Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2013, just before Christmas; the price of about EUR 30 for Instagram photo bracelets and the mention of Google+ date from that time.
In a previous article we looked at some ideas that had already become solid, stable businesses, all built around finding a use for Instagram photos. With a little imagination and creativity, we can also make hundreds of products from our own home using the material we already have online, and earn money with them. Anyone can make these original products and sell them to friends and family, or even set up a small online shop or sell them on eBay.
We only show a few dozen product ideas here, but the possibilities in this field are truly endless. You can also look at other kinds of micro-businesses where our readers made money from home.
- A personalised CD or DVD case. A very romantic idea: give your partner a CD or DVD in a case printed with a photo of the two of you and a romantic message. Don’t they say love is in the little details?
- A heart made of photos. A very original, glowing heart made with your own photos, ideal now that Christmas is coming. Photos can also be used to decorate Christmas trees.
- Photo bracelets. These bracelets made with Instagram photos are selling online for about €30.
- Photo cushions. A cushion printed with your photos, or with photos of friends from any social network: Facebook, Instagram, Google+…
- Framed photo murals. Murals with frames that can range from the most elegant to the most rough-and-ready. It’s all art, and it’s also a good way to make money from recycling. You provide the materials, and the ideas too.
- A lampshade or bedside table. The shade of a lamp, or a bedside table, covered with photos of your loved ones.
- Giant photo murals. Huge murals that could be sold to pubs and nightclubs, made from photos of their customers or social-media followers, in any format or material needed and with a backlit touch.
- Photo blocks. Artistic photo blocks as decoration or… any other use you can think of.
- Photo pendants. Pendants with your photos, from the most homemade to the most luxurious. It’s up to your ingenuity, and there are many other styles of pendant too.
- A photo clock. A very original clock which, like the previous ideas, can be made anywhere from highly sophisticated to very simple.
- Photo clothes pegs. Even clothes pegs decorated with your photos (they must be good for something).
Featured image: Jessica Spencer, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
