Well, I remember it as if it was yesterday: It was more than 25 years ago. I was moping around my office feeling pretty sorry for myself, when the UPS man came by and dropped off a package of my slides. I didn't need to open the package; I knew it was yet another rejection from a photo editor. I threw the package on the top of a filing cabinet and forgot about it, at least for an hour or two. Then, curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know what the reason for reject was this time. Well, this one was a little different - there was a hand-written note (it's always unusual to get one of those) that read: “Sorry, no needs, try again. Great photography, though.”

Those eight words changed my life. I had finally found the answer that has enabled me to make a very good living and travel the world doing exactly what I love best.

How many people do you know that can say the same? Isn’t that what everyone dreams about? Isn't that what you dream about? To spend your days working at something you really enjoy. You don't have to answer that; we both know it's true. But how many of us ever make it? The secret I learned - the secret of those eight words - will enable you to do just that.

Whether photography is your hobby or a career you’d like to pursue, the secret I will share with you will catapult you into the money right away. Without that secret, it doesn’t matter if you’re the greatest photographer in the world, you'll never be able to make any real money. When you DO learn it, however, that’s when the money and prestige will start rolling in…

You'll see your work published in the national and international media; travel the world for free; stay in the finest hotels and resorts - for free; be wined and dined like a VIP. The perks that go with what I do are beyond description. As I write this, my travel schedule is full: Puerto Rico in February, Hawaii in March; Club Med Sandpiper in April; New Orleans in early May; Kiawah Island in late May, and the list goes on. And it's all at no charge to me.

Then again, perhaps you’d rather like to stay close to home. If so, you can still make money from your photography. The opportunities are all around you, opportunities can enable you to turn your hobby into a real source of extra income, even a change of career - museums, parks, tourist attractions, special events, parades, festivals, sporting events, high school football games, even spot news to name just a  few.

You just need to know how to turn those opportunities into cash. And that's where my secret will reveal. It's not simply about being a pro or an amateur photographer. It's more than that:

Next time you're out and about, visit your local book store, newsstand, or grocery store and take a look around. Most of all, look at the magazines, newspapers, books, trade journals, technical manuals, software, product packaging, whatever. Look at the cover of any one of those magazines, flip through the pages. What do you see?

Photographs: hundreds of them, thousands of them, in every magazine, newspaper and trade book; on almost every box, CD cover, software package. The world turns around "the photograph."

And here's the thing: Someone has to take those photographs. Why not you? Well, "you have to pay your dues," right? "You have to spend years knocking on doors before you can become an established contributor.” At least, that's what the established pros will tell you.

And, when I first started out all those years ago, that’s exactly what I believed, but not anymore. I’ll get to that in a minute. Oh yes, I played by the rules: I knocked on the doors and I certainly paid my dues. But... well, you already know that I still wasn’t doing too well.

Ironically, it was that rejection note I mentioned earlier that opened all the doors for me: “Sorry, no needs, try again. Great photography though.”

At first I thought this editor was letting me down easy. However, the more I thought about it, the more I knew this wasn’t the case. I was already familiar enough with the publishing industry to know that no editor will invite people to waste his or her time. If my work wasn’t good enough to publish, the editor would have made no bones about telling  me so. He certainly wouldn’t have asked me to try again.

That hand-written note was a word of encouragement.

I looked at the note again. Two words caught my attention, “No needs.” And then the light went on. It was so simple; only too obvious when I figured it out. This editor hadn’t said he wouldn’t buy from me. He was telling me: “Send me something I need and I’ll buy it.”

I NOW knew the answer.

The secret is so obvious, so simple, that no one really gives it any consideration. It may even surprise you.

It’s simply this:

People Don’t Buy What They Don’t Need.

When I discovered that, I knew I was really on to something. I also knew that I had to become “customer focused. " This is so important it bears repeating. But let me put it in another way.

You might be the finest photographer ever to hold a camera, you might own the finest equipment money can buy, and you can shoot thousands of images each year; but if you can’t find someone who needs the images you make, you’ll be spinning your wheels. You’ll never sell a single photo.

However, if you can find a need and fill it, the money will start pouring in, even if you’re no more than an amateur photographer.

That’s exactly what you’ll discover in our course, The Photo Essay – Getting Your Foot in the Door: a complete course for photographers who want to make money selling their images. It's a course that will teach you how to shoot photographs that will sell – truly marketable images - the sort that fills an editor’s needs.

Now, you don’t need fancy equipment (although it won't hurt). With an inexpensive digital SLR camera, or even a simple digital point-and-shot, you can shoot images that are truly amazing, but let me also say this: You don’t necessarily need to take great pictures in order to sell them. You do, however, have to produce the pictures your clients need. And you do need to make sure they include at least three of the four essential components that make up a saleable photograph.