There are seemingly unlimited ways to make money with a drone. Just read all the posts out there. Some would have you believe that all it takes to get rich is to (1) buy a drone, (2) take some cool pictures and (3) get paid and make lots of money. That could happen, but it’s not likely.
The absolute best drone business to start is to be a drone pilot. That’s right, sell your services to people who need a drone, but don’t want the bother or expense of owning and operating a drone. This is the fastest and most cost-effective way to start earning money with your drone.
Drones are great tools for a lot of businesses, but most people need to focus their energy on what they do best, not learning how to fly a drone and all the steps it takes to become a drone pilot. They just want the results. So here is a list of businesses that are ready to pay drone pilots for their expertise…
Business That Hire Drone Pilots
1. Sell Your Services To Real Estate Brokers
This is exactly where I made my first money as a drone pilot. I was selling my house several years ago and my agent was taking pictures inside to use on her website. Now, I had been searching for a new house to move into and many of those listings had pictures from drones.
I sent my Mavic MIni up and took a few shots from different altitudes and angles and gave her the files. She used the pictures in her listing, my house sold and I didn’t hear from her for several weeks until, out of the blue, she calls up and asks if I would be interested in taking some pictures for another of her listings. I did and she paid me $50.
I have since done this dozens of times for her. But she introduced me to many other agents and I now make a couple of hundred dollars every week by working very little. No, I am not getting rich, but I am making some easy money.
If I were to DECIDE to start making money with a drone, I would start right here, with Real Estate Agents. EVERYONE knows a real estate agent. All you have to do is call them up, offer your service and start honing your aerial real estate photo skills. If this doesn’t work, start calling real estate companies, drop by open houses and introduce yourself to the agent on duty. I’m telling you, drone pictures will be used in most listings soon and clients will be asking their agents about them.
Here is what I used to get started. The Mavic Mini was just right for me. There are more expensive models (much more in some cases), and less expensive, but this particular bird has many great features at a reasonable cost.
If you are looking to get started for less, this might be more to your liking…
2. Sell Your Services To Real Estate Inspectors
My real estate agent’s husband was our inspector for the house we were buying. I offered my drone pilot services to him as well. Generally, he would do a ground-level visual inspection of the roof for his inspections. I prefer a more detailed look at the roof because we live in a hurricane-prone area.
So, I took my drone up and he looked over my shoulder and guided my camera to where he wanted to take closer looks at things. Turns out there was a bit of flashing loose around the chimney. (Made no difference in our negotiations, but I knew it was there and fixed it.)
After seeing the benefits of having a drone perspective, he offered, for an extra charge, to have a drone inspection of the roof. I joined him on several more inspections until he bought his own drone. I think that is going to be a bit of a problem going forward, but there are still plenty of drone-less inspectors left out there today just waiting for someone to show them how beneficial a drone pilot can be.
3. Sell Your Services To Bloggers
I use my drones to take pictures all the time to use in my many blogs. Before I owned a drone, I paid a guy on Fiverr who owned a drone and lived in Colorado for drone clips of forested mountains. As opposed to stock clips, I was able to tell him exactly the kind of shot I was looking for. Being that I live near the beach, I had no access to mountain streams, so $20 was a bargain for a 20-second clip. I still use his services to this day when I need specific snowy footage or pictures.
Point is, you could offer your drone pilot services on a site like Fiverr. The trick here is to find something original. Do you live in a big city? A desert? Close to a well-known landmark? If you do, you simply open a free Fiverr account and post your gigs. If you’d like to read more about Fiverr, start with another of my posts: Is Fiverr Worth It?
Alternatives To Selling Your Drone Pilot Skills
1. Sell Pictures or Video Clips
Unlike posting your services on Fiverr, what I’m talking about here is taking vids or photos of homes, boats, golfers, or even youth baseball games. Then you either go straight to the people who might be interested in buying them and either sell them the link to the clip or photo of their choice.
One of my favorite ways to sell these shots is to fly my drone up the beach and snap photos of families or couples enjoying the day. Then I will take 30 seconds of their time and show them the pics and see if they have any interest in buying them for a couple of bucks. If they do, that’s great and I send them a link to the pic or if they don’t, I delete them right there.
2. Provide Advertising For Local Businesses
This one is really fun. You know those planes that pull banners along the beach, right? Well, this is a smaller version of that. My first drone advertising gig went like this…
A friend of mine opened a brand new restaurant and wanted to get the word out. We were brainstorming and I mentioned the planes pulling the banners. He had already looked into it and thought it cost too much (around $2,000 for about 30 minutes of flight time.)
I jokingly said that I could put one on my drone and fly it around the parking lot before a game while everyone was tailgating. I made a small banner that I flew around for a couple of hours. All it had was his website address on it. Several people came in mentioning the banner over the next few weeks. Not only that, but I got 2 more gigs for future games from 2 other local business owners who wanted to advertise during the next pre-game tailgate.
As an additional bonus, I was able to sell a lot of overhead shots to groups of people who were having big tailgate parties. Folks just love to see themselves from unique angles.
Final Thoughts
There really are unlimited ways to make money with your drone, but you have to get started somewhere. These are the places I started making money flying my drones. Once you get started you will start to see all kinds of opportunities to expand your drone business. For instance, after flying a banner around for a business, maybe you could discuss creating a promotional video that features your drone footage. That will be information we can discuss in future posts. For now, find someone who needs a drone, supply the drone, supply your expertise, and charge a fair price. There you have started your drone business and the sky is the limit after that.
Thanks for reading, Y’all!
And…Earn What You’re Worth….and More!!
Anderson