All The Ways I Made Money As A Creative in 2025

Everyone’s a little funny when it comes to talking about money.

The online space has become flooded with money talk and it tends to do well because people are nosey and money is also a taboo subject so it gets the clicks!

That’s not why I’m sharing this info with you today though because money is nice but it’s kind of boring and I also suck bigtime with numbers.

In today’s post I want to break down the various income streams I had last year to showcase how diversification isn’t just key, it’s also kind of just what 99% of creatives need to do nowadays.

So let’s talk about earning money with our beautiful creative minds!

I’m not strictly a product photographer in the true sense of the word and part of me does wonder if I niched down into that then maybe I wouldn’t need to write about all my various income streams…lol.

In all seriousness though it’s risky to have all your eggs in one basket so I like to spread them out and have offerings in different areas because this keeps my skill set diverse and I think in 2026 that is what a creative needs to do to survive.

We’ve made this business work because we don’t just solely do YouTube we also do product photography and an array of other things which I’ll talk about soon.

This type of work is often repeat from the same few clients who like what we produce and appreciate the speedy turnaround compared to what they might get through an agency.

Sometimes it’s at home makeshift studio shots with proper lighting and then other times it’s environmental shots that feel more in the moment.

This is my dream because I love finding creative ways to make things look interesting or striking and I get to play around with beautiful products and get paid. I only got here by doing free work showcasing my eye and ability though so remember that if this is something you long to do!

I probably do something like this 1-2 times a month I’d say.

This one is fairly obvious by now but I’ll breakdown how we earn money from this so it’s very clear.

We earn through the Google adsense partner program which is decent compared to other platforms that do ad revenue share, but it’s not enough to live on unless you are getting those Mr. Beast views!

The most we have ever earned from adsense (this is the money that we get from the ads that are played before and during a YT video after YT themselves take their bigger cut) is about $1300AUD a month and that’s like a banging month where the views are good!

Obviously this is nice to see hit the account but it’s only a small part of our income.

What makes up the largest part of our income is sponsorships on YouTube and IG. These are what keeps us in business and making content for you all to enjoy so without these I would probably only be able to output about half of what I do currently, maybe less, because I would be doing something else to bring in the dollars.

So next time you complain about sponsored ads remember that this is generally what keeps a YouTuber going and allows you to watch content totally 100% for free!

I have a yearly Squarespace sponsorship in 2026 which is amazing and this covers two videos a month on my YouTube channel.

I have a talent agent who takes care of all of that for me and she will pitch me for other opportunities and deal with inbounds that come through.

Usually I take on a maximum of 4 sponsorships a month on YouTube, depending on the time of year and what aligns with me and my values of course.

Instagram is a great place for me to partner with more diverse brands as it is more lifestyle for me and I’ve really enjoyed collaborating with fashion brands and other fun companies over the last 12 months.

The only problem with earning through this model is that it can be very all or nothing and I don’t have control over the budget companies have for marketing so it can leave me not knowing what the next month will bring.

That is why long term deals with brands I believe in are so important and it’s also why I choose to offer other services to keep myself fluid and be able to pivot in case one area is a little quieter.

Okay so I refute the term model because model is Kate Moss or girls in RUSSH mag who don’t have binge tats and more importantly they are hired on a model basis through an agent or whatever…

I work in a different way which is always as a duo with my husband. I book the job with the brand, I plan it out come up with the vibe and then he shoots it and I’m in it.

Sometimes it’s someone else photographing but very rarely. We like our little bubble and working with someone who knows you (and your good angles) really helps.

I suppose this often falls in the influencer category which is also a term I feel conflicted about using. I am first and foremost a photographer and then I just sort of built an audience around that and now it’s kind of resembling influencer???

Anyway, labels, who cares.

These jobs are often a mix of video and photo and can also even be product shots as well as worn on me too so it’s a mixed bag. Being able to offer the photographer, the model, the creative direction, the video/editing and the location all from one client is why I think we’ve survived so far.

