making money with your digital camera

Do you have a lot of interesting digital pictures (scenic, wildlife, etc) that you don't mind sharing with others? Maybe taking pictures is a hobby of yours and you've acquired quite a collection over the years. If so, you could earn a nice profit each month by letting others use your pictures for various needs - brochures, websites, etc.

You see, businesses and organizations are constantly looking for new stock photographs to use in their promotions. Stock Photography is any imagery that is available for commercial use. These images can be of landmarks, people, events, nature, etc. With the explosion of the Internet (and digital cameras), regular Jane's and Joe's like you and I can sell our digital pictures to these businesses and organizations. Prior to the Internet, only established photographers had all the right connections needed to sell their photos.

My Little Experiment... Let me tell you what I did…

Back in 2004 I took a wonderful vacation cruise through Alaska. That place is awesome! What better place for me to test out my new digital camera. I ended up taking a few hundred pictures of some nice scenic views.

When I got back home I decided to try posting some of the pictures on some of the main stock photography websites that I use regularly for image content for my businesses. So I took an hour one evening and submitted a little over 100 photographs. The websites pay the photographer each time one of the members of the website downloads one of their photographs. So I now had 103 photographs that could be browsed and downloaded by the site's members.

Let me break here for a moment to say that I honestly didn't expect to make any money at all selling my photographs. I mean, I wouldn't even say that I'm an amateur photographer - I know nothing about taking photographs, other than aim-and-click. Fortunately, the digital cameras being sold nowadays make it extremely easy to take some nice pictures. But nonetheless, I was just looking for a fun experience to tell my entrepreneur audience about.

After a couple weeks went by, I logged into the website where I had posted the pictures, and to my surprise, I found that I was averaging $0.80 a day in profit.

Here take a look at my stats for the month that I joined (I joined on the 17th):

Incase you're wondering, the site pays 20 cents per download. I had 56 downloads for the month, so that's 56 x .20 cents = $11.20.

Now, this money certainly isn't enough to get me excited! However, I only spent an hour of my time, and only submitted 103 photographs. What if I submit all 350+ photographs I took while on my Alaskan vacation? What if I submit a few thousand photographs that I took from other vacations as well? And then, what if I submit all of these photographs to multiple Stock Photography websites?

It stands to reason that you could quite easily earn an extra $50.00 - $500.00 per month depending on the number of photographs you submit, and the number of Stock Photography websites you submit to. Granted, I really don't think that you'll get rich doing this, but an extra few hundred dollars a month does make a difference to a lot of people. It doesn't take much time at all to setup, and it's a lot of fun checking back to see which pictures people like! I have also heard of a number of people that earn a full time living from doing this.

So, exactly what do you need to get started?

1.	You need some digital pictures (which you own of course) - there are some restrictions on the kinds of pictures that you can submit to the Stock Photography websites. Make sure you read the guidelines that each Stock Photography website has regarding the kind of pictures you can submit.
2.	You need to create an account on the Stock Photography websites (which is free). Below is a list of three excellent (and very popular - meaning higher downloads) Stock Photography websites. To increase your profits, create an account and upload your photographs to each one.
	Shutter Stock: This is a great Stock Photography website that pays .20 cents per download. This is the website where I earned the $11.20 in the above table - it is where I originally submitted my 103 pictures. If you'd like, you can check out my 103 vacation pictures here.
	Dreams Time: This site is awesome. They have a very high payout between .50 cents to $1.50 per download.
	Big Stock Photo: Another great Stock Photography website. This site also pays quite well at .50 cents per download.

Okay, so there you have it... a fun and easy way to earn a little extra income each month.

June 2009 Update: This system continues to provide awesome results. There are many people making 4 figures per month with their digital camera using the sites listed above. If you're willing to put in the time to take the pictures, then this is a no-brainer way for you to earn extra cash.

There is also a new program that's available online at Camera Dollars that really expands on this information and lays out all of your opportunities to sell your pictures online. The information is excellent, easy to follow, and it greatly increases your ability to quickly make a full time income selling your pics online.