Photographers, the wedding industry and ALL small business creatives have been hit HARD by the pandemic of 2020 and unfortunately not all businesses are thriving. Many doors are closing forever, families are struggling and it’s hard to even see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I am beyond grateful for the seeds I planted over a decade ago to help me break even and to have my business survive this pandemic. During quarantine the government forced me to stay inside, weddings were postponed, photo shoots were canceled and rescheduled. My entire world was spun upside down. Over the last 5 years my revenue has doubled each year, yet with this pandemic my income is only a fraction of last years profits. It’s really scary. I had to scramble to tap into more streams of income and offer new products that didn’t require me to leave the house!

Today I’m sharing my secrets, the kind of tools and ideas I hope you can add to your workflow today to increase your income and have these tricks up your sleeve for future unprecedented times.

5 Ways for Photographers To Make Money During A Pandemic

Offer Albums

Are you promoting and selling wedding or portrait albums? If not, you could be leaving thousands of dollars on the table! Thanks to Align Albums I can easily offer a streamlined and painless ordering system that allows my clients to purchase completely custom and beautiful legacy albums. This hands off experience gets albums in my client’s hands FASTER and has added thousands of dollars to my income for work that I’ve already done! I suggest adding albums to your packages, promoting more about them and sharing the value of these heirloom gifts. Clients won’t value them if you don’t share about them!

KEY TIP: Reach out to past clients and offer a discounted rate or flash sale to boost albums. Make it an annual event or just an opportunity to bring in some much needed cash during these hard times. Trust me, your clients would LOVE them, they just need to know more about them!

Print Shop

Are you just a shoot and share photographer like me? Yes, I charge a premium price to release copy rights, but just sharing the gallery and ending my services is actually a huge disservice to my couples. We are SO close to our business, printing and framing photos are a breeze for us. We know what to order, how to order and which photos to pair together… typically our clients need help with this! I encourage you to offer prints from past weddings and photo shoots and to also offer a print shop of your travels, landscapes and adventures. I offer direct prints and digital downloads directly through Pixieset. So I’m not printing and shipping, Pixieset does that for me! As long as you’re sharing about it and promoting your print shop it can be completely passive income.

Digital Products

This season I started moving my business in a new direction and putting my efforts into getting paid for what I know instead of what I do. Using Shopify I built a tiny shop to offer digital products (templates, downloads and resources) for creatives and photographers. Selling these digital products has only increased my income a little bit, nothing crazy! But having this extra stream of income is helping for sure! For the longest time I’ve prayed for people to pay me to use my camera and when that was taken away from me I had to think outside the box!

KEY TIP: Businesses only run on profits. If you are unable to schedule normal shoots and rely on income from the past, How can you shift to offer products year round?

Coaching + Mentoring

You’ve got skills babe! How can you offer them to other creatives and small business owners? Do you have a tried and true system that works for you? What experiences and lessons have you learned in the past that others would LOVE to learn upfront before they go full time? Just remember that we all have something to teach and to share. Put a price on that and charge tax!

I offer have a whole page dedicated to creatives and small business owners and truly believe we each have a calling. Chase those dreams and run towards those goals! You can find more info about that over, here!

Affiliate Links

This is still new to my business and I can honestly say I’ve only made about $72 this month through Amazon Associates, but hey that’s literally a grocery store trip for the week! All I do is link up products that I love and use often to the blogs that I’m already sharing. So really, I’m doing the work anyway, mind as well offer convenient links and tips for couples, families and creatives! Here’s a link to my Amazon shop to learn more about my lists and to help inspire you to make your own!

KEY TIP: You do need to be accepted to be an Amazon Associate, but it’s totally worth the application process to start earning your pennies! They really add up! Many companies and websites offer affiliate links to share as well to help promote their sales. Jump on it if you’re already sharing about them anyway. Here’s a link for my resources, to show you what I’m talking about!

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It’s tough making changes, stepping outside of your box and staying creative! I encourage you to stay active, get outside and keep your heart open to all of the opportunities coming your way! It’s impossible to think of profitable ideas when you’re feeling stressed. Take a break. Rest. Explore. Then come back and offer something new!!! You got this!

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Quianna Marie Shop | Customizable Wedding Shot List