Here’s my somewhat mid-year progress report to show how I’m doing in my photography side hustle.
TL;DR> Doing pretty well!
The numbers are as of July 31, 2017.
Goal Review
I have five goals for my photography side hustle in 2017:
- Gross income of $1,200
- Stock photography income of $50/month by end of year
- Net income of $700
- Write and publish two eBooks
- Get paid for one magazine article or photo
Here we go.
Gross Income
The gross income I’ve received is $1058.48. If you look at that as 7/12 of what I need to reach my $1,200 goal, I’m definitely well above target!
I had several streams of income in the first seven months of 2017, including stock photography, the Manitoba Marathon, several image sales and ad sales through Google AdSense.
- Stock photography sales were strong, with two payments from Shutterstock, my first from Adobe and my first from iStock / Getty. In total it was almost $400.
- I was asked to help photograph the Manitoba Marathon and that netted a decent income for 7 hours of work. I enjoy the experience and one of the best parts is that you don’t have to do any processing at all – just hand in the SD card and you’re done!
- I sold several images, both privately and through RedBubble.
- I cleared the $100 threshold twice for Google AdSense. I may or may not receive one more payment before the end of 2017.
Score: ON TRACK
Stock Photography Income
As I mentioned, I received payments from Shutterstock, Adobe and iStock. I’m averaging about $35/month in microstock royalties, so I am getting closer to that $50/month target.
Beyond the “big three” of Shutterstock, Adobe and iStock, I have had some sales on Bigstock and 123rf with Dreamstime and Canstock going very quiet.
I submitted a lot of images in July (expanding my library by about 15%) and I’ll be taking and submitting a lot of travel images in August to expand my portfolio further.
I purchased and read Alexandre Rotenberg’s excellent Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography eBook (affiliate link) and plan to apply its lessons going forward. I will write a review of it shortly but I recommend it highly.
Score: GETTING BETTER
Net Income
My net income is very strong this year, and is already over my goal of $700 for the year. I’ve kept my expenses low by signing up for my web site hosting for 2 years last year, and so my only real expenses are the monthly Adobe Creative Cloud payments, domain name renewals and the eBook I mentioned above.
Score: ON TRACK
Write and Publish Two eBooks
I haven’t done anything on this yet. I need to get on it!
Score: FAILING
Get Paid for One Magazine Photo or Article
I have to submit those before I get paid! So… another thing for the “to do” list.
Score: FAILING
Summary
I am having mixed success this year to date. Income and expenses are good but I want to diversify my income streams more with more eBooks and get into magazines. The work never ends!
Steps For The Rest of The Year
- Start writing eBooks
- Investigate which magazine(s) to submit to, and make inquiries as to what they are looking for