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So you have a small studio and you don’t think you need to be online.

Think again.

There are very few industries that don’t need a web presence. It’s the most economical, easy and life-changing way to bring your business into a successful venture.

You can type anything - ANYTHING - into your favorite search engine and find something related to your search. Whether for research or for purchase, I can guarantee you someone is out there trying to find a way to build a business online.

Camel Photography - just trying to think obscure here

Strawberry Photography - a blog where a photographer mentioned strawberries

Island Photography - who wouldn’t love to attend a workshop in Greece

Try it for yourself. No matter what you can think of, or what words you can combine together, I’m sure you’ll find search results.

Now imagine if you were really trying for these search results!

Are you still based in film, or have you made the switch to digital?

I’m amazed almost daily at the number of photographers that are still film based. Digital has been such a big part of the consumer market for years, yet photographers still love their film.

We even have a niece who has taken a few courses in photography in college, and she’s still taught through film-based classes.

Yet the types of film that were once available are now quickly disappearing. Why? Because you can do so much more with digital. And it’s the way of the future.

If you are a professional, your whole goal should be to make money with your photography. (If not, there is no reason to start a business.) And one of the best ways to sell your photographs - at least from a portrait standpoint - is to sell immediately on the emotion.

If a client comes in, has their photograph taken, they are excited about their portraits. With digital, you can sell immediately with projection (find out how) and double - even triple your sales. With film, you have to spend days developing and putting together your sales presentation before the customer comes back in for viewing. That’s a lot of time for something else to happen in her life - making her portrait not the most exciting thing in her life.

When we used film, we knew every click of the shutter meant we were spending about $1. With digital, there’s no cost. It makes you a more liberal shooter - getting many more saleable images. When we decided to convert to digital, we decided to run parallel for the first year. After the first month, we had several issues with film (lost in mail, ruined by lab, etc) and converted 100 percent over to digital, and have never looked back. 

Because of technology, digital is here to stay. To run your business, you need to have a website and blog, and know about online marketing. And to continue competing with professionals you must learn the ins and outs of digital photography.

Agree … or disagree? I’d love to have your comments.

We all like things for free. It makes us feel good when we know we got it for the bargain price of - nothing.

But does it have any value?

We recently attended a concert at a local botanical gardens. Every year they have a whole summer of concerts, and every Sunday night you can attend a different concert. They have local talent, and even bring in some big names from the past (we saw Firefall the other night).

For most of the series they charge a small fee for the tickets, anywhere from $10 to $30 a ticket. But for the Father’s day concert, the concert was free. The only catch was you had to have a ticket.

So I went and got my free tickets, along with paying for a couple of the other nights.

Guess what? The free concert was their biggest “sell out” yet. Meaning they had given away more tickets than ever before. Yet from past years I know it was a fairly small crowd.

Is free good? Did people consider the tickets to be of value?

If something else came up, the people didn’t come. The tickets were free, so it didn’t matter if they used them or not. In essence, they had no value.

But if you paid $20 a piece for the tickets, I bet you would make an effort to attend. 

Now let’s swing this around to what I’m seeing with the photography industry.

Photographers love to pile on the stuff in their “package” deals. For one small fee, we’ll give you everything.

Does that put any value on what you do?

The real value comes from what you do that other’s don’t do.

If everyone does a quick shoot and hands over the files on a CD, that’s your competition.

How can you be different?

By providing an entire service, from beginning to end.

People don’t want a CD with 100 photos on it. They want one beautiful portrait of their baby daughter, printed on the finest canvas, retouched to perfection, matted perfectly, and framed in a way that matches their home decor. They want the nail and the hammer to be attached to the frame - less to think about when they bring it home. Maybe they would even appreciate a photographer that hangs the portrait on the wall! What service!

You can’t hang a CD on the wall. 

There is a difference.

source of photo ba1969

If you keep doing what everyone else is doing, you’ll never jump ahead of your competition.

