8 Ways to Make Money FAST with Photography!

Quick ways to make money with Photography when you’re in a pinch!

In this super helpful tutorial, photographer Joy Michelle tells you 8 easy ways you can use your photography to make money fast. 

How to make quick money with your photography: 8 ideas!

As a photographer in business you will most likely need some quick money at some point in your career (if you haven’t been there already!).

You might need to pick up some new gear, take a course to upskill, or pay an unexpected bill and need to make some money fast! 

These easy ideas will help you to make money fast when you need it.

Make money fast Tip #1: Sell Vouchers or Gift cards

Sell gift cards or vouchers for your services. Your clients, friends, and family can pre-purchase your services whether it’s a photoshoot, wedding package, prints, video, whatever.

This is super simple and you will get the money up front for services you’ll book later on.

Make money fast Tip #2: Sell photo albums or prints to past clients

Offer to clients you have already shot photos for the ability to have a photo album, photo book or different sized prints of their photos. This is an easy way to make money from photos you have already taken and with clients you already have. 

Clients who have worked with you before are statistically more likely to do business with you again. You can offer them discounts or limited time sales to give them the push to take up the offer now.

Make money fast Tip #3: Pre-sales for seasonal photoshoots

You can create an offer for pre-sales and pre-bookings for the season ahead. The deposit that people will put down is fast money you can use now! 

Maybe it’s summer and you can market your fall session openings for photoshoots like family portraits.

Another example could be in the early months of the year marketing for taking senior photos for those up and coming high school graduates and pre-booking those for a few months later.  

Any season there’s usually many reasons people will want photos, so market ahead of time and take those pre-bookings with a deposit now. 

Make money fast Tip #4: Help out another photographer’s shoots

You can offer to second shoot or associate shoot for another photographer, which means to just be another camera and take photos for another photographer’s booking. 

These are common gigs for weddings which are a ton of work and the photographer needs more shots and can’t be two places at once.

This is a great gig because you can usually leave the photoshoot, get paid and generally not have to do any editing afterwards. 

Try joining a Facebook group for photographers in your local community where you can hear about photographers looking to hire second shooters!

Make money fast Tip #5: Mini sessions

If you don’t usually do mini-sessions this is a great one to start marketing for quick cash!

A mini session is typically around a 20 minute photo session and has a quick turnaround on the photo delivery to the client. These are easy to book and usually easy to market with a theme.

For example, for family photography you can market mini sessions for holiday portraits. So many families love these for their holiday cards! And you can make quick money from these short sessions.

Other ideas are valentines minis if you’re a boudoir photographer, mini shoots for couples, pet photos, or kid mini sessions.

The options are endless, and you can book them back to back in one day and make that fast money.

Make money fast Tip #6: Host a workshop or demo in person

A fun idea you can organise easily is to host a workshop for your community. You can host beginner photographers in your community and show them how to pose models, how to use different camera settings, or how to start a business. 

If you charge for attending, that’s easy money you can make!

Or, you could teach photography demos in local schools or community groups to get them interested in photography and make some money from the workshop.

Reach out to schools or local groups to see if they’d be interested in hiring you for something like that.

Make money fast Tip #7: Run a limited time buy one get one sale on tangible goods

If you are into selling photo books, photo albums or prints of pictures, you can offer buy one get one free. This way, the customer can purchase a canvas print and get another one free, or buy an album and gift one to someone else.

This kind of sale incentivises customers to purchase, and to buy now instead of later. You’ll make the cash quick because customers will want to get in on the sale while you are running it.

You can also do this with sessions if you want to. Offer something like pay for 30 minutes and get the full hour session, but only offer this for a limited time.

People will be more likely to pre-book this while you’re running the sale and you get the money up front.

Make money fast with photography Tip #8: Add headshots and branding photos to your offering

This will open your clientele up to small businesses and professionals who may not have otherwise engaged your services. 

Offering nice headshots that are timeless and classy will get you more clients and money coming in.

Being able to offer small businesses sessions for branding, social media shots, and other content will get you a whole new audience of clients to work with.

You can make money fast in your photography business with these easy ideas!

Using these tips it will be easy to make some quick cash. Make sure you remember these when you find yourself needing some fast money!

Want to improve your photography skills? Check out this comprehensive guide!

Which of these ideas will you use to make money fast with photography THIS WEEK?

Comment below!