Our Facebook page is a great way to keep up on our latest information to help you become better at the business side of photography. We share a ton of tips, interesting resources, and a contest or two along the way.

Starting today, we are running a contest through the end of September to give away one Six Figure Photographer Fast Trak training program. All you have to do is visit our Facebook page, like our page, and sign up to win. It’s that easy.

Then at the beginning of October, we’ll select the winner, and let you know who it is.

We also have a ton of new ideas planned for Facebook, so this is a great time to join and keep up on the latest information. If you’re a photographer, and want to make money with your photography, you can’t afford not to be on Facebook. And we’ll be showing you the best-kept secrets – IF you are following us.

Like us today on Facebook, and sign up to win Six Figure Photographer Fast Trak.

Learn more about Six Figure Photographer Fast Trak here.

Related posts:

1. Photography and Facebook – A Great Combination
2. How Much For A Photography Franchise?
3. Facebook Does An About Face

So you have a Facebook account. Who are your friends?

Many people tell me they just don’t get social networking. They have a Facebook account, but they aren’t getting any business from it. They love it and are on it every day – but where’s the business?

Who Are You Talking To?
Spend some time walking through your friend list. Who are you talking to?

If you are talking to your family members and best friends, they already know you. They understand your business and know you are looking to grow it. They tend to ignore your business talk.

If you are talking to other photographers, they are in the same boat as you. They won’t buy your services, and they won’t increase your business. While its nice to talk to fellow photographers and share stories, you won’t get immediate action from other photographers on social sites.

The only way to succeed is to find your niche, and get active within that niche. Let’s say you photograph commercial work specializing in food. Joining food networks, advertising agencies and reps, and other food related groups will put you in front of the people that hire. That’s where you need to be.

What Are You Saying?
Now that you’ve looked at your friends, and hopefully found some ways to look for different people to follow, lets spend some time looking at your posts. Do you post things like:

Had a great lunch today at MJ’s Restaurant.

Or

Hi Mary, Your new pictures are so cute.

If so, you’re missing the purpose of social networking for business. Sure, you can sprinkle in personal messages once in awhile, but make sure they have a purpose.

Had a great lunch today at MJ’s Restaurant with Robert from ABC Company. I’m so excited to be photographing his menu for his new advertising campaign.

Or

Hi Mary, Your new pictures are so cute. I just love the baby sweater you found for Rachael, and can’t wait to photograph her in it for her 3 month baby portrait. You’re going to love our new props – I’m so excited to try them out.

See the difference? Your posts end up going to all of your friends’ newsfeeds, and with Facebook you don’t have a character limit like Twitter. Use it to create a complete thought, and showcase what you do without selling. You’re simply commenting to a friend – and happen to mention a small piece of your business. And maybe someone else will have a similar need, and contact you for the same service.

Related posts:

1. 5 Ways You May Be Shouting To The Wrong Crowd With Your Social Sites
2. 14 Signs Social Media Won’t Bring In Clients For Your Photography Business
3. Social Networking for Photographers – A New Market Reach

But if you think about how you learn things, chances are you learn a small part of something in one day, and quickly begin to block other things out. That’s because we learn in short bursts. If someone is talking, we tend to retain less than 20 percent of what was said. That’s why in training programs you’ll hear the same things again and again, trying to make the most important items stick with you.

No matter how much a person is interested in your photography, after awhile they’ll begin losing attention, and getting lost in your words. It’s not they aren’t interested; you’ve just reached their retention point. So if you have a huge pricing structure that takes several minutes to go through, they’ll retain the first minute or so, and be completely lost after that.

Instead of creating a long, complicated package list, keep it simple. Present everything you do in three clear ways. Don’t have multiple packages where each package increases slightly in price with just one or two difference. Make them distinctly different, and make it clearly obvious that you get a better deal by moving to the next package.

In my Pricing Guide I talk at length about building packages for you, not for your client. The ultimate goal of a package isn’t to give your client a good deal (though they ultimately do), the goal is to get you the sales you need for your business, and the profit you need to stay in business.

