Affiliate Marketing for Photographers

Affiliate marketing can be a great side income for photographers—and you probably already know that. But how do you get started? Do you have to be an “influencer” with tens of thousands of followers in order to actually make money from affiliate links? How much time will you need to devote to marketing before you start making money? And how can you keep it authentic, and avoid sounding like a marketing bot?

I’ve been doing affiliate marketing on and off for over a decade, and through a lot of trial and error I’ve built a steady stream of passive income. While it’s nowhere close to replacing what I make as a photographer, I also can’t complain about getting paid for writing blog posts and posting on social media.

And because I think a lot of photographers are missing out on affiliate income, I wanted to write this post to share what I’ve learned over the past ten years in business.

If you’re still wondering what affiliate marketing is and how it works, you should skim through this Shopify guide to affiliate marketing before coming back here to learn how this can work for you as a photographer.

How to get started with affiliate marketing?

Before applying for affiliate programs, it’s helpful if you’ve already established a content catalog (i.e. blog posts or social media) where you write the kind of content you want to later monetize. Most programs have criteria for creators to meet before being accepted into the program, and while these criteria are not always public, it’s a fair assumption that they want to see you can write something that drives traffic before letting you monetize it.

What kind of affiliate content works best for photographers?

The affiliate content that’ll work best for you depend a lot on what niche of photography you’re in. If you photograph families or newborns, you might already recommend outfits, stores, or brands, and could monetize this. If you photograph elopements (like I do), you can recommend lodging for your couples, or gear they need for outdoor activities. For traditional weddings, you might have guides on details like ring boxes and vow books, or even your favorite wedding attire brands.

Only recommending products or services that you would already recommend to people without being paid for it is the key to keeping your affiliate marketing authentic to your brand—and it’ll also connect better with your audience.

Hotels & Vacation Rentals

I make most of my affiliate income from recommending hotels and vacation rentals, both to my direct clients and through my public blog posts. I spend so much time looking for vacation rentals that allow events, the prettiest hotels for getting ready photos, and everything that helps my couples have the best experience, that I might as well share some of that with a larger audience.

Airbnb used to have a great affiliate program where I made anywhere from $200-500/month, but closed the program at the end of 2022. I now primarily make affiliate income from vrbo and hotels.com, both through the CJ affiliate platform.

Printed Photos

As photographers we should be the biggest advocates for printed photos, wall art, and tangible photo products. And because our clients already trust us as experts, this is such a great place to create content that helps our clients do something with their photos after working with us. I could see this being great for social media content as well—posting photos of wall art or holiday cards with links to where your clients can buy their own.

Outdoor Gear

This one will mostly be relevant for elopement and adventure/travel photographers, but if people are always asking what backpack you like or how you stay warm on shoots in winter, you could make some extra money by recommending the outdoor gear you already have and use. I’m in affiliate programs for REI, backcountry.com, and a bunch of other smaller brands (like Darn Tough, my favorite wool socks), and all of these add up to a nice chunk of change.

Attire & Footwear

Depending on how involved you are in making recommendations on attire and footwear to your clients, this can be a great way to monetize your content with posts like “what to wear for family photos” or “cute hiking boots for your elopement.” I also know photographers who have had great success with posts like “the best elopement attire” or “where to buy cheap wedding dresses.”

Wedding Details

Similarly to attire and footwear, you might make recommendations on things like vow books, ring boxes, or other personal touches your couples can add to their wedding day. The best affiliate platform for monetizing this type of content is Etsy’s Creator Collective, since you’ll be able to recommend products from lots of different shops all through one website. I have a post called “Elopement Details: Little Touches to Make Your Day Special” and it does pretty well!

Camera Gear

If you like talking about gear, you should funnel some of that into gear reviews both on your blog and youtube—by far the easiest platforms to monetize through affiliate links. Amazon’s program is one of the easiest to be accepted into, while other camera shops like B&H have more strict acceptance rates. This isn’t a major source of income for me, but it’s an easy enough thing to optimize for that it’s worth doing.

Business Tools

If you’re using business tools like a CRM or gallery delivery services in your photography business, chances are that service has their own affiliate (or referral) program. I haven’t paid for my subscription to Táve in years because my one blog post on how I use this CRM keeps bringing in referrals! Website hosting, WordPress plugins, and even tools we all use like Adobe and PhotoMechanic are also worth optimizing for.

How much money can I make from affiliate marketing?

I make around $2000 a year from affiliate marketing—but that is with minimal effort, and mostly just using affiliate links in content I’d create for my clients anyway. It feels worthwhile to me, and I’m curious to see how much I can increase that with a bit more targeted writing over the next year.

Are you going to try affiliate marketing in your photography business?