How I Make Money
This blog will be a little different because instead of sharing some photography tips or reviewing gear, I will instead be addressing a much requested topic. How do I make money from photography and how do I run my YouTube channel, this blog, online store and everything else. In other words how can I afford to do photography full time and travel frequently. There are many people who wish to follow the same path and I hope this blog will provide some guidance.
Overview
Before going into specifics let me give you an overview. The way this business works is simple. I provide free information online that in turn drives traffic to my website and if people find value in what I do, they can support by purchasing some of my digital products. There are three main components to this. The first one is a way to reach people, secondly it’s to have a product or service that can offer real value and finally it’s to have a hub where everything can come together.
I reach people in 3 main ways. Firstly by making videos on YouTube, secondly by writing blogs on my website and finally by sharing my photography on social media such as Instagram.
When it comes to products, I have built up a collection of different products aimed at different needs and budgets but more on this later. Finally we have my website which is at the centre of everything. This is the hub and where everything comes together. There is one more component which is the newsletter and that acts as a summary but more on this later.
YouTube
There are three online pillars and YouTube is the biggest one. It gives me a platform to share my knowledge, skills, tips and to help others with their photography. It also gives me a platform to share my photography with a much bigger audience compared to Instagram or other social media. My approach to YouTube is simple and involves two specific types of videos. Educational and inspirational. My educational videos can include those where I teach about shooting in harsh light or camera settings and the inspirational videos include interviews with other photographers and photo walks. The educational videos are designed to teach, rank in SEO, get more views and attract a new audience while the inspirational videos are designed to build a stronger bond with the current audience and offer something deeper than just 10 tips.
I’m not too fussed on production quality and instead focus more on what the viewer will walk away with instead of what type of mist effect will look best at 120fps. I aim to publish around 3 - 5 videos per month as it gives each video room to breathe and gives me enough time to work on everything else. I make money from Adsense although it’s not much and from sponsors or brand deals. Unlike what others say, for me Adsense is pretty stable and reliable. Although sponsorships are nice, I treat them like a bonus and don’t rely on them to pay my bills. When you rely on brand deals to pay bills, you can easily find yourself in a situation where you say yes to things you don’t care about just to make ends meet. Not a good place for you or your audience.
Blog
The second pillar is my blog. From mid 2023 I started posting regular blog posts and the results were insane. I posted gear reviews, travel suggestions, personal posts and all the transcripts from the YouTube videos. Over the last 6 months I averaged around 2-3 blogs per week and my website traffic has gone up by 200%. When I share a gear review on my blog, it now comes up in google search when someone is searching for that specific bit of gear. Then they read my review and if they found value in what I shared, then can support by purchasing a camera guide or a zine. I now get around 20 - 30k monthly viewers and as time goes on I plan to put more effort into the blog. Finally a blog helps your website rank better in google search because it’s always updated with fresh information and is never stale. Sure blogs are not what they used to be 10 years ago, but they are far from dead.
Social Media
The third and smallest pillar is Instagram. This is where I post a lot of my photography, make little videos and share any behind the scenes from the trips and day to day life. There are a few other social media apps like twitter, threads, Pinterest and Tik Tok but I don’t really use them other than copy and paste what I shared on Instagram. I generally try to spend as little time as possible on these apps because I find they can suck you in and a 10 minute catch up can easily turn to 45 minutes of doom scrolling. Not to mention they can easily drain your energy. I don’t try to go viral and instead just share what I like. From my experience, reels never really worked for me and all my viral posts were photos. The one thing I do is make an account on each new noteworthy platform or app just incase it becomes something big later on.
Products
Over the years I have built up a collection of digital products that serve different audiences and fill different needs. Each product idea usually started as requests from enough people to warrant putting it together. Some products are a low cost way for people to support the channel while seeing some unreleased photos while other products are there to help people learn more about their cameras. My main criteria is that I only make something that I would buy myself for the price I sell it for.
Newsletter
Personally I don’t put much dedicated effort into the newsletter like many others. I already produce so much that there is nothing new I can bring to this format. Instead I use the newsletter as a platform to summarise everything I shared across all other platforms in one concise weekly email. It’s designed for people who might not spend much time online or have limited time. In one short email they can see all my videos, blog posts, photos and stories.
Income Split
Now that I covered the nuts and bolts of the business, let me share with you my income split for 2023.
55% of my income has come from my own products.
30% has come from YouTube. This includes Adsense and sponsored videos.
10% has come from freelance jobs although I will be cutting back on them for 2024.
5% from affiliates such as Amazon.
Overall I’m pleased with this split and would like to maintain it going forward. The bulk of my income comes from things I make myself which is extremely rewarding and I want to keep it that way.
Business Expenses
There is one more key component which makes many things possible and that is running a business. Everything I mentioned above is part of my business and is subject to business expenses that are tax exempt. Everything that is required for me to make money and keep the business running falls under this. This includes all camera gear, laptops, phones, flights, hotels and so on. All these expenses come out of business and not my own pocket. This is one of the biggest perks of having your own business especially around something you love. Of course there are many drawbacks but that’s for another blog.
Summary
What I shared here is only a small % of what’s really under the hood so to speak however it should give you a good idea. If you want to know more, please drop me an email and I will see if I can put some kind of product together with everything I know.