I love being in front of the camera and I see all this work as a part of my creative work because I’m having a lot of input in how it all comes together.

This is something we are doing a few times a month. Sometimes I still also do a gifted collab if I love the brand and have a time slot to add in a shoot and get some new work for the folio.

This one is unexpected. I helped a friend out doing the emails for her shop and I actually really liked it. I was able to learn how to use shopify and I also realised that I had a lot of skills to carry over from YouTube and Substack in terms of titling an email to get people to open it.

I’m no EDM expert at all but I’ve enjoyed learning something new and for brands who just want someone to take that off their plate and upkeep the list with photos, news and fun bits and pieces I think I do an okay job.

This work isn’t a huge part of our income but it’s great because it’s ongoing on a monthly retainer basis and this acts to give us some stability.

It’s also extremely accessible because all you need is a laptop and to upskill yourself a little, depending on who you were working for of course.

A lot of brands/companies/businesses need people who can write engaging titles and copy so don’t sleep on the humble written (or typed) word as a way to up your income!

Occasionally we create content for brands to use in their online marketing strategy. This is often video content that I don’t post myself but is used on various platforms to talk through a product or showcase something.

We have built up significant video and editing skills so we have a more polished and refined result we can offer in a sea of iphone content and at times this has been a great way to earn money with the gear and skills we have honed.

Look, people really harp on about this and how it earns them bucket loads of cash and whilst that might be true it’s def not as easy as it’s made out to be and it’s been a minor part of our income over the years.

I sell a few things on my website and I’m sure if I tweaked my sales funnel or whatever it would increase but I really much prefer taking on sponsors or fun collabs and then being able to create more free content for you all.

My preset sells fairly often but it’s very low ticket so it’s a nice little bit of money here and there but it’s nothing crazy.

I launched an online course last year and whilst there was a decent number of you who jumped in and really enjoyed the course it’s not something I promote enough to see a high return from.

I enjoy sharing info freely and want to put stuff out there that is as accessible as possible and that was my goal when starting the YouTube channel. That is why I prefer the sponsorship model because viewers don’t have to put their hand in their pocket unless they want to but still get the entertainment regardless.

I couldn’t even give you an amount but I sell a few presets a week and sporadically sell a course here and there and I’m grateful to those of you who choose to buy those things from me.

Another occasional way we make money is putting my husbands epic editing skills to work for other brands.

This isn’t something we want to do a lot of because we are so busy editing our own content but it is in high demand and if you want to learn a skill LEARN VIDEO EDITING!!!!!

Honestly I rarely see anything well edited in the fashion/lifestyle space and I think it’s crying out for someone who can take footage and make it look and sound good or just interesting at least.

I’m confident we could have a whole biz doing this but we mostly want to be doing our own YouTube videos above all else so we need to keep our eye on the prize.

Last year I actually had an amazing response to these and was booked solidly sometimes for a whole month which felt so amazing.

I LOVED doing these reviews via email but they were very time consuming and I could never seem to make it work with my schedule the way I needed it to.

I found the more I talked about this service the more it booked out so that was interesting, but again created more work for me in the marketing end of things which took away from other income generating activities.

It’s not all about money but it kind of is when you have a child to support and a sky high rent that keeps going up in a very expensive city like the Gold Coast.

I want to provide the best life for my child so the numbers have to add up and that’s just real life, unless you have someone else to bail you out or pay your way and we don’t!

But you know what, I like it that way because it means the only people I need to rely on are me and Lux. We make it happen or it doesn’t and that gives us all the power if we just keep working hard at it.

So there you go those are the money making activities. I hope you enjoyed, even if it was just a nosey read that made you understand the Lumen biz a bit more.

Any follow up questions let me know below and I hope this helps you to figure out the structure of your creative endeavours this year when it comes to earning from what you do.

It’s also fun to do stuff just for fun and where possible I do that as well.

If you haven’t check it out I have a movie/TV show review channel as a side quest so who knows maybe that will become something bigger one day too!

Thank you for reading guys. Stay creative and talk to you all soon.

Love Lucy xx