You finally did it.
You bought your drone, have a few hours of flying under your belt and understand what it means to practice safe, ethical flying.
You’re bullish on commercial drone opportunities and want to know how to get your piece of the pie. Fortunately for you, there are countless ways to take advantage of this blossoming industry.
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For a moment, let’s set aside hardware and software considerations, FAA regulations, pricing and packaging strategies, and flying extremely safely and professionally, and let’s run through a few different ways U.S.-based pilots are already making money with their drones, and how you can too:
1. Sell aerial footage to high-end properties.
Drone photography is changing the face of real estate as we know it.
I’d focus on showcasing properties that are $500,000 or more in value. You’ll have better luck going after the luxury market. Forget anything below that.
It’s not just realtors you can target, folks. Think golf courses, beachside resorts, amusement parks, hunting lodges, or ranches. Ooh, what about ski lodges?
Of course, you’ve got to have a solid showreel, and some real footage to show your prospects to gain trust and credibility. I’d start local, filming your or your friends’ houses or properties, practicing both indoor and outdoor footage. Once you understand what kind of photos and videos you and your equipment can produce for a customer, you’ll be more confident in your sales process. Practice, practice, and more practice. The more hours of flight time, the better.
For a half-day shoot, expect to charge $500-$1000. That range can depend on a number of factors, like whether or not you’re providing indoor footage, or if you’re in charge of processing the raw footage, creating an introductory bumper, etc.
Think $500-$1000 for a half-day shoot, then another couple hours to edit the footage. You can always outsource the editing if that’s not your forte.
2. Offer aerial wedding photography / videography.
Last year, my cousin had her wedding in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. One of her guests? A DJI Phantom 2, buzzing about and capturing some seemingly awesome perspectives.
If you’re planning to use your drone to sell wedding photography / videography services, then make sure to work closely with the venue, and don’t fly directly over any guests unless you plan to have everyone sign hold harmless and limit of liability forms.
Also, if you’re an existing wedding photography or videographer, I’d think twice about offering both regular, primary photography and videography and then tacking on aerial shots at the same wedding.
It might be too much to handle when you first get started. May be best to practice as a secondary photographer / videographer and doing a couple of weddings for free or heavily discounted to see if it’s something you’re into.
3. Inspect stuff.
I’ve been working with an asphalt repair company who uses drones to inspect their prospects’ properties before a gig is priced, packaged and sold.
I’ve also been reading a ton about roof inspections, power line inspections, oil and gas pipeline inspections, bridge and cell tower inspections, you name it.
Your technical prowess will likely need to be a bit stronger to sell in this market, and your rig might need to be even more stable and higher performing than a simple quadcopter and GoPro rig.
4. Dive deeper and commit to the industry.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. You don’t need to be a professional drone pilot to make money in the drone industry. Just like any other burgeoning industry, there are opportunities to be hired at companies and to offer value in a number of ways–in a marketing or sales capacity, as an engineer or developer, in a finance or administrative role, you name it.
If you’re passionate about drones, then why not apply for a job at a drone company? Flying isn’t for everyone.
Check out 3D Robotics or DJI’s career pages to see what I’m talking about.
5. Become an FPV racer.
As far as I know, there’s no professional circuit in place just yet, but first-person-view (FPV) drone racing is the sport of the future.
It’s a completely different skillset than becoming an aerial photographer or videographer, but boy does it look fun. And who knows, if you start sharpening your skills now, you might be making big bucks one day on the professional tour 🙂
Already got a few gigs under your belt and want to generate more business as a professional drone pilot? Check our article on drone marketing tips.
Alan Perlman is a drone hobbyist and marketing consultant who runs UAV Coach, a website that helps to push the drone community forward with educational and inspirational content and training.
Each year the industry is expanding and it is huge. Many sector in various scope of job need drones for many particular or specific task that can be risky and save cost. Maybe to add another point, someone could be drone consultant according to certain industry. For agriculture maybe need some kind of specific drones consultant, and for aerial and technical inspection also need a different consultant. Every industry could have different consultant.Lots of job could be created via drones industry.
am a first time drone flyer.am looking for a indoor place to fly my drone in . I,m just learning how to fly it I have AEE10pro
Nice ideas, we will implement in our businees related with drones
Hello!
Thank you for this informative article.
I also just started to read an e-book which is useful and giving a lot of tricks regarding making money with Drones.
It’s on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M3W083G
I pray and hope to become the biggest drone flyer down in Nigeria and Africa….i`ll go get my cheap drone first to start with
Nice blog post – I am thankful for the specifics – Does anyone know if I might be able to get a sample MA MFCS document to fill in ?
https://goo.gl/Yh9IGuThanks Alan.
As a retiree and late comer to the Drone world i can’t get to much info and i just love the interaction between other enthusiasts.
Apparently, farmers are using drone technology too to map their land and help see crop yields etc.
Yes they are. My Dad’s company has 2 drones for this.
Some nice ideas – thanks.
Agreed that the UK (along with lots of other countries) has regulations for all sorts of things including drones.
But less certain how enforceable those laws are – they’re not even totally sure if a drone hit a plane that was landing recently or if it was something else entirely.
I know I bought an aerial photo of my house a number of years ago and would certainly appreciate a close-up view so maybe that’s another market opportunity.
This is a great artical very informative and helpful.