Sure it’s easy to emulate what other photographers are doing in your industry, but that will never set you apart from them. What you really need is … a Wienie.

What’s a Wienie? Mark Ramsey did a great post on one of the all-time great marketers, Walt Disney. Even when others thought he had achieved perfection, Walt new something was missing.

That’s really what a Wienie is. It’s that one special thing that sets you apart from all others. It might be the way you perform at a wedding. It might be the way you present your final albums. It might be your customer service. But it has to be something that you really don’t need - but you do anyway to make you stand heads above the rest.

What’s your Wienie?

How long can a photography studio stay in business if it isn’t making any money?

I came across a photography site today in which the photographer had listed prices. I won’t use names - but I guarantee you can find prices like this on many, many different sites.

Event fee $300, includes photographer and assistant for 3 hours of time, plus a DVD with images. Additional hours available as needed.

So let’s do a few calculations.

$300 for 3 hours of work - that’s $100 an hour

Let’s assume an hour each before and after the event getting organized - down to $60 an hour

Let’s assume 3 hours of meeting time to book the client and to deliver the DVD and final products - down to $37.50 per hour

Let’s assume 2 hours of production time, transferring raw images to computer, editing and burning DVD - down to $30 per hour

Normal business expenses:

• Vehicle
• Gas at $4 per gallon - depends on the distance of the event
• Camera equipment costs
• Costs of brochures, business cards, paper, envelopes, advertising - everything to bring in the clients
• Rent
• Office supplies
• Phone expenses
• Utilities

Okay, with all of those expenses to add up, I’ll be conservative and say it costs about $30 per hour - which means we’re now down to $0

Oh, and did I mention that there are two people at the event - which means you have to pay that second person per hour - I guess we’re now into the negative.

And does this person really have a chance of making a huge additional sale? They are giving away the DVD, so I think chances are pretty low.

Becoming a professional photographer means you have to make money. You have to give yourself a profit, and pay yourself for your expertise.

If you don’t, you’ll be hanging that Out Of Business sign very soon.

What can you do? Charge what you’re worth, and charge to run a profitable business. One of the reasons our studio became a Six Figure success in under two years is because we charged what we were worth for our services. We made sure our expenses were completely covered - including our own salaries - and made a healthy profit on top of it all.

It doesn’t take luck to become a Six Figure Photographer. It takes business planning. What are you doing to guarantee your success?

9 out of 10 photographers are using their websites incorrectly.

• They create a small, brochure-like site with just a few pages, and let it sit for months (even years) without a change.
• They create Flash driven websites that make look good in action, but do zero for marketing online.
• They add a few of their best-of images to their online gallery, and expect to look different from the hundreds of other photographers online.

Are you one of them?

What should you be doing? How about blogging?

Blogging gives you the ability to create your own content whenever you like, control your content 24/7, and be able to connect with prospects and clients anywhere, anytime. Imagine being able to show 50 images from a wedding you did on Saturday on your blog on Monday afternoon.

And with the functionality of a blog, your images could be seen by people all over the world - giving you access to clients from all over the world. I loved traveling to Phoenix in February (lots of snow in Denver) and loved making connections with people outside of my normal region.

Blogs make it possible. Are you ready to blog?

Finding your first client is easy, right? You are excited about it, and start sharing your stories with all of those around you.

So a couple of people you know come to you for portraits, and you’re on the way to a profitable business.

But then your sources dry up. You’ve already told the people you see every week about your business, and you’ve only photographed a couple of people. Where are the other dozens of clients going to come from? How will they help you grow your business?

No matter what you read or hear, businesses don’t grow instantly over night. You can’t go from zero to successful in a matter of days. It takes weeks, and sometimes years to become a true success story.

And it takes planning.

1. Start with your first customers, family and friends. Tell them what you’re doing, and let them be your samples.

2. Start a newsletter. Send to your first customers, family and friends, and add to your list all the time.

3. Fill your newsletter with everything you are doing in your business. Show them your work. Give them stories. Provide specials.

