Stock Photography

This is a great place to start. By offering your photos as stock, you’re letting others use them for their projects. Agencies are more interested in thought-provoking than perfect images, so it’s possible to succeed even as a beginner.

Start by finding a stock photography agency that pays well and whose database includes images you feel connected to.

Talking about your photography trips

Free blogging is a thing of the past. The future is paid blogs. Fellow photographers are more interested in photographers whom they can relate to. You can earn money with a paid blog where you regularly upload photos and discuss your experiences, regardless of how boring you think your excursions are for others. Believe me, others will find you inspiring and interesting, exactly how you are.

Selling your photos as prints, postcards, calendars etc.

This is one that many photographers dream about. People love wall art and making their homes prettier with unique artwork.

Selling Lightroom Presets

You may have noticed that quite a lot of photographers create Lightroom presets. In my opinion, they all look pretty much the same. They are also ALWAYS used in photos that are stunning to begin with. Most of us don’t have access to beaches with white sand and aquamarine water or models with perfect skin in long-flowing folklore dresses. Your potential customers are looking for presets to apply to their mediocre-looking photography that will turn them into stunning works of art.

Use your photography skills to promote something else that you create and want to sell

Are you a female knitter, an artist, a female whiz at interior design, a forager, a window decorator, a potter, a dog-walker, an illustrator, a novelist, a gardener, a traveller, a reader, a pastry chef or maybe even an astronaut? Whatever it is that rows your boat other than photography, it needs to be captured artfully with your camera. Use your photography skills to monetise other ventures.

Specialise in an easy type of commissioned photography

Many beginner photographers believe that the only way to earn money with photography is to take on commissioned work, usually in the shape of portrait photography.

If you like this sound but don’t want to invest thousands in studio equipment, you could become a natural light photographer instead. You can choose between business, product or portrait photography.

Begin by asking well-known people in your town if you could take their photo (or of their business, products etc.). This will really get the ball rolling as they will use your photos as their profile photos on Facebook. Their friends will ask them who took the photos and want to book you.

One of the first people I asked was the local mayor. To this day he’s convinced that my photos were responsible for his re-election. He mentioned me in his thank you speech. I was the talk of the town and never short of clients.

Promoting Photography Equipment etc.

This is similar to talking about your excursions, but you’ll be talking about equipment and all the things you use for photography. You’ll become a partner for different firms and organisations. If someone purchases via your link, you’ll receive a cut of the profit.

For instance, let’s say you visited a Lost Place and you booked through Go2Know (and they had a partner program). You can talk about this excursion countless times before you go. After you’ve been, you can create several posts, Reels and Stories with the images you took, and each time, you can add your partner links to them.

In the workshop, you will learn what to write about and how to get people to click your links and buy.

Selling your knowledge

We get sucked into believing that we need to know everything on a certain subject before we qualify to teach it. This is so far from the truth. I switch off whenever I notice someone is telling me EVERYTHING they know about something. I’m also unable to decipher what I need to know and which knowledge is completely superfluous - and that’s frustrating!

If it had been my belief that I needed to know everything before creating the “Focus” workshop, then thousands of amateur photographers still wouldn’t be able to use their camera’s manual settings

You are the perfect person to teach people the knowledge you have because you won’t overwhelm them. You could begin by hosting themed photo walks.

In the workshop you'll learn different ways in which to sell your knowledge and where to find your clients.