How do you make money with photography? There are so many ways that you can use your skills as a photographer to make some cash. This post will explore the world of Affiliate Marketing and show you how you can earn passive income by promoting products that you use and enjoy.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is where a company or brand will pay an affiliate (you), a fixed or percentage commission for referring a customer to their products or services.
For example, let’s say that you use Lens Pens to clean your camera lenses and absolutely love them. You can sign up to their affiliate program and they will give you a special link. You then share this link in social media posts, on your blog, or in a YouTube video. Interested people will click on this link and be taken to the Lens Pen website to view the products. If they decide to purchase something, you will get a percentage of that sale for bringing them to the site.
The link doesn’t just work one time either. Every time someone clicks that link and makes a purchase you will get paid. You can see how this could become a great way to make money. In fact, I have used one-such-link in the text above!
How To Start Making Money With Affiliate Marketing
So where do you start? Well, the first thing is to know what affiliate programs are out there. Luckily for us photographers, there are heaps of photography affiliate programs online. I will tell you how to find them below.
Lens Pen Affiliate Program
So, I have mentioned Lens Pen’s affiliate program above and that can be found here. You can sign up from this page with your Name and email address and get started straight away.
Amazon Affiliates
One of the biggest affiliate programs on the planet is Amazon Affiliates. Whether you use Amazon or not, you must know they have an incredible amount of products – and in the photography niche, it’s no exception.
The best thing about Amazon’s affiliate program is that you get a commission on anything the customer buys as a result of clicking through on your link, not just the photography product you were advertising. They can buy toilet paper and you will get the commission?! And, you get paid for anything they purchase within 24 hours of clicking your link.
Photography Affiliate Programs Abound
There are a huge amount of affiliate programs that can make you money with photography. No matter what products you use, you may find that there is an affiliate program for that product.
The best thing to do is to go to the website of the company or brand you want to be an affiliate for. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and you will see a link to where you can sign up. The text may say “Become an affiliate” or “Partner Program” or some other similar thing.
If you don’t see a link to an affiliate program, email the company and ask if they have an affiliate program. Chances are they may just have one and will send you a link to where you can sign up straight away.
Only Promote What You Love
I strongly suggest only marketing products that you use and love. There are a number of reasons for this but the most important one is – it’s a little unethical to promote a product that you have no idea about. This could come back to haunt you if someone buys it and is not happy with it.
Other reasons to only market what you love are:
- You will do a better job of marketing products that you love because you’re excited about them. This will come across in your videos or your text and get potential buyers excited about the products too.
- People will know if you’re faking it. You may consider yourself to be an Academy Award winning actor/actress, but no matter how good you are – people will see right through you if you’re faking it. This will cause people to mistrust you and not click your links or purchase.
- If you do it this way, it doesn’t even feel like work?! You feel like you’re just marketing products to your friends at a casual get-together.
More Information About How To Make Money With Photography
If affiliate marketing doesn’t sound like your thing, I have written other posts about How To Sell Photos Online and Make Money and Photography Jobs. Both of these posts will give you more ideas about how to generate cash as a photographer.
If you have any questions about Affiliate Marketing, please comment below and I’ll try to respond as soon as I can. You can also contact me here at the website if you like.
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