I have written this article to share my experience and knowledge with you, showing you what I am doing myself, because my friends and mates often ask me, how I keep earning extra money, selling my photos online and receiving money transfers for few hundred dollars each month. And I am confident that this information will give you not only something to think about, but also essential knowledge, how to make extra income, selling your photos online, and maybe for someone will become turning point in choosing a professional career.
There is camera in each and every family - film or digital. Someone has it in his or her cupboard to get dusted, someone carries it everywhere and shoot everything. And who doesn't have the camera - make photos, using mobile phone. You have made photos of your wife, children, your mother - in - low, your dog, cat, house and your car. But, what next? Don't you think that with the help of your photos, where you put your heart and soul, you can not only express yourself, share your experience and impressions, show yourself to the rest of the world, but also you can earn money! Before getting started in selling your photos online you need to take under consideration few very important questions, like
1) identify your specialisation in photography - what you shoot most of the times: landscapes or architecture, portraits or nature, or something else;
2) search internet, using keywords, to look for the market for your niche and know who is your targeted audience: to make any profit you have to know whether someone buys photos you want to propose;
3) to be accepted in any niche you need to have appropriate knowledge of the subject - do you have this knowledge and skills, if you don't - it is time to make self - upgrade!
4) also, for certain specialisations (portraits or studio photography), you have to consider buying special equipment, like tripods, spotlights, lenses...
5) you need to know your competitors and what you could propose to the market differently;
6) decide, whether you will work mainly in stock photo market, or go for assignments...
Stock photography is used by different companies for design, advertising and marketing and there is a great demand in quality photos. Stock photography can be anything from picture of the pen on your office desk to some sporting events.
Getting started in this business is fast and easy process, like you upload your photos to FaceBook or Photobucket photo-album online, but you must follow certain guidelines in order to your photos be accepted and most important - bought! You also must have permissions to sell photos if there are recognizable people or houses with known names on your photos. Some photo-sites require small investment from your side - host needs to store and manage your photos and some of the sites give you even special software to organize and manage your business.
In this business you don't need to create website to store your photos. All is done for you and waiting!
There are many themes you may cover doing photography, for instance:
- sporting events;
- architecture;
- transport;
- office life;
- portraits;
- flora and fauna;
- insects....
you name it!
You can sell almost any type of photo you have made and earn money! Range of pricing for one photo is very wide - from $1 to $400 - it really depends on category of projects you work for, and uniqueness of your photos.
And how would you like to make a nice screen-saver using your photos! It's possible to earn money creating screen-savers too!
If you choose to work in assignment role - it means that you will be hired by someone to produce photo report of certain event, either sporting event, public speech or wedding, or something else. There are even services, that require photos from field investigations, like Police, City councils, and medical establishments.
And you must give your customers exactly what they want!
You don't need to buy expensive and fancy equipment, but to make photos of high quality you need to invest some money to have good return!
In later articles we will go technical and discuss some issues about cameras and accessories for them. You always have to think quality! If quality of your photos is not up to certain marks - you hardly ever will make income you want!
Selling photos online can be a very profitable business and it takes not long time and it is easy to get started, but you must be dedicated and persistent in your desire of making it come true! I invite you to start earning money, selling your photos today, and have fun!
Author - Sergey M, photographer, specializing in landscapes, nature and military photography, close-up shots, 3D modelling. If you want to learn more not only about techniques of selling your photos on-line, but also photography techniques, which will make you practically an expert, visit My Photo Universe, where you will find more resources and useful links.
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