You guys know I love pet photography.

But I also really love business. You may not know this about me, but being a pet photographer is not my first business endeavor. In fact, I’ve had a few business adventures - some more successful than others.

However, I did learn throughout the years the extreme importance of multiple streams of income in your business to create longevity and sustainability.

In fact, the average millionaire has seven income streams. SEVEN.

If you aren’t aware yet, depending on the style of photography you shoot, pet photography can be a seasonal job, which means planning for those peaks and valley seasons and not limiting your business income to making money only when you have clients coming through the door.

In the video below and throughout this post, I’m sharing a few ideas for other income streams you can implement in your business over time to help you weather difficult times and/or simply be prepared for growing and scaling your business further.

Let’s chat all about it.

PS. This post does contain affiliate links. If you click on any of these links and decide to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Please read my Affiliate Disclosure for more information.

Pssst… are you a new or budding pet photographer and you want to learn how to set up your business and get things going? Get a free copy of our Start Your Pet Photography Checklist today!

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AFFILIATE MARKETING

I’m going to go ahead and get affiliate marketing out of the way. We all know that affiliate marketing is selling someone else’s product and receiving a kickback for doing so. The most common you might be familiar with is Amazon Affiliate, which I also utilize in my own business. I am also an affiliate for FloDesk, TubeBuddy, and a few other companies at this time as well.

As my business grows, I do intend to incorporate more affiliate marketing opportunities into my business especially for products that I already use and love! I would only recommend that you share products you use and love.

It’s so easy to do when you already are telling people you know all about it, plus, you get that little chunk of change every month for something that doesn’t really take any more work.

To get started, I recommend looking at the products and services you might already use in your business and see if they offer an affiliate program.

You can also look and apply for some of the bigger affiliate marketplaces, such as ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, FlexOffers, and there is so many more, but those are a few you can check out today to get started.

You can also do a quick Google search for things like ‘pet photography affiliate programs’ or ‘pet affiliate programs.’ Again, I encourage you to only promote products you believe in, but those might inspire you to join as an affiliate for something you might already be using.

DIGITAL PRODUCTS

Second up are digital products and this is one of my favorites!

So, digital products are things like workbooks, guides, email templates, social media templates, all kinds of templates in fact, digital artwork, etc–anything that you can create and sell directly online. Currently, I have a paid product guide, A Beginner’s Guide To Dog Photography, that is a digital product I currently offer to people wanting to learn how to take better photos of their dogs.

Digital products are generally at a lower price point, say anywhere from 5-25 dollars or so (but can also be more!), but once they are done, they are complete and ready to sell. From there, digital products you create usually take very little management or time investment to update and can continue to make you money in your business.

I consider this one a passive income option and it’s great to have a few things you can sell from your website, Etsy, Podia, or other marketplaces to your clients or other photographers that will be helpful for them and beneficial for you in the long run.

DIGITAL EDUCATION

My third income stream idea which is similar to digital products is digital education! This could be the form of a short workshop, a comprehensive course, or even a membership site that people pay for monthly.

Now, these usually take a lot of time up front to create, develop, and market, but the price point is generally higher meaning when you sell it, the revenue is much higher than digital products. I strongly suggest anyone who wants to have multiple income streams to at some point develop education of some kind, because it’s an easy sell especially if you are established and people are asking you for help or guidance in a specific area. (And you can also teach this same education in person, too, so it’s a win-win with already having your curriculum developed)

Personally, right now, I have a one-hour virtual workshop called DIY Dogtography and it’s $34. It helps teach pet parents, shelter staff, foster parents, and the like learn how to take better photos of the animals in their care to help them get adopted or grow their Instagram influence. I sell it directly through my Squarespace E-Commerce Marketplace, but you can also sell courses and education on sites like Podia, Teachable, Udemy, Kajabi, etc.

It’s an easy sell for people who want to learn more and doesn’t take more than a few hours of my time to update it every year.

With all that being said, consider what problem you can solve for your community through an educational resource like a workshop or online course. What question do you receive often that you can help answer through digital education? This income stream will be so beneficial for you for years and years to come and you are helping serve your audience well, too.

MERCHANDISE

The next income stream idea for pet photographers is merchandise! If you are building a brand and you want to encourage brand recognition through apparel, home accessories, or other goods, then merchandise is a smart option for you!

I have an Etsy shop and have had one since the inception of my business with stickers, totes, magnets, mugs, tshirts, etc, with cute slogans and sayings I’ve created and designed.

It can be a bit of work upfront, but to be honest, it’s how I kept my business afloat in the first year. The extra money I made from that really helped me to be able to invest back into my business, but now, it supports a lot of my volunteer and rescue work. It’s also just a fun little side gig that coincides with the main part of my business.

If you want to get started with merchandise, check out Printful, Printify, RedBubble, Society6, and the like. Each one will have their own pros and cons, but I do recommend having your merchandise across multiple marketplaces to increase visibility and make more sales.

LICENSING YOUR IMAGES

So, I haven’t forayed too far into this one yet, but I do know it’s a good option for photographers who want to diversify their income and create imagery that can be licensed either once or multiple times over.

I’ve seen where you can license your images on sites like Creative Market, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Stocksy, etc, but with high-volume licensing like that you might only see a small return on each image that you sell. In other words, you need to license a lot of images to make any kind of money from listing your images on sites like those.

But if you are creating imagery designed to be licensed and sold at high volume, then do it.

Conversely, the other option is that you can license your own images through people or companies who find you and want to use your images for their product or service. At that point, I believe licensing pricing is up to you and what you set costs are per image. In this case, you have tighter control on how your images are used, but you also get to set the price. Depending on your business model, your style of photography, and your business goals, this might be the better of the two options for you.

Once I dive more into this, I will be sure to create a video about more of my findings and information on licensing your images to sell.

PATREON/KOFI

Another option to diversify income is something like a Patreon or Kofi page. These are designed for content creators to crowd-fund their content. So, if you are a teacher like me, and you love to bring free content to people based on your expertise, you can set up a Patreon where they join and pay per month or even something like Ko-Fi, where they can buy you a virtual cup of coffee as a thank you!

I use Ko-fi because there are no creator fees outside of credit card processing whereas I know even though Patreon is more well known, they take a ton of fees from the creator. With using Pateron, you have to have a lot more patrons in order to make it worth your while.

Obviously, I know this option isn’t for everyone, but if you are a photographer that’s also a speaker, educator, or advocate with a helpful podcast, YouTube Channel, or TikTok where you share a lot of free content, it might be a good option for you.

SPEAKING/TEACHING

And my last income stream idea for pet photographers is speaking or teaching! Depending on where you are in your journey, you might get asked to speak about what you do or teach that workshop we talked about under creating digital education.

Again, if you’re like me and you enjoy speaking in front of people and teaching them your tricks, this is a great option to create another income stream especially if you are speaking at a large convention or something where the rate is substantial for your time. Plus, you get in front of a whole new audience to expand your reach, build credibility, and maybe even book a client or two!