MAKE MONEY WITH A DIGITAL CAMERA

1. Set up an online photo gallery and sell hard-copy prints or high-resolution digital photos to visitors to the site.

2. Print your own greetings cards. You can then sell them to shops or license the designs to greetings card companies. Another option is to sell your cards direct to the public, say from a market stall or create digital cards and sell online. You could also sell your photos to greetings card companies to use as a basis for card designs.

3. Make your own postcards. Possible subjects include tourist attractions, parades, festivals, historical architecture and nature.

4. Offer a service where you take photos of valuables and assets at homes and businesses to create inventories in case of theft. These inventories can help police recover the goods, as well as ensure an accurate payout from insurance companies.

5. Take pet portraits for pet lovers.

6. Take portraits of children for parents. Consider setting up in a shopping centre or children's clothing or toy store for a day.

7. Offer your services as a child birthday party photographer.

8. Take photos at news events to sell to news agencies for syndication.

9. Take photos to be used as royalty-free stock photos. Sell them to established stock photo businesses or set up your own stock photo business (on-line or disc-based).

10. Team up with a freelance journalist to take photos to accompany his/her articles.

11. Take photos of people's cars. Contact car clubs and offer to attend their meetings or rallies and take photos for the club/and or individual owners.

12. Approach real estate offices about taking photos of houses for brochures, newspaper advertisements and window displays.

13. Offer your services to aged care facilities to take photos of elderly people on birthdays and anniversaries.

14. Use your best photos to make a calendar. Consider making a thematic calendar, perhaps of the attractions and views in your local area.

OR

Make a calendar from your best photos to use as advertising for your digital-photo-taking business. This calendar can be online or printed.

15. Offer your services to trade/business-to-business magazines, perhaps to attend out-of-hours events, conferences or trade shows.

16. Offer to take photos of objects people want to auction online on sites like eBay then upload them as part of the service.

17. Take photos for small businesses to use in advertisements. If you have the facilities and the know-how you can create the advertisement for them.

18. Ask people at high-profile events whether they would like a memory of their attendance at the event. This works well for concerts or festivals or New Year celebrations.

19. Make t-shirts that feature interesting or humorous digital images. If humor comes easily, create captions to print with the photos.

20. Stand at the top of a ski-lift at a resort and offer to take snapshots as souvenirs.

21. Take digital panoramas for real estate virtual tours that can be created using a stitcher and viewer software.

22. Offer photos to webmasters for use on websites for a small one-off fee.

23. Use your photos as a basis for saleable art. Take black and white photos, print then hand-colour with oils or water colors or pencils.

24. Take photos of the stars through a telescope using a telescope adaptor. These can make an interesting calendar or can be used by an astrology Internet site to indicate the star sign constellations.

25. Take photos of old buildings earmarked for demolition, particularly those buildings with historical significance, then sell to the developer or new residents or local council, etc. This can also be applied to major structural changes to historical buildings.

26. Take photos of a growing suburban township over a period of time to show the growth and sell to developer, or new residents or local council, etc.

27. Take sequential photos of something being built over a period of time and sell to the construction company, local history or architectural organization, or the building owners or residents.

28. If your photo is of a well-known person, get it signed by the subject for an increase in value.

29. Offer a service to house renters and real estate agents where you take photos of rental properties to provide a record of the state of the residence before the renter moves in.

30. Offer a service to home buyers where you take photos of the fittings in the house at time of sale so the buyer can make sure the fittings that are included in the sale are not removed.

31. Offer your services to regional papers to take photos of sports events on weekends or out-of-hours events.

32. Offer a service to security companies responsible for large events. The idea would be to provide the company with virtual tours of the venue and security hotspots, so the company can plan detailed coverage and instruct staff about exactly where they should situate themselves and what they should be aware of and look out for during security coverage.

33. Take digital panoramas and shots of views for real estate agents to use in virtual tour brochures.

Sale Modes:

1. Set up online. When you are taking your photos, give your subjects a web address where they can view thumbnails and order high resolution digital versions or prints. This is particularly effective if you are taking photos at events or tourist destinations.

2. Collect the photo subject’s details and fee and organise to send your subjects a print photo in a simple cardboard frame with a bonus generic shot of the location where you took their picture (and your details in case they want to hire you for something else.)

3. Charge a fee then email the photo to them later. The beauty of digital photography is that you can take the photo, show it to your subject then organize payment/delivery method if they like the photo.

4. Have a computer with CD-RW with you and give your customers the digital portrait on a disc.

Notes:

1. Asking people for permission to publish their photos. It is important to obtain written consent from anyone whose picture you have taken and intend to sell. There are standard forms used by most professional photographers, obtain one of these to use, or create your own. Then if a news organization is using your photos, send copies of the signed forms with the photos.

2. Sensitivity
Exercise sensitivity when taking photos of people or situations. In most situations it is better to ask first. One particular area of sensitivity can be trade shows. Vendors are often sensitive about people taking photos of their merchandise, so check with them before taking a photo and make sure they are aware where the photo will appear. If you are taking photos for a particular publication or trade magazine make sure you have a copy of the publication and/or some generic cards/brochures. Also, make sure you get the necessary documentation and ok to photograph from trade show organizers before attending.