About:
I remember when my childhood neighbor, Mr. Yong Poh Seong, R.I.P, who lived down the street from me, flipped the ignition switch to "on" for me on this one. I had been taking my own pictures on a cheap little point-and-shoot film camera since 2nd Grade, but by the time I made it to 6th Grade, two things happened. The first was my biological grandfather (R.I.P), who lived very far away from me, gave me his old darkroom equipment - a complete darkroom setup. The second thing was my neighbor, a retired newspaper photographer who I knew loving as an "adopted grandfather", taught me both how to use the darkroom equipment and skills and techniques for using different cameras and taking better pictures! Nowadays, with the advent of digital photography (in its infancy, but growing at lightning speeds, when I was learning my way around the darkroom in Middle School), it seems like everyone and his (or her!) dog is a photographer or videographer of some kind, but there is still money to be made in this niche!
The two definitely don’t have to, but, of course, videography and photography can easily go hand-in-glove.
Here are some business ideas that automatically come to mind when pondering this money-making realm:
Drone Videos/Photography – Drones were BIG a few years ago with everyone and anyone, but hit an abrupt wall (at least in the U.S.) when the federal government cracked down on who could fly them and where (requiring a drone pilot license for some private and all commercial applications that I am aware of). Though easier to procure than a piloted-aircraft license, it is still that “one more step” which will, of course, inevitably scare off the masses (as it was intended too).
Film-to-Digital Transfer – Great for videos, slides, and photographs. There is still money to be made in this department, and the startup costs are relatively cheap compared to other types of business ventures you could get into. You can sort of think of yourself like a museum curator - archiving and preserving the past.
YouTube (including other “Tube” sites as well as your own personal “Tube” website) – Yes, it’s real, and now owned by Google! While I thought this market was long since flooded several years ago (specifically on the platform YouTube), I also thought the film-to-digital transfer market died 10+ years ago, but I was wrong about both. Not only is making money through YouTube real, but it is something you can now hear “common” everyday mortals talking about in casual conversation. So, how can you make money on YouTube, other tube sites, or our own website with videos? What will you make videos of?
Well, as you can see from spending 10 minutes on YouTube, the sky is pretty much the limit in this case as to what kind of videos you can make as well as what the production quality can be. Browsing YouTube’s collection of the millions upon millions upon millions of user-generated videos they have reveals videos of all kinds – documentary style videos, educational videos, fact, fiction, news videos, and many, many more. The production qualities also range from professional/near-professional to literally total garbage. Of course, if you intend to make money from your videos you should aim for high production quality and, well, videos that people will want to watch; that is, videos with interesting, in-demand content.
An easy avenue to start with is video tutorials. This can work with pictures and text as well (and has, in fact, worked this way for many millennia in cultures where written language has existed that long – long before the advent of the Internet). Your focus here is creating a video in a “How To” type of format, or other type of instructional video, laying out how to do something step-by-step. How to properly rig a fishing pole, how to apply eye shadow the right way, how to bake delicious butternut squash – these are just three random ideas. Again, pick something you are good at, know how to do well (or are ready to learn how to do well) and start shooting and editing. Again, I can’t stress enough that these are just IDEAS to help you get started! If you have your own idea of what you want to do, then by all means go for it!
Passport/I.D. Pictures – If you have ever gotten a professional passport picture taken (i.e. you didn’t just trim down a picture you or your friend took of you up against a white wall in your house) you know that places that take passport pictures are literally getting away with something close to murder! I have personally seen passport picture prices of between US$7.00-15.00 in the U.S., which is outrageous for two little 2”x2” snapshots and the 10-15 minutes, which is all that is needed these days, to click the picture and print it (that is taking into account absolutely ALL set up and take down time). You can take your own digital pictures with you to most of those big box stores that will charge you those high prices for passport pictures and print them on the exact same machine your passport picture is printed on for US$0.35 a piece! Of course, if you are exclusively or near exclusively in the passport picture business you need to charge relatively high fees, as there is a very real chance your store will not see hordes of people rushing to the door to have their passport pictures taken. I mean, not everyone gets a passport; and people who do have passports only need to update their pictures when their passports expire, which is once every ten (10) years (at least in the U.S. - once every 5 years in the U.S. for children under the age of 16). Diversifying into as many different I.D. photos as you can and keeping that (i.e. I.D. photos) as just one aspect of your photography business is key to actually profiting from this niche.
Straight Up “Old School” Portrait and Events Photography/Videographer – This concept needs little explanation as it is pretty straightforward and has been around for as long as cameras have been around (and even before cameras existed, I guess you could say with a straight face that the “concept” was still around – you would have hired an artist to draw/paint/sketch by hand way, way back in the day).
Stock Photography – buying and selling stock photographs online has been around for quite a while, but started to really gain popularity with the crack-down (especially in the U.S.) of online copyright protection while the Internet was still in its “later childhood years”, if you will. This industry has only grown since then. How does this work? There are many different avenues and spins on this that crop up each year, but, in its most “traditional” form, if you will, you upload your photographs to a stock photograph site which then pays you a royalty fee when people download the picture (after that downloader pays the stock photography site, of course). The problem I have seen with many of the bigger name stock photography sites is that you need to be a professional or near-professional photographer these days even to dip your foot in to these waters. Of course, this isn’t a “problem”, per say, for the people who buy stock images, but can be problematic for budding stock photographers just starting out and/or trying to test the waters with some amateur shots (which are then rejected by the "Big Box" stock photography sites). There is an easy way around this, though – sell your photographs on your own website. This is what I, Andreas, do here at Biz Opp Empire.
External Links/Resources to get Started:
VideoUniversity.com - Master the Art, Technology & Business of Video Production
11 Things You Can Do Today to Make Money From Photography
How to Make Money With Your Photography
Top 12 Places to Sell Photos Online and Make Money
12 Things Every Beginner Needs to Get Started in Photography - this site discusses video as well
How to Make Money on YouTube [Complete Video Monetization Guide]
10 Ways to Make Money With Videos Besides YouTube - despite the name, YouTube is still included here as the focal point and springboard. The video tutorial you can visit through this link discusses 10 additional ways to monetize your videos once you have the "YouTube thing" under control. A better title could be "10 Ways to Make Money With Videos in Addition to YouTube".
Video Monetization: How To Make Money Without YouTube - this one actually discusses setting up your own tube site.
10 Things I Wish I Knew When Starting Photography - great tips written in a warm, intimate "here's my story, this is how I did it" kind of style.
Photography for Beginners: A Complete Guide (Updated 2019)
I remember when my childhood neighbor, Mr. Yong Poh Seong, R.I.P, who lived down the street from me, flipped the ignition switch to "on" for me on this one. I had been taking my own pictures on a cheap little point-and-shoot film camera since 2nd Grade, but by the time I made it to 6th Grade, two things happened. The first was my biological grandfather (R.I.P), who lived very far away from me, gave me his old darkroom equipment - a complete darkroom setup. The second thing was my neighbor, a retired newspaper photographer who I knew loving as an "adopted grandfather", taught me both how to use the darkroom equipment and skills and techniques for using different cameras and taking better pictures! Nowadays, with the advent of digital photography (in its infancy, but growing at lightning speeds, when I was learning my way around the darkroom in Middle School), it seems like everyone and his (or her!) dog is a photographer or videographer of some kind, but there is still money to be made in this niche!
The two definitely don’t have to, but, of course, videography and photography can easily go hand-in-glove.
Here are some business ideas that automatically come to mind when pondering this money-making realm:
Drone Videos/Photography – Drones were BIG a few years ago with everyone and anyone, but hit an abrupt wall (at least in the U.S.) when the federal government cracked down on who could fly them and where (requiring a drone pilot license for some private and all commercial applications that I am aware of). Though easier to procure than a piloted-aircraft license, it is still that “one more step” which will, of course, inevitably scare off the masses (as it was intended too).
Film-to-Digital Transfer – Great for videos, slides, and photographs. There is still money to be made in this department, and the startup costs are relatively cheap compared to other types of business ventures you could get into. You can sort of think of yourself like a museum curator - archiving and preserving the past.
YouTube (including other “Tube” sites as well as your own personal “Tube” website) – Yes, it’s real, and now owned by Google! While I thought this market was long since flooded several years ago (specifically on the platform YouTube), I also thought the film-to-digital transfer market died 10+ years ago, but I was wrong about both. Not only is making money through YouTube real, but it is something you can now hear “common” everyday mortals talking about in casual conversation. So, how can you make money on YouTube, other tube sites, or our own website with videos? What will you make videos of?
Well, as you can see from spending 10 minutes on YouTube, the sky is pretty much the limit in this case as to what kind of videos you can make as well as what the production quality can be. Browsing YouTube’s collection of the millions upon millions upon millions of user-generated videos they have reveals videos of all kinds – documentary style videos, educational videos, fact, fiction, news videos, and many, many more. The production qualities also range from professional/near-professional to literally total garbage. Of course, if you intend to make money from your videos you should aim for high production quality and, well, videos that people will want to watch; that is, videos with interesting, in-demand content.
An easy avenue to start with is video tutorials. This can work with pictures and text as well (and has, in fact, worked this way for many millennia in cultures where written language has existed that long – long before the advent of the Internet). Your focus here is creating a video in a “How To” type of format, or other type of instructional video, laying out how to do something step-by-step. How to properly rig a fishing pole, how to apply eye shadow the right way, how to bake delicious butternut squash – these are just three random ideas. Again, pick something you are good at, know how to do well (or are ready to learn how to do well) and start shooting and editing. Again, I can’t stress enough that these are just IDEAS to help you get started! If you have your own idea of what you want to do, then by all means go for it!
Passport/I.D. Pictures – If you have ever gotten a professional passport picture taken (i.e. you didn’t just trim down a picture you or your friend took of you up against a white wall in your house) you know that places that take passport pictures are literally getting away with something close to murder! I have personally seen passport picture prices of between US$7.00-15.00 in the U.S., which is outrageous for two little 2”x2” snapshots and the 10-15 minutes, which is all that is needed these days, to click the picture and print it (that is taking into account absolutely ALL set up and take down time). You can take your own digital pictures with you to most of those big box stores that will charge you those high prices for passport pictures and print them on the exact same machine your passport picture is printed on for US$0.35 a piece! Of course, if you are exclusively or near exclusively in the passport picture business you need to charge relatively high fees, as there is a very real chance your store will not see hordes of people rushing to the door to have their passport pictures taken. I mean, not everyone gets a passport; and people who do have passports only need to update their pictures when their passports expire, which is once every ten (10) years (at least in the U.S. - once every 5 years in the U.S. for children under the age of 16). Diversifying into as many different I.D. photos as you can and keeping that (i.e. I.D. photos) as just one aspect of your photography business is key to actually profiting from this niche.
Straight Up “Old School” Portrait and Events Photography/Videographer – This concept needs little explanation as it is pretty straightforward and has been around for as long as cameras have been around (and even before cameras existed, I guess you could say with a straight face that the “concept” was still around – you would have hired an artist to draw/paint/sketch by hand way, way back in the day).
Stock Photography – buying and selling stock photographs online has been around for quite a while, but started to really gain popularity with the crack-down (especially in the U.S.) of online copyright protection while the Internet was still in its “later childhood years”, if you will. This industry has only grown since then. How does this work? There are many different avenues and spins on this that crop up each year, but, in its most “traditional” form, if you will, you upload your photographs to a stock photograph site which then pays you a royalty fee when people download the picture (after that downloader pays the stock photography site, of course). The problem I have seen with many of the bigger name stock photography sites is that you need to be a professional or near-professional photographer these days even to dip your foot in to these waters. Of course, this isn’t a “problem”, per say, for the people who buy stock images, but can be problematic for budding stock photographers just starting out and/or trying to test the waters with some amateur shots (which are then rejected by the "Big Box" stock photography sites). There is an easy way around this, though – sell your photographs on your own website. This is what I, Andreas, do here at Biz Opp Empire.
External Links/Resources to get Started:
VideoUniversity.com - Master the Art, Technology & Business of Video Production
11 Things You Can Do Today to Make Money From Photography
How to Make Money With Your Photography
Top 12 Places to Sell Photos Online and Make Money
12 Things Every Beginner Needs to Get Started in Photography - this site discusses video as well
How to Make Money on YouTube [Complete Video Monetization Guide]
10 Ways to Make Money With Videos Besides YouTube - despite the name, YouTube is still included here as the focal point and springboard. The video tutorial you can visit through this link discusses 10 additional ways to monetize your videos once you have the "YouTube thing" under control. A better title could be "10 Ways to Make Money With Videos in Addition to YouTube".
Video Monetization: How To Make Money Without YouTube - this one actually discusses setting up your own tube site.
10 Things I Wish I Knew When Starting Photography - great tips written in a warm, intimate "here's my story, this is how I did it" kind of style.
Photography for Beginners: A Complete Guide (Updated 2019)
