There are actually many ways to make money with your mobile phone but today I will cover just one way that anyone, pretty much anywhere in the world, can make money on a GLOBAL market!
I saw a question posted in a Facebook Forum that said “I live in South Africa, how can I make money with only my mobile phone?” and I reached out to the person to give him a helping hand – not ONLY because I was born and raised in South Africa and therefore understood the challenges this person probably faced, but also because this is an area I have actual hands on experience in.
Most of the people that were responding to the question clearly did NOT have any experience of trying the suggested approaches themselves – here is my number one tip when looking for advice:-
NEVER take advice from anyone that hasn’t done the thing that they are giving you advice on for themself!!
The person that made the post had said “I live in a beautiful area of South Africa outside of Cape Town and I love to take photos that show the beauty of nature – please help me”
Most of the responses said “sell your photos to Stock Photo sites like Shutterstock“.
Stock photo sites are places where photographers upload their photos and magazines, companies and individuals pay a fee to use them. Many years ago, this might have made sense as a way to make money with your mobile phone but these days you only get paid a few cents / pennies per photo!!! Even the people that upload thousands of photos barely make a living off sotck photo sites – so I REALLY DO NOT recommend this.
BUT – there is a MUCH easier way to make money with your mobile phone and sell items to people ALL OVER THE WORLD without you ever having to “make” anything other than your photo and this is by something called “Print On Demand” or POD for short.
There are many POD platforms and providers that supply different services and have slightly different models but I will explain them using Redbubble as an example.
How it works:-
- You create an account on Redbubble and provide your bank account details (for some countries, PayPal or Payoneer are accepted where there might be a problem for you to receive money into your bank account from overseas)
- You fill out your “artist profile” with some interesting detail about where you live and what kind of “art” you make
- You set your pricing for products – you earn a “royalty” every time someone buys a product with your photo or art on it
- Then you upload a photo and choose what products you want to make it available on like posters, framed art prints, coffee mugs, puzzles and lots of different clothing items like t-shirts, hoodies and even dresses (if your photo looks good printed on clothing)
- Once you are happy with your choices, you “publish” your work
- MILLIONS of people visit the Redbubble market place every month to buy products from hundreds of thousands of people from ALL over the world
- When the customer buys “your” product – YOU don’t have to do ANYTHING at all – Redbubble will handle everything – they take the payment from the customer and they print your photo onto the product and they send it out to the customer
- Each month – YOU get paid out your royalty – which could be anywhere between $5 (USA dollars) on a coffee mug to $50 for a large framed art print!!!
The above photo of a lavender field in Franschoek, South Africa, was taken and edited on a phone and then published as a puzzle on Redbubble – available to buy from anywhere in the world!
The SAME photo is also available as a framed art print – click on the photo to see it on Redbubble.
When I explained this all to the person that had posted the question on Facebook, they were soooooo happy!!! They did not know that as someone living in South Africa, they were able to sell their photos as products to people all over the world and make money with their mobile phone in this way!!
Obviously the more time you spend on taking GOOD photos that people will enjoy to “hang on their wall”, the more successful you will be – there are plenty of YouTube videos out there that can help you be a better photographer. Also think about posters you have seen – they often have some words or a quote on them – think about how you can make your photos stand out!!
It doesn’t matter where you live – there are always things around that will make interesting photos – street scenes in a city, landscapes, beaches, sunsets, sunrises, nature and animals are always popular.
BUT – it’s not just photos either – many people buy t-shirts and hoodies with simple text slogans and saying on them – all of these can be made just using your mobile phone and uploaded to these POD platforms where you have the opportunity to make FAR more money than selling your work for a few cents or pennies!
Thanks to the power of the Internet, YOU too can start to make money with your mobile phone TODAY – what are you waiting for???
If you want to get started right now, this YouTube video here will help you get going – by the end of the video, your shop will be up and running:-
