Photo by Ray Potes

Ok full disclosure. Hamburger Eyes doesn’t earn enough to pay for itself. Sometimes it does, sometimes not. I know some people think we are living the rock star life over here. Not true. So, we have to experiment and try to add more income with commissions, exhibitions, prints, zines, books, tshirts, beach towels, etc. Also phone calls, emails, social media, and… website. I was thinking if I start writing articles, maybe it will draw more attention to what we are doing with photography and maybe that will lead to a few more books sold per month.

Today I was looking up some things about SEO and then I started coming across articles about how bloggers make money. I didn’t really know. How DO they do it? I thought I was going to find some exotic ideas and formulas I never heard of. But if you are in business for yourself, you could have guessed most of these. Here’s a list of some stuff I found.

1. Advertising.

Sell off different sections of your site in hopes of someone clicking on something. If they do, you get some money. I don’t think this is the route for Hamburger Eyes site. I have tried Google ads before and they look like shit.

2. Affliate Marketing.

This one I may try. I actually applied for it before with Amazon and I didn’t qualify. Basically you post links on your posts or pages to products and if people buy those products, you get a commission. No doubt you have seen a camera review site and at the end of the article they post a link to the camera listed on Amazon or B+H, when you hit that link and purchase, the blogger will get like $8.

This one would work here I think because we could post links to stuff you are already buying like film or batteries or make gear lists of what our favorite photographers are shooting with, etc etc. If I qualify this time around, I will experiment with this. Heads up.

3. Subscriptions. Donations.

Charge people monthly for secret content. Not sure about this. Or ask them to donate. We have Paypal. But not sure if either of these I am feeling. There’s is that Patreon service that is a combo of both of these, but still not sure if that is the right fit. I was thinking when we get on a regular production schedule with the zine, then we can start offering subscriptions again. It is hard to do manually since people move a lot and its a lot of staying organized because of people paying on different dates etc., but a system like Patreon could help facilitate that.

4. Products and Services.

We already do the products. We have all kinds of products in our online shop and we’ll be doing this one forever. I like my photos in print and I like to wear tshirts and hats.

We already do some services. Freelance photo, some workshops here and there. I think a lot of bloggers make their money here. Teaching webinars, live events, meetups, conferences, coaching, training, consulting, speaking.

Anyways, I have been writing articles for maybe 1 week and already it feels like I have crossed over from a “updating the website guy” to “blogger” and I like it. So get ready for more bloggings.

The other day my gf’s friend came over and he was like, “What do you do?” and as usual I got all weird. Because usually if I say “photographer” they will ask what kind of photography and I will have to explain that I just shoot what’s around me, so basically documenting my life. And after a whole conversation they would just be like, “Huh”.

And then if I say “publisher”, it will usually go through at least 2 rounds of “Wait, what is it called?” Not sure why it’s awkward. I have answered these questions 500 times. I usually say both photographer and publisher, but never sure which to say first because each will have another series of questions. I think it will be much easier now just saying, “Blogger.” And then they will go, “How do you make money?” and then I will send them a link to this article.

One response to “How Blogs Make Money”

  1. stoopkid Avatar

    good stuff Ray keep it up.