Thanks for stopping in. This isn't one of your fancy Ebook programs, but I will give you more information than most of those give you! Click on the image below for some examples of my work!

A few years ago, I was following my husband across the country with his job, and I faced the fact that yet again I would be out of work! For some people this isn't a problem, but after a few days of watching old tv and shopping I get stir crazy. It occured to me that wherever we went on our travels I was always taking photographs and really enjoyed it! People always say do what you love, so this is how I got started.

We ended up in Las Vegas and would be there for about a year with my husbands' work. I looked and realized that I had 100's of photos I had already taken on disks, let alone the tons of pictures I could take while in Las Vegas and share with others. I started looking around on the internet and realized just how many opportunities there are for photographs to be used. I had already been doing photos for friends and family as well as some small weddings, so I picked some of my favorite photos and found a free photo album that I could easily figure out how to use on Yahoo Photos.

Once I had a gallery album up and running, it was SO EASY to send people links to peak their interest. I spent just a few minutes on Microsoft Word and made a basic form letter, using free stationery and one of my photos. I sent the form letter as a quick hello introducing myself to dozens of websites, just by clicking on the bottom of their sites where it says 'contact us'. Sometimes I wouldn't get a response back at all. Sometimes I would just get an automated response saying basically thanks but no thanks, but sometimes.......

Sometimes I would get a small peak of interest from someone outthere sitting at a desk reading emails all day! And, they would respond back to me and ask me a few questions. Then once I got a little interest from someone, I would basically say 'hey, why don't you peak at some examples of my work and tell me what you think'. You would be amazed at the response I got!

My photos aren't great works of art, by any means. Most of my photos are simple touristy 'snaps'. But, this snap work has made me a ton of money, way more than I made working full time at a retail job or in Human Resources which is what I did before. And, I set my own hours, take vacation when I want, work from my home office so I spend tons of time with my family. Sounds too easy, right? It is.

This is not a magic 'get rich' sceme! You do still have to work hard, but basically once you get set up in your head on how you are going to market your skills, etc. the email does most of the work for you.

So here I am, all I have is a little 5 mp digital camera and i'm in Las Vegas. I am free during the day while my husband is working, so I just start basically going out on drives and taking myself on coffee dates to the casinos in the area. I would visit a casino, play the slots for maybe 30 minutes, cash in my winnings which were usually like $5.00 and go buy myself a coffee. While I was there, I would meet the gift shop people and the folks that worked the giveaway desks, and tons of folks that lived in the area but were retired. All of these people had suggestions for me! Some were as easy as marketing my prints to the giftshops, others suggested contacting the travel companies in the area. I soaked up all of the suggestions like a sponge, and then starting making contacts.

I didn't buy ANY equipment prior to starting, and still haven't. I haven't purchased ANY business cards or ANY website stuffs. I basically have never paid any money out of my own pocket to be this successful. I have a home office set up, but I don't have any 'studio' stuff, I am just mobile all the time and have everything in my jeep and ready to go.

You need to figure out what your 'passion' is. Some people are better with Weddings, some with landscapes, some with websites, some with kids/family photos. There is enough work out there that you should never have to do any type you don't want to.

Here are some ideas that have worked for me:

Craigslist! It may sound silly, but I have gotten tons of jobs from postings I have found on Craigslist. Many companies need things in a hurry, either they have extras they need done and they don't have the time or money to hire a huge company, or sometimes companies need photographers all over the U.S and it doesn't pay to hire someone full time. I have even posted quick ads on Craigslist and had great response.

Travel Web sites

College post boards

Supermarket postings

Realtor.com Realtor.com is a great place to find work! What I have done in the past is go searching in my area for homes via zipcodes. Many homes will not have any photos posted. So, I contact the realtors via email with my basic introduction note and see if they need any help. I have had great response doing this simple thing. I have also found other photo companies needing help by looking on Realtor.com. The market isn't great right now, so sometimes people will look anywhere and everywhere for ideas on how to get their homes more 'traffic'.

You biggest assets will always be your friends and family. Everyone knows someone! I have gotten many gigs by having a friend hear about them at work or church or school and suggest they contact me.

Benefits in starting your own business:

• WORK FOR YOURSELF!
• WORK OUT OF YOUR HOME OFFICE
• LOW OVERHEAD
• SHORT HOURS
• TONS OF TIME WITH FAMILY
• GREAT TAX BENEFITS!

Visit the Irs website here The IRS website is very user friendly and very helpful in learning what you need to do with your taxes, what the advantages are, etc. The easiest way I can tell you is to purchase the Turbo Tax for personal and business....it walks you step by step on what you can deduct, etc. just make sure you decide which way to keep records (I use Quicken) so you always have a backup in case you are every asked. Some of the forms you will want to read are:

How to depreciate property

Travel, entertainment, gift and car expenses

Business use of your home

Tax guide for small business

*** look on the internet and find out if you will need a business license, and how to apply for one in your city. All of this is easy to find on the web. Some cities require you to have one, others just require you to be listed as doing business there.

Some places I sell my art:

Amazon.com

Art.com

Posters.com

Artist Rising.com

and many, many more!

The best advice I could give you is to always speak confidently of yourself and your work, and don't be offended when people/companies tell you they don't like something or are not in the market for anything right now. Things change all the time. I received tons of no's or no responses, but you only need one postive one to get your virtual foot in the door!