This is the second part of a series I’m devoting toward making supplemental income. Consider it a glimpse into my own experimentation. If I crash and burn, you’ll get a front row seat.

After posing the question I received an abundance of helpful and interesting responses. The majority of which were centered around photography. A list of suggestions (in the order they were posted):

• Wedding photography
• Side business from passions
• iPhone app creation
• Publish a photo book
• Indonesian stock market
• Photography courses
• Online business
• Seek ways of saving instead of earning

These are great ideas, and many will fit together to formulate a more complete project. Note: iPhone app design would be awesome, and I’m not counting it out yet, but it’s simply not my strong-point. If we further refine these suggestions, we’ll be left with three broader concepts:

• Photography related
• Online business
• Stocks / investments

While finding ways to save money is a vital component to advancing your financial health, I see it on a similar plane as dieting without exercise. Both are required for more effective, long-lasting results.

1. Photography related: It’s quite obvious that I have a strong passion for photography. While I realize I have such a tremendous amount to learn still, it’s something that I never tire of. This is critical in my mind. There are many routes this could take.
2. Online business: I’m a tech guy. I know my way in and out of many applications and can navigate the web with ease. I enjoy digging into new social media, teaching myself new applications, and geeking out with podcasts and tutorials. I’m not an expert in any one area, but am proficient in many. I’ll digest this one more below.
3. Stocks / investments: This ties in with savings – it’s often a necessary part of financial health to find some way to invest. I have traded stocks in the past and done quite well. I’ve also lost my ass playing the stock market. To be truly confident in stocks again, I think I’d require full energy devoted solely to the research and constant flow of information that is needed to succeed (and luck). However, I’m willing to seek out more assistance and perhaps take it slow (i.e. not go crazy with individual tech stocks). I am somewhat limited by living in Indonesia in terms of investments, but am curious what is possible.

To reiterate on my stronger points, I’m left with two areas of focus: photography and the internet. Let’s dissect these focus areas into the various options. Feel free to suggest more. I’m also going to add to these with my own ideas.

Photography:

• Publish a photography book
• Stock photography
• Print sales
• Portrait photography
• Modeling agency
• Wedding / pre-wedding photography
• Photography courses / teaching

Internet:

• Blogging for profit (not this blog): photography related, camera gear, tech, Indonesia, etc
• Online business: ?

John brought up an important point in the comments from the previous post: “ideas are abundant, anyone can come up with ideas to make money. execution and sales are the hard slogging part… it doesn’t really matter how good a photographer u are if you do not work hard at selling your work.”

This is where the fun begins – pushing photography to the next level without selling my soul. As I stir these ideas around my mind, feel free to contribute any more, offering advice or experiences you’ve had with any aspects of these points. Have you created such a business? Have you submitted work to stock agencies? Have you tried publishing a book? I (and others) would love to learn from your experiences.

To be continued…

Part 1 of this series is located here.