10 Ways to Make Extra Money If You're Good at Photography

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I have a lot of friends who are talented photographers and I know that for many of my photographer friends, there are periods of feast and periods of famine. This got me to thinking – how can photographers make extra money? After doing some brainstorming, I’ve come up with 10 ways to make extra money if you’re good at photography, beyond your standard session fee.

10 Ways to Make Extra Money if You’re Good at Photography

1) Sell Stock Photos

Selling stock photos could be a great way to make some passive income from your photography. Once you’ve taken some great photos, you can upload them to a site like Shutterstock or iStockPhoto and make money every time someone downloads your photograph.

2) Teach Photography

There are many people who are interested in learning more about photography and would love to learn from a talented photographer. You could teach classes at your local community center, or you could create your own online course and upload it to Udemy.

3) Social Media Photography

For social media sites like Instagram, having great images is absolutely essential. You could work with businesses taking photos specifically for their Instagram feed, or you could specialize in flat-lays, a trend that’s super popular on Instagram right now.

4) Take Pictures at Local Events

Local events such as county fairs, spartan races, 5k’s, etc could be a great way to make some extra money. Get in contact with the organizers and see if they’d be interested in hiring you to take photos for the event, which people can download and purchase. You could also sell pictures to local newspapers.

5) Make Greeting Cards

Another way to make extra money from your photography is to start making your own greeting cards, featuring your unique, beautiful pictures. You can upload and sell these on a site like Etsy.

6) Start a Photography Blog

If you’re also talented at writing, you could start your own photography blog featuring product reviews, recommendations, tutorials, photography tips – the possibilities are endless! Check out my step-by-step guide on how to start a money-making blog.

7) Take Real Estate Photos

Great photographs are an essential part of successfully marketing a house, but if you’ve looked on Zillow recently, you might have noticed that a lot of realtors are sorely lacking in this area. Do some research on local realtors in your area, and offer to take professional photos of their listings.

8) Make a Calendar Featuring Local Businesses

Another idea for making some extra money as a photographer is creating a calendar. Each month you can feature one of your photographs, and a local business can offer a special deal or coupon. You could charge businesses for advertising space, or you could offer free advertising in return for local businesses selling your calendar in their store.

9) Sell Products Featuring Your Photography

Graphic t-shirts, mugs, pillows, baby onesies, baseball caps – there are endless possibilities when it comes to products you could sell featuring your photography, and sites like CafePress make it super easy to set something like this up.

10) Enter Photography Competitions

An often overlooked way of making some extra money is by entering photography competitions. A local Tennessee magazine that I receive in the mail every month is regularly holding photography competitions that offer cash prizes – I’m sure most states have something similar, not to mention the many online photography competitions.