Multiple Income Streams - what's out there?
The changes that are going on in the world of professional
assignment and stock photography are astounding. Mid-range DSLRs shoot HD video,
Getty is promoting Flickr over the collections of their professional
contributors, iPhone photos are being showcased in the New York Times and the
list goes on and on. In this time of change, challenge, and, yes, opportunity,
you might want to utilize the proven strategy of investors over the ages. That
strategy is diversification.
Stock, Assignments and More
As a photographer you can shoot stock and shoot
assignments. That much is obvious; so let’s take a look the other less obvious
options. There is also the fine art print market, the paper product market
(everything from coffee mugs to mouse pads to journals), teaching, and, what I
would call an ancillary market, advertising on your website. More about that
last one a bit later.
Coffee Mugs, Pet Bowls and T-Shirts
The trick to making it work is in choosing the categories
that make sense for you, and in putting them together in a package that is
manageable. In this Internet age it is possible to have many of these
categories set up in such a way that you can be free to create more work while
automated processes take care of sales and fulfillment for you. For example,
companies like CafePress.com and Zazzle can be the paper product end of your
business dealing with imprinting your photos on coffee mugs, pet bowls; T-shirts
and a whole lot more. They can seamlessly handle everything from the
manufacturing to the sales transaction to shipping.
Imagekind, on the other hand, can handle print sales doing
everything from printing on a wide variety of substrates to matting and
framing. Again, Imagkind and other companies like it handle the complete
transaction process leaving you free to focus on the more creative aspects of
your business.
Opportunities To Profit
For those of you so inclined the opportunities to profit
from your photography expertise extends to teaching as well. I know one
photographer who charges beginning photographers for the opportunity to assist
him. Another friend of mine has a lucrative business leading photographers to
travel destinations around the world. When she posts a new offering she usually
fills up her groups in a matter of hours! And yet another friend of mine offers
weekend workshops on Photoshop/photography techniques.
Showcase Images And Draw Traffic
Now lets take a look at that last category; advertising on
your website. As a photographer you have something a lot of other web
entrepreneurs don’t have…quality content. By creating a quality website that
showcases your images you can draw traffic, and traffic can be monetized in a
variety of ways. It can be a simple as click-through advertising. I know one
man who has created several web sites with entertainment oriented content.
These three sites, with only Google click-through ads, generate three to four
thousand dollars a month in income for him.
I know of more than one photographer, who has mastered SEO
(search engine optimization), and consequently has more than 10,000 visitors a
day…that can translate to real income! If you can generate that kind of traffic
you can be sure advertisers will want to be on your site.
Whether or not you are looking to generate revenue through advertising on
your site, optimizing for search engines is good business. No matter how
you generate income you need to attract customers, and in today’s world that
means the Internet. All of the above income producing opportunities can work,
but there is no magic bullet. They all require hard work and patience.
It takes time to build traffic and a solid customer base. So what are you
waiting for?