4. Keep everyone you meet in your communication loop – forever.

Repetition is the key to success. 

So you want to become a professional portrait photographer? Maybe you’ve enjoyed taking family photos over the years. Or maybe you enjoy snapping great images of your kids. For whatever reason, the idea of doing it professionally has become an important part of your life.

So you print off a few business cards. Print up a couple of brochures. And you start the hunt for customers. What’s next?

To become a professional, your first goal is to take one portrait, and make money doing so. That’s really all there is to it.

Yes, its easy to take photographs of your friends and your family. But to truly become a professional, you need paying clients.

Go to your friends and family for samples.

Then start hitting your community. Talk to the people at your daycare or school. Tell people in your local community center or church what you do.

With your samples in hand, your first client is on the way.

I attended a 4 hour event on Saturday with my daughter and her Girl Scout troop. It was at the Young American’s Bank, and it was on starting up your own business.

We started by going over the profile of an entrepreneur - what it takes to be successful at running your own business. Each girl had to fill out a profile to find out if they had what it takes to run their own business. There were dozens of questions like:

• I enjoy making presentations and know how to give a professional presentation
• I like selling an idea or product to people I don’t know
• I regularly meet the goals I set for myself
• I manage my time well
• I have a high energy level
• I want to be able to determine when and where I work

They also gave us a number of chances to brainstorm ideas for businesses, how to build a brand and a logo for these businesses, and even a four page fill-in-the-blank business plan to help them get their business ideas in place.

They made it so easy that even 12-14 year old girls had no trouble putting together some pretty amazing ideas.

I also realized during these four hours that the key to everything they were talking about is planning and goal setting. In four hours, they taught exactly how to plan for success. The problem with most small business owners is they never plan for success. You have to spend the time to write down what you hope to achieve and how you will achieve it.

Make your plan today. Start with these ideas:

• Make a list of 3 to 5 services/products you could sell
• Define your potential customers
• Why do people need to buy your product?
• What price will people be willing to pay for your products/services?
• How much will it cost to produce your products/services?
• How much profit do you choose to make?
• Do you need employees?
• How will you gain customers?
• Where will you get funding to get this idea started?
• Who is your competition?
• How much time do you anticipate running your business at the beginning?

You’ll soon be on the road to success.

Has your photography business hit a slump? Are your sales down from last year? Or, are you ready to move to the next level. Enter the Facebook social arena. Facebook and photography can exist with great complimentary connections. Here is a fan page that we put together on Facebook to introduce one of our services. - Facebook sample page - take a look and if you are not a member, register at no cost and explore this next generation of marketing.

What is your average sale when a client comes into buy?

Are you still handing over the digital files (or worse, negatives) when a client comes in for a photo session?

As a photographer, you make your money from your finished product. If you’re providing your client with the raw files, and not a finished product, you are actually doing your client a disservice. Your job as a professional photographer isn’t just taking the picture and letting your client have the image. It’s also about seeing what others don’t see. A professional photographer has the ability to see things in unique ways, and give their client above and beyond what they could get anywhere else.

Become a Picasso
One of my favorite stories is about Pablo Picasso. Picasso was sitting in a restaurant having lunch with a friend when a woman came over and asked Picasso to create something for her on her napkin, and she would happily pay him for what it was worth. After a few minutes, he gave her back her napkin, and a bill for several thousand dollars. After the initial shock, she questioned why he could charge so much for a few minutes of work. Picasso responded the price wasn’t based on the few minutes it took him to create her artwork; it was based on the years of studying, education, training, and mastering his talents. She happily paid the price.

As a photographer, your prices should reflect your talents, not the final output. Anyone can snap a photo and print it out on their home computer. Where the real talent comes from is within the photographer herself.

And by the way you present what you do to your customers.

It’s easy to increase your sales potential on every client. Start with thee 7 ways to put more pizzazz into the way you market your photography.

