Are You Taking Care of Your Customers?

These days customers can be hard to come by for photographers. There are never enough of them and they have many options in today’s markets.  Because it is tough to land a new client, it becomes so important to take care of the ones you have after earning their business.

Out of sight = out of mind! I was horribly guilty of being ‘out of sight’ in my early days. I should make no excuses, but it was a different time. In the ‘olden days’ we marketed by direct mail and sales calls and maybe a portfolio showing. Today is different. While I occasionally make sales calls I rarely get them anymore and I like it that way.

If I was an art buyer I probably would prefer to not get calls (some prohibit it) even though my job is to work with photographers. If I was a real art buyer, it might take a lot to get excited about another photographer knocking on my virtual door. But I would get excited if a photographer contacted me in a unique and interesting manner and presented work that made me think “wow”. … Continue Reading

5 Business Tips for the New Year

2012 was an interesting year and while I had hoped to see nice growth in a recovering photo economy, it did not seem all that obvious.

2013 is here so it is time to get busy with this year’s strategy. Now’s the time to set solid goals for the year and ones that can be obtained. More importantly, goals that are effective to the success of your business.

Start by taking some time and write down all the goals you would like to achieve. Keep in mind that your personal goals should drive your business goals, but effective business goals will provide your personal goals.

These should include business goals and creative goals. Where would you like to travel and photograph? What gear do you want or need? What sort of income is required to meet the business and personal goals? … Continue Reading

Creating Passive Income for Your Photography Business

Guest post by Carmen Brettel

Maintaining an online portfolio for your photography is crucial to attracting new clients and booking more work. While your photography may be your bread and butter, it can be limiting. Session work, editing photos and managing clients is a lot of work that requires long hours. You can only do so much as an individual, and when you reach your limit, so does your income.

Creating passive income is the best way to increase your income without having to increase the amount of hours you put in (as if you had any more to give anyway). If you aren’t sure where to start, here are a few ideas for passive income that may suit your photography business: … Continue Reading

Why You Need to Show Only Your Best Work

Do you ever wonder what photographs you should show in your online portfolio?

Do you ever wonder how many images you should show in that portfolio?

Depending who you ask, the answers will vary widely. Like many, I spend a lot of time scouring the web looking for great photography and newsworthy items.

Occasionally I find a photographers website with a gallery that shows every single image from a shoot. Is this smart? … Continue Reading

Setting Up Your Photography Business to Run on Auto Pilot

In 2004 I left to raft the Grand Canyon for a third time and would be gone 5 weeks. That included a week to get there and get prepped, 3 weeks of rafting (21 day private permit), and a week to pack up and get back.

At that time, my business had been scaled back a few years earlier when I had sold my small boutique stock photo agency to another agency that was soon acquired by Getty.

Gone were my two employees and a lot of the headaches and hassles that go with a staffed business. It was now just the three of us: me, myself, and I, to run my business.

As my Grand Canyon departure time neared I spent considerable time contemplating whether or not to close the doors for a month or find someone and train them to handle the office for during my absence. … Continue Reading

Get Over Your Fear of Cold Calling With These Simple Steps

Yes, nature photographers have to market and sell to stay relevant in this business. There is no way around it! And one of the best ways is to simply call your prospective client.

While there are many methods for marketing like print and email, the personal call, done effectively, has probably the highest success rate. In fact, some research suggests that successful cold calling works far superior to email marketing.

Whether cold calling is the right way for you depends on who your target market is. If you are a nature photographer primarily producing e-books and teaching workshops then offline marketing is not necessary when it can be completely done online. … Continue Reading

Before You Quit That Day Job, Think About These 5 Crucial Steps

I recently read an article by a noted photographer describing the lessons learned when he up and quit his day job to launch a photography business. A few years later, he was horribly in debt and feeling he was done as a photographer.

This is not a new story. We have heard it before and we’ll hear it again. There are many photographers, or those who want to be photographers, who think “when I build it, they will come.” While this maybe the case for a few who achieve instant recognition, it is not the case for most.

I have been in this business for 31 years. It does not get any easier! It often seems that it only only gets harder.

If you have a job now and are thinking you want to go full time as a photographer, there are some important considerations you should think about. Like ALL businesses, careful planning and preparation is required for a photography business as well. Before you quit your day job and head out to make it big, here are 5 reasons your photography business might fail: … Continue Reading

5 Characteristics of Successful Stock Photos

If you are interested or are selling your outdoor and nature photography, there are important factors to creating images the markets will want. It is not always clear on what exactly what makes for a successful image, but there are some ideas inherent in many  successful images that are proven time and again.

Successful stock photos earn money over and over. While it is nice to license an image once or twice, it’s even better when an image licenses many times.

In an earlier interview here on Pro Nature, this photographer created an image that has earned over $800,000 in sales and is still being licensed today. Why is it so popular? It is not hard to tell once you look at the image. It is strong on concept and it is beautiful, it tells a story, and is technically perfect.

While there are many nature image that appear to sell simply because they are beautiful images, there is usually an underlying reason the image is succeeding beyond its simple beauty.

That beauty in itself often tells a story about the photograph and its location by evoking an emotion. As an example, people buy calendars, gift or note cards, for the pictures. The picture evokes an emotion that prompted a purchase because the buyer gets joy from observing the picture(s).

People often buy products based more on the pictures than the text indicating that the photograph was successful by prompting the impulse to buy.

Here are 5 characteristics of successful selling images:

… Continue Reading

5 Tips for Selling Yourself

When it comes to marketing your photography business, you need to break down what you are selling and to whom. While many things we sell as photographers are products and services, we should spend much more time selling ourselves first and our products second.

Some examples might be selling prints at an art show where you are dealing with people looking at your work. Another might be selling stock images to publishers, selling a story idea to a magazine, or selling yourself as an assignment photographer.

Selling ourselves to clients is about building a rapport with the customer and understanding their needs. For you to earn their business you have to have a solution to their problem or the ability to fill their wants and needs. To be successful you need to sell yourself in a way that nobody else can. You need to make them believe you are the solution to their problem or need.

Customers like to work with people they get ‘good vibes’ from and those they like. It is about building relationships. It is much easier to keep a client than to earn a client so while there is always work to be done keeping a client; the real work is earning their business in the first place. … Continue Reading

10 Crucial Steps to Launching Your Nature Photography Businss

Every once in a while I get an email from a reader or a student about how to take their photography passion and turn it into a business.  These emails don’t always come from young photographers looking for a fun career. Lately they seem more from some who are unemployed or plan to retire and need to keep making some money.

For those with jobs my advice has been the same for decades and that is “don’t quit the day job” until your business is launched and making money. For those unemployed I suggest they get started right away while not expending any of their limited cash.

I have carefully answered those who have inquired with information I feel is relevant to the times and while some things have changed, much remains the same. So I have compiled these ideas into the 10 most important steps I believe are crucial to finding success in today’s market and here they are: … Continue Reading