Irvine Photographers: Find Additional Income Outside of Prints, Negatives or Books

Most photographers will continue to make the majority of their income off of prints, negatives or coffee table type of books. However, there are other avenues in which an efficient and well run phot...

Most photographers will continue to make the majority of their income off of prints, negatives or coffee table type of books. However, there are other avenues in which an efficient and well run photography business can add additional revenue.

First, a photographer who has invested in an exceptional studio can rent out appointment slots to other photographers. To make the investment of renting or building, furnishing and up keeping a studio pay off, there needs to be a fairly high level of use. If that use is not reached, the price of the asset becomes a drag on the business. In order to reduce this drag and buy the owner time to increase his client base and use of the facility, he can rent out the facility to other professional photographers.

This is a win-win for both professionals. Many photographers who work part-time or only work with a small niche clientele never have sufficient need to justify the expense of opening a studio. However, on occasion they do have that need. In such cases, the photographer finds it a great service to be able to rent out a beautiful studio. The studio owner will appreciate the extra revenue to help cover the cost of maintaining the studio. In addition, the efficient use of the asset will allow both photographers to offer a better price to their customers.

The second stream of revenue a photographer can establish is from his website. Many photographers businesses invest much in getting exposure to their website. Having a section such as wedding venue location section on the website would be a great place to place some adwords. Each time a visitor clicked on the ad, the site owner would earn a portion of the ad revenue.

A third area for obtaining revenue, that a photographer with an efficient post- production system could take advantage of, is performing the editing work and product creation for other photographers. Most photographers have busy and slow times. During the busy times photographers scarcely have enough time to shoot, let alone edit their work. Yet the work is not constant enough to hire a part-time or full- time editor. A photographer with an efficient editing system could take the work on a contract basis. This would help both photographers manage their resources efficiently, providing an income stream for the photographer with the spare capacity and efficient editing system.

Photographers like any business would do well to diversify their income sources. The above are suggestions that should help a professional photographer do just that.