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I'll repeat some of the other answers here, while giving examples from my own company and industry. I'll provide numbers when possible. You can still make mone

I'll repeat some of the other answers here, while giving examples from my own company and industry. I'll provide numbers when possible. You can still make money by taking: (a) a moderately-sized vertical (excluding hackers & developers) (b) and doing any/all of the following: - Web hosting - Email newsletters - Forums - SEO - Publishing tools (web & print) - Ecommerce Ok, now details from my own industry (professional and semi-professional photography). Web hosting: at BIG Folio, we provide web hosting for photographers. We host the sites we build as well as WordPress blogs. We charge $20/month with very low space/bandwidth limits. If we tried to be a generic host, there's not way we could compete with GoDaddy at those prices. But in a vertical, people don't mind. Even though we use expensive, managed servers from Rackspace, our margins are really good. Email newsletters: Take a look at Photojojo's ad rates: http://photojojo.com/advertising/ http://photojojo.com/advertising/. $6K for a 1-week sponsorship. Forums: We advertise on one paid forum that is focused on only wedding and portrait photography (a vertical of a vertical). They have roughly 5,000 members that pay $100/year + they get good advertising rates and run an annual convention. You can do the math on that. SEO: If you know SEO and/or social media, my guess is you could easily make $50K or more by publishing an ebook on "SEO & Social Media for [insert vertical]". I published a DVD on SEO for photographers a few years ago. I pressed 1,000 copies at Discmakers and sold them all within 18 months ... for $79/each. http://photographyseo.com http://photographyseo.com Publishing tools: This could be anything from website tools/CMSs, WordPress themes, or even tools for printing (yes, people still print stuff). One of our competitors just sells a "WordPress theme for photographers" ... they get $200 for a theme that is no better than themes you buy for $29 on Theme Forest. I know people that sell Photoshop templates for borders, albums and greeting cards. In my recent foray into restaurant tools, I've notice that a lot of people search for restaurant menu templates (the kind you print). I could go on and on in this section, but just know that people have all sorts of web/print/mobile/social publishing needs and are willing to pay for it. Ecommerce: Not selling things directly but helping people sell things and taking a fee. We do this at NextProof (nextproof.com). We take 7-12% of sales and it's the lowest I know of in the space. The forum I mentioned above has a classified ad section and it's one of the few places I trust to find used camera gear. People are used to giving Apple 30% and Groupon 50% of their sales. I think there's lots of room to monetize (either through fees or ads) a vertical sales platform, classified system, or "Shopify for [insert vertical]".

spIrr 15y ago
Awesome, this is some superior reply giving a very good insight about your industry! Thank you! My question is, is there something specific about the photography vertical which makes all the sub-niches so lucrative? For example, email newsletters: is it so popular because of the heavy amount of photography tutorials, articles, etc. available on the web and only a few other industries would experience this kind of demand in newsletters? I think photographers are the most heavy consumers of online tutorials and articles along with hackers and designers.
- callmeed 15y ago
  Every vertical has it's unique qualities–and photography is no different. Obviously, being a mostly digital and visual industry, there are lots of opportunities for online education and tools. And, yes, there are tons of tutorials on the web–although I find many of them aimed at hobbyists or Photoshop users. There are also a ton of in-person workshops in the industry. I know wedding photographers that make more money every year doing workshops than they do actually shooting weddings. Given all that, I think there's still lots of room for professional-level education in the industry. Having done a lot of photography myself, I can tell you there's skills/techniques I've only been able to learn from some of the paid forums.
pastaking 15y ago
Hey ed, you briefly mentioned your foray into restaurant tools. I'm interested in this area - can you elaborate a bit more on what restaurant tools are lacking in your opinion, or in general, what problems restaurants are facing?
- callmeed 15y ago
  It's been tough, so far. All I can tell you is that (a) restaurant owners have ZERO time to learn or use new tools and (b) they just want to get more people in the door. What blew me away was hearing that restaurants in my town are getting hit with 2 to 5 people per day trying to sell them on some coupon or daily deal gig. And I don't even live in a big city! I've gotten decent traction on the website front so far (cilantrosites.com) but I've also run into some language barrier issues (a lot of ethnic restaurants with ESL owners). I've tried coupon subscriptions (think BirchBox meets Groupon) but none of them wanted to give up 2-for-1 coupons. Next I'm trying some Facebook page tools ... seems promising so far (we've got 2 customers at $99/mo and several leads this week).

spIrr 15y ago

Awesome, this is some superior reply giving a very good insight about your industry! Thank you! My question is, is there something specific about the photography vertical which makes all the sub-niches so lucrative? For example, email newsletters: is it so popular because of the heavy amount of photography tutorials, articles, etc. available on the web and only a few other industries would experience this kind of demand in newsletters? I think photographers are the most heavy consumers of online tutorials and articles along with hackers and designers.

callmeed 15y ago
Every vertical has it's unique qualities–and photography is no different. Obviously, being a mostly digital and visual industry, there are lots of opportunities for online education and tools. And, yes, there are tons of tutorials on the web–although I find many of them aimed at hobbyists or Photoshop users. There are also a ton of in-person workshops in the industry. I know wedding photographers that make more money every year doing workshops than they do actually shooting weddings. Given all that, I think there's still lots of room for professional-level education in the industry. Having done a lot of photography myself, I can tell you there's skills/techniques I've only been able to learn from some of the paid forums.

pastaking 15y ago

Hey ed, you briefly mentioned your foray into restaurant tools. I'm interested in this area - can you elaborate a bit more on what restaurant tools are lacking in your opinion, or in general, what problems restaurants are facing?

callmeed 15y ago
It's been tough, so far. All I can tell you is that (a) restaurant owners have ZERO time to learn or use new tools and (b) they just want to get more people in the door. What blew me away was hearing that restaurants in my town are getting hit with 2 to 5 people per day trying to sell them on some coupon or daily deal gig. And I don't even live in a big city! I've gotten decent traction on the website front so far (cilantrosites.com) but I've also run into some language barrier issues (a lot of ethnic restaurants with ESL owners). I've tried coupon subscriptions (think BirchBox meets Groupon) but none of them wanted to give up 2-for-1 coupons. Next I'm trying some Facebook page tools ... seems promising so far (we've got 2 customers at $99/mo and several leads this week).