Archive for the ‘Blogs’ Category
[by Jenna Close]
This summer, take the time to delve deeper into the world of blogs. Subscribe to or bookmark your favorites. Each morning you can sit down with your cup of coffee and enjoy all the new updates and information you have effortlessly received in your inbox. Here are a few blogs that I recommend:
1) No Plastic Sleeves: info about digital/print portfolios, marketing pieces and clever marketing ideas, blog.noplasticsleeves.com
2) Burns Auto Parts Super Premium Blog: creative consultant Leslie Burns blogs about absolutely everything that is important to the photography industry, www.burnsautoparts.com/blog
3) The Strobist: very informative blog about lighting, strobist.blogspot.com
4) A Photo Editor: blog of former photography director Rob Haggart, www.aphotoeditor.com
5) John Keatley: www.keatleyphoto.com/blog
6) Robert Benson: robertbenson.com/blog
7) Nick Onken: nickonken.com/blog
Jenna Close, along with partner Jon Held, runs P2 Photography. They specialize in imagery for the alternative energy market. You can find Jenna at www.p2photography.net.
[by Jay Kinghorn]
About six months ago I began blogging regularly and I can safely say it has become one of my best business planning tools. When establishing an audience online, you are constantly striving to provide that audience with meaningful, thoughtful, useful information. In turn, you’re committing yourself to thinking deeply about your craft and staying ahead of the information curve. This thought process is incredibly valuable as it helps you clearly articulate what your business’ role is in your field and the value you bring to your clients.
Perhaps more important, it helps you constantly see your business from the client’s perspective, which can only help you provide better, more targeted services.
It’s helpful to answer these questions when planning your blog presence and the unique content you’ll bring to your clients.
- What information does my audience need?
- How can I provide that information?
- What is my true expertise and how can I use it to help clients?
If you haven’t already answered these questions about your business, then this is a better time than ever to start.
Some of the practices I employ when writing blogs:
1) Passing on an interesting news article or link: Don’t just recycle it and send it out just as it came in. Instead, reference the article and put it in a context that applies to my readers and what it means to them professionally.
2) Original works: Try to address challenges you know your audience faces. If you are writing about something of interest to you, tie in why it’s important to your readers.
3) Blog often. There are so many blogs out there. Don’t just expect your readers to stay with you just because you’re there. They will stay only if you regularly provide interesting, useful information.
4) Gather data on the success of your blog posts through analytics. This will give you insight into what your readers find interesting and helpful.
Writing your blog thoughtfully and with your clients in mind will reap big rewards. You’ll be able to clearly articulate your business purpose and produce better better work for your clients, because you’ll have a better handle on what your clients need and want.
For a great recent article on blog posts, read this from problogger.
By Jay Kinghorn
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Posted: December 16th, 2009
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7 comments
[by Jay Kinghorn]
Blogs are a tremendous source for information, ideas and insights. However, they can also be a tremendous drain on your time and productivity. If you subscribe to more than a handful of blogs or news feeds, an RSS reader like Net News Wire (Mac), FeedDemon (Windows) or Google Reader is essential to quickly sift through a large number of blogs and find the valuable posts hidden within.
An RSS reader aggregates all the unread blog posts from your favorite blogs into a single window. This allows you to quickly skim the headline of each post and read only the articles you’re most interested in. If you’re really tight for time you can flag articles, or pull them into a clippings folder for later reading.
Here are a few links to get you started:
Newsgator
Google Reader
Best RSS Readers
By Jay Kinghorn
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Posted: October 28th, 2009
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4 comments
[by Judy Herrmann]
In the past few months, I’ve worked with a number of photographers who are struggling with their blogs. Their technology is fine – they’ve been successfully managing their blogs for several years and have worked out the kinks. They post regularly and have a rhythm down. Their site analytics reveal lots of unique visitors who leave lots of nice comments. Their blogs are perfect in every way except one.
The community they’ve spent all this time cultivating will probably never spend a dime supporting their families. Why? Because instead of posting information of interest to the client side, they’ve focused on what interests them. As a result, they’ve built a strong, vibrant community ofŠcompetitors.
Now, I’m not saying that everything you do has to be rooted in a profit motive. If the compensation you’re getting takes another form (like giving you a platform to push yourself creatively) that still counts. These photographers would tell you, though, that after awhile the novelty wears thin and as much as they’ve enjoyed the ego strokes, the effort they’ve put into building this community has used up a lot of time, energy and elbow grease that could have been tapped more profitably.
In times like these, few of us can afford the luxury of investing time or money in places where the return on investment is low to none. These photographers now have a tough choice to make. They can come up with a way to generate income from the community they’ve built or start over and focus on building a new community of people who’ll pay cash money for what they already sell. Either way, they’ve got a lot more time to invest before they’ll see much return.
If you’re gonna blog, blog smart. Make your blog interesting and useful to the people who need what you sell. Show them your value. Show them how you can help them. If doing this consistently seems overwhelming, consider guest blogging as a way of reaching the right audience. As these photographers have learned, blogs can be a powerful marketing tool but that marketing doesn’t help you much unless it’s reaching the right people.Blgo
By Judy Herrmann
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Posted: October 9th, 2009
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6 comments
[By Rosh Sillars]
Attracting new readers is a big part of the blogging game.
Many people keep blogs for their own satisfaction. It’s a place to share their thoughts or show off their creative efforts. But deep down inside most bloggers want more readers and subscribers. They want their blogs to be successful.
In order to be a successful blogger, you need a plan. You need to develop a theme and focus on the type of audience you want to attract. Here are a few suggestions that will help you grow your reader base:
First, comment on other blogs. Be authentic and engaging. Don’t make the comments all about you; develop a voice that will attract your audience.
Second, make sure your headlines and posts contain key words related to your blog and theme. We live in a key-word world. If you have a Twitter account, use the same key words on Twitter to help drive traffic to your blog. Don’t be afraid to share relevant older posts with your social media followers. In many cases, the posts are still new to them.
Third, create a group related to the theme of your blog. You can use Facebook, Linkedin, Yahoo, Google or Flickr to attract your target audience. In some cases, you should create a related forum under your blog domain or use a site such as Ning.com to develop a community.
Some people prefer to receive blog updates via e-mail. Make sure you have an easy-to-find RSS (Real Simple Syndication) subscription button and an e-mail subscription invite box. Do do this, you can use services such as FeedBurner.com or Feedblitz.com.
The most important action you can take is to reward and champion the followers who support you. These are the people who will help make your blog a success.
By Rosh Sillars
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Posted: October 8th, 2009
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3 comments
[By Paul S. Bartholomew]
Blogs are a great extension to a website. They keep people updated on recent activities and are a great way to bring up some constructive discussion. Another great way to use a blog is to educate and inform.
For me it comes down to the topic of the week and what’s on my mind. If I have a great photo shoot or personal project, I may share some images and talk about the challenges involved. If I run into an interesting situation that catches my attention, I may post an informative topic that can be used as a resource. Not just for other photographers but also to clients.
I had a nice conversation with not just one but two clients this past week. Both enjoy reading my blog and seeing what I’m up to. One client found my informative topics interesting and said he reads them during his lunch break.
Placing a blog link on your website is one of the usual ways to drive clients your site, but what about using it as a resource? I occasionally post topics that are inspired by client interactions. A common question I’m asked is about post-production fees, so I created a blog post explaining the process along with images for examples. Not only does this reinforce the explanation but it also attracts future visits for other topics. It’s a great way to keep your name in mind.
By Paul Bartholomew, ABIPP
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Posted: October 7th, 2009
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1 comment
[by Gail Mooney]
By Gail Mooney
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Posted: October 6th, 2009
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3 comments
[By Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua]
Here’s the thing about blogs: I don’t think you should do one.
Don’t do one if it is a chore. Don’t do one if you have nothing of yourself to offer to others. Don’t do one if you wont update it. Don’t do one if it is nothing more than links to others. Don’t do one if you have anger management issues. Don’t do one if you don’t make work regularly for yourself (and others) that you are willing to share. Don’t do one only if you think you are supposed to (same for any social media tool).
But, if you have things you are willing to and want to share with the world and you are willing to commit to updating regularly, then a blog can be a great tool in your marketing belt.
A blog can be a great alternative creative outlet for photographers. It’s a great space to share experimental work, things you are just playing with or giving a try, but aren’t yet fully committed to adding to your services. You can put videos on it. You can write about your process or share funny stories about how you saved the shoot when everything that could go wrong did go wrong. You can talk about how grateful you are to do what you do. You can talk about how fun it was to work with a particular client. There is a lot of good you can do with a blog.
Keep in mind that while a blog is a more “open” space, where you can get away with showing less-than-perfect work, and while other people who blog, especially non-photographers, often post rants and political diatribes on their blogs, for your purposes you should keep your blog mostly positive. People are more attracted to humor, helpful information, and interesting creative work of all kinds. Giving is much better than asking when it comes to your blog (in fact, selling on your blog is a quick road to alienating readers). And you must keep it updated regularly–that is, you must commit to a schedule of updates of at least once a week.
Blogs are fantastic tools to humanize your business. There you can reveal more about who you are and what it is like to be a part of your world. Being open and honest is important (but be careful of “over-sharing,” there are boundaries) so that your readers can connect with you. Offer your inner creative self to the world and you can touch targets and build a tribe of followers. All of which is not only good for your business, it’s good for you as an artist.Do
By Leslie Burns
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Posted: October 5th, 2009
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2 comments
[By Paul S. Bartholomew]
Did you jump on the blog bandwagon and fall off? So many blogs are out there and some are getting stale. Consider keeping a regular schedule for updates such as weekly or monthly. Whatever you do, get to it! It not a good thing when someone visits your blog with the most recent post dated 6 months ago. What incentive do they have to revisit?
By Paul Bartholomew, ABIPP
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Posted: September 9th, 2009
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8 comments
As an editorial photographer living in Pittsburgh I am not really in the center of the magazine publishing world, but by subscribing and reading Meg Weaver’s weekly newsletter, Wooden Horse Publishing, I feel connected to the who, what, when and where of the publishing world.
Like any resource, especially online, I only consider it one source. It is always a good idea to confirm business news and gossip. It seems every week, I learn of a startup magazine or of a change in editors at a magazine I sometimes work with. It used to be that photographers exchanged this type of “watercooler” news at the local photo-lab, these days it seems we meet more on-line than in person.
Some additional online resources that I find helpful to keep the pulse of my clients are “A Photo Editor” blog, CREATIVITY online, PDNPulse blog and ADWEEK.
Every now and then, it is nice to get my information in person. For those living in or near Philadelphia, Brian Smith will be speaking there on “The Future of Editorial Photography” on April 30th. Join us!
By Richard Kelly
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Posted: April 3rd, 2009
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2 comments
Welcome to the ASMP Strictly Business Blog. We plan to bring you business tips, thought provoking ideas, useful resources, videos and podcasts all focused on professional photography. Our team of contributors are ASMP educators who will share posts you can enjoy with your morning coffee, on a break or a commute. Add the ASMP Strictly Business Blog to your daily routine and start focusing on your business now.
We start off with a bang by bringing you the first two chapters of the Strictly Business 2 Interview Series. These segments ran as lecture intros throughout the ASMP Strictly Business 2 weekends in 2008. We interviewed six successful and diverse photographers and came away with a wealth of information on what it takes to be a professional photographer today.
In this first video, our photographers tell us how they got started in the business. (5 min. 56 sec.)
Now hear what these photographers have to say about copyright. (5 min. 37 sec.) Don’t be surprised that the intro repeats, these videos are designed to also work as solo acts. Personally, I benefit by repeatedly hearing Chase Jarvis telling me, “… you don’t just drop your price or raise your price for no reason.” Enjoy.