By sticking with three packages, your client won’t lose interest as you talk about each one, and they won’t get confused over the differences in each package. Make each package distinct and stand alone. You should never have to think about the differences – they should be obvious. You should also concentrate on making your middle package being the best – the package you would love to sell again and again to every client. Because ultimately that’s what you’ll do. People love the middle – the smaller one seems too “cheap” and the higher one seems a little “extravagant”. Which means the middle one is “just right”.

If you sold 100 packages over the next few months, 10 at the bottom level, 10 at the top, and 80 in the middle, would that make your business? If the answer is yes, then you’re on your way to creating perfect packages.

Related posts:

1. Are You Pricing Your Photography To Stay In Business?
2. Changing Your Photography Packages and Services
3. 10 Things You Should Know About Running A Photography Business

Image Source

One of the many reasons people choose to live in Colorado is the 325 days of blue skies and sunshine. And that’s a great thing if you enjoy being outdoors like we do.

However photographing in the direct sunlight has its challenges. With a portrait, you can usually schedule it early morning or late evening to capture it in the sweet light. But what about a wedding that takes place in the middle of the afternoon? You can’t postpone a wedding simply because you are looking for better lighting conditions. So you adjust.

1. Use the sun to your advantage. Instead of placing the subject with the bright sunlight behind you – shining into the subject’s eyes and making them squint – play with the placement. If you put the sun at a 45 degree angle, you’ll begin to see dimension in the subject. Or put it behind your subject, and use the sun to create interesting affects.

2. Use reflectors. You can use light reflectors and diffusers to control the light source, bounce highlights back onto the subject, and block out the harshest sunlight from directly overhead.

3. Find the shade. No matter where you are, you can find a shady area to get out of the sun. Look to tuck your subject behind a building, or in a grove of trees. You can still get beautiful lighting, wonderful backgrounds, and less chance you’ll have a squinting subject.

4. Create your own shade. Use props to create a shady place anywhere. From hats to parasols, find something that gives your subject personality.

Image Source

5. Tell a story. Instead of focusing on the typical portrait with the subject smiling into the camera, look for a different perspective. Maybe walking along the beach, or enjoying a moment alone in a field of flowers. Be creative, and look for something that makes you stand out from the typical photographer.

6. When in doubt, use a flash. If you are taking a portrait where the emphasis is on the face, make sure you have adequate lighting on the face to compensate for the sunlight. While we personally do everything we can to avoid flash, at times it may be your best choice.

7. Try using a different lens. As portrait photographers, its easy to rely on one standard lens again and again. When you’re in a difficult situation, try a variety of things. One of our favorite lenses is a fish eye. Get up close to your subject and blow the background completely out of proportion. You’re subject will love the different perspective, and you can end up with some amazing affects.

Related posts:

1. Photography Lighting Tips
2. 7 Tips To Use Natural Light In Your Photography
3. How To Make Your Own Light Reflector

And because many companies are running their businesses this way now, it’s almost become the norm to accept poor or low quality service. So why not change that around and give your clients something that makes them say “WOW”.

That’s the difference between a solo professional photographer and a franchise or a big box location. When you are on your own, you can do whatever it takes to bring in the best clients, and make them happy for life. The true value of a client can be worth thousands of dollars to you.  So why not invest some of that money back into your client to make sure they are happy?

1. Start with making your product exceptional. Look at how your photographs leave your studio. Are they loose prints, or do you mount every image on matboard or foam core? Do you put them into a plastic bag, or are they wrapped in paper and boxes with your colors and logos? Think about the difference between buying a shirt at Walmart, and buying a shirt at Nordstoms. Walmart employees throw your purchase into a flimsy plastic bag. Nordstoms employees wrap your shirt in tissue, place it into a beautiful custom bag, and presents it to you buy coming around the counter to hand it to you. Think about the impression you are leaving.

2. How do you talk about your work? Do you shoot pictures, or do you capture original imagery? People value things more when there is more value associated with it. And because you can change an opinion just by the way you talk, you should definitely start with your presentations. I once had a photography mentor who put on white gloves to handle all of his work in front of clients. Necessary? Probably not. But it definitely left an impression with his clients – and they valued his work all the more.

3. Always give the surprises. When a client comes in to pick up their finished product, give them more than what they expect. If they buy a box of 8 notecards from you, include 8 stamps in the box so mailing is easier. If they pick up a large portrait in a frame, include a small hanging kit, including nails, hammer and a level. While the little extras don’t cost a lot more, they really leave an impact on your clients.

4. Invest in notecards. As a photographer, you should be mailing out notecards to your clients all the time. You can buy greeting cards from the store, have greeting cards made from your favorite images, or print greeting cards with your clients’ images. Or a combination of the three. Then mail to your best clients over and over again. Mail them for birthdays and anniversaries. Mail them if you see your clients in the news, or if something in the news reminds you of a client. Mail them before holidays – not just the big ones, find little ones too. You can always come up with something fun to celebrate National Ice Cream Day.

5. Have a giveaway just for your clients. I know a great realtor here in town that holds a giveaway once a year for all of his clients. He gives away some great prizes: weekend trips, 50” televisions, and more. It’s helped him double his business year after year. Take that idea and run with it – it doesn’t have to be on a large scale. Maybe a digital camera and a half-day training on how to use it.

6. Hold a party for your clients. If you have a studio with beautiful grounds, bring your clients in for a party. If you don’t, talk with an event place in your area about hosting a party. Especially if you are in the wedding photography niche, you can probably bargain with event sites and caterers for a great deal on the services by holding your event on an off time – October instead of holiday months, or Thursday night instead of the weekend. Combine it with a giveaway, and your party could quickly become the talk of the town.

7. Send surprise gifts for no reason at all. List out your top clients, and start learning more about them. When will they turn 30 (40, 50, etc)? Send a bouquet of flowers or balloons to add into the celebration. Or send a lunchbox filled with nutritious snacks in August before your top client’s first child starts kindergarten. Little things like this don’t take a lot of money, but the thought behind it speaks volumes. And if you have a client that just spent $2000 on a family portrait, what’s a $50 gift worth, especially if you book them again for another $2000 portrait next year?

8. Set up client exclusive events. There’s nothing more beautiful than a winter portrait, with the snow softly blanketing a field, and a family enjoying the peacefulness of the moment. The problem here in Denver is that is a hard scene to create. While we do get many snowy days, you never know if you’ll have snow – or blue sky – until you wake up. Put your top clients on a list for an exclusive portrait experience, and you’ll plan it based on the weather forecast. The only way to get on the exclusive list is to be a client. Use this concept for your local area, and come up with exclusive events that only your clients can get in on. Then advertise for it. Nothing sells better than exclusivity.

A happy client is a referring client. They will tell everyone around them about you. And thanks to Facebook and other online tools, even that can expand exponentially. So invest a little into your clients, and build a strong, healthy business.

Related posts:

1. Photography or Greeting Card Business – You Decide
2. 10 Ways To Grow Your Senior Photography Business
3. Five Ways To Stand Your Ground With Impossible Clients

Want to get a really good look at the state of the photography industry? Play tourist for a couple of weeks. We spent two weeks running around all over California, and as we sat in rides and shows in places like Disney, Universal and Sea World, I began to really look at how people were taking pictures.

With either a point and shoot or a phone camera, they would hold the camera out at arms length, and shoot a picture of themselves with a friend or two, or maybe flip it around and use flash to capture a quick snapshot. Everything is focused on what is happening right there in front of them. No focus on telling the story, only on capturing a quick snapshot of them in a situation.

Add in the fact that most pictures probably never make it off the flash drive or card, or make it out of the cell phone. A few weeks or months down the road when a person needs more space, it’s simply a matter of “delete”.

When I went on vacation as a kid, I always had a roll or two of film, and couldn’t wait to get them developed when I got home. A week or two later, it was like living your vacation all over again. You remembered exactly how that cotton candy tasted. Or how excited you were to see that koala bear at the zoo. It felt like you were there again. And it made you smile as you looked through your photos, shared them with family and friends, and put them into your photo or scrapbook. And if you pick up that scrapbook today, I bet you still can remember some of those same feelings.

So what will change in 10 or 20 years time? This current period of time will produce very few memories.

People now are missing the one element that photographs bring to the experience, and that’s the final output. They love the instant feeling of being able to capture a memory anywhere, anytime. But they don’t follow through and put that memory into a storable, achievable format that will last throughout their lifetime.

Now let’s look at what a professional photographer offers his or her clients. When I head out and look at a variety of sites, I see the same things again and again:

We’ll shoot your [wedding, baby portrait, family portrait, business portrait, commercial products, etc] and hand them over to you on a CD/DVD. You get the files, and that’s it.

So what’s separating you as a professional from what a person is already creating with their digital products?

Being a professional photographer isn’t just about shooting an image, it’s also about creating an experience AND providing a touchy, feely product your customer can look at, feel, and pass around to their family and friends.

They can bring a beautifully designed leather album with them to a family event. A CD will gather dust on their desk.

They can hang a framed portrait above their fireplaces. A CD may get lost or broken over time.

Value isn’t just in the first half of the process – the shooting. Value is in the entire process from beginning to end. And if you are only providing half the process, you can only expect to take in half the fee.

Related posts:

1. Portrait Professional – Another Way To Make Your Photographs Better
2. What Do I Use To Manage My Photographs and Help Control My Workflow?
3. Selling Framed Photographs Increases Your Profit And Your Professionalism

Now there is a way. Check out this video that shows how Oloneo PhotoEngine modifies light sources within a digital image file.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnKms4wW8O8

Oloneo PhotoEngine is currently in beta, and is a free download for you to try out. Oloneo PhotoEngine

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One way is to use social monitoring tools.

Twitter is a program that works best when used in conjunction with other Twitter tools. If you follow any number of people on Twitter, you know your tweet stream can be in constant rotation with items from people you follow. I can easily have dozens of new messages every minute or so. And what about the people I’m not following? There may be dozens of conversations taking place on Twitter that may be of interest to me, yet I know nothing about. That’s where social monitoring comes into play.

There are many sites that allow you to use social monitoring – Twhirl, Tweetdeck, Pageflakes, and my current favorite, HootSuite. Login to HootSuite through your browser, and you can have instant access to your different social tools. I can access all of my Twitter accounts, Facebook, and LinkedIn, which makes it easy for my to post to my accounts and to monitor conversations. I can watch what my friends are tweeting, create and save posts in draft mode, find out where my posts are being retweeted, and carry on personal conversations, all from one easy location.

What I like even more is the ability to find people and conversations that are taking place about keywords and things that interest me. For example, I’m on the constant look for people talking about photography business. Since this site provides a wealth of information to help photographers build the business, I’m always looking for resources, people that may be willing to guest blog or do programs together, or for photographers looking to build the business. So using HootSuite, I simply set up a column with the keyword “photography business” and I see every tweet in which that keyword is used. So I can scroll through that column any time, and connect up with people that may be of benefit to my company.

How can you use it? What keywords are you looking for? Looking for someone planning a wedding in your location? Try following a keyword like “wedding [your location]”. If a bride to be typed in a tweet about planning her wedding, you could find her. Or maybe a keyword like “wedding photographer” would help you find tweets in which someone says, “Out looking for wedding photographers today”. And of course there are many other potential ways to use Twitter – start slowly and build along the way.

Once you find people, don’t instantly tweet them and offer your services. That’s way too pushy in the social arena. Instead follow them. Respond to their questions and offer advice. Once they notice you and like what you have to offer, then you have a greater chance of connecting with them, and ultimately booking them as a client.

Related posts:

1. How Much Does Social Impact Your Photography Business?
2. 14 Signs Social Media Won’t Bring In Clients For Your Photography Business
3. A New Social Site For Photographers – Google Buzz

Over the years I’ve changed the style, the look, and even how I produce my ezine, its still one of the best tools I have to market my business.

Whether you have produced your own ezine for years, or you are still looking at the possibility of starting one up, there are many things to consider as you are building.

No matter what type of photography you are in, your money will always be in your list. The only way your business will ever grow, will ever be profitable, and will ever succeed is if you create a list and market to them all the time. You can’t build a business by constantly looking for new clients in new ways. The only way to grow is to keep your existing list happy, and let them know what you are up to again and again. Which is why ezines are an amazing tool, and probably one of the most economical choices you can make.

I still talk with people who are trying to build and send an ezine on their own, with their own list in Outlook or some other program. Don’t do it. If you send large batches of email through your email program, your hosting service will quickly see it, and probably end up banning your account. They don’t want to be associated with spamming, and will quickly cut off anything that looks like it might be advertising. Instead, invest in a good ezine program – Constant Contact and aWeber are two great programs. I’ve used both, and currently prefer aWeber because it offers both autoresponder and ezine options for the same low price. I’ve used them for years, and have never been disappointed.

Is Email Dead?
While some might argue that email is a dying form of marketing, so why waste your time, I disagree. Yes, email has its problems. Right now, statistics show up to 90 percent of all email is spam. Studies show that college campuses don’t even offer email to its students because they never check it; instead they set up Facebook accounts and other forms of communication to stay in touch with their student population. But I also look to my own stats.

Right now I have a dozen or more people sign up for my ezine every single day. And on average, 40 to 60 percent of all my ezines and other email correspondence are opened up when I send it. Which means I have a ton of people actively wanting the information I provide. Why would I quit anything with that high of a response? The typical direct mail piece will only gain 1 to 3 percent action rate – my 40 to 60 percent blows that away!

My ezines have changed over time. Right now in every issue, you’ll receive an original article that you can’t find anywhere else – its written specifically for my ezine customers. And you’ll see two of my best blog posts from the previous two weeks. And you’ll gain a little inside information about my business, and the personal side of what we do here. That’s the format I’ve found works best for me. Because I have my template set up, and know exactly how to put the format into place, it takes me 30 to 60 minutes to prepare.

Turning To Social
When you create an ezine, you’ll start from ground zero, meaning you’ll have no signups. The most important thing to remember is everyone starts at zero. You just have to put it in place, and give people a reason to sign up. Your signup box should be at the top of your website or blog, and should be located on the sidebar of your blog, and even within your navigation. If you want people to sign up, you have to make it obvious and easy for them to do.

While just getting people to sign up for an ezine was easy a few years ago, now its more important than ever to add a little more. Free report, free consultations, a coupon for something free – anything to give value to the person when they enter your site, and entice them to want to give over their email address in exchange for what you have to offer. Your ezine is included in the offer.

While its important to have your signup box on your website or blog, its equally important to include it on your social sites. If you’ve never visited our VirtualPhotographyStudio Facebook page, you’ll be taken to our Get Started section, which has a signup for our ezine. My goal is to also gain people through Facebook into my email list as well – and it works. They never have to visit my blog, and they’ll still receive my ezines every month.

While Facebook makes it easy, it doesn’t have to stop there. Using other social sites like Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, you can build a following, and direct them to your blog with every new post you create. If they like what they see, they’ll sign up for your ezine – that’s how I gain a dozen or more new signups every day.

As you worked your way through this post, hopefully you’ve taken note on how to grow your own email list. To provide you with a step by step list, here are the 10 steps to attracting more email subscribers to your list:

1. Register an aWeber account to manage your subscriber list.

2. Add a signup box onto your website and blog.

3. Create a page for your ezine describing it in detail, and place it on your site within your navigation.

4. Create a free report or give something of value to entice them to sign up.

5. Create a template for your ezine. Custom design one to match your site for branding.

6. Create the format. What will you write about? What will you say?

7. Schedule your ezines. When will you deliver them? You should always deliver your ezine on time and on topic to keep your readers happy.

8. Create a Facebook fan page, and add your signup box.

9. Create other social accounts (Twitter, LinkedIn) and begin growing an active list.

10. Stay active. Whether on your Facebook account, or within your own blog and ezine list, action is key. You have to keep doing it in order to make it work for you.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it on Facebook or Twitter, or click the Like button below. And if you haven’t signed up for my ezine yet, what are you waiting for?

Related posts:

1. 5 Ways You May Be Shouting To The Wrong Crowd With Your Social Sites
2. Using Email – How To Make It Work For You
3. Why An Ezine Is An Important Part Of Building Your Photography Studio

What’s the real reason you need a vacation as a business owner? It’s to step away from the daily process, and to gain a new perspective on why you are doing what you do.

After a two and a half week break, I would also recommend more than seven days every once in awhile. When seven days was over, it was nice knowing we had more than a week left at a time when most people are ready to head home.

If you truly want to improve the way you look at your business, and the way you shoot your photography, take a break.

7. Limit your business time while on vacation. If you own your own business, you know you can never completely stay away for any length of time without checking in. Yet if you leave your cell phone on, you are defeating the purpose of getting away. Instead, set up a time every day to check in, and leave business after that. We would limit it to about an hour every day or two, either early morning or late at night after we finished a day of playing.

6. Tell your clients you’ll be away. If you think about the majority of your phone calls, it’s probably from your clients. With last minute questions, or questions about orders, they may be calling you several times a week. Eliminate that with a simple email, and let them know you’ll be out of town. Include the dates, and let them know you’ll be happy to answer any questions when you return. By doing this simple task, we eliminate all of our client contact for the time we’re away – they do listen and respect your time off.

5. Don’t announce your vacation to the world. We live in a social society, and everybody from Facebook to Twitter and beyond know you’re away. So don’t tell them until after you return. Telling the world you’re on a two-week vacation also opens you up to a variety of issues, including security risks both online and off. It’s much easier to talk about your vacation after you return, and relate it to your business from that point forward.

4. Don’t spend time on problems. Unless a problem is life or business threatening, the problem can usually wait until you return to the office. Don’t get caught up in trying to solve an issue when you are out of town. Send an email stating you’re out of town, and don’t have access to all the information you need to solve the issue, and will get back to them upon your return.

3. Think about long term goals, not short term problems. While you’re out playing and having fun, chances are business will creep into your thoughts. As a business owner, I know that all too well. But instead of thinking about your to-do list, or things you need to catch up on, put all that aside and think about the big picture. Where would you like to be in a year? Five years? What would you like your business to do in the future? Now is the time to dream. Make sure you take notes along the way with some of your great ideas. My best ideas always come when I’m away, so I keep notebooks in the car for writing things down, and now with my iPad, I have another way of recording my ideas.

2. Bring your most important documents along. Yes, I travel with a small technical arsenal. Between my mobile, iPod, iPad, and laptop, I could set up shop just about anywhere. But because most of my work is still on my desktop, I made sure I had my most important documents with me. Just in case I needed to login to a clients file, or send out a document to a potential client, everything was a click away.

1. Spend the first day cleaning up, not working. I love what I do, so returning to my desk isn’t a job for me. But what I do like about it is the new motivation I come back with. I started out by completely cleaning my desk, filing and throwing piles of paper away, and deleting emails and other things I don’t need anymore. Then I organize my to-do list for the coming week. Finally I set aside some time to plan for the future. With all of your new ideas in place, you need to dedicate time to making sure they are implemented, and have the chance to help you and your business grow.

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3. Want To Improve Your Flash Photography Skills?