Is Photography A Good Side Hustle? (What You Should Know)

Photography is an awesome hobby. No one can see what you see through your lens and it allows you to capture memories or moments that can last a lifetime. You may be wondering if photography could be a good side hustle.

In this blog post, we will talk about whether photography is a good side hustle and what you should know before taking the plunge. We’re not going to over traditional forms of photography, like weddings or portraits. Instead, we’ll focus mainly on the online world of photography and what it takes to make money from your hobby.

Answer To The Question is Photography A Good Side Hustle:

Photography could be an excellent side hustle and there are many ways you could make money from your passion. That means you’re not just limited to taking pictures for people’s enjoyment; you could turn it into a money-making machine.

In the rest of this blog post, we will go over different ways you could make money with your photography skills. You can do one at a time or start them all together to create a well-oiled photography money-making machine! Let’s dive into it!

Stock Photos

One way to make money with your photography is to sell your photos as stock photos. Many websites allow you to upload and sell your photos. When someone buys one of your photos, you will receive a commission.

The great thing about selling stock photos is that you can keep uploading new photos and making money from them indefinitely. Once you have a portfolio of photos, you can start to see some nice passive income coming in.

The one thing you need to keep in mind is that the photos need to be of good quality and they need to be popular topics that people are searching for. For example, some popular stock photo topics include:

  • travel
  • nature
  • animals
  • food

If you can take great photos in any of these categories, then you will likely be able to sell them as stock photos.

One solid trick is to think about the most popular blogging topics and try to come up with photos that would complement those articles. For example, if someone is writing a blog post about travelling to Italy, your photo of the Colosseum could be a perfect match!

Starting a YouTube Channel

Whether you start a vlog about your photography journey or even do camera reviews, starting a YouTube channel is another great way to make money with your photography skills.

You can monetize your videos with ads and also promote products as an affiliate. If you build up a large enough following, you could even get sponsored by companies to mention their products in your videos.

The key to success on YouTube is to produce quality content that people will want to watch. If you can do that, then you will be well on your way to making some money from your YouTube channel.

You can even do a combination of a vlog and a review channel. For example, you could do a vlog of your photography journey and then do in-depth reviews of different cameras and lenses. This would give you a great mix of content and also allow you to make money from both ads and affiliate sales.

Start a Photography Blog

There are many keywords within the photography niche. Some of them include:

  • Stock Photos
  • Head Shot
  • Landscape
  • Natural Light
  • Wedding Photos

You can use these words to find long tail keywords that people are searching for and write them.

Over time you can make money from your blog through ads, affiliate sales, and even sponsorships. But it will take some time to build up your blog and get to that point.

The key is to start writing helpful content that people in the photography niche will want to read. If you can do that, then you will be well on your way to making money from your blog.

You can even repurpose the blog post you create and turn them into YouTube videos. This will double your chance of making money as you will be able to monetize the videos with ads as well.

Sell a Photography Course

If you are confident in your photography skills, you can even sell a course teaching others how to take great photos.

You can sell them on sites like Udemy or Skillshare. Or you could even create your website to sell the course. If you happen to create a blog or YouTube channel you could use the traffic of those to sell the course as well.

The key is to create a high-quality course that covers a specific topic in-depth. For example, you could do a course on how to use natural light when taking photos or how to shoot great landscape photos.

If you can create a quality course, then you will be able to make a good amount of money from it.

Sell Your Artwork On Etsy

Etsy is a platform where you can sell all sorts of handmade goods. And you can also sell photography on there as well.

This is a great way to make money if you like to take photos of nature or even do some digital abstract artwork.

Good quality photos and a good price will help you to sell your artwork on Etsy. You can even create a custom order if someone requests it.

If you can build up a good reputation on Etsy, then you will be able to make a good amount of money from selling your photos and artwork.

Build a Big Instagram Account

If you’re confident in what you do, why not start building up a big Instagram account?

A big Instagram account can make you a lot of money if you use it correctly. You can get sponsored by companies to post about their products, or you could even sell your own products through your account.

The key is to build up a large following of people who are interested in what you do. If you can do that, then you will be in a great position to make money from your Instagram account.

The way to do this is by posting high-quality photos with a good backstory of the photo. You should also use hashtags to help people find your photos.

Publishing Your Own Photo Book On KDP

If you have a lot of great photos, you can even publish your photo book on Amazon.

The greatest part about this is once your book is published, you can continue to make money from it for years to come.

To do this, you will need to create a book cover and then format your photos into a PDF. Once that is done, you can upload it to Amazon and start selling it.

Much like a YouTube channel or blog, this could be passive over time as people continue to buy your book.

Print On Demand

There are many print-on-demand sites where you can upload your photos and people can buy them as prints.

This is a great way to make money if you have a lot of great photos that people would want to hang up in their homes.

Some popular print-on-demand sites include, Fine Art America, Redbubble, and Society6.

Instead of uploading the photo straight up, you can even turn it into a cartoon or edit it in some way to make it more unique. This will help you to sell more prints as people will be interested in the uniqueness of your photo.

Make sure you check in with each platform and see what the requirements are for uploading your photos. The last thing you want to do is break any rules and get your account banned.

Put These Methods Together

As you can see there are a lot of different ways that you can make money from photography.

The best way to do this is to combine a few of these methods, especially the passive ones. If you start a blog, YouTube channel, print-on-demand, and KDP account, then you will be able to make money from your photography for years to come, in a moderately passive way.

Conclusion

As you can see photography can result in not only one, but multiple successful side hustles!

Making money from photography can be a great way to earn some extra cash or even make a living if you’re good enough.

Just remember once you get started to keep working hard, as it will take a while to start seeing any serious results.

I hope you enjoyed this post on how to make money from photography. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.

Take a look at our other most recent blog posts below:

Is Photography A Good Side Hustle? (What You Should Know)

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