Photography is one of the expensive hobby. However, If you are already into taking photos then you can recover the cost using side business. You can turn your hobby into photography business. Like many people out there you can sell our skill to make money from it. Here are some of the ideas for you.
Zazzle
If you are into photorgaphy that can be sold on multiple websites then this is one good option. You can reuse the photographs on the products of zazzle. It can give you some flat fee for the selling of those products. And the designer commission is really good. I have seen some of the people making some good money by selling mugs, pillows and the other products. It takes a lot of time to build up your reputation though. So you may want to invest some time on building some following. Slowly with followers building you can sell your stuff to them. And you can find out which type of designs are in demand.
Stock Photography
Stock photography is very much in demand. You have to create some nice photos and scale them in various resolutions. Your photographs are likely to be sold for 5$ and onwards. Depending on the demand the valuation. So some sites pay more than 10$ price. And some sites pay flat fee for per photograph sold. It may not be easy but you can easily start slow and focus more on quality content. More sites you get into the more profit you are likely to make. I have found some good photographs through the dreamstime, shutterstock and corbis. And there are many other sites that require such artists.
Skillshare
Most of the photographers are sharing their tips and tricks on skillshare. All you have to do is shoot some videos and explain the tips. You have to create very high quality videos for the same. However do note that it's not easy to get the clients to subscribe to your course. So you may want to get some of the community building part first. If you can do that then it'd be easier to sell the course to them. There are many people with such good following earning more from the skillshare. I have found that there are some really good alternative options to host your courses too in case if you don't third party commission.
Patreon
This should be your last option to make money. There are people who are making money from patreon for teaching others their skill. Also you can lock your content and open it to the patreon who support it. You may find that there are some of the patreon who are selling their photography skills. You can find their courses as part of the patrion. And you may notice that they are allowing you to support for some monthly cost. In fact this model has worked for some of the artists who are active on the Vimeo. They are also using the special video section that help get more backers.
Sell Video
Video selling is another option that most of the photographers are doing lately. I have found that most of the videos are going to be selling at the cost of around say 20$ or more. Considering if the videos are sold in the stock or the license basis, you may find more revenue. You have sites like videoblocks, graphicsriver etc for selling your stuff. I came across sme of the photographers who are selling this through their own website. So you have that option too. But you may have to set this up through shopify and similar other sites. I found that selling video can be good but expensive like uploading the videos to these sites. Also storing them requires a lot of hard disk space.
These are some of the options where you are going to make use of your photography skills. Apart from this applying to the online gigs can be one good option to make money from photography.
Thanks for the tips. Photography has emerged as one of the most easiest skills to master and sell on, thanks to the various tools available online and via smartphones. The great thing about photography as well is, you don't really have to buy an expensive gadget to start with. You can start with a good smartphone camera.
