I’ve seen plenty of sites out there discussing how much money people can make blogging. Some estimates show people making in the high six figures from writing every day. This is huge! But frankly, I’ve yet to see any of the top sites focus entirely on photography.
So, this brought about an interesting question. Is it really possible to make a living as a photoblogger?
In a recent article by top blog consultant and the guy behind the site ProBlogger, Darren Rowse, it’s very possible to make $30,000 per year after a couple of years blogging. Now that sounds like a respectable living — or at least enough to allow many people to quit their full time jobs and focus on blogging 100% (which should boost earnings).
This article discusses how to make this work. Basically, he breaks it down into a more easily digestible figure of $82.19 per day and goes on to describe how one might go about earning this sum. Clearly, advertising is a large portion of income and something that can be successfully incorporated into a photo blog. However, since the focus of a good photo blog is the photos themselves, having too many colorful ads or banners could be distracting. Therefore, it is key to ensure that the advertising present is tasteful.
Also part of the $82.19 per day equation is affiliate marketing. For those unfamiliar with this concept, affiliate marketing is where an independent site attempts to market a product on another site. A commission is paid to the affiliate for every successful sale. In my opinion, this type of program is ideal for photo bloggers so long as they can find products that deal with photography. To top it off, most photography equipment is somewhat costly so percentage based commissions should yield the blogger some decent earnings.
Lastly, Daren Rowse suggests writing an e-book. While this may be an option for a photo-centric blog, I think that instead, attempting to sell prints and actual photos might be a better opportunity. Clearly, this is the golden ticket for a photo blogger. If they can stir up enough interest in their work, perhaps actual paying jobs and assignment work may result.
Overall, I really do feel that a photo blog can be a primary source of income for a photographer. Unfortunately, like any other business venture, it takes time and dedication. In the meantime, don’t quite you day job!