1. Create better packages.
People like deals. And they like to get what everyone else is getting. Packages actually make the buying/selling process a whole lot easier. Your customer can bypass the ala carte section, and trying to decide exactly what they need. Instead, they’ll simply buy what looks like a good deal. And if it’s your best seller, why not choose what everyone else is buying?

Continue Reading >>

So you don’t have a blog or a MySpace account. Can you still "be found" in the online world?

Take a look at DaShiv a photographer from California who has made it big using the site MetaFilter. DaShiv makes it a habit to comment on this community weblog regularly. He adds comments, offers advice, and builds relationships within the community.

And because the community is a worldwide audience, his business has grown with worldwide exposure.

Great Marketing!

Lori

 
Wouldn’t it be nice to take the family to the Caribbean, and have your business write off the entire trip?
 
What about skiing in some of the best snow around (pick your place - The Rocky Mountains, The Swiss Alps) knowing your business is paying you to be there?
 
For many people, these dreams sound wonderful. They talk about doing it. They may even read a few things on how to do it. But when Monday rolls around, it’s back to the same old job, working with the same old tasks.
 
It doesn’t have to be that way. But you do have to put some effort into it. After all, dreams can’t come true if you don’t set goals to achieve your dreams.
 
Imagine you love traveling, and want to travel several months out of the year. Why not become a travel photographer? There are many sources that will pay you good money for images of destination locations. Every magazine needs quality images. Stock houses will pay well, once you become an excepted photographer.
 
Imagine you love weddings, and want to photograph weddings anywhere in the world. You can’t just put up a sentence on your website that says, “I’m a destination wedding photographer” and expect it to happen. You need to choose several destinations, and work at getting known in those locations. The more you’re “known”, the bigger you’ll become - and not just in your choice destinations.
 
Imagine you love fashion, and would love to photograph for magazines and catalogs. Take your first step, and find a small company to work with. Every business started out small, and needed just a few images for their first catalog (or magazine). I know the founders of two start-up magazines right here in Colorado - I’m sure you can find similar contacts in your area.
 
Take a few minutes and think about exactly what you would like to do. In your dreams, what would you like to be doing a year from now? Write it down! (Email me - I’d love to hear your dreams!)
 
Then take the next step, and do one thing that will help you make your dream a reality. It may be to choose a destination for your wedding photography services. It may be to book a trip to a resort in your community. It may be to join an association to get closer to catalog producers.
 
Remember the saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Neither is your business. But you do need to take action towards your goal every day. When you complete one task, start in on another. When one task fails, try something new. Never give up!

I have a promise to keep…

For months I’ve been talking to photographers, and sharing ideas on building a stronger business.

I’ve been writing about marketing techniques, and teaching business owners the importance of developing a strong marketing plan.

But now I’m giving you just a bit more.

I’m almost ready to release the next tool that will be the talk of the photography community. I know you want more than a marketing tool. I know you want more than a marketing plan. I know you want more than the ability to grow your business over months, or even year.

If you don’t make money today, you may not be in business a year from now.

Stay tuned… 

 

Have you ever noticed that most things in life are done just to get by? Most people simply exist. They don’t go the extra step

 

I was in my local Borders bookstore the other day, and I noticed a whole display upfront of Harry & David merchandise. The way they have the check out line set up is they weave you through a menagerie of displays full of various types of merchandise: cards, notepads, small gift books, etc. And of course you have to look through everything! I’ve found some great gifts in this line. But as I was moving through the line, there sat an entire display of Harry & David products. Small gift type products that work well for adding to a small gift. What a great idea.

The more I thought about this idea, the more I was impressed with this marketing tactic. Borders has a huge store, one small display does not take over much of their room. By setting up a strategic alliance with Harry & David, they are offering one more choice to their customers, and are introducing a great product to people that may have never tried or heard of them before. Borders is making a percentage of the profits, and Harry & David is selling more merchandise then just through their own stores and catalogs.

