#EyeEmPaid: My January 2017 EyeEm Income Report

Latest goings on in January

Hello you! Welcome back to another EyeEm income report. I hope the start of the year has been good to you and you’re ready to make the most of EyeEm. This months post is a bit shorter than usual as the payment was a little lighter.

Lifestyle Redesign

January has been a very hands-off month for me. For the first time in 2 years I’ve taken a few weeks off from vlogging so that I can get organised and calibrate to our new lifestyle in England.

This is the second time I’ve had a major lifestyle change, once when Jade and I moved to Thailand and now again that we’ve moved back. The first few months are always challenging as we find our footing and design our new lifestyle. All of this chaos finally came to a point in December when I just couldn’t keep up and decided I needed January to get everything in order.

This means that I’ve not been uploading to EyeEm again, but I have been snapping some shots during the month. I’ve got so many images saved in Lightroom I just need to find some more time to edit them and get them online. Maybe they will finally see the light of day some time this year..?

Thankfully, after having some to get organised I feel more focussed, ready to get back to work and offer you guys more value.

More EyeEm Blog Content

Part of getting organised in January was so that I could create more content for this blog and for the member area of this site.

I’m putting together some interview questions that I’d like to see some EyeEm users answer and looking for your suggestions too. Be sure to add any questions you might want answered in the comments below.

I think I’m going to kick off the EyeEm interviews by interviewing myself – you know, to lead by example. You already know that I love the Open Edit feature on EyeEm that lets you see the edits other users have used on their images, I’m hoping that these interviews will provide further insights about things like –

• The photographers mindset: what they are thinking about or looking for when they are shooting.
• The editing process: tools and software used to create the images plus any great tips.
• EyeEm Market success: tips regarding selling on EyeEm.

I’d like these to be full of useful tips, helpful hints and lots of detail. More on this soon…

For the members area of my site I am thinking about recording my image editing sessions and sharing them with you. Perhaps even doing the whole thing live? I’d talk you through how I edit images using the EyeEm app, offer any insights as they come up and take your questions. If you have any thoughts on this let me know.

Brett Worth; Guest Blogger

Also this month I received an awesome email from the EyeEm team telling me that they enjoy reading my monthly income reports and would like me to write a post for the EyeEm blog.

It’s actually been on my mind for a while to write a post about how to organise an EyeEm Global Adventure (the worldwide EyeEm photography meet up). I used to host events in Bangkok and there were a lot of compliments about how well they were organised – the truth is I thought it was obvious! After attending other people’s events though I realised that it probably wasn’t as obvious as I though. Honestly though, hosting an event like the EyeEm Global Adventure isn’t that difficult and I’m confident you could do it if you knew how. Maybe this is a post for another time…

The EyeEm email said that they were particularly interested in hearing more about my personal challenge to get 1000 photos on the EyeEm Market. If you read last months report you’ll know that this was something I wanted to achieve by the end of 2016 but didn’t. My personal challenge still stands and this year I’ll still be aiming for 1000 images on the market.

Thinking about what I wanted to share in this guest post has been a lot of fun. As usual with my posts it will be a long one and I’ll try to make sure that you get something from it. I’m aiming to have it finished by the end of February so watch out for it on the EyeEm blog… you do read the EyeEm blog, don’t you? ?

New Format & EyeEm Awesome Facebook Group

Finally, I’ve gone ahead and rearranged my monthly income reports a little bit to try and make them clearer. I’m always looking for better ways to share with you and so these reports may change month to month to serve you better.

Our EyeEm Awesome Facebook group has also been slowly growing as more of you join us and ask your questions. There has been some great Q&A going on in there and I think that it’s only going to get better. It’s completely free to join so if you haven’t yet then there is no better time to get involved.

As always these reports are for you so feel free to ask any questions or make some suggestions in the comments below.

Alright, here goes…

 

Lessons Learned In January

When you have a particularly low paying month (or months when you don’t make nothing at all) it can feel like a failure, but I don’t see it that way. While you can do everything in your power to help yourself to sell images ultimately you are at the mercy of the buyers. You could have the funniest photos of cats and sell hundreds only for one month see that everyone suddenly wants to buy photos of dogs. Good photos don’t always sell and that’s ok. Like I said in my free guide, if you make photos that mean something to you then they will always have value, even if they don’t sell.

Does having a low paying January bother me? Yes and no. On one hand I’ve still been paid for photos that I took ages ago but on the other it’s my lowest month to date. Ultimately though the amount of money doesn’t matter, I love the process and the challenge. I’d still be uploading photos to EyeEm even if they didn’t have a market (and I did before they announced it back in the day).
Put your passion first and every time you get paid it will feel like a blessing. Whether it’s $0 or $1000 just the thought of someone else getting joy or value from my work is always enough.

Good luck next month!