Helicopters, cruises, campervans. Sydneysider Olga Kashubin, 34, has ticked all the travel adventure boxes and along the way she's taken photos. Hundreds of them.

When they started picking up lots of likes on social media she wondered how she could make some money out of her passion for travel, outdoor activities, and photography.

Olga Kashubin advises paying attention to keywords when uploading photos but says it's important to balance the business side with having fun. Credit:John Veage

Enter the burgeoning number of micro stock agencies. As with other elements of the gig economy micro stock agencies such as iStock.com; Bigstock.com; Fotolia; and Dreamstime, offer contributors the opportunity to make some extra cash on the side. They license content (photographic images; videos and music), paying contributors per download and creating a market for amateurs to sell their work.

Kashubin, who makes clothing for her day job and takes photos for fun, started uploading her work on Shutterstock.com about two years ago. Now she is on the cusp of cracking its top lifetime earnings level of more than $10,000. And it is only one of the agencies where she uploads her photos, illustrations and vectors.