Nowadays, almost everyone has a drone; however, most people only use their drones for recreational activities. You may have thought about whether you can use your drone to make money. If you are creative enough, you will find several ways to make money with your drone.
Some of the ways to make money with a drone include selling images and videos taken by a drone, offering services in aerial surveying, becoming an event videographer and photographer, using drones for deliveries, using drones for inspection jobs, and using your drone for real estate photography.
There are several kinds of profitable drone businesses you can engage in; however, you must have the right type of drone, experience, and training required for such a job.
Making Money With Drones
If you have lately been interested in recreational drones, you might be wondering how this drone can help you pay the bills. Turning your favorite hobby into a full-time job is the best feeling as you are doing that job with joy and enthusiasm. Making money with drones is a good business to engage in as a drone enthusiast.
Starting your business with a drone can be quite challenging, especially if you are inexperienced with drones. There are several options to choose from and decisions to make concerning a drone business. It will also require some investments like your time, dedication, hard work, and money.
The first step to making money with a drone is to get a drone. Several drones are available in the market, and all are from different manufacturers; hence, choosing the best drone can be overwhelming. However, the use of the drone determines the type of drone you should get.
If you are into aerial photography and videography, getting a DJI drone like the Mavic 2 Pro is an option. However, if you will be going into mapping and survey, the DJI Phantom 4 is the drone you need. After getting a drone, you will need to learn how to operate it.
Since you will be making money with your drone, you will need to get an authorized license to fly your drone commercially. The Federal Aviation Administration must authorize the license. You will go through a test that you must pass and register your drone with the FAA to get this license.
Last, it would be highly beneficial if you insured your drone. Flying a drone can be risky at times, and because drones are quite fragile, your drone might get damaged upon impact. Insurance will help ensure you do not always have to purchase a new drone every time a collision occurs.
How Can I Make Money With Drones?
Drone technology has come a long way in the past few years; hence, several great drones are on the market suitable for all skill levels. Most people use their drones solely for recreational activities and capture sky-high images and videos. However, there are several ways to make money with a drone.
Once you activate your inner creativity, you will find out several possible ways to make money with drones. However, you must make sure you adhere to the regulations regarding drone operation in your state and country. Let us discuss some ways you can make money with a drone.
Selling Aerial Footage And Photos
One of the common and easiest ways to make money with drones is selling aerial footage and photos. Once you have a drone with an amazing camera, you can take incredible pictures of nature and famous landmarks. These images and footage can be sold online, and you can make some cool cash from it.
Aerial Surveying
You can also offer aerial surveying services such as archaeology, topography, feature recognition, and electronic mapping. However, to engage in this business, you will require a drone that provides one of the highest quality photography services. You should also know about airborne photography and the required knowledge and certificate for surveying jobs.
Reselling Drones
Reselling drones is another way to make money with drones; you can buy the newest versions and later resell them at a higher price to your clients. You can use a physical store; however, an internet shop is preferable and costs less. It would be best to get a provider that will sell the drones to you at a reasonable price.
Advertisements
Another way to make money with a drone is by using the drone as a tool for marketing. You can advertise for resorts, real estate, and hotels; in these cases, you will use your drone to capture aerial footage of the buildings and sell them to the building owners. Aerial footage of hotels and resorts is a great way to advertise and promote the buildings.
Drone Classes
You can also decide to start a class that teaches people how to fly drones. If you have years of drone flight experience and have learned some drone skills, starting a training class is a good way to earn money with such knowledge. You can start a virtual class and make videos training your viewers to fly a drone.
Fly Drones For Money Drone Photography
One of the best ways to accurately capture the beauty of an image is by using a drone. With a drone, you get a different perspective of an image and see things in a way you can never see with a regular camera. However, instead of just taking images with friends using a drone, you can also use that photography skills to make money.
You can use drone photography to make money by taking images and selling them. You can go into nature photography and use your drone to take natural landscapes, hills, mountains, and rivers. However, it would help if you had a drone that has a high-definition camera that captures clear and stunning images.
Besides selling your images, you can also sign up for a stock photography account. However, some sites will request to review some of your works before offering you an account. Once you have an account with images downloaded, you get paid for each download.
You can also use drone photography for aerial weddings and event photography. You can decide to partner with a wedding photographer to do some aerial shots for their events; that way, you can also earn some money and develop your brand. Engaging in this photography will help develop your aerial videography and photography skills.
How Profitable Is A Drone Business?
Having a drone business is quite lucrative and profitable. The type of business you are engaging in plays a big role in how profitable the business will be. You could work in a drone industry job and earn over six figures yearly which is quite profitable. Starting a real estate photography drone business is another profitable drone business.
With real estate photography, you can charge your clients as you like, such as a hundred dollars per hour, which is very profitable. This way, you can earn almost $10000 in a week which is very lucrative. You could also start roof inspections with a drone and earn $90 per roof so you can make lots of money depending on how many roofs you inspect.
Final Thoughts
If you wish to make money with a drone, you must first sit down and determine which business you want to engage in. You should also purchase the right equipment and have a business plan.
You must set goals and visions so that your business does not collapse after a few months or years. If you do not know which business to engage in, you can look into what you are good at and determine what you want to do.
Also read: Drone Jobs – Start Your Drone Pilot Career
Shawn Manaher loves to play with new toys and dive into new hobbies. As a serial entrepreneur, work definitely comes first but there is always room for hobbies.