I love using social media. In fact, I’m a little addicted to it. I’ll admit I wake up at 4 am with ideas for my blog, or ways to engage people on our Facebook account. I keep a notebook on my end table so I can record my ideas and get back to sleep – it sure beats lying there thinking about things, hoping I’ll remember.
Anyway, one of the reasons I love social media is the connection you can make with people all over the world. When people post comments, ask questions, or even disagree with what I’ve said, I take it to heart and listen to what they have to say. I’m always open for changing my opinion if I have another way to look at things.
So a comment came through a day or so ago that made me think.
“I think you’re giving false hope to a lot of people out there who simply will never make money at photography.”
Hmmm… I had to think about that one for a while.
The Road To Failure
In some ways I suppose it could be true.
I started this site with one goal – to teach people how to make money with photography. 
Yet I know by releasing it online, anyone can read it. So if you are a professional photographer working full time, you can read it. If you are a professional photographer working part time, you can read it. If you are an amateur wanting to start your own business, you can read it. And if you just love photography, and put the concept of owning your own photography business somewhere in your dreams, you can read it too.
To me, false hope is giving someone advice that simply can never come true. So if I taught you how to travel to Mars, at this point in time, that cannot come true. So that would be false hope.
But if I give you advice on something I have accomplished, and thousands upon thousands of other people have accomplished, it really isn’t false hope, is it?
I’ve made a very healthy six figure income from my photography. That’s a fact. And I can point to many photographers who have accomplished the same thing.
Yet I know not everyone can and will accomplish that. If you have a full time job that brings in a good enough income that you aren’t willing to leave it, you may decide never to jump off the “job” mentality and build up your own photography business. In that case, everything you read will remain a pipedream, and always fall into the “I wish I had done that…” column.
And some people may try it, but never give it their all. To be truly successful at a photography business, you have to give it your all. 110 percent.
But isn’t that really true with anything?
The Road To Success
The only way to be successful at anything is to apply yourself and take action. Everybody has success at something.
If you went to college to become a doctor, you spent years in school, internships, and finally started up your own practice or worked for a hospital. You found success because that’s the road you chose to follow.
The same thing could be said for any industry, any position, any job. Whatever you chose as a career, its what you excelled at; what you became good at. And that applies to any type of job, whether you needed a degree or not, whether you needed special training or not, and whether you hate it or not. You excel because it becomes your specialty.
So with this blog, I’m providing the necessary information to help you learn more about photography, and helping you make the chose of whether you want to proceed in making money from photography, or not. The option is there. But it will always be up to you as to how far you are willing to take it.
Some of my stuff is for free. I give advice on:
Ideas To Make Money With Your Photographs
Selling Your Travel Photos
Places To Turn Your Photography Into Sales
The True Value of a Client
Ways To Price and Package Your Wedding Photography
And some of it you will have to pay for.
My Photography For Success has been a big seller, and helps a beginning photographer with the most important steps in building a successful photography studio. From set up to advanced marketing strategies, you’ll get it all.
And my newest product, The Social Ghost Training, gives you a full step by step program to becoming successful online using social media – Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and YouTube. I don’t just give you a few details; I provide over 180 videos where I walk you through the steps, show you how to do each piece, and give you access to videos which you can watch again and again until you get each step down and in place.
I provide free information because I remember just starting out. I looked to many mentors over my career, and on a limited budget learned from a wide variety of people. Those I found offered a ton of benefits; I invested more, and attended training and bought products and services from. So if you find value in my free information and want to continue on, rest assured you’ll get that much more from me on the inside of one of my training products.
But in either case, my ultimate goal is to help as many photographers as I can succeed at what you want to do. If you want to take photography to the next level – whatever that level is – you can do it. It’s been done before, it’s being accomplished right now, and it will be possible in the future. Guaranteed.
About Virtual Photography
