Drones can do a bunch of cool stuff, and it’s good to know you can turn your hobby into some cash to help with bills or give you a little extra pocket money. If your drone can bring in some extra cash, why not give it a shot?
We’ll cover various ways you can make money with your drone, from real estate photography and wedding videos, all the way to agriculture and even drone racing!
We’ll also give you tips on how to market your drone services, including networking with clients and showcasing your portfolio. Plus, we’ll cover all the important stuff you need to have and know before starting a drone business.
Basic Requirements to Make Money With Drones
Before you set up your drone business, you need to make sure you have your bases covered. This will ensure you are running your business legally, safely and minimises the risk of any preventable accidents.
Choose the Right Drone
This one is a given: You cannot start a drone business without first having a drone.
But more importantly, you need to invest in a good quality camera drone. It may be revolutionary to record aerial shots and capture angles that aren’t possible with a smartphone, but if the camera quality isn’t good enough, customers won’t be interested in hiring you.
The key here is to avoid all lower-quality drones. Even though many drones on Amazon claim to offer 4K quality, the reality seems to disappoint.
It’s best to invest in a drone brand that is dominating the market – such as DJI or Autel. These companies are renowned for developing top-of-the-range drones with impressive 4K and 5K camera quality.
On the other hand, if you wish to venture into more technical niches such as drone inspection services, you may need to invest in enterprise drones. These drone models come at a higher price but come with thermal imaging or sensors for the relevant job.
Before you do anything else, choose the right drone for your desired business.
Registrations and Certifications
When we talk about money, we get that talking about the serious law stuff is kind of a turn-off. But it’s the law that keeps your drone businesses legal and safe.
In the UK, you need to have your drone registered with the CAA.
If you’re in the US, registering your drone is a must. It might also be a good idea to obtain your Part 107 certification, as this frees you from certain restrictions. For instance, you can fly above certain heights for certain structures, over moving vehicles and at night.
It’s these things that might make or break whether you land a job, so keep your options open as much as you can.
Obtaining these certifications also gives you the chance to learn about the specific drone laws and regulations in your area. Think of it like preparing for a driving test – you wouldn’t take the practical exam without first understanding the rules of the road.
Before selling your services, it’s essential to know what the do’s and don’ts are of drone flying. And this is on you to learn and familiarise yourself with them.
Commercial Insurance
The next serious step is commercial insurance for your drone.
Commercial drone insurance is a crucial investment that provides protection for you and your customers. This type of insurance is specifically designed for businesses and individuals who use drones for commercial and monetising purposes.
There are two main types of insurance you should consider for your drone business:
Public Liability Insurance: This covers any third-party property damage or bodily injury that may occur while operating your drone. It also provides financial protection in case you accidentally damage someone’s property or cause injury to a person.
Equipment Insurance: This type of insurance covers damage or loss of your drone and its equipment.
CoverDrone is a reputable company that provides a range of policies for the needs of both commercial and recreational drone operators.
Master the Basics
Now you have your drone and you’re familiar with the rules, you need to master the basics of drone flying.
Before you start a drone business and start making money, you need to become a master of your drone.
You need to be confident in your drone flying abilities. Being confident to fly over structures, capture great angles and be creative with your manoeuvres will all matter when you provide services for your customers.
If you want to race, practice flying drones in races. If you want to capture photos for real estate agents, practice droning your house or landmarks to know how to drone tall structures and capture them in angles that make them look great.
Be Patient
Just like with any hobby you want to turn into a money-maker, patience is key before you start seeing results.
Money doesn’t happen overnight (not commonly anyway). This is where your passion for drone flying should outweigh your eagerness to make money. Without this, you won’t have the determination to reach your end goal and you’ll burn out quickly.
Reach out to friends, family, and local businesses. It doesn’t have to be all formal talk or cold calling, it can be fun. Offer free photos of people’s homes, capture time-lapses of construction sites, and embrace becoming a skilled drone pilot just because you genuinely want to.
If you genuinely enjoy drones as a hobby, the money will be an added bonus.
Sell Stock Drone Photos & Footage
Stock photography and footage marketplaces are always in search of fresh and diverse material. And you don’t have to live in fancy, picturesque places to offer great visual content!
Even your local town or city can benefit from your stock footage for uses like newspaper articles, community events, social media posts… and the list goes on. Often, there’s a lack of aerial footage from local, rural areas, which means your contributions can fill a unique gap.
