didn’t say that it would be easy.
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Blog and reviews. It’s time to expand a bit after you have grinded for a few years and you have a slower battle rhythm. After years of shooting with various cameras, you should know how to rate and judge them against each other.
You can now review cameras, equipment, and software on your stock photo site. You just open a blog tab and start adding your reviews. Blogging is a fantastic way to attract more traffic to your site but read a book on search engine optimization first.
I read the book “Product-Led SEO” because it gave me a solid overview of SEO and its goals. You can go more in-depth if you’d want more control.
By writing reviews, you can now make money from affiliate marketing—this adds another passive stream of income to your pool.
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Online courses. The great part of starting your own income stream is that people love to replicate success. I am currently building my revenue stream by writing a 1000+ word article every day. Once I start making $1,000/month passively, I can teach how I created this income stream.
I can make far more money explaining how I built my income stream than through my actual income streams. Life is funny, right?
So you have multiple options when creating an online course. You can talk about starting a stock photo website, a wedding and family photo business, a Facebook group, and a review blog. Aside from business, you can talk about taking great photos for beginners, intermediates, and experts.
You can upload your online courses to websites that host them like Udemy and Teachable. You can also host them on your website as an incentive to charge $5/month for your site (or whatever you set.)
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Consulting. Now that you established yourself as a photographer and businessperson, you can consult and coach others. The book “How to Make a Living with Your Writing” has a similar career path, except for writers.
Coaching and consulting require you to exchange time for money; however, you can still make valuable use of your time. You can charge less but ask for permission to release the session to your Facebook group and website.
Now you can make sweet passive income from a one-time coaching session. Thinking with a big picture mindset can have massive implications on your wealth creation.
Build Wealth Slowly
Conclusion. I am a firm believer that you can make money under any niche that you choose. However, you will need to become an entrepreneur BEFORE you start your business.
Photography is a great niche and can create multiple revenue streams. The central concept with photography is building all your streams under one brand.
Your stock photo site, blog, reviews, consulting, email list, coaching, Facebook group, and coaching should all link back towards one another.
You can release your new review in your Facebook group, offer coaching discounts in your email list, and share a new online course on your stock photo site. Everything ties together and becomes more passive in time.
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make money as a photographer. That may be true for an ordinary photographer but not for a photo entrepreneur. Good Luck!
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