CAMERA MONEY USD by ANNETTE KIM

Practical tips, ideas, and strategies how to monetize your photography– whether you want to build up photography to be your part-time / side-hustle, or whether you want to make a full-time living from your photography:

BECOME A MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER

Marketing, Branding, Entrepreneurship Principles For Success

MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER is your new philosophical and practical primer to succeed as a modern photographer in today’s digital world.

Why Money?

The first question you must ask yourself — why money? What do you seek money for?

Do you hope to make photography your full-time living? Or do you just want to make some extra side cash (part time, side hustle)?

Making side cash from photography

CAMERA MONEY GBP by ANNETTE KIM

Some basic ways you can monetize your photography:

Commercial work
Education
Selling photography-related products

Emphasize the benefits of your services

Why money from MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER

Put yourself in the shoes of your client and ask yourself, “What is in it for me?” Don’t just describe what you do– focus on how your pictures, or your services will IMPROVE the life of your client, or how it will empower or inspire them.

For example, when I advertise my photography workshops— I emphasize the benefits (conquer your fears and meet new peers). My workshop will BENEFIT the student attending because they will learn how to empower themselves, which will help them in all aspects of their lives (more confidence to do business, more confidence in their personal relationships, and more confidence in themselves to pursue their photography and art).

Furthermore, I emphasize the benefit of ‘meeting new peers’ — the opportunity for the student to meet other fellow passionate photographers. To build a network, and to have an unforgettable experience– that will continue to pay dividends far after the workshop.

If you shoot weddings or commercial work, consider:

What benefits will you give your client? Will you make them look more attractive? Will you help them sell more products?
If you are teaching a photography workshop — how will your student benefit? Will they learn more creative confidence in themselves?
If you are selling photo-products– how will your purchaser benefit? Will they find more inspiration to make pictures?

Keep your expenses low

To make money is to simply not lose money.

Or, consider:

Profit = Income – Expenses

To increase your profits and make money, you either need to increase your income, or you need to lower your expenses.

For example, let’s say I teach a photography workshop and earn $10,000 of income. If my expenses for traveling, airfare, hotel, and venue is $9,000 — I only earn $1,000 of profit.

However let’s say I teach a photography workshop and earn $5,000 of income. But if my expenses are only $500, then my profit is $4,500.

Therefore, the secret to making money as a photographer is focusing on PROFIT (not income).

For myself, I don’t have many monthly expenses. I don’t rent an expensive studio, I don’t purchase expensive camera equipment, and I keep my daily expenses to a minimum.

The easiest way to increase your profitability is to lower your expenses.

Therefore for myself, I don’t own a car. No car insurance payments, or monthly payments. I don’t own a phone — so no monthly phone bill. Try to slash as many expenses as possible, to make yourself more profitable.

Therefore, let’s say you’re teaching a photography workshop, ways you can save money and slash expenses:

Get a free (or discounted venue)
Don’t stay in an expensive hotel– AirBnb, or sleep on a friend’s couch
Teach your workshop so you don’t need to travel, or fly much. If you fly, always fly economy/coach (kayak.com)

Charge 25% more than you think you should

Go ahead, sell out. MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER.

Another practical tip:

Charge 25% more for your services than you think you should.

It is a bias that we tend to undersell ourselves, because we don’t have confidence in ourselves.

But remind yourself:

My labor is not free.

Your labor, time, effort, and energy is very valuable. Charge premium prices for yourself, your services, and therefore your client will value you higher.

Conclusion

This is a basic overview of how to make money from photography. Other practical suggestions:

Make sure you have an audience, or a platform to actually sell your photographic services. Make your own website (firstnamelastname.com) or (firstnamelastnamephoto).com. Host your own website with a service like 1and1.com or bluehost.com, using the ‘wordpress.org’ framework. By having a legitimate website (with a .com domain) — you will have more trust with your client (and therefore, your client will be more willing to give you money).
Don’t be shy charging money for your services. If you don’t charge money for your photo services– how will you put food on the table and pay your rent? Charging money for your photo services is NOT “selling out”. If you put your neck on the link and decide to become a photography entrepreneur — you are taking a risk. And taking a risk makes you great. So go ahead and ‘sell out’ — and seek to become as profitable as you can, to benefit yourself, your family, and the rest of society.
Offer a ‘three tier’ pricing table: Offer an ‘basic’, ‘standard’, and ‘expensive’ price for your photo services and products. Most people will gravitate to the ‘standard’ price. So give your client options.

BE BOLD,
ERIC

LEARN MONETIZATION STRATEGIES FROM THE MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER >