LET ME TAKE A #SELFIE (AND EARN ANOTHER $24)

Hello. My name is Jessica and I’m a #Selfieholic.

Not just selfies though. I use my iPhone to document my life. What I eat, where I go, who I’m with and I post them as a kind of journal to my instagram and tumblr.

About 4 months back I got a message on instagram from an advertiser. He wanted to use my tourist pictures from my trip to Paris in an online marketing campaign. And he would PAY me.

He explained that advertisers online are moving away from using professional photos because people are blind to them. Ever heard the term banner-blindness? Basically we’ve all become blind to pro looking banner ads so we never click them. In fact, banners are clicked less than 0.001% of the time they are seen.

He didn’t pay me much ($45 for exclusive rights) but what he did do was open up a world of opportunity to me.

I realized that there was a massive online economy willing to pay me for my iPhone picsand I wanted to get in on that.

First I had to understand the industry so I asked this advertiser for tips.

He directed me towards a website that would teach me the basics of what pictures sold best, where to sell them, the top 3 mistakes new photo sellers make, how to avoid getting undervalued and why a bad photo can be worth even more than a good photo.

Next, I started to up my photo taking game.

Now that I had the opportunity to be paid $6, $15, or even $25 for a single image I started taking pictures of everything.

My food, places I went, public transport, my new car, my friends, my makeup, my parties, my gym and my new clothes. I even took a picture of my Grandma that sold for $12 each time to 3 different advertisers.

Within a month I had 734 images online earning me money while I slept. It also gave me a great excuse to buy the iPhone 6 Plus. A business investment 

My next plan is to travel Europe for 6 weeks using the pictures I snap to fund my adventure.