In complete honesty I have seen truck LOADS of photography work which isn't going to get anywhere near the top downloads at any stock photo agencies any time soon. In fact, I've seen photography work so bad that it's made me wonder why exactly a photographer has thought it important enough to show the world.
Having said that, I'll always encourage the photographer to keep shooting. I strongly believe in the beauty of our dreams, and we all have room for improvement. But if you're a photographer who is struggling to create good sellable work then this article is for you. We're going to show you a way to start making an income without having to sell your own photos.
As I'm sure you'd know, images, just like a CD, book, illustration, and so on, have a marvelous quality about them. There's something that glistens and shines with a photograph. Do you know what it is? Let me tell you. A 'good' photograph can be sold over and over again... you can earn yourself a passive, ongoing income... with the potential to build many streams of income that roll in for a long time to come.
Of course that's great if you're a natural at taking photos that sell! And many of us simply aren't. But the good news is that you can still build an online income in the photography niche, just by doing things a little bit differently. One way that has worked successfully for me is simply by promoting digital information products such as ebooks. It's not that difficult to actually start selling ebooks either, although it works much better if you have some sort of subscriber base to start with.
Basically, as long as you are generating some degree of traffic or people are finding your site in the search engines (Ie. Google), then there's really no reason why you can't recommend ebooks. Believe me, there's more than a handful of good ebooks out there on subjects ranging from perfecting your digital photography, selling stock photos, to selling photos locally, and many more. (Try searching for them at Clickbank.com)
In a nutshell I introduce new ebooks that are related to the digital photography tips niche, to my subscribers often, but not too often! There's an art to 'selling' and recommending. You have to understand the balance. Remember you should be about delivering good content to help your customers. Try to keep 'how can I help you' in mind rather than the potential 15%-75% commission per sale you'll pocket for every ebook sold. :)
Of course you're not limited to just photography ebooks either. There's a whole assortment of other digital products you can recommend to your customers too. Everything from website hosting to photoshop tools, from website building software to suggesting the best microstock stock photo websites to join. And that's just the start.
Each one of these photo niche tools or products will happily earn you a commission (sometimes recurring too) as long as you can match customers to them (who buy their product). If you approach this with a mindset of over-delivering good, helpful information and beneficial resources to your customers, (and not just trying to 'sell' to them to earn a quick dollar) you'll find you'll be amazed how much passive income you can make.
Often too it's just a case of recommending something (like an ebook about digital photography tips for newbie photographers) at the right time... Something that your customer needs at that time, and is willing to invest in. Of course, I could on and on about this for hours... But if you want to learn more just sign up to my newsletter in my signature below.
Martin Hurley's http://photomarketeers.com site will show you how to sell your photos online, how to set up a profitable photo website and how to easily get marketing your photography. Download a free guide to creating a stunning WordPress blog and discover everything you ever wanted to know about selling photos online here.
© Copyright Martin Hurley 2008
