There are so many ways to make money online these days, but one of the most rewarding is to use your passion as a business. For instance, a photographer that had been doing it as a hobby for years can now turn that passion into a thriving business by becoming an influencer using social media.
You can make money any number of ways, including offering lessons online to selling your prints. If you are on Youtube then you could even be making quite a bit of money through Adsense. As long as your photos look professional then you are only limited by your imagination as to how to make money.
There are a few things to take into consideration when you are an influencer and that includes if you live in Canada. In this article, I will go over several of the things to keep in mind about what it is really like.
1 – Be ready to travel
One of the ways that many photographers make money these days is to do custom photoshoots. Wedding photography is lucrative and a very good way to build a photography business, for example.
When you work online, you are going to be attracting potential clients from all over the country. If you really want to grow and make this a full time income then you have to be willing to travel when your fans want to hire you to come to them.
And, you may be in an area for quite some time. For instance, you could always try to book multiple clients from a certain area in a block so you don’t have to go back and forth. When you do this, you can rent out a short term apartment so you don’t have to spend so much on a hotel. For instance, here are some apartments for rent Scarborough that are available for short term lets.
2 – Taxes need to be paid
It may seem like there is some grey area when it comes to paying taxes when you’re an influencer, but it is pretty straightforward. The complication comes from the fact that you are getting payments from multiple sources and in multiple forms.
You could be receiving products to review on your social media or Youtube channel and the value of it would still need to be taxed. When you are a photographer, this can be quite expensive as the gear is not usually cheap.
Sponsorships, advertising income and any commissions from affiliate programs will all have to be reported.
3 – Seek out Canadian brands
Getting sponsored by brands is one of the easiest ways to make money as an influencer. Your audience trusts you more than they would some celebrity that they have no connection with so brands are always on the lookout for influencers in their niche.
You may have to come up with an outreach strategy to find them yourself rather than have them come to you. Pick some Canadian brands you would want to work with as they are most likely to want to work with somebody with a Canadian audience.
