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For the past few months, I’ve been tracking every dollar that comes through my business.

Not because I wanted to brag. Not because I wanted to publish another generic income report. I wanted to answer a much more important question:

Where does my money actually come from?

I’m a real estate photographer, so the obvious answer would be real estate photography. But after reviewing every invoice, sponsorship, product sale, mentorship call and YouTube payment from the second quarter of 2026, I realized something surprising.

I got paid 13 different ways in 90 days.

That matters because I’m no longer building only a photography business. I’m slowly building a creative business that combines client work, content, education, digital products and filmmaking.

Here is the complete breakdown.

How Much I Made in Q2 of 2026

Before getting into the numbers, I need to make something clear:

This is revenue, not profit.

I still have business expenses, equipment, software, contractors, taxes, travel and all the other costs that come with running a creative business.

My total revenue for Q2 of 2026 was:

$32,322

Here is how that broke down by month:

• April: $12,831
• May: $11,129
• June: $8,362

June was my lowest-performing month of the year, but the quarter still kept me on track to potentially have my biggest year ever.

Depending on how the rest of 2026 goes, I’m currently projecting approximately $140,000 to $156,000 in annual revenue.

That would represent meaningful growth over the previous year, but the total revenue is not the most exciting part.

The most exciting part is how much the business has changed.

The 13 Ways I Made Money

I divided the income into four primary categories:

1. Real estate media
2. Sponsorships
3. Products and education
4. YouTube advertising

Let’s break down each individual income stream.

Real Estate Media: Five Income Streams

Real estate media is still the foundation of my business.

It currently accounts for approximately 67% of my total revenue, and it continues to fund the content, products and creative projects I want to build.

1. My Real Estate Media Business

The largest source of revenue came from my own real estate media company.

This includes services such as:

• Real estate photography
• Listing videos
• Drone photography and video
• 3D virtual tours
• Floor plans
• Property websites
• Additional listing media

This is the business I’ve spent years developing, first on the East Coast and now in Los Angeles.

I’ve photographed thousands of homes and built two six-figure real estate photography businesses. Client work remains the most dependable part of my income.

2–5. Working With Four Other Real Estate Media Companies

In addition to operating my own business, I also completed work for four other real estate media companies during the quarter.

That creates four additional income streams.

I regularly tell photographers not to view everyone in their market as competition. Other photographers and media companies can become referral partners, collaborators and sources of additional work.

There will be days when another company is overbooked, needs someone in a different part of town or requires a photographer with a specific skill set.

Building relationships with your peers can create opportunities that would never come from traditional marketing.

Between my own company and the four companies I worked with, real estate media accounted for my first five income streams.

Sponsorships: Three Income Streams

The next category was sponsorships.

During Q2, I was paid by three different sponsors.

6–8. Three Brand Sponsorships

A year ago, sponsorships were not a meaningful part of my income.

Now, they account for approximately 28% of my quarterly revenue.

That is a huge shift.

These partnerships allow me to create videos about tools, technology and services that are relevant to photographers and creative entrepreneurs. More importantly, sponsorship revenue gives me the ability to invest additional time into making content.

YouTube videos require research, filming, editing, thumbnails, writing and promotion. When the content itself begins generating revenue, I can spend more time improving it instead of treating it like something I have to squeeze between client shoots.

I’m incredibly thankful for every person who watches, subscribes, comments or shares my work. The audience makes these opportunities possible.

The sponsorship side of the business will likely continue growing, but I still want to be thoughtful about the brands I work with. A sponsorship should make sense for the audience and fit naturally into the content.

Products and Education: Four Income Streams

The next category includes digital products, courses and mentorship.

These income streams currently account for approximately 5% of my quarterly revenue.

That percentage is relatively small, but this category has some of the greatest long-term potential because digital products are not directly tied to the number of houses I can photograph.

9. Etsy Sales

I sell digital photography presets through Etsy.

Etsy gives my products access to people who may never discover my website or YouTube channel. It functions as its own search engine and marketplace, making it another way for customers to find my work.

10. Shopify Sales

I also sell products through Shopify.

My Shopify store connects more directly to my brand and YouTube audience. When someone watches one of my photography tutorials and wants to use the tools or presets I use, they can purchase them directly through the store.

11. Podia Sales

Podia is another platform I use to sell digital products and educational resources.

This includes presets, guides and my real estate photography course.

While Etsy helps me reach marketplace customers, Podia allows me to create a more complete educational experience connected to my website and content.

12. Mentorship and Deep-Dive Calls

I also earn revenue through private mentorship calls.

These calls allow photographers and creative entrepreneurs to speak with me directly about topics such as:

• Pricing
• Client acquisition
• Real estate photography workflows
• Business growth
• YouTube strategy
• Sponsorships
• Digital products
• Building a creative career

This is still time-for-money income, but it is different from photography because I’m being paid for the experience and knowledge I’ve developed over the years.

Between Etsy, Shopify, Podia and mentorship, products and education created four additional income streams.

YouTube: One Income Stream With a Bigger Purpose

The final income stream was YouTube advertising revenue.

13. Google AdSense

YouTube sends me a monthly payment through Google AdSense based on the advertisements displayed on my videos.

The payment is not buying me a Ferrari anytime soon, but I don’t view YouTube only through the lens of monthly advertising revenue.

Every video I publish becomes an asset.

A video can continue attracting:

• New viewers
• Subscribers
• Real estate clients
• Digital product customers
• Sponsorship opportunities
• Mentorship clients
• Future creative collaborators

I began publishing consistently in 2021, although I had been creating videos inconsistently for several years before that.

The consistency is finally beginning to compound.

Some videos perform immediately. Some take months or years to find an audience. Some never take off at all.

You never completely know which video will work, so the only real strategy is to continue creating, improving and publishing.

My Current Income Breakdown

For Q2 of 2026, my income was divided approximately like this:

• Real estate media: 67%
• Sponsorships: 28%
• Digital products and education: 5%

YouTube AdSense was included within the smaller creator and product portion of the business.

A year ago, my income was much closer to being 100% dependent on real estate media.

That makes this quarter a major win.

Real estate photography remains the engine, but it is no longer the only thing moving the business forward.

What I’m Most Excited About

The financial growth is exciting, but the creative growth matters even more to me.

Since I was young, I’ve wanted to make movies, music and cinematic projects.

Recently, I started a short-form series called Finding the Cinema. The purpose is to intentionally practice cinematography, storytelling, lighting and filmmaking.

Not every episode receives a huge number of views, but that is not the only measurement that matters.

The series is helping me develop my craft.

Eventually, I want that practice to evolve into short films, narrative projects or a larger series. I’m still figuring out exactly what that looks like, but I know I have to create consistently enough to discover it.

My plan is not to completely abandon the real estate photography niche.

Instead, I want to keep serving the audience I’ve built while slowly expanding into broader topics around photography, cinematography, filmmaking, creativity and entrepreneurship.

Real estate media gave me the foundation.

YouTube gave me an audience.

Sponsorships gave me additional resources.

Digital products gave me leverage.

Now, the goal is to connect all of those pieces into something bigger.

The Biggest Lesson From Tracking My Income

The biggest lesson was not that I made $32,322.

It was that the business is becoming more diversified.

When your entire income depends on one service, one platform or one client, every slow month feels like an emergency.

Multiple income streams do not eliminate risk, but they create options.

A photography client may discover me through YouTube. A tutorial viewer may purchase a preset. A sponsor may find an older video. A mentorship client may eventually hire my company or recommend my work to someone else.

The individual income streams begin supporting one another.

That is the business I want to continue building: one where client work, content, education and creativity are not separate careers, but different parts of the same ecosystem.

I’m still early in that transition, but Q2 of 2026 showed me that it is already happening.

And honestly, that feels really good.