Although photographers spend hundreds of hours learning the art of photography, the one aspect that’s often left out in school is how to actually make money. Here we’ll explore 15 creative ways to get your foot in the door as a paid digital photographer.

Method #1 - Stock Photography: Websites Getting your photos on stock photography sites is quite easy. Once you go through the process once, it’ll quickly become a breeze. Just choose your best photos and submit them. If they’re accepted, you’ll make $1 to $2 dollars every time someone uses your photo!

Method #2 - Screensavers: Screensavers are a big business online. You can make a whole lot of money online by taking a group of photos and making them into screensavers. You can sell them on screensaver websites or eBay.

Method #3 - Help eBay Sellers: eBay sellers often have very poorly taken photos of their items. For higher end eBay sellers, this could be losing them thousands of dollars every month! You can offer your services to these sellers, offering to take photos of their items for them for a fee.

Method #4 - Wedding Photographer: One of the more popular ways to work as a photographer. The key to getting wedding photography business is to have a very credible website and profile.

Method #5 - Restaurant Photographer: Restaurants often need photos of their restaurant or their dishes for their menu’s and websites. You can work directly with restaurants or make yourself available to designers who work with restaurants.

Method #6 - Real Estate Listings: Real estate agents need listing photographs of new homes they’re listing. Get yourself a few real estate agents you work with regularly and you could quickly be booked with work.

Method #7 - Insurance Photographer: People are usually required to photograph belongings they’re insuring. Often times they don’t want to bother learning how themselves. By positioning yourself as an insurance photographer, you can do it for them.

Method #8 - Online Dating Photographer: Men and women both need good photos for their online dating profiles. By positioning yourself as an online dating photographer, you can help people find their matches while making some extra money for yourself.

Method #9 - Working with Cafe’s: Cafe’s would often love to have your art on their wall for free. In exchange, you can post your photos with a price tag on their walls until you get a buyer for your art.

Method #10 - Sporting Events: Smaller sporting events such as high school games or little league games often want to have their photos taken. It’s a great way for a beginning photographer to get their foot in the door.

Method #11 - Church Directories: Churches often want to have photos of their members along with contact information in a booklet called a church directory. You can position yourself as the go to photographer for that.

Method #12 - Make T Shirts: A great way to make money doing photography is to take great photos and put them on T shirts. You can sell these shirts on eBay, on your own website or sell the designs to other T shirt websites.

Method #13 - Craigslist: Craigslist is a great place to find paying gigs. Hundreds of photographers are using Craigslist to connect with clients. It’s the most trafficked classified website on the internet.

Method #14 - Portrait Photographer: The portrait business is a big business. You can work with a studio or set up your own practice for doing portraits.

Method #15 - Photo Blogging: You can build a small but loyal following simply by posting your photos online on a regular basis. Art lovers who love your style will often subscribe to your blog and keep coming back again and again.

You now have 15 great ideas to get you started as a professional photographer. Just one of these ideas can keep you busy for months. Pick the one that resonates with you and run with it!