Thanks Alan
Thanks, Amani!
something to think about when buying a drone – http://www.hd3dprinters.com
Nothing to do with drones !!! Go away scammer !!!
Hi
I’m very happy drone project so very nice . but high technology all parts.thanks
I am ever sale helicopter r c now in Thailand l have a small drone and to fly in basic hope to you teach me some knowlage about drone thank you
I am a sea glass collector and would like to be able to hire a drone to scan the coast line of my local beaches in order to see if there are pebble piles. It’s easy to waste a whole Saturday or Sunday walking along the beach & finding nothing and then a friend says they were at another beach & there were lots of pebble piles.
Sure, where are you located? May be willing to do this very inexpensively depending on proximity to me
San Francisco
Oh no. As much as I would love to visit San Fran, I am on the opposite coast
Im near SF
Where is near and are you pretty familiar with the beaches & coastllne IN SF? How much would you charge to cruise along a stretch of beach? The whole stretch is 5 miles long but I would only want a view of 2 miles at a time.
what do you find in pebble piles?
I’m wanting to use my drone in the tourism industry here in Alaska, I know that people who visit this great state want a memory of it so why can’t I provide that for them? It’s the investment(money) I don’t have to put up for an attorney or the knowledge of applying for the 333 Exemption. Just wish it was a more simpler process.
Greg
Yeah I’m actually using a Toy Grade Quad Copter now on a contract for a major utility company to inspect vegetation clearance along the ROW – with the Utility’s blessing.
I plan on installing LIDAR onto a more professional-grade Quad in the near future.
How did you get in with company? Also why rates etc..
Hey Greg, couldn’t resist plugging in here…we are making an easier process as we speak. I think it’s EXACTLY what you are looking for. It’s not ready yet but when it is you will have the choice to either buy a drone services franchise or “Pay as You Grow” and we take care of everything else, flight manual, insurance, FAA333 etc, etc.
Your not quite off the hook since for the time being you still have to have a sports pilot licence in the US. Keep us in mind, visit our page and get on our mailing list and we let you know where we are at.
We like what we are doing and think a lot of people will too!
http://reconaerialmedia.com/drone-franchise-opportunity/
Everyone else if you want to see 20 more ways to make money visit our franchise page we have a ton listed there and it’s just the tip of the ice burg since we are all now building what will be possible.
Hi Brian, yes, I’m interested in setting up my drone business. I’ve purchased a Dji 3 Proom and have many hours of flight time. I’m very interested in learning more about the 333 exemption and how to get a sport pilots license. Looking forward to hearing from you. My drone local is Phoenix, AZ.
Proom? It is a P3P.
Hey Claude,
Best thing to do is to visit our site and fill out the flight specialist intake form, it can be found at the link below. Once complete I will call you to discuss.
http://reconaerialmedia.com/drone-operator-intake-survey/
How about racing a horse at a rodeo in barrel racing as a stunt- of course you would have to let the horse win ….
Great article!
how can i benefit from your visual/video drone pilot training materials, either print or online?.
In the UK we all have to fly in accordance with CAA CAP 722, articles 166 and 167, even after obtaining an approved ‘Permission to Fly’ for commercial work. Insurances are very high, circa £750 per year.
https://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1995&pageid=16012
Read it, it is very onerous and the FAA will be looking at this as a basis for controlling the American use of drones for recreation and commercial work, so be prepared for a clampdown soon. It is the basis of most countries rules regarding drone useage!
Robert,
Do you currently work in this field or are you an enthusiast. Do you have a website or blog to share?
I am in Canada, regs are pending and they will likely not too bad all things considered though their requirement to only allow “compliant” aircraft to fly commercially could really screw everyone over here. If you are interested search recon aerial media on Facebook of Google and get in touch!
Cheers
Brian
Here are a few other things you can do to use your Drone more and to help other people.
If you are a Teacher especially in the environmental sciences, physics, and mathematics your Drone could prove to be a GREAT Learning tool in your classroom. Let your administration know though that you intend to “DRONE-IT” in your classroom before you do it so you won’t get in trouble. If you are NOT a Teacher, offer your services and / or the use of your Drone to help Teachers with their classroom activities. If your community / town / city does not have a Drone, you could offer again your services and the use of your Drone to help your community’s operations.
If your local newspapers, radio and TV stations do not have a Drone, you can offer your services again along with your Drone to help them deliver the News.
As a Drone owner / user please keep in mind that you need to act responsibly within the strictures of the Law. If you do not, you give a black eye to those of us who are responsible when we “DRONE-IT”.
Hi Ron. I’m a 6th grade teacher and would love to use the drone at school or for my district. I have some ideas, but would love to hear from you.
Hello ,
Very nice ideas , we suggest to use it with our job for building construction .
watching , take project photos, ……
Thanks
Great ideas and I can see endless possibilities but it’s such a shame that licensing in the uk anyhow is so expensive. But in the long term just maybe worth it!
All great ideas! As an insurance agent specializing wih drones, I love to hear what else people are doing with this technology. I myself would like to start a drone inspection service to further provide risk management to my clients. This involves the use of a specialized drone and camera system. Start up costs are high that it would easily take at least 2-3 years to recoup the start up cost doing it part time. Would love any feedback on this idea.
Another useful piece to add to the drone culture.
Nice work.
Cheers!
Thanks for the opportunity to share, guys!