Photography Business Ideas You Can Start from Home

Who says you have to be a professional photographer and operate a photography studio make money in photography?

There are variety of ways people are making money with their cameras – without having to open a studio, and some with only a digital camera. One way is with stock photos.

You’ve seen stock photos everywhere – brochures, websites, TV ads, presentations and all sorts of marketing materials. With more businesses going online, stock photos are becoming more prevalent and therefore, the demand is higher. I’ve many new stock photography sources pop up online over the last several years.

Here’s the thing. They need photos. The more images they have, the better, because all of these sites of course compete against each other – and they want to offer their customers the most value for their money.

That doesn’t mean that these sites automatically accept all photos that people send them. They want good ones. This means that although your camera doesn’t have to a top-of-the-line piece of equipment with all the bells and whistles – but it does mean that it can’t be cheap.

Being able to edit your images is key – and of course making the time to do it. If you are impatient or don’t enjoy the photo editing process, this may not be the business for you. Here’s an article that explains more about what to expect getting working in the field of selling stock photography.

Below is a short list of sites that accept stock photography submissions. Photographers typically get paid by the download – which is another reason why you want your images to be really cool – you want people to download them. Keep in mind that some companies will pay you significantly more money if you submit your images exclusively to them and not to other stock photo sites.

• Veer.com
• iStockPhoto
• Photo Stock Plus
• Shutterfly
• Fotolia

One rule that I live by in business is “diversification”. If you have multiple ways of earning money in your field (ie. multiple services, products, types of clients) you increase the stability of your business, making it more difficult for you to go out of business should one of your income sources disappear.

Photography is a field that lets you easily diversify – offering different types of services to different markets and in different formats.

John Carroll is an expert in this field, and explains several freelancing photography opportunities that people are using right now to make money in his books. If you are interested in getting into this field, check out his site. He also provides more tips on stock photography – including how to get 100% of your photos accepted online.

For more small business ideas, visit The New Business Idea. You can also get start-up instructions for 200+ businesses and download the Home Business Start-Up Checklist free from HomeBusinesscenter.com.