Tuesday, February 24, 2009

15 Ways to Make Money with Digital Photography

By PJ Francis

It's easier than you may think to make money as a digital photographer. There are many different ways to make money doing digital photography and here are 15 to get you started.

Method #1 - Stock Photography: Websites Getting your photos on stock photography sites is quite easy. Once you go through the process once, it'll quickly become a breeze. Just choose your best photos and submit them. If they're accepted, you'll make $1 to $2 dollars every time someone uses your photo!

Method #2 - Screensavers: There's a lot more money in screensavers than people realize. Take a series of photographs along a theme and make your own screensaver. If the photos are good, they'll do great on screensaver sites or on eBay.

Method #3 - Help eBay Sellers: eBay sellers often have very poorly taken photos of their items. For higher end eBay sellers, this could be losing them thousands of dollars every month! You can offer your services to these sellers, offering to take photos of their items for them for a fee.

Method #4 - Wedding Photographer: One of the more popular ways to work as a photographer. The key to getting wedding photography business is to have a very credible website and profile.

Method #5 - Restaurant Photographer: Restaurant menus often need to have appetizing photos taken for their dishes. They also often need photos of the restaurant itself for marketing materials. Restaurants can be a great source of business for the budding photographer.

Method #6 - Real Estate Listings: Have you ever noticed how beautiful photos of listed homes are? That's because real estate agents often hire professional photographers to photograph their listings for them. One great way to get started in this industry is to offer to shoot one listing for an agent for free. Do this for 10 agents and you may find yourself quickly booked with paying gigs.

Method #7 - Insurance Photographer: People are usually required to photograph belongings they're insuring. Often times they don't want to bother learning how themselves. By positioning yourself as an insurance photographer, you can do it for them.

Method #8 - Online Dating Photographer: Both men and women often want to have great photos of them taken for online dating profiles. This is a great way to make some quick cash.

Method #9 - Consignment Art: Places like Cafes and restaurants would often love to showcase your artwork. It gives them art on their walls for free. In exchange, you get exposure and potential buyers for your art.

Method #10 - Sporting Events: Smaller sporting events such as high school games or little league games often want to have their photos taken. It's a great way for a beginning photographer to get their foot in the door.

Method #11 - Church Directories: A church directory is a booklet with photographs of all their members along with names and phone numbers. You can create these booklets for churches for a nice profit.

Method #12 - Create T Shirts: T shirts have been and will continue to be great sellers online. Taking photos, putting them on shirts and selling them on eBay or T shirt websites is a great way to make money as a photographer.

Method #13 - Craigslist: Craigslist is a great place to find paying gigs. Hundreds of photographers are using Craigslist to connect with clients. It's the most trafficked classified website on the internet.

Method #14 - Take Portraits: Portrait photography is a highly profitable business models for photographers. There are two ways you can go about doing portraits: Setting up your own practice, or working with another studio.

Method #15 - Create a Photo Blog: If your photos are stylistic, it's like you could build up a fan base by publishing your photos on a blog.

You now have 15 great ideas to get you started as a professional photographer. Just one of these ideas can keep you busy for months. Pick the one that resonates with you and run with it! - 16651

About the Author: