This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey there, what's up? Welcome back. This is Side Hustle School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. And since I started the show 25 days ago, I've heard from a number of artists.
And they've asked if I'll be featuring more stories of other artists that have created hustles with their art or otherwise found ways to make money doing something they love. Well, the short version of that answer is yes. In fact, if you go back to episode 15, you'll hear the story of Julia Kelly, the caricature artist who ended up making $250 an hour and more than $100,000 a year by pioneering a new medium. Well, today's story is about an independent photographer who explored several different options for selling her art and ended up creating a hustle that now brings in at least a third of her total income. And there's several other artist features coming up as well. So be sure you're subscribed in
iTunes or at sidehustleschool.com. And I'll tell you that photographic success story in just a moment. Ana Ramirez from San Diego had worked in marketing for most of her career. One day, without much warning, the company she was working for restructured and she was downsized. Looking back, she actually calls that a blessing in disguise, mostly because around that same time, her mother became terminally ill and Ana was able to spend most of her mom's remaining time by her side. During that time, they had a lot of extended conversations
about all kinds of things. And in one of those conversations, her mother made a suggestion, why don't you try selling your art? Ana's mom had sold items on Etsy a few years earlier. And when she wasn't working the day job in marketing, Ana was a talented photographer. She'd seen stock photo sites, where businesses went to purchase images for commercial projects.
Most of those bigger sites worked with lots of independent photographers who uploaded batches of images for approval and listing. She also found websites that would allow her images to be printed and shipped to customers, with the revenue being split in some fashion between the artist and the company that provides the platform. For Ana, she decided to experiment with both ideas. And I'll talk about stock photo sites in a separate episode. Because for her, the platforms that let her sell her art that would hang in real people's homes was a much better fit than those stock photo sites. She loved that her art was featured
in homes all over the country and increasingly around the world. In fact, one day she got an email from someone who claimed to work for Pottery Barn. They wanted to stock and feature her images. And at first she thought it was a joke or some kind of scam, but it was real. And Pottery Barn licensed several of her prints and began selling them in stores and online. Now between these various projects, Ana's hustle now brings in about a third
of her total income. She's back to working in marketing to pay the rest of her bills. But her long term goal is to flip that equation so that the hustle brings in at least two thirds of what she needs to live on. So there are several benefits to the way Ana sells her work. First, she doesn't spend on inventory because all of the sales, all the prints are printed after they're ordered. This means she doesn't have to predict what will sell.
And that's a great thing because it keeps her focused on creating good work rather than work that may or may not sell. Second, her work can sell at any time of day and to anywhere in the world. And she doesn't have to worry about shipping, returns, communication or anything else at all regarding fulfillment. Related to that, anyone who's interested in buying her photos can do so as soon as they want and not have to wait to hear back from Ana. And they have lots of purchasing choices. Fourth, Ana can choose how she spends her
time, which is no small benefit. She can stay home with her dog as much as she wants. She can work from anywhere. She can focus on the hustle for a while and then take a break. So it's a really great situation. But to be fair, there are also a few downsides to this
model. I always want to make sure you understand when you're starting a hustle, there's probably some benefits and there's probably some obstacles or some challenges as well. So in Ana's case, one of the main downsides is in selling through a third party, it means she doesn't get any information on how buyers found her. And related to that, she can't collect email addresses or otherwise keep in touch with buyers, which is of course a major downside. Most artists in the long term are going to be more successful if they're kind of building a base of collectors and patrons, people who are going to support them over time. And that's hard to do when
you don't actually have access to those people's contact information. Also, these third party sites are ruled by algorithms, which affect how often her work is seen. So she has to be the one to bring traffic to it. And if she doesn't, she may be successful, but she may not be because it's entirely out of her control. If the site changes the algorithm, it could very well end all of the sales that that site or platform brings on its own. So
those are a few downsides to be aware of, but overall, it's a successful and sustainable hustle that allows Ana to make art and to make money from making art. And by diversifying to a few different platforms, she has the potential to increase her income and also protect herself from changes on those platforms. As I said, if the algorithm changes, she might not be able to sell as much on any particular platform. So that's why she's diversified and listed on several different sites. And lastly, I just want to reinforce something that Ana said. For her, this work isn't just about money. It's also about freedom. It's
also about artistic benefit, being able to make something to create something that she loves and not just to create it, which is great on its own, but she also gets paid for it and appreciated for it. Her photography is hanging in people's living rooms all over the country. And obviously, that's something that's very important to artists, or at least a lot of artists. There's more than one way to make art. But if you can be both paid and appreciated for it, wouldn't that be the best of both worlds? So that's what she's been
able to create for herself with this hustle. And if you're an artist, it may not happen exactly like that for you. Your story is unique. But if you listen to these stories, begin applying them to your own hustle, you will see results over time. Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. Now, every day on sidehustleschool.com,
there's an original post with show notes about the lesson. If you go there today, you can see links to some of the platforms that I talked about. Today is episode 25. So you just go to sidehustleschool.com/25. You can find it all right there. It's all free. I'm
Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode.
