The quote below was the inspiration for my latest book, How To Make Money While You are Sleeping: A photographer’s guide to passive income – and other savvy business strategies.
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” – Warren Buffett
In this post, I’ll be sharing the Introduction of the book. As you will see, if you put in the effort while you are awake, you can indeed make money while you sleep. The book is dedicated to the memory of my dad, Robert M. Sammon, Sr., who, through his example, showed me the importance of paying careful attention to one’s income, expenses, and investments.
My dad, an amateur photographer who got me started taking pictures, also gave me some invaluable advice when it comes to making money: “It takes a lot of peanuts to feed an elephant.” In other words, he was saying that all those pennies and dollars can add up, which is the theme of this book.
So, my friend, read on before you take a nap!
• • •
“Dad, you’re not only a photographer, but you are also an entrepreneur who happens to be a photographer.” That’s what my son Marco, seventeen years old at the time, said after I introduced myself as a photographer at a neighborhood party.
Marco, who has since received his PhD in Finance and who is currently an associate finance professor at Harvard Business School, was making a good point. Although I take pictures for living, I spend a lot of time — the majority of my time actually — on the business side of my profession. I’m always working hard on new projects, writing books, setting up affiliate programs, cultivating sponsorships, recording online classes and podcasts, and so on.
Marco also observed that I spend a lot of time promoting projects on social media and tracking the results. We’ll talk more about tracking sales later in this book. If you self-publish a paperback or Kindle version on Amazon, you can actually track sales on an hourly basis — which I don’t encourage because it can become addictive. However, I have to admit that I do track sales quite frequently when I release a new book.
So, the message here is this: as much as you love photography (as I do), and as much as you want to save the world (its people, wildlife, environment, and so on) with your craft, it’s important to understand that in order to succeed you must also be a good businessperson — which involves generating income while you are both awake and asleep.
If you know me from some of my other photography books, photo workshops, tours, seminars and online classes, you may be thinking, “I like Rick’s photography and I’ve learned some cool things from him, but what could he possible know about sound business practices?” Well, believe it or not, before becoming a professional photographer I spent ten years (1980–1990) at Bozell & Jacobs as Vice President/Group Supervisor on the Minolta camera account. At that time, Bozell & Jacobs was one of the largest advertising and public relations firms in the world. At that agency, I learned about the business side of photography, as well as how to promote Minolta photographers including famed Beatles’ photographer, Harry Benson.
When I left the agency, I had the ability to promote myself through advertising and public relations. I had also learned the business side of a professional photographer’s life from working with other famous photographers like fashion photographer, Robert Farber, and United Nations photographer, John Isaac.
The lessons I learned at the agency were invaluable, as were the business lessons I learned as editor of Studio Photography magazine (from 1978 to 1980). Having been hired with no editorial experience, my boss and the publisher of the magazine, Rudy Maschke, said this to me when I asked him for my first raise: “Sammon, you are learning so much that you should be paying me.”
On these pages, I will share all I know about the business side of photography with you. This, of course, includes making money while you are sleeping.
These lessons have helped my wife Susan, and I run our business for more than thirty years — and I can tell you, there is nothing like running your own business. As a small business owner, you learn very quickly that you are both the “chief cook and bottle washer,” as my dad used to say.
When thinking of generating income while you are sleeping, please don’t get me wrong. I still work my butt off during my waking hours because I love what I do. As the saying goes: “If you love what you do, you never need to work a day in your life.”
Generating income while you are sleeping starts with your waking time, something we’ll cover in Chapter 1. Before You Doze Off.
If you are new to generating passive income, the cool thing is that after you put in the work, you can doze off (take a nap during the day or go off to bed) and wake up a little richer than you were before you closed your eyes.
The key phrase here is “little.” Before I explain, here’s another expression my dad shared with me: “Everything is relative.” In other words, “little” means something different to different people. For example, “little” passive income each day from different sources (including books, online classes, and crowdfunding projects) could possibly add up to a very nice source of income. In fact, I know several well-known photographers whose major source of income is generated passively.
In subsequent chapters, you’ll see how you can generate a “little” income while you sleep with different money-making projects that you can create during your waking hours.
Acknowledgments & Networking
Author’s Preface
Introduction
Intermission
You might be asking, “How much is ‘a little?’” As I usually say when someone asks me these questions, the answer is: it depends. It depends on the project or product, the selling price, how well your item sells, how well you promote it, your name, and the size of your audience.
As for the size of your audience, you need to do everything in your power to build and cultivate it. It’s the key to success.
We will talk more about building your audience and followers later in this book, but for now, that includes being very active on social media, building your mailing list, and treating everyone who comes into your “store” (or website) with respect.
Let’s take a quick look at two of the aforementioned money-making projects. Keep in mind that this book was written in 2021 and things may have changed by the time you read this text.
I feel compelled to reiterate that this is only a quick look to illustrate that there is passive income to be made on the internet. We’ll go into more detail later in this book.
One way to make passive income is through an affiliate program. Basically, an affiliate or associate program is a system that lets you keep a very small percentage of a sale by posting a custom-for-you, company-generated link to a product. The more links you post — on social media, on your website, in newsletters, and so on — the more peanuts you make.
Sounds simple? It is, but there is more to it. I’ll tell you all the nuts and bolts in Chapter 4: The Advantage of Affiliate Programs.
For now, know that Adorama has one of the best affiliate programs out there. In addition, Printique, Adorama’s online photo print lab, also offers an affiliate program.
You can also publish paperback and kindle books on Amazon. First, let’s talk about paperback books. KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) offers a fixed 60-percent royalty rate on paperbacks sold via Amazon’s various marketplaces.
When it comes to Kindle books, authors who self-publish on Amazon through KDP earn a 70-percent royalty on books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and a 35-percent royalty on books that cost more or less than that.
If you offer a book on Amazon for $10, you’ll receive $7 for each copy sold. Sell a few thousand copies — which is typical for a photo book by a well-known photographer — and that’s a lot of peanuts.
As an author who has published four books (including this one), as well as dozens of paper books with traditional book publishers, I can tell you that Amazon offers a much higher royalty (70 percent compared to about 5 to 8 percent for traditional publishing). Although, Amazon does not offer advances, while a number of photo book publishers still do.
In addition, Amazon does not do foreign language translations which — when done by traditional publishers — can generate added income. If you want to do a translated edition and post it on Amazon in different countries, a professional translation can cost upward of $2,000. On top of that, you need to start from scratch when it comes to the actual production of the book. If you can’t do it yourself, this can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $4,000.
• • •
A wonderful photographer, Fernando Santos, once told me a story that stuck with me:
“I have a friend who, when someone told him how busy they were, the friend said, ‘You’re so busy working that you don’t even have time to make money.’”
In other words, it’s important to pay attention to your finances, especially your passive income.
Find out more ways to make a passive income as a photographer by purchasing my book, How To Make Money While You are Sleeping: A photographer’s guide to passive income – and other savvy business strategies.
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