Think of the landmarks or structures that your local area is known for. Make sure to capture some great shots of these, as articles spotlighting your town are likely to use them.
Be creative in your compositions, capturing diverse B-Roll shots, and submit your work to platforms that can be licensed to various agencies and clients. The neat part is that these platforms pay you each time someone downloads your content.
Here are some platforms that you can submit your drone stock photos and footage to:
- Shutterstock
- Getty Images
- Adobe Stock
- Wirestock
- Pond5
- Storyblocks
Aerial Wedding & Event Photography
Weddings are magical occasions, and couples are keen to capture every moment beautifully. More so, aerial wedding videography still remains uncommon, making it a unique and exclusive service to offer to couples on their special day.
Offering the unique ability to capture sweeping views of the ceremony and reception venues, drone footage adds a touch of cinematic grandeur to wedding albums and videos.
Collaborate with wedding planners and photographers to showcase your aerial expertise, from advertising reception venues to sweeping views of the ceremony.
Weddings cost a lot of money and aerial wedding videographers can expect payments anywhere from $50 to $500 – depending on the packages that they offer.
Real Estate Photography
Real estate agents are always on the lookout for visuals that can make their listings stand out.
Aerial shots of properties offer a unique perspective that ground-level photography cannot compete with.
As a drone photographer, you can offer aerial shots of properties to local estate agents. Highlighting a property’s surroundings, neighbourhood, and capturing the best angle of the property would leave less to the buyers’ imagination and boost its appeal.
At the end of the day, real estate agents want to sell their properties and wouldn’t mind investing to boost their chances.
Event Coverage & Sports Photography
Whether it’s a corporate event, music festival, or a sporting race, drones have proven to capture the true essence and energy of an event from the skies.
Event organisers and media outlets are often in need of captivating visuals to engage their audience, drive social media outreach and promote their events.
Showcase your skills in capturing dynamic aerial shots of these events and offer your services to media and event organisers.
If you are interested in improving your drone photography, check out how to tips to capture breathtaking aerial shots.
Roof & Building Inspections
Beyond artistic pursuits, drones are useful in practical applications, including the assessment of roofs and buildings for construction and insurance enterprises.
According to research by Drone Safety Register, utilising drones for roof inspections was found to be up to 85% cheaper than hiring scaffolding for the surveyor to climb on. As well as cutting down the overall work time from days to hours.
Equipped with high-resolution cameras and stabilisation technology, drones enable detailed visual inspections without the need for expensive scaffolding or exposure to human safety risks. Inspection-specific drones (also known as enterprise drones) come with thermal sensors that are useful in evaluating insulation quality or water leakage for example.
By offering aerial inspection services, you can assist property owners, construction companies, and insurance providers in assessing the condition of structures more efficiently. This role will require more technical skills as it’s less about creativity and more about getting the right shots to capture the right data. It’s best to consider taking a curse or learning about the process before setting yourself up in this industry.
It’s important to be aware that this project can be expensive to invest in due to the specific drones needed. These kinds of drones usually start at around $2,000. Additionally, once you pick a specific industry, it’s best to stick with one as it can be difficult to transfer your skills to other industries.
Aerial Surveying & Mapping
Industry companies, such as land development, construction and environmental organisations often require accurate aerial data to save time and money on their projects.
For drone surveying, drones capture aerial pictures over designated areas of land. These photos can be put together using mapping software like Pix4D or SimActive, and also be turned into 3D models and reconstructions.
If you’re wishing to pursue drone surveying to make money with your drone, it might be wise to explore online courses or training programs that can introduce you to this field. These resources can guide you through learning about surveying techniques and using software tools for working with photos.
This is another project that may require an initial costly investment in online courses, software, and specialised equipment before you can begin earning income. However, once established in the industry, drone surveyors can expect to make more than a couple of hundred dollars per day. Depending on the speciality entered and the services offered, your investments will pay off.
Public Safety & Emergency Services
In critical situations, the deployment of drones can make a significant difference in public response efforts. If you like to live a bit more on the wild side, you could consider using your drone within public safety and emergency services.
As a skilled drone pilot, you could use your drone to cover vast areas of land on search and rescue missions. Additionally, drones can play a crucial role in monitoring fire incidents, assessing disaster damage, surveilling public events, and monitoring environmental conditions.
