Photo by Joyston Judah / Pexels License
If you love photography and you have some skills, teaching others can be a great way to make money. It could be a side hustle that brings in some extra money outside of your job, or it could be the source of a full-time income. And not only can you make money by teaching something that you love, but you’ll also have the privilege of helping others who want to learn more about photography.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some specific ways that you can earn money by teaching photography to others.
1. Teach a Class
You may be able to teach a course at a local college, art school, or some other type of school. This will partly depend on the types of schools and academic institutions that are in your local area, and it can also depend on your experience and qualifications.
2. Create an Online Course
Another option is to create your own course and sell it online. Video courses are extremely popular, and this can be an option regardless of where you live. Another benefit is that you can create the course one time, and then sell access to it over-and-over again.
There are a few different ways you could go about creating your own course.
Sell it at your own website. You could host and sell access to the site on your own, and there are many different platforms that make it possible. You could use Teachable as an easy way to host your course, and then simply promote it at your own website. The course would technically be hosted by Teachable, but you have full control over it.
Another option for selling at your own website would be to use a WordPress membership plugin. Many of the leading membership plugins allow you to sell access and protect content (text, video, or downloads) to be sure that only paying customers are getting access to the content. (We’re using a WordPress plugin for our course, Lightroom for Landscapes.)
Sell it at a marketplace. If you’re willing to give up a little more control, you could sell on a marketplace like Udemy. You’ll have some control over the pricing, but they do run a lot of sales and special promotions. Udemy has a big audience and an established reputation, so they can help you to reach a bigger audience.
Skillshare is another marketplace that you could use. While Udemy sells access to courses individually, Skillshare offers a membership that gives customers access to thousands of courses for one price. As a course creator, you can make money based on how many hours of your video courses are watched, and you can also refer customers to Skillshare through their affiliate program.
3. Lead Workshops and Seminars
Photo by Matheus Bertilli / Pexels License
While workshops and seminars exist for all different types of photography, this is an approach that is especially popular with landscape photographers. Leading workshops of small groups can be a great way to make money. There is a high demand for beginner and hobbyist photographers who want to be able to learn from a professional in a hands-on experience.
Leading and hosting workshops can be a great option if you’re able to establish yourself as an expert in your local area. You can become known as the go-to source for landscape photography in your region, and others will be willing to pay for you to teach them and to help them find the best locations in your area.
The prices of workshops can vary drastically depending on who is leading the workshop, what it includes, and where it is. But for many landscape photographers, leading workshops can be an important part of their income.
→ Related reading: How to Choose the Right Photography Workshop for You
4. Start a Photography Blog
If you like to write, starting a blog can be a great option. The only downside to this is that you’ll have to put in a lot of work before your blog starts to make money.
A blog could be a way to make money with a photography hobby, or it could be a full-time business.
The blog itself won’t make you money, but there are a few different ways that you can make money through the blog:
- Sell advertising space. Join an ad network and make money from people who want to advertise to your visitors.
- Promote other people’s products as an affiliate. You can earn money when you refer someone to another website and they make a purchase. For example, you can use affiliate links to recommend cameras or lenses from Amazon.com and when a visitor clicks through your link and makes a purchase, you’ll earn a commission.
- Create an sell your own products. You could sell info products, or resources like Lightroom presets and Photoshop actions.
- License your photos or sell prints. Use a blog to get more exposure for your photos, and then sell more prints or license more of your work.
→ Related reading: Tips for Taking Landscape Photos That Sell
5. Work as a Freelance Writer
Photo by Pixabay / Pexels License
Another option for those who enjoy writing is to freelance. While starting your own blog means that you’ll have to put in the time to grow the blog before you start making money, you can earn money right away by freelancing. There are plenty of blogs that need new photography-related content on a daily basis, and that can be a great place to start if you’re looking for freelance work.
Aside from writing for photography blogs, you could also write articles for magazines as a freelancer. Many magazines have information on their websites about how to become a writer.
6. Write Books or Ebooks
Books and Ebooks are an important part of the learning process for many photographers. I know I learned a lot by reading from many different photographers, including Michael Frye.
You don’t have to be a well-known photographer in order to be able to write a book, and you don’t even need to have a publisher. Anyone can write and produce an ebook pretty easily. That ebook could be sold on your own website or blog, or you could sell it at Amazon. Many writers make great money (part-time or full-time) by writing ebooks for Kindle.
If you want to sell a paperback book, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program makes it easy (and without a big upfront cost).
7. Partner With Someone Who Has an Audience
Doing something like writing an ebook or creating an online course may be intimidating if you have no existing audience or reach. Although there are platforms like Udemy and Amazon that make it possible to sell without an existing audience, there is no denying that it’s a lot easier (and more profitable) to sell if you have an audience.
The last option that we’ll talk about is to partner with someone who has an audience. Most likely, this would be a blogger or website owner who has a large audience of enthusiast photographers but does not have the time or desire to write their own ebook or create their own course. It’s possible to partner with someone like this. You’ll create the course or the ebook and you’ll split the revenue (those details could be negotiated).
This could be a great option because you’ll be able to focus on the product that you’re creating, and your partner will be able to focus on promoting it.
What’s Your Experience?
Have you ever made or tried to make money by teaching photography? If so, please share from your experience in the comments.
Photo license link: Pexels license.