Instagrammer Makes $15k in One Day

Clearly I’ve been using Instagram wrong this whole time. Photographer Daniel Arnold got it right. Living in New York City with only $90 to his name all while facing unemployment, the 34-year-old photographer was hitting hard times. So what’s a guy to do to make some fast cash? Sell stuff of course. On the day of his 34th birthday, Arnold posted on his Instagram to his 20,000+ followers:

“Hello, I just turned 34 this second. For one day only I am selling 4×6 prints of whatever you want from my Instagram archive for $150 each. I swear I will never sell anything this cheap again. If you’re interested, send a screenshot of the photo(s) of your choice to arnoldaniel@gmail.com (one d) and I will send a paypal invoice, followed by a signed print. Easy peasy. Happy my birthday. I love you”

With that, the orders just came flooding in. In just one day, Arnold made about $15k in orders, collecting just $5,000 so far. One fan even offered $1,000 for photos that received over 1000 likes. The sale was supposed to be a one-day special but Arnold has backlogs of orders to keep the cash flowing for weeks.

Arnold’s work is not your average fancy snapshot of style gods or poetic moments. His archive of 1.3k images capture the essence of New York’s craziness. There’s the pantless Santa Claus, the old lady stuffing her face with a Hershey’s bar, and other less than glamorous situations of the regular folks who walk among us. Not every time Arnold plays as a fly on the wall; some of his subjects catch him in the act, like this man getting his shoe shined.

Mommy can’t be serious…

Of course, Arnold’s number of followers increased tremendously (new follower here!).  Go ahead and check out his work for pure, unadulterated, unfiltered, unhashtagged goodness – @Arnold_Daniel. Also, be inspired. There’s always a way to make money.

(Source: Forbes)