This industry will require a lot of training, skills, certifications, and possible volunteering hours to show you’re equipped for the job – but a worthwhile job nonetheless.
Agriculture Analysis
Agriculture is yet to see the maximum benefit that drone technology can provide.
Precision agriculture techniques allow farmers to optimise crop health and yields by analysing crop data. Drones fitted with multispectral sensors can identify crop stress, detect pests and track irrigation requirements.
As a drone operator, you could support farmers adopt eco-friendly farming practices and increased productivity. In saying that, your skills will need to focus more on software and analysis than drone flying itself.
Compete in Drone Races
Drone racing is becoming an increasingly popular sport across the world, from professional circuits to friendly competitions between friends.
If you are an experienced drone pilot and enjoy taking part in competitions, this is a fantastic outlet to earn money with your drone.
Depending on the competitions and stakes, you could earn some serious cash money and prizes.
Check out the best drone flight simulators of 2023 if you are curious about practising your skills in drone races.
Teach Others How to Fly a Drone
If you possess in-depth knowledge and expertise in drone flying and love the idea of teaching, then teaching others how to fly a drone could be a great way to earn some extra cash.
Drone enthusiasts, hobbyists, and aspiring pilots are always eager to learn from experienced professionals. Whether it’s through YouTube tutorials, online courses or in-person, you can teach piloting skills and offer insights into aerial photography and videography.
Your drone training sessions can cater to beginners or advanced pilots, making drone flying accessible to all skill levels.
Marketing
Once you’ve obtained the necessary licences and insurance, and picked your preferred niche, the next step is marketing your drone business effectively.
Your marketing efforts will determine how successful you are in attracting potential clients and building a strong customer base.
Here are some key aspects of marketing your drone business:
Portfolio Creation: Showcase your best drone photography and videography work in a professional portfolio such as a website. This will give potential clients an idea of the quality of your services and your project capabilities. Make sure to also have your contact information so clients can reach out to you easily.
Online Presence and Networking: Set up a Google Business Profile for your drone business. This will help boost your local SEO and help customers within a certain locality find you.
Social Media: Create online media profiles on Instagram and Facebook to highlight your services, share your work, and establish your brand’s online presence. Social media is also one of the easiest ways for clients to reach out to you.
Client Testimonials: Positive reviews and testimonials from satisfied clients can significantly impact your reputation and credibility. Request feedback from your clients and showcase their testimonials on your website or social media.
And remember: People trust other people’s opinions, so make sure you do a good job!
Conclusion
With the drone market expanding, there has never been a better time to monetise your drone skills and turn a hobby into a profitable income.
Position yourself as an expert in your chosen niche and use online platforms to showcase your work and reach out to potential customers. Make sure you have the important foundations set up beforehand so you don’t run into any unexpected surprises.
FAQs: How to Make Money with a Drone
Is it legal to make money with a drone?
Yes, it is legal to make money with a drone. But there are specific regulations and requirements you must comply with to operate your drone commercially.
You will need to register your drone and obtain the relevant certifications to make sure you comply with your national drone regulations. In most countries, you will need to be covered by commercial drone insurance.
What drone business should I go into?
Depending on the business that you want to get into, you need to have the relevant skills to excel in that niche. There’s no point competing in drone races if you hate competitions, the same as it’s pointless working with wedding photographers if you hate weddings.
Some businesses are more profitable than others and others are easier to get into with less investment.
If you lean towards technical expertise over mere drone piloting, you might consider niches like inspection, surveying, and agriculture. Whereas, if you have a creative spark, recording cinematic videos of weddings and real estate may be the better industry for you.
Regardless of what business you decide to venture into, you’ll need to learn how to market your services effectively and offer exceptional customer service.
Do I need special training to start a drone rental business?
Yes, you will need special training to start a drone rental business. Even if you are not directly operating the drones during the rental, you need to ensure that your customers are aware of the regulations and safety guidelines when using your equipment.
This may come with additional costs such as insurance.
Advise your clients to comply with CAA regulations. And if necessary, offer them information as to where they can complete any required training and licences.
Additionally, make sure to provide proper instructions and guidelines on operating the specific drone models you offer for rental. Proper training and support will not only ensure your customers’ safety but also protect your business from potential liabilities.
