Got A Digital Camera? Make Extra Cash Simply By Taking Photos

I'd bet you'd be surprised to know that all you need to make some extra money is a digital camera. These days I don't know anyone who doesn't own a digital camera, especially here in Australia.

There are many sites out there that will pay you money to submit photos to them. The money ranges from $US0.10 for an "acceptable" quality photo right up to $US2.00 for a premium quality photo. But wait, there's more! Most sites will also pay you a royalty every time someone downloads your photo for their use, so there can be an ongoing trailing commission paid to you for each photo - this is generally about $US0.20. If your photo is a popular one then you can make a reasonable amount of money especially if you have a number of quality photos listed that are being downloaded.

This might not sound like much but if you do some simple math, it does add up. If you have at least 20 good photos that are premium quality and that are popular, you should be averaging about 50 downloads a week. This adds up to $US10 (50 x $0.20) per photo per week. So 20 photos are making you $US200 per week! This can be pretty good especially if you upload more than that. There are some photographers who have uploaded literally hundreds of photos to a site. And, most sites will let you upload the same photos to a number of sites so you could be getting much more than this!

You don't need any special equipment either, just a decent digital camera, and by decent I just mean one that does at least 3.2Megapixel images. These days you can't really purchase a camera thats less than 5-6Megapixels so you should be fine. You don't need an SLR camera either - any compact digital camera will do the job.

There's a few secrets to know if you want to make sure you are getting the most reward for your efforts - its not merely a case of just going out & taking whatever photos you like. Sure, you will make money doing this but the amount of trailing commissions could be limited as not as many people may want to use your photos. The key is to find out which photos are the most popular - by this I mean which keywords and key phrases gets searched the most & then go out & take photos related to this. Its also a good idea to see what photos are already loaded at the site to see if you can, at the very least, do similar or better yet find a way to make yours better or different. I have found that some of the most popular topics revolve around business and computers, because people who are creating their company websites want quality photos about business and computers that they can use. I'm sure you will be able to find other niches as well that may be popular.

Pro's

• One of the easier methods of making cash online;
• You don't need a whole lot to get yourself going, just a digital camera (which most people already have), and the ability to take photos;
• This can be a lot of fun - most people I know enjoy taking photos;
• If you are particularly good at photography then you can make some good money as all your photos will get rated as premium quality and if you choose a good subject/keyword/key-phrase, your photos can be downloaded many times giving you some good ongoing cash;
• You get to keep ownership of the photos meaning that you can upload the same photos to many sites increasing your chances of getting your photo downloaded thus increasing your trailing or royalty commissions;
• A business you can easily do at home with the occasional trip out to take the photos
• You can claim any holidays or any trips at all on tax if you simply take a few good photos there to make some money on. Its probably a good thing to take photos whilst on holidays, not just for tax reasons, but also because these may prove popular as they may not be as much competition for the photos you can take whilst on holidays

Con's:

• The potential amount of money you can make is not as large as other forms of online businesses like Affiliate Marketing or eBay selling
• The amount of money you can make is limited by your time to take photos and can also be limited by your skill level in taking photos. Whilst you don't have to be a professional photographer to make money, those that take a better quality photo naturally make more than those that aren't able to.

For Australians:

There is no stopping any average Australian using this method to make extra income and if you are particularly good at photography then you stand a chance of making some good weekly money. You just need about 20 good photos of popular subjects to be making around $US200 per week just from the one site. Upload it to multiple sites and you could increase this to $US500+ per week which is pretty good extra money. Australians also have access to some of the nicest sceneries around so we have the opportunity to take some very good photos. At this stage I do not know of any Australian websites that offer this sort of payment for photos, but it really doesn't matter. There is no disadvantage to you to use sites in the US/UK. Its even better as you get paid in a stronger currency than ours.

Have a look around for the sites that accept this, there are quite a few.