Find one business that you can provide a service to by offering your product for sale through their business. Then work on developing a relationship with them, and develop a plan to help increase the revenues of both companies. Every business has a complimentary business that would provide value-added benefits to both companies. Your job as a marketer is to find those companies, and work with the person in  charge to convince them of the double beneifts. When you get one program working well, it’s easy to move around to other companies and repeat the process.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Growing Your Photography Business

What is the easiest way to increase your sales/profits? Increasing your business boils down to three fundamentals.

Most traditional photography studios have known for years that there are three essential ways of growing your business:

1. Create fresh ways of bringing new clients into your business.

2. Increase the average dollar amount each customer spends.

3. Increase the frequency with which you do business with each customer.

If you are building a strong photography business, this translates into:

1. Create new marketing techniques to bring in more people for photography sessions.

2. Increase the amount of product your client is purchasing from you at each photo session. This may include packaging products together to create larger sales.

3. Increase the number of times each of your customers have a portrait session. Creativity is king here. You must focus on creating sessions that your clients want to be included.

Serving small niche markets is easier to grow your business. Create seasonal photo sessions that are limited items. Go beyond the traditional Santa Clause and Easter bunny scenes. Instead think of things that are unique and individual to you and your business. Offer quality products and services that people can’t find anywhere else, and they will create a bond that will last throughout the years.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

The holidays are just around the corner. Are you ready? What are your plans to take care of your best clients and referral sources?

One of the best ways to keep referral sources sending you weddings and portrait clients to your photography studio are with gifts, cards or a certificate to a elegant restaurant show that you respect them. Wedding coordinators, wedding reception locations and caterers have always been on of the best supplier of quality potential clients for our studio. Keep them happy and show your appreciation for them this coming holiday.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

7 Items Every Photographer’s Website Should Have

A Gallery of Images
People visit a photographer’s website to see images. Don’t disappoint. Your gallery should show more than a dozen images. Let them spend hours on your site! At our high point, we had over 20,000 images online. And many people would spend hours going through every single one of them.

Contact Information
I spend a lot of time on other peoples sites. And I find a lot of business owners are so worried about spam, they leave off contact information in their fears. Guess what? People can’t contact you if they don’t know how. Fill out forms are great, and are the first step for contact. Give a phone number - some people prefer to call. Give an address - your prospects would love to know what city your in, and where your studio is. Give an email - you can make it a non-clickable graphic.

Content
A portfolio isn’t enough. It’s nice looking at a dozen images, but who are you? What’s your style? How did you decide to become a photographer? What’s the story behind your business? In person, you build a relationship with your prospect. The same thing has to occur online. Content is what sells your business.

Sales Techniques
Your website is more than a portfolio; it’s a sales tool. Think of how you sell in person, and use those same features online. Your website should be growing and changing all the time.

Proper Navigation
If you’ve ever been “stuck” in a website, you know navigation is so important. If you move to a page, it better be easy to move around and back out. Think like your customer. If that’s hard to do, bring a customer in and ask them what they think.

Ordering System
Professional labs and other online services have made it very easy to sell your images online. Connect to one of these services, and use this as an option for your clients. If you’re worried about upfront sales, use it as a bonus after the initial sale is complete.

Marketing
Your website is more than a portfolio; it’s a marketing tool. With over 6 billion web pages online, how will yours compete with the others? It takes marketing. Just like you wouldn’t sit at home without doing any marketing waiting for the phone to ring, you can’t sit at home without marketing your website waiting for the contacts. You have to use online marketing techniques to get noticed.

Check this site for additional articles on digital photography wedding business and starting a photography business

Have you tried Craigslist.com to advertise your products or services?

Have you ever posted a video to YouTube.com to gather attention?

Now you can combine the two efforts at http://www.realpeoplerealstuff.com/ Create your video showcasing your product or service, and place it in the appropriate category. It’s really easy - and because there isn’t a lot of competition yet, you have a good chance of being noticed!

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Have you ever wanted to use your images and create a work of art? Or, using images to tell a story that will be shared with other?

