If you love traveling, you probably also enjoy taking photos that capture the spirit of the places you visit. Photos are the best way to remember your adventures, but they can also be a source of income. 

Monetizing your travel photos could provide you with extra money to travel more or even support a nomadic lifestyle. This article covers ten realistic and practical options for generating income with your photos. 

Ways to Make Money With Your Travel Photos

1. Stock Photos

One of the most common ways to make money from photography is to submit your work to stock photo websites. You’ll earn a small commission every time a customer licenses one of your photos. 

Now, it’s important to set realistic expectations. Stock photo marketplaces are crowded these days. It’s certainly possible to succeed, but you can’t expect to upload a few photos and watch the money start flooding in. 

The keys to success include:

• Consistency: Upload new photos frequently and constantly work to grow your portfolio of high-quality images. Volume is important.
• Uniqueness: You’ll have lots of competition for photos of popular destinations, and much less competition for lesser-known or unique destinations. Try to photograph places that aren’t as well represented on stock marketplaces. And when you’re photographing popular places, find unique perspectives or ways to make your photos stand out.
• Keywords: Spend time adding all the relevant keywords to your photos, which makes them easier to find and increases visibility.  
• Patience: Since you’ll need a large portfolio, you’ll need patience to dedicate the necessary time. 

While you’re unlikely to get rich with stock photography, it’s a flexible way to earn extra cash from the photos you already take. Some of the options mentioned later in this list involve more work to make sales and grow a business. Stock photography is a good option if simplicity is more important to you than a high income potential.

Many stock marketplaces exist, and contributing to several is usually the best way to maximize your income. Vecteezy stands out for the unique opportunity to earn money by offering photos for free download. You can earn $5 for every 1,000 free downloads. 

2. Start Your Own Photography Website

If you’re interested in stock photography but you’d rather build something of your own, this option may appeal to you. Viktor Hanacek started picjumbo in 2013 after several leading stock marketplaces rejected his photos. Today, picjumbo is a photo marketplace where almost all of the photos come from Viktok himself.

Most of the photos are available for free, and the site is monetized by offering additional premium images and bundled downloads of the free photos for a small fee. Of course, growing picjumbo into a viable business has been a lot more work for Viktor than simply contributing to a stock photo marketplace, but he’s no doubt made more money along the way. Just as significantly, picjumbo is now a valuable asset he can sell at some point if he chooses. 

Likewise, you could use your travel photos to start a site of your own, rather than contributing to leading stock marketplaces.

3. Start a Travel Photography Blog

If you enjoy writing or journaling, a travel blog may be an excellent option. Of course, you can use your photos on the site along with the written content. In this case, you wouldn’t make money by selling or licensing the photos, but you could monetize the blog with ads, affiliate programs, sponsorships, or by creating and selling your own products. 

Growing a blog audience isn’t easy, but it’s certainly possible if you have patience and are willing to put in some work before you see the payoff. Travel content draws a lot of interest on social media platforms, and high-quality photos and videos will help.

4. Start a YouTube Channel

Do you enjoy creating video content? If so, a YouTube channel may be the right choice for you. The demand for video content keeps increasing, and as popular as YouTube is, it’s still much less crowded than blogging. 

Your channel could showcase your travel adventures or focus specifically on photography. Either way, you can incorporate your photos and videos to create content that stands out.

5. Write Ebooks or Travel Guides

While blogging can be an excellent way to combine your interests in writing and photography, it requires consistency. Blogging isn’t a great option if you want to write whenever you feel like it. Growing a blog is even more challenging if there are long breaks between new content. 

Writing ebooks or travel guides could be a more flexible way to make money from writing and photography. Your products can target travelers who want help planning their own trips, or you can write guides for photographers and help them uncover the best photo opportunities in specific locations. For example, you could write a photo guide to a national park and cover the best views and photo opportunities, information about seasons, tips on where to stay, and other details that help photographers plan a trip.

You can sell your ebooks or travel guides from your own website or on platforms like Amazon. This could be a way to monetize a travel blog or YouTube channel, but you don’t need a blog or YouTube channel.

6. Print-on-Demand

The possibilities for selling print-on-demand products that feature your photos are virtually endless. You can sell photo prints, posters, calendars, mousepads, magnets, stickers, mugs, coasters, blankets, and much more.

The easiest way to sell print-on-demand products is to use a popular platform like Redbubble, but you could use a provider like Printify and sell on Etsy or even start your own e-commerce website. Creating your own site would be the most work, but would also provide the highest income potential.

7. Travel Photo Books

Creating and selling your own travel photo book is more realistic than you might think, thanks to resources like Blurb and Amazon KDP. Your photo books could be themed around topics like castles of France, the Canadian Rockies, U.S. national parks, etc.

KDP is an appealing option because Amazon also provides a built-in audience. Of course, you can promote your books through social media, YouTube, a blog, an email list, etc.

8. Lightroom Presets

If you’re skilled with photo editing in Lightroom, creating and selling presets is an excellent way to make some extra money. In this situation, your travel photos won’t generate income directly, but you can use the photos to preview or demonstrate the effects. 

Although Lightroom is the most popular option, you can also create presets for Luminar, ON1, and other photo editing software. And if you have multiple preset packs, you can create bundles that increase your average order value, while also providing more value to your customers.

Creating presets could be your sole focus, or you can use this as a way to monetize a blog, YouTube channel, or social media profiles.

9. Lead Photo Tours or Workshops

Do you know a particular location really well? Could you lead first-time visitors to the best views or help them capture better photos? If so, leading photo tours and workshops could be an excellent option. Group tours and workshops are the most typical, but you can also offer custom 1-on-1 options as well. 

This is another opportunity that doesn’t involve directly making money from your travel photos. However, your photos will be the best advertisements for your tours and workshops. If you have a following on social media, YouTube, a blog, or an email list, this could be an ideal way to make extra money.

Of course, you’ll need to consider details like permits and legal waivers for participants. Permits may or may not be required, but you’ll need to look into those details for the locations you want to visit on your tours or workshops. Speak to an attorney who can help you by drafting waivers or other legal documents you’ll need.

10. Sell Customized Itineraries With Photo Tips

This option is similar to the previous point, but instead of leading a tour or workshop, you’ll provide a resource people can use without you being present. You can create and sell PDFs with itineraries and tips for photographing specific locations.

While these products would sell for significantly less than the price of a guided tour or workshop, it’s also much easier with fewer barriers to entry. You won’t have to worry about permits, waivers, accommodations, transportation, or other details. You also don’t have to be at the location like you would to lead a tour or workshop. You can create itineraries for self-guided tours and sell them for destinations all around the world.

Final Thoughts

If you enjoy travel photography, there are several ways to turn that passion into an income stream. The key is to find what fits best with your specific situation. All of these options require some time and effort up front, so you may need patience before you start generating income. But if you’re willing to put in the work, growing a part-time income is a very realistic goal.