Steve Heap
- Photographer
- $2,737 monthly revenue from stock photography
- Published August 7, 2020 by Niall Doherty
How does Steve make money online?
Steve makes money online in several ways, including:
- Selling stock photos and videos (mainly via Shutterstock)
- Selling prints of his photographs
- Selling ebooks about stock photography
- Personalized portfolio reviews
- Fees from his membership program
- Affiliate commissions from recommending third-party products on his website (example)
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,224 legendary subscribers.
How much money does Steve make?
It’s unclear how much money Steve earns in total from his online business.
However, he’s very transparent about his income from stock photography, posting regular earnings reports on his website.
In his 2019 earnings report he wrote:
I ended up with total earnings of $35,595 compared with $35,790 in 2018.
It looks like about $5000 of his 2019 stock income came from video.
In an earnings report for Q2 2020, Steve wrote:
Overall, the quarter from March to June 2020 was not too bad – ending with $8966 of which $755 came from video sales. Q1 of 2020 was slightly lower at $8458.
So in Q2 he earned $8211 from photo sales alone, which works out to $2,737 per month.
Steve includes an interesting graph in that report, showing how his earnings per image have decreased over the years:
$0.60 per image was about the norm back in 2014, but nowadays it’s less than half that.
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
- We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.
- We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.
- We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.
- If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.
If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
How did Steve get started?
As per the about page on his website:
Steve Heap is a well-known stock photographer having started in the business in early 2008.
Presumably he’s been a photographer for much longer than that.
Last I checked, he had more than 14,000 files for sale on Shutterstock.
In March 2019 Steve posted this video on YouTube with lots of tips for getting started with stock photography…
What type of online business does Steve have?
Steve runs a multifaceted online business.
According to our framework it can be broken down like this:
- Freelance (Level 2)
Steve does personalized portfolio reviews for other photographers. - Referral (Level 3)
Steve has some affiliate offers on his website. - Digital Products (Level 4)
Stock photography and sales of his ebooks seem to be Steve’s main source of income. His site membership would also fit here. - Physical Products (Level 5)
You can buy Steve’s artwork as physical prints.
Follow the links above for more info and examples for each type of business.
Other ways to make money online
There are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