Creating a coffee table is so much fun, I highly recommend it to everyone - especially photographers. When you already have the images, it makes the book that much easier.
Even though creating the book is fun, make sure you have a purpose. Why are you creating the book? How will you sell it? The last thing you want is a bunch of boxes of books in your basement.

Also, creating a book is not only a satisfying experience, but it also provides you with becoming an expert in your field. Saying you’re published is definitely a plus in your “resume”.

http://www.createagiftproduct.com

Wedding service providers can will also look for ways to showcase events or share a gift with their clients as thank-you gifts.

I sent out a postcard campaign a little while ago. Recently I had one returned with A LOT of comments on it - all with the basic message of “please take me off your list”. While I never let people like this bring me down, I happily took this person off of my mailing list and went about my day. But it got me to thinking about this poor business owner, and all of the knowledge he’ll never receive. You see, when you receive “junk mail”, don’t stand over the trash can and throw it all away.

Instead take a look at it, and see which pieces motivate you to take action. What’s good about each piece? What’s bad? Then keep a file and place the good and the bad each in its own folder. (Or if you’re like me, it’s own plastic tub.) Then when I’m in need for a new idea, I head to my tub and start sorting through my “good” file. I can always find a piece or two that motivates me to create my own campaign. In fact, that’s how I created the last campaign I sent!

Too bad one business owner will never be successful, and use the free tools that come his way every day.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter. 

Your photography studio’s name can tell a lot about your business. Do you photograph weddings, photograph babies or capture high school senior photography market? Think about what message is relayed within your name.

What message are you sending out when you have a studio named “Say Cheez Photography”? Sounds cute at first, but imagine answering the phone for the hundredth time, “say cheez photography, how can I help you”. Does this name imply that you offer exquisite portraits or cheap prints? A photography studio with an imaginative name has the ability to obtain higher profit margins through prices fit for the produced art.

Or if your studio is “In Focus Photography” you better never create an out of focus image.

Your business name should become an important part of the marketing efforts. Would the diamond leader DeBeers have similar results if they called the business “Shiny Rocks”?

It’s all in they way your business is presented.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

With the wedding season in full swing in just a few months it’s important to ensure that you guarantee future growth for your studio. 

Wedding photography is a very lucrative and fun business to be involved in. While providing a fantastic service for the bride and groom it’s also a way to showcase your artistic abilities.

Always be marketing through your photography!

One of the most important items when you photograph in a wedding is to provide samples for your vendors. Samples are a very inexpensive way to show off your work. We found one of the best ways to enhance our relationship with vendors such as wedding coordinators, florists or caterers was to provide sample albums and loose prints of weddings that we completed together. This allowed the wedding coordinator to share with potential couples a sampling of past work. Many times the couples would ask the wedding coordinators what studio provided photography for this particular wedding.  Our name would come up and the contact would be made for very easy booking of the event.

As with wedding coordinators, other vendors within the wedding industry are equally important in sending new clients your way. Caterers are one of the largest expenses in the wedding budget so providing quality photographs of the presentation at the reception becomes equally rewarding.  One of the reasons that I bring this up is with the wedding season approaching it is important to think about what you’re going to photograph so you can provide samples to these vendors at every reception.

I would actually go into the reception site and capture the polished way the reception was displayed before anyone had entered the room. Capturing items like tables, floral arrangements and overall room appearance. Photographing the food from the couples first meal when it was presented to the bride and groom showcases the caterers efforts.  All of these can be used as sample items for the vendors to use when they talk to future clients. Take a little extra time and think about a list of items that you would like to photograph that you asked of it. 

Once you download your files, select special images and move them into a samples folder that will provide additional images to each vendor.  With a simple process you’re guaranteed to get attention from these select wedding vendors.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Marketing On The Internet Who would have ever imagined a couple of years ago that a new wave of marketing was emerging on the professional photographer. When we were first introduced to the Internet, a world of possibilities opened up to us. The Internet has so much to offer for such a small price. We jumped on for the ride of our lives!

