Reddit reviews Photography Q&A: Real Questions. Real Answers. (Voices That Matter)

Zack Arias - Photography Q&A. http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0321929500

I'm a hobbyist photog and a digital marketer by trade since 2003.

You're correct that the website is just a business card, and its ability to draw and convert customers for you really depends on how well you've defined your market. If you're targeting something high-level and non-regional, it will be very hard to find traction. If your niche is local and specific, you can probably find success, but that will be driven by hustle and building relationships.

> i'm not a fucking blog in the first place and i'm not going to pad my website with transparently bullshit text to generate sales.

That's one way to think of blogging and content marketing, I suppose.

But there are many businesses that use blogs/CM as ways to bring value to customers and non-customers, or to contribute back to the community they're a part of. And those are the blogs that actually drive revenue, because that's how customers stay informed of what you're doing, and how potential customers see that you are worth looking into.

For micro stock, it doesn't matter nearly that much, someone has a defined need for a certain type of picture, so they find that picture and their need is met.

But when it comes to selling prints to consumers, you are as much a part of the product as the actual picture - and maybe more, when it comes to selling prints. Most fine art print buyers are buying on wants and emotional fulfillment, not on a defined need. That's why successful fine art photogs build email lists, tell stories about the photos in their prints, offer limited editions, etc. The blogging/content/email marketing is about making the consumer feel special and a part of something worth belonging to. The keywording and tagging doesn't do that - it just helps with discovery in the first place.

>I have tried so many ways to google specifically "photography marketing specialists" and that apparently is not a job that even exists.

I've thought many times about starting just such a business, since I know marketing and photography, and there are definitely opportunities for success when merging them. But I don't think there's enough volume in fine art, nor enough margin dollars to actually support an industry of people who provide marketing services to photographers.

The places where photography marketing works are on the platform side (SmugMug, zenfolio, etc) which can scale, not on the photography services side (lead gen, branding, etc).

>What do you guys do? Does ANYONE know what the fuck they're doing in this field or are they all bullshitters?

Almost all successful photography marketing is pure hustle from the photographers themselves, or a small team that works for them. And most of that successful photography marketing is not about selling photography, but about selling ebooks, tutorials, PS actions, etc.

There are some good resources out there. This book from Alain Briot is a bit dated, but I own it and think it's pretty solid. I've also got this Zack Arias book that has some ideas on building a photography business.

The people who are winning in selling prints are not winning online, they're winning in relationships with real people: interior designers, hotel purchasing folks, people who just moved into town, etc. They are getting their marketing in front of people in their target markets who have the ability ($$$) and the willingness to buy their art/photos.

Photography Q&A: Real Questions. Real Answers (Voices That Matter)

I liked Q&A by Zack Arias - his website seems to be down at the moment so here's an amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Photography-Questions-Answers-Voices-Matter/dp/0321929500

Welcome!

Weddings are a lot of work and stress, its an all day event filled with every event from action to low light to still life to portraits and group photos. It's a lot of work.

Before I say anything this book is going to blow your mind: http://www.amazon.com/Photography-Questions-Answers-Voices-Matter/dp/0321929500

Buy that and read that front to back.

Now to answer your question, it depends on my client for what I offer them. I am an artist at heart and I believe offering my clients an album is a better way to have their lovely day remembered. The clients will see their proofs online on my site and pick the ones for the album which I design and they get those picked images for web and facebook and everything. If they want more images they can get both the album and the usb/download of images (# of images depends on hours shot so like 6 hours = 200 images because of how I shoot, and my acceptance rate is low and I can't say 100 images per hour cuz I may only get 1 during that hour). If they don't want the album they can get the set amount of images for swapping it out. Or they can get both at a discounted rate. Whew.

I print through millers lab now for all my prints and kiss.us for my albums. I've been shooting weddings since 2009 and have done a lot of traveling and shot over 50 weddings or so. not a lot if you ask me but I'm working on that too ;)

To figure out your price (something I struggled with when I started) was very hard. Do I charge based on experience or creativity or my customer service? It's all of those to be honest but one thing is you have to have a basis of knowledge to go off of. how much is it for you to run your business? upkeep and taxes and gear and cleaning and editing and ect ect. you have to know this stuff to have a good place of where to start. You also have to do market research (what I mean by this is to look around your area at what others at your level are charging). you're beginning, it's okay to make mistakes. As much as I hate making mistakes it's better that I made that mistake and I learned 80 things from it than to not make it and continue doing something wrong.

Make sense?