3 Ways to Earn from Your Photography Blog

We have featured Niche of the Week posts on special hobbies, or what I call "passions," before: makeup, cooking and travel. Here I am yet again with another Niche of the Week post on how to turn your hobby or passion into a source of income.

My husband was badly bitten by the shutterbug two years ago. He has always been interested in photography and has exhibited a talent for capturing great moments, so he finally decided to pursue it. He bought a Nikon 5100 DSLR and became the official family photographer. I fully support him, but we both never thought anything would come out of it besides having another hobby.

That changed when I stumbled upon this photography blog or "photoblog": How I Made $4,513.43 in Passive Photography Income in 11 Months. Apparently, as with other pursuits we have featured as Niche of the Week, photography can also be a source of passive income.

Interest in photography had reached a plateau until Nikon introduced the first digital camera in early 2000. Canon and other manufacturers followed suit, and not long after that, we discovered cameras on mobile phones. Digital photography was born.

There are now 4 times as many camera owners per US household as there were in 2002, with the bulk of photos stored on Facebook. Photography accessories such as memory cards, camera bags, cleaning kits and the like have never been more in demand. There are also online photography schools where you can learn to shoot better photos, as well as various books on photography.

The Big Picture

The photography industry is a $10 billion industry in the US alone.

Photography has gone digital in recent years. While anyone with a camera can now take photos and edit them with (often) free software, there's definitely still a demand for photography specialists, who are making a comeback as they focus on specific photography services like special events coverage and publishing photo books.

The photography industry in the US earned USD $10 billion in 2013, and and has been projected to grow 1.8% each year  since then — indicating a recovery in progress.

As far as interest in the photography niche, Australia tops the list. There was a decline to the number of searches from between 2014 to early 2016, but it is slowly on the rise. The US takes the 5th spot, behind New Zealand, the UK, and South Africa. 

 

Picture-Perfect Keywords

"Pictures," "photos," and then some. There’s a lot of keywords to target in the photography niche.

If you want your photography site to get noticed, then you need to target the right keywords. Keywords play an important part in attracting the right people to your site.

Before you search for target keywords, consider what your photography site is about and what you eventually want it to be. If you're a local photographer and want to promote your brick-and-mortar studio, then you need to target keywords referring to the services you offer and then add your location. For example, "wedding photography San Francisco" will give you the following results in Traffic Travis:

   

The same thing works if it’s a specific photography service you’re offering on your site, or several. You can target keywords like “photo booths,” “photo books,” “wedding photography,” and “event photography.” The only catch is most of them are high-competition, buyer-intent keywords. Below are search results for "photography" in AffiloTools :

 

Having good on-page SEO can help make your photoblog more visible to users by ranking for specific keywords. This also leads to more traffic to your site.

Tags and keywords are important, even if it's just to draw attention to an image. Alt tags provide search engines with descriptive text for your image. In the event that the image cannot be displayed, a user will see the alternative text and know what the image represents. Always use your target keywords in the image alt tags when possible, and if not, then use words and phrases related to your keywords.

Articles on your photoblog are not exempt from those rules either. Make sure the article you're writing is optimized for the target keyword, as well as the images included in that article. 

 

How to Earn from Your Photoblog

Sharing the images you capture is great, but even better is earning while you do so.

These are just a handful of the numerous photography affiliate programs you will find online. As always, I checked the ClickBank Marketplace, and selected a few that have high commissions and good Gravity.

Endorse Online Photography Schools

Not everyone interested in photography already knows how to take good pictures, or understands all the artistic and technical factors that contribute to a great image. Even the ones who do are likely interested in learning more. As an affiliate, you can recommend a few websites that can help both beginner and advanced-level photogs enhance their skills.

These programs here are just seven of the many, many photography courses you'll find online. Be sure to check out ClickBank and other affiliate networks for similar training courses. The great thing about having a large pool of products to promote is that if one product doesn't sell for you, you can replace it with another quite easily.

Recommend Hosting and Tools for Photographers

There are plenty of online tools and resources for both amateur and professional photographers. The question is: Which are you going to pick? You can help your fellow photog friends by suggesting a few. Not only are you helping them, you're helping yourself — by earning a commission each time.

Promote Online Photography Stores

As far as online stores that sell equipment, there's always Amazon, of course, which sells photography supplies ranging from memory cards to eBooks to published works on photography. Adorama is another online camera store, and well-known brands Canon and Sony have their own online stores as well.

How to Get Your Photoblog Noticed

A photograph needs to be appreciated and shared. So does your photoblog.

Whatever reason you have for putting up a website, the aim is always to get people to visit it. For affiliate marketers, it's even more important to get people to click on their affiliate links and purchase the products.

There are many methods, both free and paid, to drive traffic to your website. It can get overwhelming, particularly because link-building and marketing strategies tend to be a combination of two or more tactics, and not one. It’s best to have a look at the methods you will use to promote your website once it is up, long before you actually launch.

Social Media Marketing

Where better to showcase your images but through social media sites like Facebook and Pinterest? You can share not only your images, but links to your articles as well.

You can also interact with your target market on these sites. Ask them to critique your images, or host a mini-contest to further engage them. Hootsuite has a few tips on how you can engage users in social media and build your brand. 

Blog and Forum Commenting

There are plenty of photoblogs and photography forums that you can participate in, such as PhotoCamel. Join in the conversation and provide helpful information to the other members. You'll build backlinks and create a positive reputation for your site. Once the forum-goers trust you and your site, they will be more compelled to visit your site and follow your recommendations.

Amazon Kindle Traffic

Share your knowledge of photography by creating a small eBook on a specialized topic, then post it in the Kindle store. Make sure that you have a link to your site in the eBook, particularly to the relevant articles on your site.

The best part about this method is that you have the option to charge a small amount for the eBook (such as $0.99), making it another potential source of income.

Photography and Affiliate Marketing: The Big Picture

This is definitely a niche for someone who is into photography and dead-set on pursuing it. You can start off your site as a personal blog of someone trying to learn photography and take it from there.

Again, you have to have a real interest here. That means owning a camera, taking pictures and sharing your work with the rest of the world. Then you can add one or two of the photography affiliate programs we've featured here to your site, and start earning passive revenue.

Keep in mind that the commissions are not all good. The stores in particular offer only 2% for each sale. Still, that won't matter if your main focus here is photography and getting your images out there.

If you already have a photography site, and are getting some steady traffic to it, then this is good news for you. You can choose from any of the affiliate programs we've covered. It may not be much, but at the very least you can expect a small monthly earning from your site. 

I hope you enjoyed this Niche of the Week! If you did, please make sure to share it with your friends and family through the Share buttons below. Comments are welcome! Please make sure to leave them below, too. :)

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