 

 

 

To begin creating your own home page, you must first choose your domain name. Domain names are your address - this will be how your clients find you. Your domain name should be short and concise and relate specifically to you and your business, such as www.xyzstudio.com. Because a domain name is your address, you should use it like your address and post it everywhere: brochures, business cards, letters, advertisements. Don’t hide your Web address within the text of your letters or brochures. Post it as a stand alone similar to your phone number. Also, remember to give your Web address out to telephone inquiries. You give out your studio’s address and directions on how to find you. Why not tell them how to find you on the Web!

As you build your Web site, remember people use the Internet to research anything and everything, at a time that is convenient for them. Therefore, the most useful thing you can give them is information. Imagine your Web site from your clients perspective - what would you look for? Because photography is visual, your Web site can be a wonderful tool to show them what you do best - photograph. Prospective clients can view your portfolio at their leisure, and can contact you through e-mail when they are interested in talking with you more.

You can also use your Web site for your current clients by putting together small portfolios from each wedding. This will allow your clients to view their photographs in a matter of days, and will build their excitement for when they come in to make their final selections. It will also build excitement with friends and family who may not have otherwise viewed your photography. Once you begin marketing your Web address, you must be willing to maintain your Web site on a continual basis.

People often browse Web sites over and over again if they know you change your site often. Change entices them to visit on a regular basis, and may help them to make the decision to contact you for more information. One important feature that you should build into your Web site is a link to ask for more information, either through your e-mail or a fill-in-the-blank form. This will allow potential clients to quickly ask for more information when they are interested in your services. Then check regularly to see if you have messages.

The Internet provides information quickly. The quicker you respond to any inquiries, the more impressed your clients will be. Finally, have fun with your Web site. If it’s fun to design, it will be fun to view. People enjoy being entertained as they gain the knowledge they are looking for. Imagine how easy your initial consultation will be if they are excited about you and your photographs before they have even met with you!

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Finding ways of growing your wedding photography business can become a difficult task at times. Competition is extreme within the wedding photography studio business and profit margins can become very thin. We have found a way for a studio to grow into a very profitable and well known in the industry. The goal is to market your way to the top! We have put together multiple marketing plans, including wedding photography business, that will help a struggling studio and grow sales quickly.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

The newest statistics are in. Right now, there are over:

• 29 billion web pages
• 108 million websites

How do you compete with this amount of traffic? What makes you not only stand out from your competition, but also rise up to the top of the search engines and be noticed? It’s not rocket science. But you do have to have tools in place that will help you every single month you are in business. It’s just like traditional marketing - if you quit doing, your business will disappear.

Now you can take charge of your marketing, and help bring your website to the top of the listings. I’ve learned from some of the top gurus in the industry. I’ll show you how to do it too.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

What’s the difference between an average photography business and a highly successful one? It’s the way the photography business owner approaches their daily business tasks. An average business owner will approach the day, and let things happen. She’ll react to email and phone messages, and let the day unfold before her.

A highly successful photography business owner will take charge of her day, and spend her time doing the right things for her business. Here’s five ways you can begin making a change in your business life, and create more success.

1. Create a plan. Every photography business needs to know the direction its heading. Create several types of plans to keep you on track: a lifetime plan to understand where your photography business is ultimately heading; a yearly plan to determine your action steps for the year; and a monthly plan to make sure you are reaching your goals.

2. Evaluate. Just because you have a plan doesn’t mean you can’t change. Evaluate continually what you’re doing, and how it will ultimately impact your long term goals. If you need to make changes, do it.

3. Create a plan. A yearly plan will keep you on track, but daily goals will ensure your success. Always ask yourself if you are doing the best possible thing to help you reach your goals.

4. Take action. Planning is important. But planning isn’t enough. You have to take action on your plans, and put them into place.

5. Follow through. Make sure your business is always in motion. Do you have the proper goals? Are you reaching them? Are you getting in new clients? Are you profitable? Find your weaknesses, and put more action into place. You’ll soon discover that you’ve your goals quickly, and are ready to take on new challenges!

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit