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This guide to making money with drones will help you get the most out of your equipment.
There are numerous ways of turning what you may think is a fancy toy into a source of income.
In this article, we’ll also tell you how much you can earn with a drone and how to get started. Who knows, this side hustle could become your main thing one day.
Let’s go!
1. Do Small Jobs For Close Connections
Credit: Michal Binkiewicz
The first thing you should try out with your drone is offering your services to family and friends.
Ask them if they want some stunning aerial photos for their business, or if they need a photographer for their child’s birthday.
At first, you can do a few gigs for free to test the waters and see if drone photography is your passion.
This is also a chance to practice and improve your piloting and drone footage editing skills. With time, you should be confident enough in your work to start charging.
After a while, you’ll have earned a few bucks and built a foundational client base.
2. Market Yourself as a Drone Pilot
As a newbie in the drone market, it’s important to let the world know what you have to offer.
You can update your information on job platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed to show that you’re now a drone pilot. It’s also a good idea to state which kind of drone jobs you’re interested in.
Deeper into the drone world, you’ll find useful websites like The Droning Company, where you can look for jobs and learn more about the craft.
3. Offer Your Drone Services in Real Estate
Credit: Curtis Adams
Did you know that only a few drone videos can look way more enticing than a hundred lifeless pictures in home ads? This is why drone-photographed properties sell faster than their competitors with traditional photos.
You can use aerial shots to showcase houses with huge gardens, outdoor pools, or other kinds of landscapes. These places are usually expensive, so realtors need to justify the price since ground-level pictures won’t cut it.
From the inside, you can capture a sweeping view through the halls. To land this job, you can contact real estate agents in your area and offer to take shots of properties.
Another idea is to venture into the rental arena and use your drone to improve Airbnb profiles. This can be useful for Airbnbs located in remote areas to highlight the beautiful scenery around them.
Your client will be happy that their property is standing out.
4. Sell Stock Photos
Another way for drone photographers to make money is by submitting their work to stock photo websites.
Some sites will buy your pictures and others will send you a commission every time a client downloads your work.
Although this may not pay much, it’s a form of passive income. So, you can work hard at getting high-quality aerial shots and then relax while the website does the rest.
A few stock photo websites are Shutterstock, iStockPhoto, and Pexels. For some inspiration on what to photograph, here is a list of the best-selling stock photos.
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5. Try Event Photography and Videography
Credit: Mikhail Konetski
Special events like weddings and graduations need to be documented properly, and what better way to do it than with a drone?
Many people are willing to pay for a professional service at their events, and that’s where your role comes in.
You can advertise your drone services on freelance platforms like Upwork or Fiverr.
Or, you can collaborate with an event photographer who’s already established in the business. Alternatively, you can work alongside a wedding planner.
To save precious memories, you can get some aerial footage showing the beauty of the venue, the decorations, the extravagant buffet, the guests, and of course, the bride and groom.
6. Do Drone Deliveries
Drone-delivery. Credit: www.routexl.com, CC-BY-2.0-DEED, Flickr
It may sound futuristic, yet it’s doable and so functional. Delivering goods by drone saves time and energy, as Amazon Prime Air transports packages to customers in under an hour.
Not only do they open up job opportunities, but drone deliveries are more eco-friendly than vehicles since they don’t cause air pollution.
To make money with deliveries, you can link up with local businesses that sell lightweight items like cosmetics and accessories.
How much weight can drones carry? Well, popular drones can only carry one to four pounds. Yet, there are heavy-lifting drones that can carry up to 45 pounds.
7. Give Drone Piloting Lessons
Besides providing services with your drone, you can pass on your passion and piloting knowledge to others. You can teach lessons on how to operate a drone online or in person.
Your lesson plan can include topics like how to maintain a drone, how to fly it, how to capture images, and how to edit the footage.
Besides, you can also teach your students about drone-related regulations in your country and how to get licensed.
8. Join Search and Rescue Operations
Search-Rescue-Drone-Operator. Credit: Grand Canyon National Park, CC-BY-2.0-DEED, Flickr.
As you know, time is of utmost importance when searching for and rescuing people. Using a drone to find a missing person is easier and faster than using a helicopter, for example.
It can be risky for rescue teams to go into dangerous terrains independently, so inspecting the area with a drone is safer.
Once you find the injured person, the rescue team can go straight to their help.
Also, some drone models have thermal cameras that are better than the human eye at seeing through smoke, dust, and fog.
9. Perform Drone Inspections
There are countless uses for drones in inspections, such as accessing hard-to-reach places after natural disasters and in construction.
In engineering, you can use a drone to inspect buildings during and after construction to show the state of the establishment. This will give stakeholders a clear picture of how far along the project is.
A drone can also reveal defects in a structure early so they can be fixed before it’s too late. For renovations, using a drone to assess the state of a building is useful for planning and budgeting.
Performing roof inspections with drones is safe and quick. Also, you don’t need any extra equipment to carry to the top of the building.
After natural disasters, drones can come in handy when inspecting buildings in earthquake zones without putting human life in danger or risking injury.
Cell phone towers are tall and dangerous to climb, but a drone can reach the top for inspections with ease.
10. Enter Drone Racing
If you’re competitive and know how to control your drone at high speeds, you should consider entering drone races. You can apply at MultiGP Drone Racing for free to become a drone racer.
By competing with other pilots, you’ll be taking drone fun to the next level. Plus, you stand the chance of earning lots of cash as prize money if you win.
11. Use Your Drone in Agriculture
Credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh
Drones can come in handy when inspecting crops in large fields. They’ll get the job done in a fraction of the time the farmer takes to do it manually.
Regular inspection from above using a drone can provide important information about how the harvest is doing and whether any infections require attention.
Did you know that there are special farm drones that can spray pesticides and fertilizers on plants? Other models can measure the amount of sunlight that the crops receive as well as other important factors for healthy plant growth.
With your help, crop farmers can save money by focusing their resources on plants that need pesticides instead of spraying the whole field.
12. Specialize in Aerial Photography
Credit: Mo Ismail
Aerial photography and videography offer unique perspectives to otherwise bland pictures. You can shoot breathtaking landscapes and cityscapes for businesses or magazines.
In the tourism sector, you can produce attractive ads for resorts and hotels. You can use your drone to display cruise ships from a bird’s eye view.
Aerial pictures and videos of boats sailing are far more fascinating than a parked vessel.
Have you considered the entertainment industry? Making music videos for celebrities is lucrative if you have the skills to produce top-notch quality for them.
You can also take drone footage of forests to show differences over time, like deforestation and seasonal changes.
13. Use Your Drone for Mapping and Surveillance
Drones are excellent devices for shooting large portions of land. That’s because they can produce accurate and high-quality images using mapping software.
Drones are also useful for recording in remote areas like the tops of mountains and hazardous places like forest fires. The information that drones give can be useful in making plans for land development and roadworks.
For urban areas, you can use a drone to monitor traffic.
14. Develop Your Social Media Content
Pictures and videos are a big part of social media, and with your drone, you have an advantage. This article is about making money with your drone, and most people don’t earn any money from social media.
If you have a large following, you can monetize your account and earn from ads. This isn’t a straightforward process, though.
You can use your drone to create interesting content that will grow your following. Eventually, you’ll start earning money from social media.
If you’re using social media to sell products, you can advertise the merchandise with some cool drone photographs.
15. Start a Drone Business
Most of the options discussed above involve using your drone as a side job. But we’re here to propose the idea of turning it into your main source of income.
If you’ve been in the drone industry for a while, you must be highly qualified by now to start your own business.
You can specialize in any of the ideas listed to make a company or you can use your creative ideas – the sky’s the limit.
You should note that you’ll have to register your business, pay taxes, and get some permits.
With a drone business of your own, you can hire other people and become more productive. Hence, earn more money.
What You Need Before You Get Started
Planning is as important as implementation when you want to earn money. Here are the most important things to consider if you’re thinking of making money with your drone.
A. Decide What You’ll Do
First, determine the kind of work you’ll do with your drone. This step is critical because the kind of drone you’ll need depends on how you want to use it.
B. Determine Your Budget
The second thing to consider is how much you’re willing to pay for a new drone. Drone prices range from $50 for small gadgets and up to $3,000 for high-end gizmos.
For first-time buyers, it’s smart to get an inexpensive drone. While we hope this never happens, it’s common to hit objects while practicing to pilot a drone.
You can later invest in a more professional model once you’ve mastered the controlling skills.
C. Learn How to Pilot Your Drone
Next, you have to learn all the intricacies of drone usage. You can take a course or do some research online.
Apart from learning to fly your drone, you have to acquaint yourself with the rules and regulations of drone usage in your country.
For example, there are certain areas where people aren’t allowed to fly their drones, such as airports and military bases.
Finally, you should learn how to edit photos and videos and install a few apps.
D. Register Your Drone
To register your drone, visit FAADroneZone and enter some information about your device and address. You should be at least 13 years old to be able to register a drone to your name. Otherwise, you can ask an older person to do that for you.
Drone registration costs $5 and you have to renew it every three years.
E. Get a License
In the USA, a drone license is called a Remote Pilot Certificate, and you can get it from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Before you obtain the certificate, you should take Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) training and pass a knowledge test.
This is to ensure you know all the regulations and safety measures when using a drone. You should also be at least 16 years old to get a drone certificate.
Every 24 months, you should take an online training class to keep your certificate valid.
F. Buy a Drone Insurance
You can decide to skip this step if you think it’s unnecessary because it’s 100% legal to fly a drone without drone insurance.
However, we highly recommend getting cover for your drone because the benefits outweigh the costs. Anything can go wrong in the drone business from accidentally crashing into a house to the physical injury of others.
Your drone insurance will cover the cost of fixing damages, medical bills, and legal fees caused by any unfortunate mishap.
How Much Money Can You Make With Drones?
The amount of money you can earn with drones depends on the kind of work you do, where you do it, and how experienced you are.
For a beginner, you can expect to make about $20 hourly if your employer pays by the hour.
If you’re selling aerial shots to clients, you can charge starting from $75 per photo and up to $1,000 for a video. The better the quality of your drone camera, the more you can earn.
With more experience, you’ll become a better drone photographer, which in turn translates into higher pay.
The average income of drone pilots is $50,000 yearly, but you can earn up to $3,000 each week if you put in the time and effort.
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