Monday, February 2, 2009

15 Creative Ways to Make Money as a Digital Photographer

By PJ Francis

Although photographers spend hundreds of hours learning the art of photography, the one aspect that's often left out in school is how to actually make money. Here we'll explore 15 creative ways to get your foot in the door as a paid digital photographer.

Method #1 - Selling Stock Photography: Stock photography is basically commissioned photography on a large scale. You submit your photos to stock photography websites and every time someone uses your photo, you get paid $1-$2 dollars.

Method #2 - Screensavers: Screensavers are a big business online. You can make a whole lot of money online by taking a group of photos and making them into screensavers. You can sell them on screensaver websites or eBay.

Method #3 - eBay Sellers: Speaking of eBay, eBay can be a great source of business. eBay sellers often have very poor photos of images they sell over and over. Set up a local service photographing eBay items.

Method #4 - Wedding Photographer: Photographing weddings is a great way to make a lot of money for very little time. Great marketing and a great portfolio is essential to differentiate yourself.

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: Men and women both need good photos for their online dating profiles. By positioning yourself as an online dating photographer, you can help people find their matches while making some extra money for yourself.

Method #9 - Commission Your Art: Places like Cafe's or restaurants would often love to have your art on their walls for free. You gain free exposure while they get free art.

Method #10 - Sporting Events: Local sporting events such as little league games or high school soccer games would often love to have photographers photograph their games.

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 - Make T Shirts: Original T shirts are big sellers on websites on eBay. By taking good photos and putting them on T Shirts, you can make a very good profit.

Method #13 - Craigslist: Craigslist is a great way to find clients. As the biggest classifieds website on the internet, Craigslist is the first place many people look when they need to hire a photographer.

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 - Photo Blogging: You can build a small but loyal following simply by posting your photos online on a regular basis. Art lovers who love your style will often subscribe to your blog and keep coming back again and again.

You now have 15 great ways to start off your practice as a digital photographer. Each one of these tactics can book you with gigs if you put the work into it. Don't wait. Get started today! - 15437

About the Author: