I want to start this blog off by saying…I don’t know ANYthing. I mean, I have some experience with this small business thing, but I am by NO MEANS the expert on this matter. Sometimes I get asked questions by aspiring photographers about how to start a business or how to advertise. Listen. To. Me. I really don’t know what to tell you to do or how to do it. I am just sharing with you the things that seemed to work for me in regards to gaining {humble} exposure for my business.
One of the first things I did. Flickr. At first I didn’t pay for the “Pro” account but once I started working on a personal project where I decided to take a photo for 365 days in a row, I had to pay for the account because otherwise there were limitations on how often I could post. Flickr is strange. You are able to add “tags” and such. You are able to join “groups” and post photos in them. The strange thing to me is that you never know what is going to attract attention. Here’s an example:
I have no idea why the photo on the left has 213 views vs the one on the right having 26. I actually like the one on the right better so it’s beyond me! Point is, Flickr is a good way to get your photography out there. It’s a good way to share it on websites or even a Facebook page. Signing up as a “Pro” is under $30.00 for the entire year.
Get business cards. Good ones. I know this photo is small but you can get an idea of what a nicely done business card can do. When I first started out I really liked MOO.com but couldn’t justify purchasing only 50 cards for the same price I could get 100 mini-cards for. I opted for the mini-cards. Looking back I would rather have spent the money for the larger cards (which I later did) because, again, I needed to stand out as a professional and I think the normal sized cards helped me do that. I purchased my most recent cards through Vistaprint where I got 300 cards for under $30.00. The only reason I was led to purchase from Vista is I created the entire design of the card and I wanted a lighter card. The MOO cards are very thick and I didn’t like how the peel started coming off the longer I had the cards. If you do not already know how to do basic design (like business cards) I suggest you try and figure it out. If you don’t want to do that you can outsource to a professional designer, use a layout that’s already been created from one of the websites or purchase a layout from Etsy.
Let’s talk about creating a Facebook page. My friends told me to start a Facebook page a year before I actually created one. Once I finally did it, the first people that “liked” it were my friends. Let me tell you something right now…if you are aspiring to go anywhere with your photography you really need to do this Facebook page thing. Before I came back to Facebook I had sworn it off and once I came back (and created my Carmen Cay Photography page) I saw the views on my website shoot up. Here’s an example:
Notice how many visits are from Facebook? Most of them. So, that’s my point. Make a Facebook page. Let me show you a few screen shots from when I first started until now. Notice on the right that 67 of my friends “liked” my page? That’s 83 people I potentially do not know. Or at least if I know them, they aren’t my personal Facebook friends. It also shows I really need to hand out more business cards!
I don’t know how long after I took this screen shot until I took the next one but here it is…
What I notice is that a handful more of my FB “friends” like my page but on the left you will see I created a nice photo collage. I wanted people to see that when they landed on my page. I thought people would like the variety and that it would help me stand out as a professional. It must’ve worked because even though I don’t use that landing photo anymore, (I use my business card) I have gained 166 more “likes” since then and it grows daily. (Yeah, I am a little bit frustrated about that 1 like. I’m working on getting to 500!)
With this total I only have a few more friends that like my page which means that around 385 “strangers” like my page. The next thing I will work on is creating a landing page. I am a little apprehensive, however, because when I “land” one someone’s Facebook page it actually turns out to be an extra step or two, depending on how the page is set up. So, I am still determining how I will proceed with that. A Facebook page can do several things for you. 1. It will show your dedication to your business (even if it’s not photography) 2. Constant posts will show you are busy and working. People like seeing that. 3. It can help motivate you to do better. It can inspire you. 4. You can now view the Insights on your page to see where your traffic is coming from, etc.
Another thing you can do is make one of these things:
I bet if you haven’t used it before, you have seen it. It’s on many many things now and it really helps when you want people to be able to quickly bring up your website. It’s good to put on business cards. It’s great if you are displaying work in a gallery. You can place it on the “About the Artist” and people can quickly scan it with their Smart Phone and BAM! They are instantly taken to your website…or whatever place you want them to be taken. I found a cool website here that appears to generate QR codes. I haven’t used it but it’s kinda cool because you can make the background whatever color you want. Just a thought.
Another idea is to get involved with other photographers by joining contests. One website is iheartfaces. They have weekly photo contests. They usually involve taking photos of a “face” somehow. They have a rather larger community and each time I enter (haven’t won yet) I usually get a lot of views to my site from the link I put on the photo I post.
Okay, that’s small so I will give you the numbers. 198 people viewed the photo I posted on the iheartfaces photo contest. Apparently people really want photo shoot clothing ideas. As you can see, I get A LOT of my views from Facebook….918! The stats below the top 5 were from one day {the day I took the screenshot}. Notice that my page had 29 visits from Doxielovers.com…here’s what that was about:
A couple things about this one. One…obviously people didn’t like I took a photo of an overweight dog. I had a LOT of comments on that post about people complaining about me stating they couldn’t believe I posted the photo up in a contest! They were appalled. I really wanted to ask them if they refuse to take photos of overweight people because well, after all, that’s a health risk as well. Right?
Okay, rant over. The point is, it was interesting to discover who was viewing my page and from where. And I didn’t even know what Pintrest was until it showed up on my website stats (see above). You can learn all kinds of things when you put yourself out there.
Speaking of “putting yourself out there”…I recommend getting involved in a cause. It has to be something that you are passionate about and you have to want to do it for the right reasons or it won’t work in the long run. If you aren’t passionate about the cause you will show up late, miss appointments and anger a lot of people that are relying on you. Don’t get in over your head! If you are volunteering, make sure you are able to set aside time to follow through with your commitment.
When 2010 came around I decided that I would start volunteering my time somewhere meaningful so I decided to take photos of animals at the local shelter. My friend suggested I get my blog “syndicated”. I didn’t know what that meant then and I kinda don’t know now, but either way here’s how it worked:
Each time I publish a blog it comes up on the Jacksonville Blogs on Jacksonville.com. Anyway, that’s just another idea for you. When my father died in April I took a break from taking shelter pics. It was just too depressing. I started coming out of my fog around November of last year and now, in 2012, I have a renewed sense of strength and I am back in the game.
I recently connected with a friend that showed me some photos of a dog she was fostering. My initial thought was…this dog needs photos. Like, yesterday. So I took some. Since the photo shoot his Facebook page likes have doubled.
I am not proclaiming that was from my photos but I know for a FACT that better photos of animals, especially foster and shelter animals, make people take a second look. Let’s see an example:
Just now I went to the COJ.net website and took this screenshot. It’s completely obvious what dogs have good photos. And poor Lacey…someone needs to get her pic soon! Listen, my point is this…if YOU have a talent to share then YOU can make a difference in someone’s life. That is all. Whatever it is that you have to contribute {EVERY one of us has something to contribute}, be like Nike and “Just Do It”!
Another good idea is to solicit friends to post a link to your page on their Twitter account. As you can see my friend has an insane amount of followers!
I got a handful of likes from that post which was nice. Occasionally she will post a link to a photo she likes of mine and I will get tons of views. We did an experiment once where I refreshed every few minutes after she posted a link. I had over 40 views within 2 minutes.
Another thing I did (past tense, I forget to now) is I would add comments to MOO.com’s blog posts. I actually won a book from something I wrote!
The book I won is titled Making Ideas Happen. Pretty cool huh? Next thing I want to tell you is to get creative with your ad’s and how you present yourself. Get to know Photoshop or whatever program can successfully help you promote yourself as a professional.. I use CS5. A logo is important and if you have a creative one there are many things you can do with it! Logos can really spice up your business ads.
If you are really cool people will make jewelry out of your photographs. (and use them for raffles to raise money for animals that need money for medical care)
and they will print them on canvas to raffle off.
Well folks, that’s about all I have up my sleeves to share. I hope this gives you some fresh ideas and inspiration! Happy weekend!
~ Carmen
P.S – You could always take screenshots of everything you do along the way and eventually create your own blog like this! (*~*)
P.P.S – If you have ideas other then what I listed please share with us all in the comments below.
